Debates of April 29th, 2003

Health

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank Ambassador Sergio Marchi, our representative in Geneva, who has done an excellent job since last week working in Geneva to make sure that we would have the result we have.

Of course, when there are things that have to be done, what can be done, we will do it. I think that we have been praised, the federal government, provincial government and municipal government by all the international organizations to have done an excellent job under extremely difficult circumstances, something that the opposition does not want to recognize.

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister still did not answer. The World Health Organization not only recommended this a month ago, according to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland when she said today that she advised the Prime Minister and the health minister of the need for this screening on the telephone last week, yet the health minister feigned complete ignorance of this in the House of Commons yesterday.

Will she admit what the heritage minister has already admitted, that her inaction has cost this economy billions of dollars? Brutally incompetent, she misled the House and she should resign over her handling of this.

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, let me reassure this House that in fact we were the first country to respond to the WHO's recommendations in relation to screening. I go back to the fact that the WHO and its chief communicable diseases unit applauded the screening measures both inbound and outbound.

As Dr. Brundtland and I discussed last week, as the Prime Minister and Dr. Brundtland discussed, and as my colleague Tony Clement and I have discussed, we are learning more about the control and containment of this particular infectious disease every day.

I have said in this House over and over again, and members may check Hansard , that we review our measures and as appropriate we enhance them. That is what we will do.

[Rob Merrifield, Canadian Alliance, Yellowhead, AB]

Mr. Speaker, on April 23 when asked if Canada was notified about the WHO travel advisory, Dr. Heymann, who the minister is so fond of quoting, said yes, they had been informed, 24 hours in advance.

Is the minister now saying that Dr. Heymann cannot be believed?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I am not saying that Dr. Heymann cannot be believed but I will absolutely say and the WHO said last week that in fact they may have acted too quickly and they may have acted without complete information.

As the Prime Minister has said here, today we should be applauding the WHO for being open to reassessing the travel advisory in relation to Toronto.

It would be nice if the world were as simple as the opposition suggests, but as everyone says, including Dr. Brundtland today, we are learning more about the--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Yellowhead.

[Rob Merrifield, Canadian Alliance, Yellowhead, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the travel advisory is there because there is no screening at the airport. When the WHO travel alert on Toronto was announced on April 23, 20 countries had already issued travel advisories to Toronto or Canada. Among these were Australia, Austria, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain. Should I go on?

How can the health minister claim to be surprised by the WHO ruling when so many countries had already issued their warnings?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

In fact, Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, at no time did the WHO indicate to us during our conversations, some of which we had on a daily basis, that it was contemplating issuing a travel advisory against the city of Toronto. In fact, part of my discussion with Dr. Brundtland was to request a notification procedure which was transparent and gave national governments sufficient notification to respond to a proposed travel advisory. I understand that Dr. Brundtland has accepted that recommendation.

Taxation

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister continues to favour ad hoc agreements with Quebec and the provinces, particularly where health is concerned. The Séguin report indicates that the unpredictable fluctuations in federal transfers have destabilizing effects on service delivery, and these affect the users of those services.

Instead of leaving federal health care funding at the mercy of Ottawa's whims, could the Prime Minister not address the underlying problem and eliminate fiscal imbalance, on which there is already a consensus in Quebec?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as far as stability is concerned, we have just signed a five-year agreement, which is a rather convenient period as far as budgeting is concerned. I think that this is what we usually do.

As for the matter of an excessive surplus in Canada, that is because we were successful in reducing the debt, lowering taxes, and in particular lowering interest rates so that there will be more transfer payments, a big boost to the treasury of each province.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in connection with the latest health agreement, Premier Charest had this to say:

Unless new solutions are agreed to, we will see a repeat of what happened at the last federal-provincial conference on health. The provinces will beg for funding in areas that are under their own jurisdiction, the federal government will try to cut a deal...and we will again end up with stop-gap solutions.

Since planning is key to providing the best patient care possible, why does the federal government want to keep on being the one to decide whether or not Quebec and the provinces will be in a position to reinvest in health?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I think that the total we are going to be transferring to the provinces for health over the next five years is $32 billion or $34 billion. These are huge amounts which, over a period of five years, will make it possible for the provincial governments to make all possible reinvestments within a time frame that is totally acceptable.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is the government that provides these services to the public that must have the financial resources needed to do so. Conversely, the government that is not responsible for them must withdraw.

Will the Prime Minister acknowledge that the best way to ensure quality services for the public is for the responsible government to have access to the required resources through adequate tax fields?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, they already have adequate tax fields. All levels of government can raise or lower taxes. This decision is up to the federal or provincial governments.

They have the option of raising their taxes if they do not have enough money. They do not want to do so. They would prefer us to raise our taxes and send them a cheque. Clearly, this would be the best solution for them. However, it would not be very practical for us.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, is the Prime Minister able to comprehend that in order to plan their health services, for example, the provincial governments need access to an adequate tax field, rather than having to beg for money from Ottawa all the time, and never knowing how much the federal government will be in the mood to give?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I find it funny that the member raises the issue of tax fields. When it comes to corporate taxes, income taxes and sales taxes, the provincial governments have the exact same powers as the federal government.

Health

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I say to the Prime Minister through you that if the Minister of Health is not prepared to admit that she did not get it quite right and should have instituted screening and should commit to instituting screening now, perhaps the Prime Minister should be calling for the Minister of Health's resignation if she is not prepared to learn from her mistakes and we all have to learn for her.

I want to ask the Prime Minister this. He was in Toronto this morning and he announced that he is willing to change EI regulations in order to make life easier for those affected by the SARS crisis. Yet he will not announce an aid package for Toronto. He says the law prevents him from doing it. If he can change EI regulations, why can he not change the law with respect to aid packages? We on this side of the House would agree. What is the problem over there?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I met with the premier and the mayor this morning. They were not excited like the member is. They know that we have to work in collaboration to resolve the problem, and because there was good collaboration between the provincial government and the municipal government and the federal government, we are moving out of this crisis. We had a problem with the World Health Organization a few days ago, but we worked effectively and it has been resolved this morning. I think he should rejoice rather than be mad.

National Defence

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, all the people in Toronto who are affected are not rejoicing. I will try to contain my excitement but not my agitation about a federal government that refuses to show leadership on a problem as serious as this.

I want to ask the Prime Minister a question on another matter. The former minister of finance has said that Canada has been asked to participate in Star Wars in the NMD and that if he were prime minister we would be participating.

The Prime Minister has always said we have not been asked yet. Have we been asked? If we have, what is the government's position? Is it the same as that of the former minister of finance?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there is a possibility of a discussion and we have not started discussions. People do not want to look at a problem when they do not know exactly what the requirements will be. Perhaps the wise thing to do is to try to find out what they are asking of us, if they are asking anything. I do not know why he is excited again. He does not know the substance of it. Let us wait to know if they are asking for something or nothing.

Health

[Joe Clark, Progressive Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in January the minister of international development visited China. During that visit did she become aware of any information regarding the early stages of a new, unexplained, infectious disease in China? Did she, either during her trip or upon her return to Canada, discuss with her colleagues or her officials the potential implications for Canada of the new disease she had heard about in China?

[Susan Whelan, Liberal, Minister for International Cooperation]

No, Mr. Speaker.

Member for Hamilton East

[Joe Clark, Progressive Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Page 2 of the Prime Minister's own guide for ministers and secretaries of state says, and I quote: “Ministers cannot dissociate themselves from or repudiate the decisions of their Cabinet colleagues unless they resign from the Cabinet”. Has the minister of heritage resigned or do the cabinet guidelines mean nothing at all?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is no, she is in the House of Commons.

Industry

[James Rajotte, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology recommended to entirely remove the foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications and broadcasting distribution companies.

There has been much discussion about this issue in the media, particularly with a certain leadership race underway. The Minister of Industry failed to endorse these recommendations yesterday, so I am wondering if after 24 hours of reflection he endorses these recommendations by the industry committee or does not.