Debates of Sept. 22nd, 2003

Agriculture

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I hope it is not the policy of this House to start pointing fingers at specific provinces where something happens. We are a country and the country is called Canada. In this case, the animal was in one province of this country.

The OIE, and no other country, has regionalized countries. When a reportable disease takes place in a country, unfortunately the whole country is recognized as having that. We have worked on that, but so has the whole country been recognized and, for the first time ever, had our markets opened up to us even though we did have one case.

Terrorism

[Kevin Sorenson, Canadian Alliance, Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, CSIS says that the Tamil Tigers are a terrorist organization. Yet the member for LaSalle—Émard raises funds for the Tamils and in turn they raise funds and delegates for his leadership bid, a convenient arrangement.

Is this why the Solicitor General refuses to add the Tamil Tigers to the terrorist entity list?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing how far the members opposite will go with their misleading allegations.

The number one priority for the Canadian government is always the protection of Canadians and the national security of Canadians. There is a process, which I have explained before to the members opposite. That process will be followed in terms of the listing of entities. It will be based on criminal and security intelligence information and politics will not enter the picture.

[Kevin Sorenson, Canadian Alliance, Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Great Britain, the United States and Australia have all banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization. Why is the Solicitor General more concerned with the impact on the leaders' race in the Liberal Party than he is in doing what is right for this country?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Again, Mr. Speaker, I reject the allegations the member has made. We have outlined very clearly the process that is followed for the listing of entities under the Anti-terrorism Act. That is the process that will be followed. It will be based strictly on criminal and security intelligence information and that is the bottom line. That is what it will be based on and nothing else.

Pharmaceutical Industry

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, QC]

Mr. Speaker, prescription drugs cost far too much in Canada, and the ones most affected are seniors and the most vulnerable members of society.

Will the Minister of Health follow the suggestions by the Bloc Quebecois on how to better administer the introduction of new drugs, thereby helping to reduce the ever-spiralling cost of drugs?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, our drug approval process is under review. We have one of the safest drug approval systems in the world. We have one of the most cost effective drug approval systems in the world.

Let me remind the hon. member that the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board does an exemplary job in reviewing the prices of brand name drugs in this country.

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the promotional practices used by the drug companies to curry favour with health professionals and pharmacists cost a fortune. It might prove highly beneficial to limit drug prices and monitor such practices.

Does the minister plan to follow our recommendation and look into the possibility of providing a framework for the promotional practices of drug companies?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, in fact we do not have authority or jurisdiction to regulate the practice of medicine, so if the hon. member is talking about those relationships between drug companies in this country and either doctors or pharmacists, those are matters that clearly are within the regulatory jurisdiction of provincial regulatory professional bodies.

Veterans Affairs

[Roy H. Bailey, Canadian Alliance, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Mr. Speaker, this House has been told many times that there is no money to give VIP benefits to veterans' widows.

A former constituency secretary of the Prime Minister now sits on the Veterans Review and Appeal Board: the salary, $100,000 per year, and the expenses, $160,000.

Could the Minister of Veterans Affairs explain to the House how this government can pay out $160,000 in Ms. Tremblay's expenses but will not give widows $200 a month so they can stay in their own homes?

[Rey D. Pagtakhan, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Science]

Mr. Speaker, members of the appeal board perform excellent duties for the country. They try to adjudicate complaints from veterans on the basis of disability claims. They travel the country to access the veterans, not to have the veterans travel to one particular office.

To the point the member made, that we have not provided services to the widows, in fact last May I announced that 10,000 widows would henceforth be eligible for the veterans independence program.

[Roy H. Bailey, Canadian Alliance, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Joyce Carter is one of the widows to whom the minister and the government said they cannot afford to give the VIP benefit. Joyce says this: “If the government really wanted to look after the widows, it could”.

This $160,000 expense of Ms. Tremblay's is told many times by this government and in many other examples. How is the minister still going to tell us that there is no money for veterans' widows?

[Rey D. Pagtakhan, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Science]

Mr. Speaker, budgeting is not a one time deal in the life of a country. Budgeting is a yearly process in the life of the government of any country.

At that time, we were faced with six urgent needs on the part of veterans: the dependent children of deceased members of the armed forces, health care benefits to disabled veterans, and the allied and overseas veterans. Taking into context the whole six urgent needs, we allocated half of the available money for the veterans independence program.

Fisheries

[Joe McGuire, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans attended the annual meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, NAFO, where they came to a long term agreement for conservation for turbot.

A lot of times countries do not enforce those rules and they do not have their fishermen enforce those rules. Could the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans tell us what action Canada has taken recently to combat overfishing outside the 200 mile limit?

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, over the past few days Canadian inspectors working with national defence boarded two Portuguese vessels fishing outside the 200 mile limit. Both vessels were issued citations for misreporting an illegal bycatch.

The first vessel, the Santa Mafalda , has been ordered back to Portugal for an inspection that will include two Canadian inspectors. The second vessel, the Joanna Princesa , has been ordered to Halifax for inspection.

Both of these responses represent positive steps taken by the Portuguese government. They also demonstrate Canada's commitment to work with its NAFO partners to combat illegal fishing in international waters.

Veterans Affairs

[Gerald Keddy, Progressive Conservative, South Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last week when asked why 28,000 widows were being denied access to the veterans independence program, the government stated that it did not have enough money in the budget for everything it wanted to do.

It did, however, have the budget for Veterans Review and Appeal Board member Ian Murray to spend more than $52,000 on personal expenses.

Will the minister justify to the House why widows are being denied financial support when members of the board are spending tens of thousands of dollars on personal expenses?

[Rey D. Pagtakhan, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Science]

Mr. Speaker, let it not be misinterpreted that members of the appeal board are performing excellent duties for veterans of the country in trying to adjudicate their claims for disability benefits.

In terms of expenditures, of course they are spending on the basis of travel around the country. The members of the veterans appeal board travel about three weeks out of four, accessing veterans and hearing their complaints.

To the issue that we have not provided services to the widows of veterans, that we have done, although not to all of them. But to the best of our ability, we have been addressing other urgent needs of veterans as well.

[Gerald Keddy, Progressive Conservative, South Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the minister should know that this situation dishonours our veterans and everything they fought for. Widows of our nation's heroes have trouble meeting their daily needs. In the last fiscal year, the Veterans Review and Appeal Board spent over $797,000 on personal expenses.

Veterans and their widows have borne the weight of our freedom on their backs for half a century. Could the minister explain to the House how fancy dinners in Ottawa at the expense of these widows honour our veterans?

[Rey D. Pagtakhan, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Science]

Mr. Speaker, I think we have to realize that there is not only one program for any department. All components of a program have to be attended to and in any given budget year we have only so much to spend. What we have done is consult with veterans' organizations and their leadership, and we have agreed on a consensus: that the way to proceed last May was the way I proceeded and made the announcement of at that time.

Agriculture

[Dick Proctor, NDP, Palliser, SK]

Mr. Speaker, one mad cow equals 90,000 angry farmers, and today we can add several provincial agricultural ministers to the list, because the federal agriculture minister told his provincial counterparts earlier today that the BSE recovery program cannot be extended without running the risk of countervail.

How is it that the United States and the European Union can add additional programs to assist their farmers but every time it happens in this country the government cries countervail?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the hon. member understands very clearly many of the rules as far as the WTO is concerned. It depends on how one does it.

Clearly the beef industry has indicated to us that it does not want any action taken which might subject it to scrutiny by the United States under countervail or anti-dumping. The experience of that in the pork industry and the grains industry and some other industries has been very expensive in the past, and the provincial ministers, when we put the BSE recovery program in place, agreed at that time that when the borders started to open the program would end. They have known it since the beginning of the program.

[Dick Proctor, NDP, Palliser, SK]

Mr. Speaker, farmers and agriculture ministers at the provincial level are frankly tired of national agricultural programs that never seem to work.

The BSE crisis is a case in point. Three Prairie provinces have all kicked in additional money over and above the 60-40 that this government always says has to be done, and incidentally, the federal government has not paid its share. The United States, more importantly, is aware of these provincial add-ons but is not taking any action because it understands the length and depth of the crisis that we have.

Again, how can the Minister of Agriculture justify the countervail bogeyman as an excuse once more?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government will pay its full share of the 60-40 BSE recovery program. I might suggest that if the hon. member really wanted the farmers in his province to benefit from the money that is there to help farmers across this country, he would go back home and convince the provincial minister in his own province that they sign on to the agricultural policy framework, because by not doing so they have not even committed their 40% to the programs and the money that is there for the farmers into the future.

Foreign Affairs

[Myron Thompson, Canadian Alliance, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, credible information that organized crime groups had infiltrated immigration computers formed the basis of an RCMP investigation at the Canadian mission in Hong Kong.

The RCMP external review committee concluded that the RCMP failed to properly investigate these allegations of widespread corruption, providing testimony that suggests foreign affairs pressured the RCMP into curtailing the probe.

I ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs, did his department pressure the RCMP to drop its investigation?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, this issue has been answered, several times in fact, in the House. If there were reason to believe that a threat to a Canadian mission abroad existed, security and law enforcement agencies would take the proper action in consultation and working with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The matter that the member speaks of is the external review committee. It is before the commissioner at the moment and the commissioner of the RCMP will be making a decision on that in the near future.