Debates of Sept. 25th, 2003

National Defence

[Rob Anders, Canadian Alliance, Calgary West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, for this government to resort to shopping for used planes, less their engines, is a symptom of a much larger problem. These planes are essential to overseas missions, search and rescue and humanitarian assistance. However the lion's share of our fleet is on the ground.

If he honestly believes that he is going to do the best thing, what about the subs and the Sea Kings? He did not care about safety with those.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is quite wrong. The Minister of National Defence puts the highest priority of all upon the safety and security of Canadians generally, the Canadian military in particular, and he does not put their lives at risk.

Labour Market

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette-Et-La Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, during the Ontario leaders' debate, the premier of Ontario said that the Prime Minister of Canada had told him that the labour market agreements with the provinces are done and he told him: “We are phasing them out.”

Will the Prime Minister tell us whether or not he said such a thing?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I had discussions with the Province of Ontario. We did not sign an agreement with them regarding the labour market agreement. I told them that we had not signed with them but that we did with others and that the agreements are renewable every five years. Will they be signed in five years? I do not know, I will not be here.

I know we did not sign with Ontario because they would not want to be reasonable and accommodate the needs of the federal government to ensure that the people of Ontario were aware of how much money the federal government spends on them.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette-Et-La Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, again, I will quote what the premier of Ontario said in front of thousands of people during the debate:

“We are phasing them out. Therefore we are not prepared to give Ontario an agreement”. That is what the Prime Minister is supposed to have said. Did he, yes or no?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I think I will reply in English.

As everyone knows, we did not sign with Ontario because it did not want its citizens to be aware of the money that was allocated by the federal government to the citizens of Ontario.

We signed agreements with the other provinces because the governments, although they did not deliver, had guaranteed on paper that they would make sure their citizens knew that most of the money came from the federal government.

Customs and Revenue Agency

[Jason Kenney, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of National Revenue admitted that there were approximately 130 cases of private tax files that were delivered to the wrong address, after having said the day before that there was a single isolated case.

However, she was wrong. Today, a report in the Journal de Montréal indicates that Stéphanie Beaulieu, a resident of Quebec, received the tax file of a resident of Ontario.

Is this another isolated case? How many more will there be? When will the minister take responsibility for these serious mistakes?

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, here are the facts. CCRA sends out almost 110 million mailings and has an error rate of .0000011%. I challenge the member to find anyone who has a better, almost error free, rate. That does represent from January to today about 130 cases and, unfortunately, there will be more because of either human or mechanical error.

However, in the Shawinigan case, I have asked the privacy commissioner to work with us to conduct a full review.

[Jason Kenney, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Here are the facts, Mr. Speaker. First, 39 files went to the wrong address and the minister said that it was an isolated case. Then she admitted there might be 130. Now we learn of another one and she says that there will be more.

First she blamed the paper stuffing machine and then it was the stapler. When will the minister take ministerial responsibility for the mess in her department?

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, let me repeat again: 110 million pieces of mail and an error rate of .0000011%. I challenge the member to find any organization with a better error rate.

We are not perfect but we are trying to work with this every day. We take pride in our work and we take this very seriously. We are looking into the Shawinigan operation because we have had a couple of confirmed cases and a few more that we are concerned about. We want to find out if there is anything we can do to improve our record.

Foreign Affairs

[David Pratt, Liberal, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The parliamentary secretary will know that the special court in Sierra Leone faces the prospect of closure within two months if donor nations do not step up to the plate and provide more resources.

I know the Minister of Foreign Affairs is personally very supportive of the work of the court and has made strong representations to existing and prospective donor nations.

I am also aware that Canada has already made, as the chair of the management committee of the court, a sizable contribution.

Will the parliamentary secretary ask the minister to renew his efforts on an urgent basis to ensure the court has the funding it needs to continue its critical work--

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[Aileen Carroll, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member has said, the position of the government is that Mr. Taylor should stand trial before the special court for Sierra Leone for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity with which he has been charged.

With regard to funding, the foreign minister of Canada has personally engaged his counterparts in other countries to honour their pledges or to make new commitments to ensure that the court is able to continue its very important legal processes. In that regard we are considering the request as well.

Government Contracts

[Loyola Hearn, Progressive Conservative, St. John's West, NL]

Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the Prime Minister for referring to our leader as the leader of the official opposition. I presume he meant the real opposition in the House.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Order, please, I know members will want to give their attention and let the hon. member for St. John's West propose his question. The hon. member for St. John's West.

[Loyola Hearn, Progressive Conservative, St. John's West, NL]

Mr. Speaker, when we hear that the whole country is very excited, now we have proof of it.

Like the infrastructure throughout the country, the Royal LePage scandal only gets worse by the day. Allegations of officials accepting gifts from Royal LePage involved more than one department.

Will the Minister of National Defence tell the House if an internal investigation, launched by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service into the matter, is complete? If so, what were the findings?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, both the Minister of National Defence and I are concerned about this matter. When issues came to the attention of the other bidders in the process, they took the proper steps before the CITT. When particular allegations were drawn to my attention, I had my department investigate them thoroughly and on the basis of that, the whole process was re-tendered to protect the public interest.

[Loyola Hearn, Progressive Conservative, St. John's West, NL]

Mr. Speaker, several departments have been tainted by the allegations that some of their employees may have accepted gifts from Royal LePage. These include Public Works, Treasury Board, DND and the RCMP.

Would the Solicitor General tell the House if the RCMP conducted an internal investigation into these allegations? If so, what were the conclusions of that investigation?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, all deputy ministers and departmental heads responsible for this matter are conducting the appropriate investigations. I have every confidence that they will indeed take the proper decisions to ensure that the appropriate consequences flow where they should.

Environment

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, it is a disgrace. The Liberal government tells us that it cannot intervene with regard to the construction of a toxic waste incinerator in northeastern New Brunswick, near Chaleur Bay and the Gaspé Peninsula.

Sections 34 and 35 of the Fisheries Act, section 48 of part 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the Canada Port Authority Environmental Assessment Regulations give the federal government the authority to intervene in this matter.

My question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Will he order that work be suspended and that an independent assessment be conducted, yes or no?

[Georges Farrah, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, we were consulted in this matter about whether there were ocean deposits. If there were, in fact, any, then this is a matter for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Following discussions with the Province of New Brunswick, the developer decided to change the plans and ensure that no ocean deposits would be made. So, 100% of the water is being recycled.

Consequently, since there are no deposits and since we have been advised that there will be none, I think that there is no cause for concern at this time. We did our duty, and this is a matter that comes under the exclusive jurisdiction of the province.

Health Canada

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the outrageous bilking of money intended to fix aboriginal health has already resulted in more than seven RCMP charges. Paul Cochrane, assistant deputy minister at Health Canada, received condos, hockey tickets and more gifts as he went millions over budget for the Sagkeeng treatment centre. Who was the deputy minister at the time? David Dodge.

Will the Minister of Health commit to a full public inquiry into David Dodge's role in this scandal before he is even considered for a senior role in the new prime minister's administration?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, let me make it plain that the matter to which the hon. member refers has been audited. It is one of the most thorough audits, I believe, ever undertaken by the government. We are in receipt of the final audit report.

The individual named by the hon. member has, as she has pointed out, been charged by the RCMP. Those charges obviously will be dealt with in due course by the courts.

I just want to reassure the hon. member that no stone has been left unturned in terms of getting to the bottom of this situation.

Agriculture

[Gerry Ritz, Canadian Alliance, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister for Agriculture hid behind the beef value roundtable he claims he instigated last June. That very roundtable designed a comprehensive plan to deal with the escalating problem of cull cows. The minister rejected its plan as out of hand and replaced it with what? Silence, and lots of it.

Is the minister stalling so his new boss will get the credit for resolving this or does he just not really have a plan?