Debates of Sept. 26th, 2003

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency

[Rahim Jaffer, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is one thing about providing information but it is another thing about providing accurate information and the minister should learn about that.

The minister has said that if someone fails to stop at customs, the standard procedure is to call the local police detachment. In the province of Quebec the average distance between 11 border crossings and the local Sûreté du Québec detachment in the eastern townships is 41 kilometres. The closest police presence to the customs agency at the Dorval airport is 10 kilometres.

When will she stop putting Canadian lives at risk and commit to arming customs officers, making them a full police force? As she says, give them the resources they need.

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, we have had this discussion before. I have said very clearly to the House that it is not the policy of the government to arm customs officers. We take the advice from the commissioner of the RCMP, Mr. Zaccardelli. We had an outside expert review this.

I will say to the member that when we need the police, they are there for us, whether it is the local police or the RCMP. They are important partners and they are doing a very good job in helping our customs officers do their job on the borders.

Employment Insurance

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, first the Canadian Labour Congress and now Statistics Canada has confirmed what the Bloc Quebecois has been saying for years: the employment situation of women is not improving but worsening.

What will it take for the Minister of Human Resources Development to do something, when all the signs are pointing in the same direction and telling her that things are getting worse for women?

[Diane St-Jacques, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member from the Bloc Quebecois for her question. This gives me the opportunity to inform the House that the report in question continues to track various factors not always related to workers, such as students and people who were self-employed. The facts do not reflect the reality, since according to the monitoring and assessment reports, nearly 90% of individuals losing their jobs would be eligible for employment insurance benefits.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised that Statistics Canada would make such mistakes. The report states that 40% of seasonal workers are not entitled to employment insurance and, furthermore, that the majority of these workers are women.

What concrete actions does the Minister intend to take in order to immediately improve the treatment of women in the workforce, particularly those who are seasonal workers?

[Diane St-Jacques, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, a high number of women have had access, since the changes in 1996, to employment insurance. Statistically, 96% of women are entitled to employment insurance, compared to 95% of men. Some 55% of women working part time are eligible, compared to 41% of men working part time. This proves yet again that the changes we made to employment insurance are yielding results.

Liberal Government

[John Williams, Canadian Alliance, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the PM's chief of staff, Eddie Goldenberg, has told his bureaucrats, “We have been caught on the expense accounts so we had better smarten up”. Well, the government was caught on Shawinigate. It was caught on the Groupaction scandal. It was caught on the HRDC billion dollar boondoggle.

Why is it that the Liberal government's specialty seems to be to spend money on themselves and keep getting caught wasting billions of dollars of money which provides absolutely no benefit whatsoever to any Canadian except themselves?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely normal that regular reminders are made about the standards expected of the government and its political staff, especially since there now is a formal, official code of values and ethics that everyone must respect.

Thus, it is normal for executive assistants or deputy ministers to remind their staff that they must always act in the public interest.

[John Williams, Canadian Alliance, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is the whole point. They wait until it has all fallen apart before they say follow the rules. From champagne Charlie Boyer who spent $30,000 to the gun registry that cost us a billion dollars, it always seem to be money down the drain.

My question for the Prime Minister is, how can Canadian taxpayers have any confidence whatsoever in this tired Liberal government or any government for that matter which continues to waste money and cannot even run the country efficiently?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, it is impossible to hold two positions at the same time; on the one hand, demanding that controls within the government be strengthened, and on the other, being shocked when one discovers activities that should not have happened.

When we strengthen all the modern control functions in the Government of Canada, when we strengthen all internal audit policies, and when we now have better information provided by internal auditors, it is absolutely normal to do so transparently, so that all members of Parliament will be up to date on—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member for Nepean—Carleton.

Afghanistan

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.

We are all aware of the superb job the Canadian Forces are doing in Afghanistan to provide security assistance to the provisional government of Hamid Karzai, but Canadians are less aware of the significant reconstruction efforts that are being conducted by Canadian Forces. Perhaps the parliamentary secretary could provide us with some details.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, we are also aware on this side of the House of the superb job done by the chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs.

Canada has pledged $250 million for reconstruction in Afghanistan over the next two years. The Canadian Forces as part of their efforts in Afghanistan work with local people to rebuild schools, provide safe drinking water, rebuild health facilities. On this side of the House we are very proud of the remarkable contribution that the men and women of the Canadian Forces are making to make Afghanistan a stable and safe country.

National Defence

[Keith Martin, Canadian Alliance, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the chief of the defence staff, General Henault, recently said that our armed forces were in danger of becoming irrelevant unless there was a significant input of money to address rust out. In fact, one of our sailors recently said, “If there are no parts to be had anywhere in Canada except off other ships, you know you are really hurting”.

My question for the minister is simply this: Why has the government and the minister reduced our military to scavenging for parts from other ships in order to do their job?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the government and the Minister of National Defence have shown remarkable success in achieving greater funding for the Department of National Defence. The member knows very well that in the last budget the Minister of Finance allocated $800 million of new money for the Department of National Defence.

The member talked about the problem of spare parts. One of the main expenditures was $221 million that the defence department was allocating to restock spare parts.

We are very committed to a strong and stable Department of National Defence.

[Keith Martin, Canadian Alliance, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there must be some significant disconnect between the commitment of the government and what the chief of the defence staff is saying now about the irrelevancy of our military because they do not have the tools to do the job.

On the issue of personnel, on the HMCS Calgary its combat teams and officers have spent 47 out of the last 52 weeks in the theatre away from their families. This is hurting them and it is hurting their families. They are utterly burned out.

Will the minister and the government commit to a 20% increase in manpower for our military today?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, many times the government has talked about the importance of retention and recruitment in the Canadian armed forces.

The quality of life agenda was a priority for the previous minister of defence and it is a priority for the present minister of defence. Part of that is ensuring that we have the personnel to do the jobs that we ask the armed forces to do.

I have every reason to think that the Canadian armed forces will be very successful in recruiting the people it needs and retaining the people it needs to do the wonderful job they are doing.

Agriculture

[Marcel Gagnon, Bloc, Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, since the federal government refused to take its responsibilities, the Government of Quebec was forced to launch the second phase of its own plan to help farm producers who are victims of the mad cow crisis.

The minister should stop talking about the agricultural policy framework because farmers simply do not want it. Does the minister intend to implement a specific program for dealing with the mad cow crisis, as requested by farmers?

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

Mr. Speaker, I am certainly ready to help farmers more than we have to date and we are already for those provinces that have signed the implementation agreement. That implementation agreement is there with the province of Quebec.

I have had signing authority since last spring and would be more than pleased to sign that document. That will move even more money into the province of Quebec to help beef farmers and other farmers.

Foreign Affairs

[Svend Robinson, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my question again is for the Solicitor General. Canadians are more and more concerned about this government's abdication of its responsibility to Canadian citizens overseas, whether it is William Sampson, Zahra Kazemi or Maher Arar.

I want to ask this minister a very specific question. Will the minister confirm to the House that in fact the RCMP did supply information to United States authorities with respect to Maher Arar before he was arrested, held for 12 days incommunicado and deported?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered that question. As well, the RCMP before committee yesterday answered that question. The RCMP was not involved in the decision made by the United States authorities to arrest and deport Mr. Arar and the RCMP did not at any time suggest to the United States authorities that Mr. Arar should be deported to the United States.

As far as the Government of Canada goes, we have been trying our utmost to bring Mr. Arar back to Canada. The Prime Minister sent his personal envoy and foreign affairs has been working on that extensively.

Firearms Registry

[Philip Mayfield, Canadian Alliance, Cariboo—Chilcotin, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in tracking stolen guns over the past five years, the federal gun registry has matched only 4,438 firearms with the descriptions of more than 101,000 stolen weapons that the firearms centre attempted to trace. What a success rate, less than 5%, or put another way, a failure rate of more than 95%

With the current $1 billion price tag, that is about $225,000 per firearm and now the registry is looking for another $10 million. At what percentage beyond 95% does the government consider the gun registry program a failure?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, first, I reject the comment that the member made about the $10 million of new spending. I have answered that previously. That is not new spending. The firearms registry is not spending a cent more than what we outlined in our targets in the beginning.

As far as the hon. member's question goes specifically, he should be congratulating us. What he is really saying is the firearms system is working in tracing stolen and unregistered guns. That is where it is really working.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Richard Marceau, Bloc, Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, four female employees of the RCMP, who reportedly were victims of harassment and sexual assault, are not only suing their former superior, who allegedly committed the offences, but also the RCMP, which, according to them, did everything it could to cover up the affair and thwart an internal investigation.

Despite the fact that this case is before the courts, and beyond these specific cases, does the minister intend to review the RCMP internal investigation service to ensure that the rights of victims and whistle-blowers are not being sacrificed to save their superiors' honour?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member himself has said in his remarks that this issue is before the courts and certainly it would be inappropriate for me to comment.

The commissioner of the RCMP is responsible for the operations of the RCMP and takes the matter very seriously.