Debates of Oct. 27th, 2004

Foreign Affairs

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to see the hon. member praise the excellent work done by Lester B. Pearson. I can assure the House that the position he put forward has been supported by every government that has led our country since. It was the position of our government in the difficult Middle East situation and it continues to be the position of our government. Our position has not changed. We want the Israelis, the Palestinians and others in that region to be safe.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, in Montreal this morning, provincial and municipal police associations spoke out against the arbitrary decision of the federal government to reduce the RCMP's regional workforce. In the meantime, traffickers continue to terrorize farmers and recruit teenagers.

Will the minister finally reassure us and maintain the detachments whose absence is so cruelly felt?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, as I think the hon. member is aware, the number of RCMP officers serving in the province of Quebec is not being reduced.

In fact, a very small number of those officers are being redeployed. They are being redeployed for the very reasons that the hon. member has identified, so that we can work more effectively with the local police.

We can work more effectively with the Sûreté so that we can discharge our obligations in the province of Quebec whether it is in relation to organized crime, drug trafficking, gun smuggling or other events that challenge the public safety of Quebeckers.

Natural Resources

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers do not think that.

Last month the Prime Minister promised to fix health care for a generation. That turned out to be 10 years. Now the Prime Minister says he is going to give a 100% fix to the offshore royalties. That turns out to be eight years.

For Nova Scotia that means only the current Sable project will be covered. Future projects such as Deep Panuke will be subject to the same clawback, inconsistent with the Atlantic accord and inconsistent with the Prime Minister's word.

When will the Prime Minister commit to give 100% resources to Nova Scotia? What part of 100% does he not understand?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I indicated earlier that the government continues to work very hard with the Government of Nova Scotia on these issues.

I have in that regard the very able assistance of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. I have the ample cooperation of the provincial minister of energy. We continue to work at it constructively. It might be helpful if the opposition were constructive.

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of the Environment and relates to a draft agreement that would give the governors of the eight states that border the Great Lakes the power to unilaterally decide on diversions of water from the lakes.

Since 1909 Canada and the United States have exercised shared sovereignty and responsibility for the Great Lakes through the boundary waters treaty.

Would the minister please outline what action he is taking that would ensure U.S. respect for the shared authority approach that has existed since 1909 to ultimately ensure that the ecological integrity of the Great Lakes is preserved?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, like the Minister of Foreign Affairs said, the Government of Canada will be monitoring the further development of Annex 2001 in consultation with the governments of Ontario, Quebec and our American colleagues.

Let me say something that will not change. The law of the land in Canada is that we do not allow bulk water removal, period.

Canada Post

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, André Ouellet squandered $10,000 a week in lavish spending during the eight years he was the president of Canada Post.

The government tells us that such abuse is no concern of theirs. They would like to give us lessons in transparency. Taxpayers are learning now that they will again be paying a lawyer for Mr. Ouellet's “dippings”.

Will the Prime Minister once again hide behind the Gomery commission, or will he call for a government audit of the lavish spending of the minister who emulated him?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the government and others have taken action.

In this case, Mr. Ouellet resigned. Later, on September 21, the chair of the board of directors of Canada Post Corporation wrote Mr. Ouellet once again, asking that he submit receipts. The Canada Revenue Agency is reviewing the activities involving his office.

So, we are taking action.

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are acting, but they are acting in a way to cover up the facts. How can Canadians see the facts when the facts are being hidden by the government?

The Liberals are saying they are going to do a secret audit. We understand the need for a public audit of André Ouellet. We understand that public money was used and we understand the public interest would be served by a public audit.

Before the election the Prime Minister said he believed in the things we continue to believe in. When did he lose his faith in getting to the bottom of the André Ouellet saga?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, the Deloitte & Touche audit has been made public months ago. The hon. member has asked me to make a tax audit public.

I should inform him that we on this side of the House respect the rule of law. On that side of the House those members question the charter of rights and they question the rule of law. We favour the rule of law in Canada and I will obey the law.

Business of the House

[The Speaker]

It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 81(14) to inform the House that the motion to be considered tomorrow during consideration of the business of supply is as follows:

That the House regrets the attitude of the Prime Minister of Canada at the first ministers conference on October 26, 2004, and that it call on the federal government to recognize the existence of a fiscal imbalance in Canada and that, to this end, the House ask the Standing Committee on Finance to strike a special subcommittee to propose tangible solutions for addressing the fiscal imbalance, and that its report be tabled no later than June 2, 2005.

This motion, in the name of the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, is votable.

Copies of the motion are available at the table.

The hon. government House leader on a point of order.

Points of Order

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, during question period there was some unparliamentary language and I would like to give the member for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam the opportunity to retract the unparliamentary language used.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, during question period I did heckle to the Prime Minister that he was a liar. I did cross the line and I withdraw it.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. In answer to a question during question period I indicated that I met with the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development yesterday morning. In fact, it was Monday afternoon.

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I too rise on a point of order. A moment ago in response to a question I put to the Minister of National Revenue, he put on the record that I was asking him to break the laws of the country by calling on him to do a public audit of André Ouellet, the former Liberal appointee and president of Canada Post.

Such is not the case. I would not want a statement of that nature to remain on the record. The fact is that I have simply asked him to call a public audit because it would be in the best interests of Canadians to have a public audit done.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, there were two audits at issue. One is the Deloitte & Touche audit which is already public, so I assumed that the hon. member was not referring to that. The only other audit is a tax audit, as I have said several times, so it was my understanding that he was referring to the tax audit in his question.

[The Speaker]

It sounds to me as though the hon. members have a disagreement, but I do not see that there appears to have been a question of privilege raised on anything I have heard, so I think we will treat the matter as closed.

Order in Council Appointments

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table a number of orders in council recently made by the government.

Interparliamentary Delegations

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour, on behalf of the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group, to present to the House, in both official languages, eight reports: a report on the visit to U.S. Congress on North American market for cattle beef and animal feed, held in Washington, D.C., March 15 to 17; a report on the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum-Americas held in Redmond, Washington, May 16 to 18; a report on the 45th annual meeting of the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group held in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, June 17 to 21; a report on the 2004 International Association of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Mayors' Conference held in Chicago, Illinois, July 14 to 16; a report on the 2004 annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures: The New Legislative Reality, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, July 19 to 23; a report on the Democratic National Convention, 2004, held in Boston, Massachusetts, July 26 to 29; a report on the auto-tech conference of the Automotive Industry Action Group, AIAG, held in Detroit, Michigan, on August 31; and the report on the Canadian/American Border Trade Alliance conference, held in Washington, D.C., September 12 to 14.

[The Speaker]

I am sure all hon. members are very glad the hon. member for Medicine Hat finally got home. The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian delegation of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association respecting its participation in the sixth conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, held in Nuuk, Greenland, September 3 to 5.

I would like to very much thank my colleagues from other parties and members of the staff of this delegation. This meeting was part of the work of the Arctic Council which represents eight polar nations and three aboriginal groups around the north.

We note with great interest the development of the University of the Arctic, which will help education in many remote communities in the north. Also, one of the main messages of these meetings is that climate change, meaning global warming, is a very serious problem for all the peoples of the north.

Committees of the House

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, entitled, “Safe, Secure, Sovereign: Reinventing the Canadian Coast Guard”.

DNA Identification Act

[Gary Lunn, Conservative, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-240, an act to amend the DNA Identification Act (establishment of indexes).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to reintroduce my private member's bill to amend the DNA Identification Act. My bill is inspired by one of my constituents, Judy Peterson, and her quest to find answers on what happened to her 14-year-old daughter, Lindsey Nicholls, who disappeared in 1993.

This bill would create a DNA database for missing persons and link that database to the crime scene index and the DNA from unidentified bodies in Canada's morgues. A DNA sample costs as little as $100 to take and could bring closure for many grieving families.

I have heard much talk about the merits of this bill over the last year, but I have not seen a lot of action. I hope that the reintroduction of the bill, which I call “Lindsey's law”, will remind MPs of their commitment to finding missing persons and move this issue forward.

As I close, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for the former solicitor general and member for Malpeque who fully supported this issue when he was the solicitor general. He has offered his assistance in moving this private member's bill forward.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Income Tax Act

[Rick Casson, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-241, an act to amend the Income Tax Act (deduction for volunteer emergency service).

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to re-introduce this bill in the House today. It was before the House in the last Parliament.

The bill is an amendment to the Income Tax Act. It would amend the Income Tax Act to allow volunteer emergency responders to deduct $3,000 from their taxable income from any source in light of their service to Canada. The amendment, as important as it is, would only go a fraction of the way needed to fully recognize the contribution these brave men and women involved in volunteer emergency services deserve from their fellow Canadians.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)