Debates of Nov. 16th, 2004

Supply

[The Deputy Chair]

The hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to remind the minister that the initiative on the status of women was actually suggested by the NDP and supported by the opposition parties before the Liberals agreed to it.

One of the priorities of the Department of Status of Women is to improve women's economic autonomy and well-being.

The reality is that Statistics Canada reports that one in five Canadian women live in a low income situation. On average a woman earns 70¢ to 80¢ for every dollar a man earns, depending on which statistics are used. More than 72% of part time workers are women.

Wage inequity follows women for life. The Canada pension plan is based on an individual's earning history and many women retire into poverty. The average Canada pension benefit currently paid to women is $285 per month. For men it is $410 per month. This does not sound like progress.

Would the minister comment on funding for the department? Does she feel that the money allocated to status of women is appropriate given the enormous challenges faced by Canadian women on a daily basis just to earn a living? How does she plan to increase the resources to address the realities of women living in Canada?

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I am being asked if, in matters of social development, culture and assistance to women, money is enough. There is never enough; we could always do with more.

Once again, it can be said that much remains to be done; in this respect, I agree. On the other hand, it can also be said that we have made much progress and come a long way. More than 71% of women are gainfully employed today, which amounts to an important increase compared to the 44% of 30 years ago.

As I was saying a while ago, our society is evolving. Parental leave is now longer, ranging from six months to one year, under the changes made to the employment insurance program. There is an increase in child-related services for low-income families. We know that governments are committed to establishing a national learning and daycare system for young children.

Do people understand what is meant by the national daycare system for children that I announced during the electoral campaign? Its implementation is now in the hands of my colleague, the Minister of Social Development. It can be seen that--

[The Deputy Chair]

The hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, I come from British Columbia and when we talk about child care, what we have seen over the last three years, despite the framework and the early development initiative, is that child care spaces in British Columbia have been seriously reduced because of a lack of commitment by the federal and provincial governments.

Also listed as priorities for the department are eliminating systemic violence against women and children and advancing women's human rights.

I have met with national native women's organizations that cannot operate because of federal funding limits and provincial cuts. The minister is well aware, as noted earlier, of the “Stolen Sisters” report by Amnesty International, which outlines our country's failure to protect indigenous women in Canada from violence.

Why after only three years did Heritage Canada cut core funding from the aboriginal women's programs to these essential organizations?

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I want to go back to my colleague's remark. Indeed, we must say that the federal government has taken its responsibilities with the national child benefit and early childhood development. However, the province made some cuts. So, you know, when we decide to say that we are on the side of the family, we must do so collectively. We must say that some provinces are taking their responsibilities more than others.

The government is taking its responsibilities. This must also be a collective approach, and the provinces must take and keep their responsibilities.

Concerning support for aboriginal women, I said that there are several components. There is the cultural component and the violence component. We said that we are allocating $1 million over four years to the initiative against family violence, more particularly—

[The Deputy Chair]

The hon. member for Nanaimo--Cowichan.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, it is time for the government to walk the talk. If Status of Women Canada is truly a priority for the government, why will it not commit to removing it from the Department of Canadian Heritage and make it a stand alone federal government department? Status of Women Canada has been bounced from one area to another and it is time it had a home of its own.

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I must tell you that I am very proud to have this position at the Status of Women. I must say that, as a well known feminist myself, I am very proud to have this portfolio. It does not mean that, because I also have the culture and the official language portfolios, I am not able to deal with something that deeply affects me, being a woman and having seen the problems of women, that is the status of women.

Now, I will not work alone. I will work—

[The Deputy Chair]

The hon. member for Nanaimo--Cowichan.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, I come from a riding that has the second largest first nations population in British Columbia. When I hear the minister talking about $1 million spread over four years for domestic violence, Canada has a significant first nations population and $1 million over four years is $250,000 a year. With all respect, that will not even begin to tackle the problems that we are seeing in first nations communities.

Where is the commitment to some long term, stable funding for first nations communities in dealing with the violence and the dismal conditions on first nations reserves?

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I must admit that my colleague is right. We need to take specific action on behalf of aboriginal women. We are currently working with the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs in setting up an important program to support aboriginal women and to prevent violence. We want to have an integrated program to counteract violence, to help families, to provide help with health and to improve social housing.

We cannot have isolated actions, they must be taken together, combined and interdependent—

[The Deputy Chair]

The hon. member for Nanaimo--Cowichan.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, earlier the minister referred to the early childhood development initiative and talked about the collective responsibility and yet the federal government continues to funnel funds to provincial governments that then do not follow up on their commitments. In the early development initiative framework agreement it talked about accountability from the provinces and yet we are continuing to send money to British Columbia without it having any accountability on how it spends the money.

If we are sorting out these agreements, how are we going to hold provinces accountable, or is this just federal money thrown down the tubes?

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I will once again refer to my former responsibilities, which I loved, I might add. I must make it clear that it is far from our minds to just take $1.2 billion.

I would remind my hon. colleague that we allocated $150 million of the last budget for early childhood development, so that the provinces could use that money for that purpose, for children from birth to school age. That was the purpose of the program.

Now we have decided to go further. WIth the national child care system, based on a system similar to Quebec's, parents will be able to obtain child care that is accessible, top quality and extremely reasonable, because we will be covering the costs.

So, getting back to early childhood development, the provinces file a report—

[The Deputy Chair]

The hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, in January 2003 the United Nations CEDAW committee reviewed Canada's fifth report to the UN and its adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. That was ratified by Canada in July 1981. This review resulted in 23 recommendations for Canada and the provinces and demonstrated perhaps a lack of commitment to some of these initiatives.

What has Status of Women Canada done to develop an action plan to address these recommendations and when will it be fully implemented?

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, as far as the UN's CDOC recommendation is concerned, we have decided to link with the international community in order to ensure, first of all, that it is a collective effort, and second that we can—again collectively—address problems of specific concern to us, that is violence and cruelty toward women.

We have made national and international commitments, and we are going to make every effort to respect them, given the challenges associated with the Canadian reality, as well as its diversity—

[The Deputy Chair]

I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Minister of Canadian Heritage, but the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Louis has the floor.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Mr. Chair, I am very pleased to take part in this debate in support of the estimates of the Department of Canadian Heritage, a very important department for the Canadian economy as well as for Canadian culture.

Exchange is all about sharing ideas and sharing ideas creates mutual understanding. Mutual understanding leads to cooperation and unity. Unity is good for our country, but on a broader scale unity is good for the progress of humanity.

As politicians we are necessarily concerned with society, with life in this country at the macro level. We speak of society often in abstract terms which is necessary of course if we are to grasp the complicated issues we must deal with as elected representatives and if we are to develop broad policies aimed at the country as a whole.

Underlying politics, well below the radar of the media and far from the headlines, is what someone once called the poetry of private relationships. As individuals we are all affected by philosophical trends and intellectual fashions, by the pronouncements of opinion leaders and by the values we see reflected in the mass media, in arts and culture and so on, but our individual viewpoints are also profoundly affected by our informal interactions with other individuals.

I, and I am sure many others, have heard countless stories of individuals whose political viewpoint experienced a profound shift following an intense discussion with another individual. Conversely, we know of cases where people's viewpoints have turned inward as a result of negative interaction with other individuals, perhaps individuals who were not sensitive to the person's language or cultural background.

We all know the apocryphal, now it seems, story of Jacques Parizeau who boarded a train in Montreal in the 1960s, travelled across Canada and disembarked at Vancouver. He has recounted this story often. He embarked as a federalist in Montreal and disembarked in Vancouver as a separatist. One has to wonder what interaction took place on that train. One has to wonder how the course of history would have changed if Mr. Parizeau had travelled to Vancouver with a group of young western Canadian exchange students coming back from two weeks in Quebec. Maybe the course of Canadian history would have changed.

By way of example of the positive impact of exchanges between individuals, especially youth of different backgrounds, can have, I would like to take members back to Montreal in the 1960s, a time of some division and a difficult time. At that time we still had two solitudes. The mood was tense between those who were anglophone and those who were francophone.

It was around 1965 when a young school teacher of about 39 years of age, who I am proud to say is one of my constituents today, came up with a pilot project whereby he convinced schools and school boards to allow students from a francophone school to spend two weeks in an anglophone school and vice versa to see what would happen.

This experiment was a great success. As a matter of fact Le Devoir devoted a newspaper article to this pilot project by Mr. Robert Kouri who is now a retired school teacher in Montreal. The headline at the time read, “Une expérience scolaire démontre que la co-existence amicale est possible”.

Perhaps the most inspiring result of that pilot project and the exchanges that followed is the fact that some 40 years later Mr. Kouri told me that those students who met at a very young age in these cross-cultural encounters still continue to stay in touch today and get together regularly.

The point of all this is to say that individual encounters and exchanges, and the quality of those encounters and exchanges matter. The magic that occurs through this process of cultural exchanges is not usually the stuff of newspaper headlines, notwithstanding the Le Devoir headline regarding Mr. Kouri's project. In fact, the process of creating friendships is somewhat commonplace.

However, we can never underestimate the power of individual bonds among different cultural and language groups, bonds that are replicated a million times over. We can never underestimate their power to be the glue that keeps a society together during the difficult moments in history. In fact, this House is built on the premise that an exchange of ideas will have a lasting benefit for society through the collaborative relationships that are created here.

I remember when I first came to Parliament Hill in 1993 as a staffer, it was a watershed Parliament. For the first time we had established parties and then we had a brand new party from western Canada with brand new members and a brand new message. We had basically a brand new party from Quebec with brand new members. If one looks back at that time, there was a certain degree of mistrust. People did not know each other, did not know where they were coming from, and did not know what to expect.

Over the course of MPs from different parties working together collaboratively on committees and travelling with those committees all over Canada to solve practical problems of interest to Canadians, one could see the bonds of mutual understanding, respect and even friendship forming, friendships and bonds which are all the more important in this minority Parliament.

The exchange programs sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage are an expression of the need in this country to foster encounters among Canadians, and the younger the better, from different regions and provinces.

Every year the department offers 25,000 exchange opportunities to young Canadians. Just think, Mr. Chair, 25,000 exchanges per year. Over four years we are talking about 100,000 exchanges. Over 10 years we are talking about 250,000 exchanges. I think we know what that means in a country with a population of 35 million. That is a high proportion of people getting together to share experiences and forming lasting bonds. These exchanges over time can change the outlook, the culture and the voting patterns of a country.

Exchange programs sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage do more than just establish permanent and life-changing relationships between individuals coming from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds; they also help shape the leaders of tomorrow , the young people of today who will take over and become leaders in various fields.

Take for example the Canadian International Model United Nations sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Last year some 700 young people met for one week in Ottawa to discuss international issues. Each one had to represent a country and discuss important issues faced by that country. They had to do in-depth research for three to four months on the issues faced by the country they represented. A program like that one is fantastic and helps young people understand the qualities a leader must have.

Those who were in the Montreal area in July may have been lucky enough to see the 200 000 young people who took part in the National Heritage Fairs organized by the Historica Foundation. Thanks to the financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, young people aged 10 to 14 were able to share their stories with other children. You should have seen how creative they were just in the way they were telling those stories.

The Canadian social fabric is made of sharing, sharing common values and sharing differences.

I have a question for the Minister of Canadian Heritage. We know that such programs are beneficial for a large number of young people and of course for our country in the long term. How does she intend to make sure that an even greater number of young people have access to such programs and are interested in them? It is often the best students who apply, students who are ambitious in their schoolwork and in their extracurricular activities . How can the minister assure us here tonight in this House that everything will be done so that these programs are accessible to all students and all young Canadians? Our country will be build not only by the best students, but by the young persons and the leaders of tomorrow.

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for his question. This provides us with an opportunity to mention one of the best success stories in the Canada interchange program.

I want to reassure the hon. member that we succeed in reaching young people all across the country and from all walks of life. Our programs are just as accessible to new Canadians, young people living in rural or remote regions, young people who, economically, would not have been able to live these experiences, young people with a disability, or young aboriginals. These programs are geared to them.

In our programs and in our strategy, we want to reflect Canada in its entirety. The programs' criteria are designed to promote diversity and inclusion. The annual objective is set for underrepresented groups, based on Canadian demographics. We exceed these objectives every year.

For example, as regards participation in the programs, young aboriginals account for 6% of participants, while aboriginal people make up 5% of Canada's population. Young people in rural or remote regions account for 35% of participants, while their demographic weight is 23%. Young people with a disability account for 4%, while they represent 6% of all young Canadians. Finally, underprivileged youth account for 19% of participants, while their demographic weight is 16%. So, we reach everybody. The 2003-04 figures are about to be compiled. However, a cursory look shows that the percentages are generally the same as for 2002-03.

We are working in close partnership with service delivery organizations to reach all these groups. We are working with 4-H clubs and YMCAs, and this allows us to reach young people in rural and remote regions across Canada and also young aboriginals and underprivileged youth.

In terms of statistics—and this is important—there are 17,000 exchange opportunities for young people this year. In the end, 87% of the participants develop an increased sense of belonging to Canada.

[Lynne Yelich, Conservative, Blackstrap, SK]

Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Edmonton--Leduc. I have two very short questions.

One of them is about Canada Day and participating in Confederation. Our province of Saskatchewan only gets $150,000 funding for the entire province. There is over $1 million given to the province of Quebec, over $600,000 to Ontario, et cetera. Saskatchewan feels this is really unfair. It is part of Confederation.

The other question is for the Minister of State responsible for Sport. The member talked about the tax regime and how friendly it is towards minor sports or towards sports. In Saskatchewan our young junior hockey players are audited right now and have to pay taxes. I would like both ministers to respond to those inequities.

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, this year, we are reviewing the Canada Day program. It was not about merit, it was about the number of programs. Whether they like it or not, we will make sure that the sharing is more equitable for the provinces this year.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Chair, I did make the point that the athlete assistance program is tax free to the recipients. There is an addition to that of up to $10,000 per year for tuition for high performance and developmental athletes who are training and participating in sports at universities.

[James Rajotte, Conservative, Edmonton—Leduc, AB]

Mr. Chair, I have some very specific questions I would like to ask the Minister of Canadian Heritage. First, why has she not amended the Copyright Act to date? Does she agree with the interim report from the heritage committee on copyright?