Debates of Dec. 1st, 2004

Citizenship and Immigration

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, over 110,000 people came in last year under the temporary foreign worker program. It is a program that is run out of HRSD. My department responds to the request from HRSD. A variety of analyses is done on various issues: agriculture workers, entertainers, and so on. As I said, 110,000 people came in through that program last year.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that this program requires women to submit nude photos of themselves. Imagine how degrading this could be for them. Do they have to audition for the immigration officers as well? Maybe this is why the minister's staff regularly went to strip clubs.

Why does the minister continue to support and defend programs that clearly degrade and exploit women?

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

Mr. Speaker, I think I have been absolutely clear in relation to this matter. We have made it plain that the program is under review. It is a matter that human resources and immigration are in the process of reviewing. However, I can inform the House that HRSDC has decided that there will no longer be a national labour market opinion for this industry.

Foreign Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As Somalia's new government and newly elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, prepare to restore and return order after years of state collapse, according to a new report by the Norwegian Refugee Council, the country's 400,000 internally displaced people remain in a highly precarious situation.

Now that there is a democratic government in place, when will we recognize this government and what actions will our government take to help end the humanitarian crisis in Somalia?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we welcome the inauguration of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as transitional president of Somalia. Canada has never stopped recognizing the Somalian state.

Canada is committed to addressing the serious humanitarian situation in Somalia. We recently provided a $1 million contribution to the World Food Program. We have provided more than $45 million in humanitarian aid to Somalia since 1991.

Agriculture

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, George Bush came and went, and the border is still closed to Canadian beef. Meanwhile Canadian farmers are having to feed their cattle for another long winter.

If cull cattle could talk, they would tell us that they were more concerned about dying of old age than ever getting mad cow. Even if the border does open some day, we know that cull cattle will not be crossing stateside.

Why will the government not admit that it has no plan in place, practically, to deal with the immediate crisis in cull cows?

[Andy Mitchell, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for giving me the opportunity to point out to the House that since putting in our repositioning program on September 10, we have seen the price of fed cow go from 65¢ to 85¢ last week. That is $1 billion from the marketplace to producers.

We have also provided assistance in building slaughter capacity to deal with older animals. We also have the feeder set aside program to assist producers in the cost of feeding their young animals over the next 14 to 16 months.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is another supersized helping of a big whopper from the government.

The prices for cull cows are not going up, and the CAIS program designed to help this has been an absolute disaster. I have been phoning the minister's office, trying to get help for a number of farmers who are going under. Guess what? It does not even have staff in place to deal with them.

Given the absolute failure of this program, why will the government not put in immediate money for debt and tax relief for the farmers who are going under?

[Andy Mitchell, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, as I have mentioned many times in the House, as part of the September 10 program there is a managing older animals component. That has been offered to the provinces. As I have mentioned to members opposite, we are dealing with the cull cow issue and we will continue to do that.

The reality is that on this side of the House we are looking for and providing to producers assistance to help them in this difficult time to the tune of $2 billion.

We have seen with the rule change going over to the OMB a very specific timeframe put into place.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is the job of the immigration minister to ensure fairness and maintain the integrity of the immigration system, but the fox is minding the chicken coop. Rather than preventing queue jumping, the minister is engaging in it. It is outrageous and insulting to the lawful applicants waiting in the backlog.

It is time to restore the integrity of the immigration system. When will the minister resign?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister and I have both made clear, the Ethics Commissioner is at work. The Ethics Commissioner has been asked to investigate this matter. The Ethics Commissioner is going to report. That report will be made public. There is no necessity for the minister to step aside.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there is a bottleneck of 700,000 applicants waiting to enter the country, among them many women with professional qualifications and experience. The immigration minister has insulted these women by dishing out special favours to strippers and campaign workers.

When will she stop hiding behind the Ethics Commissioner, face the music and resign?

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat exactly what I said earlier. We have an independent Ethics Commissioner and I have asked him to review the file and to report back.

I would like to add in response to the hon. member's question that Canada brings in approximately 230,000 new immigrants a year. Canada's immigration system is very successful. In fact in many ways we are a victim of our success because so many people want to come to Canada because it is such a great country to live in.

Justice

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, this year the Minister of Justice plans to give judges pay increases greater than the annual salary of many Canadians. This 11% pay raise is almost four times the Canadian average, far above any cost of living increase.

Can the Minister of Justice explain to Canadians why he believes judges deserve pay raises so far beyond that of other hard-working Canadians?

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, it is not the Minister of Justice who is giving anybody any pay raises. It is an independent judicial commission established by the Supreme Court of Canada. That is number one.

Number two, the hon. member is not putting the facts squarely before the House. It is 10.8% over four years. That is 2.8% per year. Those are the facts.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is that minister who is bringing in that outrageous legislation. He cannot pass the buck off to anybody else.

Despite the fact there are at least 10 qualified applicants for each position, the minister says he must boost the pay of judges to $240,000 in order to attract qualified judges. Supreme Court of Canada judges would receive $285,000. The chief justice would receive $308,000.

This proposal is an outrageous abuse of the public trust. Why will the minister not do the right thing?

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's concern with the integrity of the administration of justice. I just wish his responses were more in accordance with the facts with respect to the integrity of the administration of justice.

If the hon. member has concerns about this, Parliament will have the matter referred to it, and that is a part of the law.

Mirabel Airport

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in his speech on returning land in Mirabel, the Minister of Transport said that it would be impossible to do so, since Bombardier was planning to build a new plant there and needed the land.

How could the Minister of Transport make such an erroneous statement when there is far more land available than what the farmers and those whose land was expropriated in Mirabel are asking for, much more than Bombardier needs, as confirmed by ADM?

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I am very glad the hon. member asked me that question and I am even more glad that he was in the House when I made my speech. He knows I never said that particular land would be needed for Bombardier's development.

What I did say was that we believe in the future of Mirabel, that the Bombardier proposal is one of the elements in the development of Mirabel and that we see many others. We believe in the future of Bombardier, the future of Mirabel, the future of Quebec and the future of Canada, despite what they think.

Foreign Affairs

[Roger Clavet, Bloc, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs said he would look into my question concerning the case of Tibetan lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, whose only known crime is to have dared to differ.

Since the stay of his execution has ended, can the minister tell us whether he has lodged a protest with the Chinese authorities, or whether he plans to do so, in order to save this Tibetan lama's life?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. Senior Canadian representatives have already interceded on several occasions with the Chinese authorities, in Beijing and in Ottawa, concerning Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.

Representatives of Canada have expressed our concerns about the impartiality of his trial, particularly at meetings held this year in Beijing. We have asked them to prevent this execution.

We have also recently joined with other foreign governments in making our concerns about this known to the Chinese authorities.

Mirabel Airport

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport. Yesterday, the House of Commons passed a Conservative motion to give the land in Mirabel back to its rightful owners. When will the minister dare to give back the confiscated land? When?

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to congratulate the hon. member on putting his question in French. That is remarkable, and his accent is very good.

As for the substance of the question, I will tell him that the reason we cannot give the land back to the farmers in Mirabel is that we want to abide by the agreement signed in 1992 by the Conservative government, whereby ADM was granted a 60-year lease. The Conservatives may not keep their word, but we do, and we respect the signature of a government on an agreement.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has been hiding behind a technical argument, that he cannot do anything about a corporation that he controls. He knows that is a bunch of nonsense. We have been telling the minister, and I think he knows this, that a terrible mistake has been made at Mirabel. It is a mistake that touches the lives of people, some of whom can trace their family history back 300 years on that place.

I think the minister knows in his heart that a terrible mistake has been made. I am asking him to do the right thing. Give those 11,000 acres back to the rightful owners. Do the right thing. It is not that bad.

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot get over hearing such remarks from a member who served under the Mulroney government, which was in office for nine years, yet did nothing in this matter and signed the 60-year lease. Is the member telling me that the signature of the Mulroney government is worth nothing? Is that the reality? They signed for 60 years. Who are they to stand up now to oppose what they did in 1992?