Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to take part in today's debate. Motion No. 135, tabled by the member for Nepean—Carleton, states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should consider transferring the land currently leased by the Queensway Carleton Hospital from the National Capital Commission to the Hospital at a cost of one dollar.
Before I state our position on this, I want to go over a number of facts that need to be considered when it comes time to vote.
First, here are the facts. The Queensway-Carleton Hospital leases 50 acres of land from the National Capital Commission at an annual cost of approximately $23,000. The 40-year lease will expire in July 2013. The hospital authorities fear, as they have already stated publicly, that this rent will skyrocket in 2013. The government and the National Capital Commission are refusing to transfer the land in order to preserve the national capital greenbelt and national interest land mass.
On November 29, 2004, the sponsor of this motion condemned the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, saying she was steadfast in her refusal to transfer the land.
I will talk briefly about the motion, but I will indicate to the House the factors that should, in our opinion, guide the government's action on this matter. First, we believe that we must continue to negotiate in order to reach agreement on the terms of renewal. We are convinced that both parties will reach a suitable agreement by 2013. We are also convinced that the new lease payment will be reasonable, since it is established in accordance with Treasury Board guidelines. We must remember that the conditions of this lease must comply with Treasury Board guidelines. So, we must allow the negotiations to run their course. We are quite hopeful that the parties will reach an agreement by 2013.
Furthermore, we believe that any future selling price needs to correspond to the market value of the land, as the hon. member has just said.
It is a matter of determining how an exception can be made for this location when, in the past, land has not been sold for $1 in certain instances in Quebec. Take the case of the Wakefield hospital, which is located in part on NCC property. Since this property was not part of the national interest land mass, the National Capital Commission literally sold it to the hospital. The property in question, 3.5 acres of land, was sold for $5,000 an acre, a total of $43,500. So a hospital on the Quebec side bought land from the NCC, not for $1, but rather for $5,000 an acre.
Hon. members may recall the situation in Montreal, where some social and community groups wanted to build social housing on CBC land. Was that land handed over to them for $1 so they could do so? No. The parties negotiated and an agreement was reached.
Treasury Board guidelines are quite clear. There are, moreover, precedents in place, including the Wakefield hospital in Quebec, where negotiations took place and the land was sold properly, not handed over for $1. We therefore believe a new precedent must not be created.
We feel that negotiation must be the cornerstone of any agreement between the hospital in question and the NCC.
The Bloc Québécois will, as you will understand, vote against this motion. Laudable as the idea may seem, we continue to believe that negotiation is required. We also believe that an agreement will be signed in the next few weeks or months with respect to 2013.