Debates of Nov. 23rd, 2005

Public Service

[Reg Alcock, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to assure the member that the Prime Minister and this side of the House are absolutely committed to a public service that reflects the face of Canada. I can inform him that in three of the four categories we have met or exceeded our targets. In the final category, we are working hard to close the gap with the assistance of this member and the members for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, Etobicoke--Lakeshore and Brampton--Springdale.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker]

I would like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in the gallery of the winners of the 2005 Governor General's Literary Awards: M. Michel Bock, Mme. Isabelle Arsenault, Mme. Geneviève Billette, M. Camille Bouchard, Mr. David Gilmour, Mr. Rob Gonsalves, Ms. Anne Compton, M. Jean-Marc Desgent, Mr. John Mighton, Mme. Rachel Martinez, Mrs. Pamela Porter, Mr. Fred A. Reed, Mr. John Vaillant, and Ms. Aki Shimazaki.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

Canada's Performance 2005

[Reg Alcock, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, as part of our commitment to improve transparency and accountability to parliamentarians and Canadians, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, a report entitled “Canada’s Performance 2005: The Government of Canada’s Contribution”, on behalf of the people of Canada.

Air-India

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table, in both official languages, a report entitled “Lessons to be Learned”, as completed by the hon. Bob Rae. This report advises the federal government on outstanding questions with respect to the bombing of Air-India flight 182.

On behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister, I want to thank Mr. Rae and his team for their excellent work on this report.

Certificates of Nomination

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table one certificate of nomination which stands referred to the appropriate standing committee.

Order in Council Appointments

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table a number of order in council appointments recently made by the government.

Government Response to Petitions

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table the government's response to four petitions.

[John Cummins, Conservative, Delta—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The government has been trying to peddle Ridley Terminals in Prince Rupert at a fire sale price for some time. I would like to point out that as yet the government has failed to table the 2004 annual report. I wonder if the minister responsible would give us some idea when that document would be tabled.

I have another point I would like to raise. The Ridley Terminals corporate plan summary for 2005 has not yet been tabled and the year is almost over. These documents should have been tabled some time ago. I wonder when we could expect them given the pending fire sale prices of the Ridley Terminals.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the government House leader assures me that these are very important documents and the likelihood of them being tabled quickly will extend with every week this Parliament continues to sit.

Canada Elections Act

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Minister for Internal Trade]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-79, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (third party election advertising).

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

Interparliamentary Delegations

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

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 Canada-France Inter-Parliamentary Association concerning its 33rd annual meeting, held in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo, British Columbia, from August 28 to September 4, 2005.

Committees of the House

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 17th report of the Standing Committee on Health. The committee has considered Bill C-420, an act to amend the Food and Drugs Act regarding the definitions of drug and the definition of food. Pursuant to Standing Order 97.1 the committee recommends that the House of Commons do not proceed further with this bill.

[Lynn Myers, Liberal, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the ninth report of the Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology in relation to the certificate of appointment of Suzanne Fortier to the position of President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the seventeenth report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Pursuant to the order of reference of Monday, November 21, 2005, the committee considered Bill S-36, An Act to Amend the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act, and agreed on Tuesday, November 22, 2005, to report it without amendment.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Pursuant to the order of reference of Thursday, October 27, 2005, the committee has considered vote 20a under Privy Council - Commissioner of Official Languages in the supplementary estimates (A) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, and reports the same.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in relation to its study on the Summer Career Placements Program.

The 14 recommendations contained in the report are presented in a spirit of cooperation on the part of all the witnesses who have testified before the committee and all committee members on both sides, to improve on a program that is already working very well and benefiting each summer thousands of students across Canada.

Both rural and urban communities from as far away as Labrador to small communities like Lindsay and Peterborough to British Columbia and beyond have benefited from this program. Broadening of accessibility and automation of the application process were among the several recommendations.

Once again, I thank all committee members, who have put their knowledge of statistics and their understanding of the needs of their communities at the service of the committee to produce this report. Working with all of you has been a real pleasure.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the second report of the Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament regarding the certificate of nomination of William Robert Young to the position of Parliamentary Librarian.

Excise Act

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-451, An Act to amend the Excise Act, 2001 (wine exemption).

Mr. Speaker, it is a fact that Canadian wines are some of the best in the world and that most Canadian wines have to deal with heavily subsidized imports. Even though in the past three budgets, and there were three concurrent unanimous all-party recommendations from the finance committee to reduce the excise tax, this has not happened.

I propose that we look at 100% of Canadian wines and remove the excise tax up to 900,000 litres to help create a level playing field for our industry.

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

Blood Samples Act

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Dewdney—Alouette, BC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-452, An Act to provide for the taking of blood samples for the protection of persons administering and enforcing the law and good Samaritans, and to amend the Criminal Code.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to introduce a bill that would allow judges to order a blood sample to be taken when the judge believes that there is a strong case to believe that a front line emergency worker, a good Samaritan or someone helping them, may have come into contact with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV.

This is similar to a bill that was introduced by my colleague from Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon in the last Parliament which passed unanimously. Under normal circumstances, I would hope that this would also be the case.

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

Parliamentary Librarian

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

moved:

That the House approve the appointment of William Young as Parliamentary Librarian.

[The Speaker]

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Speaker]

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.