Debates of Feb. 25th, 2005

Gasoline Industry

[Jerry Pickard, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, first, I want to congratulate the member for Thunder Bay—Rainy River. Last year he organized a task force to look at gasoline prices in his area and, quite frankly, across the north. He did a marvellous job there.

He has, on a regular basis, contacted the minister and talked about gasoline prices. Very properly, he is asking about the Competition Act today. It will be more effective in dealing with corporations and dealing with unfair practices that happen in this country. That is one of the reasons that we are trying to move the Competition Act forward.

Through monetary penalties, we will make sure that corporations that treat others unjustly--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Vancouver East.

Housing

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, what does the Prime Minister say to the 1.7 million Canadian households that desperately need affordable housing? What does he say to homeless people around the streets? What does he say to aboriginal people off reserve?

In his rush for Conservative support, he betrayed them and there is anger and outrage that he broke his own promise for $1.5 billion for housing while rewarding his corporate buddies.

I challenge him to get out on the street at night, experience the impact of what he has done and then think about his corporate tax cuts. Is he willing to take that responsibility and see what he has done?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, the promise of $1.5 billion in new housing will be kept. That was repeated in the throne speech.

The reality is that money that is available now, about $800 million, has simply not been spent.

On the question of first nations housing, we have a round table process in place. It is slated to come to a conclusion this spring. The Minister of Finance has acknowledge that we will need more money and we will get it.

Education

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the government's stall on education funding over the past decade has caused the doubling of tuition and crippling student debt loads.

Grubbing for youth votes in the spring election, the Prime Minister promised to restore $8 billion to $9 billion to educational core funding. Yesterday's budget did no such thing.

Education core funding remains below the 1995 level. There is no tuition relief and students have to either die or become permanently disabled in order to qualify for debt relief.

Why the betrayal of Canada's students of yesterday, today and tomorrow?

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

Mr. Speaker, if the member took the time to read the budget, she would understand that there has been no such betrayal at all.

In fact, coming out of the previous budget, there is the new Canada learning bond for low income families, an enhanced Canada education savings grant for low and middle income families, new upfront grants of $2,000 for students with disabilities and $3,000 for first year students from low income communities.

She might want to speak to Premier Doer of the province of Manitoba, who has congratulated the Prime Minister and the finance minister for keeping their promises.

Correctional Service Canada

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, recent media reports state that Stoney Mountain Penitentiary just ranked third out of 54 federal prisons for weapon seizures.

Corrections officers confiscated nearly 1,200 weapons across Canada during 2004. Corrections officers put their lives at risk every day but the government will not supply them with stabproof vests. As well, the government has continually delayed coming to an agreement with the officers union. They have now been without a contract for three years.

When will the dithering government settle this matter and make sure our corrections officers work in safe conditions while being compensated properly.

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

Mr. Speaker, the safety of the corrections officers as well as the safety of this country continues to be a priority and will remain that way.

Justice

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Albert Walker stole millions of dollars from the hardworking people in my area.

While on the run in Britain with his 15 year old daughter posing as his wife, he murdered Ronald Platt and took his identity. His family is terrified and they do not want him back here.

When the Deputy Prime Minister signed for his transfer back to Canada, she showed sympathy for the murderer and disdain for the family.

Will the minister assure the family that this murderer will not end up within 2,000 miles of them?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member is aware, I cannot comment on the specifics of an offender's case.

However, the International Transfer of Offenders Act enables Canadian offenders, who are convicted abroad, to serve their sentence in their country of citizenship whenever a treaty has been signed to that effect. That has been the case in this instance.

Child Care

[Maurice Vellacott, Conservative, Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, SK]

Mr. Speaker, in a recent Vanier Institute study, day care centres rank a distant fifth when Canadians are asked who they would prefer to care for their preschool children. A parent, grandparent, another relative and home day care all ranked higher. Even in Quebec, which has a day care program of the kind that the Liberals plan to introduce, most parents would prefer to have children cared for by a relative.

Conservative Party policy would allow parents to make their own child care choices. Why do the Liberals continue to promote a plan that discriminates against the preferred choices of 75% of Canadian parents?

[Tony Ianno, Liberal, Minister of State (Families and Caregivers)]

Mr. Speaker, as was stated in the election platform, we are investing $5 billion toward early learning child centres. We are working with the provinces. The finance minister put the commitment in place, and we will continue to work with the provincial and territorial governments to ensure that all children have the opportunity to be productive citizens in the future.

The Environment

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it has been reported that the Kyoto Keystone Kops are again abusing automakers. Auto manufacturers are being handed all the work in changing consumer behaviour in order to achieve artificial emission and fuel economy targets by 2010.

Does the minister realize that this could lead to catastrophic job losses, while making little difference in emission and fuel economy levels? If the Minister of the Environment cannot write his own Kyoto plan, why is he forcing the auto manufacturers to do his work for him?

[R. John Efford, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment, the Minister of Industry and myself have had several weeks of ongoing discussions with the auto industry. In negotiations from day to day there are always things that will come up on which there will have to be a further agreement.

I have full confidence that at the end of the day we will work out an agreement to the satisfaction of the auto industry and to the environment and government.

International Assistance

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

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian government's contribution to international assistance is more than disappointing, to say the least. Canada has dropped from 6th to 12th place among the contributing nations. Unfortunately, the budget has not changed matters.

At the rate he is increasing budgets for international assistance, will the Prime Minister admit that it will take Canada 30 years to reach its target of 0.7% of GDP for international assistance and not 10 years by 2015, as it promised the United Nations?

[Aileen Carroll, Liberal, Minister of International Cooperation]

Mr. Speaker, I am a bit taken back. I would share with the member that it has been a wonderful week for foreign aid in Canada as a result of the finance minister's budget.

The budget allocated significant resources to the international assistance envelope, $3.4 billion over five years. This is on top of a $248 million increase in my budget for 2005-06 and $641 million in additional funding at the end of the year.

I cannot say that it has not been a very good news story.

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

Mr. Speaker, it has been such a good week that there is four times more money for national defence than for international assistance. It just goes to show how compassionate this government is.

When the Liberals came to power, Canada's contribution was 0.43% of GDP. It then fell to 0.29%. Yet, other countries like France, Belgium and Great Britain are doubling their efforts to achieve the UN target. What is Canada waiting for to follow suit?

[Aileen Carroll, Liberal, Minister of International Cooperation]

Mr. Speaker, I join countries and like-minded donors like France, Britain and other countries in our absolute commitment to fighting poverty and to reaching the millennium development goals.

We are looked on by those countries as a strong partner. I work with them in many different venues. I will be with them next week as we work at the OECD and DAC committee to move forward in the achievement of the development goals.

Because we are a balanced government and have assigned funding to the armed forces at a time when they need it, we have also done equal funding for aid. This is a balanced response.

Forestry

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, three years ago the B.C. government formally asked the Liberals to help in a plan to mitigate the damage caused by the pine beetle, and nothing happened. Five months ago the B.C. government formally requested, with a brand new more aggressive plan, help from the Liberals. Nothing has happened.

The pine beetles have not been dithering. They have chewed their way through 300 million cubic metres of mature pine and are threatening to go to a billion within eight years.

Why has the government done nothing to help the B.C. government in this pine beetle crisis?

[R. John Efford, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing how many people from the opposition would get up and ask a question, do absolutely no research and not know what they are talking about. To say we have done absolutely nothing is absolutely false. First, we have already put $40 million into working with the B.C. government and the industry to find a way to deal with the mountain pine beetle.

To say we have done nothing is absolutely false. We will do much more.

Sport Fishery

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Virtually nothing, Mr. Speaker. I have been asking the agriculture minister since October to ensure that Canadian caught sport fish can receive a health certificate and be taken back to Europe under tough new EU rules.

Our competitors in Alaska, Russia and Norway have responded to the changes. Canada has not. This is leading to millions of dollars in losses in cancellations for B.C. fishing resorts.

Despite the minister's assurances otherwise, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency continues to say that it has no mandate for sport fish.

Why does the government continue to abandon B.C. sport fishing lodges?

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

Quite to the contrary, Mr. Speaker. Even though the CFIA does not have a direct mandate, we have asked it to put in a protocol to assist lodges so they can continue to compete effectively.

Beyond that, we also are engaging the European Union, both in terms of having it change the minimum weight amount so it can be increased, as well as to ask it to deal with the policy in its overall context so we can have others besides the CFIA do the necessary inspections.

Public Service

[Marc Godbout, Liberal, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is addressed to the President of the Treasury Board. Could the hon. member please once and for all put an end to the opposition's fearmongering tactics and inform the House on the real impact the expenditure review will have on our public service employees?

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member and also the members for Pontiac, Gatineau, Ottawa South, Ottawa West—Nepean and the deputy House leader for their work on this file.

I fully expected the member for Ottawa Centre to stand up in the House to apologize for the statements he has made about massive job losses in the public service. In fact, what we have is a modernization of the public service, bringing to public servants the tools they need to do the jobs they want to do.

They are excited about it. They are the best in the world and they will be better still.

Housing

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the housing minister.

On February 14, the minister of housing specifically promised, “the February 23 budget will commit another $1.5 billion to help Canadians who lack affordable housing” now, not in future budgets. A good portion of the money was slated for rent subsidies to help low income Canadians meet their housing needs.

The $1.5 billion is not in the budget. Why did the minister make the promise if he could not deliver? What does he intend to do about his broken promise to low income Canadians, and the $1.5 billion that is not in the present budget?