Debates of May 31st, 2005

B. Fernand Nadeau

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the people of New Brunswick, and Edmundston, especially, were deeply saddened to learn of the death yesterday of B. Fernand Nadeau, a former minister of the Province of New Brunswick and the former mayor of the City of Edmundston.

B. Fernand Nadeau was committed and active in his community. He served as mayor of the City of Edmundston from 1963 to 1969. He contributed considerably to New Brunswick's development between 1967 and 1970, while he was the member for the Edmundston region in the New Brunswick legislature and then minister of municipal affairs and minister of labour in the government of the late Louis J. Robichaud.

I would therefore like to offer sincere condolences to the family and friends of B. Fernand Nadeau on behalf of myself and the people of Madawaska—Restigouche.

Martin Donald Jones

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Mr. Speaker, 61 years ago a teenage seaman of the Royal Canadian Navy volunteer reserves was serving on the L.S.I. Prince Henry , a landing craft carrier stationed offshore Normandy, France.

Under a halo of bursting enemy shells and clouds of smoke from the ship's guns, the invasion of Europe was underway on Juno Beach.

On the Prince Henry , able seaman Jones did his part, providing gunnery coverage for the landing craft, laden with regimental soldiers of the Regina Rifles and of the Canadian Scottish, heading to Juno Beach.

After the war, Martin Donald Jones came to Edmonton and worked for 29 years until retirement in 1985 for Canada Mortgage and Housing, serving another tour of honourable duty for the public of Canada.

My good friends, Marty and his wife Pauline, are celebrating life's blessings and Marty's 80th birthday together with family and friends in Edmonton this week.

I send my congratulations to Marty and wish him good health and God bless.

The Budget

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, mayors from across Ontario, including Mississauga and Brampton, want the 2005 budget passed. They want better roads, improved transit systems and more sustainable infrastructure.

This explains why the mayor of Toronto and the mayor of Ottawa appealed to all parties to pass the budget. Similarly, this explains why mayors issued a statement which said, “Cities across the country have worked too long and too hard to see the new deal wiped out by political posturing”.

There are billions of dollars already spent in the 2005 budget for child care and money for economic development for communities in northern and rural southern Ontario.

I agree with the mayors that the interests of Ontarians must come before political posturing. Rather than sit on the budget in committee, let us get the budget adopted so cities and communities across Ontario can start to reap the benefits of the 2005 budget.

National Day Against Homophobia

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, June 1 is National Day Against Homophobia, and our leader and members of the federal NDP caucus stand in solidarity with the GLBT and queer community to speak out against prejudice, discrimination and homophobia.

We congratulate Fondation Emergence and its partners across the country for its courageous and sustained work to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and to promote equality, diversity and openness in our society.

We in the NDP are fervently committed to equality of all people and the recognition of diversity as a wonderful and affirming value of our society. We want to see the day finally arrive, and soon, when the rights of same sex couples to marry are passed into law. We want to see the day when homophobia is something unknown, when gays and lesbians can be who we are, with pride, love and support and without the fear, hatred and violence that comes from homophobia.

We mark this day in a solemn way and we also celebrate the tremendous achievements that have been made.

Justice

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we need a justice system that will make the punishment fit the crime. Let us consider the case of Herbert Ward.

A rapist, Ward has been convicted of sexual assault more than 24 times in a devastating criminal career stretching back 24 years. Yet over that period Ward has spent only 51 months in prison.

In 2003, when Ward last pleaded guilty to a string of sexual assaults, the crown sought dangerous offender status to help keep the serial predator locked up. “No way,” said the judge. These crimes did not meet the threshold for dangerous offender status.

Now this Scarborough rapist has struck again, according to a woman who says that she was his victim on Friday.

How many more women will be victimized before the Liberal government introduces mandatory minimum sentences for violent and repeated offences? How many more women will be victims before the Liberal government acts?

The Budget

[Guy Côté, Bloc, Portneuf, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when the budget was presented in February, the Prime Minister missed a good opportunity to respond to the urgent needs of Quebec, which is no longer able to balance its budget, while the federal government is literally swimming in money.

In addition to being denied categorically in the budget, the fiscal imbalance has become a political imbalance, where the Liberals use billions of dollars to meddle with impunity in areas under Quebec's jurisdiction.

With $47 billion snatched from the EI fund, there is still no independent fund. As for implementation of the Kyoto protocol, the Liberal government preferred to give the major polluters a blank cheque rather than promote the polluter-pays principle.

The Bloc Québécois will submit amendments in committee that are serious and important for the people of Quebec. Let us hope that the Liberal members from Quebec will see reason and vote for them.

New Democratic Party

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

Mr. Speaker, the NDP are contemplating new demands to present to the government in return for propping it up. Its members must have been reading press clippings from 1973 when the minority Liberal government survived only by catering to NDP demands which included a freeze on Canadian oil prices and the creation of the national energy program.

The NEP froze oil prices and taxed oil exports from western Canada to subsidize imported oil used in eastern Canada. Then NDP leader David Lewis called these measures “a victory beyond my expectations”.

The NEP was a disaster for western Canada and the NDP influence started explosive federal spending and deficits which lasted for 20 years.

The tax and spend NDP are once again making deals with the devil. Canadians should hold on to their wallets.

Child Care

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, five provinces, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia, have signed child care agreements with the Liberal government.

These agreements are part of the promise made by our government to provide $5 billion over five years for creating an early childhood education and child care system in every province and territory.

Adoption of the budget at second reading has brought us one step closer to securing the funding for child care. The budget bills are now before the finance committee and Canadians want all political parties to put the public interest first and support Bill C-43 and Bill C-48.

As the chair of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada said:

Children and families right across Canada are now being held hostage to political opportunism...We need an activist Parliament to get the things done that matter most to Canadians, such as putting in place the foundation for a pan-Canadian child care system...

Let us get on with this budget, get on with the process and give Canadians the national child care program they deserve.

Member for Newton—Delta North

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister claims he was unaware of negotiations between his office and opposition MPs. Yet the records show that his chief of staff and his health minister make it clear that the Prime Minister wanted to meet with the member for Newton—North Delta.

How can the Prime Minister say that he was unaware when he was prepared to meet with the member for Newton—North Delta the evening before the vote?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, both statements are untrue.

First, yesterday in the House I said that when the member approached the government, I was obviously informed. Second, at no time, however, did I ever say that I would meet with the hon. member. In fact, if one looks at the newspapers, they have said that the hon. member's story is totally false.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the government keeps claiming it did not try to buy opposition support, but the records released today show that is not true.

How does the Prime Minister explain that his government's representative called the member for Newton—North Delta no less than 23 times in the 3 days preceding the vote?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, how does the opposition explain that Mr. Sudesh Kalia, who describes himself as a friend of Mr. Grewal and who was the intermediary, said that Mr. Grewal asked him, according to the paper, to set up the meeting?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order, please. The Prime Minister knows he must refer to hon. members by the names of their constituencies rather than by name. I know he will want to make that correction and avoid that problem.

[Paul Martin, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the third party, who was asked by the member for Newton—North Delta to set up the meeting, said that Mr. Kalia called the member's version of the events totally false. He said:

He gave me a few demands (about) what he's looking for... He's looking for his wife...(to get) a Senate post or UNO representation and himself in cabinet.

The third party said that the member's version was totally false.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I think the records will show that Mr. Kalia is no third party. He was speaking on behalf of the government.

It is quite clear from the records that the government was prepared to make offers to members in the House in exchange for their vote.

Is the Prime Minister denying that the voices on these tapes are those of his chief of staff and his health minister?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I have already said that I have not heard the tapes.

What I have done is read the transcript from the third party who was asked by the member to set up the meeting. I have also talked to the ministers of the government and the statement is absolutely clear that no offer was made, that an offer was solicited. No offer was made and that is the truth.

Sponsorship Program

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, as so famously quoted, the Prime Minister would not know the truth.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

I did not hear the first part of the hon. member's comments, but I wish hon. members would refrain from personal attacks. There is no need for it and I think we can avoid this kind of disorder if hon. members would show a little better behaviour in terms of personal attacks on each other. There is no need for it.

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last year before shutting down a parliamentary inquiry into the sponsorship scandal and calling a pre-emptive election, the Prime Minister said that there had to be political direction into the Liberal sponsorship scandal.

He also said that Gomery would get to the bottom of it and it would have no limits. Yet the terms of reference deliberately disallow Justice Gomery to name names or identify political direction.

Why did the Prime Minister hide information before the last election and why is he now limiting Gomery's findings of responsibility of political direction by his party?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, on February 20, 2004, the hon. member for Central Nova said this about Justice Gomery's mandate:

Well, they're certainly broad. There's no denying that the early indications are that the terms of reference will allow people to go where they have to go.

The hon. member was right then, but his party is wrong today with its opposition day motion. The fact is Justice Gomery does have the right and the ability, through section 13 of the Inquiries Act, to name names and to assign responsibility.

I would urge the hon. member to go back to planting potatoes and stop planting seeds of doubt about the work of Justice Gomery.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I urge my previous statement about personal attacks on all hon. members and would ask that we perhaps refrain from this sort of comment in the House. It does not help maintain order in this place.

The hon. member for Central Nova now has a supplementary question.

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the Gomery commission Canadians want to know who was responsible for the largest political scandal in Canadian history. The Prime Minister states that only Gomery can do that. That is not true.

The terms of reference prevent Justice Gomery from indicating criminal or civil liability and nowhere else is he specifically empowered to name names or assign responsibility. That is a curious fact. The justice minister maintains that expanding the terms might interfere with other processes. That is not true either.

Can the Prime Minister tell us if there are past or present members or employees of the Liberal government or his party currently under investigation by the RCMP?