Debates of June 16th, 2005

Health

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister has said, we recognized this issue over eight months ago and provided $41 billion. I understand each of the provinces is engaged in reducing wait times. Whether it is in Saskatchewan, in Quebec, in B.C., in Alberta or in Ontario, all the provinces are worried about this, which is why the first ministers of the country got together to deal with this issue last September.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister of Health, Canadians have access to waiting lists, but not to medically required care. The minister has said in this House that the health care system would be judged by waiting lists.

If more than one in three Quebeckers waits longer than is medically acceptable, how does this compare with other provinces?

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that this side of the House has been busy for the last eight months trying to find solutions to this particular problem. The fact is that the Leader of the Opposition and that opposition party are interested, not in strengthening health care but in privatizing health care. We will fight them every time they stand up to support private health care.

National Defence

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we have learned that an American company has decided that Goose Bay, Labrador, would be an appropriate site to establish a radar station, which could play a role in the American missile defence shield project.

Are we to understand that the steps taken by this company in Canada indicate a change in the government's policy on the missile defence shield?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, as I responded to the press this morning, the government was not approached. It has not changed its policy. No request was made of our government.

An American company is in fact speculating about the possibility of setting up a radar base in various places. We will see what happens. We cannot, however, react to something that does not exist.

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, and yet it was he, the Minister of National Defence, who said in April, “If X-band radar facilities were built in Labrador, it would extend radar coverage of the coast, which could be useful to some extent for the missile defence shield”.

Is this statement not proof that the government already has had its arm twisted and is preparing to present us with a fait accompli regarding its participation in the missile defence shield?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, what I said, I said. Still, I come back to this. No request was made of the government, so we cannot say that anything has changed. A request has to be made at least, before we can contemplate any sort of a response.

Natural Resources

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the Devils Lake water diversion project in North Dakota will soon open and flow contaminated water into Manitoba's water system.

Now some members of the House are taking the position to impose trade sanctions against the U.S. as a threat which will further damage Canada-U.S. relations.

When will the Prime Minister put a stop to further damaging Canada-U.S. relations and make sure this matter is immediately referred to the IJC?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the longstanding first course of action that the government has been supporting has been to refer the matter to the IJC.

However, in parallel, the White House has been seized with the dossier and with its own environmental analysis that it is doing on the United States side. We are now sitting down with the Americans and looking at how we can absolutely protect the integrity of the water system in Canada.

We have placed our demands out there but we want the boundary waters treaty to be respected in every way.

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

Mr. Speaker, after listening to the earlier comments by the environment minister, he actually is gullible if he thinks North Dakota's decision to delay the pumping of water from Devils Lake is due to outside political pressure.

The North Dakota delay is all about the high level of the Red River Basin which makes that diversion operation outside of the project's parameters. Once the river level drops, North Dakota will start pumping contaminated water into the Red River Basin.

What is the government's plan of recourse after North Dakota starts diverting bad water into Manitoba later this summer?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I think the official opposition is wrong to give up. Very intense negotiations are going on right now with the White House's council on environmental quality thanks to the Prime Minister who insisted on having that with the president.

I wish to hear that the official opposition will support the Government of Canada, the Government of Manitoba, the Government of Ontario, the Government of Quebec, countless environmental groups and the House and Senate committees on the environment, instead of always being negative and trying to undermine what Canada is doing.

Agriculture

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The egg and poultry industry contributes some $13 billion per year to the Canadian economy and provides about 72,000 jobs.

In negotiations with the World Trade Organization, is the government prepared to protect over-quota tariffs at their current levels to discourage further imports beyond the level of market access already negotiated at the WTO?

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

Mr. Speaker, obviously, in our WTO negotiations, as we move toward negotiating improved market access, one of the things that we have said clearly is that individual countries need to have flexibility in how they achieve that. That includes allowing our producers to choose their domestic marketing schemes and that includes supply management.

The government very much supports supply management. We have for 35 years in the past and we will continue to do so in the future.

Firearms Registry

[Garry Breitkreuz, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, there is an even bigger scandal waiting for Justice John Gomery to investigate.

The government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on computer contracts to implement the gun registry and plans to spend hundreds of millions more on computer contracts in the years ahead.

To put this spending into perspective, we can register 40 million cows for $8 million.

Will the minister please explain why it has cost $1 billion to register only seven million guns?

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

Mr. Speaker, this program has an $85 million cap. The operating budget for the entire program in 2005-06 is $82.5 million.

As it relates to the gun registry component of the program, we imposed a $25 million cap in 2005-06. In fact, the registry component of the program will cost only $15.7 million. In fact the costs of this program, since 2000, have gone down consistently.

[Garry Breitkreuz, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty obvious that the minister still refuses to take responsibility for her role in this federal firearms fiasco.

The cattle industry can locate a cow in any barnyard in Canada in seconds. The gun registry still cannot locate hundreds of thousands of gun owners and is still missing millions of guns.

How many lives could have been saved if we had spent this wasted billion on DNA analysis, cancer research or more police on the streets?

The gun registry is either a huge scandal or gross incompetence. Which is it?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I just indicated, the costs of this program are under control and going down.

Let me also share with the hon. member that since December 1, 1998, more than 13,500 individual firearm licences have been refused or revoked. The program is accessed over 2,000 times a day by front line police officers.

In spite of the ongoing protestations of the hon. member, it is time he pulled his head out of the sand and understood that--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Haute--Gaspésie--La Mitis--Matane--Matapédia.

National Defence

[Jean-Yves Roy, Bloc, Matapédia—Matane, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, when I asked the Minister of Defence simply whether he would finally decide to meet with the people in charge of the Cap-Chat cadet camp to reassure them about their future, he provided nothing more than a very general, vague and totally unclear reply.

The question is clear and requires a clear answer. Will the minister be meeting soon, as promised, with the people in charge of this cadet training centre, yes or no?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I am always prepared to meet with people to discuss ways of having the best program for our cadets.

We believe camps provide cadets with optimum learning opportunities as well as the chance to meet Canadians from other backgrounds. That is the case in Quebec, where we have a program of which I am very proud.

Once more, I am always prepared to meet people if that is what the hon. member wants.

Fisheries

[Don Bell, Liberal, North Vancouver, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans made an important announcement today on the management of the Fraser River fishery for this season.

Could the minister tell the House what investments the government is making to ensure fishery compliance this year?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, earlier today I announced a $5.2 million action plan in response to the standing committee reports on the 2004 Fraser River fishery.

We are moving quickly and decisively with a comprehensive plan to address the complex situation on the river. These resources will increase compliance and conservation and facilitate change in my department.

Foreign Affairs

[Carolyn Parrish, Independent, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, four million Palestinian refugees have been living under dire conditions for over 50 years. They subsist on voluntary yearly donations from some UN countries. This year's budget of $350 million is grossly inadequate.

As a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, is Canada willing to initiate talks at the UN to ensure Palestinians get the same treatment as convention refugees, guaranteeing basic human rights, adequate funding and international protection until such time as UN resolutions, such as 194, are implemented?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the Palestinian refugees are in a unique political and humanitarian situation.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, was established prior to the refugee convention relating to the status of refugees. It was given specific authority to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees.

Reflecting this unique political situation of the Palestinian refugees, the international community, through the UN General Assembly, requires UNRWA to continue to provide humanitarian assistance pending a political situation.

Business of the House

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure Canadians and certainly we on the opposition benches would love to know what the government intends to call for legislation for the remainder of this week, on into next week, and indeed into July if that is where we are going.