Debates of June 21st, 2005

Citizenship and Immigration

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, clearly what the hon. member is doing is misstating the report. I have not had the opportunity to read it, but it is my understanding that the Ethics Commissioner came to the conclusion that there was no personal wrongdoing on the part of the hon. member.

There is an independent Ethics Commissioner. I think it is very important that we not engage in innuendo and allegation here. The fact is that I have great confidence in the hon. member. I have expressed that before and I express it again today.

Gasoline Prices

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is important that the Prime Minister read the report before he exonerates the minister. It would be a nice change.

Canadians are facing some of the highest gas prices we have ever seen in this country. Meanwhile, the government continues to rake in massive gas tax revenues. The price of gas affects every single individual, family and business in the country. When is the government going to do something to lessen the burden on Canadians?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, in the budget we have in fact taken steps to reduce the tax burden on Canadians. There was a proposal for about $13 billion in savings over the course of the next five years, including increasing the minimum amount that is tax exempt, which will be going from $8,000 to $10,000. That will in fact put 860,000 Canadians of low income off the tax rolls altogether.

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, that rhetoric and 90¢ will buy us a litre of gas. We are asking about gas taxes here. The government is rolling in gas tax revenue right now. Canadians, though, are getting hosed at the pumps, in part due to high taxes.

The government charges GST on top of all the other taxes on gas, which leads to still higher prices. When will the finance minister commit to ending this government sponsored price gouging and simply axe the tax on tax?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we have taken two steps specifically in relation to this measure.

First, in an earlier gas spike not very many months ago, we earmarked the proceeds from that period of time to the medical equipment fund, which was in fact in the $41 billion that we are transferring to the provinces to improve medicare. Now we are transferring half of the gas tax, ramping up half of the gas tax, to Canadian municipalities to help to pay for their infrastructure.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, with the arrival of the summer holidays, gasoline prices continue to climb. There is a paradox here. Whenever oil prices soar, prices at the pump immediately follow suit. Conversely, when oil prices drop, quite often, retail gas prices do not immediately reflect that slide.

Does the Prime Minister realize that oil and gas companies are taking advantage of the inaction of this government, which continues to sit on the sidelines and do nothing to rectify this rather particular situation?

[David Emerson, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, the Competition Bureau has reviewed gasoline pricing a number of times over the last 10 years and has never found any evidence of collusion. The price of oil and gas is internationally determined. The setting and control of gasoline prices at the pump is a provincial responsibility.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are well aware that retail gas pricing is a provincial responsibility, but the Competition Act is a federal one. If they have not found anything, it is because this legislation has no teeth. That is the problem. The government also has the power to create a petroleum monitoring agency, something the Bloc Québécois has been demanding for a number of years.

Once again, is this government not proving that it is favouring the oil and gas companies over consumers?

[David Emerson, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think anybody needs to be reminded of what gasoline prices are out there. What we need to do is make sure that we have a good strong competition policy. I hope the hon. member and his party will vote for the amendments to the Competition Act that are in front of this Parliament.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Rivière-Du-Loup—Montmagny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, every time gas prices soar, we have proof that the federal government has not fulfilled its responsibilities as it might every time we have asked it to.

Will the Minister of Industry admit that, fluctuations in international prices aside, refinery profit margins are too high, and that the federal government still refuses to intervene in order to protect consumers? Why?

[David Emerson, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the Competition Bureau has investigated gasoline pricing numerous times over the last 10 years. It has not found any evidence of conspiracy to fix prices.

If the hon. member has a complaint, it should be brought before the Competition Bureau. He and his party should support amendments to the Competition Act to give it more teeth.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Rivière-Du-Loup—Montmagny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government has the powers and the responsibility to look at competition issues. The lack of competition in the oil and gas sector creates such high gas prices for us.

Will the government admit that power is concentrated in the hands of the oil and gas companies because the refineries and the distributors in Canada are in fact one and the same, and they can do whatever they want with gas prices at the expense of consumers?

[David Emerson, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that the last people in the world who should be trying to figure out what a competitive market looks like are politicians and people like that. It should be left in the hands of experts. It should be left in the hands of an arm's length legal body like the Competition Bureau.

International Cooperation

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister, the one who says he has kept every promise that he has ever made. It turns out that Bob Geldof does not agree. In fact, he is saying that the Prime Minister should stay home unless Canada is going to meet its obligations and keep its promise to the world.

Canadians are bothered by the fact that we are asked to stay home because we cannot keep our word to the world. Does this bother the Prime Minister enough that he is finally going to keep this promise?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I believe in the 0.7% and I would very much like to see Canada get there by the year 2015, but I am not going to make a commitment that I am not sure the government will be able to keep.

I believe it is important that governments say not just what they are going to do, but that they say how they are going to do it. I am telling members that the problem with international public policy is that too often commitments are made on the grounds of photo ops. I will not do that.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it says a lot about this Prime Minister's foreign policy that Khadafi wants him and Geldof does not. That is all I can say. Talk about photo ops.

Let me ask a question of the finance minister, if I may, because he quoted Bob Geldof yesterday. According to him, Canada was doing what Sir Bob was asking, but today Sir Bob himself contradicted the finance minister and in fact told the finance minister to stay home if he was not willing to keep Canada's promise to the world.

Would the minister like to quote Sir Bob today or would he finally get around to honouring Canada's commitment?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, let me quote Sir Bob from this morning. He said “a historic doubling of aid to Africa, which is precisely what is needed...all that Africa can absorb in terms of aid, because of a lack of infrastructure” and government “is a doubling of aid”. I am pleased to say that Canada's aid to Africa was doubled in the budget on February 23.

Citizenship and Immigration

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

Mr. Speaker, the ethics report on the former immigration minister contains new information that the Prime Minister's Office knew of the scandal immediately following the last election.

Why did the Prime Minister not act on it then? How can Parliament or the public have any confidence in the ethics code when the Prime Minister himself knew it had been violated but conspired to keep this scandal silent?

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

Mr. Speaker, as was said earlier, the report came out today and the government and the responsible ministers are reviewing the report. The Ethics Commissioner did his work. He provided that report to Parliament.

What is wrong is that the hon. members do not like the contents of that report, so they are attempting once again to discredit the Ethics Commissioner himself.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister waited until the immigration scandal became public before he acted on it. He also waited until the sponsorship scandal became public before he acted on that scandal.

Why does the Prime Minister always wait until he gets caught before confronting corruption?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, on the first question, in terms of my own staff, the report indicates, I am told, that my staff did act appropriately and there was no criticism of them.

In terms of the member's second question, the fact is that on the day the Auditor General's report was tabled in the House of Commons, we named the Gomery commission. The day I became Prime Minister, we cancelled the sponsorship program. The fact is that what we did was take immediate action because we believe that the truth will out and triumph. The fact is, get the facts out and we will act on them, and we have.

Natural Resources

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

Mr. Speaker, on Friday I stated in question period that three years ago the U.S. had requested an IJC referral for the Devils Lake diversion and the Canadian government refused.

The environment minister claimed that is not true. I have a letter dated May 21, 2002, from former Canadian ambassador Michael Kergin, which states that the Liberal government declined a joint referral. Why is the government trying to cover up the fact that it had an opportunity to have a joint referral to the IJC?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, let us correct the record on this fact that has been circulating around here. The fact that the member has raised is absolutely not true. Canada has never refused to go to the IJC. We said at that time that on the preliminary project it might be premature, but we never denied and we never refused going to the IJC. On the contrary, on an earlier draft of the project, we simply said that we needed the full project to go on it, on the basis of the reality.

This is just wrong.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the minister will want to rethink his answer.

Marc Grossman of the U.S. Department of State sent a letter on May 20, 2002 to the Canadian embassy inviting Canada to join the U.S. in making a reference to the IJC on the then proposed Devils Lake project. Ambassador Kergin replied in writing:

In the view of the Government of Canada, it is inappropriate to refer to the IJC a proposal, such as the potential Devils Lake project--

Why did the government blow such a great opportunity to make a joint referral to the IJC?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, those members are not helping the cause of Lake Winnipeg and Canada by repeating false interpretations. At that time it was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that claimed that the project was under review for environmental assessment, that was cancelled by North Dakota. At that time indeed, we rejected that argument. Members should get their facts right. It is strange that they only started expressing concern about Devils Lake this month. Before that they did not care.