Debates of June 7th, 2005

Natural Resources

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is an excellent question. It is something we share all together. We need to speak very strongly to our friends in the United States. We have a treaty that must be respected. Lake Winnipeg is one of the most wonderful lakes in the world and we need to protect it.

That is why I am in intense negotiations with many colleagues and intense negotiations with the CEQ and Mr. Connaughton to be sure that at the end of the day the United States will do the right thing.

Government Contracts

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, rent was paid 10 months in advance for an empty building, despite the fact no contract had been signed. The Minister of Public Works and Government Services has admitted that the lease and the law were broken. When I caught the Liberals breaking the law, cabinet repealed the legislation, all for another Liberal friend.

In addition to the sponsorship scandal, will there now be a rent scandal?

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

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member ought to be aware that in fact this House approved and supported the new Senate code of conduct. Beyond that, the Conservative senators supported the new code of conduct. In fact Senator Angus and others have spoken very positively about it.

There is a new ethics code for the Senate. It is overseen by a new independent ethics officer. Section 14 no longer applies. In fact it is notable that new conflict of interest code actually was inspired by the Oliver-Milliken report that was tabled in--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Nepean--Carleton.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are not talking about a Senate code here. We are talking about why the government began paying rent to one of its Liberal friends 10 months before Canadian employees occupied the building and two months before there was a contract in place.

I ask the Minister of Finance who was the then Minister of Public Works, is it standard practice to pay out before a contract is signed?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order. The hon. Minister of Public Works and Government Services has the floor.

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

Mr. Speaker, the irrevocable contract, the competitively developed contract was in fact two years before the hon. member is even speaking about. It was beyond that.

The hon. member ought to understand, because it has been explained to him enough, that the 10 month delay was caused by the merger of two agencies within the Government of Canada. Alexis Nihon in fact delivered the building to the government on time, on budget and fulfilled its contractual obligation to the government.

It was an internal issue and not one in which one would punish an external contractor, in this case Alexis Nihon.

Child Care

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government is creating a two tier child care system, one tier for those who can find a space in a government run, nine to five day care centre, and another tier for those who are forced to fend for themselves, especially parents who work shifts. This two tier child care system does not create choice or opportunities for the majority of Canadians.

What is a single parent on a low income who works late night shift work supposed to do for child care under this Liberal plan?

[Ken Dryden, Liberal, Minister of Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, the first thing this system provides is a huge additional amount of money for the provinces and territories to invest in the areas of priority to them and which also meet the principles that we have agreed to. I am sure that among those priorities within the provinces there will be priorities for rural and remote areas. I am sure there will also be priorities in terms of flexibility.

One of the advantages of early learning and child care is it is not a large scale system like education. We can meet the smaller needs more effectively.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB]

Mr. Speaker, each and every parent should be able to afford the choice to care for their children as they see fit. A one size fits all day care plan does not provide choice and discriminates against some parents.

When will the minister acknowledge that all parents deserve choices and financially empower all families equally?

[Ken Dryden, Liberal, Minister of Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, let me take the hon. member back 13 months or so to where early learning and child care in this country was at that point. None of the provinces outside of Quebec was willing to make a big investment in early learning and child care. The party opposite clearly was not interested. When that party had the choice, it decided to come up with a scheme that would pay $320 per child to a low income family. That is no choice.

National Defence

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

Mr. Speaker, once again, members of the Canadian navy are in hospital, this time in Halifax, following a fire yesterday on board a patrol frigate, the HMCS Toronto . Just as in the investigation into the fire on board the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi , the Canadian navy is refusing to disclose the exact number of hospitalized seamen, or their health status.

Since the navy is keeping us in the dark, can the Minister of National Defence tell us the exact health status of the crew of the HMCS Toronto ?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I met with navy officials this afternoon. I can reassure the hon. member and all the members in this House on this matter. A fire broke out on the Toronto and caused some damage. A few people were sent to hospital, but everyone is fine. No extensive damage was done. Everything is now under control.

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

Mr. Speaker, does the minister intend to dock all Halifax class frigates until the end of the investigation into this fire, as he did with the submarines after the Chicoutimi fire?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Certainly not, Mr. Speaker. The nature of this fire and the extent of the damage are fortunately not at all the same as what happened on the Chicoutimi . The ship in question was docked. This was an unfortunate incident, but I can assure the House that the Toronto will be seaworthy shortly. There is no problem. There is no reason to keep this ship in the dockyard.

Democratic Reform

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, before she became a Liberal, the Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal was one of the co-sponsors of Bill C-261, which would lower the voting age to 16. She even toured the country in support of the bill.

My question is, now that she is a minister, does she still support Bill C-261 and the lowering of the voting age to 16?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Minister for Internal Trade]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, the bill he refers to will be debated for the second hour tomorrow. If the member waits patiently, he will find out how everybody intends to vote tomorrow night.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to guess that the minister will be voting in favour of the bill based on the fact that www.vote16.ca has her picture on its front page and has this quote from her:

The new Canada is the future, and lowering the voting age is a step in providing fresh oxygen to our political process.

I might add that the Prime Minister's solution to the democratic deficit seems to be to have a surplus of ministers responsible for democratic reform. Let me ask the one responsible for electoral renewal, will he be acting promptly on the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding electoral reform?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Minister for Internal Trade]

Mr. Speaker, there were two questions. On the first one, the answer is the same: wait until we vote on it and he will see how people vote.

In terms of the government's response to the committee, we are waiting for the report. We hope that the committee will report and recommend to the House, as the House unanimously asked for, a process to consult Canadians on democratic reform and democratic renewal including electoral reform. The government indeed will take the recommendations of the report very seriously.

Air Transportation

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the Minister of Transport and the government on the recent bilateral air agreement reached between Canada and China. However, we must not forget that India also has a rapidly growing economy. India has a strong relationship, both economically and socially, with Canada.

Could the Minister of Transport please tell the House what the status is of the Canada-India bilateral air agreement?

[Jean Lapierre, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the House that these are happy times with Canada-India relations. Last month we celebrated the return of Air-India regular flights to Canada and today we just completed an agreement with India. We are going to increase by fivefold to 35 round trip flights per week for each country. It is going to be a great improvement on Canada-India relations and it is a great agreement for Canada and for India.

Marriage

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister broke his promise to hold full public committee hearings on the same sex marriage bill and as a result he lost a member of his caucus. Now he is desperately making more promises in order to keep other Liberal dissenters quiet.

Why does the Prime Minister not simply keep his old promises to guarantee a full public hearing and a free vote for all Liberal members, including cabinet members, rather than simply embarking on a new round of promises?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have been holding full public hearings. I might advise the hon. member that the predecessor justice and human rights committee heard from over 500 witnesses, travelled to 12 Canadian cities and received 300 written submissions. All of that has been incorporated by reference as part of the evidence before this committee, and the hearings are continuing as we speak.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, that was the one the Liberal government shut down so that it would not have a vote on the issue.

The same sex marriage bill offers no protection to religious organizations or public officials who have concerns about changing the definition of marriage. Yesterday the Prime Minister tried to reach a backroom deal to grant these protections in order to keep more of his members from bolting.

Will the Prime Minister tell all Canadians about this new deal, or is this just another empty promise to buy his government a little more time?