House of Commons Hansard #69 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was surplus.
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
I would also like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in the gallery of the Honourable Mark Wartman, Minister of Agriculture and Food for Saskatchewan.
Rona Ambrose ConservativeMinister of the Environment
Mr. Speaker, I want to address an issue that was brought up during question period by the member for Don Valley West.
I want to say that we greatly appreciate the work we do with the Canadian Lung Association. This is a very serious health issue. He raised in a very political way that I was misrepresenting the work that we are doing. I want to read the quote from the Canadian Lung Association directly. It states:
Improving air quality is critical to protecting the health of Canadians...The Lung Association is pleased to see indoor air quality regulated under the act.
That is the quote that I have been using.
We greatly appreciate the support that the Canadian Lung Association has given us in our efforts to regulate indoor air, which is the second leading cause of lung cancer to Canadians who are non-smokers.
Ralph Goodale Liberal Wascana, SK
Mr. Speaker, with respect to the quotation that the minister has just read into the record, I believe she is obliged to file the entire document from which she was quoting and the House would be grateful to see the entire context of that remark.
Rona Ambrose Conservative Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB
Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to table the quotes I am using if that is what the member would like.
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
The minister, as the hon. member for Wascana has pointed out, must table the document she was quoting from. If the document is a sheet of paper with one quote on it, I guess that is what we are going to see. The hon. member can table what she was quoting from and that is what the rules of the House require. Perhaps she will indicate what it is she is tabling.
Rona Ambrose Conservative Edmonton—Spruce Grove, AB
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to table my notes from question period that I used that the member was referring to, and I was using again today. It is a direct quote from the press release of the Canadian Lung Association.
John Godfrey Liberal Don Valley West, ON
Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to table the entire document from the Canadian Lung Association.
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
Does the hon. member for Don Valley West have the unanimous consent of the House to table this document?
John Williams Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Mr. Speaker, I was wondering if the document that is going to be tabled is in both official languages because we can only accept it if it is in both official languages.
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
If it is being tabled with unanimous consent, it will be put on the table.
Is it agreed that this document be tabled?
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
The hon. member for Don Valley West may have trouble tabling it in the House at the moment given that there is no unanimous consent, but he can do other things with the document.
Ralph Goodale Liberal Wascana, SK
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege. Today, in response to questions during question period, the Minister of Foreign Affairs made an absolute and unqualified assertion of certain things pertaining to events in this House last Thursday. However, there is compelling evidence on the public record that the minister's assertions are plainly untrue.
Members of this House witnessed the minister's comments and are prepared to provide legal documentation to that effect. An audio tape records those remarks. The media has broadly reported the remarks in question.
That the incident in fact happened appears, Mr. Speaker, on the face of the record, to be undeniable. In that event, the minister has today presented an assertion to this House that is false and apparently deliberately so.
Such doubt about the minister's veracity cannot be allowed to persist. The matter cries out for greater clarity than that which exists today, for the minister may be irreparably compromised.
The privileges of members of this House are thus being infringed: first, by the lingering untruth; and, second, by the inability of the minister, apparently, to be believed. This matter needs an airing before the procedure committee of this House.
Mr. Speaker, if you find, on the basis of the evidence that is now in the public domain, that a prima facie case of privilege does in fact exist here, I would be prepared to move the appropriate motion.
Rob Nicholson ConservativeLeader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker, very clearly that is not a question of privilege. It seems to me, just taking the member at his own words, that he wants an airing of this thing. This thing has been airing for about the last four or five days.
Mr. Speaker, you heard representations on it, you looked into it, and you have ruled on it. I ask hon. members in this House to please respect your ruling. I do not think there is any question about that. In addition, quite apart from that, the minister himself has already addressed the issue.
The members can keep asking this question for the rest of the 39th Parliament, but it seems to me they might want to get on and start helping us get through the crime package that we have put before Parliament which they campaigned on and were supposed to be in favour of.
Let us get on with it, let us push the clean air act forward, and let us talk to the characters down in the Senate on some of the things that they are doing. This is a much better way to spend the time of this House than to come up with something that clearly is not a question of privilege.
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
Mr. Speaker, when the member for Newmarket—Aurora first raised the issue as a point of order and requested an apology to the House, I subsequently rose to indicate that, in the event that there was a disagreement in who heard what or whether there was evidence, the matter be referred to procedure and House affairs which has the tools to be able to ascertain that matter.
Mr. Speaker, at the time you ruled that it would have been necessary for us to rise on a question of privilege.
Indeed, we have risen on a question of privilege. It goes to the heart of the presumption of honesty of all hon. members of Parliament. We have legal sworn affidavits of members of Parliament of what they heard. Procedure and House affairs will be able to make the determination as to what was said, when and by whom. The integrity of this place, the presumption of honesty, and the veracity of its members are at stake.
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
I first of all want to make perfectly clear what has happened in this case.
On Thursday last, the hon. member for Bourassa rose after question period and alleged that certain statements had been made. There was no explicit contradiction of that. The member did not rise on a question of privilege or point of order. He rose to demand an apology from the minister. One was not forthcoming at that time.
The next day, the member for Newmarket—Aurora rose on a point of order and asked for an apology. She said that she felt she was entitled to one because she felt that the rules of the House had been breached.
The ruling I made at that time was only to say that I had no information before me, aside from the statements from the hon. member for Bourassa and, I believe, the hon. member for Ottawa South that they had heard these comments in the House, and that I had checked the record and could find nothing on the record which indicated that to me.
I had not listened at that point to the tapes. I had merely looked at Hansard and I had heard from staff that they had listened to the tapes and could not pick out these words.
I have subsequently listened to a tape and I cannot tell that the words have been said from the tape I heard, which was the official transcript, the video-play of the House proceedings during the time that the alleged offence took place. So we are left with an inability to prove it on the record of the House.
The hon. member for Mississauga South says there are affidavits. I have seen no such thing.
The dispute is clearly there. The members on one side are saying one thing. The minister is saying another. There is a dispute. I will examine the matter again with a view to it being a question of privilege.
I must say that hearing it as a question of privilege is new. This is the first we have heard that it is alleged to be a question of privilege and I must say I have some reservations on that score, but I will look at the matter.
I will look at the arguments that the hon. member for Wascana and the hon. member for Mississauga South have advanced on this point. I will look at the statements that have been made by the government House leader in this regard. If I find there is a question of privilege, I will be back to the House in due course.
Canadian Forces Provost MarshalRoutine Proceedings
South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale B.C.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2) I have the pleasure to table, in both official languages, copies of the 2005-06 Annual Report of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal.
Rod Bruinooge ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians
Mr. Speaker, under the provisions of Standing Order 32 I have the honour to table, in both official languages, copies of the 2004-05 annual report of the Nisga'a Final Agreement.
Government Response to PetitionsRoutine Proceedings
Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre Saskatchewan
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to two petitions.
Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, six reports of the Canadian Parliamentary Delegation of the Canada-United States Inter-parliamentary Group respecting its participation at: first, the Southern Governors' Association 2006 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, July 15 to 17, 2006; second, the Western Governors' Association 2006 Annual Meeting, Sedona, Arizona, June 11 to 13, 2006; third, the Pacific Northwest Economic Region 2006 Annual Summit, Edmonton, Alberta, July 16 to 20, 2006; fourth, the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments 60th Annual Meeting, Louisiana, Kentucky, July 29 to August 2, 2006; fifth, the National Conference of State Legislatures, Strong States Strong Nation, Nashville, Tennessee, August 14 to 18, 2006; and sixth, the National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Meeting and Exhibition 2005, Strong States Strong Nation, Seattle, Washington, August 16 to 20, 2005.
Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 18th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding its order of reference of Tuesday, September 19, 2006, in relation to Bill C-16, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act.
The committee considered Bill C-16 and reported the bill without amendment.
Colleen Beaumier Liberal Brampton West, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-362, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act (residency requirement).
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce Bill C-362, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act (residency requirement). This enactment would amend the Old Age Security Act to reduce the current 10 year residency requirement for seniors to a period of three years for them to be entitled to a monthly pension. This bill would ensure that seniors who come to Canada under our family reunification policies, regardless of their country of origin, would be treated as equals.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Chris Charlton NDP Hamilton Mountain, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-363, An Act to amend the Holidays Act (Remembrance Day).
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to finally be able to introduce a bill whose adoption I have been advocating since April of this year. My act to amend the Holidays Act (Remembrance Day) would honour those who have sacrificed their lives for Canada by making Remembrance Day a legal holiday. I look forward to this bill's quick passage to honour those who have died serving our country.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-364, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (amounts not included in earnings).
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank the hon. member for Vancouver Island North for having seconded the motion.
The purpose of this bill is to ensure that pension benefits, vacation pay and severance payments are not included in earnings under the Employment Insurance Act and therefore will not reduce benefits under the act.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)