Debates of Oct. 25th, 2006

Softwood Lumber

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I asked a direct question concerning why two advisors to the Prime Minister broke the rules and failed to disclose their expenses. I refer to a secret trip to Washington by the chief of staff, Brodie, and the senior adviser, Burney, to sellout Canada's softwood industry.

The minister's response was to hide from the question.

Now that the President of the Treasury Board has his marching orders from the PMO, will he finally answer? Why were the required proactive disclosures not filed? Who paid for this stealth trip? Why were the Treasury Board rules broken? What exactly is the Prime Minister trying to hide?

[John Baird, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I understand they did not claim any expenses, which is a rather foreign concept to members of the Liberal Party.

Let us look at the Liberal Party's hidden agenda on accountability. It wants to increase the role of big money in politics. It wants to reduce access to information available to Canadians. It wants to continue the political patronage of our public service. Most galling of all is that it wants to water down the role of our new Ethics Commissioner. It actually wants to eliminate retroactive access to information.

Maybe the member opposite could stand in his place and explain the secret hidden agenda of--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Ajax—Pickering.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there was a trip and it is required that a proactive disclosure be filed. It has not been filed.

The minister's bafflegab makes me think he is trying to make Rick Mercer's audio challenge two weeks in a row.

The President of the Treasury Board is again ducking the question. Maybe he does not understand accountability so I will ask his boss.

Would the Prime Minister tell us who paid for this stealth trip to the White House for his chief of staff? Why did they fail to provide the required proactive disclosures? Why is the minister refusing to answer questions? When will we finally get some answers?

[John Baird, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, paying one's own freight is obviously a concept that is unfamiliar to the Liberal Party. I have answered the question about as directly as I can.

What I want to know is why the Liberal Party of Canada here in the House of Commons is hiding behind the unelected Liberal Senate to do its dirty work to limit access to information for the first time in Canadian history. What do the Liberals have to hide at the Canadian Wheat Board? The member should stand in his place and tell that to Canadians and to hard-working farmers in western Canada.

Health

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Health justified his decision to authorize the use of breast implants by stating that more than 65,000 pages of documents had been studied before licences had been issued.

How can he be so naive when we know that nearly all these documents were provided by Mentor and Inamed, the two companies that sell implants?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Health and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned yesterday that there are more than 2,500 scientific articles on this topic. A number of scientific experts have given their opinion, and I support this science based decision.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister even added that all the researchers trust the newly approved breast implants.

How can he be satisfied with so little, when the Health Canada officials who met with me were not even able to name me single independent researcher? All the researchers they named were associated with the two companies that produce the breast implants.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Health and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, this issue was discussed by experts. Obviously scientific experts do not all share the same opinion.

However, I want to reassure the House: the use of breast implants is subject to strict conditions, and these conditions must be met. This is a Health Canada decision, and I support it.

Intellectual Property

[Belinda Stronach, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the World Intellectual Property Organization released its annual report containing a bleak measure of Canada's international competitiveness.

Patents show our strength at turning our research and development into commercial success and indicate where the new jobs will come from.

Right now Japan, the United States, China, Russia, India, Sweden and Brazil all have better records in terms of patents filed. Canada ranks 30th in the world.

Will the government introduce a competitiveness strategy in its economic update and will it include a measure to improve Canada's record of performance on patents?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to announce in this House that, in a few weeks, the government will fulfill another promise: to consult scientists about a new science and technology platform. Following these consultations, we will have a new strategy that will become a reality in the next budget.

International Cooperation

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, since the Bloc does not know whether it supports the mission in Afghanistan or not, can the Minister of International Cooperation tell the House what she accomplished during her recent tour to Afghanistan?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I would like to remind the House that Afghanistan receives more Canadian international aid than any other country. It was therefore essential for me to go there in person to work with development specialists, meet with Afghan government officials and, of course, support our mission in Afghanistan.

During my tour, I also launched new projects for humanitarian aid, women and girls and infrastructure, especially in Kandahar. These new projects add up to more than $40 million. We are putting our words into action.

International Trade

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government is ignoring a crisis in the manufacturing sector.

Despite thousands of jobs being lost in Ontario and Quebec, the current Minister of International Trade is pursuing a Korea trade deal that will see more lost jobs in Windsor, Oshawa, St. Catharines, Dorval and Montreal, with specific impacts on the auto sector.

I would like to know from the minister, while he was a Liberal, he flip-flopped and did not table an auto policy like he said he would. Did he leave it behind in his desk? Did he lose it on the floor? Or, is it true that the current Minister of Industry killed that, just like he killed his aerospace file?

[David Emerson, Conservative, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics]

Mr. Speaker, we continue to have discussions on trade issues with Korea and with a number of other countries.

The government recognizes that it has been five years since the Government of Canada entered into a bilateral free trade agreement. It is time we started to get our trade act together, and that is what we are doing.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the minister started the softwood sellout file as a Liberal and he finished it as a Conservative. My fear is that he is going to hang the auto industry out the same way.

Why is it we are watching mills close, textile factories close, auto parts companies close, and other types of manufacturing in this country disappear? Where is the plan from the Minister of Industry? Did he kill the plan, or is he going to table one? For a change, we want action, not just words.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, as everybody knows, it is the mark of this government to act, so yes, we will act. I am going to have consultations with the automobile sector this week. Tomorrow I am going to be in Toronto and we are going to have consultations. We are going to listen and we will act.

Canada-U.S. Relations

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is mid-term election time in the United States and a republic television attack ad has outraged many Canadians. The ad says in part, “Let Canada take care of North Korea, they're not busy”. Is this what Canadians should be expecting as the outcome of cozying up to Mr. Bush by the Prime Minister and his Conservatives?

I have a question for the Prime Minister. Will he call his mentor, President Bush, and demand this insulting ad be pulled from the airwaves immediately, and stand up for Canada, but for real this time?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the country has greatly benefited by improved relations with the United States as well other countries when it came to important and contentious trade irritants and other issues.

I would ask the hon. member to perhaps cast his mind back to some of the attack ads that were run in the last election campaign by his party, directed at people here in his own country, before he starts making these aspersions.

Health

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in our country, resulting in the loss of over 75,000 lives per year. With the previous government, there was never a pan-Canadian strategy to study and address this extremely important issue. Can the Minister of Health update the House on our government's plan on cardiovascular disease?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Health and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that during the past weekend I have announced, on behalf of Canada's new government, that we will invest $7.4 million in the next two years, and an ongoing amount of $5.2 million thereafter, to develop a program for cardiovascular issues and to coordinate prevention and treatment.

After 13 years of neglect under a Liberal government with no heart, Canada's caring Conservative new government is delivering on a commitment made to Canadians and their hearts.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, for years we in the NDP have asked the previous Liberal government to do something about trust agreements on the east coast when it comes to the buying up of lobster licences by corporations. It did absolutely nothing. Now for the last nine months we have been asking the current fisheries minister to do the exact same thing with the same result, absolutely nothing.

Lobster licences are being bought up by the corporate sector in direct contravention of DFO's own operator principles. When is the minister going to stand up in the House, put a stop to the corporatization of the lobster licences, and give back the independence to the fishermen on the east coast?

[Loyola Hearn, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, let me assure the member that ensuring that the inshore fishers in Atlantic Canada are independent is one of our top priorities. I say to him that doing things does not cause a problem whatsoever. It is undoing things that really cause the problem, but to quote Mike Duffy, with apologies to him, I say to the hon. member, just trust me.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

I would like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in the gallery of Mr. Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!