Debates of Oct. 27th, 2006

Budget Implementation Act, 2006, No. 2

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-28, a bill that implements certain provisions of budget 2006.

The Conservative government's first budget, however, fails to address the real needs of Canadians and Canadian families and it unfortunately fails to move the country forward. About the only positive aspect of this budget is that it builds on the eight consecutive budgetary surpluses delivered by our Liberal government. This budget promises another budgetary surplus and I hope the Conservatives deliver on that.

Given the strong fiscal record the Conservatives inherited from our former Liberal government, it is outrageous that the government is raising income taxes, slashing spending by $1 billion a year and excluding any real vision for the future of Canada's prosperity. Let me go through some examples of why this budget fails.

It fails to provide real tax relief for low income and middle income Canadians. Eliminating Liberal income tax cuts in favour of a 1% GST cut has been panned by every serious economist in this country as a plan that will benefit higher income Canadians at the expense of the more needy.

The Conservatives are hiking income taxes, which means that many people who got a refund for the 2005 tax year will end up paying in 2006. The Conservatives are increasing the basic personal amount by $200 and increasing to 15.5% the lowest tax bracket.

This budget fails to address the issue of climate change. The Conservative government has eliminated climate change programs and is abandoning the Kyoto accord. Its transit tax credit is costly and ineffective. It will cost about $400 million over two years and only increase transit use by 5%. This translates to a cost of $2,000 for each tonne of carbon dioxide saved, 10 to 100 times the cost per tonne under our Liberal government green plan.

Furthermore, the Conservatives are planning to finance this measure and their climate change plan, which they are still working on, by eliminating $2 billion worth of existing climate change programs.

Two of these programs are the EnerGuide for houses retrofit program and the wind power production incentive program.

EnerGuide worked. It was helping thousands of Canadian households achieve energy efficiency increases in the range of 30% and doing it in a way that was cost effective. The Conservative government should do the right thing, stand up for the environment and for Canadian consumers, and bring EnerGuide back. Our Liberal government's EnerGuide program supported the retrofitting of more than 100,000 homes for more efficient use of energy before the Conservative government cancelled it.

Wind power is another important component of Canada's response to the challenges of energy conservation and global warming. The wind power industry is responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country, and our government's wind power production incentive program, or WPPI, as it is affectionately referred to, is essential to attracting investment and ensuring the viability of this industry.

The Conservative government has been exposed on this. We know that these programs were working and were cost effective. I am today calling for the government to immediately reinstate the EnerGuide program and the wind power production incentive program. The Standing Committee on Natural Resources recently adopted motions that also called for the reinstatement of these important programs.

Budget 2006 fails to provide a real child care choice for parents. As if $20 a week for child care is not bad enough, low income parents will be losing the young child supplement of the Canada child tax benefit. The Conservatives are cutting $1 billion from the Canada child tax benefit, a program that the Liberal government brought in and which was supposed to reach $10 billion this year.

Budget 2006 fails to establish a real plan to create child care spaces. Rather than honouring the Liberal child care agreements, something that the majority of provinces, parents and advocacy groups had demanded, the government insists on forging ahead with a nebulous plan which will mean that provinces will lose the stable funding agreed to by the previous government.

The budget offers nothing to meet the urgent needs of Canada's aboriginal peoples.

Rather than honour the historic Kelowna accord signed last November—which would have brought about great improvements in the lives of our first nations—the Conservative government chose to leave them behind and reduce planned funding by 80% from $5.3 million to just over $1 million.

Budget 2006 fails to make any significant investments in education and innovation. The Liberal government had a concrete vision that would have helped put us at the forefront of competitiveness and innovation. This lacklustre and visionless budget contains virtually nothing in this regard.

For example, our last fiscal update provided $2.5 billion for university research. The Conservative budget provides $200 million, less than one-tenth of our commitment. For student aid, our plan would have provided up to $6,000 per student for tuition over a four year program. The Conservative plan provides $80 for textbooks.

University students would like to see a portion of the Canada health and social transfer, the vehicle the federal government uses for transferring funds to the provinces and territories for social programs, dedicated to post-secondary education. This request I believe has some merit, provided accountability measures and performance benchmarks can be attached to these transfers along the lines of the 2004 health accord so that Canadians can evaluate how their province or territory is spending their money on post-secondary education and citizens can make comparisons with other jurisdictions. This makes some sense and is an example of a visionary initiative that is totally absent from budget 2006. Eighty dollars for students for textbooks just does not do it.

Budget 2006 fails because it cuts programs that help to build a highly trained and competitive workforce, programs like the training centre infrastructure fund. This fund was an important source for unions and management for the building of training centres. Union training centres are formed through partnerships among unions, management and government. They provide workers with the necessary information and on the job training to continuously improve their skills and remain at the top of their field.

The objectives of this partnership include developing and facilitating training programs that not only improve the vocational and safety skills of the industry but also enhance the employability of the students and meet changing and evolving market demands. In order to maintain this standard, training centres must upgrade their equipment and facilities to provide their students with the most innovative technology. The training centre infrastructure fund provided the necessary financial support to allow these centres to equip their facilities.

Recently, I attended the grand opening of a training centre operated by Local 285 of the Sheet Metal Worker's International Association in my riding. The local had been receiving funding from the training centre infrastructure fund until the Conservative government cut the program. The funding enabled the association to include in its training centre a state of the art welding laboratory and other equipment to ensure students receive the best training available.

The centre provides essential training to students entering the field and to professionals who have been working in the field for years but need to upgrade their skills to remain employable. It also plans to set up a training program to encourage more young people to get into welding. Unfortunately, the training centre infrastructure fund was cut, which means it will not have enough money to offer these programs now.

Budget 2006 also fails because it abandons Canada's forest industry and forest communities by caving in to the American lumber producers and the U.S. government and negotiating a bad softwood lumber deal that robs Canada of forest policy sovereignty. The U.S. will now dictate what forest policies we will have in Canada. The deals leaves $1 billion on the table in wrongly collected duties and it is in the hands of the U.S. government and U.S. producers.

The budget also stands by as our natural resource companies, companies like Inco and Falconbridge, are gobbled up by foreign companies. Are companies like Noranda and Husky Oil next? The government, with its laissez-faire attitude, does not care. I will be introducing legislation that will deal with this question and I am sure this House will have a good debate.

This budget really falls short. In 2007, or whenever the next budget is, the government will have a chance to rectify it. I look forward to that debate.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I note that the hon. member spent a great deal of time talking about the former Liberal government's environmental record. I am really surprised, because it has such an appalling record. I would never expose that kind of record to this House. In fact, under the previous government, the Liberals made commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions by 6% over 1990 levels and today we are about 35% over what we should have been.

How can we be proud of that kind of record? I would ask the member to simply comment on how he can defend an environmental record that was such an abject failure and that resulted in greenhouse gas emissions actually increasing by a substantial amount rather than going down by the 6% that his government committed to.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that our government committed to Kyoto. They were stretch targets. They were ambitious targets. In the last couple of years of our mandate, we were starting to make some progress with our project green.

How can that member stand up and justify this climate change response or clean air response with its intensity based targets, which means that the absolute amount of greenhouse gases, for example, in the oil sands, will increase dramatically? If this is not a sop to the oil and gas industry and the oil sands, I do not know what is.

The government does not have the vision, the wherewithal or the political savvy to do something that is appropriate and that will allow us to reach our greenhouse gas reduction targets.

The government's proposal, which is a plan to have a plan, does not really deal with climate change whatsoever. What we have to do is support our oil and gas industry, but we have to make sure it is done in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way. The government does not care one iota about that.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that member should be embarrassed to stand up and try to defend the failed environmental plan of the government of that day, the Liberal government.

First, something should be clearly said about the so-called Kyoto plan that the Liberals tried to sell to Canadians. Let me rephrase that. The Liberals tried to ram the so-called Kyoto plan down the throats of Canadian taxpayers. The Liberal plan had unreachable targets and unrealistic goals. As a matter of fact, there is speculation that the plan was written on the back of a napkin.

However, the important thing is this. While they were prepared to try to ram that Kyoto plan down the throats of taxpayers and target greenhouse gases in some obscure way, they were quite prepared to let cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax and other major centres be totally untouched in regard to the air pollution and the smog created in those cities on a daily basis. There was nothing in the Liberal plan that dealt with smog in big cities or in any size of city.

All the Liberals had was an unworkable greenhouse gas plan, with no price attached to it, and unrealistic goals. That is an embarrassment for the government of that day. I am surprised at that member. He is quite a reasonable fellow and, I have been told, quite half-smart too. I am surprised that he would want to stand up and try to defend that at the risk of embarrassing himself.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, normally the member for Cariboo—Prince George speaks with some knowledge and integrity. This attack is totally uncalled for.

When I was a young person growing up, if I came home and said that I had tried to do well with the hockey team, but because the previous coach did this or that, it was screwed up, or whatever, my parents would have told me to grow up, to move forward and to take responsibility.

We hear this juvenile kind of attack by the Conservatives, time in and time out, about the Liberal government record. I am extremely proud of it. Our government accomplished so many good things during our mandate.

At one point the Conservatives have to take responsibility for their decisions. They have to move forward. The Conservatives cannot get away much longer with tossing the issues back to what the Liberals did when we were the government. We did a lot of tremendous things that Canada is much better for today, and I say that with some pride and some modesty.

The government is doing nothing about climate change. At least we committed ourselves to the Kyoto accord. They were tough targets. Frankly, we could have done a better job of providing the incentives, the signals and the market instruments to better get us there. The Liberal government started to make progress in the last couple of years of our mandate.

Instead of tossing stones, the government has to deal with the issue and move the country forward. The government is not doing that. It is ignoring the problem and Canada will not be a better place because of that.

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

Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague from Winnipeg said earlier, we in the NDP, and I am sure it is no surprise to my Conservative counterparts, will not support Bill C-28.

It is very simple to understand where the Conservative ideology comes from and that of the New Democratic Party.

The government earlier reported a $13.2 billion surplus, which was applied to a particular item called the debt. We can argue if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The fact is that was done. We now hear from media reports that the government has an additional $6 billion in the first five months of the year. Those are estimates. We have not see it. We are talking about almost $19 billion of extra money.

I have flipped through Bill C-28. I did not go word by word, but I gave it a pretty good glance. I do not see anything in it document that helps veterans and their families in any way, shape or form.

I will give an example. My colleague brought up a letter that was written on October 4, 2005, by the then leader of the official opposition, the now Prime Minister. I will read it word for word and then I will table the document later. I have raised this in the House before as has my hon. colleague from Cape Breton—Canso, but I am going to raise it again. The letter is to Joyce Carter of St. Peter's, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton. She is in her eighties. The letter states:

Dear Mrs. Carter:

On behalf of [the hon. member] thank you for your letter received on September 19. I am pleased to have this opportunity to respond.

You will be pleased to know that a Conservative government would immediately extend Veterans Independence Program services to the widows of all Second World War and Korean veterans regardless of when the Veteran died or how long they had been receiving the benefit before they passed away.

We thank you again for writing and want to assure you that we are committed to improving the quality of life for Canadian seniors and veterans.

Here is the letter from Ms. Carter back to me and other MPs. She says:

Dear [member for Sackville—Eastern Shore]:

Enclosed are copies of the letters, one written to me on behalf of the hon. [Prime Minister]...

As you will see in the Williams Lake Tribune [the hon. Minister of veterans affairs]--

This is when he was up in July of this year. She goes on to say:

--noted that the VIP program actually saves the department money.... Otherwise they would have to go into a home or institutional care.

That is what happens to these widows. If they cannot be in their home, they have to go into institutionalized care which costs everyone a lot of money. She goes on to ask me to do everything in my power to work with other members of Parliament to ensure the Prime Minister kept his word.

We now have Bill C-28 on October 27 of this year. There is nothing in the document to maintain the promise that was made to a woman in her eighties to look after a veteran before he passed away.

I remind my hon. colleagues in the Conservative Party that the Liberals did not do anything on this issue. The Conservatives now have an opportunity. We all wear the poppy with pride and distinction and so we should. It is in honour of our veterans and those who served to give us peace, freedom and democracy.

As I said in a statement the other day, what happens after November 12 when the poppy comes off? These veterans and their families need assistance from the government in their old age. If the government is not going to provide the assistance when it is swimming in money, when is it going to do it? When will the Conservative Party actually put this program in the budget? There are many programs that should be instituted for veterans and their families, but this one program was promised.

The government cannot stand up and tell us to support our troops and our veterans and not institute the policies that assist them when they need help the most.

I remind the Conservative government, and many of my Conservative colleagues, who I consider my good friends, know this to be a fact, that our veterans are Canada's greatest volunteers. They sacrificed their youth so we can stand in this place and argue points of principle in a democratic fashion. It is great to live in a country where politicians can retire and they are not executed. The fact is we can only do that because of the sacrifice of Canadian veterans and their families.

Just a few days prior to Remembrance Day, these veterans and their widows are asking for these programs, which the government admits itself would save it money, yet it refuses to put them in the document.

What are we supposed to tell Joyce Carter and the thousands of women across the country? Do we tell them that the Conservatives are heartless, that they just write letters that are meaningless, that they are taking advantage of the elderly? Of course not. I do not believe the Conservatives are those types of individuals. However, a letter was written on behalf of their leader, now the Prime Minister, promising to do it immediately. Nine months later there is not a single word in the documents.

We in the NDP cannot stand up and allow this to continue. I am hoping either the veterans affairs minister, or the parliamentary secretary or even the Prime Minister will stand up in the House very soon, in fact it should be done today, and announce that the VIP program, as was promised, will be extended immediately, without reservation, for those, mostly women in their late seventies and eighties, who cared for our veterans and who are very proud individuals. It is unconscionable that the government would not do that.

I am offering the Conservatives the olive branch. If they do that, we will support their efforts in the VIP program.

We can go on and on regarding the budget. However, there is another item I want to bring forward. I cannot let it go by because I know my colleagues who sit next to me would question me as to my studiousness on it, and this is there is nothing in the budget on shipbuilding.

In 2001 the then minister, Mr. Tobin, called a meeting of the industry, labour and communities. They put together a policy called “Breaking Through: Canadian Shipbuilding Industry”. It has been sitting on the desk of the Minister of Industry since 2001.

We heard from the previous Liberal member who spoke that the Minister of International Trade, who was then a Liberal, said, “We're doing consultations”. Those consultations happened in 2001. The policy is a very thin read. It is only about 10 pages. They asked the previous Liberal government and the Liberals did absolutely nothing.

Now the Conservatives are here. I want to remind my Conservative colleagues that there is a potential of $22 billion worth of economic activity that would keep the five major shipyards in our country alive for a long time. Just maybe a lot of those Atlantic Canadians, who are working out west, can come back home and work.

The reason why we have so many Atlantic Canadians working in Ontario and out west is, as we jokingly say, we got all the work done back home and we are just helping the rest of the country out. If the government instituted a shipbuilding policy, the yards in Marystown, Halifax, Levis, Quebec, Port Welland and Vancouver would be humming along for many years. The government knows this.

The Coast Guard, the military, the ferries and the laker fleet need replacements. There are $22 billion of opportunity. What is the government hinting at? Free trade deals with EFTA and Korea, which would put the death knell on our industry. I encourage the government to very quickly announce the shipbuilding policy on replacements for our fleets so our families and our workers across the country can go back to work.

Again, budgetary times are times of opportunities. As I said on the VIP and the veterans program, the government missed out on that opportunity. It has missed out on the shipbuilding policy. These are lost opportunities.

I do not know why for the life of me the government would want to proceed with a budgetary process that allows oil and gas companies, some of the most profitable companies on the planet, swimming in excess profits, further tax breaks while seniors, students, new immigrants, people with disabilities, the environment, all take a back seat. I do not understand it.

I simply do not understand the thinking of the Conservative government. I speak to the individual members of the Conservative Party. I do know that most of them really do care about what they do. The fact is that their government is heading in the wrong direction. I ask them to steer that ship back, to get it on the right track.

We are here representing constituents, not the special interests in the large corporate world. Those are some of the reasons we in the NDP simply cannot at this time support the budgetary process.

I must say how disappointed I am in the Bloc Québécois. Many members of the Bloc are very decent hard-working people but within five minutes of the tabling of the budget documents, their leader went out and said, “No problem, we will support it”. He completely gave away the opportunity to negotiate and horse trade with the government. We did that with the Liberals which resulted in previous Bill C-48. I was very disappointed with the Bloc and I would hope that the Bloc would reconsider that position so that we can actually negotiate this thing, change it before it goes anywhere and maybe include some of the concerns that I and my hon. colleague from Winnipeg mentioned.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague across the way knows the strong financial position that the government inherited from the Liberals, and as he mentioned, still the Conservatives have done nothing for veterans.

He also mentioned the string of years in which the former Liberal government had surpluses and that the surpluses were not put to some of the uses that he mentioned. I would remind him that the government of the day had to deal with the debt left by nine years of mismanagement by the Mulroney Conservative government. He has already pointed out that we have had nine months of mismanagement by the so-called new Conservative government. In his own words, they are swimming in cash and they have done nothing for the veterans.

How can any Canadians have confidence in the government when it cut the most needy in our country by $1 billion, a cut to the elderly, seniors, women's groups and the illiterate? And on the same day, the Conservatives took credit for a former surplus of $13.2 billion. How can anyone have any confidence in the so-called new Conservative government with the actions it has taken in its nine months of mismanagement?

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

Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for my hon. colleague. There are many concerns I could talk about regarding the past ills of the Liberal government over 13 years, but we are going after the Conservative side right now.

I thank him for talking about the cuts affecting some of the most vulnerable in our society. We are getting a lot of mixed signals from the government. We got the supplementary estimates the other day from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The estimates very clearly show some pretty drastic cuts to science, health and oceans management. These are the estimates; I did not make them up. The estimates also show quite a reduction in full time equivalents in terms of the people who will be working in the department.

We asked the minister in committee about it. He said in the House and in committee that there will be no cuts to his department. He gave us his own estimates showing cuts and yet he stood up and said that there are no cuts.

The member is absolutely right. We are getting conflicting messages out of the government.

For example, the Minister of National Defence said maybe a military solution is not the answer in Afghanistan. The next day he asked for more troops and tanks.

We just want some consistency out of the government. If we could get that, then maybe we could have a proper dialogue in the country.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest, as I always do, to my hon. friend who clearly supports the military, as I do.

He talked about veterans benefits. I am a veteran. I spent 30 years in the air force and I am proud of it. I would like some acknowledgement from my hon. colleague from the NDP about the veterans charter and the broad based comprehensive list of benefits that it will bring to veterans in Canada.

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

Mr. Speaker, I should tell my hon. colleague that I have quite a file on him in my own office from the days when he was a non-politician and corresponded regarding issues at Shearwater. I thank him very much for those efforts.

The veterans charter as he talked about was actually done by the previous government with wide based consultation of all parliamentarians and it was introduced into law by the current government. Both sides actually deserve a bit of credit for that.

There are many programs that have been left out of the charter, such as the deductibility of the assistance program and the clawback of the pensions. When a veteran becomes disabled and applies for Canada pension plan disability, it is actually clawed back from his superannuation. There is the veterans independence program. There are many things we need to improve on behalf of veterans and their families.

Pugwash Peace Exchange

[Bill Casey, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Mr. Speaker, in 1957 industrialist Cyrus Eaton assembled a group of 22 prominent scientists from around the world to explore ways to promote peace and especially nuclear disarmament.

The first meeting was held at the Thinkers' Lodge in Pugwash, Nova Scotia and included Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein and Joseph Rotblat. This process continues today with Pugwash conferences held around the world.

Next July the Pugwash Peace Exchange will celebrate the 50th anniversary by holding a conference entitled “2007 Extraordinary Workshop” to examine nuclear disarmament in the context of history and today's current urgent events.

Notable participants will include Hans Blix, Nobuyasu Abe, Sergio Duarte, and many others.

Pugwash Peace Exchange organizers Senator Doug Roche and Stephen Leahey urge those interested in nuclear disarmament to put July 5 on their calendars and come to Pugwash to participate in this important conference.

Please check the website for further information at www.pugwashpeaceexchange.org.

Italian Canadian Community

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the members of this House who share the privilege of having Canadians of Italian heritage residing in their communities, I am pleased to welcome the mayor il sindaco di Pizzoferrato to Ottawa and to the House today.

Mayor Palmerino Fagnilli is visiting Canada and the hundreds of Pizzoferratesi who have made a significant contribution to all aspects of social and cultural life in our country.

I know that all members are aware of that special simpatia which exists between Italy and Canada.

On behalf of my colleagues in the House, I extend to Mayor Fagnilli our best wishes in his town's and the region of Abruzzo's gemellaggio, the twinning of our Italian and Canadian communities.

Youth Centre

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last Monday, the people of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville celebrated the construction of the new Maison des Jeunes.

The centre provides an appropriate space downtown where young people can make decisions and assume their responsibilities by actively contributing to the selection and organization of the activities that interest them.

I would like to thank the mayor of Saint-Bruno, Claude Benjamin, and the municipal counsellors for having so wisely invested their time, energy and resources. Thank you also to their predecessors, Jean Gérin, Pierre Filion and Denis Duval, who believed in and promoted this project.

I must also commend the director, Maxime Noël, and his team of volunteers for their dedication to the youth of Saint-Bruno, and particularly the president, Yves Girard.

This is an excellent starting point for these young people, and the opening of the Maison des Jeunes building, which we celebrated last Monday, also represents a wonderful new beginning for the youth of Saint-Bruno.

Harold Thomas Shea

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, at this very moment in Halifax, family and friends of the late Harold Thomas Shea are gathered to pay their respects to this beloved native Nova Scotian.

Harold Shea was a World War II flying ace, a journalist, once a parliamentary reporter, and ultimately editor-in-chief of one of Canada's only remaining independent newspapers, The Chronicle Herald. Harold was a devoted veteran and leader in the Royal Canadian Legion.

Harold Shea was my first boss. He loved people of all ages and stages and stations in life, but he was especially devoted to encouraging and mentoring young people. He gave me my first real job as a rookie reporter at the age of 18, when I did not have a clue what I was doing. He did not always agree with my politics, but throughout my career he remained a supportive friend and a true inspiration.

Harold had a vast network of family and friends. We will all miss him deeply. We will miss him as a friend, but we will also miss his tireless work and his endless contributions to charitable organizations and community causes, too many to enumerate.

On this occasion we express our deep condolences to Harold's family.

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

Order. The hon. member for Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry.

Canadian Forces

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the people of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry are showing their support for Canadian troops by snapping up thousands of lawn and window signs and lapel pins from my office. They are adding their signatures to a letter of support that will be sent to Afghanistan on Remembrance Day.

Corporal Grant Wagar, one of six members of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders serving in Afghanistan, recently sent me this message:

I've been hearing a lot about how much support we're getting from Cornwall...Thank you! There are two basic things here that keep us going--The brotherhood among our fellow soldiers, and support from friends and family at home. The idea of one's community giving half a dozen individuals (as well as the armed forces as a whole) such support is just amazing....I doubt you or the good people of Cornwall realize the effect your efforts and support have on us.

The morale of our troops depends on our support. I encourage all my hon. colleagues to help their constituents show their pride in our military men and women.

Global Centre for Pluralism

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this week His Highness the Aga Khan visited Ottawa to announce the planned location for the Global Centre for Pluralism.

The centre will transform the former location of the Canadian War Museum on Sussex Drive into a non-denominational, not for profit organization dedicated to fostering pluralism and peace. In his own words, the Aga Khan observed that “Tolerance, openness and understanding towards other people's cultures, social structures, values and faiths are now essential to the very survival of an interdependent world”.

The centre will work in cooperation with the Canadian government to engage in research and promote dialogue about ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity with a view to help foster pluralistic values and establish similar institutions worldwide.

Ray Johnson

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this week my hometown of Ancaster, indeed the greater city of Hamilton, lost one of its dearest citizens, Ray Johnson. The hon. member for Hamilton East—Stoney Creek paid tribute to Dr. Johnson yesterday, and I rise today to amplify that tribute to a truly great Canadian.

Known as a gentle giant to many, he had credentials that were impressive by any measure. He was Her Majesty The Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal winner for 2002, Ancaster Citizen of the Year in 2003, and Hamilton Citizen of the Year in 2005, but ultimately he shied away from recognition. Ray was a kind, selfless and caring person to the very core. Ray was best known as a tireless volunteer serving his community day in and day out, touching lives young and old, helping people overcome poverty and addictions, and so much more. Ray did this through organizations such as the Lions Club locally and internationally, the Children's Aid Society and the Police Diversity Advisory Committee, to name just a few.

Ray, your family, your friends and your country will miss you.

Employment Insurance

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I was on the Hill last Wednesday with unemployed people from throughout Quebec who had come to demand a major overhaul of the employment insurance program and to express their disappointment regarding the government's new program for older workers.

The group included a number of older workers from the textile industry in Huntingdon. That was the third time in 21 months that these workers have come to express their despair to the federal government. They have been deceived and betrayed. I saw men in tears that day, expressing their hopelessness because they have nothing left.

These men listened as the Minister of Industry scornfully responded to the Bloc Québécois' questions concerning this bogus POWA. They saw how disconnected this government is from reality and how insensitive it is to their situation.

The Bloc Québécois will continue to fight alongside these workers.

2006 Poppy Campaign

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House of Commons today to recognize the launch of the Royal Canadian Legion's 2006 Poppy Campaign.

While meeting with my constituents in the riding of Macleod two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of helping the local poppy campaign in High River get an early start by purchasing the first poppy from two local veterans, Guido Giacomuzzi and Owen Howe.

The money raised by the High River Legion through the poppy campaign helps veterans in the Foothills region, ensuring that they will not be forgotten. This is also a way to show our continued support for our young men and women who are defending our freedom around the world.

Today I encourage all of my colleagues in the House of Commons and all Canadians to make a donation to the Royal Canadian Legion to help remember and honour our veterans by wearing a poppy.

Rural Mail Delivery

[Joe McGuire, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Mr. Speaker, today I want to emphasize the importance of keeping rural mail delivery routes and rural post offices open across the country.

I come from a region and represent a riding that is predominantly rural. Any break in rural delivery for us would be disastrous.

In 1993 the Liberal government brought in a moratorium on rural post office closures and now it is the Liberal Party again that is standing up to protect rural mail delivery. On Wednesday this House unanimously adopted a motion calling on the Minister of Transport to restore traditional rural mail delivery. Yesterday, when asked when and what kind of action could be expected, the minister could not provide a straightforward answer. His spokesperson even admitted that they do not have a detailed plan, budget date or a target date yet. She said, “It's just going back to what it was”. Canada Post is singing a different song. I do not know who is calling the shots here.

There is no plan by the government and no leadership on this file. Canadians living in rural Canada must have their mail delivery restored. There must be an end to Conservative dithering.

Canadian Wheat Board

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

Mr. Speaker, knowledge is power and this Conservative government wants to empower western Canadian farmers. We gave farmers the power to oversee how their wheat dollars are spent by the Canadian Wheat Board. We did this by including the Wheat Board in the federal accountability act.

In this act we gave farmers the power to use access to information to investigate whether or not the Wheat Board was spending its dollars for the benefit of farmers. We did this by wisely allowing farmers access to information and yet we still protected commercially sensitive information. It is, after all, supposed to be the farmers' money and not the Wheat Board's money, something that is sometimes forgotten.

Shamefully, unelected, unaccountable Liberal Party hacks had the act amended to remove the Wheat Board from this scrutiny. What are the arrogant Liberals afraid of? What are they trying to hide? Why are they afraid of farmers? Why are they afraid of the truth?

Afghanistan

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow thousands of people will be joining New Democrats across Canada to show support for our troops in Afghanistan. We are showing support by rallying for peace. We are showing support by demanding the withdrawal of troops from this search and kill mission. There is no clear goal, no exit strategy, and no prospect of success in this Bush style war.

Canadian soldiers and innocent civilians are getting maimed and killed. The Conservative government followed the lead of the Liberals for this disastrous mission and has squandered $4 billion, with just a fraction of that for humanitarian aid and reconstruction. We need a new approach based on dialogue, rebuilding and peace development.

We urge all members of the House to support our troops by joining our call for peace.

Ukrainian Literary Society

[Ken Boshcoff, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the men and women of the Fort Frances Ukrainian Literary Society have been the source of learning and light not only for Ukrainian families but also for the entire Fort Frances community and surrounding area. They have displayed exemplary dedication in helping to preserve Ukrainian culture through the offering of high quality Ukrainian food, dance, music, theatrical performances and fellowship at the Prosvita for the past 78 years.

The people of the Fort Frances area and Rainy River district have greatly benefited from the contributions of the Ukrainian Literary Society. Of particular note is 97 year old Walter Andrusco, whose guidance, wisdom and instruction in Ukrainian dance, language and song has been an invaluable legacy to the people of Thunder Bay—Rainy River.

I trust that all members of Parliament will join me in thanking the Fort Frances Ukrainian Literary Society for their many years of service to the people of Canada.

Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, organizations have come to shout about it on the Hill. People in the streets are suffering from it. Homelessness is a problem. Why not renew the SCPI? What do people have to do to be heard?

We, the elected members of this House, speak for the voiceless, who will suffer from your uncomprehending refusal to renew the SCPI.

The groups that help these people have come to talk with us and share their concerns, yet this government has turned a deaf ear to them.

No one is immune to mental illness, no one can swear that they will not sink into alcoholism, no one can promise that they will never suffer from depression. No one wants to wind up on the street, yet this government is refusing to tell the homeless whether it will provide the necessary funding for the organizations that help them and that are often their only hope.

The Bloc Québécois is calling on the government to enhance the SCPI, make it permanent and transfer it to Quebec.