Debates of Oct. 4th, 2006

Aboriginal Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, it is bad enough the Minister of Indian Affairs gave a sole source contract to his riding president and campaign co-chair's father-in-law, but he said yesterday in the House that it was “a $50,000 contract, not $500,000”.

Why then does the government's own contract notice put its value between $250,000 and $500,000? Is the minister misleading the House? Moreover, why is it okay to reward his riding association's family with plum jobs? Are there even any family members left on the minister's riding association that missed his gravy train?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Andre is qualified to serve as our northern negotiator. Dr. Andre was hired following a publicly advertised search process. Dr. Andre is capable, effective and able to do the job.

The best thing of all, if we could hold the braying, is that his contract is for $50,000. That is 95% less than the Liberals were paying to their negotiator. Put another way, it is 100% of the value at 5% of the cost.

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

Mr. Speaker, that is not what the government's own contract notice says. The fact is, the Conservatives made a promise to end patronage and they have blown it apart. The minister gave a massive gift to the family of his riding president and the co-chair of his last campaign.

The minister is trying to obfuscate the value of this contract and gave it to someone with no experience in land claims. It is time to bring this minister back to reality.

When is the Prime Minister going to take this disgraced apprentice into the boardroom and hire someone who does not spell accountability p-o-r-k?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, the contract between Mr. Andre, as the northern negotiator is for $50,000. He is qualified to serve as the northern negotiator.

That side of the House should terminate the slander that it is spreading in the House. Maybe it is not a surprise because we are pretty close to the philosophical intellectual underpinnings of the Liberal Party: big contracts for Liberals.

[Gary Merasty, Liberal, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development claims to care about poverty facing aboriginal Canadians. However, his actions show he cares more about creating jobs for Conservative friends and cronies. It is not just the patronage contract he gave to Harvie Andre. He also hired a failed Conservative candidate to campaign in northern Saskatchewan.

The minister is paying Jeremy Harrison to campaign in northern Saskatchewan and send out news releases on Conservative Party letterhead while listed as a government employee. Why are Canadians being billed for the re-election campaign of this defeated candidate?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, yet more malignant slander from the party opposite. Mr. Harrison is a respected former parliamentarian. He is someone who is working on assigned tasks for me and that is the bottom line on it.

[Gary Merasty, Liberal, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan has not seen abuse like this since the days of the Grant Devine government in Saskatchewan.

Mr. Harrison has stated he plans to run again in the next election. and the minister is using taxpayers' money to finance his pre-election campaign. This is disgraceful. A defeated MP is being paid by Indian Affairs to spend his days driving around northern Saskatchewan polling chiefs and Métis leaders on what they think his electoral chances are, and this after Mr. Harrison called aboriginal communities “banana republics”.

When will the minister stop abusing the public purse for his friend and cronies, show more accountability, and fire this defeated candidate?

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

Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleague opposite, it does take gall. This, a day after the Public Service Commission, an independent arm's length body reporting to Parliament, identified the political assistants who were hired by Liberal ministers who invented phantom jobs.

I can tell the member opposite, we will be asking some very significant questions of the member for Vancouver South and the member for Kings—Hants, who engaged in what is nothing more than fraudulent political activity at the cost of the public service.

Firearms Registry

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for purely ideological reasons, the government has decided to eliminate the part of the firearms registry concerning long guns. But over five million such arms have already been registered.

If his bill is passed, can the Minister of Public Safety tell us what he plans to do with these registrations. Is he going to delete them from the registry so that they will no longer be accessible to the police or is he going to keep them?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, we want a more effective system. We want a registration system that works. The Auditor General told us that the old system was not working. We want to have a system that works. We want to protect our communities and our citizens.

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I think you will see that this response was not an answer to the question I asked. I understand that the minister is thinking about the question. I hope that he will think about it enough to realize that it would be a real waste to get rid of the registrations already completed.

If he keeps the registrations, is the minister aware that there will be two categories of citizens: those who complied with the law and are registered, and those who defied the law and are not registered?

Personally I think that those who defy the law are as a rule more dangerous than those who comply with it.

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, we will keep all the names of the people who own firearms, firearms that are not prohibited, as well as firearms that are prohibited.

We will keep the list of all the names of those who own firearms.

Sudan

[Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last night Conservative government members acknowledged that there is a genocide occurring in Darfur. The government would only promise action if given permission by the same murderous regime in Khartoum that is engaging in this genocide.

Even the Prime Minister said at the Francophonie summit that we must act to save a desperate population.

Will the Prime Minister act to support UN Security Council resolution 1706, take a leadership role, and get those forces on the ground now to stop Darfur's agony?

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

Mr. Speaker, there was a very fulsome debate last night here in the chamber. We discussed in great detail the need for Canada and other countries to do more with the United Nations to see that the transition between the African Union and the United Nations mission takes place.

We need to continue to work diplomatically to see that this happens, not embark on some kind of a unilateral invasion, which is what the member opposite advocated.

Employment Insurance

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Mr. Speaker, many workers are affected by the turbulence experienced in the manufacturing sector.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, what our government intends to do with regard to the impending expiry of the transitional measures for employment insurance in New Brunswick and Quebec.

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce today that the transitional measures for the employment insurance regional boundaries of Madawaska-Charlotte, in New Brunswick, and Lower St. Lawrence—North Shore, in Quebec, have been extended.

This extension will protect the workers in these regions while the government completes the five-year review required by law.

Fisheries and Oceans

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

Mr. Speaker, today in the United Nations there is a debate going on among countries around the world to stop high seas dragging. Australia has led the way. The United Kingdom and other countries now are following suit.

My question is for the fisheries minister of Canada. Will he now show leadership for all of us in this Parliament and tell the world that we will support a moratorium on high seas dragging?

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

Mr. Speaker, I was exceptionally pleased yesterday to see the direction given by President Bush to his secretary of state and secretary of commerce. The instructions and directions he gave them were very similar to the ones I gave our group that went to the NAFO meetings.

The difference was we went and we delivered on the directions given. We are not only talking about them. We are glad to see that President Bush and the United States are now supporting our direction.

In relation to dragging, if we ban dragging, we wipe out a number of fishing communities in--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Sackville--Eastern Shore.

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

Mr. Speaker, what absolute nonsense. The last time I checked, my paycheque was paid by the taxpayers who are fishermen in this country. They want their oceans protected. They want dragging stopped on the high seas to protect the fish stocks for Canada.

I am going to ask the Prime Minister of Canada a very simple question. Will he now show leadership and support the UN call, support the Australian call, to ban dragging on the high seas once and for all?

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

Mr. Speaker, we are working with our UN counterparts to make sure that we protect the habitat, that we protect the fish stocks, but let me say to the hon. member that we have to make sure our decisions are based on science.

Banning technology is one thing. Improving technology is something else. Let us not cut off our nose to spite our face, but let us make sure that we do protect the habitat and the stocks. We will take the leadership in doing whatever has to be done to achieve that aim.

Sudan

[Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, through you to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I am not quite sure when supporting a UN Security Council resolution entails an invasion. Perhaps one day he could explain that.

His own government said that enforcement action or military intervention is required when peaceful means have failed. Genocide is occurring. Diplomacy has failed and the time for half-measures is over.

Again I want to ask, why is the government being so hypocritical saying that an intervention is required in Darfur now, but it will not support that same intervention?

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

Mr. Speaker, first let me say that Canada is doing an incredible job supporting the people of Darfur. We are contributing over $320 million.

Let me say to the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, I will do him one better. I will tell him exactly what he said last night, “Yes, we should get troops into Darfur. If the member wants to call it an invasion, then it is an invasion”. Those are his words.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, key stakeholder groups such as the Ontario Federation of Anglers & Hunters as well as the Sportfishing Industry Association have raised serious concerns over proposed changes to Ontario fishing regulations. They are seeking regulations based on the best science available and to ensure that their views are duly considered prior to federal approval of these important regulations.

Given the concerns voiced by these groups, would the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans ensure that they will be taken into account?

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

Mr. Speaker, let me assure my colleague that proper fisheries regulations are the key to conservation and management.

We have a philosophy which involves the provinces and the stakeholders as we make regulations pertaining to certain areas. In this case, these regulations are provincial ones being developed in consultation with the affected groups and which will come to us for approval. We are looking forward to their completing their negotiations and we will certainly approve sound-based regulations in which they all have input.