Debates of Nov. 21st, 2006

Taxation

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister should know that on April 12 of this year, in the National Assembly, the Quebec Minister of Finance, Mr. Audet, asked for $3.8 billion, which is a figure in the same ballpark as what the Bloc Québécois is asking for.

I have provided the Minister of Finance with the recommendations by the Bloc Québécois regarding the improvements that need to be made to management in the federal government. As I said earlier, those improvements would save him $15 billion over three years.

Given these facts, how could the Minister of Finance say that he does not have the resources to honour the promise his Prime Minister made to Quebeckers?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, because of all this confusion, we are starting to wish that the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, who was the finance critic, were still with us. What we are seeing here once again is the dithering practised by the Bloc Québécois, which is incapable of deciding on a figure.

Last weekend we heard Mr. Léonard talking about $15.9 billion, and the member has just told us $15 billion.

Once again, who is telling the truth? Are they going to provide us with these conditions? Are they going to provide us with this information?

Afghanistan

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is more very serious evidence today that our mission in Afghanistan is seriously off track, that we are on the wrong track for the country. We learned today that our elite soldiers, part of the joint task force, are abandoning the Canadian Forces and taking on lucrative mercenary contracts in Iraq. At the same time, we learned from our commanders that they are having to call up more and more reservists to backfill for the inadequate preparations that were made to accommodate our obligations in Afghanistan.

When will the Prime Minister finally realize that this Liberal-Conservative mission in Afghanistan is on the wrong track and is the wrong mission for Canada?

[Gordon O'Connor, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the mission in Afghanistan is on the right track.

We also have no problem recruiting people for our special forces, contrary to what the member is alleging. When we took over, the armed forces had been dramatically reduced; the training system was in great difficulty. What we are doing now is we are being innovative. We are using community colleges, we are using training institutions, we are using retired military to help train in the skills of the military, but everybody who is trained by these means must be fully qualified before they are accepted and tested.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, all this shows that we were completely unprepared as a country to be involved in this mission. In fact that is what our commanders advised the Liberals when they were contemplating this idea in the first place. Our generals told us that they wanted nothing to do with this mission at the time.

What we see now is a scrambling by the government to try to salvage a mission that was wrong-headed in the first place. At the same time, we have experts telling us that we are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people as well as our international reputation.

When is the Prime Minister going to realize that we are on the wrong track and rethink it, get us onto a--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The right hon. the Prime Minister.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member that the leadership of the military and the men and women in uniform are fully committed to their jobs and to this mission.

What I wonder is when the NDP will realize it is on the wrong track in opposing a mandate of the United Nations, when it is on the wrong track in being against the democratically elected government of Afghanistan, and when it is on the wrong track in not backing our men and women in uniform.

Health

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

Mr. Speaker, the minority Conservative government has failed Canadians on reducing health care wait times.

A report today on cancer patients shows how they are taking out loans, racking up financial debt and worrying about financial ruin, all in an effort to pay for their treatment that they so desperately need. The Conservatives promised to reduce wait times for cancer patients, but instead, these patients are waiting longer than ever.

Will the minister explain why he has shown no action on health care, has not taken any action to reduce wait times? Why did the Conservatives make cancer patients a promise that they knew they would not keep?

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

Mr. Speaker, in fact, just yesterday I announced Canada's first wait time guarantee for prenatal care among first nations where we need to get better care for moms and kids. That means the government is taking leadership which that party, when it was in power, did not do.

Under her party in government, wait times in this country doubled from, to be precise, 9.3 weeks in 1993 to 17.8 weeks in 2003. That is her party's record. Our government has a record of action and we will pursue that initiative.

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

Mr. Speaker, we on this side of the House are proud of our record on health care because we delivered results.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. The hon. member for Brampton--Springdale has the floor to put a question.

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

Mr. Speaker, the minister does not seem to realize that this initiative is a drop in the bucket. It actually represents a step backward because with the Kelowna accord, under the Liberal government, we invested $1.3 billion for aboriginal health.

Canadians were promised action and leadership, and now Canadians have been told to take a number while the minister figures out his action plan. It has been almost a year. The delivery is long overdue. Canadians are tired of waiting. They want a prescription for the wait time guarantee--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. Minister of Health.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have to inform the hon. member that the whole purpose of wait times is not to double them but to reduce them. The hon. member has nothing to be proud of in terms of her government's record.

Our government is acting. Our government announced the first wait time guarantee in the country. We took leadership in our own sphere of competency. We are helping those most vulnerable, moms and kids on first nations reserves. That is the way to start. We have gone one step further than the Liberals ever went and we are proud of it.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives promised to establish a policy on wait times for heath care. Well, 10 months later, we are still waiting.

The commitment to reduce wait times is no longer among the five little priorities of the government. They have simply crossed it off the list, hoping that Canadians would forget it.

We learned today that wait times for cancer treatment are increasing dramatically.

Will the Minister of Health admit that his promise was nothing but empty words and that he had no intention of implementing a real policy for reducing wait times for cancer treatment?

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

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I announced an action plan directed to First Nations living on reserves. For the first time, it deals with a wait time guarantee in Canada. That is action.

The Liberal government had made promises, but no action had been taken to reduce wait times. Our government is a government of action and we have acted for the good of Canadians concerning wait times. We are—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Pierrefonds—Dollard.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to hear the minister himself say that he has no action plan.

The Conservatives have been in power for almost a year and they must take the blame alone. In fact, the only thing they can boast about in terms of health care is that they inherited our plan. Yes, we had signed a 10-year plan to improve health care. We had invested more than $41 billion in that plan, of which $5.5 billion was directed at reducing wait times in cooperation with the provinces and territories.

Why is there this delay? The plan is in place, the money is available and the report by Dr. Postl speaks for itself. Is the minister insensitive to the concerns of Canadians?

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

Mr. Speaker, that is not it at all. It is important to act and to show leadership, but we must act with the provinces and territories toward a national action plan.

Of course, it is also our plan, but the previous Liberal government did not have an action plan. That is nothing but rhetoric, there is no plan. Now, Canada does have a plan and we are proud of the wait times for all Canadians.

The Environment

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in spite of the federal government's objections, the Nairobi summit gave the international community the opportunity to find out that Quebec can reach the Kyoto protocol targets and that the Quebec government has a plan to do just that.

Given that the federal government collects and manages a significant portion of the taxes paid by Quebeckers, how can it refuse to pay its share and make Quebeckers take on the full cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their province?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: Canada alone signed the Kyoto protocol. Quebec and the other provinces do not have targets under the protocol. There are 11 national targets for the whole country, and all of the provinces are welcome to work with our government to reach the Kyoto protocol targets.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the only specific target the federal government has set for achieving its greenhouse gas emissions reduction objectives is the year 2050.

That being the case, are we to understand that during future meetings of Kyoto protocol signatories, Canada will continue to weasel out of its responsibility by putting off greenhouse gas emissions reduction indefinitely so it can avoid meeting any specific, absolute, short-term goals?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

In fact, Mr. Speaker, that is incorrect. It is false. Our government is working right now to establish short term targets so that we can actually make progress toward our international obligations beyond 2012.

One of the big topics of discussion in Nairobi was encouraging all countries that have targets to take on a target for mid-century, by 2050. Luckily, I was able to inform the international community that Canada has already done that.

Foreign Affairs

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Palestinian population is already in a hopeless situation that became even worse with the election of Hamas, since humanitarian aid is no longer arriving at its intended destination.

Could the Prime Minister not promote an international conference that would begin implementing a structure to allow humanitarian aid to get to the Palestinian people?