Debates of Dec. 12th, 2006

Telecommunications Industry

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let me tell the minister what happened in the United States when it had the same deregulation. Consumers not only paid higher prices for their telephone services, but they also have less service and less innovation.

This scheme that the minister now has announced, without any notice to anybody, cuts the CRTC from setting phone rates, eliminates competition and consumer choice, and forces rural Canadians to finance temporary discounts in urban centres. If the Minister of Industry wants to play Santa Claus to the big telcos, he should do it on his own dime and not out of the pockets of consumers in rural Canada or elsewhere.

Will the minister admit that he is giving consumers coal in their stockings and a huge Christmas bonus to the telcos with a big--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. Minister of Industry.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I am again going to say the same thing. It is very clear that what we want to do is give Canadians the freedom of choice. That is most important. We believe that individuals should be able to choose the services they want at the price they want. We will not touch the rural and remote areas in this country.

Federal Accountability Act

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, when Canadians voted for change in the way government is accountable to the people, they voted for our Conservative government. When they were voting to end years of Liberal corruption and mismanagement, Canadians voted for our Conservative government. The federal accountability act has often been referred to as the toughest anti-corruption law in Canadian history and was brought forward by our Conservative government.

Could the President of the Treasury Board please advise the House on the status of the federal accountability act?

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

Mr. Speaker, I know all members, particularly Conservative members, will be thrilled this afternoon when at 5:30 p.m. the toughest anti-corruption bill to ever go through the House becomes the law of the land. We will put an end to the billion dollar boondoggles that characterized the Liberal Party's time in power. We will clean up government. We will do what we said we would do to restore honesty and integrity to the federal government.

National Defence

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, today Le Devoir reported on a controversy that has been raging in the U.S. It is over Lockheed Martin's C-130J, the plane that the Minister of National Defence seems to be determined to buy.

The Pentagon's inspector general describes the plane as one that cannot perform search and rescue operations, cannot perform night operations, and has difficulties in cold weather. How can it protect our Canadian Arctic?

Will the minister please explain to the House how this plane fits into his national defence capabilities plan, the plan he still has not finished?

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

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the House that this aircraft meets the requirements of the military as a medium lift aircraft and meets all the requirements, including weather.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that is not the opinion of the Pentagon. It is likely that these planes are going to turn out to be lemons, just like the Victoria class submarines.

The minister has been running a closed shop on procurement. The Minister of Industry met with Boeing last spring in Washington, a closed door meeting, about helicopters. There are only two companies left to build support ships and the truck contract was written so that only one supplier could possibly fulfill it.

Inside the department, it is unclear who is driving this process. Is it the minister, is it Rick Hillier?

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

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should take another acting lesson.

The requirements set for aircraft, trucks and ships are set by the military and go through a competitive process with the defence department, industry department and public works. We have followed all those processes. Whatever the results are, they are done through a fair, competitive and open process.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the requirements identified by DND for the purchase of tactical aircraft were designed to eliminate all aircraft except the C-130J. This is very much like a contract directed to Lockheed Martin masquerading as a competition at the expense of the taxpayers.

Given that the competition in defence procurement always favours better equipment at a better price, why was this process manipulated to limit the competition to one particular aircraft?

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

Mr. Speaker, I have answered this question four times today, but I will try again. The military set the requirements for this aircraft. After a rigorous process, it discovered that the C-130J met the requirements and it was the only aircraft that met the requirements.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, during the committee of the whole debate, the minister admitted that he was not aware of the price we were about to pay for the C-130J. The government's purchase price of $3.2 billion suggests a price of $188 million per plane. Italy is paying approximately $80 million for the same product.

Could the minister tell us why his government plans to pay $100 million more per plane? That is a scandalous $1.7 billion for 17 planes.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have also answered this question previously. The price per aircraft is $85 million U.S. That is what we are paying. All the other costs involve spare parts, training, project management, et cetera.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat the question in French.

Just when the Department of National Defence is about to spend $4.9 billion, without a call for tenders, on planes that even the Pentagon no longer wants, we learn that the Lockheed Martin C-130J has neither civil certification nor the upgrading capabilities to meet the needs of our armed forces. Some experts even say this plane is dangerous and inadequate.

How can the minister justify spending $188 million per plane, when the White House wanted to end its contract for these aircraft, which cost that administration under $80 million each? Why does he want to pass these lemons on to us?

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

Mr. Speaker, it might have been better if some of these members coordinated their questions today. They could have asked some other questions in Parliament. The answer is that the military set the requirements and the only aircraft that met the requirements was the C-130J. The military is quite happy with that choice.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us try again the chief lobbyist, the defence man.

Canada is about to buy expensive flying lemons. The minority Conservative government chose to buy, without any real competitive process, Lockheed Martin's C-130Js as a favour to its buddies in Washington. Not only are we about to pay more than double the original price, $188 million instead of $80 million per plane, but the technology in the flying jalopy has been ruled obsolete by the U.K. and unsafe by a U.S. military auditor.

How does the minister justify spending $3.2 billion for 17 underperforming planes? Why such--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. The Prime Minister has been recognized to answer the question and everyone will want to hear the answer.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence just pointed out the errors in the hon. member's question. We see here once again the Liberals opposing new equipment for our military under all circumstances, just as they did for 13 long years in office when they starved the military. However, it is amazing to what extent they are prepared to go to do it, saying that the White House and the Pentagon should pick Canada's planes. We are going to pick our own planes.

Science and Technology

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a number of socio-economic and political stakeholders from the Quebec City area, and the Bloc Québécois, have come out in favour of the creation of the Boîte à science, a science and technology exploration centre for promoting science to young people. Although the hon. member for Lévis—Bellechasse voiced his support for the project during the last election campaign, the Conservatives voted against this project in the Standing Committee on Finance.

Can the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec clarify the position of his government on this project and tell us whether he intends to support it?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, during the last election campaign, the hon. member did not support the Boîte à science project very strongly and now, all of sudden, she wants to talk about it.

That said, the agency is currently asking for a $500,000 contribution from us to get going, if you will, on their feasibility studies for this $30 million project.

One thing will be clear: if we go ahead with the study, if the Boîte à science is built following a decision in the future, it will have to be viable and not continually subsidized by Canada Economic Development year after year.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if the Boîte à science project has support from the hon. member for Lévis—Bellechasse, can the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec tell us why the Bloc Québécois did not receive support from the Conservatives in the Standing Committee on Finance to ensure the development, when we know that the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa has received over $55 million over the past two years?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, this matter is part of the program of my department, Canada Economic Development. Again, we are currently being asked for $500,000, with Quebec and other private partners. If we move forward, this means another $30 million later and there is talk of operating costs to the tune of $7 million annually. Hon. members will understand that before spending a future $30 million, we have to make sure the project is viable.

Agriculture and Agri-Food

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the president of the Union des producteurs agricoles is against this government's decision to take no extraordinary measures to help Saint-Amable producers. They are struggling with an infestation of golden nematodes that prompted the United States to place an embargo on the harvest, thus depriving the producers of income.

Why is this government condemning producers to watch their crops rot in quarantine warehouses and assume millions of dollars in losses by themselves?