Debates of May 12th, 2006

Grain Transportation

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we know that producers need help now, and it is now that we are giving them help.

Equalization Payments

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

Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign the Prime Minister promised that he would honour the agreement signed by the provinces and the previous government to transfer $7 billion to the province of Ontario. Once again, it seems it is promises made, promises broken, for the government. The finance minister sent a letter last week to Ontario pledging to shortchange the province by $3 billion.

Will the Prime Minister guarantee Ontario that it will receive the full $7 billion that was promised?

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the government did no such thing. The province of Ontario was promised that there would be a keeping of this agreement. It will be kept. The money has been allocated. The finance minister has written to the province confirming this. Only the opposition is in doubt about that.

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

Mr. Speaker, the light of truth has totally dimmed on the government side. It does not know what it is. The government simply is not taking the concerns of the Premier of Ontario seriously.

Why is it that other premiers get several meetings with the Prime Minister while the Premier of Ontario cannot seem to get anyone in the PMO to return his call?

The Prime Minister made a commitment to the people of Ontario yet the recent federal budget makes no mention of fulfilling those commitments. When will Ontario see the $3 billion that seems to have gone missing between the election and now?

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the only thing that seems to have gone missing is the hon. member's hearing. In fact, I repeat, the government is committed to keeping the federal-Ontario agreement. The money has been clearly allocated in the budget and it will be delivered to the province of Ontario.

Canada-U.S. Border

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

Mr. Speaker, the United States is moving forward to implement the law that requires everyone crossing its borders to carry a passport. The legislation has the potential to cripple our tourism industry. Recently, both the ministers of foreign affairs and of public safety met with their American counterparts on this issue.

However, the recent federal budget gave no indication whatsoever of funding for programs to offset this serious challenge. Why has the Prime Minister refused to fight this and done absolutely nothing to lessen the huge negative impacts?

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

Mr. Speaker, quite to the contrary, the Minister of Public Safety, the Prime Minister and I took the occasion to raise this issue when we were in the United States speaking with our counterparts. This is obviously a situation that is going to continue to evolve. There is legislation in place in the United States of America. That is the reality that the opposition appears to be overlooking.

The opposition had an opportunity to do something and it did absolutely nothing as it did on so many files. We are going to be in the loop. Our relations with the United States are now at a point where we are being provided information at a pace that we can absolutely deal with this situation. We continue to be amazed at the opposition's questions on this file.

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

Mr. Speaker, I asked a reasonable question and Canadians deserve reasonable answers. Please answer the question.

Why is nothing being done to help hard hit border communities? Time is running out. Tourism-based communities are running out of time and we really do need a clear direction from the government. Please, just answer the question.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would ask him to please just recognize the reality. He was part of the government that had 13 years and it degraded the relationship with the United States of America.

We are involved in ongoing discussions on this issue. We have taken steps already to alleviate much of the problem at the border. It has been announced that we are now arming our border guards. This is an important part of the overall security picture of which the Americans were concerned. We continue to have good working relations on this file and we will be there when the solutions arrive.

National Defence

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on May 10 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, released a statement that it would pursue discussions to put a missile defence shield in place.

Since Canada is a member of this organization, will the government tell the House what its position on NATO's intentions is?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this is a study that was initiated around 2002 with an agreement of the Chrétien government. It has now come to its result. The possibility of a missile shield for Europe is being looked at. We would not be involved. If we were to get into ballistic missile defence, we would have to go through a whole process of negotiation at which point we would bring it to Parliament for approval.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government must be aware that a significant majority of the population, especially in Quebec, opposes the missile defence shield because this project could be the first step in a new arms race.

Is the government ready to participate in a project that would include sending weapons into space?

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

Mr. Speaker, I pointed out before to the hon. member that this has to do with a shield in Europe. We are not in Europe; we are in North America.

Employment Insurance

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last spring an all party committee on EI reform made recommendations to assist workers in seasonal industries. The past Liberal government adopted many of these recommendations and initiated a number of pilot projects.

From this committee, only one party put forward a dissenting report. Unfortunately for seasonal workers in our country, it was the new Conservative government. Now the inaction of the minister on this file will place the benefits of 100,000 claimants at risk.

Why does the government not understand and not respect our seasonal workers?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member should be aware, the government does place a high value on our workers. They are the ones who make us competitive. They are the ones who make us productive.

That is why I was pleased to meet with several of my opposition colleagues to discuss these pilot programs. There are several, but as I explained earlier to members opposite, a pilot program is just that. It is a trial. It is not a long term thing. It is to try to see if things will work before we make them permanent. We need to evaluate them and get the facts.

The Budget

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals dismiss the value of helping families with the expense of enrolling their children in sports activities. The government values the benefit of sports and that was evident in last week's budget.

Could the Minister for Sport explain the value of the sports tax credit to Canadians and Canadian families?

[Michael Chong, Conservative, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Peace River for working hard to ensure that budget 2006 contained measures to help families.

During the election campaign, we made commitments to create a $500 tax credit to help parents with their children's sports and physical fitness fees. Budget 2006 delivers on this commitment.

Effective January 1 next year, parents can claim these fees. This will put $160 million into community level children's sports and physical fitness. That is an average of $500,000 per riding. This is great news for Canadian children, great news for the sport community and great news for Canada.

Auditor General's Report

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General yesterday characterized the leak of her report as an affront to Parliament.

Since we know the Auditor General reports are routinely provided to the senior officials of a subject department, will the government today guarantee Canadians and the House that government members and their political staff are not the source of this leak?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, we addressed this question earlier. We can guarantee the House and the hon. member that all necessary measures will be taken to try to identify the source of this unacceptable leak. Anyone found to be responsible will be held accountable in an appropriate fashion.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is interesting because the Auditor General has virtually guaranteed the public accounts committee that it was not her department.

If the minister is not prepared on behalf of the government today to guarantee that it is not a government member or any of their staff, then it is not acceptable for the government to investigate the government.

Therefore, will the minister today call in the RCMP to ensure we get a thorough, honest investigation on what happened and ensure it does not happen again?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, we are concerned about this leak. The government has been criticized by that member's party as well as other opposition parties for being too secretive. Now what we are clearly concerned about is that confidential information remain confidential and that people who are responsible for leaking confidential information are held accountable. The government is committed to that, and we will act accordingly.

Forest Industry

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian lumber industry has been warned that the framework in the softwood lumber agreement accepted last month undercuts NAFTA. The industry has been told that the U.S. will continue to violate trade agreements if it is allowed to tamper with NAFTA.

Why has the Conservative government allowed the Canadian forest industry to be short-changed by $1 billion? Why is it putting NAFTA in jeopardy?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, I will take no lessons from any Liberal in the House on negotiating or timeliness. The previous Liberal government failed the softwood lumber industry. This Prime Minister and this government succeeded in returning $4 billion in duties and ensuring that we have stable and predictable access.

Agriculture

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the cooperative system is a fundamental element of the Canadian rural landscape on which farmers rely.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food tell the House what the government will do to promote the sustainability of the cooperative system in the agriculture sector?

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent question.

In its latest budget, the government has introduced a measure to treat agricultural cooperative dividends as a tax deferral. This measure will benefit many Canadian farmers who are members of agricultural cooperatives.