Debates of May 12th, 2006

Francophonie

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the previous government never leaked a report of an officer of Parliament.

Yesterday, the government caused a serious diplomatic incident, embarrassing Canada. Francophonie Secretary General Abdou Diouf was subjected to a body search at the airport in Toronto, even though he was travelling on a diplomatic passport. The minister responsible knew nothing about this new diplomatic protocol, when the matter was raised in the House yesterday.

Will Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who will be travelling to Canada next week, be warned about this procedure?

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

Absolutely not, Mr. Speaker. The fact of the matter is that transportation safety is always very important. I have been informed of this incident at the airport in Toronto, which was due to a misunderstanding. It was an unfortunate incident.

My colleague, the Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages, and myself will be taking part in that conference in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government seriously tarnished Canada's reputation by subjecting His Excellency Abdou Diouf, Secretary General of la Francophonie and former president of Senegal, to a body search. Protocol requires a government minister to welcome guests like Mr. Diouf to Canada.

Why did the Minister for la Francophonie not do her duty yesterday? Why did she not greet His Excellency, Mr. Diouf, herself in Toronto?

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

Mr. Speaker, the minister is currently in Manitoba. She has met the secretary general, who is in Canada to attend the ministerial conference of la Francophonie on conflict prevention and human security. I will take that opportunity to speak directly to Mr. Diouf and let him know that Canada feels this is very unfortunate. I repeat, this is very unfortunate.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the minister said this was very unfortunate. Yet, when pressed for answers by journalists yesterday, the Minister for la Francophonie refused to make amends.

To add insult to injury, the same minister claims to have welcomed the secretary general well. First, it was impolite of the Prime Minister to cancel his appointment at the last minute, and then the Minister for la Francophonie was unable to greet him. When will the comedy of errors stop? When will the government offer publicly a formal apology to His Excellency, Mr. Diouf?

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

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is wrong in that regard. The Prime Minister never had such an appointment with the secretary general of la Francophonie. There was, however, an appointment with the Governor General which was cancelled by Mr. Diouf. The Prime Minister and the entire government are very pleased to welcome Mr. Diouf to Canada and looking forward to fruitful agreements coming out of this weekend in Winnipeg.

The Environment

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the environment minister is only adding to her ludicrous statements when she claims that implementing Kyoto will force us to abandon the train, plane and automobile. She was even more ridiculous when she added that we would have to abandon electricity and even agriculture. This is incredible.

Rather than repeating these irresponsible statements, should the minister not be honest and say, purely and simply, that her government's choice has already been made, that it has decided to drop Kyoto and that it does not recognize how urgently greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the minister, the Prime Minister and this party are committed to clean air and a clean air act and a cleaning up of Canada.

On numerous occasions I have approached the Bloc party and the critic asking for input on Kyoto, on climate change and on clean air. Time and time again that party has refused to work with us. We need to take this seriously. I am open to the Bloc to deal with clean air.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would remind the minister that yesterday, we had an entire day to talk to the government about Kyoto.

A recent Canadian report to the UN recommends that the objectives of the second phase of Kyoto not only be reduced, but that they be made voluntary. The report also asks that the deadlines be extended and that countries such as Canada, whose economies depend on the development of natural resources, be granted various exemptions.

Is this not further proof that the minister's true intention in Bonn is to convince participating members to abandon the Kyoto protocol?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, Canada is a signatory to 59 international agreements on greenhouse gases and the environment. Kyoto is one of those agreements.

Canada will develop a realistic and effective approach to reducing greenhouse gases. I hope the Bloc will be part of that. We need to work together to clean up Canada.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment maintains that meeting the Kyoto targets is impossible. However, finding alternatives to coal, increasing automobile efficiency and asking oil companies to make an effort costing them nothing more would allow Canada to substantially meet its target. Rather than making a fool of herself by citing catastrophic scenarios, will the minister admit that there are simple, effective and realistic means of meeting the Kyoto targets and that they only require a bit of good will?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the government is turning over a new leaf on the environment with a commitment to Canadians that the money for the environment will be spent on the Canadian environment. The government will work in collaboration with the provinces and territories, and that includes Quebec, to move toward a 5% average renewable content in Canadian fuels. It is a good idea. It is one positive step.

We all need to work together to clean up Canada.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government has decided to abolish the EnerGuide program, which seeks to improve the energy balance of houses.

Will the minister acknowledge that until she knows where she is headed, it is completely irresponsible to axe programs such as EnerGuide?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, this government was elected to provide responsible government. It is a known fact that the return to taxpayers from the EnerGuide program is only 50 cents out of every dollar spent. A review of programs is under way to determine which ones are effective and which ones are not. In this way, Canadians will have the energy efficiency they deserve.

National Defence

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

Mr. Speaker, we learned today that just like the Liberals, the Conservatives are now flirting with the idea of dragging Canada into missile defence, this time in Europe. Reports indicate that the NATO plans are virtually identical to the U.S. plans for missile defence in North America, the very same plans that Canadians successfully opposed.

Can the minister confirm that Canada's representatives to NATO endorsed initial plans for ballistic missile defence in Europe?

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

Mr. Speaker, the headline in the papers today refers to a study that was initiated during the Chrétien government. The Liberals supported the initiation of the study. It has to do with the possibility of creating a ballistic missile shield in Europe, of which we will not be a part. I think everyone knows the government's position on ballistic missile defence.

The NDP voted this week against Norad. I am wondering now if it is going to vote against NATO.

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

Mr. Speaker, Canadians stopped their government from engaging in missile defence once and I am confident they will do it again.

During the election campaign the Prime Minister committed that any involvement in missile defence would be brought to the House for a free vote. Will the government commit today to hold a free vote in Parliament on Canada's role in missile defence for Europe before the Prime Minister's meeting with NATO leaders this fall, or was that just another broken Conservative promise?

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

Mr. Speaker, we stand by our statements during the campaign and subsequent to the campaign. If we reached the stage where it appeared that we were willing to enter into an agreement on ballistic missile defence, we would bring it before Parliament for a vote.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of National Defence refused to answer whether or not he met with the members of the project team responsible for the truck purchase for the military. Let me help the minister remember by informing him that it has been confirmed that he did meet with the members of the project team.

The minister should stop hiding the truth. He should do the honest and honourable thing by telling the House whom he met with, how many times, and when.

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday twice, I followed all the rules in the past, I am following all the rules now, and I am going to follow all the rules in the future.

I find it very interesting that the official opposition critic for defence never asked anything about defence. He is too embarrassed because if he asks questions on defence, he is going to have to wear the record of the Liberals.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals provided the largest single budget increase in the last 20 years for defence.

Despite his repetition of his compliance with the previous standards, where he came from and all the rules, the fact is that no prime minister in Canadian history has appointed a highly paid lobbyist as minister for a department that he had lobbied. Because of his past, the minister is absolutely in a potential conflict of interest. He is dealing with a $1 billion contract for the purchase of trucks, where Stewart Stevenson, one of the former lobbyists, is the leading--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. I am afraid the hon. member's time expired some time back.

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.

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

Mr. Speaker, now we see why that member ended up with two seats after the provincial election in B.C.

The member talked about the past of the Minister of National Defence. Let us talk about what Mr. David Rudd, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies said about the past. He said:

[The minister] has inherited a capacity problem from the two previous governments. It takes years to rebuild a force suffering from a decade or more of neglect.

Here are another few words about the minister's past. For over 30 years he proudly wore the uniform of this nation and served the Canadian military, unlike any previous minister of national defence.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, most importantly, the Minister of National Defence has worked as a lobbyist. As we have seen, he had a very long client list.

Now we know, because he himself told us, that he lobbied actively in seven different departments for Stewart Stevenson, one of the first companies to bid on a billion-dollar National Defence truck contract.

Imagine: as a lobbyist, he was paid thousands of dollars a month to be familiar with every nut and bolt in the trucks he wanted to sell to National Defence.

Can the minister confirm that he attended all of Stewart Stevenson's corporate briefing sessions so that he could do his job well?

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

Mr. Speaker, I think I have said four times that I followed all the rules in the past. I am following all the rules today. When the new rules are put in, I will meet all those rules in the future.