Debates of May 12th, 2006

National Defence

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I realize it must be embarrassing for the government to have him as its Minister of National Defence. I realize he has to read the lines the Prime Minister gives him, but the truth is that thanks to its investment in its former lobbyist, Stewart Stevenson has unprecedented access to the minister, and certainly has an undeniable commercial advantage, which exposes the government to legal action before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.

Given the evidence of this conflict of interest, will the minister protect Canadian taxpayers by doing the only honourable thing worthy of his rank—he was once a general—and cease his involvement in this issue?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I have said five times, I followed all the rules in the past. I am following all the rules now. I will follow them all in the future. I find it really ironic that the member opposite who was tangled in ad scam should be asking questions about ethics.

Francophonie

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government did nothing to enhance its reputation yesterday in the way it received the secretary general of La Francophonie, Abdou Diouf. One would have expected a dignitary of Mr. Diouf's stature to be received by someone other than a customs officer and spared a body search.

Will the government admit that welcoming a foreign dignitary in this way gives a very poor impression of Canada and calls for an inquiry into Canada's diplomatic services before another such blunder is made?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question.

I repeat that the secretary general is in Canada to take part in the Francophonie's ministerial conference conflict prevention and human security. I will be travelling to that conference today, and I hope to have the opportunity to speak with him about this.

I repeat again that this incident is highly regrettable.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, not only did the Minister for La Francophonie not see fit to apologize to the secretary general, but the Prime Minister, who was to have met with him, skipped that meeting. What a fine mark of respect for La Francophonie.

Does the government intend to apologize to the secretary general of La Francophonie, because an apology is urgently needed?

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

Mr. Speaker, I repeat that the Prime Minister did not have an meeting planned with the secretary general of La Francophonie. A meeting had been planned with the Governor General,but it was cancelled by Mr. Diouf. The government is very pleased to welcome Mr. Diouf to Canada, to Saint-Boniface, which is a very important francophone community in western Canada.

There will be productive discussions with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister for La Francophonie.

Regional Development

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives were elected in Jonquière—Alma by playing up the advantages to the region of having a cabinet minister represent it. During the last election campaign, the current Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec promised that once elected he would implement an ambitious economic recovery plan, which he pompously described as a “Marshall plan”.

The minister started to back off this week by admitting that he did not have the means to fulfill his ambitions. How can the minister explain such a change of heart four months after the last election?

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

Mr. Speaker, indeed, hon. members know that the Economic Development Agency of Canada offers various programs to help the regions of Quebec. Despite these existing programs and despite the good will of previous governments, a fact remains: the regions—many of which are resource regions, I might add—continue to empty out. We are losing our young people. Furthermore, the economic situation is not really getting better.

With regard to the Marshall plan adopted during the second world war, I must also add that $14 billion was invested in four sectors, which generated 30 glorious years of prosperity. I want to apply this example to accomplish more for the regions of Quebec.

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals and Conservatives are behaving the same way. Before the election, they create expectations and when it comes time to honour their commitments, they vanish.

Can the minister acknowledge that he was unable to get new money in the budget and that is the reason why he is unable to keep his promise?

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

Mr. Speaker, the members of the Bloc Québécois are quite good at asking questions. They ask and ask again, but they never get results.

That said, the desire of the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec continues to be to try to find ways to help resource regions, those with a declining population in particular. I am trying to free up, from the $200 million allocated to the department, an envelope to contribute to diversifying the economic activity of regions with a declining population. That is the ultimate priority.

The Environment

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last December, all eyes were on Montreal as it hosted the United Nations conference on climate change. The conference was very successful and Canada was applauded around the globe for its leadership in matters of the environment. This Canadian success was praised by heads of state, environmental groups and the international press.

Today, the minister has confirmed something for us: the Conservatives are abandoning this leadership, they are abandoning the Kyoto protocol and they are abandoning the environment. Why did the Minister of the Environment become, so quickly and so unfortunately, the minister of abandonment?

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

Mr. Speaker, I find it very ironic that it is this party that is working hard on providing clean air, clean land and clean water. It is that party over there that for 13 years had an opportunity to clean up pollution and it did absolutely nothing. This party, this Prime Minister, and this environment minister are working hard. We will keep our promises. We will be accountable.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, our party has nothing to learn from a party that abandons the environment. It is not only Canada's image that is suffering at this time. There is also a cost involved in abandoning climate change, a cost in abandoning the environment, and costs that are linked to public health, quality of life and our children's future.

Considering all of this, does the minister not see that this policy of abandonment is becoming extremely costly?

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

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about costs. The conference referred to by the honourable member cost Canadian taxpayers $40 million. This conference did not reduce greenhouse gas emissions by even a single tonne. In actual fact, when the Liberals were in power, greenhouse gas emissions increased by 35%. What an environmental record!

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment says Canada cannot meet its Kyoto targets. If, on the advice of her U.S. republican pollster, she wanted a made in Canada plan, why then did she cancel a made in Canada program that would have met at least 10% of our Kyoto target? Why has she cancelled an investment of $538 million in Ontario to help close four coal-fired electricity generating plants by 2009?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I have said time and again, this is the party that is going to show action and achievable results on the environment. We will be supporting effective programs. We will not be supporting Liberal programs that did not work.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has written to the finance minister of Ontario to explain that $208 million of the $538 million will be diverted from the coal plants into public transit, making the coal plant plan impossible. The minister has effectively cancelled the single largest initiative to reduce greenhouse gases in this country. That was an entirely made in Canada plan. It would have helped replace coal-generated electricity with hydro-generated electricity from Manitoba and Quebec.

Given the urgency of global warming, will the minister immediately restore all funding to this made in Canada solution?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance and the government have been very clear that we are strongly supportive of the Government of Ontario. The accord reached last May in the dying days of the Liberal government, when the gun was put to its head, will be fully respected by the government.

However, what is odd is for this member to talk about the provincial Liberal government closing coal-fired plants. It made a commitment in the last election campaign to close them by 2007, a commitment it has totally abandoned.

Canada-U.S. Border

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the former Liberal revenue minister claimed we could not arm our border guards. Remarkably, he said it would make our border guards 3,000 accidents waiting to happen.

While the Liberals think of our border guards as glorified tax collectors, the government understands the importance of their position. Our border guards are the front lines at protecting Canadian borders and deserve to be fully equipped to do that job.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety tell us what is being done for our border guards?

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Peterborough for probably one of the best questions of the day.

Our new government is committed to protecting Canadian families and communities. We have backed up our commitment to security by investing $1.4 billion in the budget for more police, border security and public safety. This includes $101 million, over two years, to begin arming border officers and eliminating work-alone posts. We value the work of the men and women on the front lines, and a promise made, a promise kept.

Grain Transportation

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the farmers get a bad deal from our federal government. In 2004 alone, farmers paid $4,329 per car, per year, for railway hopper car maintenance while the cost to the railways was only $1,686.

Will the Prime Minister ask our Auditor General to investigate why the railways have been overpaid by farmers for hopper car maintenance since 1992 to the tune of over $730 million?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, if the FRCC had purchased the cars, there would have been lease costs. I think everybody can see that. Those lease costs would have been added on and the farmers would be paying more money for the service. We are saying, essentially, that the decision that we have taken has saved the Canadian farmers $50 million. That is performance.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Mr. Speaker, a classified document has shown us once again that agricultural producers have paid much too much since 1992.

Can the Prime Minister tell us exactly when the government will reimburse farmers the $730 million they have already paid, and can he tell us if he is prepared to ask the Auditor General to launch an inquiry into this matter?

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

Mr. Speaker, this government has promised $750 million in aid under the grains and oilseeds programs. To date $515 million has been paid out to farmers. This amount—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!