Debates of Feb. 1st, 2007

Afghanistan

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, let me tell the House what this mission is about. It is about the best traditions of this country: brave men and women putting on the Canadian uniform, defending freedom and democracy, and protecting the rights of people around the world. That is what they are doing. Our job is to support them. The deputy leader of the Liberal Party knows that, and he should tell his leader that.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has committed $100 million for development in Afghanistan, but this House remains completely in the dark about how those funds are being spent.

Can the Minister of International Cooperation tell us what accountability measures are in place to ensure that the funds dedicated to assistance and reconstruction are being spent wisely and for the direct benefit of the Afghan people?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, as we know, at the request of President Karzaï, the Government of Canada has made a commitment to assist in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

I would like to invite the member to consult the very complete Internet site that we put in place yesterday. He will find not only the amounts invested in Afghanistan, but also the results and the progress that we have made since we, on this side, committed $100 million per year.

Aerospace Industry

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the Boeing file, the Minister of Industry affirmed that the Quebec aeronautical industry could easily get its share of contracts and that the government would ensure that the contracts resulted in some good technology transfers.

Is it naiveté that causes the Minister of Industry to talk this way and to think that Boeing, all of a sudden, by chance and of its own free will, would prefer to give contracts to its Quebec competitors rather than its subsidiaries and partners in the rest of Canada? Is this naiveté or bad faith?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this government is rebuilding the Canadian Forces. There will be benefits for all regions across Canada.

We can see the attempts by the Bloc Québécois to pit Canada’s regions against one another where this contract is concerned. It is making these attempts for one single reason, namely to hide the true problems of the sovereignist movement.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if demanding justice and fairness means dividing Canada, well, draw your own conclusions.

Canadian automobile workers are publicly calling for the Quebec ministers in this government to intervene so that the same measures put in place to protect the automobile industry in Ontario are used when it is time to protect the aerospace industry.

What are those ministers doing?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to be able to answer my colleague’s question. What are we doing? We have policies that mean we are responding to the needs of the military, of our soldiers.

Furthermore, there will be over $13 billion in economic spin-offs in Canada, and this will be good for Canadian aeronautical companies and the economy of Canada. We should be proud.

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government is about to do a great injustice to the aeronautical industry in Quebec by refusing to force Boeing to ensure that 60% of the economic benefits of the C-17 contract go to Quebec.

The Minister of National Defence is going even further. Can he confirm for us that the government has decided to finance aerospace contracts through cuts to contracts that have already gone to Quebec for multi-mission vehicles, as was stated yesterday and today in the Ottawa Citizen?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, this gives me an opportunity to speak up and tell the House about the benefits that will flow from these contracts. I do not think that the opposition understands these benefits very well and how useful they will be for Canadian companies.

We are going to help Canadian high-tech and aerospace companies benefit from advanced technologies that will enable them to remain competitive on the international scene. That is what we are doing.

I am proud to be part of this government, which keeps its word.

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of skating around in what the Minister of National Defence had to say, as well as the other ministers from Quebec, in regard to these major investments in military equipment. Based on the information in the Ottawa Citizen, the national defence minister is just adding insult to injury by depriving Quebec of both aeronautical contracts and military equipment contracts.

What are the Quebec ministers waiting for to stand up, speak out and defend Quebec?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, that is what we are doing. We are standing up at the decision-making table in this government.

That is something the Bloc Québécois can never do. It will never be able to stand up, defend Quebec’s interests and act on behalf of Quebeckers because it is forever in the opposition.

Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

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

Mr. Speaker, the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development came as an unpleasant surprise. Ms. Gélinas provided a non-partisan voice here on matters of the environment. Her studies were always based on science and fact. And now she is gone.

Will the Prime Minister support a proposal, an amendment to the legislation, proposed by the NDP to ensure that the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development will be a senior public servant who answers directly to the House and its members, and to no one else?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the government regrets Ms. Gélinas' departure. At the same time, legislation exists and the legislation is clear: the position of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is within the Office of the Auditor General, but both report directly to Parliament.

We are certainly willing to study the NDP leader's proposals.

The Environment

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

Mr. Speaker, we will see if there is action forthcoming.

When we watch this environment file, when we watch Mr. denial and Mr. delay bickering back and forth endlessly across this chamber citing all kinds of quotes, we know that Canadians are suffering and global science will tell us tomorrow that the entire world is suffering, and is suffering more and more.

Now we learn that greenhouse gas emissions are rising by more than 90% from coal-fired generation plants in Ontario. I want the Prime Minister to stop hiding behind Liberal failures. The Liberals promised to close those plants and they did not.

What is the Prime Minister going to do? Is he going to put limits on pollution from coal in Ontario?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the NDP will know that the present Government of Ontario made a commitment to the people of Ontario some years ago to close down the coal-fired plants. I think concern about those plants is widespread. We are going to be engaging the Government of Ontario and others in the next few weeks to make progress on this and other related files.

Foreign Affairs

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, former Conservative prime minister Joe Clark said he was worried about Canada's foreign policy moving closer to that of the U.S.

Mr. Clark commented that this exclusive alignment, together with a lack of priorities for developing countries and the deterioration of our relations with China, are undermining the credibility of our country.

When will the Conservatives stop moving closer to U.S. foreign policy and return to an independent Canadian foreign policy?

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

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Clark, of course, has a distinguished record as a former prime minister and a foreign minister. He was a member of the Conservative government of the day that signed the free trade agreement and the historic acid rain treaty.

Those are landmark accomplishments that demonstrate the utility of working in a respectful businesslike way with the United States of America to achieve more for the citizens of both countries.

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on most international files, the Prime Minister has introduced himself to the world as an ideological ghost of President Bush. Mr. Clark warns that unless Canada's foreign policy remains independent we will debase our international currency.

Does the foreign affairs minister agree that Canada has now reached the point that his former leader says is alarming due to the near exclusive relationship that the Prime Minister enjoys with President Bush?

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

Mr. Speaker, I will not get into a discussion of ghosts of Gomery, the gun registry or the HRDC scandals, but what I will say is that Mr. Clark, like most former prime ministers and most former ministers of foreign affairs, has very strong, passionate opinions about important issues of the day.

We respect those opinions, but our Prime Minister and this government are moving forward with an agenda that is forwarding the interests of this country in a very meaningful way and making our mark on the international stage with distinction.

Guantanamo Bay

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in a similar vein, in the last five years, the American detention centre at Guantanamo Bay has lost its legitimacy. Hundreds have been imprisoned but only a few have ever been charged with a crime. None know when or even if their imprisonment will end. Basic principles of human rights are flagrantly abused in ways that tell others it is acceptable to ignore the rights of their citizens.

Why does the government allow its perennial fear of offending the Bush administration from doing what the world calls out for, including former Prime Minister Clark, which is the closure of this unacceptable detention centre?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that this would come from a former foreign affairs minister because this took place very much under his watch. I do not recall him being on record raising the concerns that he is now raising in opposition.

However, having said that, we have made these views known. We know that there is intention in the near future to see this facility closed. Clearly, Canada has a grave concern about any human rights violations that take place. We have been given assurances that all proper humanitarian efforts are made to protect the rights of detainees.

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, five years is different from the immediacy of what happened some years ago when we were there and we had to deal with it, and the government knows that.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Genuine security is based on human rights--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. We must have some order. The member for Toronto Centre could not be sitting much closer to the Chair but with all the noise I am having real trouble hearing him. I would ask hon. members to calm down and have their discussions about the questions and answers outside later. It is far more stimulating there than in here.

The hon. member for Toronto Centre.