Debates of Feb. 16th, 2007

National Parole Board

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

Mr. Speaker, Canadians would be surprised to learn there is a system in place that grants first degree murderers and sexual offenders pardons. Canadians elected a new government to replace the Liberal Party's soft on crime approach to justice.

The Prime Minister and the public safety minister have expressed concerns and asked for a review of the pardons process. Our government will review and strengthen the criteria of how pardons are granted to violent and sexual offenders.

Seniors

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Speaker, thousands and thousands of immigrant seniors are forced to live in isolation with barely the means to support themselves. The situation is dire for far too many. They must choose between medication and rent payments, and despite the recommendations of the Immigrant Seniors Advocacy Network, there is still a cruel 10 years residency requirement for old age security.

Will the minister finally provide fairness for seniors and will he implement the excellent and humane recommendations from the network?

[Lynne Yelich, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, we are addressing that in Bill C-36. The position we are taking will work very well for the seniors the hon. member is speaking about. This particular provision will ensure that we do not compromise our immigration policy.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that was not much of an answer. The government is turning its back on Canadian seniors.

The Immigrant Seniors Advocacy Network represents thousands of Canadians. It is telling the government that the restrictions on sponsoring elderly relatives are too tight, that they cannot access old age security, and that without assistance for public transport, seniors are isolated and lonely.

Will the minister listen to the voice of experience and the wisdom that comes with age, and will the government meet directly with our immigrant seniors?

[Lynne Yelich, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, I encourage the member to help us pass Bill C-36.

The wonderful thing about old age security is that there is a residency provision. We do not discriminate. People can be non-Canadians or Canadians. Old age security is offered universally to anybody who has residency in Canada. I encourage the member to please help us pass Bill C-36 as quickly as possible, so that some of her fears can be alleviated.

Canadian Wheat Board

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, nothing should be more sacred to a finance minister than the credit rating of the government and associated entities.

How then does the finance minister explain the recent credit downgrade of the Canadian Wheat Board by Standard & Poor's? What steps will the minister take to reverse that downgrade?

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

Mr. Speaker, there is a whole set of circumstances surrounding the Wheat Board right now, as the House knows. The government is holding a plebiscite with barley producers to see whether the mandate at the Wheat Board should be changed, We know that this is a strong entity on behalf of Canadian agriculture producers. We are committed to ensuring that it remains strong.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is not even a mention of the credit downgrade, but the Conservatives are no strangers to credit downgrades. The Government of Canada had a triple A credit rating from 1951 until it was downgraded under the Mulroney government in 1992 for a huge deficit. It took 10 years of Liberal fixing to bring that back up to triple A.

Is the downgrade of the Canadian Wheat Board a warning signal for more Conservative fiscal management and credit downgrades to come?

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

Mr. Speaker, in spite of the alarmist efforts of my friend opposite, the Canadian Wheat Board is in fact in a strong position. It will continue to be in a strong position, particularly within a strong agriculture community with some real choice in its marketing options.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is, the government's attacks to destroy the Canadian Wheat Board are not only hurting the board's credit rating and destroying farmers' ability to compete profitably on the international stage, and not only is the government's incompetence driving importers to question Canada's reliability, but its ideologically driven attack is now hurting the nation's credibility.

Standard & Poor's names the government 11 times as being responsible for the credit downgrade. Why is the Prime Minister allowing his personal vendetta to undermine Canada's economic credibility?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Secretary of State (Agriculture)]

Mr. Speaker, this government's commitment is clear and that is to respect the will of the farmers. We have had requests and we support farmers marketing barley if they want to. A plebiscite is under way with a democratic process and clear questions. Our government will take action accordingly.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

The government, Mr. Speaker, has no respect for farmers or for democratic institutions. Not only is the government undermining producer marketing power, not only do farmers continue to wait for the immediate cash it promised last spring, it is failing to assist producers in the southwest part of Saskatchewan who have experienced two years of severe drought. The previous government assisted drought affected producers under the cover crop protection program.

Does the government not believe in fairness? Does it not care about producers? Why will the minister not meet the disaster needs of drought affected producers in southwest Saskatchewan?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Secretary of State (Agriculture)]

Mr. Speaker, one thing is clear: an unprecedented amount of money will be paid to the farmers. I can assure you that 2006 will be a record year, if we take the BSE crisis out of the equation.

Let us be clear. Our government is listening to farmers and taking action.

Manufacturing Sector

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Industry said that private investments are up. However, that is clearly not the case in the manufacturing sector. In 2006, investments in that sector in Quebec dropped, while in the rest of Canada, they rose by a mind-boggling one tenth of 1%. The minister seems to be unaware that over the past four years, Quebec's manufacturing industry has lost 100,000 jobs.

Will the minister drop his ideological approach and propose a real strategy for industry?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism)]

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of programs in play: provincial overlap into federal and federal overlap into provincial. We are working to streamline a lot of that.

Small business in this country of course is the backbone of the economy and that small engine runs on tax cuts. We are working hard to get a level playing field, to get those tax cuts back in play, and to get the regulatory burden down on a lot of these businesses. We all look forward to that bright new future under our government.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Finance think that cutting taxes for manufacturing companies is enough when they have reported zero pre-tax income in the last two quarters? If they do not make a profit, they do not pay taxes. Is that the kind of measure that will help them?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Secretary of State (Agriculture)]

Mr. Speaker, I should mention to my Bloc Québécois colleagues that Economic Development Canada participated in 785 manufacturing sector projects between 2004 and 2006, creating 937 jobs and now, 1,862 jobs.

One thing I can say for sure is that my colleague, the Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec has brought in measures for regions that are having a hard time remaining economically vibrant. There are programs designed to address that, and things are going well. Requests are coming in and the projects are moving along at a good pace. That is a real strategy. That is not just talk; it is action.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Liberal, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, the Inuit of Nunavut are suing the government for $1 billion because it is failing to address the real life needs of the Inuit. It has been many months, 11 to be exact since I last counted, since Thomas Berger issued his final Nunavut report calling for major investments in education. There has been no action from the government.

Why do Nunavut residents have to resort to a lawsuit to get action from the government?

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, NTI did launch a lawsuit against the Government of Canada in December of last year, but our government has moved forward by appointing a negotiator to deal with the issue that the Berger report has raised.

We will continue to be very mindful of the issues that face Nunavut. Of course, when we look back to last year's budget, we in fact invested $300 million in housing needs for the north in Nunavut, and we are very proud of that fact.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Liberals who liked to talk a lot without delivering results, the Conservative government is taking action to ensure that first nations have the tools they need to control their future, to break free from the Indian Act, and promote strong economies and healthy communities more effectively.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs share with this House another concrete step that has been taken today regarding self-governance for the Anishinabek Nation?

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to announce in the House that this morning the Minister of Indian Affairs and the Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief John Beaucage signed a government agreement in principle in North Bay, Ontario which establishes a framework for the Anishinabek Nation to assume greater control over its own institutions of government.

This agreement in principle provides a practical approach for supporting first nations to strengthen their internal governments, and solidify the political and financial accountability of first nation governments to their citizens. Stronger aboriginal government institutions help attract investment and partnerships that will promote economic development and improve social conditions in their community.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this week the minister told first nations that they had to take personal responsibility for the number of children in foster care, but the INAC website says: “Placement rates on reserve reflect a lack of available prevention services to mitigate family crisis”.

It goes on to say that paying to move children out of the parental home while not paying for prevention services is increasing costs to taxpayers. So, which is it? Blame the parents, or blame the system?

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, in the previous year there was an investment of nearly half a billion dollars in this area. Clearly, it is an important issue to us as first nations children on reserve need the support of the parental systems that are in place.

At the same time, the government needs to be mindful of the way to assist families in situations where unfortunately those parental systems are not in place. We will be continuing to effect our improvements on first nations reserves and we look forward to assisting them in the future.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let us turn our attention north for a moment. A decision on the Inuit lawsuit against the U.S. for the effects of climate change will come down on March 1. The government has turned its back on a deep water port in the north, fails to even mention the Inuit when talking about Arctic sovereignty, and does not support a bilingual education system in Nunavut.

How will the government help working families in the north with climate change and the inadequate education resources?

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Indian Affairs have on many occasions stated their interest in supporting the north. The Minister of National Defence has also done so on numerous occasions.

We are very interested in making sure that Canada's sovereignty is maintained throughout the north and that is why we have invested heavily in and throughout the north. When we look back, earlier last year, we made a $300 million investment in northern housing. We feel that this is a starting point to assist the Nunavut people toward improving their housing conditions.