House of Commons Hansard #102 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was identification.
Maria Minna Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Mr. Speaker, those were the minister's words against me yesterday and if they were valid yesterday, they are valid today. I am sorry but they are according to Hansard.
Status of WomenOral Questions
The Speaker Peter Milliken
We are not getting into an argument on it. The minister certainly did not say the member deliberately misled. If she had, she would have been ruled out of order.
We will move on to the next questioner. The hon. member for Hull—Aylmer.
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Government of Quebec has delegated three ministers to try to resolve the crisis shaking the hog industry as the closure of the Olymel plant in Vallée-Jonction draws near.
The provincial ministers of economic development, labour and agriculture are in talks with Olymel and the CSN, which represents the unionized employees, in order to break the impasse. In the meantime, the Conservative government is twiddling its thumbs and not doing anything.
Why is the government not taking some action?
Christian Paradis ConservativeSecretary of State (Agriculture)
Mr. Speaker, it is true that the current situation at Olymel is serious. However, we have repeatedly said that they can count on our support. The federal government will intervene in due time, when asked to do so. Currently, working groups are forming since this is a private matter. Producers may be indirectly affected, as well, and our programs will respond to that.
It is incorrect to say we are twiddling our thumbs. It is time to stop playing petty politics at the expense of the Olymel workers.
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Speaker, when the mad cow crisis shook the cattle industry, the Liberal government did not hesitate to allocate nearly $1 billion to support the producers.
Today, we have a minister whose riding is at the epicentre of the hog industry crisis and he is acting as though this were a trivial matter, sticking to his laissez-faire capitalist ideology.
Does the minister not realize that his abstract theories do not put a whole lot of bacon on the kitchen tables in Beauce?
Christian Paradis ConservativeSecretary of State (Agriculture)
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. With the CAIS program, producers have enjoyed historically high margins. Currently they are in need of immediate assistance. The federal government is working, and is openly saying so, on improving risk management in order to help our producers. Furthermore, by the end of 2006, some $4.5 billion had been paid to the producers. We never saw anything like that under the Liberal government, so they can stop lecturing us.
Pauline Picard Bloc Drummond, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative ministers from Quebec have nothing to be proud of today. Signing the contract with Boeing is a pathetic display of just how little influence they have with this government. They are just a small part in a big machine that is weakening Quebec's aerospace industry. For people who claim to be defending Quebec, this spectacle is not only disappointing, it is appalling.
Did the Minister of Industry calculate how many jobs he sacrificed in Quebec in order to keep his limousine?
Colin Carrie ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised that the member has such little confidence in the Quebec aerospace industry.
Our plan is clear, transparent and fair. All Canadian companies will have the opportunity to work with this. The real people who are letting down Quebec, remember, is the Bloc Québécois because under the Bloc, Quebec has received zero jobs and zero benefits for the aerospace industry.
Pauline Picard Bloc Drummond, QC
Mr. Speaker, everything old is new again. When we are talking about Ontario's automobile industry, concentration is seen as a positive thing, but when it comes to concentrating the aerospace industry in Quebec, oddly enough, the same reasoning no longer applies.
Will the Conservative ministers from Quebec tell us why that is?
Colin Carrie ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry
Mr. Speaker, I can only repeat that under the IRB policy it is the responsibility of the Minister of Industry to ensure that investments made here in Canada are of the highest possible quality. This is exactly what we are doing to resupply our long neglected military.
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Mr. Speaker, Standard & Poor's rating agency identified, not once, not twice but eleven times, the federal government as directly responsible for the reduced credit rating of the Wheat Board.
The Prime Minister and his ministers stand accused of wilfully harming the economic viability of the board, not its directors, nor farmers, but the government.
Does the minister deny this statement of facts by Standard & Poor's, “Standard & Poor's expects that government support of CWB will continue to deteriorate as long as this government lasts”?
Does the minister deny that statement?
David Anderson ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board
Mr. Speaker, it comes as no surprise that the Wheat Board is being affected, because the Liberals, the NDP and radicals on the board for the last year have said that it is going to fail.
The government and the minister have made it clear that the Wheat Board is not going down the tube. It will be one of the options available.
I wonder why the member for Malpeque does not ask questions that really matter to farmers, such as why the main grain buyer for the Algerian government would be saying, “The Canadian Wheat Board's selling price in Algeria is very low, since our country benefits from preferential prices. This preferential price saves Algeria several tens of dollars per tonne purchased. No other country offers us such benefits”.
Why does he not ask about that?
Joy Smith Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
Mr. Speaker, the opposition parties continue their campaign of fearmongering among Canadian women. The misinformation and outrageous accusations are unfounded.
If we were to listen to the rhetoric of the opposition, there would be no money for women under a Conservative government. It is time to set the record straight.
Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women tell the House if there have been any applications under the modernized and renewed status of women program?
Bev Oda ConservativeMinister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women
Mr. Speaker, we have received 56 applications and more to come as organizations, which were previously shut out, now develop projects that will really help women in their communities.
The first approved application under the new terms and conditions is for the Prince George New Hope Society. Their project is to facilitate the exit of young women, particularly young aboriginal women, in Prince George and northern B.C. from the sex trade.
This project will provide support for social services and make a safer and healthier transition for their exit--
Status of WomenOral Questions
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, in 1997 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the fisheries of Canada is a “common property resource” and must be managed in the interests of all Canadians.
The Government of Canada has just released Bill C-45, one of the most sweeping changes to the Fisheries Act we have ever had in this country. It privatizes the fishery, corporatizes the fishery, destroys fish habitat and allows DFO officials to be off the hook for their decisions.
In 1992 the cod collapse cost the Canadian taxpayer $4 billion and nobody was held accountable.
Will the minister now bring in a new act that reflects the real wishes of fishermen in this country?
Fisheries and OceansOral Questions
St. John's South—Mount Pearl Newfoundland & Labrador
Conservative
Loyola Hearn ConservativeMinister of Fisheries and Oceans
Mr. Speaker, those were very interesting comments from the member. Last year, when the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans had the choice of whether to deal with the Fisheries Act or take up the main problem that it should be dealing with, the northern cod in Newfoundland and Labrador, that member voted to deal with the Fisheries Act because it was so important to bring in a revised Fisheries Act.
We brought in a revised act, one that his provincial government supports, one that the Atlantic provinces support and one that fishing groups support. Everybody supports it except him.
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, there is a saying in Atlantic Canada, “when you are walking on thin ice, you might as well dance”, and that minister is doing one hell of a jig.
The fact is that his own parliamentary secretary said this was a management tool of ITQs. Senator Comeau, a Conservative, said in his report that ITQs favour the corporate sector.
This revised act would turn a public resource into the hands of management of the corporate sector of this country, thus destroying the hopes and dreams of thousands of fishermen, their families and communities right across the country.
Why is the minister doing this?
Fisheries and OceansOral Questions
St. John's South—Mount Pearl Newfoundland & Labrador
Conservative
Loyola Hearn ConservativeMinister of Fisheries and Oceans
Mr. Speaker, it would be extremely difficult to dance to music like that. The member is completely and utterly out of tune, as he usually is.
Let me say to the hon. member that the fish is a public resource. It is owned by the people of Canada and managed by us. It will not be turned over to the private sector.
The revised act would ensure that individuals who are licensed to fish that resource will fish it for the benefit of the people of Canada.
Keith Martin Liberal Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are choosing to mothball our navy's refuelling and supply ships two years before the new ships are supposed to come online, apparently to save money. This will leave our navy without a refuelling capability for two solid years, severely restricting their capabilities. That is the government that inherited the best fiscal situation of any government in history and it has chosen to shaft our navy.
Will the Minister of National Defence reverse this foolish decision and enable our current supply ships to remain functional until the new ones come online?
Gordon O'Connor ConservativeMinister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, this government is committed to improving the state of the military, the navy, the army and the air force, unlike the previous government that just did not get it done. No decisions whatsoever have been made with respect to the future of the armed forces.
Everything one reads in newspapers and hears on TV is sheer speculation.
Leon Benoit Conservative Vegreville—Wainwright, AB
Mr. Speaker, for 13 years, while the Liberal government funnelled the money of hard-working Canadians into its pet projects, often through political friends, the needs of western Canadians were neglected. Now we see the leader of the official opposition being critical of the west and particularly critical of Alberta.
Could the new Minister of Western Economic Diversification to tell us how the Conservative government supports and encourages development in the west?
Rona Ambrose ConservativePresident of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
Mr. Speaker, Canadians finally have a government that respects the entire country, while Liberals have continuously ignored and disrespected the interests of western Canadians, and the new Liberal leader is nothing new.
How does the new Liberal leader talk about hard-working Albertans? He said, “All these workers living too fast for the easy money in the north”. These are proud people who have worked long, hard hours to build their communities and they deserve our respect.
What is doubly insulting is that this lecture came from a man who sat at the cabinet table, while hard-earned tax dollars turned into real easy money for Liberal insiders. That is something western Canadians will never forget.
Dick Harris Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order concerning a question of the member for Bourassa earlier. I bring this point of order up because I fear there may have been an intention to mislead the House and perhaps the viewers of this by television, whether they be young Canadians or new Canadians.
In his question, the member for Bourassa used the phrase “whether from Quebec or Canada”. This is important. The last time I looked the province of Quebec was a part of Canada. I am concerned that maybe new Canadians, who would be studying for their citizenship, would be confused by the reference.
Did the member intentionally mean to say that, or was it was an unintentional slip?
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
Mr. Speaker, I have been a member of the Liberal Party of Canada for 25 years and I have fought the separatists, so I do not need any lessons in patriotism. I said that the problem exists all over Canada, not just in Quebec.
However, what I find worrying is that we have a Minister of Foreign Affairs who has done nothing in the negotiations to protect Canada's interests. He will have—