Debates of April 27th, 2007

Veterans Affairs

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

The hon. member for Laval.

Status of Women

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, until 1992, thousands of women used to come to Canada from the Philippines to work as nurses. In 1993, the government changed the criteria, forcing such women to come and work as live-in caregivers to seniors, children and people with disabilities. They have become low-cost housekeepers, forced to live in their employer's home, regardless of the abuse they endure.

If women are so important to the Minister for the Status of Women, how can she allow her government to condone this injustice?

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

Mr. Speaker, while the Liberals cut the budget of women's programs by three times, our government provided an additional $20 million for women's programming.

Under our government, women's programs have the highest budget ever in the history of the Status of Women. This means we are giving money directly to initiatives that help these women. We are getting the job done.

World Bank

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, is being accused of using his position to approve a salary increase for a bank employee, who happened to be his girlfriend. The pay raise meant that she was earning more than the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

As Canada's governor of the World Bank, does the Minister of Finance intend to demand the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz?

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

Mr. Speaker, the member will know that the World Bank has a process in place to deal with these types of allegations. In fact, the process is being followed.

We are assured that the World Bank's board of directors is seeking and collating all relevant documentation. Once it is released we will have a clear picture of what is happening. We will be able to make a finding at that time.

Agriculture and Agri-Food

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, increasingly the new government is breaking trust with Canadians, but the Minister of Agriculture has found a new low in taking money out of farmers' pockets.

Last year the minister announced a two year options program to provide low income farmers with financial assistance. Last week the minister changed the rules after the fact, destroying farmers' financial planning as of December 31 so that farmers do not now qualify.

Eliminating planned critical financing is outrageous. Will the minister reinstate the original rules so that farmers still qualify as they were intended to?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question.

It must be understood that the options program mentioned by the member is a pilot project that has provided $141 million to 15,000 farm families. We are listening to farmers to determine how best to support them. And what is the result? We want to replace the CAIS with a savings account program with increased assistance for rising production costs, a disaster relief program, improved production insurance and an improved margin based program. This all comes as a result of listening to farmers—

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

The hon. member for Peace River.

The Budget

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this week in the House the member for Markham—Unionville, the Liberal finance critic, incorrectly stated that budget 2007 did not address the needs of Canadians with disabilities. In particular, he alleged that the new green levy on gas guzzling vehicles would make wheelchair accessible vans more expensive.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance set the record straight?

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

Of course, Mr. Speaker, this is another problem with the Liberals making things up. In fact, the Liberal leader told his party to go out and trash the budget. I guess for Liberals that means fearmongering with some of the most vulnerable in our society.

However, since the Liberals cannot do their own homework, I will point them to the budget bill, at page 46, subclause 68.02(1), which makes it very clear that anyone using wheelchair accessible vans will not be out of pocket for the green levy. This is on top of the landmark registered disability savings plan, the $45 million enabling accessibility fund, and the working income tax benefit and disability supplement.

Community Access Program

[Denise Savoie, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, community access to the Internet helps low income Canadians develop essential skills and participate in the economy.

Last year the community access program was cut by almost 25%, and now 4,000 community groups have been left hanging for four weeks with no information about funding renewal.

Why is the Conservative government stalling to fund a program that assists ordinary Canadians in developing job skills? Will the minister publicly today confirm the status and budget for this important job skills program?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to say that this government has ensured that the community access program will be funded for 2007-08. Once the details are finalized we will provide information to the CAP recipients about CAP operations for 2007-08.

Post-Secondary Education

[Denise Savoie, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the government is going to finalize it some time this year. The groups will be interested.

I would like to mention another subject of delay. It is the end of exam month and thousands of students are graduating with crippling levels of debt.

Unfair sky-high interest rates force students to pay more than 33% on top of their loans and the repayment regime is very rigid. The last time the government consulted on post-secondary it waited until mid-August and forgot students in the process.

The minister promised to review the loan system, but students need fixes now. When will they get them?

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

Mr. Speaker, I remind the member that stakeholders have praised the investments made by the government to post-secondary education in the last budget.

In fact, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada stated that the investments showed the government's recognition of the importance of research to increasing Canada's productivity and Canadian standard of living.

The Council of Ontario Universities welcomed the $1 billion post-secondary education infrastructure trust fund.

We believe in knowledge advantage in Canada. We are getting things done.

Passport Canada

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Speaker, because of the incompetence of the Conservatives, Canadians have to wait up to three months to get a passport. The government knew for months that this would happen, but it did absolutely nothing about it.

On February 13, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said he had recruited more than 500 new employees at Passport Canada. However, on Monday he said, “We hope to have them all on stream very soon to address this bottleneck in the process”.

What are we to believe? When will the minister admit that this problem is the direct result of his own incompetence?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Secretary of State (Foreign Affairs and International Trade) (Sport)]

Mr. Speaker, I remind the hon. member that the Liberals can run from their past, but they cannot hide. It is a fact.

Canadians are having problems with passports and it stems back to the previous Liberal government's inability to deal with the issue then. In fact, it was the Conservatives in opposition who called an emergency debate to get the Liberals to get their act together and to discuss this with the United States, and they failed to do so.

That being said, we have taken this responsibility very seriously. Not only do we have people working 24/7, we are receiving applications—

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

The hon. member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex.

Agriculture

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the environment minister announced Canada's new Conservative government was turning the corner with a plan to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution. What a great announcement that was.

Could the Secretary of State for Agriculture tell the House how Canada's new government is helping our farmers seize the opportunities of the new eco-economy and contribute to Canada's efforts to improve our environment?

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

Mr. Speaker, I remind the member that on Monday we announced the $200 million ecoABC to help farmers participate and invest in new biofuel plants. That is just a fraction of what we are doing to help farmers and to help our environment.

Budget 2007 included $2 billion in new measures for biofuels. This is great for farmers, it is great for rural Canada and it is great for the environment.

Afghanistan

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Public Safety stated yesterday that the correctional service officers have access to the prisoners in Afghanistan.

Can the minister tell us how many officers are there to conduct these visits and how long they have been there?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, we have two corrections officers over there and they have been into three facilities presently. One is just west of Kandahar city, which is the prison facility. There are 838 prisoners there, many of them suspected terrorists. There are 138 in a separate national security section. The NDS site, the national director of security site, has another 40 people there.

The Afghan police are being trained by our RCMP. We have never heard a word of congratulations from opposition members about the good work the RCMP is doing over there, training Afghan police. They have 35 in—

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

The hon. member for Ottawa Centre.

Canadian Heritage

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we were told by the heritage minister last December that a decision was coming on where the national portrait gallery was to be housed. Would it be another gift to the Conservatives' corporate friends in big oil, or would it be invested with Canadians?

Could the minister please tell Canadians what the government's plans are for the portrait gallery? Has it abandoned its plans to hand it over to its corporate friends or will it do what is right and keep it where it belongs?

What is it hiding? Will it let us know today?

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, that is a very interesting question from the NDP. I rather suspect he does not like the idea of public-private partnerships.

I point him to what has happened with respect to the museum in Winnipeg, where the Prime Minister very proudly joined together public-private partnerships to expand the capacity of our government to honour the people who should be honoured through our museums policies.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order arising out of question period. I wonder if the Minister of Public Safety can say whether anyone from Correctional Service Canada has actually seen the detainees for whom Canada is responsible, not just a registry. Have his officials—