Debates of May 30th, 2007

Access to Information

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

Mr. Speaker, first the Conservatives broke their promise to reform the Access to Information Act. Then when they tabled their discussion paper, the former information commissioner said it would make government less transparent, not more. Now, when the new commissioner calls the Prime Minister's own department, the Privy Council Office, the worst access to information offender, something is wrong.

Will the Prime Minister admit that he runs the most secretive government this country has ever seen?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely a bunch of nonsense.

My colleague, the President of the Treasury Board, introduced the Federal Accountability Act to open up access and bring back accountability.

Quite frankly, I am pleased with the report. When we look at the report we see progress that is being made, quite frankly finally progress is being made in this area, progress that was never made under the former administration.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Information Commissioner was quite clear in his most recent report.

He singles out the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's own department, as one of the government's least transparent institutions. Instead of showing leadership, the Prime Minister is setting a bad example.

It is one thing for him to want to have complete control over his cabinet and even journalists, but for him to also try to hide information from the public is unacceptable.

Why does the Prime Minister not only want to control information, but also hide it from the public?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the government has been completely accountable through its legislation and through its actions.

I can tell the House who does not want to open up access and that is the Liberal Party. When we wanted to open up the Wheat Board, who was it that stood against it? It was the Liberal Party of Canada. The Liberals should be ashamed of themselves.

RCMP

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a dozen uniformed RCMP officers alleging harassment, political spying and even worse have come forward asking for protection and a public inquiry to air their claims. The Conservative public safety minister's response is to shrug his shoulders, plug his ears and see no evil, hear no evil.

Is this wilful blindness or gross negligence? When it comes to protecting the integrity of Canada's national police, why is the public safety minister thwarting real action?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, not only are we the only ones who are taking action to get to the bottom of some of the concerns that have been raised, and we are doing that through outright investigation, we are also the only ones who actually stand up for the integrity of the RCMP and regularly report on the good things that they do from coast to coast.

I can also add that not long ago I communicated with some officers who had some information they wanted to bring forward. I verified to them that anything they bring forward would be looked at in all sincerity and that no officers would ever be held in contempt or in any way dealt with negatively because they were bringing forward bona fide information. I have communicated that.

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, RCMP officers told the committee yesterday how the pension scandal investigation was suppressed and dismantled by senior RCMP management.

Why is the public safety minister so determined to subvert the investigation of this alleged abuse? Why not do the obvious, what every expert knows is necessary, and call a full judicial inquiry?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate courage at any time, especially someone who can stand up as a member of the former regime when it had evidence that this pension problem was unfolding and it did nothing. In fact, we were told by officers that my predecessor, the former minister, was given the information and did not even talk to the commissioner about it.

I admire her courage in standing up in the face of absolute inaction by her party. I would appreciate a little admiration from her for what our party is doing to get to the bottom of this.

Festivals and Special Events

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women has refused the unanimous request of the National Assembly of Quebec to transfer funding for festivals. The minister said she wants to support small cultural events and not just big ones. However, the smallest-scale cultural events are the ones that are in desperate need of money.

When will the minister realize that her bungling is harmful to all the communities? Will she finally listen to reason and immediately transfer the proper share of the new funding to Quebec so that it can be distributed as soon as possible?

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, this is new funding for a new program. This is not a transfer to the provinces. The new program will help small and medium size events, not just the major festivals. The program will be in place at the end of the summer.

[Raynald Blais, Bloc, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister realize that her refusal to provide funding has already been harmful? In the Magdalen Islands, the Rendez-vous Aventure Festival, which has been around for seven years, lost its licence because it did not have enough funding. Major economic spinoffs from this festival, including a world cup event, are disappearing, not to mention dozens of jobs.

Will the minister take action or wait for hundreds of events to be cancelled, thereby denying regional communities such important summer jobs and economic spinoffs?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Economic Development Agency of Canada is a partner of the festivals not just in the greater Montreal area, but throughout Quebec. Furthermore, we have maintained our criteria both for marketing and for product renewal. Last year, the festival the hon. member is referring to received a $180,000 contribution for renewing their product.

However, this year, since it is a matter of marketing, we are maintaining our level of funding for marketing their festival.

Natural Resources

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. is planning to channel overflow waters from Devils Lake in North Dakota into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. The previous Liberal government had an agreement with the U.S. that a filter would be installed to ensure invasive alien species would not be introduced into the Lake Winnipeg watershed.

Has the government ensured that this filter has been installed, and is there any evidence of alien species being found in the Lake Winnipeg watershed?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, it is not quite as our colleague opposite has suggested. Unfortunately, this is another problem that we inherited from the Liberal government.

We are working very closely with Premier Gary Doer. I have taken this issue directly to the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and directly to senior officials in the administration south of the border.

Working constructively and collectively with Manitoba, we believe we can ensure the environmental protection of this important part of our country.

Senate Tenure Legislation

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, our government introduced Bill S-4, the bill to limit the terms of senators, because we firmly believe the Senate must change. It is unacceptable that in the year 2007, 140 years after Confederation, unelected and unaccountable senators can serve up to 45 years. Can members believe that? Yet it appears that the Liberal Senate refuses to act, refuses to accept change, refuses to be held accountable.

Could the Minister for Democratic Reform tell the House of the status of this important democratic reform?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, the Senate must change. Today, incredibly, marks the first birthday of a bill to limit the terms of senators. For a full year and counting, the Liberal Senate has refused to act and the Liberal Party refuses to change. They continue to put entitlements for a privileged few and have good government for all.

This, despite a Liberal leader who heroically claims he supports term limits and even declared back in February that he had used his influence to set his senators straight and the bill would pass, but they simply refuse to act. They refuse to listen to their own leader. He is notaleader.ca.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. Question period is for questions and answers, not for singing.

Health

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, behind the numbers that make up the manufacturing job crisis in the country, there are real families who find it impossible to make ends meet. When a job disappears, the whole family loses the economic security that comes not only with an income, but with the benefits as well. With each of the 250,000 manufacturing job losses, an entire family loses its prescription drug coverage. This is not right.

When will the government take the first step to introduce universal drug coverage and protect working families in Canada?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Health and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, the government is moving forward with our dialogue with provinces and territories. When it comes to the national pharmaceutical strategy, we have made great gains in terms of researching this issue and finding areas of possible agreement.

Through increases to transfers to provinces this year alone of $1.2 billion in program transfers just to health care, plus an extra $1 billion on top of that for patient wait times guarantees and through Canada Health Infoway, the government is getting the job done.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, each day the country loses 150 good paying manufacturing jobs. That is 150 families each day who lose their income and their drug coverage.

While working and middle class families continue to get squeezed through the jobs crisis, big pharmaceutical companies are making off with record profits.

When will the government start standing up for working families and not the drug giants, and take action on universal drug coverage to all Canadians?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Health and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, the government believes in the right to health care. It believes it should be properly funded.

After 13 years of Liberal rule where wait times doubled, we are actually reducing wait times, with the cooperation of the provinces and territories.

Those are the facts on the floor. We are for hard-working Canadian families and we are ensuring we put health care first.

Afghanistan

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the foreign affairs committee we heard shocking expert testimony about the failures of the government dealing with aid in Afghanistan.

The CIDA minister is bungling Canadian initiatives in development abroad by not delivering the proper aid. Her pitiful response yesterday was an embarrassment to Canadians and to our troops.

When will the Prime Minister show some real progress and real development instead of partisan photo ops?

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

Mr. Speaker, the real bungling is on the other side of the House.

With respect to development in Afghanistan, let us recall the position of the previous Liberal government, which approved only dwindling sums for Afghanistan. We increased the budgets. We delivered the goods. We are continuing to work very hard in Afghanistan, particularly in Kandahar, as all our partners in Kandahar can confirm.

Manufacturing Industry

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my constituents know first-hand the manufacturing sector is facing a difficult transition period. Working families in Essex-Windsor are living through job losses. They are deeply concerned about the future of this sector. Apparently the opposition is not concerned about it.

In budget 2007, Canada's Conservative government took real and significant action to help maintain a strong manufacturing sector in Canada.

Could the Minister of Finance tell the opposition and the rest of the House why these measures are so vital to working families in Essex and across Canada, and a strong manufacturing sector?