Debates of April 8th, 2008

Ethics

[James Moore, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics]

Mr. Speaker, here he goes again with his imagination. The reality is there was no offer of a million dollar life insurance bribe to Chuck Cadman. That allegation by the Liberals is entirely false.

As for the rest of my hon. colleague's question, I am afraid I have no comment on the Watergate scandal as it happened two years before I was born.

Consumer Product Safety

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, over the past year Canadians have begun to question the safety of the products they and their families use. For more than a decade, the Liberal government allowed our product safety regulations to fall far behind our international partners. Our government is getting the job done for Canadians. Last summer the Minister of Health told Canadians this government would be taking serious action on consumer safety.

Would the minister please update this House on what the government intends on doing in order to help restore Canadian confidence in products made abroad?

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary for Health]

Mr. Speaker, today is a great day for Canadians. Today, the Prime Minister, along with the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Health, announced new legislation to restore Canadians' confidence. The legislation will improve the government's ability to act quickly and decisively when unsafe products are found and will hold the industry accountable when they are found to be unacceptable.

Canadians expect this government to act and, unlike the previous government, we are acting decisively.

Airline Industry

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, working families are sitting down to budget and plan for their summer vacations. Flipping through the newspaper ads, one would think there was a fire sale on air travel in Canada. However, that is not the case. When travellers are confronted with a mountain of outrageous fees that are not advertised in the ads themselves, suddenly, the vacation is not so affordable. Airlines are gouging customers, hiding fees and suckering unsuspecting customers.

Will the minister heed the advice of consumer groups and professional travellers, and use his powers that he currently has to force airlines to advertise only the actual price?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, this government has acted in that regard. We brought in the Transportation Act. In this case we have asked Parliament to support legislation that would oblige airlines to inform the public and to indicate the prices that are being charged.

I would encourage all consumers to go to the least amount that they will be spending, in terms of purchasing any tickets, and as good consumers do, generally speaking, get all the information.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this minister had eight months to protect consumers and has yet to do so.

CBC's Marketplace proved that Canadian customers are getting gouged by the airlines. Surcharges can actually run the ticket up another 50%. That is not fair and we can stop the gouging.

Canada's travel professionals and consumer groups have created the travel protection initiative and demand the minister use his current authority to ensure truth in advertising for the public. This action would provide the needed transparency and accountability that other people in other countries already receive.

Why is the Minister of Transport grounded in his own fog while he is letting the airlines fly away with unfair profits on the backs of Canadians?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I will tell my hon. colleague as well as members of the House that we have put in place an open skies policy. That policy enables us to drive prices down in this country for the betterment of all consumers who decide to take an aircraft.

Automotive Industry

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the manufacturing sector contributes over $613 billion and approximately 1.8 million jobs to the Canadian economy. Canada's manufacturing and auto sector was once the envy of the world. Now it is in dire straits, losing jobs every day.

When is the government going to have a specific plan for the auto sector to back this mainstay of our economy and show some respect for the auto workers and their families?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, certainly the auto industry is not in the dire circumstances that my friend portrays.

Last year in Canada we produced 2.6 million automobiles. We are among the best people in the world on automobile assembly.

Frankly, the main issues facing the automotive industry and manufacturing are competitiveness issues, issues that the Liberals never previously addressed. The state of infrastructure, the state of safety, harmonization of regulatory standards, the development of a dominant fuel standard with the United States, all of the issues that languished under the Liberal government we are dealing with.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is not what the CAW says.

When Canada had a Liberal government, we provided real support for our auto sector. The Conservatives, like the member for Essex, used to pay lip service to helping the auto sector when they were in opposition, but now, there is nothing but silence.

The Government of Ontario has pledged $17 million to help reopen and expand the Ford plant in Essex. This out of touch government has refused to match this.

Ontario is in. Ford is in. Why do they not have a partner in Ottawa?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Speaking of partners in Ottawa, Mr. Speaker, I am not aware that the CAW had assumed a seat on that side of the House, but evidently it has.

In terms of working together, the most recent budget contained an automotive innovation fund. I continue to work together with executives from Ford, General Motors and other companies dealing with that fund and the parameters of it. We continue to have regular meetings with industry officials as well as union and worker representatives.

The auto industry in this country will continue to flourish. It is a sound industry. We are competitive and we will be good at it.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the numbers speak for themselves. Why is the Conservative government doing nothing to stem the slow death of the 250,000 strong well-paying jobs we have in Ontario, jobs created by the up to now innovative and world leading auto sector?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome my friend to the House. To carry on dealing with things that were not dealt with, this government is taking care of infrastructure. My friend of course was not in the House, but at the time that there was a Liberal government in this country, we allowed a situation to develop. The Detroit-Windsor bridge crossing is a single bridge built before the Great Depression and carries more trade than the entire United States-Japanese trading relationship.

Yet, this bridge is beyond capacity. The former government did nothing about it. This government is addressing it. It is at the top of our priorities and we will fix that bridge situation.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. I know the member for Willowdale is very popular, but we have to be able to hear the question. The hon. member for Willowdale has the floor.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his generous welcome and I would like to point out that my question really did not have to do with bridges. It had to do with jobs.

Once again, the Conservative government, instead of finding solutions for the many families who are losing their livelihoods, is only blaming Ontario. It is time to stand up with Ontario. These Canadian families are asking, why are the Conservatives letting them down?

[Jim Prentice, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, if I can assist the hon. member in bridging from bridges to jobs, the truth of the matter is that this bridge is central to our automotive industry and to the competitiveness of our industry.

The former government did not appreciate that. That is why the bridge is jammed up. That is why there are 8,000 tractor trailer units a day using the bridge, sometimes taking up to eight hours. We cannot be competitive if we allow that to persist. The former government did not do anything about it. It relates to jobs. We are dealing with it.

Heritage Buildings

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the fire that ravaged the armoury in Quebec City has left a horrible scar on the urban landscape of the city's historic district. The reconstruction will be a lengthy process, and the festivities to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City will continue despite this tragic event.

What proposals does the government plan to make for activities at the site during the festivities, pending reconstruction of the armoury?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec City suffered a terrible fire last weekend. We are working and holding discussions with various local partners.

Of course, for the 400th anniversary celebrations, it is important to us that this site be preserved, be attractive and be a source of pride for all Quebeckers.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government is one of the partners in the 400th anniversary festivities. The armoury was a jewel in the urban landscape of Quebec City. It is the heritage minister's responsibility to make alternate proposals immediately so that the stakeholders can discuss them as soon as possible.

Need we remind the minister that the festivities began on January 1, 2008?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, we are already working hard to find a solution so that the site continues to be a source of pride during the 400th anniversary celebrations, despite the fire that took place on the weekend.

Grain Transportation

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, recently the Canadian Wheat Board and Canadian Federation of Agriculture released a report which found that in 2006-07 the railways gouged western grain farmers again, this time to the tune of $175 million.

The Conservative government's first act was to abolish farmer control over grain cars. Now it is complicit in allowing the railways to gouge farmers an additional $175 million. Will the minister finally show some accountability to farmers and call a full rail costing review, not a service review, but a full costing review?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to get the question from the member for Malpeque. One of the first initiatives we took was to stop the sale of hopper cars, which was something the previous government wanted to do.

It was an excellent decision because it was something the marketplace wanted. On top of that, it was a way of diminishing and reducing the costs to the farmer. That is what this government intends to continue to do.

The Environment

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, first it was the Liberal MP for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca who wanted to keep dumping raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Now another Liberal MP can be added to the list: the new Liberal member for Vancouver Quadra. As B.C.'s environment minister, she gave the thumbs-up to continue pumping over 40 billion litres of raw sewage into waters off Victoria.

Can the Minister of the Environment explain why federal Liberals support the dumping of raw sewage in Victoria and what the government is doing to fix this problem in my home province of British Columbia?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know why the leader of the Liberal Party would appoint as vice-chair of the Liberal environment committee a woman who supported dumping raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia. The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada has appointed a woman who the Sierra Club of Canada said “was at the helm for the most regressive time of rollbacks for the environment in B.C. history”.

Our government is taking real action to bring out a tough new regulation to ban the dumping of raw sewage in our oceans. We will get the job done.