Debates of Oct. 19th, 2009

The Environment

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I came upon a very interesting quote from the member. He says, “It doesn't matter who occupies the White House, the Americans will rush, in my view, to put a price on carbon. I think we should beat them to it”. We do not support a carbon tax.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is just sheer insanity. Not only are the Conservatives undermining international progress, but they are lobbying the United States to weaken clean air and health standards. Here is how bad it is. The U.S. EPA wants to reduce smog around the Great Lakes by banning dirty bunker fuel. Last year smog helped kill 2,700 Canadians and put 11,000 more people in hospital, costing our economy $1 billion.

Why is the government blocking American efforts to improve air quality, increase efficiency and protect the health of Canadians? What is it that the government does not get about death and smog?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the question that rings in the House is this. It was from the Liberal leader, who said “Why didn't we get it done?” That is the question the member needs to ask. Why did those members not get it done when they had an opportunity?

This government is taking the environment very seriously. We have carbon capture and storage and cleaner fuels. We are helping energy efficiency within homes. We are getting it done right here in Canada. We are getting it done internationally.

Justice

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want individuals found guilty of crimes to serve a sentence that reflects the severity of those crimes. Too often the sentences of offenders simply do not correspond to the serious nature of the crime.

The end of the two-for-one credit is that convicted criminals are spending less time in sentenced custody and released back onto the streets in our communities sooner. Bill C-25 puts an end to this. Our bill has the support of victims' groups, police associations and provincial attorneys general.

Why are Liberal senators gutting this bill despite it being passed unanimously by the House?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have always known the Liberals have been soft on crime. Now they are doing their best to prove that. Two weeks ago they gutted the bill on truth on sentencing. Now they are making threats to gut our bill on drugs.

I guess it is summed up by the Liberal member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca who said that this area of fighting crimes was the Achilles' heel for the Liberal Party. He said that his party supported the legislation because they were spooked by Conservative attacks that they were not tough on crime. If the shoe fits, then wear it.

Infrastructure

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister for everything that moves in Quebec just admitted, here in this House, that the Champlain Bridge repairs were the result of, and I quote, “political direction”.

Since the $1.4 million given to BPR by Senator Léo Housakos was a matter of “political direction”, the question is: what does Senator Léo Housakos do for BPR, an engineering firm? He is not even an engineer. He is just a Conservative.

Is this acceptable, yes or no?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Outremont should be pleased because, yes, the government made the political decision in its budget to allocate $220 million to repair the Champlain bridge. That is what I said.

The money was then managed by an independent crown corporation, namely Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated. The process was followed openly and transparently. If the opposition has evidence to the contrary, then let it say so outside the House.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister should know that I am one person who has never been afraid to say the same thing outside the House as inside.

The Conservatives were elected on the promise that they would do better than the Liberal Party on the sponsorship scandal. What do they do? They create their own, except that this time they are using taxpayer money to promote the Conservative Party directly: big taxpayers' cheques with big Conservative logos.

What is next? Putting the Conservative logo on Canada's Olympic uniforms? No, they have already done that. When will the government clean up its act and stop using taxpayer money for partisan political purposes?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, this government needs members of Parliament to stand and vote in favour of our economic action plan. This government needs the support of members of Parliament to support our infrastructure investments right across the country.

There is nothing wrong with members of Parliament fighting for good projects in their regions. There is nothing wrong with members of Parliament fighting to have cleaner water through sewer investments, better roads, better bridges, better public transit and better projects like the project in Halifax that we announced. Working with the NDP government and the city of Halifax, we are helping to build a brand new library right in downtown Halifax.

We are getting the job done and we have nothing to apologize for.

Intergovernmental Affairs

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister still has not kept his promise, and the Government of Quebec is still calling for the reconveyance of the land in front of the National Assembly and two other Parks Canada lots adjacent to the fortifications.

Will the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs respond favourably to Quebec's request so that Quebeckers do not continue to be deprived of this historic land in the heart of their national capital?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, on June 24, when he was in Quebec City to celebrate Quebeckers' national holiday, the Prime Minister announced that, as Benoît Pelletier requested in his 2006 letter, he was transferring not only the National Assembly land, but also Honoré Mercier Street. Discussions on how to proceed are under way.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in addition to blocking the reconveyance of land in the heart of our national capital and attempting a power grab on the issue of the securities commission, the government is dragging its feet on appointing a negotiator to discuss Quebec's repatriation of full powers over culture and communications.

Are we to understand that the government's refusal to name a negotiator amounts to a rejection of this historic request by Quebec?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

In fact, Mr. Speaker, what is very clear is that the Bloc Québécois is here just to manufacture crises, as Jacques Parizeau said a few months ago. With the Bloc, either there is a crisis, or there is about to be one.

Health

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government shows a lack of leadership and no clear, consistent message in its H1N1 response. Public health officials say that vaccine is our best defence against the virus, but only one-third of Canadians plan on taking it because of all of the confusion about it.

How are Canadians supposed to know what to do when even the Prime Minister adds to the confusion?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, in terms of vaccine rollout, we are on schedule. The Chief Public Health Officer of Canada has stated that the vaccine will be at the hands of the provinces. In fact, this weekend, we started pre-positioning the distribution of those vaccines in all provinces and territories.

Last Monday, we released an information booklet that has since received 60,000 hits. We do weekly press conferences to update Canadians on what we are doing so there is no confusion out there. We are on schedule and we are implementing a pandemic plan for Canada.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the latest CP-Harris Decima survey shows that only 33% of Canadians intend to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu. Why is that percentage so low, even though experts are clearly saying that Canadians are five times more likely to get the H1N1 virus than the seasonal flu?

The Prime Minister failed in his primary task of properly informing Canadians, since he himself favours the seasonal flu vaccine over the H1N1 vaccine. Who should Canadians believe: the Prime Minister or the experts?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, chief public health officers from this country have been advising all Canadians to take the vaccine for H1N1. The Chief Public Health Officer of Canada and the medical experts have advised us to produce this vaccine for distribution to provinces and territories.

I have confidence in the information I am receiving from the experts, the medical experts, the Chief Public Health Officer of our country, and they should, too.

Afghanistan

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, senior diplomat Richard Colvin wrote 26 different reports on Afghan prisoner torture and sent the reports to over 79 senior military and government officials, including the head of the Afghanistan task force. Yet the minister of national defence at the time, the current Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister have denied seeing any of these reports.

Would any of these three blind mice like to explain whether they suggest we are dealing with extreme negligence and incompetence by officials or are they misleading Canadians?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, those are pretty strong words. The reality is we have this question coming from a member of Parliament who was not around when we came to government and then undertook the very important task of improving the Afghan penal system. We took very clear steps to improve the inadequate transfer agreement that was in place. We took the steps of training Afghan officials to ensure that human rights were respected. We continue in that important work.

The member has now asked, I believe, nine or ten questions on the Military Police Complaints Commission. I only wish he would bring that type of enthusiasm to support the men and women of the Canadian Forces.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Colvin's report focused on a plan compiled by the Prime Minister's own National Security Advisor and was sent to commanders at the Department of National Defence and all relevant government officials, and the issue was top of mind at the time. Yet the Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister both said in the House that allegations of prisoner abuse were baseless. Just who did they ask before making such declarations?

Are the people of Canada to believe that neither the Prime Minister's own National Security Advisor nor any of the relevant senior officials brought these reports to their attention? If so, can they explain this gross incompetence?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, again, the hon. member may have a natural rhetorical flourish, but the reality is this government acted. We acted decisively in putting in place a new transfer arrangement. We have in fact helped to improve the correctional system. Most important, there are at least three separate investigations going on with the allegations of which he is concerned.

The important thing to note here, and for everyone to understand, is these are allegations about what Afghan officials did to Afghan terrorist suspects and what the military police knew about it, that and only that.

Justice

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, since forming government, we have consistently taken action to get tough on all kinds of crime. Victims of crime have always been the focus and at the very heart and centre of our government's justice agenda. We believe that those who fall prey to fraudsters and swindlers are often victimized just as much as the person who has been mugged in an alley.

Would the Minister of Justice tell us about our government's plan to address the issue of white-collar crime in our country.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. In the last Parliament, we introduced legislation that would eliminate House arrest for serious white-collar crime. What did the opposition do? It gutted that bill. Does that shameful act not suggest that people convicted of serious fraud get the opportunity to spend their sentence at home?

Today I am proud to say that we put on notice legislation that would include mandatory prison sentences for white-collar crime. I am hoping this will have the support of the opposition. The Liberals have no trouble fighting among themselves, how about fighting crime for a change? Would that be so bad?

Nortel

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, recent media reports talk about people like John Malik, who worked for Nortel and now faces ruin. His pension plan is underfunded and John may lose his health and life insurance benefits at a time when he needs them most.

When I last asked this question, the government said that this matter was not something we should be dealing with at the federal level. It said this issue “has no place on the floor of this House”.

When is the government going to stop telling people like John that it is not going to help them and start doing the right thing and offering some help to him and seniors across Canada?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, there is no question that everyone in the House cares about people who are facing some difficulty. However, the fact is that when dealing with pensions and long-term disability issues, all of those are registered with the province of Ontario. They are a provincial responsibility. I know the hon. member is going to suggest making changes to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act but they cannot be retrospective.

We are trying to help build a better business and economic environment in our country, which will help everybody, including pensioners.