Debates of March 12th, 2009

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, the comments by the hon. member are ridiculous. Again, we will not be conducting litigation here on the floor of the House of Commons. However, again I invite this member, and this would be something new for his political party, to start worrying about victims and law-abiding Canadians and get behind the agenda that this Conservative government has presented to Parliament.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans says that the decisions of the independent fisheries licence appeal board should be final and that no further appeals should be warranted. However, she is also prepared to hand out commercial fishing licences this very spring in violation of the findings of that very same board. Tim Rhyno, for example, received a million-dollar crab licence from the Conservatives right before the last election campaign despite being rejected at all three levels of appeal.

The former minister made a decision. Now the present minister has a choice to make. Will she suspend Mr. Rhyno's licence and uphold the principles of her own proposed fisheries act or will she suspend her own fisheries act and approve the licence? What will it be?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, on any application, extenuating circumstances must be taken into account. Licensing decisions are confidential matters.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Speaker, that is very funny because in the proposed act the minister says that there should be no avenue for appeal. She was absolutely adamant about that, as was the previous minister.

The people who are being hurt here are the 28,000 commercial fishermen and plant workers in Atlantic Canada who now have a minister who is prepared to sacrifice conservation and proper stewardship of the resource for the sake of a political gift before the last election campaign.

The industry is facing unparalleled crises in terms of access to capital and access to resources, but as well, reduced markets. Will there be a full inquiry about this particular move, yes or no?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, the current legislation does give the minister absolute discretion in issuing those licences. I am confident that my predecessor made a good decision of sound judgment.

Municipalities

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, this is incredible. Earlier this week, while being interviewed on television, the Minister of Finance said that any misspent funds from the $3 billion slush fund would be clawed back from the municipalities through reductions to the gas tax transfer.

How can the minister say that they will correct the government's mistakes by punishing municipalities?

[Vic Toews, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, we are taking unprecedented action in terms of helping municipalities with their infrastructure needs. Those municipalities cannot simply spend that money on anything they want. There are clear criteria and, as in any contract, if the terms and conditions of a contract are broken, the people of Canada need to have recourse to ensure the money has been properly spent.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, bluster will not cover up this typical Conservative thinking. First the government sets up a fund for backroom deals, then it says that the way it will account for the spending is to place all the responsibilities on Canada's communities. This is not the kind of leadership and accountability that Canadians want.

How can the minister stand and admit to such an underhanded tactic?

[Vic Toews, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, that question made absolutely no sense. That member says that there is no accountability and now, when we are bringing out the terms of accountability so that people spend taxpayer money in accordance with the rules and regulations, he says that it should not be done.

Will the member make up his mind? He certainly does not have his questions straight. He does not have his facts straight. Why does he not simply support the budget, get behind these infrastructure programs and help the people of Canada?

International Trade

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

Mr. Speaker, Canada's Border Services Agency recently determined that foreign companies were dumping aluminum products into the Canadian market and imposing a 43% penalty on these products.

Would the Minister of International Trade tell the House how this action will preserve Canada's rules based trading relationship with our international partners?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Kelowna—Lake Country for his ongoing concern about Canadian manufacturing and jobs, especially in his constituency.

If there is a situation where it is determined that imports from another country have been dumped into Canada at a cost that is below their production, or if they are subsidized, then, following our rules based system, we are able to assess a countervail or a duty for that. That has been done in this case with certain Chinese aluminum extrusion products.

The Chinese officials are certainly welcome to use the dispute settlement that is there to contest it. I look forward to talking about this with my counterpart in China when I am there in April.

Narcotic Drug Control

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this week, the 52nd session of the committee on narcotic drugs convenes in Vienna. It must deal with the recent world drug report, which stated:

Urgent steps must be taken to prevent the unravelling of progress that has been made in the past few decades of drug control.

Will the minister reassure this House that Canada will not be embarrassed, and bring back a drug policy that is evidence based and in step with our international partners who support the four pillars of prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction?

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

Mr. Speaker, I can tell members that our approach is a complete, comprehensive approach. I would refer the hon. member to the national anti-drug strategy and all the different initiatives this government has taken to assist individuals who have become addicted.

At the same time, we are sending out a very clear message to those individuals who think it is a good idea to get into the grow-op business or who want to get into the import or export of illegal drugs into this country. The message is that they will go to jail.

Agriculture and Agri-Food

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec beef producers have received no federal assistance since acquiring the Levinoff-Colbex slaughterhouse. They recently demonstrated their commitment by injecting another $30 million. The Conservatives' election promises and budget announcements have come to naught. Worse still, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture stated that the government might provide assistance in the form of repayable loans, but that is not what producers as looking for, as they told us in committee this morning.

Can the minister confirm that Levinoff-Colbex qualifies for the program to strengthen slaughterhouse capacity, and that assistance will be provided in the form of direct funding?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of National Revenue and Minister of State (Agriculture)]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that the budget allocated $50 million to support slaughterhouses and that the regulations are now being drafted. The member must not lose faith.

However, with respect to loan guarantees and subsidies, let me be very clear. There will be no subsidies. These are loans. We are trying to help by taking sensible action, and I believe we are in talks with Levinoff-Colbex, and things are looking good.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Speaker, vulnerable migrants are being ripped off because the immigration system is dysfunctional.

In a pathetic attempt to address the problem, the Minister Immigration had to launch a PR campaign to combat fraud, but it does not address the real problem of unregulated immigration consultants. The minister is ignoring crimes committed by fake consultants who take advantage of innocent people wanting to make Canada their new home.

When will the government implement the immigration committee's comprehensive recommendations to control immigration consultants?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, while I appreciate the member's concern about this issue, it is an issue that, of course, the NDP will never be able to do anything about because it is a party of permanent opposition.

Having said that, I have taken into serious consideration the committee's recommendations.

When I was in India recently, I raised this matter of people being exploited by unscrupulous consultants and document vendors in parts of India and I got a commitment from the first minister of Punjab to dedicate a specific police task force to crack down on this kind of exploitation.

We intend to take further action here in Canada to improve the regulation of immigration consultants to protect newcomers to this country.

Paralympic Games

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, today marks the one year countdown to the Canada's Paralympic Games.

Our venues are built on time and on budget. Our athletes are ready and are gearing up for the games. They are winning medals on the world stage and are making Canada proud.

Would theMinister of State for Sport update the House on how Canada is ready to host the world at our Paralympic Games.

[Gary Lunn, Conservative, Minister of State (Sport)]

Mr. Speaker, in exactly one year from now, the Olympic torch will enter BC Place Stadium and the cauldron will be lit in front of 55,000 people.

Our Paralympic athletes are absolutely doing amazingly. I watched our sledge hockey team a few weeks ago with Hervé Lord, who is here, go on and win the gold medal.

Ina Forrest and her team won the gold medal for wheelchair curling.

This afternoon, in Whistler, Lauren Wolstoncroft from North Vancouver and Viviane Forest from Edmonton--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley.

Infrastructure

[Bill Casey, Independent, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Mr. Speaker, in my prebudget submission to the Minister of Finance, I highlighted the Colchester Civic Centre as a priority by the province and the municipality as an infrastructure project that is shovel-ready. In fact, the province has already committed $10 million to the project, the municipality $11 million and the community $4 million.

Both the mayors of Truro and the municipality of Colchester wrote to the minister in December asking for federal participation.

I wonder if the minister could indicate when a positive answer might be forthcoming?

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for actually responding to the request that the finance minister put out in late November, early December, asking for all parliamentarians to put forward ideas. That hon. member put forward a good idea. However, I do not make those decisions so I passed it on.

We need to know that the Liberal Party of Canada put forward no suggestions in our prebudget consultation, nor did members of the NDP. In fact, they voted against any one that was put forward.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

As part of marking the celebration of the one year countdown to our 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, I would like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in the ladies gallery of four individuals: Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee; Carla Qualtrough, President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee; Ina Forrest, a gold medalist in wheelchair curling; and Hervé Lord, hockeyeur sur luge médaillé d'or.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

Business of the House

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I have the usual Thursday question about House procedure for the next couple of weeks. We all know that next week is scheduled to be a week to work in constituencies.

Therefore, I would like to ask the government House leader specifically what he has in mind for tomorrow and then the week following the constituency work week. Specifically in that week, which day will he officially designate as the final allotted day in this supply period? That would be the day not just to deal with an opposition motion, but also the supplementary estimates and the appropriations act, dealing with interim supply. It is very important for the House to know in advance which day that will be.

Second, I would ask the hon. gentleman, again, if there would be a mood in the House, apropos some of the subjects dealt with in question period, to move expeditiously on Bills C-14 and C-15. It was over a week ago that the official opposition offered co-operation to expedite those two pieces of legislation dealing with gangs and drugs. We renew that offer today in order to move those items forward quickly.

Finally, with respect to Bill C-10, which is in the other place, as we understand the developments as of today, it is possible that the other place will today finish its deliberations with respect to the bill, at the initiative of the Leader of the Opposition. I would ask the government House leader if he could indicate when there will be royal assent arranged for Bill C-10. Would he expect that to happen tonight or tomorrow?