Debates of March 6th, 2009

Sports Infrastructure

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, in Quebec, we will work very closely with the Government of Quebec and the premier. We will also work with Quebec municipalities.

By working together, we can undertake three times the number of projects, create three times the number of jobs and carry out three times the amount of work. We can also make three times as many investments and create three times more economic growth. That is our goal. Almost every project must have the support of the provincial or municipal government. Therefore, we will work with them.

Does the Bloc member believe that Mr. Charest will help the Conservative Party in the next election campaign?

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the statements by the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities show that there is obvious partisanship in the use of sports infrastructure program funding. The program even provides for making agreements with the private sector, over the heads of Quebec and the municipalities.

Is the minister aware that, if such agreements are allowed, over the heads of legitimate authorities, the sports infrastructure program could get out of hand and turn into a tool for politically blackmailing the cities?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, some of my colleagues are in Montreal this morning, with the Premier of Quebec, to make another announcement about support for a project in Quebec. We are going to work with the provinces.

I told the committee yesterday that every member of this House is welcome to submit ideas. I have already received some ideas from Bloc Québécois members, the Liberal Party and the NDP, and I have received many good ideas from this side as well.

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it was this minister who gave a political lieutenant and Conservative organizer the job of talking with the provinces.

How can the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities assure us that the approach he is proposing will not turn the infrastructure program into a tool for promoting the Conservative Party and a source of secret funding to build up the Conservative Party's election fund, like the Liberals' sponsorship program?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, in Quebec, I am going to work with the Minister of Public Works, the government of Jean Charest and all my colleagues from Quebec on this side of the House. Ideas from the other side are welcome.

I have heard it said that the Bloc is everywhere, that the Bloc members are all over Quebec, gathering ideas from their municipalities. All ideas are welcome, and we are going to work with the Government of Quebec.

Housing

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, a report to be tabled at the UN Monday is yet another indictment that Canada has failed its citizens in the most basic of human needs: affordable housing.

The report spells out that Canada urgently needs a comprehensive and coordinated national policy. The budget was yet another example of the failed approach that the government is taking. There is no new money to end homelessness and nothing for new social housing.

Will the minister implement the recommendations in the UN report and commit to a national housing strategy?

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, we have committed a number of dollars with respect to housing: $1 billion to support much-needed repairs to social housing, $600 million for new housing and repairs to existing housing on reserve, $400 million for on reserve, $200 million for the North, $400 million to build more seniors housing, and $75 million for new housing for people with disabilities.

We are addressing that issue in a significant and substantial way.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let us be very clear. There is money there for decks for cottages, but there is nothing for new social housing for families nor for homelessness. Why is that?

In Vancouver we have a housing crisis. B.C. needs support and money for new social housing, not just for upgrades or retrofits. The government is still in denial. In fact, it is now an embarrassment in the international community.

I ask again, will the minister commit to a real housing plan that will actually deliver the affordable housing units that are so desperately needed in this country?

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, I was just enunciating a number of initiatives we took. That particular party voted against each and every one of them while at the same time trying to promote the issue of housing.

With respect to homelessness, we have committed $1.9 billion over the next five years to improve and build new affordable housing and to help the homeless. These are the kinds of things we are doing. We would ask the New Democratic Party and this hon. member to get behind us and help support that to happen.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives promised a full review of water systems on reserve. However, they have told groups, including the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, that they are not welcome at meetings on water quality. These groups have spent years cleaning up water systems like the one at Yellow Quill First Nation in Saskatchewan and Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta.

Their experience is invaluable, so why is this minister turning them away?

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, this government has done a lot since coming to office on water on reserve. We inherited a difficult situation. We admit that. However, we have reduced the number of dirty water systems by over half. Additionally, we launched a water and wastewater initiative that further builds on this by better addressing water infrastructure issues and water systems in all first nations communities. We are working with first nations on a legislative framework. We are getting the job done.

Infrastructure

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the economy is clearly getting worse. We have more bad news today. Yet, almost $4 billion of approved and allocated infrastructure money has been ready to go all this year. It still is.

Why has the government held almost $4 billion back in approved spending when Canadians needed help? Was it simply to avoid, for purely political reasons, the word deficit?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, a very wise member of Parliament made the following statement on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday. She said, “There is always a delay in the actual approval and the cheques being cut”.

Mr. Speaker, do you know who said that? The member for Willowdale.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that begs the question about why the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure seems incapable of providing a list of those projects, which he wants to spend on in three weeks.

My gosh, is this minister not good at making announcements? Towns like Kenora, Sudbury, Hamilton, and towns and municipalities all across this country have had money promised, but they have seen virtually none of it. An announcement is not the same as a delivery.

We all understand the need for speed and the government knows full well that there is a proven method to get money out to the municipalities right away to invest in what they need. It has been told and shown many times. Why does the government continue to refuse this method, one that it knows will work?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, it is because we do not want to cut back two-thirds of the projects that we would like to see go ahead in this country.

Let us look at what municipal leaders in the member's own province are saying. The mayor of Welland said, “This project will be a tremendous kickstart for our community”. The mayor of South Stormont, Bryan McGillis, said: “They've been waiting for this money for 30 years. I've almost got tears in my eyes I'm so happy”. And finally, South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Gwen Gilbert said, “This is huge news. It's very exciting. A sewage system for Sauble Beach has been on the radar screen for a lot of years”.

Step-by-step, we are getting the job done.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as the recession gets worse every day, the Conservatives are sitting on $3.9 billion in infrastructure funding that has already been approved by Parliament, money that will lapse on April 1 if it is not flowed. Yet, the Conservatives have failed to fund even so-called priority projects like the Strandherd bridge in Ottawa.

Why can the government not get funds already approved into our communities? Why the delay?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, funds under building Canada do not lapse, so that will be good news for the member opposite to learn. They are rolled over to subsequent years. Projects do take time. We cannot just begin to construct a subway system overnight. Engineering work has to be done and we need to seek the necessary approvals.

When municipalities and provinces spend money on infrastructure, they can invoice this government, and the commitment from this minister and this government is that those invoices will be paid within 30 days.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the people in Toronto have been waiting since 2007 for promised funds for the extension of the Spadina subway line to Vaughan; $700 million announced, but not a penny has hit the ground yet. Given that they are sitting on almost $4 billion, why can the Conservatives not get their act together? Why do hurting Canadians have to wait?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, some 24 months ago, my premier and the Prime Minister made an important announcement for that subway project. The simple reason why the funds have not flowed is because the shovel is not in the ground. The province has not spent any money. We do not give blank cheques to projects that have not proceeded.

When those projects do begin to spend money, the invoices will be fully paid within 30 days. The good news is, thanks to the leadership of the Premier of Ontario and the Prime Minister, that project is about ready to go and that will be a big shot in the arm for Toronto's economy.

Pay Equity

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, some 40 women's groups in Quebec and Canada have announced that they will go to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to denounce the measures put in place by the Conservatives concerning pay equity, a non-negotiable right for women.

Is the government aware that this complaint will broadcast Canada's backwards approach to the entire world?

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

Mr. Speaker, I agree that pay equity is not a negotiable matter. It is in fact a human right that we will respect. I am wondering where that member was over the last 15 or 20 years when these complaints were not being resolved. She said nothing. Our government is getting the job done.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I was fighting against men like him in order to defend women.

Does this mean that the Conservative Party is adopting the approach proposed by Tom Flanagan, the Prime Minister's guru, an approach—as we saw yesterday on the news—that says pay equity should not get in the way of prosperity for oil companies in the west? Are we really to believe that this is behind their approach? What is their answer?

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

Mr. Speaker, I am going to let those kinds of cheap, sexist comments slide. I am interested in ensuring that pay equity is achieved by women in this country in a timely fashion. That is what our government has committed to. That is what that member has failed to do over the last number of years. We are getting the job done.

Justice

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Federal Court, in no uncertain terms, has denounced the Conservative government for its policy change pertaining to Canadian citizens sentenced to death abroad. The judge said, “Government policy cannot be created by a process as amorphous and unaccountable as the one followed here.”

Does the government plan to abide by the ruling, abandon its ideology-based policy and ask the American authorities to commute Ronald Smith's death sentence?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas)]

Mr. Speaker, before I respond to that exaggerated characterization of the court's decision, I would remind the member of the two young aboriginal men whose lives were cut short when Ronald Allen Smith marched them into a Montana forest and shot them execution style.

That said, we are currently reviewing the court's decision and it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.