Debates of June 12th, 2009

Notice of Motion

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, you can tell it is Friday and mid-June with that interjection by my colleague from Ottawa—Vanier.

On a serious note, pursuant to Standing Order 83(1), I have the honour to table a notice of ways and means motion to introduce an act to give effect to the Maa-nulth First Nations Final Agreement and to make consequential amendments to other acts.

I ask that an order of the day be designated for consideration of this motion. Later today, I will seek unanimous consent to adopt this motion.

I also have the honour to table, in both official languages, two copies of the following documents: the Maa-nulth First Nations Final Agreement, the Harvest Agreement, and the Maa-nulth First Nations Tax Treatment Agreement.

North Atlantic Treaty Protocols

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure to table documents pursuant to Standing Order 32.

One is the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of the Republic of Albania. The second is the Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Accession of the Republic of Croatia, done at Brussels on July 9, 2008.

Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I also have the pleasure to table, in both official languages, the treaty entitled “Amendment to the Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries”, adopted by the general council of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization.

Canada Elections Act

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-40, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the great honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Privacy Act: First Steps Towards Renewal”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days of its presentation.

I want to recognize the extensive and good work of all hon. committee members. We heard from the Privacy Commissioner, from many witnesses and from the minister himself.

The Privacy Act has not been amended in any meaningful way in over 25 years. This report mentions 12 significant areas where we believe the minister should give serious consideration to amending this important act on behalf of all Canadians.

Criminal Code

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

moved that Bill S-205, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (suicide bombings), be read the first time.

(Motion deemed adopted and bill read the first time)

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Mississauga is rising on a point of order.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this has come up before and perhaps you will check it. When an hon. member is a sponsor of a bill from the other place, the member does have an opportunity to make brief comments to the House and maybe the member did want to say something.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The Chair was under the impression the member did not choose to make remarks at this time, so that is why the Chair did not call on the member.

Maa-nulth First Nations Final Agreement

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, there have been consultations between all the parties. I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move:

That, notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practices of the House, the ways and means motion tabled earlier today to introduce an Act to give effect to the Maa-nulth First Nations Final Agreement and to make consequential amendments to other Acts be adopted.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Does the government House leader have the unanimous consent of the House to move the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

(Motion agreed to)

Sri Lanka

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have two more petitions from constituents in my riding concerning the conflict in Sri Lanka. They call upon the government to bring humanitarian relief through the United Nations to that island and to provide full and free access to the conflict zone by NGOs and international media.

These petitions were actually gathered over the last six weeks. It is highly ironic that these petitioners should be so prescient given that the member for Toronto Centre was prevented from staying in Sri Lanka and conducting any kind of interview process or investigation on his own to determine the concerns of these people.

The petitioners are giving voice to the issue that Sri Lanka's government is descending into an authoritarian mode which makes it very difficult for the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. I am looking forward to the government's response to these petitions.

Employment Insurance

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to table two petitions today signed by hundreds of people from all over southern Ontario and Quebec urging Parliament to immediately pass my bill, Bill C-378, to allow hard-working families to access their maternity, parental, sickness and compassionate care benefits without worrying that if they lose their jobs in the meantime, they will also lose their EI.

The petitioners note that one of the barriers preventing workers from accessing EI is contained in the anti-staffing provisions found within the Employment Insurance Act. These discriminatory provisions prevent new mothers in particular who have secured the full amount of special benefit entitlements from accessing regular benefits if they lose their jobs during or shortly after these specially sanctioned leaves.

The petitioners are keenly aware that in the current economic downturn lay-off announcements are coming daily and they want to ensure that these discriminatory provisions of the EI Act are eliminated. I am pleased to say that my Bill C-378 would indeed address those concerns. I very much appreciate the support of the petitioners on this very important issue for thousands of working families.

Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

[Jim Maloway, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians have joined the call to stop the Canada-Colombia trade deal. The petitioners call on Parliament to reject the Canada-Colombia trade deal until an independent human rights impact assessment is carried out, the resulting concerns addressed, and the agreement be renegotiated along the principles of fair trade which would take environmental and social impacts fully into account while generally respecting and enhancing labour and rights of all affected parties.

A review of the text of the Canada-Colombia trade deal confirms that the type of labour and the environmental protection clauses being sought do not provide meaningful effective protection and lack enforcement mechanisms. The labour protection clauses in the trade deal include as a penalty for lethal violence against workers a token fine to be paid by the offending government into a cooperation fund which makes a mockery of human rights. The offending government also benefits from the fund which does nothing to address impunity and allows the continuation of violence.

It is time for Parliament to stop this free trade deal.

Taxation

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to introduce my first petition as a member. I am presenting it on behalf of 850 fishermen throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec who voluntarily participated in retirement under the 1998 Atlantic groundfish strategy when we had to close the groundfishery.

The issue of the petitioners is that they were charged too much tax on their capital gains. A number of them were charged at 25%. About 850 of them were charged at 100% tax on their capital gains. The basis of this is that every Canadian taxpayer should be treated fairly. All they are asking is for the government to acknowledge that it made an error here and take corrective measures.

It has been 10 years now. I should recognize the hard work done by Ms. Elizabeth Harvey over the years in trying to get this onto the government agenda, as well as my colleague from Random—Burin—St. George's who has been working very hard on this file as well.

We are talking about 200 fishers who were taxed at 25%. Again, 850 were taxed at 100%. I would like to present this petition and I am looking forward to the response from the government.

Public Safety Officers Compensation Fund

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 and as certified by the clerk of petitions, I am pleased to present yet another petition on a matter referred to as the public safety officers compensation fund. Firefighters from across Canada come to Parliament Hill each year to advise parliamentarians of some of the key priorities that they have and would like us to consider. This petition deals with the first priority of the firefighters for the last three years.

These petitioners would like to draw to the attention of the House that police officers and firefighters are required to place their lives at risk in the execution of their duties on a daily basis and that employment benefits of these public safety officers often provide insufficient compensation to the families of those who are killed while in the line of duty.

Finally, the public also mourns the loss of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty and wish to support in a tangible way the surviving families in their time of need. The petitioners therefore call upon Parliament to establish a fund known as the public safety officers compensation fund for the benefit of families of public safety officers killed in the line of duty.

Taxation

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table another petition that has been circulated by John Grimshaw, business manager of IBEW Local 105 in my hometown of Hamilton.

The building trades have lobbied successive governments for over 30 years to achieve some basic fairness for their members. They want tradespeople and indentured apprentices to be able to deduct travel and accommodation expenses from their taxable incomes, so that they can secure and maintain employment at construction sites that are more than 80 kilometres from their homes.

It makes no sense for tradespeople to be out of work in one area of the country while another region suffers from temporary skilled labour shortages simply because the cost of traveling is too high. To that end, they have gathered tens of thousands of signatures since I first introduced Bill C-227, which allows for precisely the kinds of deductions that their members have been asking for.

I am pleased to table the petition on their behalf and I will continue to work with the building trades until the federal government finally addresses their concerns.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, if Questions Nos. 158, 159 and 161 could be made orders for returns, these returns would be tabled immediately.

[The Speaker]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Question No. 158

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

With regard to spousal sponsorship, what are: (a) the number, overall percentage and the countries of origin of spousal sponsorship through family class applications rejected by visa offices but i) approved by the Immigration Appeal Board, ii) approved by the Federal Court; and (b) the wait times on average for spousal sponsorship in visa offices from India, China, the Middle East and African countries compared with wait times from European countries, and the reasons for the difference?