Debates of March 17th, 2010

Child Care

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, in fact it is not the federal government's responsibility to create child care spaces. We are not allowed to do that. What we have done is we have provided $250 million a year to the provinces and territories, and they have announced over 85,000 new spaces in the last couple of years.

The other thing we have done is with our universal child care benefit and that alone has lifted 22,000 families, including some 57,000 children, above the poverty line.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a Quebec woman suffering from cancer is trying to bring her half-sister from Haiti to Canada.

The immigration minister turned down her visa application twice because the woman does not own any real property. As a result of the earthquake, the only real property she has to offer is a block of cement.

According to the Conservative member for Beauport—Limoilou, the matter is in the hands of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Now that the minister is able to speak publicly about this case and is involved in the matter, will he take action?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, although not exactly new to this place, the member may not know that public servants, not the minister, make decisions about visa applications. They make more than 800,000 such decisions every year.

I am confident that our public servants and our visa officers do a good job. In this case, it was not at all clear whether or not the applicant intended to work in Canada, and the form was not filled out properly.

Haiti

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on March 31, in New York, the UN will hold a major conference about reconstruction in Haiti. A couple of weeks ago, Quebec's forestry industry proposed to the Prime Minister that 2,000 wood houses be built for Haiti. A number of partners have already offered their support.

Does the Minister of Foreign Affairs plan to promote this proposal while at the meeting in New York?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased about the initiatives undertaken to help Haiti. I am very pleased about the initiatives that the Government of Canada and Canadians have created to help Haitians.

Another meeting will take place at the end of the month in New York to help us align the needs identified by the Haitian government and other institutions with the real needs of the people. We will also find out more about financing.

My colleague, the Minister of—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order.

The hon. member for Madawaska—Restigouche.

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Speaker, with budget 2010, the Conservative government has shown that it hopes to eliminate economic development agencies, including ACOA.

Under the previous Liberal government, two programs were created: an innovation fund and a communities fund.

Last year, $113 million was available for those two separate programs. Today it was announced that only $19 million would be available.

Now that the Conservatives have announced a $94 million funding cut for this year, can the minister explain to us why he has abandoned the people of Atlantic Canada?

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

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure why the member would think that we have let down any part of this country. We do support all regions of this country.

We put in place year two of Canada's economic action plan, which reaches across all parts of this country equally and equitably. We had a little trouble getting it passed through this House but we managed. Now that it has passed, let us support it and make sure that all Canadians benefit from it.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Speaker, my question was for the Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

The two ACOA programs were for a five-year period ending March 31, 2010, with a total investment of over $475 million. Now those funds have run out, and the Conservatives are offering a mere $19 million a year to replace them.

The Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency should do as his colleague, the Minister of Industry, did: apologize for the cuts and restore the programs with 2009-level funding.

When will the minister take action for the people of Atlantic Canada?

[Keith Ashfield, Conservative, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite actually read the budget, he would realize it is a $19 million a year ongoing budget, a base budget. It is an improvement over what was there before and certainly not part of the five year programming.

Also, there is $11 million per year for the community futures program, another addition to the ACOA funding.

I am very proud to represent ACOA. Believe me, there are no cuts in our budgets.

Afghanistan

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

Mr. Speaker, we have yet another revelation today that Afghan officials asked the government to build a prison where detainees could be held without the risk of torture. In response, the government made repeated false promises to the Afghans that a prison was coming while the government told this House that a new prison was a bad idea.

By failing to work with our NATO allies to ensure proper treatment of detainees, the government has ignored our legal obligation to protect human rights and has tainted Canada's international reputation.

Will the Prime Minister finally call a public inquiry?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about events that happened a number of years ago. It is interesting to note that in fact the issue around NATO prisons circulated years ago, but in November 2007 General Ray Henault, a Canadian, then the chair of NATO's military committee, publicly ruled out the creation of NATO prisons.

We are there not to build prisons for Afghans; we are there to help them build capacity to do these things for themselves. We will continue to do so.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs indicated, we have invested in Afghan prisons. We continue to monitor prisoners transferred by our forces. We will continue to work to build that capacity.

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

Mr. Speaker, day after day there are new stories about the government's mishandling of the transfer of Afghan detainees.

Included in today's revelations was the fact that last year when the National Directorate of Security complained about detainee inspections creating problems, the Conservative government agreed to limit them to once a month at the most and to give plenty of advance notice. The government has abandoned our legal obligation to uphold human rights, this time to appease the dreaded NDS.

How many more of these stories need to be published before we get a public inquiry?

[Lawrence Cannon, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member would take the time to read the new transfer agreement, he would see that there have been over 210 visits by Canadian officials to Afghan detention facilities since the transfer agreement was signed.

The most recent unannounced visit by Canadian officials to Afghan detention facilities occurred within the last 10 days. These occur, have occurred and continue to occur on a regular basis. This is the nature of the transfer agreement that we put in place.

Taxation

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, opposition members have never met a tax they did not like. Given the chance, they would raise the GST and introduce a job-killing carbon tax.

Yesterday the NDP introduced a bill to tax MP3s and iPods. Both the Bloc and the Liberals support their coalition partners on this tax on Canadian consumers.

Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage tell the House our government's position regarding this new tax on Canadians?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois have proposed legislation that would impose a massive new tax on Canadians.

The last time an iPod tax was put forward it was up to $75 per iPod, a massive tax on consumers. What is worse is the way the legislation is written. This new tax would apply to iPods, MP3 players, PVRs, DVRs, iPhones, cellphones, BlackBerrys, anything with a hard drive.

The Liberals, the Bloc and the NDP think this is what consumers need, a massive new tax. This Conservative government will fight this new iPhone tax every step of the way.

Telecommunications

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Mr. Speaker, despite the Minister of Industry's flip-flop about funding community access programs, all he has done is rob Peter to pay Paul.

He claims the funding will now come from rural broadband programs, which will then leave that program short of the promised funding. Also, the minister has only said that the funding will continue this year. He has said nothing about 2011 and beyond.

Could the minister promise rural Canadians that they will get all the funding needed for broadband and CAP sites for this year, next year and beyond?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, what I said inside and outside this place was that this program had been funded and was funded in the 2010 budget. That is the issue of the day.

There has been a change in the funding envelope, but the people are not concerned about that. They are concerned about ensuring that rural Canadians and remote Canadians have access to the Internet.

When it comes to the rural broadband program, this government is acting. After 13 years of neglect from the other side, we are actually funding access for broadband for rural and remote Canadians, and we are proud of that. It is good for Canada.

Official Languages

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, during this international week of la Francophonie, the federal government, as an employer, has nothing to celebrate. The percentage of unilingual officials hired in bilingual positions continues to increase, going from 14% in 2005 to 19% last year. Francophones working in the public service therefore cannot work in French since unilingual managers continue to be hired.

Do these data not confirm that we were right to mistrust this government's ideological hostility toward francophones?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, the government supports the guidelines, the laws and the rights of people across the country when it comes to the official languages, and it will continue to do so.

Speech from the Throne

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 50(3) I would like to designate tomorrow as the second day for the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne.

Afghanistan

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, a report entitled “Canada's Engagement in Afghanistan--Quarterly Report to Parliament for the Period of October 1 to December 31, 2009”.

Interparliamentary Delegations

[Leon Benoit, Conservative, Vegreville—Wainwright, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have three reports from interparliamentary delegations to present today.

First, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following report of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association respecting its participation to the subcommittee of Transatlantic Defense and Security Cooperation, held in Ottawa, Kingston, Trenton and Toronto, from September 7 to 11, 2009.

Second, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association respecting its participation in the visit to New York and New Orleans of the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security, held in New York, New Orleans, United States of America, from October 1 to 4, 2009.

Finally, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association respecting its participation in the visit to Helsinki of the Political Committee Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Relations, held in Helsinki, Finland, from September 21 to 24, 2009.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following three reports of the Canadian delegation of the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group respecting its participation in: first, the Council of State Governments annual conference, held in La Quinta, California, from November 12 to 15, 2009; second, the Council of State Governments-WEST 62nd annual meeting, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from October 5 to 8, 2009; and third, the 33rd conference of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, NEG/ECP, held in Saint John, New Brunswick, from September 14 to 15, 2009.

Justice and Human Rights

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. In accordance with the order of reference of Wednesday, March 3, your committee has considered Bill C-464, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (justification for detention in custody), and agreed on Tuesday, March 16, to report it with amendment.