Debates of March 23rd, 2010

Government Response to Petitions

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to seven petitions.

Citizenship and Immigration

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in relation to supplementary estimates (C) 2009-10, votes 1c and 5c under citizenship and immigration.

Air Passengers' Bill of Rights

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

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting two petitions today.

The first is signed by dozens of Canadians calling on Parliament to adopt Canada's first air passengers' bill of rights. Bill C-310 would compensate air passengers with all Canadian carriers, including charters, anywhere they fly.

The bill would provide compensation for overbooked flights, cancelled flights and long tarmac delays. It would also address issues such as late and misplaced bags. It requires all-inclusive pricing by airlines in all of their advertising. The legislation has been in effect for five years in Europe. Why should Air Canada passengers receive better treatment in Europe than in Canada?

The airlines will have to inform passengers of any flight changes, whether there are delays or cancellations. The new rules would have to be posted at the airport and the airlines would have to inform passengers of their rights and the process they have to follow to file for compensation. If the airlines follow the rules, it will cost them nothing.

The petitioners call on the government to support Bill C-310, which would introduce Canada's first air passengers' bill of rights.

Earthquake in Chile

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

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is signed by many Canadians who are calling on the government to match funds personally donated by the citizens of Canada to the earthquake victims in Chile.

The Chilean community has been quite active in fundraising. There was a social event in Winnipeg on March 6, which raised $10,000. This past Saturday, March 20, at the University of Manitoba, 1,000 tickets were sold to a follow-up fundraiser.

When will the Prime Minister give the same treatment to the earthquake victims in Chile as he did for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti and match funds personally donated by Canadians to help the earthquake victims in Chile?

Sockeye Fishery

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am tabling today a petition with hundreds of names from the coast of British Columbia: Pemberton Valley, Surrey, Burnaby, Sechelt in the Sunshine Coast, Nanaimo, Gabriola Island and the north end of Vancouver Island. These are all British Columbians who are asking the Government of Canada to move.

Given the collapse of the sockeye salmon fishery in the Fraser River, given what we have seen in the past with the Atlantic cod stocks which collapsed on the East Coast, and given the great concerns that have been issued about the lack of concern and neglect of the Pacific fisheries, they are calling on the government to take immediate action, to put in place a system that would provide a report on the sockeye salmon fisheries collapse in the Fraser River, British Columbia, within six months.

This is yet another situation where hundreds of British Columbians are asking the government to take action on the collapse of the sockeye salmon fishery.

Questions on the Order Paper

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Opposition Motion—Maternal and Child Health

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

moved:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government’s G8 maternal and child health initiative for the world’s poorest regions must include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception, consistent with the policy of previous Liberal and Conservative governments, and all other G8 governments last year in L’Aquila, Italy;

that the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence, which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths; and

that the Canadian government should refrain from advancing the failed right-wing ideologies previously imposed by the George W. Bush administration in the United States, which made humanitarian assistance conditional upon a “global gag rule” that required all non-governmental organizations receiving federal funding to refrain from promoting medically-sound family planning.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Today being the last allotted day for the supply period ending March 26, 2010, the House will proceed as usual to the consideration and passage of the appropriation bills. In view of recent practices, do hon. members agree that the bills be distributed now?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the House is debating today a question of considerable importance to Canada and indeed the world.

Members of all parties will know the frightening statistics which we have now become only too well aware that every year half a million women die as the result of bearing children either during childbirth or after childbirth, which in turn means in many cases that children die as well.

The statistics are terrifying. As I have said, 500,000 women worldwide and 25,000 children a day are dying as a result of malnutrition, as a result of disease, as a result of not having enough support, not having enough care.

It is entirely appropriate that the Government of Canada, along with the other G8 countries and the G20 countries, should recommit itself to dealing with this problem and challenge.

This question is one of the key goals that is set out by the United Nations in the millennium goals which Canada has signed on to, which we have agreed to participate in and to support. It has the focus and support I think of all parties.

I think it would also be fair to say that one thing that we have all learned from the Olympics and the Paralympics is that we are proudest as a country when we are setting a standard for the rest of the world. There was no question during the Olympics and the Paralympics that that is exactly what we did and the sense of pride that we all shared as Canadians was shared because we were indeed setting such a standard.

The reason we are having this debate is because of the government's own ambiguity on this issue. It has made it necessary for us in the official opposition, and I hope we are joined by all members of the House, in expressing the common view of Canadians on this subject that the government's various pronouncements, non-announcements, and various commentaries that have been made have left us with the impression that in adopting this important initiative at the G8, which is a continuation of the commitments that we made last year at the G8, not a new initiative but a continuation of a commitment, the government itself has shown some considerable inconsistency.

This is an opportunity for the government to clear the air and to vote for the resolution, making it very clear that we are not going to allow ideology to trump science. We are not going to allow a narrow view of what the problem is to make it more difficult for Canada to be successful.

The reason that we mention the previous example of the Bush administration is that the evidence is very clear that both with respect to the fight against AIDS and with respect to this question of maternal health in the United States in those Bush years, that is exactly what happened.

Ideology trumped science and we found example after example, where in applying for NIH grants for example having to do with AIDS, scientists were discouraged from using the words “gay, homosexual, condom or prostitute”. They were not supposed to mention these facts of life as being part of the reality of this horrible pandemic which has taken hold of the world over the last 30 years.

We do not want any such gag orders in Canada. We do not want any such ideology entering into the situation. We believe very strongly that we have to be clear about what the policies of Canada are, that we understand the world consensus which has developed and is very powerful and clear.

The consensus is absolutely crystal clear and is stated in all the international documents. It says very clearly that effective family planning is going to, even of and by itself, reduce maternal deaths by as much as 30%. It is important for us to be clear on that, and it is also important for us to understand that in so doing we are going to be advancing this cause and this issue very clearly.

There are several ways in which the government has so far failed to clear the air successfully. The answers in the House over the last few days could be perhaps summed up with a modest adaptation of a phrase that was supposed to have been used by Mr. Mackenzie King, “conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription”. That has now been replaced by the government with the phrase, “contraception if necessary, but not necessarily contraception”. That is not good enough for Canada. That is not the standard we expect to be applied.

My colleagues here will all understand that in African countries the public advertising on the subject of AIDS and on the subject of the impact of AIDS on the community is very direct and very blunt. There is no ambiguity about it. There is no reluctance to use the word “condom”. There is no reluctance to understand that it is only by making condoms widely available for everyone that we will ensure we will not be transmitting sexual diseases and we will not see young people, older people, family people and people of all backgrounds being affected by AIDS.

In Africa, married women are the main victims of AIDS at the present time, and this issue cannot be separated out from the issue of maternal health. We cannot pretend it is not part of a spectrum of issues about which we have to be blunt, candid and direct in our talk and our dealings. So that is the first contradiction, and the reason it is a contradiction is that the Conservative Party has decided this issue is too tricky, too difficult for some of its own base to have to deal with; so it is trying to send out code words and code language that will satisfy things.

We have been reliably informed that, in the Department of Foreign Affairs, people are not allowed to use the phrase “international humanitarian law”. The word “equity” is not supposed to be used or applied. Women were taken out as a target group with respect to the provision of Canadian aid by the Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA.

So we have a series of contradictions. We still have a party that cannot quite come to terms with the full impact of death and destruction in the poorest countries. It cannot really come to terms with the reason women are being put in this position, this situation, and the number of steps that have to be taken to ensure women's lives are protected and children's lives are protected. “Women and children first” should be code words for all of us as we look and try to understand how it is that poverty, ill health and poor nutrition all go together to create a circle, unfortunately and tragically, a circle of death.

This is a challenge of our time. We talk often in the House about what are the key issues of our time. I have no doubt this is an issue for our time. To members in all parties, I say it is not a question of Canada's preaching to other countries, not a question of Canada's telling other countries how to deal with problems, but it is a question of Canada itself coming to terms with our own problems.

We are now in a situation where Cuba is more successful at dealing with maternal health than we are in Canada. Our statistics are worse than those in Cuba. Explain that. Explain how it would be that a country of our wealth, a country of our standard of living would still have a situation where 5.2 women out of 100,000 are losing their lives when the lowest numbers are 1.5 and 2 in the developed world.

Why is that? We do not keep the statistics carefully enough. However, we know one of the reasons is the appalling conditions on our reserves in the north of this country. The first nations people are the third world in our country. The poverty and deprivation can readily be seen simply by visiting reserves across the north, in all of Ontario and all of Quebec.

This can be seen everywhere. Poverty is not something that exists only in Africa or Latin America. Poverty is not just someone else's problem; it is also a Canadian problem. It is one of Canada's challenges. It is a challenge that we must all face together, because unfortunately, we have not yet really addressed the issue of poverty. Poverty is the cause of the serious problems facing women in first nations communities.

That is the inconsistency we see, and that is what we are trying to deal with.

The second major inconsistency I see is the policy of CIDA itself and the policy overall of the government.

In the last four years, CIDA has changed its policy of saying women and children are the priority. Women and children are not the priority, and equality for women and advancing the cause of women is no longer seen as a Canadian initiative of which the government wants to take charge and take responsibility.

If we do not face up to the fact that the promotion of the rights of women is what is going to improve maternal health, if we do not understand that connection, then we simply do not understand the issue.

To stand and say Canada is going to be launching this important initiative but we are not going to talk about women, we are not going to talk about condoms, we are not going to talk about contraception, we are not going to talk about what really matters and how we are going to do this, and by the way, we are going to cut $200 million from the budgets of the poorest countries, by Canadian transfers, and we are going to increase Canadian money going to the middle- and higher-income countries because that is the new CIDA policy of the government, to cut off those who are the poorest and pass on that money to other people, that is the inconsistency.

That is where we see a government that in fact does not seem to even know its own mind and has not been clear enough with Canadians about what needs to be done to address the issue.

If I may say so, I think it is time for this House to be very clear that we understand the connection between things. We cannot cut off money to Africa one week and then the next week say, by the way, we are going to be launching a real strategy on maternal health.

It makes no sense. We cannot cut off our investments in Africa, our humanitarian investments or our investments to help the world's poorest people. We cannot suddenly shut countries out of the CIDA system one week, and then the next week announce in Davos that we plan to introduce some excellent programs for women, because we believe in women and children.

The government has been going around in circles on this issue for the last two weeks, almost in a state of embarrassment. I am beginning to understand that the reason it is flying around in circles so much is that it has two right wings, and with two right wings the only possible direction is around in circles. That is why the balance is off.

It is important for us to focus on this question because it requires consistency. There is a transparency in the world that the government cannot avoid. Our fellow G8 countries know what the CIDA budgets are. Our fellow G8 countries know Canada's policies and how they have turned. They know that promoting the rights of women is no longer a priority for this particular Canadian government. They know what is inconsistent and what does not make sense in this regard.

The G8 countries know what Canada's own problems are. They know what is happening to our record, how we are doing in the world tables with respect to infant mortality and maternal mortality. These statistics are public. They are published and known. These countries know we are falling behind in some critical areas.

The G8 countries know that when the Prime Minister makes an announcement like the one he made in Davos, he is not being consistent with the foundations of what, in fact, his government and his party have been doing.

If the government is not going to be clear and transparent, then it is critically important for this House to state what the policies of the Government of Canada should be and how Canada should present itself to the world.

I started my remarks by pointing out that we are proudest as a country when we are setting a standard. We have to set a standard and, if we are going to set the standard, it has to be one that is clear. It has to be one in which we say with all humility that we have not been perfect; we have work to do as a country. We are not going into African villages and simply saying to do it the way we do it.

We understand we have work to do. We understand how these issues are connected. We understand that AIDS, maternal health, what is happening to kids and the overall level of poverty in a country are all connected. We also understand we have to be consistent if we are going to set a standard.

It is important for this House to take a stand, for this House to say clearly that, yes, half a million deaths among women every year is unacceptable. What we all see and have all known in our own lives as a moment of extraordinary happiness, which is the arrival of a child, instead for some is a moment of tragedy, a cause of hardship, of children being abandoned, and they in turn die in these circumstances.

Yes, the House needs to take a position. Yes, the Prime Minister is right when he says Canada should do this. But I say to the Prime Minister and to my friends in the party opposite that they have to be true, speak proudly, and be consistent in how we take on this issue as Canadians. It is simply not good enough for Canada to say here is our initiative and then start getting all mumbly-mouthed and unsure and unclear about how we are going to achieve the great goals we are setting for ourselves.

Let us be proud as Canadians of setting this standard. Let us set it for ourselves and then let us spend the money we need to spend to make it consistent with what we say needs to be done. Let us work with other countries in candour and honesty and openness. Let us talk to the world directly about why this is such a critical question and why it requires a consistent approach.

We need to be clear on the rights of women. We need to be advancing the cause of equality and what that means in the world. We need to be fighting discrimination against women. We need to be working hard to make sure women have the same rights and the same responsibilities not only in Canada but around the world. We need to be consistent and to understand that this effort starts at home and starts in Canada.

No child and no mother should be left in danger because of poverty, in danger because of their circumstances. That is the case today and it is something we need to deal with.

We need to be consistent with our aid policy. We need to make sure that our aid policy is entirely consistent with what else we are saying with respect to maternal and child health. We cannot be cutting help for the poorest countries and then turning around and saying we are going to deal with it in this way.

We have to get away from this situation where ideology trumps science, where ideology trumps what is in place. One only has to look at the Texas textbook situation to understand that the conservative movement, which the Prime Minister has called his personal source of inspiration, is transforming much of education and science in America by its determination to make these respond to ideology and not facts.

I do not want to see that imported into Canada. I want to see us stand strong as Canadians for the values we uphold, and then we can be proud because we are indeed setting a standard for the rest of the world.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Madam Speaker, I did listen with interest to my hon. colleague who did raise some good points that all Canadians are concerned about, no matter which side of the House we are on, namely, maternal and child care and making sure these are the best they can be. However, I would offer a couple of comments, including one for him to respond to.

First, if he thinks we have difficulty flying with only right wings, it may be because he has the corner on the left-wing market.

Second, he talks about our being mumbly-mouthed and inconsistent. That is simply not true. In this case it illustrates the difference between hearing and listening. They just do not want to listen. That is politics and we understand that, but I would offer a concrete example for my hon. colleague to perhaps comment on regarding the work Canada has done around the world and the very concrete impact it has had, and that is the example of Afghanistan.

Five or six years ago, less than 10% of Afghans had access to health care. Now 80% to 85% have access to health care, and most of the people who were missing that health care were women and children. There are now 40,000 Afghan babies who do not die in childbirth every year because Canada and our allies, such as the United States, are there.

I would offer those two examples for my hon. colleague to comment on, or not, showing that we are in fact making a difference around the world.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate those comments by my friend from Edmonton, because they are in regard to a good example of where we have put our minds to it and said, “Yes, this is an issue”. Frankly, in Afghanistan we have also said that women are an issue. We have also said that women's rights are important. We have also talked about what needs to be done.

As my colleagues will know and the member opposite knows, because of his many trips there, maternal mortality is still a significant issue in Afghanistan. The stats are still very high; but yes, it is true that we have made a difference there. Frankly, if we look at the effort in Afghanistan, it has been a 10-year effort in which all parties have participated in and talked about the aid element. All parties are agreed on the aid component on our work in Afghanistan. We might have other disagreements in the House, but the example was a good one of where in fact we can go.

My problem is that the approach is not consistent with what is happening with the government's policy in Africa. On our policy in Africa we are seeing a complete change by the government, and that is troubling us a great deal.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, last Thursday I had the opportunity to go to a breakfast in Vancouver sponsored by the West Coast LEAF, a wonderful organization in Vancouver that focuses on women and the issues facing them.

They spoke about the continued inequality facing women, not only in Canada but also around the world. They spoke of the fact that every policy of government needs to be placed through a gender lens, because policies often have a different impact on women than men.

They spoke directly about contraception, family planning and reproductive health choices, and the direct connection between these issues and the health of women and girls. In listening to these women, we were struck by the introduction of ideology in government decisions into these matters of basic health and basic equality.

I am wondering if my hon. colleague could speak about what he has noticed in his career and about this government regarding the introduction of ideology into questions of fundamentally sound policy choices and health issues.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, I think one has to say that International Planned Parenthood has received moneys from the Government of Canada consistently since the early 1980s, including from the Mulroney government. There was never any question.

Now it is an issue. It has not been funded this year; it is the first time the federation has not been funded since the early 1980s. I do not think this is an accident or happenstance. The fact is that its efforts have been promoted, helped and assisted by CIDA for 30 years, and suddenly its people are in the dark as to what their source of funding is going to be.

We all understand that these are not easy issues to talk our way through. Of course, there are going to be differences between members on some of these questions. However, we should be focusing on the things and questions that we are clear about, that we do know about and about which we have reached a powerful consensus as a world.

We understand perfectly well that promoting women's equality promotes women's health. There is a direct connection and direct link between them. I would even argue that the fact there are not more women in this House of Commons is one of the reasons these debates are even taking place. I think that is something we have to come to terms with as a country.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the member's speech because I thought the motion was incredibly ambiguous.

The hon. member talks about the government's ambiguity, but we have been pretty clear that this is all about providing health care, clean water and basic nutrition. We have doubled aid to Africa since taking office. I know this is something that our government is very proud of. Bob Geldolf and Bono, the lead singer of U2, have specifically come out and praised this government for keeping our commitment to double aid to Africa.

I do not think we have been ambiguous at all, but this member sure has been. This is an incredibly ambiguous motion. I do not think it was written in an upfront fashion; maybe it was just written hastily.

Perhaps the member could do us all a favour and define what family planning means to him. I would like to know.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, I think family planning means giving and providing women and men with information about reproductive health care. It means giving people access to contraception, so they can have an ability to plan their families and to deal with this in a way they want. It means working with other governments and host governments in a very direct way on the impact that lack of family planning can have on people and family health. I do not think there is any ambiguity about it at all.

With respect to the question of Africa, the hon. member has to look at the budgets the minister has tabled this year. The member has to look at the estimates for this year, which show a reduction of over 8% for the poorest countries and an increase of 11% for middle-income countries. That is what the government is doing.

It is also reducing by 8% the CIDA budgets for fragile states and, again, increasing transfers in other areas. It has moved its priorities away from women. It has moved its priorities away from maternal health at the same time it is announcing this as some kind of brand new Canadian initiative. It is nonsense.

[Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Madam Speaker, when it comes to being pro life, does it not mean enabling women and men to have full access to an array of family planning options, including the ability to access safe abortions in those countries where it is legal, the ability to access condoms, the ability to access the education and knowledge they need to protect themselves?

I say this because failure to do the above will only allow a continuation of the 63,000 women who die every single year from septic abortions, and it will not enable us to deal with the HIV-AIDS pandemic that is killing over 2.2 million people a year and leaving a sea of orphans.

In connection to the Conservative member's comments, does my friend not think that family planning is there to allow women and men to have that full range of family planning options so they can save their lives, the lives of their children and their families?

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

All I can say, Madam Speaker, is that I agree entirely with the comments of the hon. member.

Perhaps the debate will give us a chance to hear from him and other members who are so knowledgeable on this issue. I mention particularly my colleague, the hon. member for St. Paul's, with whom I have worked closely; my colleague from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca; and other members of the House who are very concerned about this issue and who, if I may say so, have been very consistent in their advocacy.

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Minister of International Cooperation]

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont.

As the Minister of International Cooperation, I am proud of the government's initiative to champion a very important cause at Canada's G8 summit. It is estimated that half a million women die each year from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. In the developing world, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth every minute of every day. What makes it worse is that the bulk of the deaths during pregnancy, as much as 80% of the deaths, according to experts, are easily preventable.

The numbers on child mortality are equally concerning. According to UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, approximately nine million children die each year before their fifth birthday. In developing countries they are dying from illness and diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia and HIV/AIDS, and nearly 750,000 children under the age of five die of malaria, mostly in Africa.

This is simply unacceptable, especially considering that the solutions are relatively inexpensive. The cost of clean water, inoculations, and better nutrition, as well as the training of health care workers to care for women and deliver healthy babies is within the reach of any country in the G8.

This government understands the urgency of this issue. Over the past decade we have seen the least progress made in improving maternal and child health, and in some developing countries we even see these mortality rates increasing.

As pointed out at the Canadian Conference on International Health last fall, a society has little chance to thrive if it fails to keep its mothers and babies healthy. For this reason, maternal and child health is one of the three key paths in CIDA's priority of securing a future for children and youth. This means starting with the mother and ensuring that women are able to have a safe, healthy pregnancy so they can take care of their children.

Canada is already fulfilling these objectives in a number of ways. For starters, we recognize that our initiative is just one part of improving maternal and child health.

The United Nations population fund estimates that fulfilling the unmet need for modern contraceptives could lead to 150,000 fewer maternal deaths and 640,000 fewer newborn deaths every year. For example, in Tanzania, in collaboration with the Government of Tanzania and Marie Stopes Tanzania, CIDA supports six project centres that have reached 400,000 Tanzanians with services such as antenatal care, immunization, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, counselling and maternal and child health care.

Increasing access to health services is also a key programming area for CIDA-supported international work. In addition, responding to the needs in developing countries, health care is integrated with other CIDA-supported health related activities.

Many experts and international reports, such as UNESCO, have reported that the single most effective way to reduce maternal mortality is access to health care systems and trained health care providers.

In western Mali, CIDA's support has helped to ensure that skilled health care workers attend almost half of all deliveries. Through CIDA's support for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada and its partners in Guatemala, approximately 733 health professionals have been trained to improve the health of mothers and newborns during childbirth.

The other equally important part of our maternal and child health path is to promote a healthy start for infants and young children so they may later attend school and become active and contributing members in their communities.

We are working to ensure children have access to proper nutrition, clean water and medical services, like immunization and neo-natal care. We are helping to provide vitamin A, iodine and other micronutrients, which play a crucial role in the health of young children and mothers.

As a founding partner and principal donor of the micronutrient initiative, Canada is well known for its leadership on vitamin A and iodine. Indeed, UNICEF has said that Canada's support for iodized salt programs has saved 6 million children from mental impairment.

Each year, waterborne diseases contribute to the deaths of over 10 million children under five years of age, particularly in Africa. Our government has invested approximately $208 million in the area of clean water supply and sanitation worldwide between 2006 and 2009 which has resulted in better access to clean water for hundreds of thousands of people.

Canada is also saving children's lives through the catalytic initiative to save a million lives. In fact, CIDA was the first to support this UNICEF initiative in the training and equipping of front line health workers to deliver modern malaria treatments, bed nets, antibiotics for infections and other key health services to children and vulnerable groups.

The need is great and we have an opportunity to make a real difference. This government has given long and careful thought to this. We have gone to great lengths to ensure that our efforts are guided by sound evidence and CIDA has already started work with our G8 partners in order to develop the most effective approach.

I have personally met with a wide variety of experienced partners, stakeholders and practitioners in the field of maternal and child health in developing countries, including organizations such as CARE Canada, UNICEF Canada, World Vision Canada, Save the Children Canada, RESULTS Canada and Plan International.

I met with representatives of the Canadian Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Their collective experience and knowledge represents potential and hope: potential for Canadian leadership and meaningful action. In fact, the G8 countries, development organizations and non-governmental organizations have all expressed their support for the Prime Minister's focus on maternal and child health for this year's G8 summit.

Over the next few months, we will continue to work in order to find the best approach. A development ministerial meeting will be held in Halifax from April 26 to 28 to further develop the initiative in preparation for the June leadership summit.

We will be voting against the motion before the House. This motion is a transparent attempt to reopen the abortion debate that we have clearly said we have no intention of getting into. By voting against this motion, we are proving that we will not open the abortion debate. In addition, the motion contains a rash, extreme anti-American rhetoric that we cannot as a matter of foreign policy support.

Improving the health of mothers and children under the age of five is important. It is urgently needed and not an option. It is an obligation. We owe it to Canadians and we owe it to the millions of women and children who need our help the most.

[Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Madam Speaker, let us get to the heart of the matter. This is about saving lives. We need to talk about some facts. As the minister correctly said, if we want to save the lives of babies, mothers and men, people need to have access to trained health care workers and health systems, but tools are crucial to the ability of those workers to do their jobs.

One of the fundamental tools for saving the lives of women is their ability to access a full range of family planning: condoms, birth control and access to safe abortions where it is legal. That is the medical consensus among the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, FIGO and the Partnership of Maternal and Child Health. This is a medical issue and those are the medical facts.

On the abortion issue, let us not reopen the door on abortion but let us honour what exists. Women in Canada have a right to abortions. Why not allow women in other countries to have the same right? The absence of that has resulted in 63,000 women dying of septic abortions. Half of their children under the age of five will also die. Families are destroyed.

Will the minister do the right thing and allow women to have a full range of family planning options, including access to safe abortions where it is legal in those countries?

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Madam Speaker, as clearly just demonstrated, here again, as we have said, is a transparent attempt to open an abortion debate in this House. We have clearly stated from the beginning that we have no intention of opening the abortion debate.

What we have said is that we are open to considering all options, including contraception, and addressing them. Measures, according to statistics, as I said in my presentation, are making very little progress and in many countries, particularly in Africa, are increasing those mortality rates. We cannot stand by. We need to ensure we are effective and have some results in increasing the health of women and children.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, according to the World Health Organization, “The first step for avoiding maternal deaths is to ensure that women have access to family planning” and reproductive health choices.

Family planning, it states, could prevent 25% of maternal and child deaths in the developing world by preventing risky births that are too close together, too early or too late in a woman's life, and modern contraception helps fight the spread of HIV and AIDS by allowing HIV-positive women to space births for optimal health and access services to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

As my colleague just stated, my figures are that an estimated 74,000 women around the world die as a result of unsafe abortions that could be prevented with contraception and access to safe abortion facilities.

I will stay away from abortion, for the moment, and just talk about contraception.

I am glad the government is talking about contraception now but I would like to know from the minister why the current government was reluctant to include the word “contraception,” or that concept, when it first announced its program. What was the problem with discussing contraception or making that a part of Canada's foreign policy?

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate that the member is demonstrating that this is not the time nor the place to open up a debate on abortion. I want to also ensure that we have stipulated very clearly that we are open to all options, and it is specifically for clarification, including contraception. As the member and many of us know, there are many ways and many paths we can follow to improve the health of mothers and babies.

What our government has been committed to from day one is to ensure that its international assistance is effective, will get results and will make a difference in the lives of women and children.

I would refer members to the UNESCO report that states that the single most effective way to address maternal and child mortality is access to health care systems and trained professionals. That is consistent with our attempt to analyze and see how we can be effective, use taxpayer dollars in a meaningful way and get real results.