Debates of March 7th, 2011

Health

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, what is shameful is that the NDP members had every opportunity. When we offer transfers to the provinces, those members vote against everything in health care.

As the member knows, the delivery of heath services is the prerogative of the provinces and we work closely with the provinces and territories to ensure they have the resources to deliver those services.

She and her entire party should be ashamed that they vote against every opportunity to give more money to the provinces to provide more doctors, more services and more medication to the people of Canada who need it. That is their record.

Quebec City Arena

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister responsible for the Quebec City region is rejecting Mayor Labeaume's proposal on the pretext that the federal government does not have any programs to support facilities that are designed primarily for professional sports. Nevertheless, an internal memo stated that, although the multi-purpose arena could house a professional team, this was not a condition of the proposal.

Rather than misrepresenting Mayor Labeaume's proposal, why will the minister not recognize that this is a multi-purpose arena for which the government must provide immediate funding?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, our position has been clear for several months. We indicated that we do not have a program for facilities designed mainly to house professional sports teams. We also indicated that the private sector must make a significant investment. Given the fact that most of the money for the proposed Quebec City arena is public money, the federal government does not have a program to support it.

That being said, at the beginning of October, 60,000 people marched on the Plains of Abraham to bring back the Nordiques.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Press tried to obtain details about the government's deliberations on the Quebec City arena. They received only 60-some pages with half of the information censored.

Since there have been doubts from the beginning that the Conservatives actually intended to help fund the arena, why does the minister not make public all the internal documents related to this project? What does she have to hide?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues in the Quebec City region and I have nothing to hide. We have a solid track record. The Bloc has no track record to speak of.

Access to information requests are made under the act and given to public servants who apply the act.

Access to Information

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, North Africa is going after tyrants and fighting for democracy, but here in Canada, it is the Conservatives who are attacking our democracy. They continue to refuse to be held accountable by covering up anything that could enable Canadians to judge their actions.

The latest example we have is the document on the financing of the Quebec City arena with page after page blacked out. There are no state secrets here. They are only hiding the dangerous incompetence of this irresponsible government.

Why are the Conservatives so afraid of transparency?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, access to information requests are administered by qualified, independent public servants who apply the legislation.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

It has come to this, Mr. Speaker. In order for members of the House to do our jobs and make informed decisions on behalf of Canadians, we need to pry scraps of relevant information out of the Conservatives' clenched fists and drag it out of them as they kick and scream at committee.

I will remind them that they have a deadline to meet today to produce the costs of prisons, planes and corporate tax giveaways. Or, do they actually take pride in being found in contempt of Parliament and, therefore, in contempt of Canadians?

[John Baird, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the member for Papineau that the information that was requested by the finance committee has already been tabled in the House.

Afghanistan

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

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are right to distrust the government's plans for the extension of the military mission in Afghanistan.

We know that weeks after its about-face announcement of the extension, the government had to send a fact-finding mission to the region to figure out what to do.

Today we learn that the government still has not decided what our soldiers will be doing and that it is running out of time to do so.

How can the government promise a Kabul-centric mission when it has not even figured it out for itself?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the member has it all wrong. In part of his answer he said that he had not learned. That is true because we have not released the details. What we have said is that the combat mission will come to an end this year, that we will transition into a training mission, which will be Kabul-centric, meaning in the Kabul region; and that there will be work done to continue the important efforts by the Canadian Forces to impart the skill set needed by the Afghan security forces to do what we do.

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

Mr. Speaker, first it was to be military training in classrooms behind the wire in Kabul. Then the line was that it was to be Kabul-centric. Now we find out that the Conservatives do not know where our troops will be going.

This is not the first time the government has extended our military mission in Afghanistan by saying one thing to Canadians and doing another. Previous extensions were supposed to be about training too, but our soldiers continued to be put in harm's way.

How can the government expect Canadians to keep buying the same lines over and over? It is time the government kept its promise, repeated again and again, to bring all of our soldiers home in 2011.

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite and his party have made it very clear that they do not support the ongoing mission in Afghanistan. We, in fact, believe it is important. We continue with our NATO allies to support the efforts in Afghanistan, to see the Afghan national security forces improve their professionalism and to give them the ability to defend their own borders and their own security. This has been an ongoing effort for which Canadians can be very proud.

The effort will be in transitioning to training in and around the Kabul area. The focus will be on training, not combat.

The Economy

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

Mr. Speaker, recently the Liberals sent the member for Willowdale to Brantford looking to attack my riding. The Liberals found a local business, Brant Screen Craft, that happened to be removing a sign from its building that day. The Liberals said that was a sad sign of depressing Brant. However, the only depressing thing is cheap Liberal politics because the hard-working people of Brant Screen Craft were actually expanding their operations, putting up a brand new sign and hiring 50 people.

Could the Minister of Finance explain why this company is expanding?

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Brant is doing a fine job for the people and businesses of Brant, the employers of Brant.

The only thing that is sad and depressing about this is that the Liberals keep getting it wrong. They are wrong with their high-tax plan and wrong with their planned tax hike. They should listen to the people who are running the business and hiring 50 new people in Brant. They say:

“[The Liberals’] attempt at disparaging the Conservatives...was a disaster…. Ironically, we had looked into locating our finishing...facility in Michigan. The corporate tax cuts and programs provided by the Conservative government were the deciding factor—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Halifax West.

Former Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister paid Christiane Ouimet half a million dollars after she resigned as integrity commissioner. There is no other job in Canada where one can get rich for quitting.

It is clear that the Prime Minister is buying her silence, but why is he paying her half a million dollars in hush money? What is he so desperate to hide?

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

Mr. Speaker, the government sought legal advice in this matter and it has followed that advice. That individual, quite rightly, reports to an all party committee, the same committee that approved her original hiring. The committee has asked for and has received all the details related to this matter.

The former commissioner will be reporting to that committee this week and I would expect that members of Parliament, who have all the information, would pose the questions. That is where this should be taking place.

Foreign Affairs

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc told the Minister of Foreign Affairs what options were available to him in order to freeze Ben Ali's assets without the need for special legislation. Specifically, the government could use section 354 and part XII.2 of the Criminal Code as well as article 54 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption to immediately freeze the assets of Ben Ali and his family.

Did the minister look at the Bloc's proposals and will he immediately freeze the assets that were stolen from the Tunisian people?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Bloc member for that legal advice. Of course, he got it completely wrong.

We work with Tunisia. We work with other countries. I am very pleased and very proud that the legislation to correct the laws of our country and fill in the gaps will go to committee today.

This hon. member should get behind that. Let us get it passed by the end of the week.

Rail Transportation

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Mr. Speaker, for years, rail companies have been gouging western farmers out of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to ship their crops.

In 2007-08 farmers were overcharged $123 million and in 2008-09 another $275 million. Service continues to decline, while the government is holding back on releasing the railway service review report that was promised by the end of 2010. Repeated calls for a railway costing review have been unanswered, while the robbery continues.

When will the minister finally release the railway service review? When will he commit to a full costing review of railway charges?

[Rob Merrifield, Conservative, Minister of State (Transport)]

Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify something for my hon. colleague because he may not understand the prairie farmers. What they really have a problem with is service. That is why we put a professional panel in place to deal with rail service in our country. I have the report. We will be announcing our next steps to that report very soon.

Mining Industry

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Conservative Party members are aware that mining is at the heart of many rural communities in Canada and provides stable, well-paying jobs to hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

While the opposition spends more time criticizing Canada's mining activities around the world, Canada's expertise is sought to help promote mining and complete mining in a safe and responsible way.

Could the parliamentary secretary tell the House how our Conservative government is helping to support thousands of jobs across Canada in the mining sector?

[David Anderson, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the opposition, our government has a long-standing commitment to the Canadian mining industry.

With the support of a strong rural caucus, including the member for Cariboo—Prince George, we have taken steps to create mining jobs by lowering taxes, the flow-through tax credit for exploration, and by reducing red tape.

I am proud to say that today the Minister of Natural Resources announced the extension of the targeted geoscience initiative for three more years. This investment will strengthen the Canadian economy. It will support the more than 300,000 Canadians who work in mining.

We are proud of this investment and we are proud of our support for rural Canada.

Former Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Ms. Ouimet received more than 228 complaints from public servants and did nothing. The supposedly independent officer of Parliament was taking direct orders from the Prime Minister's Office to cover up complaints of wrongdoing.

Now the Prime Minister has paid her $500,000 to shut her mouth. When will he admit that the creation of the integrity commission was a sham to cover up wrongdoing and protect his power?