Debates of June 14th, 2011

Libya

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the reasons that Parliament voted unanimously back in March to impose sanctions against the Libyan regime and undertake a UN sanctioned mission exist today. We are there to protect the vulnerable civilian population that is under attack by its own government.

We believe the military mission is incredibly important but so too is adding humanitarian support, additional diplomatic measures and, as has been suggested by others in the House, support for good governance from the transitional council.

We will be working closely with the transitional council and ensuring that our men and women in the armed forces have the tools they need to do the job.

Search and Rescue

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Speaker, it is senseless, reckless, hasty and dangerous. Those are some of the words used to describe the decision to close the rescue communication centre in my riding of St. John's South—Mount Pearl. Experts, unions, the provincial fisheries minister and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have all spoken out against this indefensible move by the Conservative government.

Will the minister listen to the people of my province and reverse this reckless decision?

[Keith Ashfield, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the consolidation of the regional dispatch centre into the existing Joint Rescue Coordination Centre will have no negative impact on the current levels of service provided by the Canadian Coast Guard. Safety and response time will not be affected.

This consolidation is due to technological advances and represents a positive change by locating all maritime and air search and rescue coordinations in the same centre working side by side.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has his speaking notes down pat.

Where are the government's priorities? It finds billions for fighter jets and corporate tax give-aways but then make cuts that jeopardize the safety of Canadians who work off our shores. We have one of the worst search and rescue response times in the world. We should be improving our services, not cutting them.

Will the minister abandon his rash cuts and implement the Wells inquiry recommendations to improve our rescue response times and save lives?

[Keith Ashfield, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, I see that the member opposite has his questions down pat as well.

The fact is that mariners in distress will continue to be serviced by the same lifeboats, the same inshore rescue boats, the same Coast Guard vehicles and the same aircraft from the same present locations. This will have no impact on safety and is a very positive move.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in response to my colleague from Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine regarding the closure of the search and rescue office in Quebec City, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans said that the Halifax centre would be offering the same services as the Quebec City office.

Can the minister explain how those services could possibly remain the same, without any impact on quality, when just last Friday, some people calling the centre in Halifax were not able to receive adequate, prompt service in French?

[Keith Ashfield, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, we have indicated all along that bilingual services will be available. There will be no change in the service provided. The Canadian Coast Guard will ensure that bilingual capacity will be made available at the consolidated joint rescue centres.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, this reminds me of Service Canada in the Atlantic provinces.

Quebeckers want services in French. Since this government cannot even ensure that Canadians can have their cases heard in French in the country's highest court, it should come as no surprise that it cannot guarantee French-language services after it closes the search and rescue offices in Quebec City.

Search and rescue means saving lives. Does this government realize that Canadians did not give it a mandate to endanger people's safety?

[Keith Ashfield, Conservative, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, I thought I was very clear in my answer to the previous question.

The maritime communities across Canada will continue to be served in both official languages by the Coast Guard ships, the Coast Guard auxiliary and the Canadian Forces aircraft. The Canadian Coast Guard will ensure that bilingual capacity exists at all of the joint rescue coordination centres.

The Environment

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government submitted a bogus report to the United Nations claiming that it was reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 megatonnes every year.

A few weeks later, the government gave Parliament another report stating that reductions were actually 10 times less, or only 4 megatonnes annually.

Why did the government cook the books in its report to the UN?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, that is a gross miscalculation of reality. In fact, the report was accurate. In the year in question, 2009, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 42 megatonnes, which was as result of the economic downturn.

In the separate report to comply with the Kyoto treaty reporting, we also very accurately reported the forecasts and the megatonne emissions.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the report to the UN painted such a rosy picture because the government deliberately left out the oil sands. That is a pretty big omission.

Why did the government deliberately try to mislead the UN?

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I would caution the member that the term “deliberately mislead” has consistently been found to be unparliamentary.

I see the hon. Minister of the Environment is standing to answer so I will allow him to respond.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the assumption of the question is absolutely false. We did report, in the document provided to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, precise acknowledgement that in 2009 the oil sands industry contributed precisely 6.5% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Canadian Wheat Board

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, in the private sector it would be unthinkable to dismantle the largest and most successful grain marketing company in the world without at least a comprehensive cost benefit analysis, without impact studies to measure the impact on the Prairie communities and without an assessment of liabilities, like broken contracts for ships that are already on order. Some would say that it would even be foolish.

I do not think the minister of agriculture is a fool by any means, an ideological zealot maybe but not a fool. Would he table these analyses to defend his principles if he so believes--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of quotes that I think the member opposite would be interested in. One is from Kevin Bender of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. Just recently he said, “...give farmers the freedom to market their wheat and barley crops using whatever sales agent they want”.

It is followed by another quote that says, “They have a monopoly. A monopoly has to be regulated or reigned in or it can’t be allowed to exist”.

Do members know who said that? It was said by the member from Winnipeg Centre.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, from the minister's answer, he does not have these documents. He has not done even the fundamental research on the impact studies.

Can anyone Imagine legislating a multi-billion dollar corporation out of existence without even doing the basic fundamental research? The only sure outcome of this ideological crusade is taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the pockets of Prairie grain producers and putting it into the pockets of the shareholders, of the very robber barons who used to gouge them for a century until we created the Canadian Wheat Board.

if the minister has evidence that it is a good deal, why will he not table it here in the House?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, the best way is to move past these partisan attacks, get the politics out of this and actually talk about the people involved in the industry.

When he talks about a cost benefit analysis, Phil de Kemp of the Malting Industry of Canada said, “The Malting Industry of Canada would like to extend our support for your government's announced plans to begin the legislative process to allow for the marketing choice of barley via the removal of the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board”.

The Malting Industry is saying that it will enjoy being able to market its malt barley and actually do it in a more fulsome way.

We know that all of the processing sectors, whether it is a flour mill or a pasta plant, have moved south of the border simply because they cannot do it in Canada. That has to change.

Public Safety

[David Wilks, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are rightly outraged. Yesterday, the federal court ordered the Minister of Public Safety to review his decision to deny the transfer of Alexie Randhawa to serve his sentence in Canada. This individual was found with 107 kilograms of cocaine in his vehicle, probably destined for North American youth.

Would the Minister of Public Safety please tell the House what our Conservative government is doing to ensure that dangerous criminals who are serving their sentence in the country where they committed their crimes are not sent to Canada?

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot comment on any individual case. However, it is important to be very clear. Canadians who commit crimes abroad run the risk of facing justice abroad. Our government tabled legislation in the last Parliament to ensure that Canadians are kept safe from international offenders. Shockingly, the NDP voted to gut the bill, even going so far as to attempt to remove every reference to "protecting victims".

Law-abiding Canadians can be reassured that we will reintroduce this legislation as soon as possible and, unlike the NDP, we will put the rights of victims ahead of criminals.

Foreign Affairs

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, there is a disturbing pattern of the government abandoning Canadians in difficulty abroad.

Henk Tepper, a New Brunswick potato farmer, has been in a Lebanese prison for almost three months following a commercial dispute. Mr. Tepper's wife and young children say that they have heard nothing but dead air from this government. They have received no information.

It is unacceptable for the government to abandon Canadians in circumstances as difficult as Mr. Tepper's. When will the government intervene with Lebanese authorities, have Mr. Tepper released from the prison in Lebanon and brought back to Canada?

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas and Consular Affairs)]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his courtesy in letting me know he would be raising this issue. I also thank him for the opportunity to set the record straight.

In fact, Mr. Tepper and his family have been given substantial, vigorous and active assistance since the time he was arrested. There have been regular visits and there has been regular contact with Mr. Tepper, his family and his lawyers to give all possible assistance.

Sports Infrastructure

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in order to allow young people in Lavaltrie to play sports and the secondary school to develop a sports education program, the town needs a sports complex. The Conservatives told us that the regions were their priority. Regional development is also my priority.

Will the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities agree to review the request for funding for this project, which will help the economic and social development of Lavaltrie and the surrounding area?