Debates of Feb. 26th, 2014

Procedure and House Affairs

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I did find it interesting that the House leader of the New Democratic Party stood up on a point of order and talked about consultation, and then a member from his own political party stood up and introduced a motion.

I want to make reference to this occurrence because in his opening comments on his point of order, the NDP House leader did impute motives of the member for Scarborough—Agincourt. That is, we have to take all members as being honourable members. On two consecutive days, Monday and Tuesday, the member for Scarborough—Agincourt attempted to bring in this issue as an emergency debate and has worked very hard to try to build on a consensus to get this. The New Democrats have been afforded the opportunity to have—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

I see the hon. member for Scarborough—Agincourt is rising on a point of order. I do hope he recognizes my concern that this is quickly devolving into a debate about perhaps what goes on at a House leaders' meeting and not actually a point of order. However, I will hear him and hope that he gets to a point of order very quickly.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in reference to what the House leader from the NDP said, he should be the one who questions what happened. It was given 24 hours. They came back and forth. The basic stuff was here. They came back and forth and they even tried to blackmail us if we did not go their way. They are going to present—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order.

It has never been the practice of the Chair to pronounce on things that take place during House leaders' meetings or what goes on in negotiations to try to find unanimous consent. The Chair's job is quite simple: it is to see if unanimous consent exists at this time, and clearly it does not. Perhaps throughout the day or the rest of the week, there will be a different outcome, but at the moment there is clearly no consent, and I will ask hon. members to come to order.

Presenting petitions, the hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst has the floor.

VIA Rail

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

Mr. Speaker, I have here a petition signed by several hundred people who are urging the Government of Canada to take any measures necessary to restore VIA Rail's daily round-trip service between Montreal, Quebec, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, via Campbellton, Bathurst and Miramichi, New Brunswick.

Canada Post

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition to the House of Commons from residents and constituents in Sarnia—Lambton concerning the reduction in Canada Post services.

Sex Selection

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, recently the CBC revealed that ultrasounds are being used in Canada to tell the sex of an unborn child so that expectant parents can chose to terminate the pregnancy if the unborn child is a girl.

The petitioners call upon all members of Parliament to condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination.

Canada Post

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table petitions from citizens of Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Morinville, Wetaskiwin, Fort McMurray, Stony Plain, and Grande Prairie. The petitioners call for the Government of Canada to reverse the cuts to services announced by Canada Post and to look instead for ways to innovate. They are concerned about the cuts to the service, which will hurt seniors and disabled Canadians.

Health Accord

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is from Edmontonians calling on the government to fully co-operate with the provinces and territories to negotiate a new health accord by 2014 that improves health care services through stronger federal leadership backed by long-term and stable health care funding.

Canada Post

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

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by a number of people from Cranbrook, British Columbia, calling on the Government of Canada to reverse the cuts to services announced by Canada Post and to look instead for ways to innovate in areas such as postal banking.

Snow Sport Helmets

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have to petitions to present. The first one is from over 700 petitioners who say that whereas in the summer of 2008 the Canadian Standards Association published standards for safe recreational snow sport helmets, they therefore call on the Government of Canada to amend the Hazardous Products Act to prohibit the advertising, sale, or importation into Canada of any recreational snow sport helmet that does not meet the standards of the Canadian Standards Association.

Experimental Lakes Area

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from about 70 petitioners who wish the Government of Canada to recognize the importance of the ELA to the Government of Canada's mandate to study, preserve, and protect aquatic ecosystems; reverse its decision to close the ELA research station; and continue to staff and provide financial resources for the ELA at the current level of commitment or at a higher one.

Impaired Driving

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I stand on behalf of my constituents of South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, who are calling for tougher laws and a new mandatory minimum sentence for those convicted of impaired driving and for redefining the offence of impaired driving causing death as vehicular manslaughter.

Canada Post

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions to present. The first petition asks the Government of Canada to reverse the cuts to services announced by Canada Post and to look instead for ways to innovate in areas such as postal banking.

Genetically Modified Alfalfa

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition calls upon Parliament to impose a moratorium on the release of genetically modified alfalfa in order to allow a proper review of the impact on farmers in Canada.

Food and Drugs Act

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition calls on the House to amend the Food and Drugs Act to establish mandatory labelling for genetically modified foods.

Canada Post

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition from my constituents on the changes that are happening at Canada Post. I, of course, have made my own views on the subject known by writing an article locally in the Saint Croix Courier. These are nonetheless the opinions of my constituents, and I table them with respect.

The Environment

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

Mr. Speaker, my first petition asks the Government of Canada to ban bulk oil tanker traffic off the north coast of B.C. and say no to the Enbridge northern gateway pipeline.

Parks Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, my second petition asks the Government of Canada to extend the operating hours of the Rideau Canal and the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Canada Post

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

Mr. Speaker, the third petition asks the government to maintain and improve postal service to Canadians under the Canada postal service charter.

They note that the reduction of service means the loss of thousands of good jobs and hurts seniors and people with disabilities.

The Environment

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

Mr. Speaker, the fourth petition calls on the Government of Canada to return the Port of Oshawa back to the citizens of Oshawa through their local city council.

Pensions

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

Mr. Speaker, the last petition asks the federal government to lift seniors out of poverty by enhancing the pension system, increasing the guaranteed income supplement, and keeping the eligibility for old age security at 65 years and not 67 years.

Impaired Driving

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition calling upon Parliament and the government to make a change to the Criminal Code of Canada with respect to drinking and driving. The petitioners wish the charges to be more severe, moving up toward vehicular manslaughter.

Mining Industry

[Jean-François Larose, NDP, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present two petitions today. The first is from Saint-Paul-l'Ermite parish in Repentigny and the other from Saints-Simon-et-Jude parish in Charlemagne.

Reports show that mining companies are problematic. These petitions call for the creation of a legal ombudsman mechanism for responsible mining.

The Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor is ineffective. We need to create a legal ombudsman mechanism that can receive, investigate and assess information and make its findings public so that remedial action can be taken.