Joe Fontana

[Job Creation, March 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.

When the government announced on February 24 that it had accepted the BAPE report on the Hydro Quebec project it also indicated at that time that there would be certain steps taken before a permit was issued.

As the member should know, the environment must and will be protected. The Department of Transport is working very closely with the province and all other parties to finalize the permit. It has only been a month since the government has accepted the project. It will not be issued until all the pieces are in place.

I can assure the hon. member that yes, we are concerned that jobs are at stake and yes, we want the project to go ahead; but there are conditions to be met before the permit is issued and we are working relentlessly to make that happen.

[Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Suspension Act, March 21st, 1994]

We are not dying.

[Via Rail, March 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the member for Brant for her question and her great interest in this matter.

As the Minister of Transport stated in the House, VIA Rail is another entity for which our department is responsible and which faces a very troubled future.

Members of the House know that VIA has known of its budgetary parameters and responsibilities for quite some time. VIA has made some efficiency gains but is a long way from achieving what it must.

VIA Corporation, its 3.7 million passengers and especially its workers all must be part of the solution if we are to achieve a national, sustainable, efficient and affordable passenger rail system. Taxpayers not only expect this but demand it of government.

[Saint Lawrence Seaway, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Anjou-Rivière-des-Prairies for raising this motion.

Let me begin by informing the House, as the previous member has, that the St. Lawrence seaway is truly a national treasure. He pointed out that it is one of the transportation corridors and an important link in the economic well-being of all of Canada.

The hon. member indicated, and should understand, that the 2,000 miles of the waterway extend from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Thunder Bay, which is located at the head of the Great Lakes. Aside from the lakes and rivers of the system, ships traverse 6 canals and 15 locks, of which 13 locks are Canadian and 2 locks are American, before they reach the end of the seaway.

Since the St. Lawrence seaway opened in 1959, Canada has not stood still in advancing navigation in the seaway.

Indeed, we have been able to take advantage of much new technology that has been developed to combat ice formation in locks and canals. This technology has allowed the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority to add a number of days to the shipping season. The navigation season on the waterway from Thunder Bay to Montreal now extends from late March to late December.

Current technology, however, does not permit us to keep every lock and the canal system open to navigation throughout the entire year. In order to sail the seaway in winter we would need to keep the locks and canals ice free, have buoys in place year round, as well as have many additional icebreakers to escort vessels and keep the broken ice moving throughout the system.

It is quite simply impossible for an icebreaker, and the member should understand that his motion is faulty in this respect, or any other vessel to enter a lock filled with ice without causing extensive damage to the lock infrastructure.

Therefore escorting vessels above the first lock at St. Lambert would be next to impossible, even with extensive retrofitting of the lock and canal structures.

As my hon. friend may be aware, the federal government has a primary mandate to provide flood control services on the upper St. Lawrence River. The Canadian Coast Guard is responsible for providing these services and has done so since 1904.

Icebreakers operate in the river throughout the winter to keep a channel open as far as Montreal for the unobstructed movement of broken ice downstream. This activity prevents ice jams from forming and also permits the passage of ships except for the periods, and I am sure that the member would recognize this, when there have been abnormally severe weather and ice conditions.

The river has been kept open year-round since the late 1950s.

Flood control is not a by-product of keeping the port of Montreal open, as some would have us believe. The opposite is the case.

I think it is very important that people understand that icebreakers are in the St. Lawrence to prevent potentially devastating floods.

By ensuring that the St. Lawrence River remains navigable year-round as far as the port of Montreal, the Canadian Coast Guard does support the maritime commerce and consequent industry and port employment along the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay River.

There is also a need, then, to keep the maritime traffic moving through the Gulf of St. Lawrence to allow vessels access to the St. Lawrence River.

In the motion presented before this House my hon. friend refers to the effective allocation of the icebreakers in operation in eastern Canada.

I am happy to report to the House that a fleet resources review study was undertaken by the Canadian Coast Guard in 1990 to respond effectively to broad responsibilities in high priority areas of safety and environmental protection while improving efficiency and reducing costs.

Following this study, a fleet restructuring plan was enacted. The plan was phased over a three year period and involved increasing multi-tasking and double crewing which is known in the trade as lay-day system.

To improve our resource utilization the coast guard removed 10 ships from active service and reallocated fleet units between the regions. The reallocations were based on achieving the best match of operational requirements and equipment capability in each region to ensure multi-tasking capability nationwide.

The Canadian Coast Guard has retained the ability to redeploy icebreaking resources where and when needed as the situations dictate while it has trimmed excess capacity.

For example, last year from February 3 to March 5 two powerful icebreakers were redeployed in the maritime region to assist three icebreakers and one air cushion vehicle from the Laurentian region to break up the ice jams in the Lac St. Pierre region which were causing extensive flooding along the river between Montreal and Trois Rivieres.

The east coast icebreaking fleet consists of one heavy icebreaker, one heavy icebreaking supply tug, four medium icebreakers, 13 light icebreakers and one icebreaker hovercraft. Of these, eight are based in the maritime region of the coast guard, six are based in the Laurentian region, four are located in the Newfoundland region, and two are located in the Great Lakes region.

All of these icebreakers are in full operation at this time in eastern Canada, preventing flooding and escorting ships on the St. Lawrence River.

Historically problematic ice conditions begin in the upper St. Lawrence River and progress through the season eastward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as the hon. member would know. Heavy ice conditions can simultaneously occur in different areas such as the east coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence depending on the influence of weather systems.

As a result of the ice jams experienced during the winter of 1993, the Canadian Coast Guard developed an action plan to implement short and long term solutions to try to prevent a similar occurrence, Mother Nature's abilities to surprise notwithstanding.

Several studies of the St. Lawrence River and Lac St. Pierre were done to evaluate methods of increasing water currents and ice evaluation in problem areas, constructing and placing more efficient steel booms and repairing man-made islands to help maintain a solid ice coverage outside the main shipping channel and analyzing the links between snow and ice coverage, river currents, water levels, wind and tide in the developments of ice jams.

The Canadian Coast Guard is absolutely committed to the provision of icebreaking services on the St. Lawrence River up to Montreal in support of year-round accessibility for shipping and in order to provide the necessary flood control measures for the safety of the local population along the St. Lawrence River.

There are no plans at this time to change the number or capacity of Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers in eastern Canada. As my hon. friend can see, we are actively addressing the most important aspects of service delivery to Canadians.

[Ukraine, March 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay homage to the victims of the 1933 Ukrainian famine and make fellow Canadians aware of this atrocious historical event.

Last year was the 50th anniversary of the famine and Ukrainians throughout North America and Europe held special ceremonies to commemorate the atrocities inflicted on their people.

The famine inflicted the highest casualties during the winter of 1932-33. While city dwellers were kept healthy and supplied with food, the countryside was wiped clean. By the spring of 1933 people were dying at the rate of 25,000 a day. By the end of 1933 it is estimated that between six million and ten million Ukrainians had starved to death.

Even today as Ukrainians commemorate the 50th anniversary of the famine, the events are still largely unknown.

I realize that we cannot do anything to bring these people back. However, we can make Canadians aware of the social and political injustice that has been relatively unknown for too long and ensure that such atrocities are never repeated.

[Canarctic Shipping Company Ltd., March 9th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, as Parliamentary Secretary to the

Minister of Transport, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the 1992 annual report of the Canarctic Shipping Company Ltd.

[Forestry, February 23rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, as the chair of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association I was pleased to hear my colleague from Kootenay East remark on the success of the 21st annual Canada-Europe interparliamentary meeting held in Vancouver.

While we discussed many issues of importance to the relations between Canada and Europe, our greatest success was showing the European delegates that Canada is at the forefront of progressive forestry practices.

I want to thank all the delegates, Canadian and European, for their frank and constructive input. At the end of our deliberations I believe we found common ground and solved a potentially disastrous problem.

News reports have confirmed the ultimate success of the meetings. My hope for this association is to foster a greater understanding among European parliamentarians of Canadian policies and positions, even those of alternative points of view.

Reports in La Presse suggest the change in venue from Quebec City to Vancouver reflected a reluctance on the association's part to discuss the political issues of Quebec. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both executives agreed to the change in venue.

I need only remind the members of the serious economic repercussions a ban on wood products exported to Europe would have on communities across Canada.

[Pre-Budget Consultations, February 1st, 1994]

Michael Wilson. Some input before the budget, boy I would have jumped at the opportunity.

Yet tonight I hear nothing but more of the same old thing from a party that said it was going to come here to change things. I will not get too partisan. Perhaps some of them are listening.

The ship of state is in trouble. Canadians want change. On October 25 they threw out a government that was not responding to their needs. They want men and women who are determined to change things from the way they were.

We are still in the midst of an economic disaster in this country where we have 1.6 million people unemployed. We have 455,000 permanent full-time jobs that have been lost. Part-time jobs have increased to 840,000. We have two million Canadians visiting over 300 food banks each and every day. Youth unemployment is over 18 per cent. Among female lone parent families 62 per cent have incomes below the poverty line.

We have a mission. That is to think about each and every one of those 29 million Canadians who look to us to try to solve these problems. I could blame it on the former government that moved the debt from $120 billion to $500 billion. I could blame it for leaving us with $46 billion deficit.

However what do we accomplish if we look back at yesterday? Our mission is to look forward to tomorrow. I believe that collectively we can. Collectively we can put our minds together and work in the new spirit of parliamentary reform now that the committees are struck, now that we have this debate and now that we have heard from people in our ridings as to what the proper medicine for this country is.

Last week my colleagues and I had our pre-budget consultation in London, Ontario. We invited people to come forward with their views as to how the government should run its affairs, how it should put its house in order and what their priorities were. They told us.

Hon. members have probably heard the same thing. I know that the finance minister heard the same thing at his consultations. Canadians in London, Ontario are not any different from those out west, in Quebec or in Atlantic Canada. They want good government. They want honest government. They want a government that will solve the problem of the deficit.

We know we have a crushing debt and deficit. Yes, we have to cut programs that are useless. We have to streamline the process so that each and every dollar we spend counts, so that it helps people and does not enslave them.

Yes, we have to make changes to our social programs, our net. The safety net must not only catch people but it needs to be a trampoline that pushes people back up to take advantage of the opportunities that are there.

That safety net is important. One only has to look at our society and compare it to that of the United States. In our country 85 per cent of people who need help get help from their government. In the United States 25 per cent of people who need help get help from their government. Look at its crime statistics. Look at the problems it has in health care. Look at the problems it has with its infrastructure and in its cities. Look at the social problems that country has.

I believe we have succeeded in creating a great country by working together. In 125 years we have managed to become one of the economic powers of the world with one of the highest standards of living in the world. That did not come easy. That came from the dedication and hard work of a lot of people working together to create this great country.

That is what we have to do starting today along with the other members of this House. We need to create jobs. People on October 25 told us that jobs were their number one concern. People need to work in order to look after their families.

That is why we are committed as a government to creating jobs through infrastructure programs, through the residential rehabilitation program, to investing in small businesses to give them opportunities. We must invest in their minds and talents because we know that small businesses will create 85 per cent of the jobs in this country. However we need to get the capital for them, the affordable long-term capital and the support of the banking institutions for them to allow them to grow and prosper. If they do, people will work. Young people will have hope and opportunities. Women who want to get into the work force will also have opportunities. But we have to support small business and this government is committed to doing that.

We also must look at ways of living within our means, of looking at the expenditures and renewing our pledge to social programs. There is nothing wrong with saying that we believe in supporting people, because our job here is to protect people, especially those who are not in a position to look after themselves as much as they would like. We have a social responsibility to every Canadian.

The budget is a blueprint not only for our economic views but also for the kind of society we want to build. Yes, we know the horror stories and we hear of wasteful spending, but there are ways of saving money and we are committed to doing that.

I will say that in my riding the people said yes to no more taxes. They all agreed they were already over-taxed. The middle income group is now paying for the top and the bottom and they cannot afford to do so. They want us to streamline it and make sure every dollar counts. They want us to create jobs. They want us to invest in people, in training and retraining programs. They want us to invest in small business. They want us to invest in research and development and work in true partnership with the universities, the private sector, labour and government, all working together to forge a new society.

I believe that is what Canadians expect of each and every one of us. This government is committed to doing that, to putting our financial house in order, but more important to investing in people because if we have people working, deficits go down, not up.

That is the Liberal message and we hope that the opposition and all parties in this House will work with us to help build a better country.

[Pre-Budget Consultations, February 1st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by congratulating you on your appointment. I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate my colleagues who were returned and the new Liberal team. I believe they won the trust and confidence of the people and that is why we are on this side of the House, hopefully to do something about the problems we have been talking about tonight.

I want to take this opportunity to first thank my family and the volunteers on my campaign. More important, I want to thank the people of London East who saw fit to return me to this House for another term. I am truly appreciative.

Being on the opposition side the past four or five years was a very frustrating exercise and one that sometimes was not as joyful as one would want. I would like to think that this debate tonight is our change in direction. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Minister of Finance and our Prime Minister who have demonstrated two things in these past weeks, that we do really want to consult because we have a common mission here. We were all elected to this House by people who believed that we have the answers to the problems. Regardless of what side we are on and of what political stripe, we are all here to do the nation's business.

The government has demonstrated that it really wants to work with everyone to accomplish the great task before it. We have had an open debate on peacekeeping in Bosnia, the cruise missile and the social nets. Today we are talking about the budget before the fact. I have never experienced that before in five years. We could only react to what the former government had done and therefore it was very frustrating.

I was rather surprised by some of the remarks I heard tonight. Coming from an opposition that wants to play a constructive role they tended to be rather negative. Had I been given the opportunity of telling former Prime Minister Mulroney and his gang-

[Interparliamentary Delegations, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association to the European Bank for reconstruction and development; the preparatory meeting with the Council of Europe's Economic Affairs Committee for the annual OECD debate by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament held in London, Paris and Brussels from June 23 to July 2, 1993.

I also have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association to the European Bank for Reconstruction, Development and the Council of Europe's OECD debate held in London and Strasbourg from September 22 to October 2, 1993.