Bill Graham

[Speech From The Throne, October 18th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I should have recognized that the hon. member's kind words at the beginning of his question were about to cover some sting that was coming at the end of the scorpion's tail.

I am surprised that the he is coming so close to the previous hon. member who spoke. I thought there was an attempt to differentiate his party from other members further to the centre in the House. I am a little surprised by the tenor of the question, but I am really surprised that the hon. member, because I respect his economic judgment, would say the government is responsible for the weakening of the Canadian dollar in the last few years. As he knows, it is exactly our fiscal and our appropriate approach to the management of the economy of the country that has protected the Canadian dollar and allowed us to get to where we are today.

That is why I believe strongly that we need not just a focus on tax reduction or on debt relief, but a focus on those social requirements of Canadians that I referred to earlier in my speech. That is where the balance comes. That is where the differentiation is between his party, other parties and the government. I think that is where we will find that the Canadian people are comfortable with what is being done on this side of the House.

[Speech From The Throne, October 18th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, in view of the hon. member's comment about my unmemorable speech, maybe I could give a memorable answer to him by saying, yes, that is absolutely my idea of balance.

Let me explain. The hon. member knows as well as I do that in the past years we were not in a position to reduce taxes. I trust that members of the party opposite would not have advocated reducing taxes given the budget problems we had and the deficit. They had huge complaints all the time about the size of the deficit and the debt. So that was the responsible attitude to take.

Now we are in a position to do something about taxes. In answer to a question, the Minister of Finance said in the House, I believe on Friday, that there were $16.5 billion in tax reductions on the table for the next three years.

What differentiates the hon. member and myself and his riding from my riding is that my riding, as I pointed out in the introduction of my speech, requires an act of sensitive government to issues. It requires a government that says there are homeless people in Toronto. It requires a government that says there are children who need housing and homes and that it will actively pursue an agenda which will enable them to have better enriched lives, which will help all of us and reduce the ultimate tax burden by reducing the problems of social conditions which produce delinquency and other issues in our society. This is what we need in government. This is the balance of which I spoke.

There is investment in infrastructure at the university level. The students and faculties at the University of Toronto, Ryerson and George Brown College are all thrilled to see an active government of this country saying that it will reward excellence and ensure that our institutions of higher learning are well equipped to ensure that we have the best brains in this country contributing to the ability of the country to go into the 21st century well prepared. That is what I mean by a properly balanced approach. Yes, tax reductions; but, yes, a government which recognizes there are needs for our citizens at all levels that have to be fulfilled.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

That is why those people are there. They have a sense of the value of equality.

My riding also happens to have the largest gay and lesbian community in Canada, which the hon. member opposite knows something about because his party is already trying to make sure they are not treated as equals. As members will recall this House adopted measures in the last parliament to ensure that that community will be properly treated. We now wait for legislation which will bring into effect those values of equality. We will see how the opposition party treats those matters when they come before the House when we talk about equality.

We can look at the businessmen in our ridings. We are aware of the economic requirements of a modern economy, or the cultural dimension of my riding in Cabbagetown, or the universities and community colleges. We are proud to have in our riding the University of Toronto, Ryerson university, George Brown community college and Collège des Grands Lacs.

We are proud to have mixed communities like that of St. Lawrence where an enormous number of co-ops are contributing to the way in which we manage our relations in a complex urban environment today.

The Speech from the Throne responds to the needs of this community as it responds to the needs generally of Canadians. It addresses the needs of children. It addresses the need for investment in science and technology so that our universities and researchers can grow and make this a stronger country.

The throne speech addresses the issues of the environment, health and agriculture in spite of some of the comments that were made in the House today. The north is very important for this country and is seldom mentioned. It was important for us to see mention of the north and our arctic in the Speech from the Throne.

It also addresses the needs of the business community to see tax reductions. We heard today in question period of $16.5 billion projected for the future with possibilities of greater reductions to come.

It is a balanced approach, exactly what I would have expected of the government. It focuses on the needs of Canadians generally to ensure that those in society have a good government that furnishes them with the services they need and at the same time ensures that we have a healthy and vibrant economy that is able to deliver those services.

The Speech from the Throne had another very important dimension to it, which I think members of the House would be equally interested in, and that is the international dimension. The Speech from the Throne spoke of the role of Canada and Canadians in a world that is evolving. It recognized that we cannot be prosperous or healthy in a world that is not prosperous and healthy.

The government understands that Canadians live in an integrated world and that activities outside our borders affect us on a daily basis. We are adapting ourselves to world conditions in a responsible way and in a way to ensure that Canadian values and interests are protected in that world.

If we look at the area of trade and economics, we see that the policies that are being adopted by the government, both in the WTO and the FTAA, are responsive to Canadians' concerns. When the foreign affairs committee travelled across the country there was an intense interest from Canadians on this subject. They were determined to have human rights, labour standards and the environment put at the forefront of our concerns at the WTO.

Canadians are also concerned that globalization is forcing changes on us which we do not wish to accept. Our determination therefore is to ensure that the institutions in which Canada is represented abroad will both protect and advance our values and interests. As the member for Peace River reminds me, that includes the interests of agriculture which will certainly be at the forefront of the discussions in Seattle as he well knows, and which our government will make sure is made a priority point for the government in those negotiations.

It also recognizes that state sovereignty is changing in the world today. The people's needs have to be put ahead of those of states. That is why we have our peacekeepers in places like Bosnia, Haiti and East Timor where the safety of women and children has become a preoccupation of governments and where the international control of drugs and crime is a focal point of what our government is doing.

In short, it is what our foreign affairs minister calls the human security agenda. It is the agenda of ensuring that individuals are more important than states as we go into the 21st century in a world in which borders and state sovereignty is being eroded in favour of individual protection and the need to ensure that everybody is guaranteed a better standard of living throughout the world.

Canadians are a generous people. We recognize that in helping our neighbours we help ourselves. In that respect, the member would be happy to recognize that the Speech from the Throne spoke of an increased need for Canadian aid to underdeveloped countries. We will rebuild our need for aid to underdeveloped countries.

We rejoice in today's announcement that Médecins Sans Frontières has been named for a Nobel prize this year. As members know, there is a Médecins Sans Frontières in Canada. We have young doctors from Canada and non-doctors who work with that organization outside our borders. They all contribute to the well-being of the world in exactly the same way as our modern NGOs do in providing a different type of world, a different type of international arrangement within which we all participate. The Speech from the Throne spoke directly to that and it is an inspiration for us all to enable us to be more effective with our global responsibilities.

From the perspective of the people in my riding, and I believe from the perspective of all Canadians, the Speech from the Throne demonstrated a balance between what we need in terms of providing services for Canadians and a sense of what our society needs, both in the present and in the future. This was evidenced by our increased funding for universities and our increased funding for health care, which are concerns for Canadians. It focused on the needs of today's Canadians and on the needs of Canadians in the future.

This will be accomplished in the broader context of a world in which Canadians will play a role. As we go into the 21st century we will make sure that our interests and values are secure here at home and secure in the world. The Speech from the Throne demonstrates the ability of the government to achieve that.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise on debate in response to the Speech from the Throne. I would like to echo the words of the member for Vancouver Kingsway and the member for Waterloo—Wellington who congratulated the Governor General on her appointment and on the Speech from the Throne.

The Governor General's words were particularly welcome to those of us in Toronto Centre—Rosedale because the Governor General and her husband John Ralston Saul live in Toronto Centre—Rosedale. We are all very proud to see her installed as our new Governor General. We are proud of what she represents to this country, looking forward into the future of the 21st century, representing what is the best of Canadians and Canadian developments in the 20th century.

They also represent Toronto's bicultural dimension and its bilingualism, anglophones who speak French and who have incorporated our country's French element into their culture and into Toronto's multiculturalism.

Toronto Centre—Rosedale is an extremely diverse riding in the middle of downtown Toronto. St. James town has 20,000 people living in it. Fifty-seven different languages are spoken there. Those languages are spoken by people who live and work here in Canada together because we have established a country which has as its base a certain notion of tolerance and a willingness to work together. We have certain Canadian values that make that work.

[Doctors Without Borders, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that all members of the House will want to join with me in congratulating Doctors Without Borders on their nomination for the Nobel Prize this year.

Doctors Without Borders represents for most of us the best of what has developed in the latter part of this troubled century. It is an international NGO, formed originally in France, which is now throughout the world, including Canada. It provides the opportunity for doctors to serve their fellow human beings across the globe, often at great risk to themselves and in places such as Kosovo, East Timor and remote corners of Asia and Africa.

As we go into the 21st century the world is changing and borders are losing their significance. Doctors Without Borders is leading the way in breaking down those borders in the name of humanitarian principles which respond to the way in which Canadians see the world.

We all rejoice in their recognition by the Nobel committee and wish them well in their important work.

[Committees Of The House, June 10th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of tabling in both official languages the ninth report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade entitled “Canada and the Future of the World Trade Organization: Advancing a Millennium Agenda in the Public Interest”.

Mr. Speaker, as you can see from the size of this report, it represents a considerable amount of work which was done by committee members in a very short, compressed period of time. I want to thank members of the committee for the tremendous amount of work they put into it and for the enormous energy that went into preparing this report.

In addition to the report, we have produced a citizen's guide to the WTO that I will be presenting to the House which we, the members of the committee, hope will be of use to the citizens of this country in understanding the importance of this organization to the future prosperity of Canadians.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests a comprehensive response to this report.

[Petitions, June 9th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition which asks for the House to call upon the government to end the violence in Kosovo.

[Petitions, June 9th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition calling upon the House to change the Criminal Code regarding animals to ensure that abusive treatment is more harshly dealt with in the Criminal Code and to ensure that animals are not treated as the personal property of individuals so they may be better protected.

[Petitions, June 9th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present three petitions.

The first petition proposes that Canada take the lead in working toward a treaty banning nuclear weapons in accordance with the recommendations made by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in its report to the House.

[Workplace Safety, June 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, some time ago I asked the Minister for International Trade what he would be doing to consult Canadians concerning the upcoming World Trade Organization negotiations that will be taking place in Seattle some time in November of this year.

At that time he responded that he would be asking the foreign affairs and international trade committee to conduct a study in Canada to report to parliament concerning this and to report to him so that he would be in a better position to prepare Canada's negotiating position in respect of these important negotiations.

These negotiations will be important. Canada is a very open economy. It is a trading nation unlike many others. Something like 40% of our GDP is dependent on exports and something like over 30% is dependent upon imports. In some ways we are 70% dependent on trade in one way or another. Canadians are very knowledgeable in this area.

In the course of its travels across the country the committee had the opportunity to consult Canadians from all walks of life in such diverse areas as agriculture and the agri-food business with all its complexities and differences from different products that are sold and now manufactured into important exports, to the issue of tariffs and industry access in other countries and how we deal with our trading partners, to the new agenda that is there in trade and the problems in intellectual property. We have found in the course of those consultations that there is an extraordinary degree of expertise because Canadians are deeply involved in this area.

In addition, Canadians shared with us and with the committee their concerns about what is happening in the world trading situation. They shared with us their concerns that if trade is allowed to continue in a way where issues involving the environment, human rights, labour standards, or the guarantees of the diversity of culture are not addressed, there would be a real problem in the world. We would not be able to have a responsive trading system which would meet the needs of Canadians. As I said, they are aware of these issues. They are also aware that in many areas they are able to make a real contribution to these negotiations.

The minister is determined to consult Canadians, either through the committee process, through the SAGIT or through the important consultations with the provinces. I encourage the ministry to continue in this area to make information available, whether through the Internet or through traditional means, and to encourage the import of knowledgeable Canadians.

I appreciate if the parliamentary secretary would inform the House tonight on any other additional initiatives the minister intends to put into place to ensure that when we go into the negotiations in Seattle at the end of this year our negotiators are fully apprised of the rich diversity and important opinion we have available in the country.