Loyola Hearn

[Supply, October 15th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, would the member comment on the response from the parliamentary secretary who talked about how much the government is spending and how much extra it is spending? Is the government spending enough?

I hope September 11 was a wake up call for the government. How prepared are we to defend ourselves if we have to do so? How prepared are we to play our part in the international protection game to protect the countries we have always protected and need to protect in the future? Are we spending enough? Would the member comment on that?

[Canadian Airline Industry, October 1st, 2001]

Madam Chairman, I would like to thank my colleague from Fundy--Royal for sharing his time. Coming from the far east of the country, we are certainly affected by what is happening as much as anyone in the country, and more than most except for the people from the far west, including my colleague from South Surrey--White Rock--Langley.

Newfoundland is often referred to as the rock, even though those who know it know it certainly is not. It is a tremendous place. Ottawa is often referred to as a hard place in which to get anything done. I guess I am always caught between a rock and a hard place. I am at the mercy of Air Canada because basically it is the only regular airline we have coming in. It is basically a monopoly.

What does it do for service? Let me say this: not very much.

Like all my colleagues who have spoken, I have concern about what is happening. We saw a tremendous change in the air industry after September 11. In fact, while I am on my feet I should pay tribute to the numerous Newfoundlanders who played a tremendous part in assisting all those who were affected and who helped out the many people who had to land in Newfoundland, at St. John's, Gander and some others, perhaps at Goose Bay and Stephenville. I guess even Deer Lake was affected to a large degree by the people who landed there and had to stay there for quite some time.

In fact one person was met by a friend of mine. He said “So are you stuck here for a few more days?” The person said “I'm not stuck. I've never had such a time in my life”. That speaks pretty well for the members of the Newfoundland and Labrador constituencies and it is no surprise to anyone who knows the area.

However these people from Newfoundland and Labrador who were so gracious are also greatly affected themselves, not only the people who work in the airports, but as others mentioned, the people who work in the hotels, the taxi drivers, the truckers, the tourism industry, the stores. I could go on and on because everyone is affected. Consequently, if we are to help one, we must help all. If we are to help one airline, we must help all airlines.

There are two things we must look at: first, that we do have what we call a national carrier, and second, that a way must be found to keep it flying, but not at the risk of negatively affecting others who are in competition because it is competition that makes the world go round.

In Newfoundland if we had more competition we would not have to put up with some of the poor service we have been getting. I will take a minute or so just to illustrate a couple of examples. I can use personal examples from the weekend.

I left here on Friday, rushed to the airport to find out my flight was delayed and got into Halifax to find out we did not have a plane. Finally one was found and when we were ready to board, after another hour and a half wait, there were mechanical difficulties with the plane and more delays. Finally we got into St. John's and I got home at 1 or 1.30 in the morning after driving from the airport.

When I was coming back on Sunday, most people on the flight I was on would have left home at 12 o'clock to get to the airport in time to check in. We got on our flight, got to Halifax and were told we had an hour's wait. We got up to get off the plane and were told we could not get off the plane unless we were changing planes; if we got off we would not be allowed back on. We waited for an hour and a quarter and then came on to Ottawa. Between St. John's and Halifax, we had a bag of peanuts. Between Halifax and Ottawa, we had a bag of peanuts. It was about eight hours from the time people would have left home until they got to Ottawa, and others probably went further, and they had two bags of peanuts, including a person who had a diabetic condition and needed some sugar. There was no fruit or anything on the plane to give to that person. That is the type of service we get for paying $2,200, round trip.

The dangerous thing I heard here tonight was the suggestion that there is a possibility that an influx of money might be put into Air Canada but it would be the responsibility of the Minister of Industry, Captain Canada, as someone said, the person who arrested the Spanish fishermen's boat, gave back the fish, gave them extra quota, apologized, kissed them and sent them on their way.

Government should challenge the private sector to get involved here. What an opportunity. Change the rules so that it can do so and let us get on with the business.

[Housing, September 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.

Seventy-five hundred people in British Columbia have had to declare personal bankruptcy due to the leaky condo crisis. The personal stress and hardship cannot be measured.

When will the government show some leadership, step in and help the quarter of a million British Columbians who are affected by this crisis?

[Tropical Storm Gabrielle, September 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, tropical storm Gabrielle dumped 120 millimetres of rain on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland within a few hours. The result was severe flooding. Roads were washed away, sewers overflowed and houses and businesses flooded. The city of St. John's declared a state of emergency.

The province has established a disaster assistance committee to deal with those affected. Municipal and provincial affairs minister Oliver Langdon says he is certain Ottawa will come up with the lion's share of a flood aid package, but to date no word has been received on federal approval. What's the problem? Why is the government hesitating?

The province of Newfoundland, the city of St. John's, businesses and individuals particularly need assistance now. Why does the government not do something different for a change? Why does it not respond quickly to this situation?

[Agriculture, September 27th, 2001]

A hurricane hit Newfoundland about a week ago and in a few hours 120 millimetres of rain was dumped on the Avalon. That in itself caused a tremendous amount of damage, which we will be talking about tomorrow or the next day. It washed out roads and flooded basements. Some basements had as much as six feet of water. Some of the main roads were washed away and shoulders were taken off a lot of our highways. The cost has been phenomenal. The mayor of the city of St. John's called a state of emergency, which is not done lightly.

I read a story in the paper that summarized what happened. A lady said that she was awakened at three o'clock in the morning when her little dog jumped up on the bed. She said that when she pushed the dog off the bed she heard a splash.

That was pretty common in a lot of St. John's. It was an extremely dry summer and the ground was extremely hard. When there is a lot of rain like that everything runs off and takes whatever is there with it. That is what happened. It was a complete reversal of what the west has had to face.

Because of the heavy moisture, the late season and the excessive rains, the farmers in our area have had the reverse. They also have been negatively affected and have been asking for assistance but have been getting the cold shoulder.

Perhaps, collectively, we should all start zeroing in on the basics and look at the people who really are the hard workers, the people who built the country and stayed with the farms, those who did not sell their lands to housing projects when they had a chance to make a fortune and leave town. Those are the people who stayed through hard times and passed on their farms to generation and generation. They still exist today and still work the farms. It is the same for the fishermen in the boats who year after year worked the nets and then passed the boat and gear over to the son who then passed it on to his son, et cetera.

They provided good livelihoods. They were tremendous people who contributed greatly to the economy of their community, province and country. They asked for very little other than the freedom to work at what they wanted to do and, if times got tough, that we do for them what we would do for others who perhaps were less deserving.

We solidly support the request from the farmers in the west. We ask the government to stop fooling around. We must forget about what this agreement or that agreement says. The agreement should say that if there is a problem the government will be there to help if there is a legitimate need.

All the time that is spent, the bureaucracy that is involved, the costs that are involved and the costs incurred in waiting would certainly pay a lot of the debts that have been built up.

Let us cut out the fooling, get down to the basics and help the farmers who need help. Let us get on with the job so that hopefully next year will be a different year for everybody.

[Agriculture, September 27th, 2001]

Madam Chairman, members may be wondering what a fisherman from St. John's, Newfoundland is doing speaking on an agricultural debate. The first reason is that I support the resolution. As a Canadian I am well aware of the situation western farmers are going through and I am extremely supportive of helping them at this time of crisis.

The second reason is that we in Newfoundland always say, when we are ignored, which is quite often, that it is because it is only Newfoundland and because it is only fish. It seems to me that the people who count in this country, the primary producers, are the ones who are overlooked the most, and that is extremely unfortunate.

If we did not have the bread makers, the fish producers and the vegetable growers, where would we be? Let us just imagine the price we would have to pay for the basic necessities of life if we had to import them. We do not know how fortunate we are to live in a country where we can produce our own vegetables, fish, wheat and other grains that create staple foods that not only ourselves but that the world eats.

To think that in time of dire need we ignore agriculture and yet within hours of a perceived airline crisis, the government runs around trying to find money to bail out airlines that perhaps are their own worst enemy.

When I mentioned coming from a province that deals with fish, if we are talking about food supply, we also have farmers in our province who have had a major problem this year. It was not because of a lack of moisture, it was because of too much.

Last winter in Newfoundland we had a record snowfall, the most snow ever. Newfoundland is a place where in the past we have had pretty hard winters. Growing up in Newfoundland we had enjoyable winters. From the end of November until the middle of April we could ski, skidoo, skate, whatever we wanted to do to enjoy the winter scene.

Over the past 10 years or so, we thought we had moved south of Florida. A year ago we did not have to shovel the driveway or a step once during the winter. This past winter, it turned around again and we had record snowfalls, which meant that a lot of the snow did not melt until well into May. With that kind of accumulation, especially in open areas on the fields, one can imagine how wet the fields were. The farmers were extremely late getting their crops into the ground, to the extent that it affected their year's production, a reverse of what occurred in the west.

I think the total rainfall in the hon. member's area was 60-odd millimetres for the year?

[Fisheries, September 24th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

The inshore shrimp fishery in Newfoundland is in a state of crisis. Fishers cannot afford to fish and processors cannot afford to operate their plants. One of the main reasons is the 20% tariff charged for Canadian shrimp going into European markets.

What steps has the minister taken to make sure that this inequity is corrected?

[Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001, September 20th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, it is my privilege to say a few words regarding a bill we should perhaps not be speaking about in its entirety.

It is strange that there is unanimity on one side of the House on how to approach the bill and yet people on the other side have their heads in the sand and refuse to address it in its different aspects, something which would make a tremendous amount of common sense.

If I suggested we go for a walk on a newly constructed hiking trail on which there was a lot of mud and bog and where it would be rough going, and that on the way back we stop to participate in a formal dance, I would probably be told that I was off my head because I could not dress for both occasions.

This is exactly the position we find ourselves in. We have two complete unlikes to which we are expected to say yes or no even though many members of the House, and surely many members on the other side, cannot justifiably support the bill as it is structured.

There are parts of the bill our party can support wholeheartedly although we would like to see further discussion and perhaps more amendments. We would like the bill strengthened, especially in relation to child pornography, although we strongly support that part of it.

Many people who stand in this honourable House have families of their own. Many of us have younger children who spend a lot of time on the Internet and we realize the dangers which confront them daily. We in our party agree with strengthening the law as it pertains to child pornography on the Internet.

However concerns must be clarified in relation to the liability of service providers that could be inadvertently drawn into problems which might arise when people use their services for illegal means.

The bill as it is structured would give us much more strength than was previously there to combat this growing problem. As members know, it has been made quite clear by our intelligence people that child pornography on the Internet is increasing with the use of the Internet. Undoubtedly that makes sense.

Now is the time to start addressing this serious concern. This should be done by people who are prepared and trained to do so. We must be able to identify the problems and identify those using the Internet for illicit means.

The section on child pornography is quite good but it is lumped in with a section on cruelty to animals. There are parts of that section which everyone supports. No one would support cruelty to animals as the term is ordinarily used.

However animals are used for many purposes. One that comes to mind is research. This issue is of major concern to our universities. There are people who would like to see such research discontinued.

How many people in the world, young and old, are alive today because of advancements in medicine that have occurred only because of scientific experimentation on animals? Many of the cures we avail ourselves of today were discovered by experiments on animals.

Many of the cures that we hope to see in the future are presently being worked on because of the experimentation in various labs in our scientific institutions, especially in universities across the country and around the world. Many of the people involved have severe concerns about whether or not they would be implicated under the new legislation. That is a section of the bill that has to be debated and refined much further than at present.

We have people who make their livelihoods in the agriculture industry by raising animals for food and other uses. Undoubtedly all of them have concerns about whether or not the legislation could jeopardize their livelihood. This legislation has not been refined to the point where the people involved are satisfied. Indeed the legislators on this side of the House are not satisfied.

When it comes to gun control most of us on this side advocate the elimination of long guns from the regulations. We are acting as if everyone who owns a gun in Canada is a criminal. Many people in rural regions make a living for their families and subsidize their incomes through hunting. This could be jeopardized if the legislation is not clarified.

The government is asking us to nod our heads to a piece of legislation with which we cannot agree. The section on child pornography should be taken out of the present bill and dealt with separately. Many of the other parts of the bill can be passed immediately. There are sections which have to be further debated, refined and dealt with separately. Child pornography cannot be dealt with in the same pot as other sections of the bill.

Hopefully the people on the other side will feel the same way we do. We all come from the same parts of the country. It is not like the people on the government side come from a part of the country that is not affected by gun control or by using animals one way or another for research or for livelihood purposes. We all come from the same regions. Surely the people who come to us with concerns are going to them as well.

All of us in the House have to be concerned with child pornography. Undoubtedly we should deal with that as quickly as possible. Every day is another day when some child is being victimized. However other sections of the bill have to be changed or eliminated.

If the House leader will not do it on his own, I am hopeful the people affected in the same way as we are will put enough pressure on the government to split the bill. We could then deal with the aspects that need to be dealt with and they can be dispensed with very quickly. We could deal with the rest of them as we go through committee and debate. It is my hope it can be brought back in a form that we can all support.

[Crtc, June 13th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the CRTC, the federal broadcast regulator, is expected to tell CTV Newsnet that it can no longer broadcast live news coverage of routine events or regularly scheduled news shows, such as the very popular one now hosted by the veteran political reporter, Mike Duffy.

Will the culture and heritage minister just sit by while a handful of faceless regulators limit news competition among television networks, or will she allow the marketplace to make that decision, as it should?

Does it not bother her that CRTC is funded by her department, as is the complainant, the CBC? If so, what will she do about it? What will she do to ensure objectivity and to make sure that private sector jobs are not jeopardized for nonsensical action, or will we see just another cop out?

[Division No. 133, June 11th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, the question for debate this evening concerns Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation funding being made available for housing projects throughout the country.

I raised the question was in relation to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation being involved with multimillion dollar projects such as the one at 1 Post Road. Even though we know the extent of the involvement is only in relation to the mortgage insurance, it still sends a message to Canada that the government and the agencies that come under it are more concerned with housing for the rich and the well-to-do than they are for the people who really need housing.

When we see Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation signs being flashed around in front of large multimillion dollar developments, it sends a message to the people who need such funding that government is not paying attention to them whether it be factual or not.

A couple of days ago we talked about the housing needs in this country. We talked about the need for housing for the homeless and the poor people. We talked about affordable housing. There are so many avenues to provide housing for those who need it if government would only sit down and come up with a plan to address the major problem.

I certainly think wrong messages are being sent. There is talk about a plan to address the housing issue but the conception on paper and bringing it into reality are two different things. We do not seem to really understand what we are doing and we do not seem to have the heart to do the job that needs to be done.

We could help the poor and those in need of affordable housing a lot more if we would spend some time concentrating on the major problem that we have in front of us and, instead of wasting time on foolishness, put some of our energies and efforts into addressing the real problems that face the country.