Jean Lapierre

[Health, June 9th, 2005]

Oh, oh!

[Air Transportation, June 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the House that these are happy times with Canada-India relations. Last month we celebrated the return of Air-India regular flights to Canada and today we just completed an agreement with India. We are going to increase by fivefold to 35 round trip flights per week for each country. It is going to be a great improvement on Canada-India relations and it is a great agreement for Canada and for India.

[Air Transportation, June 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, let me be perfectly clear. I was talking with Secretary of Transportation Mr. Mineta this morning. I made it quite clear that Canadian routes and Canadian destinations are Canadian information and we want it to remain Canadian information.

[Canada-U.S. Border, May 31st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to be helpful, we have now a project before the committee on the Canada Transportation Act that will deal with international crossings and will help in the governance of international crossings.

I hope that the House supports this bill as soon as possible.

[Airports, May 30th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is kind of awkward to get that type of recommendation from the Tories because we had to correct the leases that they had signed. They started the process incorrectly and we corrected it.

[Airports, May 30th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, if the member had read the reactions that we received from across the country, he would have seen that most airport authorities were very happy about the fact that we lowered the rent by 60%. Some $8 billion is much better than a freeze. We lowered the rent by 60% across the board. Thanks for the congratulations.

[Infrastructure, May 19th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his question and for his tireless work in connection with highways 11 and 17.

We are currently in discussion with the provinces. My colleagues, the provincial transport ministers, and I need to implement phase two of the national highway system, which would fund the work on highways 11 and 17.

Accordingly, over the next few weeks, we can certainly ensure that officials will be working together so that the ministers can give their approval for the repairs to highways 11 and 17 to be subsidized by the Government of Canada.

[Transport, May 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I share the concern of the member for North Vancouver. I am going to raise the issue with my counterpart, the minister of transport in British Columbia, as soon as the election is over tonight. I am sure I will be able to talk with Minister Falcon tomorrow and in the months ahead.

[Airports, May 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that if the hon. member would talk to the bond rating agencies, for example, that will be looking at the finances of the GTA, they will be pretty happy and their credit will be much better.

I also want to talk about the Ottawa airport. Its rent will go down by two-thirds. That is $5 billion for Toronto and two-thirds rent reduction for Ottawa. What more does the member want?

[Airports, May 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, obviously that member has not read the documentation. For the Toronto airport, it means a reduction of $5 billion. If that is not money, what is money?