Mr. Speaker, I congratulate you on your appointment and all other members who have been appointed to similar positions. I also congratulate the Speaker on his re-election as Speaker of the House of Commons for the 36th Parliament. I would also like to congratulate all members of the House of Commons who have been elected for the first time and those who have been re-elected and are back for the second or consecutive times to this Chamber.
Having served in a provincial legislature for a number of years, I can say that coming to the House of Commons in this 36th Parliament is certainly a very special feeling. I thank the people of Burin—St. George's for electing me and shouldering me with the enormous responsibility of representing them here.
It is the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne so I will try to make my remarks pertinent to the throne speech itself. Over the last few days I have listened intently to the various speakers and to the questions and comments that have been put in the House of Commons.
I refer to the comment in the throne speech on the child tax benefit increase that the government is proposing to bring into effect on July 1, 1998. It is good to see that there will be an increase in the child tax benefit allowance. However, I take exception to what I have found out during that past couple of days. The federal government has entered into agreements with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and other provincial governments that families that are receiving social assistance will not see any of the child tax benefit increase at all. Their incomes will not be increased by one cent. A clawback agreement has been entered into by the federal government and certain provincial governments that will keep the poor in essence poorer in this country.
I have stood in provincial legislatures and now in this federal Parliament where I have heard people talk about child poverty, the need to address this very important issue and the impact of hunger on education and learning levels. Yet I now find out that this very federal government and provincial governments have entered into agreements which in essence will see hungry children remain hungry. I take exception to that.
I was pleased to see a reference to home care in the throne speech. The government is taking measures to support Canadians in responding to the expanding needs for home care. I am sure all hon. members on a daily basis receive representation from families that have aging parents or grandparents, that have a legitimate need for home care. There are aging people who want to be looked after in their homes. With the cutbacks to health care budgets from the federal government to the provinces, more and more aging people are receiving inadequate home care. They are just not getting enough hours of home care. In today's society where most families have both spouses out working, it is more and more difficult for families to contribute to the home care of their loved ones. I was glad to see a reference to that in the throne speech and I look forward very much to seeing the specifics of the anticipated support mechanism for improved home care.
Too often over the last fours years we saw this government make reference to initiatives it was considering. Too often it has only been that, empty rhetoric. It has been something written on paper, but government has not shown us the meat after the promise. I look forward to that. I am encouraged that at least there is a reference in the throne speech to the issue of home care.
The throne speech states that government will continue to address the serious problem of international foreign overfishing. I come from Atlantic Canada. Atlantic Canadians sent this government a very strong message on June 2, that the Liberal federal policies are not working for Atlantic Canadians. They wanted to show the prime minister and the government how poorly they are working on behalf of Atlantic Canadians.
I am really not sure that the prime minister received the message. If he did, he is ignoring the message. We need quick action in Atlantic Canada. We need job creation initiatives, we need lower taxes, we need to get people back to work. The people of Atlantic Canada are suffering from a crisis which for the most part was imposed by mismanagement by successive federal governments. Successive federal governments have mismanaged our most important resource in Atlantic Canada, our fishery.
This government said it would continue to address the problem of foreign overfishing. Let me say that as we sit here today there are still foreigners who are flagrantly overfishing on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks. The government in the last couple of weeks has entered into agreements with those who have violated our fishing treaties and contracts to give those violators more fishing inside of the 200-mile limit. It says it will continue to deal with foreign overfishing when those very people are again abusing the situation and the government obviously is rewarding them for taking our fish inside of 200.
Another fishery situation in the country which is very volatile surrounds the Pacific salmon treaty. I have been monitoring the situation over the last couple of months and what really jumps out at me in this situation is that in essence the government is treating the people of British Columbia and Premier Glen Clark and his government as the villains in this situation. The government has decided to stay friendly with the Americans and in essence take it out on British Columbia. From everything I have heard from the debates and in following the situation over the last few weeks, it seems to me that it is the Alaskans particularly who are at fault in the salmon dispute in the province with this treaty.
Another thing worth pointing out in the debate today is that each year there is supposed to be a fishing plan agreed to by the U.S. and Canada. In the last four years there has not been a fish plan, the only four years when there has not been a fish plan agreed to by Canada and the United States. Guess who has been the government for the last four years—the Liberals.
I say to the prime minister and to the minister of fisheries that they should really get involved in this B.C. situation and try to resolve it. There are many fishers in British Columbia on the brink of bankruptcy, many who need some flexibility in the area licensing plan they were promised but have not been given, flexibility that would give them viability and sustainability in their fishery.
While the prime minister and the minister of fisheries seem to be so caught up in remaining very friendly with the Americans, our own people are entering financial crisis. Many of them will go out of business if something is not done very soon. Therefore I ask the minister of fisheries, the prime minister and the parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries to please move quickly on this very volatile situation which needs their immediate attention.
While the the prime minister was calling on President Clinton to get involved in the problem, President Clinton wrote to the Alaskans saying that he would not tolerate any more actions such as the blockade of the ferry we saw in B.C. It shows how seriously President Clinton takes the prime minister.
It is a pleasure and an honour to be here in the House of Commons. There are some very serious problems that need to be addressed. I am pleased to take part in the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne and I look forward to spending another few years representing the people of Burin—St. George's.