Ethel Blondin-Andrew

[The Late James W. Bourque, October 22nd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I stand in the House today to honour the work and life of Mr. James W. Bourque who died suddenly in Ottawa on Saturday. It is a great loss for the north and many others across the country and around the world.

Mr. Bourque was a tireless aboriginal activist whose commitment to his family and to his community were paramount. Mr. Bourque was a most respected, honest, hard working and committed individual.

Appointed to the privy council in 1992, Mr. Bourque was born in Wandering River, Alberta, and learned at an early age the traditions and cultures of his Cree background to which he remained faithful throughout his life.

His sense of duty and contribution to his community came at an early age. He was elected president of the local hunters and trappers association in Port Chipewyan when he was 18. He went on to work as a park warden in Wood Buffalo National Park between 1955 and 1963.

This man deserved the attention of all Canadians, including those in the House of Commons who serve with us every day. He served as the president of the Metis Association of the Northwest Territories from 1980 to 1982, was deputy minister of renewable resources for the Government of the Northwest Territories from 1982 to 1991 and chairman for the commission for constitutional development until 1992.

Mr. Bourque was a vocal spokesman for the aboriginal people and the environment. In 1984 he founded the Fur Institute of Canada where he served as the chairman for four years. He was also named co-director of policy for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People in 1994. Most recently Mr. Bourque was working with the Museum of Nature in its development of the centre for traditional knowledge.

In the words of Premier Don Morin who represents the Northwest Territories:

This is a great loss for myself personally and for all northerners. Jim worked hard on behalf of all the people in the north. He was honest, well liked and well respected. Everyone knew him as a fair man who believed in the rights of all people, who treated everyone with respect, from trappers to world leaders, and who had a deep love of his family.

Our deepest condolences and regrets are sent to his wife Sharleen, his children Arthur, Valerie and Edwin as well as to his grandchildren. Mr. Bourque left behind a legacy of respect, sharing, commitment and responsibility. He will be missed by all who knew him.

[Employment Insurance Act, May 6th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to comment on Bill C-12. This is progressive legislation that will bring in a much improved, modern, fair and balanced employment insurance regime and basically remove the inefficiencies and inequities of the unemployment insurance system.

Further, the employment insurance regime introduces an important measure in the government's jobs and growth agenda. The employment insurance plan not only provides income support for unemployed Canadians, but it is a powerful tool to put them back to work. It creates a balance.

As the secretary of state for youth, I am particularly pleased about the effects of Bill C-12 on Canada's young people. The speech from the throne signalled the government's priority concern for youth, and the budget followed through with positive action.

Young people are particularly challenged in today's economy, many of them experiencing a catch-22 situation. No experience means no job and no job means no experience. Unemployment for people under 25 is one and a half times the national average.

We recognize that there is much to be done. I believe the words of the Prime Minister bear repeating: "Above all, we want young Canadians to become active participants in our economy. They want jobs. They deserve jobs. Young people want to embrace the future and not fear it. And it is up to all of us to create that hope and opportunity for them".

Following this vision, the government has appointed a ministerial task force on youth which has begun consultations with Canadians on the issues facing young people in making the transition from school to work. The report of the task force will form the basis of the federal youth strategy to be announced this fall.

The task force will be attending town hall type meetings across the country, hosted by local members of Parliament and senators. Members will seek the views of young people, local youth service organizations, local business representatives and other interested Canadians.

I am happy to say that such a town hall will be held soon in my home town of Yellowknife. I encourage all members to take an active interest in these very important discussions. Indeed, ensuring that young people have a strong foothold in the labour market is vital to Canada's future prosperity and global competitiveness.

In the meantime, we will have employment insurance that will be of great help to Canada's young people. There are special provisions within the bill for young people. The new employment insurance provisions contained in Bill C-12 are amended not only to be fair and balanced, but they are particularly beneficial to young people.

One of the difficulties with the current UI system is that it measures work in terms of weeks. Weeks are often a poor measure of time spent on the job, particularly for part time workers and multiple job holders, which many young people are. With the hours based system of Bill C-12, part time workers' earnings are insured. Four out of ten of our part time workers are under the age of 25.

Under unemployment insurance, employers have tended to limit part time employment to less than 15 hours per week per person in order to avoid having to pay UI premiums. This has meant that no only did these workers get less work, their earnings were not insured. Employment insurance eliminates the 15-hour job trap, since all hours will now count toward eligibility. More young people who enter the labour market after leaving school and who must rely on a number of small jobs to earn a living, will now have insurable employment.

On the other hand, employment insurance also reduces the risk of young people developing a dependency on employment insurance. Many young people enter the labour market and end up on UI benefits before completing their education. They put themselves on the all too often familiar treadmill, short periods of work followed by periods of unemployment insurance. That is what Bill C-12 will discourage. It will encourage young people to complete their education rather than dropping out to take insecure work.

The higher entrance requirements under employment insurance mean that young people must develop a stronger attachment to the labour market. Measures of this sort have been recommended by two recent government reports. The report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development recommended longer qualifying periods to encourage young workers to remain attached to the workforce longer and to improve their career prospects. The Working Group on Seasonal Work and UI also recommended stiffer entrance requirements for young people.

As for contributions to EI, premiums will have a minimal impact on young people. A student working 14 hours a week at $7 per hour would pay less than $3 per week in premiums. The hours will now be insured, which will help meet entrance requirements when entering the labour market full time. Further, premiums will be refunded to about 625,000 young people, 49 per cent of all those who receive rebates. Of the total young people receiving rebates, 400,000 will be full time students.

On the benefits side, whereas total benefits paid out under EI will be somewhat less than under UI, benefits paid out to young people by the year 2001-2002 will decrease by 6 per cent, considerably less than the expected overall decrease of 9 per cent.

Young people will also benefit from the employment benefits provided under EI. Several of the employment tools will be of help in getting young people back to work. For example, targeted wage subsidies will help young people who qualify for employment insurance benefits to get needed work experience to qualify for more stable or permanent jobs.

Like some of the other measures I mentioned earlier, Bill C-12 firmly supports a top priority of the government, the jobs and growth agenda. A key element of that strategy is the investment in Canada's youth.

Measures are already in place to address the needs of young people: youth service Canada, the youth internship Canada, the student summer job action program, the Canada student loans program. The budget introduced a learning package with tax and savings incentives, as well as child care support for single parent students.

The learning package provides an additional $165 million in tax assistance to students and their families. Additional tax assistance is provided to students by increasing the base for the education tax credit by 25 per cent, from $80 to $100 per month. There is also a 25 per cent increase to the limit on transfer of tuition fees and education credits to family members who provide support to students.

Saving for education is further encouraged by increases to the registered education savings plan limits. The low income, single parent students are helped through child care expense deductions. The budget took further immediate action by increasing the summer career placement program funding from $60 million to $120 million.

The government is on track with the jobs and growth agenda. More than 600,000 jobs have been created since 1993 and unemployment is down by two percentage points. With a youth strategy in place we will be able to ensure that Canada's young people share fully in economic growth.

I have had the opportunity to meet with many groups. Yesterday afternoon I met with an Elks club, members of community organizations and an RCMP officer, as well other interested citizens. They are people from all walks of life who share an interest in the wellness of young people, in their futures, in the investments we make as families and leaders to the well-being and the future of young people.

We met to discuss how to ensure a better future and a better quality of life for young people in our community. That desire is not particular to my riding but is something we all share as members. Communities take other initiatives. Government is the facilitator. It provides the legislative tools, the resources.

We have been able to encourage the public to take the leadership and the responsibility. Some members opposite have said that this bill in some sense refers to victims. It is not so much that people are victims but that they should take personal responsibility for their futures. If young people are encouraged they will not be afraid to do that.

There are many young people out there working, learning and securing a better future for themselves. They need our support.

[Aboriginal Youth, December 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to helping aboriginal youth join the workforce successfully. We are actively assisting them to help gain valuable work experience.

On October 16 Human Resources Development Canada announced the latest project, a series of 16 First Nations youth service projects. The Assembly of First Nations will work in partnership

with Youth Service Canada HRD to develop youth service projects which meet the needs of these aboriginal youth.

This initiative will have a total of 240 participants and will cost approximately $2 million.

[Justice, November 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the government is very concerned about community safety and security as it relates to young people.

We have set up a program that reaches across the country from the far west right into the Atlantic and up into the north. Fifteen communities across the country will benefit from this initiative. For example, one project announced in September is situated in the southern Ontario region. We expect to have 20 youth participate in this project once it is under way.

The government is working with all partners in order to better aid Canada's youth. In addition to that, human resources development is working with community partners and youth to improve public safety as a whole.

[Department Of Health Act, November 7th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, today I rise to speak in support of Bill C-95. It is with great pleasure that I do so.

To me the bill symbolizes a fundamental feature of our federation: the ability to achieve an appropriate level of the decentralization of powers between the federal government and the provinces. This is illustrated by our system of federal-provincial transfer payments for health. The system embodies a balance between the powers of the federal government and the powers of provincial governments, which is serving our country well. It provides for the national character of our health system while at the same time recognizing the constitutional jurisdiction of the provinces and territories over health care.

Our system of transfer payments for health has gone through an evolution over the last 30 years, an evolution that parallels the evolution of our health system as overseen by the Department of Health and the evolution of our federation.

In the 1950s, in an effort to foster the development of a national hospital insurance plan, the government passed legislation enabling it to cost-share health programs. The passage of the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Act in 1957 encouraged the development of hospital insurance programs in all provinces and territories. Through the offer to cost-share hospital and diagnostic services on roughly a 50-50 basis, the HID legislation allowed the government to share in the cost of provincial hospital insurance plans that met a minimum eligibility and coverage standard.

By 1961 all ten provinces and two territories had public insurance plans that provided comprehensive coverage for in-hospital care for all residents. Then in the 1960s came legislation enabling the federal government to cost-share medical care insurance programs. In 1966 a federal offer to pay about one half of the cost of physician services insurance programs operated by the provinces became law in the medical care act. The act was actually implemented in 1968.

At this point I would like to digress and perhaps bring a more human and local tone to the piece of legislation we are dealing with today. I would like to inject just how important this piece of legislation is to the territory I come from. I could probably exemplify that by using the particular issue of tuberculosis.

In the Northwest Territories tuberculosis is still a major problem, as it is among the aboriginal population throughout Canada. In fact, I am an individual of the aboriginal population who spent 14 months in a sanatorium for tuberculosis, which was the treatment in the early 1960s. There were many other people who also did. It became almost routine that families had members who were afflicted or died from tuberculosis or were treated for an extended period of time.

The rate of tuberculosis among Canadian natives is 43 times higher than among non-natives. According to Statistics Canada, the rate of TB among status natives was 47 per 100,000 in 1993. By contrast, Bangladesh has a TB rate of 43.6 per 100,000. The rate for non-native Canadians across the country was 6.9 per 100,000.

One big problem that has an effect on these numbers is the accessibility to the health system and proper testing facilities. The availability in the north is difficult, often as the result of a lack of proper equipment. Many of the communities where people are afflicted are very remote and very hard to reach.

Lack of accessibility is also a problem for other communicable diseases, such as sexually transmitted diseases. In the north the STD rates are estimated by the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Health and Social Services at 10 to 12 times higher than the national average.

Life expectancy numbers are another indicator of the general health levels of a population. Earlier this year the National Advisory Council on Aging, NACA, released its report, which contained more distressing numbers for the aboriginal population. A highlight of the report is that life expectancy for native women and men is 47 and 46 years, respectively, compared to 75 and 68 for the non-native population. The median age of the native population is 10 years younger than that of the Canadian population. The native elderly often experience premature aging, leading to death

due to high rates of degenerative diseases. Native people use much more informal care, family and friends, for certain dimensions of life-meals, shopping, et cetera-than non-native people.

The needs of older native persons for core services, for example adult care services, exceed the needs of the comparable non-native population. Aboriginal seniors residing off reserves are frequently excluded from the communities in which they live and the native communities from which they come.

It is also important to note that the Northwest Territories has the second highest alcohol consumption rate in Canada; five to six times the national average in reported violent assaults; and a suicide rate that is two to three times the national average. These are all symptoms, perhaps not directly related to health, but they have a huge impact on the wellness of a community and as a result have a huge impact on the health care system, either directly or indirectly.

The approach in relating this to the whole health care system is to look at preventative health measures. That is the innovation all levels of government are looking at. Organizations, aboriginal, non-aboriginal, those who live in the north are looking at ways of cutting costs, looking at ways of taking preventative measures and innovative measures that are going to help provide a more efficient and effective system that will serve their people.

One difficulty in the north that is taken for granted in southern Canada is interpreters. In many cases, without them a proper diagnosis cannot be made. Follow-up for major surgery is often difficult because patients have long distances to travel, often to the south. Often the follow-up does not take place for three to six months.

Accessibility is often difficult. As mentioned earlier, people often have to travel long distances away from their families, their primary support system, to receive care. Also, accessibility to medicine and prescription drugs is a problem.

We also have another important issue that aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people in the remote regions really take seriously, and that is nutrition. Nutrition and sustenance for those people are very important. The principal objective, for instance, of the food mail subsidy program is to improve nutrition and health in northern communities, which do not have year-round surface transportation. They are mostly isolated. There is usually air service and prices are from 30 per cent to 60 per cent higher.

Thank God for the country food chain that the aboriginal people have sustained for themselves. This is very important. Last year the government extended the program for one year with a budget of $17.1 million pending a review of the program. The north experiences the highest levels of unemployment, poverty, and child malnutrition. This subsidy only applies to nutritious foods that require refrigeration or have a short shelf life, as well as infant formula, infant foods, and non-carbonated water. The cost of living in the north is currently 30 per cent to 40 per cent higher than anywhere else in Canada, and in some areas it is even higher.

We have a great health system in Canada, and we would like to support it and continue it and make it even better, especially for me in my riding in the Northwest Territories as part of Canada.

[National Housing Act, November 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, it bears repeating that we must look at the question in the light of how it affects the majority of Canadians but also those with specific and unique needs, including aboriginal people, who often live in remote and isolated regions, the disabled and single parents. That is a very important issue.

I cannot express enough that the real empowerment of the family or the individual is home ownership. It provides a great deal of stability economically, emotionally and in terms of a safe environment. The safety and security of the person is dealt with in the sense of providing a home. It gives an opportunity for the future.

I have some additional information on the aboriginal housing policy the hon. member asked about. This has addressed the failures, experience and inefficiencies of previous programs and has led to self-sufficiency. Is there any new aboriginal policy? The government through CMHC is providing $307.8 million in this fiscal year to support social housing both off and on reserve.

Every bit of achievement in giving home ownership to individuals in remote regions or to aboriginal people who live on reserves or off reserves is a major struggle. Each time we achieve something it is not done without hard work and compromise. It is very difficult, and every time you make progress it is a major achievement.

[National Housing Act, November 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague brought up a very interesting point. It is a very complicated question. The issue to which he referred would involve changing the Indian Act and making a number of constitutional amendments. It is complicated.

It is not in my mandate to make such a pronouncement. However, if we attempt to ensure that aboriginal people can gain access to home ownership, the issue we are debating today, we know the hon. member would support us. If it involves any kind of work dealing with aboriginal rights, dealing with self-government, dealing with the empowerment of aboriginal people, of course the hon. member would support the government. We would appreciate that. Essentially that is what it would take to answer the very complicated question he asked.

[National Housing Act, November 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the member himself has hurled many abuses across the floor. We have sustained them. We have taken them but I can be honourable enough to retract the word idiot as I referred to the member.

[National Housing Act, November 7th, 1995]

You think you know what you are talking about, you idiot.

[National Housing Act, November 7th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw it.

The hon. member fundamentally asks whether the MIF is in trouble. Is this an additional $50 billion liability to the federal government? The mortgage insurance premiums charged by CMHC are sufficient to meet the risk being assumed at no cost to the government.

The viability of CMHC's mortgage insurance fund is assessed annually by an independent actuary. An actuarial evaluation of the fund as of September 30, 1994 has confirmed its long term solvency.

The member is creating a worst case scenario that is not justified by the facts. Government members have explained again and again that CMHC charges premiums that cover the risk. The fund is sound and has helped thousands of Canadians.

The real liability is the sense of uncaring, the sense of indelicacy on the part of this member, not caring that people of moderate incomes have access to home ownership. That is the real liability. If past governments had taken that attitude, nobody would own a home today.