Pauline Picard

[Sponsorship Program, September 30th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, according to our estimates, the amount of dirty money from which the Liberal Party of Canada benefited is not $750,000 but $5.4 million.

That being the case, ought the government not ensure that there is at least $750,000 of dirty money in that trust account?

[Sponsorship Program, September 30th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, hon. members will recall that in the aftermath of the sponsorship scandal, the Liberal Party set up a trust and made a commitment to put $750,000 into it.

Since the government decided to step up its demands on agencies in the aftermath of the Gomery inquiry, does it plan to do the same with the Liberal Party of Canada and check whether the dirty money has indeed been put into the trust fund as it promised?

[Textile and Clothing Industries, September 29th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, please allow me first to salute the rigorous work that was done by my colleague from Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, who, since what we may call the textile crisis, has had numerous meetings and visited many regions in Quebec to fully grasp the extent of the problem. The quality of his work is an honour to the Bloc, and I commend him for it.

I am also pleased to take part in this last hour of debate on the amendment proposed by my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable. This amendment reads as follows:

That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “particularly” and substituting the following: “by allowing clothing made with Canadian textiles but manufactured abroad to be imported without customs duties and by creating an income support program for older workers.”

This amendment is part of five tools that we tried to propose to the government in order to help our industry, which really needs it.

Must we remind the House that the textile sector has long been one of the jewels of the economy in my riding? This is no longer the case today. Since 1998, the big textile and clothing sector has been losing ground in Drummond. Closures of businesses such as Celanese, Cavalier Textiles and, recently, Denim Swift, have something to do with that.

The Celanese plant closed gradually. It was like a slow death: 5,000 people in all had lost their job in March 2000. Management moved the facilities south of the border. Seven months later, another plant closed: Cavalier Textiles ended its production. In December 2003, Denim Swift management announced that it was ceasing its denim production activities in April 2004, putting 600 people out of work. It cited repercussions of the Caribbean Agreement to justify its announcement.

The industry came together. We brought various stakeholders together around the same table to try to find a solution. I personally intervened to get the then Minister of Industry to delegate a representative from the Economic Development Agency of Canada.

The Denim Swift strategy committee tried everything to get help from the federal government in order to avoid closing the plant, dismantling the facilities and moving the equipment to the United States. The Liberal government disappointed many in our region by choosing to do nothing.

Then, in May 2004, two letters came from the American president of Denim Swift, in which he expressed his concerns about the removal of tariffs and quotas. He indicated to the Minister of Finance that reducing customs duties would cause serious problems for the textile industry. He stressed the fact that removing tariffs would destabilize the market and cause major uncertainty for the future of the industry. It could affect the Drummondville community even more.

I want to share with you one of the questions raised by Mr. Heldrich, president of Denim Swift in the United States:

This government appears to believe that the latest measures they have announced, CATIP and CANtex, are the solutions to the problems. Unfortunately, these programs are no substitute for appropriate and realistic policy for today's context. When our industry has no markets left, what good will these programs be?

The government did not respond. Six months later, during question period, the current Minister of Finance candidly admitted that he never read the letters in question.

Last March, the current minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada went to Drummond, but was not very forthcoming in his answers to journalists, who questioned him on the famous Caribbean Agreement. Allow me to quote this excerpt from the weekly L'Express site from March 31, 2005.

When asked what his agency intended to do with regard to the Caribbean accord, an international treaty on textiles that has hurt companies like Denim Swift, (the minister) did not say much, mentioning the intervention of numerous ministers in order to resolve the issue.

Shortly thereafter, the Société de développement économique de Drummond published the employment rate for our RCM. Not surprisingly, it was not good. The loss of 600 jobs at the Denim Swift plant in Drummondville hit the regional economy hard. As a result, the textile and clothing industry now represents only 8.9% of all jobs in our RCM, and is the sixth largest provider of manufacturing jobs in the region. In comparison, it represented 12.5% in 2003 and was the second largest.

Those are the facts.

Since the first closure, and still today, the Bloc Québécois has made every effort to try to find practical and responsible solutions to these problems.

What can be done to prevent companies from electing to close their operations here because they can take advantage of low production costs elsewhere due to overly weak social and environmental legislation? An international policy capable of averting low-cost offshoring should also be adopted.

The action plan that the Bloc Québécois presented to the government also contains a measure to encourage the use of textiles from Quebec and Canada by allowing the duty-free entry of clothes made abroad, from textiles of Canadian origin. The government must negotiate Canada's accession to treaties signed by the United States and countries in Central America and the Caribbean. This would open the American market to textile and clothing manufacturers.

We have also spent a lot of time talking about the Chinese invasion following the lifting of tariff barriers on January 1, 2005. As we have said since the beginning, the government can use remedies under international treaties. For example, under the World Trade Organization accession protocol for China, these remedies allow for the adoption of quotas on Chinese imports in sectors where such imports could disrupt the market. Similarly, the government also has the duty to maintain import tariffs on clothing and types of textiles produced in Canada. That way, we can ensure that local manufacturers have sufficient flexibility until they are able to adapt to international competition.

Finally, behind all these figures and statistics are the faces of the men and women who are the first victims of the Liberal government's inaction. Worse yet, not only has the government done nothing to protect their jobs, but it has also proposed nothing concrete to help them out. In this connection, the Bloc's plan proposed that the government increase transfer payments to Quebec for trade training.

Then, for those who are close to retirement age, we continue to call for the creation of an aid package tailored to their reality. When people have spent their entire working lives with one employer, it is not easy to get back into the work force. This is why we believe that restoring POWA, the program for older workers, is essential in order to allow them to bridge the gap between EI payments and their pension cheques.

It is no longer a matter of figures, statistics, ratios, percentage; it is a matter of dignity and equity. These workers are bearing the brunt of our open borders, and of this government's laxness. If the liberalization of markets is good for society as a whole, it strikes me as normal for us, as a society of solidarity, to compensate the victims of the modernization of our economy.

[Michel Cusson, September 27th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am particularly proud to bring to your attention the prolific talent of Quebec and Drummondville's own composer, Michel Cusson.

He has seen his dream of composing film scores come true, starting with L'Automne sauvage in 1992, and now has worked on 16 feature films and 13 television series.

After writing the score for Séraphin: Heart of Stone , Michel Cusson composed some twenty original musical pieces for the soundtrack of Aurore .

He was also responsible for the music used in the film on the life of Maurice Richard.

He has done a lot of travelling back and forth between Quebec and China recently. In fact, the music accompanying the performance of the Shanghai Circus—premiering today, incidentally—is also his work.

Michel, the Bloc Québécois is impressed by the broad scope and the high calibre of your work and hope it will continue to brighten our lives for many years to come.

[Mondial des Cultures, June 27th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, 24 years ago, when the Festival mondial de folklore de Drummondville, now the Mondial des Cultures, was created, we were not nearly as multicultural as we are today, especially in Drummondville, where there were very few immigrants. Coming up with the idea of creating an international festival of world cultures here required a great deal of imagination.

This year's lineup includes 20 acts, from Croatia, South Korea, Mexico, the Basque region and Romania, and also the Trinity Irish Dancers from New York and, for the first time, a troupe from Haiti. This is what makes Drummondville the capital of the world!

This year's event features the voice, the expression of language and peoples. The program includes the Great Voices of Bulgaria, Corneille, Véronique Claveau, Martin Giroux, Julie Lauzon and the Artzimut choir.

The Bloc Québécois commends the Mondial des Cultures de Drummondville for its excellent work and invites the public to join the festivities from July 7 to 17.

Have a good festival.

[Riding of Drummond, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize the involvement and success of my riding's 20 most influential Quebeckers.

They are: Bernard, Laurent and Alain Lemaire of Cascades; Francine Ruest-Jutras, the mayor of Drummondville; José Boisjoli, the head of Bombardier Recreational Products; actress Karine Vanasse; owner of Pétro-T, Léo-Paul Therrien; Martin Dupont, director general of the Société de développement économique de Drummondville; the owners of the giant firm Canimex, Roger Dubois, and of Soucy Holding, Gilles Soucy; the artistic and general director of Mondial des cultures, René Fréchette; veteran comedian, Daniel Lemire; the director general of the Corporation du Centre culturel de Drummondville, Roland Janelle; the humorous quintet Les Trois Accords; and Patrick Sénécal, a novelist known for his bestseller Sur le seuil .

No two ways about it, these people make a huge difference to our community, our culture and our industry.

[Sponsorship Program, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, Jean Chrétien's lawyer told the press on Monday that this guarantee had reassured him about what to do next.

Does the Prime Minister realize that this guarantee gives Jean Chrétien's lawyer exactly what he needs to maintain pressure on Justice Gomery, just as the latter is about to start drafting his report?

[Sponsorship Program, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, during final arguments, Jean Chrétien's lawyer asked Justice Gomery to formally exonerate the former PM in his report and told journalists that he had been assured by the government that a new challenge of Justice Gomery's bias could be filed.

Is that not proof that the exchange of letters between the government's lawyer and Jean Chrétien's lawyer gave the former PM enough assurance to continue to hold his threat over Justice Gomery's head?

[Canada Elections Act, June 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this debate at second reading of Bill C-312, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act (appointment of returning officers).

I would like to applaud the initiative of my friend, the hon. member for Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord and Bloc Québécois whip. I would like to congratulate him on this private member's bill, which aims to put an end to partisan appointments of returning officers.

It seems to me that there are three key elements in this bill. First, it would ensure that the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada supervises the appointment of returning officers. Second, the candidates would have to demonstrate their competence, their merits and their ability to carry out this job before being appointed. Third, it would strengthen the authority of the Chief Electoral Officer in his or her relations with the returning officers.

These three elements follow up on the last report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, in which he lamented his inability to ensure quality, uniform service all across Canada because returning officers are appointed by the government.

That being said, I know that my colleague based his ideas on the foundation of the legislation in Quebec where the process is more open and transparent.

There are three steps in the selection process. The first step involves completing a registration form. Those candidates whose experience is deemed relevant are asked to take a written exam, which constitutes the second step. During the third step, the candidates who ranked first, second and third at the end of the second step are invited to take an oral exam. The oral exam unfolds in the presence of a committee made up of three members, one of whom is not a staff member of the Chief Electoral Officer. The candidate who ranks first after the three steps in the selection process is appointed returning officer.

In the weeks following his appointment, the returning officer must appoint an assistant returning officer according to the rules set by the Chief Electoral Officer. A training program intended for new returning officers is given to him so that he can acquire the knowledge and skills required to perform his duties.

Returning officers must have appropriate knowledge of the characteristics of their electoral divisions in order to provide customized management of electoral events. In particular, they must consider the following factors: the types of regions and population (rural, semi-rural, urban), the size of the electoral division, the number of municipalities, the number of candidates and political parties, the availability of premises in which to set up their main offices, revision offices and polling stations, as well as communication methods.

So, returning officers are selected according to an open and transparent process.

It is a completely different story on the federal level. When it comes to appointing federal returning officers, subsection 24(1) of the Canada Elections Act states that the governor in council shall appoint the returning officers. Elections Canada refers us to the office of the Prime Minister for more information.

So, the appointment process is unclear, which leads us to doubt the quality of the individuals appointed to fulfill this extremely important task in the democratic process. There is no open competition, no opportunity for interested candidates to demonstrate their qualifications, and the appointment is not based on criteria of qualifications or skills. It has little to do with a candidate's merit. In short, appointments are made on a purely partisan basis.

The present chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, recommends modernization of the electoral process. During one of his appearances before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, he made the following criticisms: appointees do not have enough information in advance on what is expected of them; the current arrangements do not allow him to deal effectively with failure to perform or poor performance by returning officers. While he has the power to give executory instructions to the returning officers, he cannot impose disciplinary measures on returning officers or revoke their appointments for not following his instructions. Only the governor in council can revoke and replace returning officers.

Control over appointments by the party in power gives the impression of partiality. This is why the initiative by the Bloc Québécois whip is supported by the other opposition parties, which makes us very proud. To put it succinctly, these partisan appointments must stop.

I would also draw the attention of the House to the report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the 38th general election held on June 28, 2004. It says on the first page:

From this election we can already draw certain conclusions, which hold lessons important to our pursuit of improvement in the electoral process. In particular, it remains difficult to provide service of uniform quality across the country when the returning officers appointed for this purpose by the Governor in Council are not selected on the basis of merit and still less, it seems, on any test of their ability to carry out their duties. The work of the Chief Electoral Officer becomes all the more challenging when some returning officers do not feel obliged to respect his authority because they owe their appointment to another body.

This is an eloquent statement, and is sufficient in itself to encourage all members to support Bill C-312.

Since the present partisan appointment system makes federal returning officers more beholden to the political parties in power than to the chief returning officer; since in Quebec candidates for returning officer have to go through a public and open competition to obtain an appointment; since there has been legislation in place in Quebec since 1980; and since the transparency of the Quebec electoral system is recognized world wide, the Bloc Québécois renews its commitment to do away with the partisan appointment of returning officers by the Liberal federal government.

I therefore call upon all my honourable colleagues in this house to give Bill C-312 if not unanimous, at least majority support.

[Health, June 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, by denying the existence of the fiscal imbalance, the government could use the recent Supreme Court ruling as a pretext to further cut funding to Quebec.

This is why I insist the Minister of Health stop his double talk and give Quebec guarantees that it will not be penalized by the Supreme Court decision. We want firm guarantees.