Lost his last election, in 2006, with 40% of the vote.
Infrastructure May 8th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is quite right. The Canada provincial infrastructure program this time does include a component for rural Canada so that the infrastructure in rural Canada can be upgraded, as well as the infrastructure in the rest of the country.
Rural Development May 1st, 2001
Mr. Speaker, my first priority is to ensure that those issues which were identified at the conference are carried forward. I had an opportunity to work with the participants to prepare an action plan which identified 54 specific actions for the federal government to take on behalf of rural Canadians.
Second, we will hold regional conferences. We had one in Vernon in western Canada last week. We will have a conference this summer in northern Canada and in the fall one in eastern Canada and central Canada. Finally, next year we will have another national conference.
Farm Credit Corporation Act April 30th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member across the way. His passion and concern for his constituents in the agricultural community certainly came forward.
I have some concerns, though, because part of his approach is too limited in its scope. He is right. We do have to deal with the issues and the concerns of our primary producers. However there is more than one way to do that.
One of the things that is critical is that our primary producers have a greater opportunity to paint a long term vision for agriculture. The hon. member has spoken about a long term vision for agriculture. Part of that should be developing down the chain from producer to consumer. There is a fairly long chain between when we produce the goods until we eventually sell them. The more of that chain and that value adding of our agriculture production that can actually occur in rural Canada in our farming communities, the better off our rural communities would be and the better off would be their long term sustainability.
If we are to create a value added entity within a rural community, access to capital must be one of those issues. If the FCC's mandate is expanded, not so that it can fund just any old business because that is not what is being done but to fund businesses that are part of that chain, we would be working toward the sustainability of rural communities.
Could the member explain why he would not see that as a positive way of helping our primary producers and a way of sustaining our rural communities, which I know is critical to him and to all rural members who sit in the House?
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Madam Chairman, in closing the debate I take the opportunity to thank all members for participating. We had a reasonable number of members here this evening who discussed topics of importance to rural Canada and rural Canadians. I thank all of them for their efforts and their energy. I look forward to working with them over the weeks, months and years ahead to achieve positive results for rural Canada.
I thank you, Madam Chairman, the table officers, the pages and everyone who has been here until midnight to make sure we could have this debate. The process of going into the committee of the whole has proven a very good exercise and I think it is something we should try at other times as well.
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Madam Chairman, I appreciate the intervention of the hon. member. I realize and respect her commitment to her riding and what she is trying to accomplish.
Let me try to describe the challenge or the problem. When it comes to rural citizens, whether those rural citizens live in Quebec or whether they live in Ontario or British Columbia, the issue is not one of who should take the predominant role, the provincial government or the federal government. That is not the issue.
Quite frankly I think she emphasized that too much. The issue is not between the provincial and federal governments. The issue is rural Canadians and rural communities. They will establish the priorities. They will find the way. They will recommend the structures.
The role for us as a federal government and for the provincial governments is not the issue between ourselves, but the issue is between how we relate to the communities.
When I say that I want to work with my counterpart in Quebec as I do with my counterparts in every province, it is not to work between each other. It is to work together with the communities. That is what the priority has to be. That is the priority of the government and that is my commitment as the Secretary of State for Rural Development.
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Madam Chairman, perhaps I could make a comment on the last two interventions. Both members spoke about a philosophy that I deeply believe in. I believe the government demonstrates it an ongoing basis. Rural development, community development particularly in resource communities, has to be a bottom up and not a top down driven process.
Members are quite right that for there to be effective decisions in terms of the direction that needs to be taken, the types of priorities that need to be set, they have to be taken within the regions, taken at the local level. Quite frankly what will work in northern Ontario may not necessarily work in Atlantic Canada, on the prairies or in the interior of British Columbia.
We have some models within the federal government which work that way. The community futures program, I believe SADC in Quebec, is a program that works that way. Although it is funded by the federal government and receives its money from the federal government, it is controlled and operated by a local board of directors chosen from local citizens in the community. They know best their community and make the decisions.
Although the federal government funds them, the decisions are made at the local level, including investments in small businesses. The community futures model, one which we have in Quebec, in Ontario and indeed right across the country, is a very apropos one.
Another example is the federal-provincial infrastructure program where the decisions about what projects to bring forward are being made by the municipality, by the people closest to the citizens who understand the needs of their citizens the most, and then the federal and provincial governments collaborate with it.
The model is a good one. The need to have a bottom up driven process is a good one. We had some examples of where we undertake that in the federal government. We can build upon those examples and enhance that type of process to even a greater extent.
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Madam Chairman, to answer all the hon. member's points I could be up here as long as he was. However I will take a moment to answer just a few and to mention to him that, if I have his schedule correctly, the two of us will be in Brandon together at the end of the week at the rural forum in his home community. I look forward to that, and it will give us a chance to discuss some of these issues.
To put it in a nutshell, I would describe it this way. All Canadians, rural or urban, should have the opportunity to access the wealth of Canada and of the nation. The key point is that we recognize, as public policy makers, that there are certain unique impediments that work against rural Canada and rural Canadians, and that one of our jobs as policy makers and parliamentarians is to address the impediments that inhibit the ability of rural Canadians to access the wealth of the nation.
The hon. member mentioned a number of possible solutions in terms of taxation and other things. He also mentioned something I think is very important: the idea of the rural lens. I fully agree with him that all of us in the House and in government need to ensure that as we respond to the issues of the day, put legislation forward and develop regulation, we do so in a way that deals with the reality that is rural Canada.
When it comes to delivering services, whether in health care or information, there is a big difference between delivering them in a place like Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg or Montreal and delivering them in rural Canada. We must develop policies that take those differences into account.
I look forward to being with the hon. member in his home community this Friday.
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Madam Chairman, the hon. member talked about the need to have an appreciation for the natural resource sector and what it means for Canada. I am sure all members in the House keep close to their desks a document called “Think Rural”, which is a report of the standing committee on natural resources, chaired by myself, issued in March 1997.
I would like to read the opening paragraph of the report because it speaks directly to the member's point. It states:
Canada's natural resource industries have been the mainstay of our prosperity for most of our history and continue to be so today. They represent the backbone of the domestic economy and are by far our major source of trade surplus. Currently, they are one of our strongest strategic advantages in global competition. In fact, Canada is the third largest mining nation in the world, the world's largest exporter of forest and mineral products, a net energy exporter and a large-scale producer and exporter of agricultural products. Our future prosperity depends as much upon our continuing ability to discover and harvest our natural resources in rural Canada as it is coming to rely on our knowledge-based manufacturing and service sectors.
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Mr. Chairman, the last comments of the hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst might have been provided by my speech writer about the need to remember rural Canadians in the overall context of the nation, and not simply to deal with the urban centres.
One of his opening comments was interesting because I spent some time in Elliot Lake when it was a mining community. One of the comments made was that the first day of the end of a mine is the first day of operation, when the first shovelful is taken out, because the material mined is a non-renewable resource.
However I do not know why the member would characterize himself as a doomsayer by wanting to talk about how we would deal with the issue 10 years down the road because that is exactly the appropriate way we would have to look at it. A multifaceted and dynamic approach needs to be taken. There is not just simply one aspect to it.
First of all, we in rural Canada, when we are natural resource based communities, need to maximize the resource we have. Let us take the mining industry as an example. The member talked about that in a number of areas and it is important to emphasize in terms of remembering that there is a very fine line between what is ore and what is rock and it is basically the cost of the ingredient and the cost to produce it. Therefore, one of the things we need to work on in the natural resource industries in rural Canada is using technology. We need to use research and development and to support that in order to bring down the costs of production so we can lengthen the amount of time a particular mine can be in operation.
The member also mentioned the need to value add to the commodities we are harvesting or are mining. That again is another strategy to maximize the benefit of a resource.
I think the third component of that is indeed to look ahead to the time when that particular mine may not be there. We need to look ahead by continuing to do further exploration so that other mines may come on stream or, as in the example of Elliot Lake, to find an alternative way to sustain your community.
These are the types of things I talked about in my intervention when I mentioned that there is a need for a public policy perspective that is unique to rural Canada, that is specific to natural resource based economies and that deals with those very specific issues that I think the member put forward very well.
Resource Industries April 24th, 2001
Mr. Chairman, I just want to take a moment to respond to a couple of the points my colleague made in his presentation.
He talked about the frustration in coastal communities in British Columbia. One of the things I talked about in my speech was the need for us to have an opportunity as a federal government to understand and listen to the specific solutions the coastal communities themselves want to pursue.
That is why I am pleased to be able to announce that this week in British Columbia one of those rural dialogue sessions I talked about is in fact occurring. Members of the coastal communities of British Columbia will be attending.
As I am sure the hon. member knows, there is an organization in British Columbia, the Coastal Community Network, which represents many of the coastal communities. I will take the opportunity when I am in British Columbia on Friday to meet with the CCN and discuss directly with its members many of the issues and concerns the hon. member has brought forward in the Chamber.
There is one last point on the issue of community futures, which the member has brought forward. I would be pleased if he would have an opportunity to talk to me at some time later this week specifically. I will endeavour with my colleague to undertake to find out the difficulties or to try to deal with the difficulties the member is alluding to.