Andy Scott

[Questions On The Order Paper, May 1st, 1998]

In so far as the Ministry of the Solicitor General of Canada is concerned, the answers are as follows. Concerning the acquisition of a parcel of land for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in Amos, Quebec, in 1991: a ) The RCMP began planning to build a detachment in Amos around September 1989. Steps to purchase land were initiated after the funds required to purchase land had been approved, i.e., on October 22, 1990. b ) The RCMP only dealt with Public Works and Governmnent Services Canada, PWGSC. PWGSC dealt with the onwer of the land, Clair Foyer Inc. c ) The land was located on 3rd Street West which is located just south of the court house. d ) The RCMP commissionned PWGSC to start looking for a suitable piece of land in April 1991. Following this, the recommendation to purchase the land was made on December 12, 1991. The option to purchase was exercised on January 5, 1993, and the purchase contract was signed on or around October 21, 1993. e ) The surface area of the land was 3969 square metres (63 m x 63 m). f ) The land was purchased for a sum of $77,201.00. If we take the fee paid to PWGSC into account, the total cost of the land to the RCMP was $92,000. g ) Building a new detachment in Amos had been discussed since 1989 and the purchase cost of the land was included in the 1992-1993 budget. The purchase of the Amos site was identified under Vote 40 in the amount of $50,000 in fiscal years 1992/93 and 1993/94 of the main estimates. The actual expenditure was $92,000 in fiscal year 1993/94 and was paid out of the capital construction program. h ) The project to build a new detachment in Amos was put on hold on December 14, 1993, and the construction file was closed on September 1, 1994. Those decisions came as a result of the following:

—On September 16, 1993, a message from the commissionner announced that the RCMP had to cut its overall budget by some $32.7 million during fiscal year 1994/95 and by an additional $36.9 million over the next three years.

—On February 18, 1994, a letter was sent from the deputy commissioners, criminal operations and corporate management to the commanding officers asking them to start reviewing the operation of their respective divisions for the purpose of streamlining and restructuring their resources.

—On March 4, 1994, the commanding officer, “C” Division, Assistant Commissioner Mr. Thivierge, announced the creation of a divisional streamlining committee.

The divisional streamlining committee first met on April 13, 1994, and it was then decided to set up subcommittees which would be each responsible to review some RCMP activities in Quebec. One such subcommittee analysed the organization and restructuring of the police function. On August 18, 1994, this subcommittee submitted a report on the project to streamline “C” Division RCMP detachments in the Abitibi region. This report contained seven recommendations, which are summarized as follows: to close down Amos and Val d'Or detachments and to centralize RCMP activities in Rouyn-Noranda; to relocate RCMP personnel from Amos and Val d'Or; not to staff the vacant position of NCO in charge Amos detachment; to make sure that a 1-800 line be available to Amos and Val d'Or residents; to check with PWGSC that extra space be available on the first floor of Rouyn-Noranda detachment; to sell the land purchased in Amos and to allocate part of the funds set aside for the construction project in Amos ($874,000 in 1995/96) to fit out and renovate Rouyn-Noranda detachment; to make sure that the civil authorities and clients departments in Amos and Val d'Or be sensitized accordingly.

Those recommendations were approved by the division executive committee as well as by headquarters, Ottawa, with the result that the construction project in Amos was cancelled on September 1, 1994, as mentionned above.

On September 30, 1994, the commanding officer, “C” Division, and the officer commanding Montreal subdivision met the member of parliament for Abitibi at the time, Mr. Bernard Deshaies, to advise him of the RCMP's intention to amalgamate its detachments in the Abitibi. The latter approved of the initiative. On October 14, 1994, Val d'Or mayor, Mr. Tétrault, was met. He expressed his disapproval but, according to correspondence dated November 23, 1994, signed by Chief Superintendant G. Zaccardelli, then acting Commanding Officer Mr. Tétrault understood that we had to cope with budget restraint and had no choice but to streamline our services.

On February 7 and 8, 1995, meetings were also held with the mayors and chiefs of police of Amos and Val d'Or. According to correspondence dated February 17, 1995, signed by Insp. P. Droz, acting officer commanding, Montreal subdivision, those representatives unanimously denounced the choice of Rouyn-Noranda. However, the mayor of Amos expressed his interest in an exchange program between the RCMP and Amos police department.

The foregoing answer to part ( h ) of the question briefly summarizes the studies made and steps taken in this file to meet budget cuts.

[National Security, April 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present to parliament the solicitor general's annual statement on national security, having tabled today the 1997 public report of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The public report provides parliamentarians and the public with a review of the global and domestic security environment. Canadians value safety and security. Whether it is defined from the health care, environmental, consumer protection or law enforcement perspective, Canadians see public safety as a key component on how we define ourselves as Canadians.

Public safety is my mission; it is the mission of the Department of the Solicitor General.

Whether it be pursuing the goal of more effective corrections, fighting organized crime or maintaining national security, CSIS, the RCMP, the correctional service and the National Parole Board are dedicated to public safety.

Today I want to focus on the efforts the government is making to protect Canada's interests and to safeguard our citizens from threats to their safety and security. As the CSIS public report underlines, the 1990s have been a decade of great change dominated by increased instability worldwide and the escalating use of violence for political and ideological purposes.

Terrorism, including state sponsored terrorism, is an all too frequent occurrence. CSIS has a mandate to forewarn and advise the government on such activities, providing threat assessments and helping to ensure effective consultation and information sharing with appropriate agencies.

CSIS, the RCMP and other federal departments work together to investigate and monitor the threat of international terrorist activity in a common mission to protect Canadians and Canada's interests here and abroad.

Canadians can expect to see a range of tough measures against those who abuse our democratic system and our institutions to further their deadly aims. I will outline some of the measures.

Canada is a signatory to the United Nations convention on the suppression of terrorist bombing offences and the convention on the safety of UN and associated personnel. The government plans to introduce legislation to ratify these conventions.

We want to make it much more difficult for terrorist groups to raise funds in Canada. This is a global as well as domestic problem and we are working with other G-8 countries to help develop approaches to handle this problem while not impinging upon legitimate humanitarian fundraising activities.

We also want to make it much more difficult for terrorists to enter Canada and to abuse our immigration process to avoid justified removal from the country. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration is developing proposals on these issues as part of her broader reform.

My colleague, the Minister of Justice, has announced that she will bring major amendments to our laws on extradition to help us better meet our international commitments and to ensure that Canada is not a safe haven for criminals around the world who want to avoid justice.

I reiterate the commitment I made in this House last November to introduce legislation that would help the RCMP and other law enforcement agencies to combat money laundering. While these mechanisms are designed to counter organized crime, we anticipate there could also be benefits for counterterrorism efforts.

The RCMP and CSIS play key roles in national security. These two agencies of my portfolio are marshalling all the resources in a co-operative and integrated fight against threats to our national security. CSIS has a key role to play in exchanging information with other countries and providing relevant criminal information and strategic analysis to Canadian law enforcement.

Several countries are active in trying to steal leading edge technology from Canada. CSIS has a mandate and a responsibility to investigate these matters.

In a world driven by economic advantage we do not expect to see such activities diminish and CSIS will continue to develop co-operative arrangements with other security and intelligence services in pursuit of our security objectives.

The government is studying the issue of creating modern legislation to replace the badly outdated and overbroad official secrets act to address the threats Canada faces today.

I welcome the opportunity as well to brief the recently created special committee of the other place that will be examining our counterterrorism arrangements.

In this brief canvass of national security I have emphasized that the global situation is unsettled, often dangerous and hence has important implications for Canadian public safety. We are working hard on both the domestic and international fronts. Canada will be front and centre at the Birmingham summit of the G-8 next month to deal with threats to Canada's national security and our national interests.

[Canadian Security Intelligence Service, April 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the public report of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for 1997.

I ask that it be referred to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

[Organized Crime, April 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, as I said in the House last fall when we introduced the first ever statement on organized crime in this place, we will be introducing that legislation.

[Organized Crime, April 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, this government introduced tough anti-organized crime legislation in the last Parliament. On Friday there were representatives of 50,000 police officers in Ottawa to work out the strategy. Today at noon I met with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. We are on the job.

[Organized Crime, April 22nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the question from my colleague because organized crime is a serious problem in Canada.

We have passed the legislation necessary to fight it but we need to do more than that. We need to put together a national strategy that includes all law enforcement agencies. That is why on Friday I am bringing together 40 law enforcement agencies, the provinces and other criminal justice officials. We are going to put the strategy together to deal with this problem once and for all.

(House in committee to recognize Canada's 1998 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games athletes)

[Cigarette Prices, April 20th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, as a matter of fact when consideration was given to increasing the price of cigarettes or the taxes on cigarettes, the RCMP was consulted in that exercise and felt that the increase that was suggested, and in fact the increase that we saw, was in the margins of what could be managed by the system as it exists now.

[Rcmp, April 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we are looking into the matter even as we speak.

[Firearms, April 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP has been very clear. It was a question of methodology. The problems have been resolved. It has been established by the RCMP that they have been resolved. The RCMP is satisfied.

[Justice, March 31st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I bring to the member's attention not only that we are committed to bringing forward legislation with regard to money laundering but also that during the course of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act review, which is forthcoming, we will have an opportunity to discuss accelerated review as well.