Raymond Simard

[Questions on the Order Paper, October 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[Questions on the Order Paper, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[Community Care Workers, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House and all Canadians that October 10 to 16, 2004 is national Community Care Worker Week.

The health care professionals, paraprofessionals and volunteers who provide care in the community are an integral part of our health care system. Community care workers represent many groups and disciplines and carry out various functions. They include nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, homemakers, home support workers and volunteers. These are the vital front line workers who provide home based care, facility based long term care, meal programs and community support programs.

To honour these front line workers, the Canadian Association for Community Care has initiated the Community Care Worker Award which is presented to the winner in their community every year during Community Care Worker Week. The award recognizes a community care worker who has made a difference in people's lives.

To pay tribute to community care workers across Canada, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing national Community Care Worker Week.

[Earth Day, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, today is Earth Day, a day on which we as Canadians should reflect on our ability to be custodians of the earth's vital natural resources. I want to highlight one particular resource today, which is water.

As members well know, water is essential to life and to the health of humans and ecosystems. Canada has 7% of the world's supply of renewable fresh water. This provides us with both tremendous opportunity and the responsibility to be careful stewards. The responsibility extends beyond our borders. Globally, more than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water and more than two billion lack adequate sanitation. Canada is honouring its commitment to work with our international partners to cut those numbers in half by 2015.

At home, the government is leading in participating in a range of initiatives to improve water quality for Canadians and the natural environment. The federal government will continue to work closely with our partners in the provinces and territories to ensure that Canadians have clean, safe and secure water.

[Canada National Parks Act, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I guess we should treat the two parts separately. In the case of Riding Mountain National Park, I think it is a clerical error and something we are trying to correct. I think it is probably straightforward.

In terms of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the hon. member raises a very important point. My understanding is that it is a unique situation. The reserve was surrounded by a national park at one point. We knew that we may, depending on the increased population, have to increase the reserve size. My understanding is that the reason we are providing additional space to the reserve is to provide additional housing. I have also been told that the environmentalists have looked at this and all the housing criteria will follow CMHC standards.

My feeling is that it is a unique situation and as a government we have looked at that.

[Canada National Parks Act, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I too am pleased to participate today in the second reading debate on Bill C-28, an act to amend the Canada National Parks Act, to remove lands from Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada and Riding Mountain National Park, which is in my home province of Manitoba.

The national parks of Canada represent not only Canada's heritage of magnificent, inspiring physical landscapes, they are also ancient cultural landscapes. Many of our world renowned national parks are the traditional territories of aboriginal communities whose living histories predate Canada by several millennia.

In the same way that non-aboriginal Canadians take exceptional pride in their national parks, aboriginal Canadians also want to feel that national parks are important and relevant institutions for their peoples and cultures. As do Canadians in general, aboriginal communities want to be meaningfully consulted and to participate in our national parks planning and management. They want to see their ancient and present day cultures accurately and respectfully portrayed in park information and interpretation programs. They want to see that sacred sites are protected and that traditional ecological knowledge is reflected in resource conservation and management decisions.

Parks Canada has worked to improve relationships with aboriginal communities focusing on two related efforts: making national parks relevant to aboriginal Canadians and making the cultural landscapes of national parks known to all Canadians, thereby giving them an opportunity to learn and appreciate the peoples and the cultures they are visiting.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve has taken significant strides in recent years to promote aboriginal initiatives, forging relationships and making significant efforts toward the meaningful involvement of aboriginal people in the co-operative management of the national park reserve. The results have been remarkable.

By way of illustration I would like to highlight a few of the most noteworthy accomplishments. Pacific Rim National Park Reserve worked with the Ucluelet First Nation to develop the Nuu-chah-nulth Trail inside the national park. Opened in 2003, this interpretive trail provides extensive on site interpretation of regional first nations' culture, history and language.

In June, the Ucluelet First Nation will again honour the opening of the trail by erecting the first totem pole to be carved and raised in traditional territory of this first nation in 104 years, a source of great pride for this first nation community. This “welcoming” pole will greet Canadians and international visitors to the trail and to Ucluelet First Nation and Nuu-chah-nulth traditional territory. It will symbolize the long history and continuing presence of first nations peoples in the region and in the national park in particular.

On the West Coast Trail unit of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Parks Canada funds an initiative called Quu'as West Coast Trail Society. A not for profit group, this society is a training and mentoring program for three first nations along the famous West Coast Trail, one of the world's great recreational hiking routes.

Be engaging in the co-operative management of the west coast trail with Parks Canada, young first nations members are exposed to the full gamut of park management issues and training related to public safety, resource conservation, monitoring and public interpretation. As a result of this program, first nations graduates have gone on to secure full time employment with Parks Canada, other agencies and industry.

There are seven first nations within the area encompassed by Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. A manager of aboriginal programs sits at the park management table and directs co-operative programs, such as the promotion of first nations languages, co-operative training, the establishment of aboriginal national historic sites and the development of aboriginal tourism opportunities.

By way of contrast, in 1997 there was no representation of first nations in the workforce of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Today, first nations represent some 18% of park staff in virtually every aspect and level of park management. This figure approximates the representation of aboriginal people within the regional population. There is no better indicator of the relevance of the Parks Canada program to first nations than their willingness to participate in the protection and presentation of one of Canada's greatest national parks. This is an accomplishment of which we can all be proud.

Parks Canada has placed a particular focus on its relationship with aboriginal people and the record in Pacific rim clearly demonstrates this initiative in action. Bill C-28, which would withdraw lands from Pacific rim in order to expand the Esowista Indian Reserve of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, would further strengthen those relationships. It would also improve the quality of life for aboriginal people, a government priority identified in the recent Speech from the Throne.

I ask all members of the House to support quick passage of Bill C-28.

[Petitions, March 24th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise before the House today and submit petitions with hundreds of names of Manitoba post-secondary students.

These students call upon Parliament to enact legislation to put in place very specific measures to alleviate the debt burden of full time students, to ensure Canada's colleges and universities have sufficient resources, and to guarantee a post-secondary education that is financially accessible to all qualified persons.

[Western Economic Diversification, March 11th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, Western Economic Diversification Canada makes investments in innovation. In addition to support for university research, has the department ever supported colleges in the west?

[The Réseau Award, March 11th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, every year, on International Women's Day, the organization Réseau action femmes gives the Réseau award to Franco-Manitoban women who have distinguished themselves by making an outstanding contribution to improving the status of women.

This organization educates the public about the realities faced by women and promotes social change to achieve equality and equity, access to education, economic independence and services in French.

We are surrounded by exceptional women who deserve our wholehearted recognition. The winners of this year's awards are Lynne Robert, for economics; Cécile Lesage, for health; Nathalie Bernardin, for young people; and Lucienne Boucher, for politics.

Driven by justice and the desire to help others, these women were selected for this award due to their active involvement in improving the lives of the women in their community. Congratulations to them all.

[Prior Learning Assessment, February 24th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, on February 20, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development announced funding of $825,248 over three years to support a research project by the Centre for Education and Work in Winnipeg. The project will measure the long term effects of prior learning assessment and recognition as a labour market tool.

The basic goal is to help workers develop and apply the skills needed in today's changing workforce. The recognition of prior learning is an important component of Canada's lifelong learning agenda. Prior learning assessment, or PLA, is a key innovation in Canada's learning system that will help meet urgent and relevant labour market demands and enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability within the teaching, learning and administrative systems.

The PLA initiative is part of the workplace skills strategy, whose objective is to strengthen our nation's capacity to produce the skilled workers and the kind of workforce that will carry us forward in the 21st century.

The national research project is the first of its kind in Canada and its results could have a significant impact for PLA and its adoption in Canadian workplaces, academic institutions and government policy.