Jacques Saada

[Telecommunications Act, February 7th, 2005]

moved:

That Bill C-37, an act to amend the Telecommunications Act, be referred forthwith to the Standing Committee on Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology.

[Human Resources, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I can only reiterate the fact that the minister is very concerned with the issue and she will get back to the member opposite in the very near future.

[Human Resources, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am very much aware of the case of Ms. Brenda Armstrong and her sister who would like to assist, Theresa Flottvik. I would like to thank the member opposite for the letter that he sent to our minister. The minister is very sensitive to the human considerations in this file. She has undertaken to look at the file and get back to the gentleman in the near future.

[Parental Leave, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member opposite for suggesting that the minister phone her counterpart, with whom she has been in regular contact for the past several days.

I will repeat once more that, in this whole issue, no solution can be found until the negotiations between the parties are concluded. And the parties will not be concluding any negotiations in this place, here, today. That is not how it is done. We are going to take an intelligent approach and, more importantly, one that is sensitive to the well-being of families in Quebec.

[Parental Leave, February 4th, 2005]

While I am trying to answer, there is a lot of noise coming from across the way. That will not change the reality, however, and the reality is that both parties are currently negotiating and that the only way to reach an agreement is by letting those involved negotiate outside this chamber.

[Parental Leave, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I wish my hon. colleague opposite had taken the time to read the Employment Insurance Act, to grasp the constraints on the funding earmarked for parental leave which are set out in the act.

[Parental Leave, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the well-being of Quebec families and their eligibility for parental leave is important to the minister and our entire government.

This is an extremely simple situation to understand. Negotiations are currently under way. Each party has its own position and interpretation. I think we have to give both parties a chance to negotiate to reach an agreement. One thing is certain, the floor of this House is not the place to solve this problem.

[Textile and Clothing Industry, February 3rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, long before the Bloc Québécois became aware of this reality, we had already introduced some very practical measures. In particular, we launched a program to support diversification in the textile industry. We have invested money in this program, which was extended last February and again recently, with additional funds to improve productivity in the textile and related industries, support for the workers, and regional economic diversification initiatives for the companies affected. It is easy to overlook all this for political reasons.

[Textile Industry, December 14th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, the question raised by my colleagues touches on a very sensitive issue and I will do my best to explain it as clearly as possible. My department and the government can intervene as much as they want, provided that businesses make some effort to show an interest in proposing something. So, we are willing to support businesses.

My colleague points out to me the fact that unions were not involved. I am sure he is not telling me that the Government of Canada has a responsibility to go in and manage labour-management relations in those private companies. This does not make sense.

There was a program that was open to everybody. Not only that, but since I still have a few minutes left, if I may, I will go back to a few concrete examples. Regitex in Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce was a successful business. The Association des manufacturiers de mode enfantine in Montréal was a success. Chemise Empire Ltée in Louiseville was a success. Confections Alizée plein air inc. in Sainte-Aurélie was a success. The Canadian Apparel Federation, and their work, were a success. The Groupe CTT/SAGEOS in Saint-Hyacinthe was a success. The Groupe VR2 Inc. in Asbestos was a success.

All those businesses have this in common: they have decided to work to take advantage of the services offered by the programs we have set up. I am certainly not going to ask the heads of the businesses in Huntingdon “How come your unions are not present?” I do not want to suggest that they were not present because I was not present at the meeting, and I do not know who was. However, I know that we have taken the initiative and we have invited them. We have asked for plans to be submitted. We have said that the money was there. We have said that we were extremely flexible on the mode of application to help them.

What more can we do to help a business? There are eight, nine, ten, fifteen that have achieved something, and two whose failure has been revealed today. I am sorry, but if we have made it with 10 or 12 businesses, it may be because the program was not so bad. So we really have to see what the problem was.

[Textile Industry, December 14th, 2004]

In the case of Huntingdon, I would like to finish my answer, if I may. In April 2004, we had meetings there with CED, Industry Canada and the minister of economic and regional development in Quebec. Together, we explored the possibility of using either CANtex, or another program in my department, IDEA-SME, to foster economic diversification.

We then put everything together and asked two local companies to tell us whether they were interested. Huntingdon Mills was interested, but it did not apply to the office in charge of this program for assistance. We never had any feedback from the other company.

I do not want people to start pointing fingers and saying who did what, and who should have done this or that. What I see now is people in trouble. I accept my colleague's question, but I wanted to set the record straight so that everybody is talking about real facts and not allegations.