Andrew Telegdi

[Iraq, April 2nd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, at its meeting on February 26, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo passed the following resolution:

Whereas the threat of war in the current international situation is a concern for the residents of the region of Waterloo and for all Canadians;

Therefore be it resolved that the Regional Municipality of Waterloo urge the Government of Canada to make all possible efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to this situation;

And be it further resolved that if the Government of Canada decided to take military action against Iraq that such action would only occur under the auspices of the United Nations and according to United Nations resolutions.

The Government of Canada worked hard for a resolution that would have bridged the two solitudes on the UN Security Council and would have averted war. Unfortunately we were not successful.

We must continue our efforts to seek an alternative to the present war and redouble our efforts to strengthen the cause of multilateralism and the United Nations.

[Assisted Human Reproduction Act, March 18th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, I have some subamendments to Motions Nos. 46 and 49. To ensure that these amendments conform with the writings of this section on controlled activities, I wish to propose a subamendment to these amendments. I move:

That motion 46 be amended by adding in clause 10.1(1), (2), (3) and (4) after words: “except in accordance with the regulations,” the words: “and a licence.”

I move:

That motion 49 be amended by adding in Clause 11.1 (1), (2), (3), after the words: “except in accordance with the regulations,” the words: “and a licence.”

[Petitions, February 5th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition signed by 500 citizens of Canada regarding the Steven Truscott situation. As we know, Mr. Truscott was convicted in 1959, at the age of 14, and was sentenced to hang by the neck until dead.

The petitioners call upon the hon. Fred Kaufman to re-examine as quickly as possible the facts surrounding the case as new evidence has come forward. The people supporting Mr. Truscott are looking for redress in this case and to clear Mr. Truscott's name.

The petitioners also call upon the government and the Minister of Justice to do what they can to ensure that this case is re-examined and that justice be restored to Mr. Truscott.

[Kyoto Protocol, December 2nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it would take some real flip-flops to make sense of a lot of the hot air that comes from the other side. We should consider putting in a monitor to measure the greenhouse gas emissions.

It is clear that evolving technologies mean that we will have to be a lot smarter in terms of our usage of energy, because not only can we not afford our wasteful energy practices, the planet cannot survive if that is what we are going to do.

[Kyoto Protocol, December 2nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the member, since he comes from North Vancouver, that when I come in from Vancouver Island via ferry going to Horseshoe Bay, too often I am unable to see Mount Baker because of all the pollution that is spewed out by the gasoline engines and diesel engines of cars in Vancouver. That is how bad the situation is: at times Mount Baker cannot be seen.

Let me say to the member across the way that smog is produced by present fuel usage of vehicles. That is where smog comes from. Let me also say to the member that there is probably no part of the country that is more greatly affected by that smog than the province he comes from and the community he represents.

I can say that the long term future of fuel usage is going to be fuel cells. To get to fuel cells, we need hydrogen infrastructure, which would be provided in the interim by the usage of natural gas as fuel. It is the friendliest fuel we have.

[Kyoto Protocol, December 2nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, what is so very important to understand is that when we take action in preserving our environment on this very small planet we as a nation cannot do it alone. We have to do it in concert with the rest of the nations of this planet. We might represent 2% of the usage, but look at the benefits we would have if we could have an impact on 100% of the usage out there, if it were to assure a cleaner and healthier future for the planet Earth.

[Kyoto Protocol, December 2nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to partake in this debate. We are involved in a historic debate in which we are saying to Canadians, and hopefully the world community, that the status quo is not an option.

In 1950 the population of this planet was 2.5 billion. Right now the population of the planet is approximately 6.3 billion. By 2050 the population of this planet will be 9 billion. There is no question that if the human race is to survive, we have to reduce our environmental footprint.

We live on a small planet with finite resources. They are not endless so we have to start using our resources much more efficiently. We in the western world, the industrialized world, are the greatest users of energy. Consider what would happen if China, India, Africa and Asia had the same level of consumption. If we were to export our SUVs, our energy consumption, on a per capita basis to the rest of the world, our planet would not survive.

We are looking at a global problem and we need global solutions. For those who say that whatever we save in comparison to the rest of the world is 2% or less, the point is that everybody on this planet will have to take action, and will have to look toward a green future.

The majority of Canadians believe that addressing climate change is something that must be done because clean air and water are essential to our health and quality of life. They are part of the heritage we must leave for future generations.

The release of certain pollutants into the atmosphere, known collectively as greenhouse gas emissions, is increasing the overall temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. Even if it did not, surely to God nobody in the House would argue that greenhouse gas emissions are good. All we have to do is look at the number of smog alert days that occur in Canada. I can say that my community of Kitchener--Waterloo has too many, given the wind patterns we have coming in from the U.S. and picking up on the industrial sector.

When we signed the protocol in 1997, we joined with 180 other countries and pledged to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We have promised to lower our emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012. Our goal is to come up with the best plan of action that will achieve our targets, minimize costs and maximize benefits to our economy as well as the environment, improve competitiveness, ensure no unreasonable burden to a region of the country, and provide flexibility to deal with uncertainties. We will be able to meet our objectives while ensuring robust economic growth.

We have examined the concerns of Canadians regarding implementation and have released a climate change draft plan on how we can meet our emissions reduction commitments. For almost five years, we consulted with provinces, territories, business stakeholders and the Canadian public before reaching the decision to proceed with ratification.

Much has been said on how this might hurt the economy. Let me draw on a simple example in my community called TeleflexGFI. It addresses one area which the action plan does not even take into account in terms of reduction of greenhouse gases. That is the use of natural gas.

Canada has an incredible abundance of natural gas. Huge deposits of frozen natural gas pellets were found recently off the coast of Vancouver Island. Alberta has vast amounts of natural gas.

In 1994 in my riding of Kitchener--Waterloo a company that used to manufacture armaments, Devtek Industries, spun off a company called GFI Control Systems with the help of the government. GFI Control Systems allows automobiles to use alternate fuels such as natural gas and propane.

The vast abundance of natural gas that Canada has as well as the new discoveries off the west coast of Vancouver Island are a possible solution, but these have not been included in the action plan. Economic opportunities have occurred in my community. There is continued job growth.

This company is the leader in new technologies. Since 1997 the federal government, through technology partnerships Canada, has invested approximately $10 million in this company. It has resulted in jobs here in Canada and very positive action in the area of greenhouse gas reduction. There is no friendlier alternate fuel than natural gas in terms of green technology.

Approximately one-quarter of Canada's natural gas exports, the equivalent of about 225 billion litres of gasoline, would be sufficient to displace all of the projected gasoline and diesel fuel consumed by road transportation in 2010. Natural gas is the only fuel that is transported to pumps via pipelines thus further reducing truck volume on highways and the ensuing emissions that come from that.

Over the past two decades Canada has nurtured a number of companies that have become global leaders in natural gas vehicle technology and refueling equipment. They are able to rapidly expand the size of the natural gas and propane vehicle fleets and the volume of natural gas and propane used in Canada. In order to create and sustain markets for alternative fuel vehicles, support from all levels of government, particularly the federal government, is essential.

The United States and European alternative fuel vehicle markets are much larger and are growing faster than the Canadian market. There is a bit of irony in this. TeleflexGFI has produced over 30,000 vehicles with the new technology. The vast majority of them operate in the United States of America. It means that Canada's green technology is reducing greenhouse gas production in the United States.

The federal government could lead in this area. We could mandate that all vehicles use natural gas. This would include the green buses that run on the Hill and which, at the present time, use diesel fuel. We could make sure that all fleets in the federal service used natural gas. We could make sure that provincial and municipal fleets used natural gas. In this way we would not be displacing jobs; we would be creating them.

The greatest producer of natural gas right now is the province of Alberta. The opportunity for the province of Alberta to continue in the provision of energy to the rest of the country is still there. The possibilities for development of gas resources off Vancouver Island are there as well.

[University of Waterloo, November 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to inform the House that Dr. Mike Lazaridis, founder, president and co-chief executive officer of Research in Motion has been appointed chancellor of the University of Waterloo.

He is a passionate, eloquent and compelling champion for education and fundamental research. He is recognized as one of Canada's leading visionaries and entrepreneurs and is also known as a powerful and passionate advocate for education at all levels.

Dr. Lazaridis is a community leader and a philanthropist whose private support of research is unparalleled in Canada. He founded the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2000. In donating $100 million toward its creation, he embarked upon the fulfillment of a vision for research that is unlike anything ever seen in Canada.

In addition, his gifts to the University of Waterloo have helped establish the Institute for Quantum Computing, projected to be one of the leading centres of its kind anywhere.

I wish to extend congratulations to Dr. Lazaridis.

[Citizenship of Canada Act, November 7th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I mentioned in my comments that this is a new section. It is a section that causes me concern because it was under the guise of terrorism and fighting organized crime and human rights violations that we ended up with this kind of process. Secret evidence is very dangerous. Not having the rules of evidence apply is also very dangerous.

If we recognize a possible risk to security or if we are dealing with a dangerous individual, there are mechanisms in place now such that people can be detained in custody while their cases are handled. Just because we make that determination in very serious cases, we do not take away all the rules of evidence and we do not take away the right to appeal.

As I mentioned, I look forward to working in committee on that section because it also takes in information from governments. There are governments like the one in Iraq. Do we take information from Iraq if it happens to be looking for somebody it would like to have returned to Iraq to execute? It is not a clear-cut thing. Some governments are good and some governments are bad.

I think this section needs to be clarified and worked on. Ultimately, if one is a citizen, one should have the rights of a citizen. That is not to say that if people are involved in something bad we cannot get them out of the country and take away their citizenship. That is not the issue. The issue is that we have fundamental justice. It may be alleged that one has done something but that does not mean one has done it unless a court of law, with appeal, comes to that conclusion.

[Citizenship of Canada Act, November 7th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure that it would. I think not. When the present bill finally is tested by the charter I am pretty confident that it will not meet a charter challenge.

Let me make a statement about the member's comments because I think there are some important components to them, about rights and about abuses that have happened in the past. I was not around, nor was I in this country, when the Chinese exclusion act was enacted or when any of the other atrocities happened. This is not to try to make people in Canada feel guilty, but to have them understand and recognize it. I was not around for what happened to the Acadians, but I recognize from reading history that it was very wrong.

It is through having something like a day of atonement and recognizing the importance of the charter that people understand where the charter comes from and why we have put it in place. It is a very basic contract, with every Canadian, on individual human rights. I think that if we were to have that kind of situation, if we were to have their struggles and mistreatment recognized, a lot of groups like Canadians of Ukrainian descent would feel a lot better about that part of their history. It can be very haunting, as it is haunting for the Acadians to learn what happened to them, to learn about their struggles and not have them recognized. I think it is very important for us to recognize these things that have happened, such as the unjust internments that occurred. I think then we can truly move forward as Canadians equal before the law.