Pierre Pettigrew

[Child Poverty, February 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the government is very concerned with child poverty in the country. We have already done a great deal. Over $5 billion has been invested in the child tax credit and we have invested a lot of money in the working income supplement to help low income families.

The member certainly knows that over the last four months, with the provinces, we have negotiated and brought about a consensus and both the provinces and the Government of Canada have agreed to move toward an integrated national child benefit.

This is going to greatly help the situation of kids living in low income families. I hope very shortly the government will be able to announce the way it will proceed. However, it will be designed with the provinces over the next few months.

[Job Creation, February 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, that is precisely why our government is putting so much energy into doing even more for job creation. I will be discussing this matter with several of my colleagues in the near future, because we are indeed very concerned about the unemployment situation, particularly among young people. In the next few days, I hope to be able to outline our government's concrete strategy for helping young people who are unemployed.

My own department, Human Resources Development Canada, has set up and spent millions of dollars on programs designed to help the unemployed return to the labour force. These programs are extremely effective and will hopefully produce even greater results in the years to come.

[Job Creation, February 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, what the Prime Minister said and what we, on the government side, are saying is that we are extremely concerned about the prolonged employment crisis. The situation is the same almost everywhere in the western world, and

it is extremely difficult to fight unemployment successfully right now, with the new economy and technological changes.

We made a commitment to create jobs. We are not afraid to admit that not enough jobs were created. But we are also saying that we have done much better than most other western economies and that, everywhere we go, we are praised for managing to create more than 700,000 jobs in the Canadian economy while putting our fiscal house in order. That is not enough, but we are saying it is a very good start.

[Quebec Culture, February 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I must congratulate Quebecers on the extraordinary effort they have put into promoting culture. I never said that they had not contributed to it.

What I did say is that the Government of Canada provided Quebec creators, artists and actors with means they had never had at their disposal. I was looking back to the years when the nationalists, the forebears of the members opposite, saw culture as useless piano players. That is what I was talking about.

No one is more exquisitely aware of the huge contribution Quebecers have made to their own culture than I am. The means given them was first and foremost Radio-Canada and the National Film Board, and now Telefilm, and I am extremely proud of them. Long live Quebecers and long live what Canada has done for them.

[Quebec Culture, February 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I spoke these words in Drummondville this week, where I addressed 150 young Liberals as they get ready for the next elections. They were very enthusiastic, and their enthusiasm was catching.

I was explaining to our young Liberals, who do not always have the opportunity to hear all of the arguments in support of Liberal Party policy, that everyone felt in Quebec that the Canadian economic union was grand in all respects and served the interests of Quebecers well. The vast majority recognized that Quebecers benefit enormously from the Canadian social union.

I also showed that, in terms of political association, Quebecers were proud of Canada's foreign policy and could identify therefore with it. What I said was, that in cultural and linguistic terms, the Liberal Party of Canada had set up institutions that have made an exceptional contribution to the growth of the French language in Canada and of culture in Quebec, and I gave as examples Radio-Canada, the National Film Board and the Canada Council.

[Employment, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, it is quite the opposite. The problems of young Canadians who are looking for work are something about which we are extremely concerned and want to do our very best.

The government allocated in the 1996 budget $315 million in supplements to all programs that we have to address their particular needs. I hope to be in a position to shortly announce programs that have been designed, in partnership with the private sector, that address the needs of young Canadians who are looking for work. If they need experience, we as a society can give it to them. We need their exuberance and their education.

[Youth Initiatives, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be given the opportunity by the member for Lac-Saint-Jean to stress again our government's commitment to disentangle all the issues relating to training and active employment measures aimed at making it easier to enter the job market.

As for the employment programs we are hoping to announce within the next few days, you will see that they are in partnership with the private sector. These programs come very clearly under the federal government's responsibilities, under our constitutional jurisdiction. They will bring hope and help to young Canadians.

What we need in our society is to give young people the opportunity to get experience. As a society we need their exuberance.

[Youth Initiatives, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would be pleased to tell the member for Lac-Saint-Jean that the impatience he has been showing will soon be addressed as I made sure that the programs we are going to make public within the next few days will be extremely well designed in partnership with the private sector.

[Youth Initiatives, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Lac-Saint-Jean for his extremely timely question.

Youth unemployment is a great concern for the government. This is the reason why the finance minister allocated an additional $315 million to all other programs we have to help young people enter the job market in a more appealing manner.

I must say that the situation of young people looking for work is something we are extremely concerned with. There are are several in my own riding and I know how important it is for young people not to lose hope.

This coming week, we are planning-

[Persons With Disabilities, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has always taken a leadership role in addressing the interests of persons with disabilities. We had a very impressive task force on which the member for Fredericton-York-Sunbury has actually helped us. I thank him very much for his creativity and for his advice on this issue.

That is the reason why the vocational rehabilitation of disabled persons program received an extension until March 1998. We have made assisting persons with disabilities one of the key priorities of the work of the Ministerial Council on Social Policy Reform and Renewal in tasks that we are doing with the provinces as well.

In addition, I have tasked my senior officials to develop action plans for HRDC to ensure that we move forward and integrate the disability issues across all of our programs and all of businesses across the country.