Lost his last election, in 2004, with 36% of the vote.
Privilege March 11th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I want to be brief and say thanks to the member for Hamilton-Wentworth for raising this question of privilege.
When you consider your decision on this matter, I urge you to consider that this really does affect every member of this House even though it was raised by just the one member, the member for Hamilton-Wentworth.
Justice March 11th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, what used to be a justice system in Canada has gradually deteriorated into little more than a legal system, no longer serving the needs of society and the victims of crime, but concentrating instead on the bizarre promotion of the so-called rights of the criminals.
The Olson section 745 hearings which begin today are an example of that bizarre promotion of the rights of criminals. Thank goodness Olson is likely to be one of the few criminals for whom the faint hope clause is truly a faint hope clause.
For about 80 per cent of criminals who apply, as everyone except the government seems to recognize, section 745 is actually the sure bet clause. It forces the victims of crime to relive the events which so dramatically changed their lives.
The people of Canada are calling for the complete repeal of section 745. It is about time that our lame excuse for a Minister of Justice got with the program.
Divorce Act February 14th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the member has now said the Bloc is willing to talk about the joint committee.
I want to question the member about the abolition of the upper House. He seemed very bitter about the upper House, when in fact it is one of the few occasions when it is actually doing its job, which is to look at legislation that has passed here with a sober second thought to find out if it is really fair.
Thank goodness there is a very close balance between Tories and Liberals in that House right now because it has enabled some common sense to come out of it. They sent the legislation back here so that we could have a better look at it.
Instead of scrapping the Senate and the whole country being held hostage to this place, does he not think it would be better to have an elected Senate which would have equal representation from each province? In that way we could have a truly representative House of sober second thought.
Divorce Act February 14th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I ask for a quorum count, please.
Supply February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member failed to give any examples so I will give a nice example to back up my side of the story.
The port of Vancouver has been treated like a cash cow for the government. So much in dividends has been sucked out of the port corporation that we cannot afford any more to build new passenger facilities. It is treated like a cow with its head in Vancouver and the udder in Ontario right here in Ottawa. It is a disgrace.
Supply February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, a few points came up there.
First, aside from everything else he said, the parliamentary secretary should know that the auditor general, the government's own infrastructure auditor, said that the infrastructure program was a job creation failure. He warned against using this type of infrastructure program as a job creation scheme. Therefore, it was very clear to the auditor general that it was nothing more than a handout of money to Liberal sponsored schemes. There was plenty of evidence of that right across the country.
In terms of the Pearson airport deal, what the people involved in that project were entitled to was their day in court. They were entitled to their day in court to let a court of this land decide who was at fault and how much the award should be. It is absolutely improper and a terribly bad precedent for a government to pass legislation that virtually dictates the outcome and protects the government from any sort of lawsuit. It is absolutely outrageous.
Frankly, I do not give a hoot for the parliamentary secretary's personal guarantee that the Minister of Transport will make the most sensible decision. I do not give a hoot for that personal guarantee because I do not think it will be the most sensible decision. It will be made for political reasons.
It saddens me greatly to see the risk that the Rocky Mountaineer is being put at in the interests of a political ideology from the other side of this House that is contrary to private enterprise in this country.
Supply February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that there is so much discussion taking place about the Rocky Mountaineer. This rail company was based in my riding until recently when the expansion of the project meant it needed to move closer to its base in downtown Vancouver. I have had a lot of experience and direct contact with the Rocky Mountaineer.
I wonder how many MPs in this place have actually taken a look at that train. I know one of the deputy speakers and the Minister of Justice used their free rail privileges to travel on it last year. They have certainly had an opportunity to take a look at it. I wonder how many other MPs on that side used their free rail privileges to travel and are now seriously considering putting this company at risk.
This company has built up a tremendous relationship with the cruise ship industry. It sells trips to the cruise ship industry. The trip is a wonderful look at B.C. and the Rocky Mountains with an overnight stay on the way through.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport claims there is no problem because VIA Rail will only be moving people from place to place. Actually, all of the evidence is that that is absolute bunkum. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport stated that he will stop VIA Rail if it starts running a tourist service and not a passenger service for British Columbia. We will take him at his word on that.
The service that VIA is proposing is actually between Jasper, Alberta and Vancouver. Fair enough. But how many people are going to need to travel from Jasper to Vancouver and vice versa, like catching a bus or a train? That is an important question because that surely would determine the type of facilities and how large the train would be. I think we can all agree that probably all of the passengers would travel the entire distance. So it is certainly not a service for B.C. residents travelling from one community to another.
I would like to read a copy of an advertisement which recently appeared describing the service. This advertisement was issued by VIA Rail, so this is its words. This should bring the debate a little closer to what we should be talking about here. This is the advertisement placed by VIA Rail:
Discover Canada the way it's meant to be seen. Up close and in comfort. The experience awaits in silver and blue class aboard VIA Rail's western transcontinental train, The Canadian, beautifully restored to its sleek 1930s stainless steel style. Here is a classic train journey that combines the breathtaking panoramas of Canada with unique first class pleasures.
Is this starting to sound like a train one would catch from little community to little community?
Silver and blue class travellers enjoy exclusive use of the park car with its famous observation dome and lounges, a spectacular dining car with meals to match, a choice of accommodations and shower in each sleeping car.
As I said earlier, this is absolute bunkum. This train is being set up to compete with a private company that has been successful, that has made a go of it. To argue that any type of passenger train could survive these days is also absolute bunkum. VIA Rail learned years and years ago, decades ago that people have stopped using trains to travel from community to community.
Generally speaking, people catch planes or buses and by preference most people will catch a plane simply because we are in a very rushed and hurried world and it is a lot easier to do that. Perhaps one could argue that the only people who would catch a train any more are afraid of the plane or do not like to go on the bus.
It is completely ludicrous to argue that all of this money which is going to be poured into VIA Rail at the expense of taxpayers has anything to do with moving people from place to place.
The debate today is about a whole bunch of transportation issues. I stood in the House on April 26, 1994 to speak on the ill-fated Bill C-22, the Pearson nightmare that keeps coming back to haunt this
government. That bill attempted to control the amount of compensation that could be paid as a result of the cancellation of the Pearson airport privatization deal.
Earlier in today's debate the parliamentary secretary tried to convince us that somehow this whole Pearson thing was tied to the PCs. But of course there were the Bronfmans and there were also some well known Liberals, a certain senator, and Herb Metcalfe and Bob Wright, a Liberal fundraiser.
Bill C-22 which we debated some time ago, this nightmare that keeps coming back, had a special neat little provision under clause 10. It had to be read carefully to see exactly what it said. It said: "If the minister considers it appropriate to do so, the minister may, with the approval of the governor in council"-nicely behind closed doors-"enter into agreements on behalf of Her Majesty to provide for the payment of such amounts as the minister considers appropriate".
If that was not a set up to reward or to look after the Liberals who were involved in Pearson and to make sure the Tories were punished, then what was it? That is certainly what it looks like to me. Maybe because there are so many lawyers on the Liberal side of the House they thought they could set this thing up in Bill C-22. It was a lawyer's dream to pass legislation to allow that they could not be sued and could then determine the outcome, who would be rewarded and who would not.
That was a wonderful piece of legislation. Thank goodness it met its fate along with the second attempt. As I keep mentioning, this nightmare keeps coming back to haunt the Liberal government. If the Liberals had dealt with this whole matter in an intelligent and productive way right at the beginning, Pearson today would be at the stage that Vancouver International is.
And what a spectacular airport that is becoming, because that airport has been developed by some people who got away from bureaucratic nonsense and government run institutions. They have built a beautiful facility using a user pay fee system. Occasionally people complain that they have to pay $10 or $15 to pass through the airport. But when people can see dedicated revenues going to produce something, it really makes a difference. Even now when most of the naysayers experience that new airport, they say: "It is great to see where the money went. This is really good. We like a user pay system that dedicates the revenues".
Unfortunately when we look at the state of the freeways and other parts of the infrastructure in the Vancouver region, nothing has been done for 50 years. I give credit to the foresight that our forefathers had in the Vancouver region, and with credit to the federal government at the time, in the late fifties and early sixties to build a freeway that ran from Vancouver all the way down the valley to Abbotsford. Hardly a soul drove on that freeway when it opened.
I have a friend who was living in the North Vancouver region at the time who had a cottage in the United States. He told me about the first time people drove on the freeway when it was opened. They asked who would ever use it. They asked when Vancouver would ever grow large enough to use that freeway. Now we look at that freeway 45 years later and it is absolutely crammed with cars.
Because of the failure of the governments of the past decades to control their spending, because they have poured more and more into payments on the debt, they have been subtracting money out of the transportation and infrastructure projects. So we in Vancouver are stuck with a freeway that was built 45 years ago that should at least be doubled, probably tripled in size to meet the future requirements of the region.
As some members would argue, there is a provincial involvement, but on most of these large freeway projects that are part of the Canada highway system, there is federal involvement. Members know that is the case. It would be a nice change for the western part of this country if instead of constantly having money sucked out, we got a little put back in to some of our major infrastructure.
That does not mean patronage infrastructure the way the $6 billion giveaway was set up. That was ridiculous. Where that money went was ridiculous. New seats in the superdomes. Many Reform Party caucus members stood in this place and criticized the spending of money in their ridings, and I did myself, because it was being spent on patronage. It was not being spent on creating jobs and it was not being spent on meaningful infrastructure that would have made a difference, that would have built for the future, that would have given us something to look forward to.
I realize that-
Supply February 13th, 1997
How can you keep a straight face?
Petitions February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the last petition is from Margaret Wheeler of North Vancouver and 47 others.
The petitioners point out that approximately 52 per cent of the cost of a litre of gasoline is in the form of government taxes, that the excise tax on gasoline has risen by 566 per cent over the last decade, and they request that Parliament not increase the federal excise tax on gasoline in the next federal budget.
Petitions February 13th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from Joyce Mulligan of North Vancouver and 57 others.
In this petition these residents of Canada draw the attention of the House to the fact that 38 per cent of the national highway system is substandard, that Mexico and the United States are upgrading their national highway systems and that the national highway policy study identified job creation, economic development, national unity, saving lives and avoiding injuries, lower congestion, lower vehicle operating costs and better international competitiveness as benefits of the proposed national highway program.
The petitioners call on the federal government to join with provincial governments to make the national highway system upgrading possible.