House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2004, with 35% of the vote.
Excise Tax February 5th, 1997
moved:
Motion No. 15
That Bill C-70, in Clause 160, be amended by adding after line 31 on page 185 the following:
"(4) Subsection (2) does not apply to a supply of property or a service made in the Nova Scotia offshore area or the Newfoundland offshore area unless the supplier makes the supply in the course of an offshore activity or the recipient of the supply acquires the property or service for consumption, use or supply in the course of an offshore activity."
Excise Tax February 5th, 1997
moved:
Motion No. 1
That Bill C-70, in Clause 26, be amended by replacing lines 30 to 45 on page 38 and lines 1 to 6 on page 39 with the following:
"(1.3) Where a ) a registrant (in this subsection referred to as the
auctioneer''), on a particular day, makes a particular supply by auction of prescribed property on behalf of another registrant (in this subsection referred to as theprincipal'') and, but for subsection (1.2), that supply would be a taxable supply made by the principal, b ) the auctioneer and principal jointly elect in prescribed form containing prescribed information in respect of the particular supply, and c ) all or substantially all of the consideration for supplies made by auction on the particular day by the auctioneer on behalf of the principal is attributable to supplies of prescribed property in respect of which the auctioneer and principal have elected under this subsection,subsection (1.2) does not apply to the particular supply or to any supply made by the auctioneer to the principal of services relating to the particular supply."
Questions On The Order Paper February 3rd, 1997
In 1982, during the time when the Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act, MVFCSA, was being considered by Parliament, the motor vehicle industry agreed to meet the provisions of the proposed act voluntarily under the existing joint government-industry voluntary fuel consumption program, including the company average fuel consumption, CAFC, requirements. The government felt that all the benefits of a mandated program could be realised at a lower cost to government, industry and consumers through the voluntary approach. This option was therefore chosen and the MVFCSA was retained as contingency legislation should the voluntary program fail.
The Canadian company average fuel consumption for new passenger cars has been consistently better than the annual CAFC goal and overall program effectiveness has paralleled that of the legislated U.S. program.
Pearson International Airport February 3rd, 1997
Mr. Speaker, what we want at Pearson is to have an airport which will serve as the funnel for the eastern seaboard of North America for Europe, just as Vancouver now is beginning to serve as the point of transfer for all Asian, North American and indeed South American flights.
I would like to say to the hon. member that certainly this government would be happy to have this settled for substantially less than the sums he is talking about and fully expects it to be settled for substantially less, if in fact the people who have concerns on the other side wish to settle.
I should say that it is quite, quite unacceptable to the Canadian taxpayer and it should be quite unacceptable to members of the third party and their Tory senator friends to settle it for anything more than the taxpayer should pay. In other words, that is for reasonable expenses incurred in the preparation of the bid submitted and nothing, nothing, nothing for unearned profit or for lobbyists fees.
Pearson International Airport February 3rd, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the Pearson contract was cancelled after it was determined it was not in the best interests of the Canadian taxpayers.
We prefer to have airports in the hands of not for profit corporations similar to those in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. It is an approach that has proven its worth. We now have that type of organization in Toronto, and I look forward in co-operation with it to making the airport in Toronto the best airport east of the Mississippi.
Canadian International Airlines December 9th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to have the support of the hon. member for the government's program of deregulation in the airline industry. We have absolutely no plans to re-regulate the industry. We have no intention of doing it.
What I offered to Mr. Buzz Hargrove of the auto workers Thursday of the week before last, more than 10 days ago, was that I would look at a report he gave to me on certain airline industry issues. He rejected it out of hand. I repeated the offer to look at the report he had given me. I repeated it last week and he rejected it again quite bitterly. I then put it in writing and he rejected it again.
He has now accepted the offer. My only regret is that if he had done so over 10 days ago, millions of dollars of ticket sales would have taken place for Canadian. Unfortunately the company did not get those sales because of the intransigence of Buzz Hargrove.
Port Of Trois-Rivières December 9th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister mentioned this issue when he was in Trois-Rivières a few days ago.
The fact is, the member should realize that Bill C-44 has not been passed yet. Before changing the whole system, we must wait for the new legislation to be in place. Thanks to the committee's hard work, the bill is now back in the House. I hope for a quick decision of the House on this bill. Only then will we be able to make a decision.
There is no problem for Trois-Rivières to wait for the legislation to be passed.
Information Technology December 6th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the imagination of the hon. member is impressive but not realistic. When developing new technology for highly sophisticated navigational systems, the contract must be flexible to some degree. In some instances you may be paying substantially less than expected if progress is better than anticipated beforehand. Sometimes you may find yourself having to accept less or pay more. We were in that situation.
I assure him, as he has made reference to the auditor general, that the auditor general received all that information. But I should point
out that we simply cannot compare the purchasing of technology which has not yet been developed, not yet in existence, with the purchase of some other product off the shelf of a supermarket. It is simply not possible to have the same approach.
Inevitably, situations will arise where the development takes a lot more time or costs a lot more money than people-before they know what they are really into in that regard-anticipate.
Information Technology December 6th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is quite correct in pointing out that in the history of the CASS program, the computer program he is talking about, which I might add is a very sophisticated program dealing with aerial navigation, not only have there been changes to the program put forward by Hughes, but also cost overruns.
This is a matter of considerable regret and concern to the government. We have done everything that we possibly can to try to ensure that we get best value for that contract. I must point out to him, although the Reform Party does not appear to want to hear the facts on this situation, that when entering a contracting situation for the development of future technology from a corporation such as the Hughes Aircraft, it is not possible to take the same approach as buying a can of soup on the shelf of a store. A certain amount of discussion must take place back and forth as the development takes place and as the scientists and computer technicians develop the technology that you may wish to put in place.
Canadian Airlines December 5th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the difficulty of restructuring Canadian Airlines and turning it from a corporation which has had chronic losses year after year, totally $1.3 billion over the last decade, to a profitable corporation in the black requires corporate restructuring.
It also requires of course the creditors, including the Royal Bank, to take their share of that restructuring. It also requires to get the credibility of the corporation in front of those corporate creditors to have all in the Canadian family showing their willingness and determination to make the restructuring work.
That is why last week I went to Vancouver with two other governments, the Government of Alberta and the Government of British Columbia, with five unions and the company. We were working together to get to a common front to show that we were determined to allow restructuring to work.
Now that we have-