Bev Desjarlais

[Committees of the House, October 7th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker,I move that the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and Status of Persons with Disabilities, presented on Thursday, June 12, be concurred in.

I ask the government to concur with the motion. The committee on disabilities presented an excellent report. I recognize that it was done prior to the summer recess but I think it is extremely important for the government to address the issues in the report.

The chair of the committee, as well as others, did an excellent job. The report is entitled “Building a Brighter Future for Urban Aboriginal Children”. There is no question that throughout the nation the aboriginal population, both on and off reserve, has suffered severely under the actions or inactions of this government and past governments.

It is troublesome enough for the aboriginal population as a whole but people with disabilities suffer even more as a result of services not being available and as a result of the conditions of poverty within the first nation population.

The government has had a habit of doing a lot of talking on how it will improve things throughout the country on a number of different issues. We had at one time the royal commission on aboriginal peoples. The government has ignored its report for years and now we have another report and the government is not taking any action yet is willing to do something as horrendous as invoking time allocation, or the possibility of time allocation, on other reports or issues.

It is not acceptable that excellent reports and work is done to address the issues and the government ignores the reports. I want to draw attention to this report and the comments that have been made.

I will read a few of the excellent recommendations to remind the government that its has to make an effort to follow through on the recommendations of the report.

Recommendation one states:

Building on the present Urban Aboriginal Strategy, and recognizingthe federal government’s commitment to Aboriginal children, the Subcommittee recommends that:

1. the federal government should identify a government department to take responsibility for providing policy and organizational coordination among all federal departments with programs forAboriginal people (both on and off reserve) in order to better collaborate with provincial/territorial governments and, where appropriate, municipalities;

2. Aboriginal organizations, both political and those representing Aboriginal service-providers, be invited to take a proactive participatory role in such an initiative; and

3. a key output of this initiative be the creation of an integrated federal policy and program framework for the development of young Aboriginal children, both on and off reserve, from the prenatal period to age twelve.

I will talk a bit about that recommendation and draw attention to the fact that the committee has recognized the need to identify one department to accept responsibility. I want to emphasize the importance of that.

What we have seen over the course of the last couple of decades is the government sort of working on a “let's divide and conquer” kind of approach to providing services and funding for first nation groups.

Therefore we separated health and put it under the Minister of Health and that will be the aboriginal and Inuit health centre. What we have seen happening is one minister looking after the health side so the others kind of say that they are not responsible for it, that it is under the other minister. What did we end up with? We ended up with the abuse of dollars in the first nations health branch by the deputy minister and the wasting of dollars that should have been there to support first nations health programs.

Then we have another department that will deal with some aspect of the funding through the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. From the perspective of the Metis people, we have another minister looking at that aspect of it. There is a breakdown with everyone saying that they are not responsible for one aspect.

Because of this, there has been a misuse of dollars, not by the aboriginal peoples but by the government departments. It is crucially important that one department accept responsibility for providing these programs so we can do a much better job of providing services for first nations people.

The report from the committee dealt specifically with the status of persons with disabilities. I am aware of a program that took place within my riding. It was done in conjunction with the province, the OASIS agency and the health branch. It was an excellent program. I personally knew numerous people who worked within this program. They already had started, among those groups, to provide a program to assist people within the first nations communities with disabilities which provided the extra supports for the family members and made them aware of what was available. The program was absolutely excellent.

What happened was it only had limited funding. They tried to get more funding but what did the governments do? It was a divide and conquer approach. The governments said that they were not really sure the program worked. We were in the communities, we knew the people and we saw the work they did with those families. The families said that it had been great to have someone there to help them. They said that it was hard when they had children who needed help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is tough enough in an urban centre like Ottawa to look after a child under those conditions, imagine what it is like when the nearest health facility is 100 kilometres away. Providing the additional respite for the parent is not right there. It makes the job that much tougher to do.

I saw the program operating at the ground level and it was a fantastic program. First nations people were involved with providing the assistance, which was being done in conjunction with the OASIS agency, the child and family services agency. What happened was there was no funding and no program.

When a report then comes out saying that we need to provide those services, it is just unconscionable. I saw the program in place and it worked great. However because of this government's funding approaches, it did not survive. It is time the government put its money where its mouth is instead of in the pockets of certain people. It needs to put in place programs and support so we can provide those programs.

Recommendation two from the committee states:

The Subcommittee recommends that all federal government departments with programs for urban Aboriginal families and children ensure that urban Aboriginal service-providers are consulted in program development, implementation and evaluation.

Once again, it sounds great. The government has said time and time again on numerous issues that it would work along with aboriginal people and first nations people and that it would listen to them. Part of the consultation process and part of the listening process is following through with some of what is heard. It is not to say that they should go ahead and talk but the government will not do anything because it comes from the people and they really do not know. That is the way this government and governments before have approached their work with first nations people, aboriginal people, the Metis, the group as a whole, and it is not acceptable. There is a need to work with them and listen to what they have to say.

As I indicated previously, there was a program in my own riding that was working. It involved the service provider, the OASIS agency, and the people from those communities. They would say what was good and what did not work and they tried to sort out what was best in order to provide services to the people in the communities. Once again, there was a lot of talk but nothing happening.

Recommendation three states:

We recommend that steps be taken to build a pilot project around services for children in the Urban Aboriginal Strategy pilot projects.

1. Recognizing that pilot projects are community driven, we urge the Privy Council Office to engage representatives of children’s services to preliminary meetings in cities where the pilot projects have not yet been defined. These would include, among others, Child and Family services, early childhood development services, and schools.

2. Acknowledging the difficulties confronted by many urban Aboriginal parents in moving between areas of federal and provincial jurisdiction, we further recommend that the evaluation of the Urban Aboriginal Strategy pilot projects include indicators of increased collaboration on jurisdiction and resourcing issues related to programming and funding for children with complex needs, such as children with disabilities and children with emotional and/or medical needs. We also recommend that evaluation of the pilot projects examine to what extent the funding results in concrete, meaningful outcomes for urban Aboriginal families.

3. The Subcommittee has heard about the importance of ensuring that collaborative projects remain community-based and work toward outcomes defined by communities. We would therefore urge the Privy Council Office to ensure that community partners in the Urban Aboriginal Strategy pilot projects play a key role in defining the strategy and outcomes upon which the pilot projects will be evaluated.

4. The Subcommittee urges the Privy Council Office to work with its federal government partners to adopt, at a national level, the collaborative practices between federal government departments which might emerge from the pilot projects.

Again I go back to the project in my riding. It had first nation providers involved in it. The bottom line was the government did not listen. Once again, this report has excellent recommendations. It is no surprise that the government has not concurred with the report. From what I have seen in action and the reality of it all is that it will not listen. It is only a bunch of talk.

Quite frankly, it is not acceptable that dollars are spent time and time again. Efforts are made by members in the House. I think we will all acknowledge that so often the government and the opposition parties in the House do not really work together. We do not always have unanimous reports that come from committees with excellent recommendations. The chair and the vice chair are from the governing side, and the government totally ignores what comes out of the recommendations.

When a report comes out of committee that is this good, it is extremely upsetting that it is ignored. It is not a surprise any more but I think it is important that we keep this in the minds of Canadians that good work does comes out Parliament and committees. The bottom line is none of it will ever succeed if the government does not follow through on the recommendations. All it becomes is a bunch of paper, a waste of taxpayer dollars and a very disheartening experience for those involved as well as for the people that it is intended to support.

Recommendation four states:

The Subcommittee reiterates the recommendation in the First Nations Child and Family Services Joint National Policy Review that the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) funding formulas to First Nations Child and Family Services (FNCFS) agencies be reconsidered in order to recognize the importance of preventative services, alternative programs, and least disruptive/intrusive measures for children at risk. It is further recommended that the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development seek funding to support such programming as part of agency funding.

Once again we are dealing with the issue of what needs to happen. We need to identify a particular provider of the service and ensure that there is stable funding. The government is not willing to put that action in place.

It is crucial that first nations have the stabilized funding. It is disappointing that this happens, especially when it hits home to those most vulnerable. We have persons in poverty and with disabilities. Families are trying to keep their disabled children at home. What happens is the family is on edge at the end of the funding. That happened with the project with which I dealt.

People came to me and asked what they could do. They said that it was a great program. I tried to figure out why it was cancelled. I contacted various agencies. The bottom line was people said that the program did not work, yet it had not involved those people who were in the program. It totally ignored them. That is what happens when there is no stabilized funding.

Every time before a federal election, government members go to the people and tell them that they have a deal for them. They tell first nations people that they will ensure they get a certain amount of money. They tell them that there is Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, that they will follow through and make it work. They tell them that they will give first nations millions of dollars for that program, that school and that airport.

After the election, the government does not follow through on its commitments and we have first nations people in cities and in their communities on their reserves still living in the same conditions because the government has wasted dollar after dollar.

It is very real. We have the disabled people in those communities, children who cannot leave their wheelchairs, cannot feed themselves and have to have care 24 hours a day, seven days a week and no programs in their communities to support them. Why? Because the government talks a lot but it does not follow through on committee reports such as this one which is an excellent committee report.

I ask the House and the government to put everything else aside right now and deal with an issue that is extremely important, one that will benefit some Canadians, that will make a difference in the lives of Canadians and that will ensure that we do the job we are supposed to do by providing services to people in the country.

[Veterans Affairs, October 3rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in May 2003 the Prime Minister and the Liberal government chose to exclude 23,000 war widows from the veterans independence program, which provided funds to help with things like snow shovelling. The cost to include them would be, at a maximum, $5 million dollars a year, with this amount decreasing yearly as most of the widows are in their most vulnerable senior years.

The Liberal government is saying that these widows are not worth the money. The Liberal government is saying war widows are not a priority. The Liberal government lavished millions on non-repayable grants to Bombardier. The Liberal government blew millions on untendered contracts to Groupaction. The Liberal government approved a half million dollar tax write-off for George Radwanski. The Liberal government allowed millions in trust fund dollars to move tax free to the U.S.

It is time the Liberal government put its priorities in order. War widows are the real VIPs in this country, not Liberal hacks.

[Supply, October 2nd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague, knowing that I had so much to say on this issue, has indicated that I could have the whole time. So I will do my best to fill it.

There were some comments that were made after the last budget came out. The budget's biggest failure was on community infrastructure, which Winnepeg mayor Glen Murray called a joke and the Federation of Canadian municipalities called doomsday. It simply fails to deliver on the expectations of communities, big and small, and fails to recognize the reality of a $57 billion infrastructure deficit in Canada. The funds are absolutely inadequate.

For example, a recent water plant in Winnipeg would cost $204 million. Cleaning up the soil on LeBreton Flats in Ottawa will cost $100 million. Ottawa's light rail needs $66 million. The Halifax harbour project would cost $300 million.

This indicates that there is a serious deficit in the federal government giving back to taxpayers the dollars that it is taking in tax revenues.

Again I emphasize that no one has suggested we should not have any taxes whatsoever, but there is no longer trust in the government to put the dollars back into areas that need to be funded.

We talk about the dollars going back into highways. A few years back I asked a question in the House. At that point in time, 38% of the national highway system did not meet minimum standards. The roads were causing serious accidents and a number of deaths, I think 200 deaths on the roads each year in Canada. Twenty-six cents of every loonie is all that the government is committing to roads from the tax revenues when there was such a serious need.

The government's answer in a lot of these cases has been to suggest public-private partnerships, toll roads, that somehow that is the answer to putting the dollars back in and suggests it is only the users of those roads that should have to pay for them. That really would defeat the whole purpose of building a nation and all of us realizing that we benefit from what happens throughout our nation.

If we suggest that toll roads are the answer to funding roads and highways, it just would not work in rural and remote areas of Canada. Quite frankly, and this may shock people here, that is still most of Canada. We have our larger centres, but the majority of our country is still rural and remote and the roads that get us there need to be maintained. Tolls on those roads just would not work. We need other options, such as a portion of the tax revenues going back to the provinces and the municipalities, to make sure that those roads can be maintained.

There is another area that I will mention because there has been such a failure of dollars going back to infrastructure in the country. I know this motion was intended to look strictly at highway funding, but housing is another area that has been sadly lacking.

We are the only G-7 country, I believe, that does not have a national housing strategy. Every province has indicated a need. I am sure most municipalities have indicated a need for affordable housing within Canada and little funding for it. This is an area to which the government may have to look at dedicating some dollars on a regular basis.

If we listen to what Canadians are telling us, we cannot help but accept that there have to be changes to the way business is done.

I have to admit it has been really interesting to listen to the new leader of the Liberals and the way he has been talking in the last while. Quite frankly, almost all of the socially minded comments that he has made have come almost directly from Jack Layton's speeches that have been taking place since January of this year. It has been fun for our caucus. We have to wonder what party he really is running for.

The new leader of the Liberals has indicated that he is going to dedicate some of the dollars for municipalities. He was finance minister for many years and made massive cuts across the board, to infrastructure, to education and to the health care sector. He also made cuts in certain levels of taxes for certain groups, mostly corporations, but did nothing in the way of returning tax revenues back to provide services for Canadians.

It is going to be fun when the new leader is in this place in February. We will literally have him on the hot seat. It is going to be a tender spot for him once he gets back here on a regular basis because of all the promises he is making. We have often said that during elections, Liberals talk like New Democrats, but once they get into government they act a lot differently.

That is what we are going to see in the future. We will hear a lot of talk about what the Liberals are going to do, but they will not follow through. We need only look at the record of the Liberal government. We need only look at the record of the new leader of the Liberals, who once was the finance minister and made massive cuts. From that record, we know that the government is not committed to returning tax revenues back to the provinces and municipalities. It is not committed to doing what is right for Canada and for Canadians. I do not know where the Liberals' agenda is, but I do know it has not been to support services in Canada.

When talking about the budget and infrastructure funding, there is always a little note about water and sewer services throughout the country. Something like 1.5 million Canadians in communities across Canada still dump waste water into oceans and rivers. Canada is quite rich in resources and we consider ourselves somewhat advanced and civilized, yet the waste water of 1.5 million people is being dumped into oceans and rivers.

Why is that happening? Because municipalities cannot afford to put in place some of the needed infrastructure so that it does not happen. They are unable to afford it because the federal government is taking dollars out of the pockets of Canadians, out of municipalities, out of the provinces, and it is not returning those dollars so that programs and services can be put in place for Canadians.

I want to emphasize again the $57 billion shortfall in infrastructure. What the government has done comes nowhere near meeting that. There is a need to invest $2.4 billion over the course of 10 years. If the government invested that amount, it would meet a lot of those infrastructure needs. The government needs to be reminded of that.

We will certainly be supporting this motion moved by the official opposition party. It is good when we have a motion before us on an opposition day that we can all support. In this case it will definitely benefit all Canadians.

[Supply, October 2nd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity today to speak to the motion of the official opposition regarding dedication of gas taxes to the provinces and municipalities.

First I want to say that after we just heard the statements, it is hard to get back at each other over the spending of government funds, so hon. members should just bear with me if they can please.

There is no question that we have heard a number of speakers this morning talk about the serious consequences of not putting the needed resources into infrastructure throughout the country. I listened to my colleagues from the west talk about the serious conditions of roads and the number of deaths that have occurred as a result of the conditions of those roads. I, too, agree that something has to be done.

The New Democratic Party and our leader, Jack Layton, who was actively involved in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities as its chair or president for a period of time, know full well the seriousness of the government not putting enough dollars into highways and other types of infrastructure. We have focused on that for a great amount of time in the last while because of what we have heard from Canadians. They have said very strongly that if something is not done now, we are in serious trouble. It is recognized that there is already a crisis.

The motion this morning from the opposition party reflects the view that a number of us have had over the last few years, and that is there has to be a dedication of a percentage of the gas tax revenue. The reason a lot of members of Parliament and parties have started to say that we need to have it dedicated is because we have had a series of governments in place which have not put the dollars back into the provinces and municipalities. The dollars have not gone back to the provinces and municipalities for the infrastructure needed.

While this country was being built over the course of the last century and on, Canadians paid their taxes, provincial and federal, and they saw the benefit nationwide. They saw roads being built, rail being put in place, universities being built and water and sewer projects happening throughout the country. We were building a country with strong foundations. We all know that over the course of time there will be deterioration and we have to keep putting dollars into those roads, universities and water and sewer projects to maintain them or maybe there has to be some expansion as well.

I hate to take everybody back to the 1950s, but around that time 100% of gas tax revenue went back into highways. A long time has passed but that does not mean that the work still does not have to be done. Canada did not end in 1950. The maintaining of the infrastructure did not end in 1950. It continued on. Over the course of time we have seen less and less money go into it from the tax revenue. That would not be bad if the money went into infrastructure from the overall budget.

As a member of a party and as an individual, I understand the need to have one bit of money and not dedicate necessarily specifics in each area. I understand that from the perspective of the federal government. However I understand people do not trust the government to put the money there any more. That is the problem.

There is no faith that the federal government is going to assist or give back to the people of Canada in the form of dollars to support their infrastructure needs. They are rightfully not trusting the government to do that because such a limited portion, and I think it is only 26¢ on the dollar of gas tax revenue, only 26¢ goes back per dollar nationwide for those needs. We have to ask what we are going to do and how we are going to maintain this infrastructure. I fully understand why things have had to change and people now want a commitment, a promise from the government that this amount of money has to go in.

As I said, only 26¢ on the dollar goes back nationwide and quite frankly, it is not fairly divvied up across the country either. There are the western provinces, and I am not moaning about the western provinces, but it is the reality as the facts and figures are there. The western provinces get far less of the revenue for highways than provinces further east. The facts are there. One has to wonder how the government decides this. Is it based on the amount of roads that are there or the work that has to be done or is it based on some other reason? I hate to even get into it, but the facts are there. The province of Saskatchewan has the greatest amount of roads in the country and gets very little of the revenue dollars or funding from the federal government for roads.

We have heard the arguments come out about whether the revenue we are taking in should be given directly to the cities, whether we should give it directly to the municipalities or whether it should go through the provinces. We have to look at the whole picture to sort it out if we reach that situation.

Quite frankly I will certainly support this motion and I believe my colleagues in my caucus intend to support this motion because we are hearing back from the municipalities that this is what they want to see. They want to see the dollars dedicated so they know they have some stable funding.

The question now is, do we give this money directly to each municipality, the tax revenues that they take in from the sale of gas? Do we give it back individually to each area? Do we give it back to the provinces or do we put some other form of payment in place?

Being from a northern rural area, I do not think that it is entirely fair or even feasible to suggest that we expect those areas to fund their infrastructure needs out of those dollars that they get back. The reality is that there are much greater costs incurred by northern rural areas for their roads. If it is intended that they have to pay for them, they would not have the tax revenues to do that.

I had wanted the opportunity to question my colleague from the Conservative Party. He suggested that everything has to go back through the provinces because we can trust the provinces to do what they want. I think he was talking about education. I had to chuckle. As much as I recognize that we have the provincial jurisdictions and believe there has to be agreement between the municipalities, provinces and the federal government, I could not help but chuckle when he was talking about the provinces knowing what we need in the area of education. One of the biggest issues happening here in Ontario as will be indicated today from the vote is the serious deficit in funding and education by a Conservative government in Ontario.

The bottom line is we have to have some safeguards in place to ensure that the dollars that should be dedicated to a certain area, whether it be education or infrastructure, are there. There have to be some safeguards in place.

I am happy and extremely proud to say that within the province of Manitoba the dollars are going to where they should be going. The province of Manitoba, from its tax revenues, puts almost 100%, I think the percentage is in the high 90s, of its gas tax revenues into highway infrastructure. That has only started since 1999 when a New Democratic Party government came into place in Manitoba. Prior to that, that was not happening. The Conservative government that was in place was not putting that money into highways and infrastructure.

We all need to be clear that there have to be some safeguards in place so that the dollars will be there. Dedicating a portion of the tax certainly would do that. We could come up with numerous facts and figures and maybe we do need to reinforce and emphasize some of those today.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities indicated, after the last budget, that there was a $57 billion shortfall in infrastructure funding.

[Women's History Month, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, October is Women's History Month. Through the hard work and determination of our foremothers, women in Canada today have access to higher education. They can work, earn money and own property. They have the right to vote and run for elected office.

Today when women stay home they do it by choice knowing they are valued at home or at work. We should never take these rights and liberties for granted.

Women's History Month is a time to encourage us to look back on our past and see how far women in the country have come. It is also a time to acknowledge that we still have far to go.

Today women represent 44% of income earners in Canada, yet continue to struggle with issues of equity. Women make up more than 50% of the population, yet hold only 21% of the seats in the House of Commons.

This year's theme, “What Do You Mean Women Couldn't Vote”, reminds us that gaining the right to vote must not be the final chapter in Canadian women's history. We must continue to ask: What is the most effective way to use that vote?

I ask all members to join with me this month as we celebrate the achievements of Canadian women. Let us keep up the fight.

[Canadian Firearms Control Program, September 24th, 2003]

Missing persons registry. Absolutely. Dollars well spent. There are numerous greater value for dollar programs. Our health care program, anyone could say that. However, even if it came down to a few things like improving water and sewer systems throughout the nation, how many lives would have been saved? How many lives were lost in Walkerton? How many lives are lost in first nations communities as a result of poor water and sewer treatment and poor housing? The money would have been better spent.

Had the government been upfront with the amount of dollars that were spent on the registry, at least we might have been able to accept part of it.

I would be the first to admit there are differing opinions in different parts of Canada on the gun registry. Within my caucus there are differing opinions. It is based on where we live and what we deal with in our communities. I am from a northern rural community with a number of aboriginal communities. I grew up in rural Saskatchewan. Firearms and long arms were a part of the existence. It was a part of hunting. Whether we were aboriginal or non-aboriginal, it was a part of our way of life. Therefore we do not have that fear, and some would say, disrespect for firearms that exists elsewhere.

That is not to say there are not some accidents or deaths as a result of it. There are ways of dealing with that. Preventive measures can be taken to deal with the deaths related to firearms. The bottom line is there has been a misunderstanding of how we deal with things.

It is absolutely more crucial that Canadians in urban centres have a look at this issue again. We must look at it again from the aspect of cost value. I implore Canadians in urban centres to talk to their members of Parliament and to the government, and let them know it is not acceptable. I implore them to let the government know that they want to know what has been happening to this program.

Canadians want to know the number of possession licences, the number of acquisition licences, the revenue that the government took in on those licences, and the administration expenses. That is pretty basic business. A business degree is not required to come up with this information. Canadians want to know the number of owners who are registering their guns, the number of guns registered, and the cost per each item. They also want to know the amount of revenue taken in and the expenses putting it out. It is pretty basic.

I have a hard time understanding why the government cannot give out those figures unless it deliberately does not want to give them out. Is it possible that maybe some of that money that has been allocated has been used elsewhere? Canadians are starting to think that. Either the money is not for value within the registry, or it is being used elsewhere. We all know that the government can Mickey Mouse around with dollars within budgets, and it has people thinking that money is not being spent where it is supposed to be spent.

What were the administration costs within the justice department when the firearms registry was within that department? What are the costs within the Solicitor General's department? That should be pretty easy because that department just received the registry. It has been keeping track since the Solicitor General took over.

Why the government cannot give out that information is beyond me? We hate to bring this up, but how can we not in light of the dollars that have been misused by the government? What about the money through technology partnerships that went to certain members and businesses that were tied to certain members within the governing side? How can we not wonder that something is wrong here?

The government has disappointed this nation. It has brought to question the integrity of all parliamentarians, and it should be ashamed. There is not a member on the governing side who should not be absolutely ashamed to have to respond to this kind of misuse of taxpayers' dollars, misrepresenting what the cost would be. Who in their right mind would continue a program that is costing 500 times more than it was said it would cost? Who in their right mind would continue it? This is just not acceptable.

I say to the governing side and to all of their constituents that if they do nothing else they should question the government and insist that it come through with where this money went, and come up with a better program.

There is probably not a member of Parliament here, even from the governing side, who does not believe in gun control. I take offence when it is suggested that somehow if we do not agree with this misuse of taxpayers' dollars on the gun registry that somehow we are selling Canadians out and do not believe in gun control. That is not true. We believe in gun control.

However, we do not agree that just for the sake of appeasing some people and getting votes that a program is put in place that will cost 500 times more than what initially the government said it would cost, and continue on with it. It is not acceptable.

I wish to commend my colleague for bringing up this issue. I hope that when it comes time to vote on this, members will consider those dollars and what they could be used for. Quite frankly, unless the government can ensure that the cost is going to be way down, it should re-evaluate this whole process.

It is unfair to Canadians. It is unfair to the lives that are lost for numerous other reasons because the government has said there is no money for other programs. It is time to stand up and say that the government must take a look at this. It is just not acceptable.

[Canadian Firearms Control Program, September 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, just to emphasize again exactly what we are discussing and to acknowledge my colleague from Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, I will read the motion as if it were amended, so everyone is clear what is being asked today. It would read:

That, in the opinion of this House, the government should immediately [study] the Canadian firearms program in order to hold a public inquiry into the reasons for the program's extraordinary cost overruns, and to submit a structured and detailed strategic plan that would have to be approved in advance by this House.

There are probably those out there who would shake their heads and ask if Parliament is starting to micromanage everything now. I ask people to look at what point Parliament has reached when we have so many people here from not the usual agreeing perspectives agreeing on one thing: that something has to be done about the mismanagement of taxpayer funds. It is to the point where we are saying that we want to see the plan because we cannot trust the government anymore. We cannot trust what is happening with taxpayer dollars. That is a fair statement.

Whether we agree on the gun registry, one thing we all agree on, and I would be shocked if there is a Liberal out there who does not agree, is what has taken place with the firearms registry and program is absolutely unconscionable. It is to the point that Canadians who adamantly supported the registry do not support it anymore because they realize the cost is too great. Part of the reason the cost is too great to them is they were promised the registry would save lives and it would get criminals off the streets.

Canadians trusted the government to follow through on all those plans and what it said it would do. What did they get? Dishonesty. Whether it was intentional or not, Canadians did not get honesty from the governing side. They see how much of their money is being spent on the registry but is it saving lives? How many more lives would have been saved if that money had been put into an organ donor registry? That is a registry that would have saved lives in our country and I would challenge anyone to say differently.

[Income Tax Act, September 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge that within the resource industries, particularly mining, which affects a fair part of my riding, there is some satisfaction that there will be some benefit and some reduction here.

However, I want to touch on the hon. member's comment that from the environmental perspective, everything is fine. I would like to refer to the situation at Giant Mine when it closed down. Correct me if I am wrong, but was Indian and Northern Affairs Canada not left literally cleaning up the ground because the mine owners were not responsible? Could he reflect on whether or not it would be beneficial to have a community resource fund, a mining reserve fund or some type of fund in place to ensure there is environmental cleanup afterward?

[National Aboriginal Day, June 13th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, June 21 is National Aboriginal Day. It is a day for us to honour and celebrate the aboriginal people and cultures who have blesses this land and who have contributed so much to our country.

It is also a day for us to reflect on the history of aboriginal people in Canada, a history filled with mistakes, tragedy and genocide perpetrated against the aboriginal people by colonial powers and the Canadian government.

While this history is tragic, it saddens me even more to see this Liberal government of today continuing some of those mistakes. Aboriginal people in Canada continue to have the lowest living standards, the worst housing, the least access to clean drinking water, the worst health care and the fewest educational and job opportunities of any group in Canada.

The Liberal government's failure to live up to treaty promises, to provide opportunity and hope to aboriginal communities is a disgraceful legacy for a tired, sad, arrogant government. What is more, with initiatives like the first nations governance act it continues to impose misguided, made in Ottawa policies on aboriginal communities.

I hope the Liberal government will take some time this National Aboriginal Day to reflect on this and remember that the treaties were supposed to be about partnership and sharing.

[Main Estimates 2003-04, June 12th, 2003]

And at a time when our nation is looking at improving itself from the environmental perspective and meeting Kyoto requirements, now more than ever we should be supporting rail transportation.

I listened to my colleague, again from the Alliance, who somehow suggested that it was more environmentally sound to have a short-haul plane in the air rather than having rail transportation. I do not know where he is getting his information from, but anything I have seen over the course of the last number of years does not prove that out. I am not opposed to short-haul air flights. I just do not think they are the be-all and end-all.

I think this country, this nation, can support a variety of transportation services and I think we should make them available so that travellers do have a choice. A lot of people coming to our country want to be able to hop on a train and go throughout the country because they prefer rail transportation. They are used to it in their countries and they want the same here.

I know I only have a few short minutes, but I just want to mention a wonderful experience I had as a caucus member. A few years back our caucus made a decision that we were not going to have our caucus retreat in just one little area of the country. We made a decision to do our retreat on the train and travel from coast to coast. It was an extremely wonderful experience to see our nation, each and every province along the way and experience it by rail. What I also saw, and I had my eyes opened because I did not travel by rail very often, were numerous people throughout this nation using rail transportation. Yes, I want to see a lot more people doing it, but there were a lot of people using rail transportation. There were students travelling to and from school, students who wanted to do that as part of their holidays. There were families travelling together where someone did not have to sit in the driver's seat and miss half the vacation. They could be together and enjoy our nation. For that reason alone, it is worthwhile to support VIA Rail.

I for one also very much support improved rail transportation, higher speed rail transportation between--and I know this will shock members because it is not my area of the country--the densely populated areas in Ontario and Quebec. To me it makes sense. We need to get that traffic off the roads if at all possible. If people want to travel by road, they should be able to do that, but if they want to travel by rail and not have to put up with the hectic traffic on the road, they should be able to do that as well.

I want to emphasize my support and that of our caucus for ensuring that those dollars go back into VIA Rail. In the future we will support VIA Rail as a public-run corporation for the benefit of all Canadians and all travellers.