Bev Desjarlais

[Hopper Rail Cars, October 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, in the 1970s and 1980s there were not enough rail cars to haul western grain to our seaports and Canada lost sales and markets as a result.

The government of the day decided to buy a fleet of hopper cars which were then leased back to the railroads to haul that grain.

Ottawa's intention was twofold: to allow Canada to meet its export commitments and to keep transportation costs down for western farmers.

The government no longer wants the hopper cars but there is a group ready to acquire and manage the fleet. The Farmer Rail Car Coalition includes a wide array of farm and community organizations and it has a business plan ensuring that benefits will flow back to all western farmers.

These hopper cars should be turned over to the Farmer Rail Car Coalition at a nominal cost and without having the cars go up for auction. This is the way to ensure that farmers will continue to benefit from the rail cars that were originally purchased for their use.

[Week Without Violence, October 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, during the 7th annual YWCA Week Without Violence, October 20 to 26, YWCAs and YM-YWCAs have organized activities to bring awareness and solutions to the problem of violence.

Violence affects us all, regardless of geographic location, economic class, race or religion. More than 300,000 violent crimes are reported yearly in Canada. In 1999 more than 90,000 women and children were admitted to shelters to escape abuse. The YWCA is the largest provider of shelters for women and children in Canada.

Much can be done to promote peace and safety: a commitment to avoid violent programming and videos; speaking out against racism and hate; and treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Every day there is something violent happening and I am thankful that every day volunteers and workers of the YWCAs and YW-YMCAs in Thompson, Manitoba, and throughout Canada are working for safer communities.

I ask my colleagues to join me in acknowledging their work and thanking them for their commitment.

[Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act, October 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I first want to thank my hon. colleague from South Shore for mentioning the polar bear which is lasered on Canadian diamonds. I represent the Churchill riding in Manitoba, the polar bear capital of Canada if not the world. I would encourage everyone to visit and see the real thing as well as the little polar bear on the diamond.

A number of years ago, the northern and aboriginal trappers suffered greatly as a result of criticisms over unfair hunting and trapping practices. We lost a fair amount of the industry and it took years to get that economic activity back up and running. Now we have another industry, a new and dynamic industry in diamond mining, and it also has the risk of having a boycott if a process is not put in place to ensure that conflict diamonds can be distinguished from diamonds of Canada.

Does he see a risk to our industry if the government does not take a very strong position of ensuring that independent bodies are in place and that the Kimberley process can do the job it is intended to do?

[Transportation, October 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, rail is the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly mode of travel. Federal support for rail service, including high speed rail in the densely populated area of the Quebec-Windsor corridor, could take 3 million vehicles off the road annually. That is 16.8 million tonnes less of CO

2

emissions annually.

My question is, if the government is truly committed to the Kyoto agreement, where is its vision? Where is its plan for revitalizing rail in Canada?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 9th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, if everything in the throne speech played out as it should it would be wonderful but I think where the pessimism comes in is that we have heard it so often that we are starting not to believe it. Actually, we do not believe it. What can I say? After someone cries wolf so many times nobody listens. Certainly if the government followed through on some of the items in the throne speech it would be wonderful for Canada.

With regard to my colleague's comments, I do not think there is any question that my time on the industry committee has led me to fully support the fact that indirect costs for research needs to be there. It is certainly important to go along that line.

What I do want to comment on is the commercialization of research which, quite frankly, I do not think is the route to go. I think we have seen from a number of major companies in health care that the commercialization of research does not do a whole lot overall for the costs within the health care system.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 9th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to thank my colleague in the governing party, the member for Fredericton, for his comments and recognize that he was somewhat critical of the throne speech. It was nice to see a member from that side of the House have the gumption to speak out on what he believes to be failures within that speech.

He mentioned the lack of support for the CBC. I know in the past few days we heard of appointments to CBC by someone whom we felt would probably undermine CBC, if not set it up for further problems. It is good to hear that there is a member on the other side who is willing to push for greater support for the CBC, as well as regional support for CBC.

It is without question one of the greatest ties the country has had to bring us together. From the time that we were young people on the Prairies, we grew up respecting the culture and heritage of eastern Canada from numerous programs that we watched throughout the year as well as programs from the west coast. I think CBC was as much to Canada as was the railroad. It is crucially important that we continue to recognize that. As we grow as a country it is beneficial to have CBC there as part of that growth. I just want to congratulate him on his comments.

[Airline Security, October 7th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, air carrier WestJet announced Friday that it would be reducing services on short haul flights and cutting service to Thompson, Manitoba. Air Canada has also reduced services. Increased fees, including the government's airport security tax, have added to passenger costs and deterred air travel.

The government exploited the September 11 attack and implemented the security tax, insisting we would have improved security. However a person can board a plane in Thompson and fly to Winnipeg and never pass through a security gate, yet the person is still required to pay the security tax.

When will the government admit the security tax is a cash grab that is negatively affecting air access, especially to Canadians in rural and smaller communities.

[Committee Business and Reinstatement of Government Bills, October 7th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, certainly the question of closure has come up a number of times with the government. It is rather disappointing for Canadians to see this being implemented once again. Many of us will recognize that over the summer a poll came out indicating that democracy in government was now a major issue with Canadians. That is a sad legacy for any government to leave a country at any point in time. Certainly it is an issue.

I have a key point that I want to ask the hon. House leader about, and that is in regard to the corporate liability legislation which the government promised to bring forth. Nowhere was it mentioned in the throne speech. Something as important to Canadians, and to all members in the House who supported that legislation, has not been mentioned.

If the government really is committed to doing what has been requested of it, it would be nice to have seen it brought forth. I would like his comments.

[Committees of the House, June 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, specifically on the area the member is talking about, investigations are taking place as to the whole course of activities in that area. I have no knowledge of what those investigations have found. As is often the case with issues related to first nations and non-first nations, we hear differing opinions. Until the investigation is thoroughly done we really do not know the answers.

I willingly admit that my understanding is that there are investigations taking place but I do not know the results of those investigations.

[Committees of the House, June 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, issues have been raised that in some areas there has been overfishing. The perspective of the fisheries committee when it travelled to Manitoba was that what it had seen was rather unfair allocations in certain areas; the fresh fish marketing war; putting in place rules that favoured one area of the province over the other, as far as taking in fish stocks; and different rules for different groups of fishermen throughout the province. That was a major issue at that time. Good, solid recommendations were made.

The biggest improvement we can make in a good many industries is to involve the people in those industries, get suggestions from them and follow through on the recommendations. That is what was done previously but the government ignored the recommendations. I would suggest that is a very important factor. It is what the fishermen in Newfoundland want to see in order to maintain their fishery.