Bev Desjarlais

[Supply, February 5th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, if politics are not to be involved in this why on earth, with a motion of this importance and magnitude, would the opposition add on a paragraph stating:

That when a Private Member, in proposing a motion for first reading of a bill, states that the bill is in response to the recommendations contained in a report pursuant to this Order, the second reading and subsequent stages of the bill shall be considered under Private Members' Business and the bill shall be placed immediately in the order of precedence for Private Members' Business as a votable item

Knowing that there might be private members who have bills aligned to this, this is done purely for purposes that are unnecessary in relation to the sex offender registry.

I must say that if we want to talk politics it is the official opposition that is playing politics with this serious issue. I suggest that it not play politics with this issue. Canadians are no longer fooled by the actions of the members of the Canadian Alliance. They see them for who they are and they will continue to see them for who they are. These type of motions will only enforce it.

[Supply, February 5th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, my colleague who just spoke questioned whether or not Canadians are interested in procedural technicalities. Maybe they are not necessarily interested in all procedural technicalities, but I would comment that they would be interested to know that should the official opposition decide to amend its motion and take out that procedural technicality it would probably have the support of the entire House of Commons for the motion.

If my colleague does not think procedural technicalities are important, I suggest that he remove that procedural technicality that he knows will not be supported by a number of members. It would then certainly have the support of a good number in the House.

[Supply, February 5th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, just to follow on that, although it is not my question, all one has to do is read the child find posters to know that in a good many instances parents are involved in a kidnapping process and it is usually the non-custodial parent. It happens in far too many instances and traumatizes a good number of children.

My question for the hon. member relates to the motion put forward today. We have heard comments today from members in the House and from my friend across the way which have indicated that there probably is not a member in the House who does not think there should be a registry. There is an acceptance that probably everyone thinks there should be a registry. It is the specifics as to how the registry will operate that come into question.

With regard to the motion, what has come into question, quite frankly, is the procedural issue. I hope Canadians will understand that a good many parliamentarians will probably not support the motion because of the procedural irregularity.

I see the motion as being somewhat despicable. I think it is despicable to exploit this type of motion by adding that if the issue of a registry comes up in any private member's bill it will become votable. This is where we get into the procedural issue. If a private member introduces a bill in the House of Commons that relates to the registry then the bill becomes votable. Somehow that private member's bill becomes the issue, not the content of what we are dealing with.

In essence, what has happened with this motion, which members I am sure would all vote for if it did not have this despicable, exploitive procedure, irregularity, is that it will probably be used by a number of Alliance members to make other members of the House look bad because they did not support it, when the bottom line for the Alliance and for the member involved is that it is exploiting the issue. Quite frankly, that is not acceptable.

It is important for us to acknowledge that there should be a registry. I am disappointed that the government has not moved forward a lot quicker and that the resources have not been made available to have a registry that will do the job. However the motion by the Alliance is an exploitive motion.

[The Environment, February 4th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, after already closing 75% of local weather offices, Environment Canada has now indicated that several of its 14 remaining weather centres will close.

Has the Liberal government not learned anything from the Walkerton inquiry? Has it not learned that cuts to environmental services affect lives?

Weather centres keep Canadians informed about dangerous weather: freezing rain warnings; marine weather warnings; flood warnings in places like the Red River Valley.

We cannot replace the specialized knowledge of local weather centres from a weather desk thousands of miles away. Why is the government putting lives at risk by closing more weather centres?

[Sir John A. Macdonald Day and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Day Act, January 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join in the debate on the bill to recognize Macdonald and Laurier.

Colleagues of mine in the New Democratic Party caucus have stated that there is a need within Canada and within Canadian schools to encourage more respect both for the work a number of Canadians have done over the years and for Canadians in general. There is nothing wrong with being proud of who we are, the accomplishments we have made and our place in the world. We have done a fine job.

Macdonald and Laurier were instrumental in creating the Canada we know today, as were a lot other great men and women. Stanley Knowles, Tommy Douglas and Lester B. Pearson have all been credible politicians in their own right, people with social consciences who worked to improve our country and make it the Canada we so proudly speak of.

Last year or the year before, I brought forth a motion to have a Stanley Knowles day although it was deemed not votable. From my perspective no other individual committed himself so truly to Canada as we know it and to improving the lives of everyday people in our country.

I hope this is just a start. Should the bill pass I hope it is just the start of us taking the time to recognize great Canadians from the past. Because of our ties to American TV and radio stations we often hear in Canada about Martin Luther King Jr., the Kennedys, President's Day and numerous other days. Children in Canada often hear more about them than about Canadians who committed themselves to bettering our country.

It has been commented that there has been a failure in our school system to accurately reflect or teach Canadian history. For a number of years school textbooks reflected our country's origins from the British and Commonwealth aspect. We learned a lot about that and about other countries but not about Canada.

As someone who loved Canadian history and tried to read as much of it as I could, the books I read in school never told me the true story about Louis Riel. I never knew the true story about Macdonald's part in the Riel rebellion or the restrictions on the Metis people of Canada. I never knew Riel was an elected official who was denied his right to speak for the people he represented. I learned it from my own children's school books when they were studying it a number of years later. I thought we had come a long way and made real steps but I still do not think our history books accurately reflect what we should be teaching children in Canada.

I am from Manitoba and was born in Saskatchewan. Of crucial importance to our two provinces but also to the rest of Canada were the treaties. Just as important as the Treaty of Utrecht and British North America Act were Treaty No. 5, Treaty No. 3 and Treaty No. 1 which we signed with our first nations people and which have a direct impact on the people in our communities. I am happy that at least some first nation communities are getting more of the background of these treaties. However it is crucially important that we teach students throughout the country the implications of all the treaties because they are equally important.

I am pleased the bill has been put forward. I hope it passes because it is a recognition that there is much to be proud of in Canada. I might have differences with some of the things Macdonald and Laurier did, but I recognize that we are here today as a country because of the efforts of these two men and others. I hope we continue taking time to show respect for the great Canadians who have been instrumental in making our country the nation it is today.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, January 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague from Pictou--Antigonish--Guysborough on his comments in regard to the way the old act worked and the feeling that it worked much better because of the convolution of the new act. He commented on judges and lawyers he knows and their thoughts on the bill and the previous act.

I was a school trustee for a number of years. In attending the Canadian national school board conference we had a couple of judges appear before us to give their comments on the Young Offenders Act. Many felt that the act that was in place previously was actually excellent. The problem was the lack of resources to ensure the type of rehabilitation that was intended.

That is one of the issues that comes before us with this bill. There would be increased costs that the provinces could not bear. It is an indication that the government's attitude toward the provinces is bad. It is also negligent for the federal government to give up its responsibility for the young people and to say that it is a provincial problem and not share the issue of dealing with the Young Offenders Act.

The member mentioned the Quebec system. I know my colleague from Selkirk--Interlake has some concerns that differ from a lot of us. Would the hon. member comment on the Quebec system and indicate why it seems to work a whole lot better?

[Sandy Beardy, December 11th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, on December 3 of this year first nations in Canada lost a great man, Sandy Beardy of Pemicikamak Cree Nation, Cross Lake, Manitoba.

Sandy led an accomplished life dedicated to the vision of preservation and recognition of aboriginal rights and the right of self-government. His unwavering commitment to follow those principles earned him respect as a traditional elder. His strength was gained through his faith that transcends both Christian and traditional spirituality.

Sandy served Pemicikamak Cree Nation as a chief and a councillor. He received the order of the buffalo hunt for outstanding leadership and pioneering qualities and co-operation during his term as chief. He was an adviser to the northern flood agreement negotiations and subsequent implementation initiatives and appeared before a committee of the House on related issues.

He participated at Meech Lake, was spiritual council to National Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi and was an elder with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the Assembly of First Nations and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. His valued input and insight will be greatly missed.

Sandy was an aboriginal veteran who proudly served Canada. He spoke passionately of the dedication of first nation soldiers and the need for recognition of these sacrifices.

[Competition Act, December 10th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague must have misunderstood. The airline industry is a classic example of the attitude that competition always works and with deregulation it will work, but it does not work in all cases.

At some point some carriers can say that they will charge a ridiculously low price. I am not suggesting any particular carrier is doing that right now but in order for some carriers to provide lower prices I think they cut services. That is not always the case and I do not believe that to be the case of air carriers, specifically the one in Canada right now that is providing a very low cost rate. There has been nothing to indicate that.

However, competition is not always the only answer but certainly competition generally can bring prices down.

During the competition between Canadian Airlines and Air Canada, they were at each other's throats the whole time. They wanted all the people on a given route and flew back to back with each other. It ended up that one carrier was put out of business and the other carrier became a greater monopoly and more of a problem.

Competition was not the only answer in that case. We needed some regulations in place.

I was happy to hear the transport minister actually allude to this a little bit last week in some news reports. He said that maybe we needed to regulate domestic capacity in order to provide the service. Maybe we need to recognize that to provide service to some far reaching and rural areas of Canada some support systems need to be in place from the Government of Canada, and the people of Canada, so that we support each other knowing that it might be a little more costly to provide service up here. It should not be strictly on the backs of the airlines. It should be on us as a country to provide support and assist people throughout the country. That is the balance I would like to see within industry.

[Competition Act, December 10th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the member used words that do not go together: good competition in the airline industry. Quite frankly, that is an area where it does not exist. There has been a lot of criticism of Air Canada's practices. Competition generally is okay. I am not opposed to competition but there are times when competition is not the be all and end all. We have to find a balance between providing quality of service and recognizing that having the cheapest price when one is not up front with what is provided with that cheapest price is not always the answer.

Certainly good, clean competition is fine, which is why we have rules in place, but we need to recognize that competition is not always the answer, that we can work together for the best possible service in a number of areas as well.

[Competition Act, December 10th, 2001]

Cheaper plane tickets are okay as long as we are maintaining safety in the air, security at the airports and reasonable standards of wages and labour conditions. Those things are crucially important too. Quite frankly having strictly competition with nothing else in sight is not the answer.

We hear of numerous stores that lower the price of a particular product to get customers into the store in the hope they will buy that product. If a shopper goes in for only that product and gets the cheaper price, that is great, but the bottom line is that the customer usually ends up buying something else in the store at a higher price.

In the case of cheaper airline tickets, we also want to know that the airline is safe, that it is a good quality product, that the workers are being paid fairly and that safety practices are followed. However those areas often end up being cut as well.

Competition for the sake of competition is not beneficial.

I want to mention something I saw on a program a number of years ago dealing with young children in Mexico. These children were not brought up strictly on the basis of competition, as are a lot of our children who are involved in competitive sports and those kinds of things. They compete at school as to who will get the best mark. They do not help each other to do great. They compete to make sure they get the best marks and do the best because that is what is most important.

However these young children in Mexico were given a game and whoever won would get a prize. Let us just say the prize was two chocolate bars. What they found was these young children in Mexico, who had not been brought up in a competitive environment, did not really care who won. They were able to come to a balance in not really caring who won and they would share the two chocolate bars.

That is the difference between whether or not competition is absolutely necessary and where we need a balance in maintaining the quality of service, not just something for the sake of a lower price.