Peter Adams

[Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act, November 17th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to what my colleague had to say. I really appreciate his concern for the balance between general rights and personal rights.

It seems to me that organized crime in every generation is different. Organized crime develops so that it can operate in whatever governing sequence of the day. I do not really know, for example, what organized crime was like in the Roman Empire, but I am sure it adjusted to it and had ways of working throughout the Roman Empire.

As Canadians, we live in North America and are next to the richest nation in the world. It is very important that we are aware that there are organizations which are trying to use our best technology and our concern about human rights to their best advantage.

I would simply ask my colleague, in the Confederation that we have and knowing the experience that some provinces have had with organized crime, what his thoughts are about what we can best do in this country to deal with organized crime?

[An Act to establish the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I may have been mistaken, given that the subject was economic development, but I thought I heard the member mention the gun control program. I just wondered what concerns he had with that very successful program.

The program has resulted in thousands of people being disqualified from owning guns. As the House knows, all gun crimes are down since that legislation came in, but in particular, theft and the illegal trading of guns are both down considerably. The matter of the initial cost overrun has been dealt with. My understanding is that the program is now very tightly capped as far as financing is concerned. However, despite all of that, three people a day still die from guns and most of them from long guns.

I am surprised. I know the member is interested in hunting. In Ontario anyway, all forms of hunting, except duck hunting, have gone up steadily since the legislation came in. I think hunting is perceived as a safer, more attractive pastime.

Given that the legislation was triggered in part by the massacre at the University of Montreal and by the outcry in Quebec that arose over that, I just wondered, unless I was mistaken, why the member went out of his way in a debate on economic development to mention such a successful program.

[Agriculture, November 3rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, supply management is the system of farming developed in Canada. We depend on it for dairy products, chickens, turkeys and eggs. The quality and cost of these is the best in the world.

Supply management is also a system of farming which produces farmers. Young people are attracted to supply management sectors. This brings in new farmers and helps maintain family farms between generations. In rural areas like Peterborough County, it is supply managed farms which underpin economic and social life. They are the underpinning of rural Canada.

I urge the Government of Canada to continue to support and enhance supply management at home and overseas. The time has come to promote it, rather than just defend it. Let us work to mitigate the particular problems that BSE brings for dairy farmers. Let us designate Canadian milk powder as a food aid for starving people around the world.

[Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Act, October 27th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, the scope of my colleague's knowledge of the process puts many of us to shame. It is quite extraordinary.

I am familiar with Rae-Edzo and I promise to learn Behchoko. I am familiar with Snail Lake and I promise to try and learn Wekweti, the new names, which my colleague mentioned, that we all have to learn.

Since my colleague is so well informed, I was wondering about the present status of the language of the Tlicho in the Northwest Territories legislature. It is my understanding that legislature functions quite regularly in seven or eight different languages simultaneously, obviously English and French, but five or six others. Does the member know whether at the moment the Dogrib language is regularly used in the simultaneous translation system of the legislature in Yellowknife? I am sure in the future that will be the case.

[Financial Administration Act, October 27th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague's remarks. I actually have the Official Language Commissioner's report on the desk in my office but I have not read it.

However some time ago I met with the Official Language Commissioner and I listened with interest to the list of good things that have been done. She is quite right when she says that we should also listen to the criticism.

This may be irrelevant and it may be unfair of me to ask this of my colleague, but in my riding, which is a very anglophone riding, we have had for decades now French immersion programs, some of them beginning in kindergarten and going all the way through high school, and some beginning in grade four and going all the way through. In the last few years I have been delighted that we have an école élémentaire française which, in an anglophone community, is for the children of francophone families who live in our community.

I ask my colleague, is that the sort of thing with which the Official Language Commissioner is involved or is that something that is mainly, because it is in the jurisdiction of the province of Ontario, a provincial jurisdiction? Does our language commissioner, who reports to the House of Commons, have a say in the operation of schools of that type?

[Interparliamentary Delegations, October 27th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian delegation of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association respecting its participation in the sixth conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, held in Nuuk, Greenland, September 3 to 5.

I would like to very much thank my colleagues from other parties and members of the staff of this delegation. This meeting was part of the work of the Arctic Council which represents eight polar nations and three aboriginal groups around the north.

We note with great interest the development of the University of the Arctic, which will help education in many remote communities in the north. Also, one of the main messages of these meetings is that climate change, meaning global warming, is a very serious problem for all the peoples of the north.

[Agriculture, October 27th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, many members of the public believe the BSE crisis is over. Others believe that it was a problem for western Canada alone. Neither of these beliefs is true.

In Peterborough county a thousand families are still suffering from the BSE tragedy and many more are indirectly affected by it. In our region the problem is livestock. Before the U.S. border was unfairly closed, there was a brisk cross-border trade in best quality cattle, sheep and bison from Peterborough to the U.S. This has been at a standstill for a year. Livestock have to be fed. Our farmers have animals they cannot sell, but which cost them money every single day.

I urge that every effort be made to continue to persuade the Americans to open their border, as recommended by their own expert panel. I also urge that existing aid programs be accelerated so that farmers get support soon. Finally, I urge support for local and province-wide abattoirs so that our cattle, sheep and other industries can become more self-sustaining.

[Norwood Fair, October 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, there were fairs in Norwood in 1861. They were officially registered in 1866. They have been organized by the Norwood Agricultural Society since 1965.

This year's fair was a credit to its predecessors and to President John Kloosterman and all the officers, directors, associate directors, staff and volunteers of the current Norwood Agricultural Society.

All aspects of the fair were exceptional. The parade, the school and home divisions, car and tractor shows, the animal and crop shows, the farmers Olympics, the horse and tractor pulls, the craft, horticulture and hobby shows, the 4-H section, all lived up to or exceeded previous years. The entertainment, notably the Mundells, was exceptional.

I thank all those who helped make the Norwood Fair such a success. Through this fair the Township of Asphodel-Norwood enriches Thanksgiving weekend for our entire region.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the member should know that the 910 hour entry requirement was introduced to reduce early dependence on employment insurance benefits. In a time when most jobs require a high level of education, too many young people were leaving school to take short term jobs. The new entrance requirement for employment insurance sought to break the cycle and encourage stronger labour force attachment.

The facts bear it out. Youth employment rose by 26,000 in September, mostly among older youth aged 20 to 24. The gain among youth was mainly in full time employment, over 40,000 of the places.

I know all members would agree that the youth of the country are best served by good educational opportunities that will build strong, satisfying careers.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, again I compliment my colleague on his interest in this important topic. I have already mentioned that 88% of employed workers would have been eligible for EI benefits if they had lost their jobs with just cause. The member may not know that differences in eligibility range only four percentage points across the country, from 85.5% in Alberta the low, to 89.5% in New Brunswick.

Entrance requirements vary across regions to take into consideration the unemployment rate of the region concerned. As unemployment rates increase, entrance requirements ease and the duration of benefits increases to recognize the increased difficulty of finding work in the region concerned.

With regard to the entrance requirements for new entrants to the labour market, and the member seems to be suggesting that the EI program discriminates against youth and this could not be farther from the truth, the fact is the overwhelming majority of new entrants to the labour market are looking for work, not employment insurance.

That said, the member should also recognize that young people today have better opportunities to find and keep work than a generation ago. In fact the unemployment rate for youth between 15 and 24 is 4% lower today than it was 30 years ago.

This reflects a few changes that have taken place in our economy and our labour market.

First, is the increased participation of young people between 15 and 24 in post-secondary education. We need look no further than the CEGEP system in Quebec for this. Since the beginning of the 1980s CEGEP enrolment in Quebec has been going steadily up.

Second, this decrease in youth unemployment also recognizes that we truly live in a learning culture. Canadians participate in post-secondary education activities more than any other citizenry in the world.

Notwithstanding this, I know the minister is interested in addressing any issues that the member has raised and indeed any Canadian with regard to the EI program. As all members know, the EI commission is mandated by the EI act to monitor and assess the EI program every year. Its report is tabled here in the House annually by the minister.

This government will continue to ensure that the employment insurance program remains responsive to the needs of all Canadians, particularly young Canadians.