Peter Adams

[Committees of the House, April 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I must say that unlike my friend opposite I am strongly in favour of the disclosure provisions. I think they work well, as my colleague on this side explained, in the provincial jurisdictions.

As I understand it, the disclosure is summary disclosure as far as the complete public record, the website, is concerned, and that works well in Ontario. People can look up the summary disclosures of the members of the Ontario legislature and of their families in summary on the website right now as we speak, and they disclose completely in private.

As my colleague tried to explain, if in fact a spouse or a partner does not wish to disclose, it is quite obvious that it is not possible to force a person who is not a member of the House to disclose. In that case, the way the code is written, the obligation on the member of Parliament is due diligence. In other words, he or she has to go to all possible lengths to persuade members of the family to disclose.

I have a question for my colleague. I am very interested in this matter. It is being raised now. We understand that there might be an election relatively soon. We understand that an ethics commissioner is going to be appointed relatively soon. Here is what I would say to my colleague who is making this presentation. Does he not think that even though this code may be flawed and will be studied and perhaps changed in the next Parliament, it is in fact very important that it be passed now so that candidates, people who have never been in the House but are seeking to be in the House, as well as members of Parliament here who may be returned, would then know what the terms of reference of the position are? Also, it is important so that the commissioner, if he is appointed, will have something to work with when he takes over this important new position.

[Committees of the House, April 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 26th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, regarding matters relating to security on Parliament Hill.

[Committees of the House, April 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, if the House gives its consent, I move that the 23rd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented to the House earlier this day, be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to)

[Committees of the House, April 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 21st report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding democratic reform.

I have the honour also to present the 22nd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the question of privilege relating to the disclosure of confidential proceedings of an Ontario Liberal caucus meeting. I would point out that this report includes some reconciliation of the French language and English language text.

I have the honour to present the 23rd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding provisional Standing Order 36(8)(b). If the House gives its consent, I intend to move concurrence in the 23rd report later this day.

[Lakefield Marina, April 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, last summer was a difficult tourism season in Ontario because of SARS. On top of that problem, the people of Lakefield had their main dock closed while the township and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans negotiated over the cost of repairing it. I have received petitions from many residents about this.

I urge the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to continue to negotiate with the township of Smith-Ennismore-Lakefield. The dock must be refurbished and reconstructed so that it will last for many decades to come.

In the meantime, I urge the minister to have the dock tested immediately and, if it is safe, have it opened as is for this important tourism season. Let us do all we can to help the people and businesses of Lakefield now.

[Insurance Industry, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, we can now add churches, sea cadets and scrapyards to the growing list of those having trouble with insurance of one kind or another. Insurance has become a serious problem for the Anglican Church. Sea cadets may lose their boats because of insurance costs. Scrapyards may be unable to perform their valuable recycling functions.

Although auto insurance often receives attention, problems with the industry do not end there. The availability, adequacy of coverage and choice of insurance of all sorts are a problem in all provinces and territories for all Canadians. Realtors, owners of small and large businesses, school bus operators, school boards, farmers, arena operators, homeowners and many others are on the same list as the Anglican Church and those who drive cars.

I have been asking for a national inquiry for a year now. Insurance is largely in the provincial domain, but when a problem is truly national, only the federal government can deal with it quickly and effectively.

I urge the government to launch a fair and open national inquiry into insurance now. This can only benefit the industry and Canadians.

[Petitions, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is on behalf of citizens of the Peterborough area who are concerned about the condition of Mahmoud Jaballah, who was detained in solitary confinement in 1999 and not advised of the charges against him.

The petitioners point out that Mr. Jaballah was exonerated by a judge on the grounds of his excellent character references. He was redetained in 2001.

The petitioners point out that if Mr. Jaballah is returned to Egypt, which he fled as a refugee, he will be in danger of torture and execution, and his wife and six children will be left in Canada alone. They call upon Parliament to release Mr.Jaballah according to the court decision or to give him his right to a fair trial with full disclosure of all the so-called evidence against him.

[Petitions, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions. First, I am pleased to present another petition on behalf of all of those in Canada who suffer from kidney disease.

I have, in the past, presented petitions in support of research for the bio-artificial kidney. I am delighted that research is resulting in the use of living kidney cells to duplicate nearly all the functions of a healthy kidney. This is still at the experimental stage, but my petitioners are very pleased about it.

In this case, the petitioners point out that kidney disease is a huge and growing problem in Canada. Real progress is being made in various ways of preventing and coping with kidney disease. The petitioners call upon Parliament to encourage the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explicitly include kidney research as one of the institutes in its system to be named the institute of kidney and urinary tract diseases.

[Westbank First Nation Self-Government Act, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

I do not want to be critical, but I did stand up when you called for petitions and because of the angle of vision, my guess is that you missed me. I would ask for unanimous consent to return to the presentation of petitions.

[Committees of the House, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 19th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding matters relating to security on Parliament Hill. An identical report will be tabled in the Senate later today.