Dennis Mills

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, May 29th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I feel privileged to have an opportunity to speak on the legislation. I would like to come at the legislation from a different point of view.

I have been listening to most of the speakers here today and I have heard some good ideas coming from all sides of the House. I especially want to acknowledge some of the thoughts put forward by the member for Wild Rose who spoke earlier today.

I personally do not support the notion of a boot camp but I am very much in sympathy with the notion of creating environments for young people where they can achieve an atmosphere of discipline and athleticism because all those things affect the development of the whole person.

The preamble of the bill states:

Whereas members of society share a responsibility to address the developmental challenges and the needs of young persons and to guide them into adulthood.

With that preamble in mind, I want to share with the House an experience I had last summer in Tor Vergata, Italy, which is a university campus just outside of Rome. Last August, on behalf of the members of the House of Commons, I attended the World Youth Day event led by the Holy Father. This was the eighth or ninth World Youth Day event. It is an event where young men and women come from all over the world to celebrate the values of sharing and caring for each other.

What I experienced at the event, which was attended by close to two million young people from all over the world, was an attitude and a spirit I have never witnessed in my entire life. I was in attendance with the premier of Ontario, Mr. Harris; his minister responsible for the World Youth Day celebrations coming to Toronto; Mr. Chris Hodgson; and our mayor.

I raise this event today in the House because it can serve as an example to members of parliament. They can draw on it in working together to mobilize and motivate all the machinery of government around the whole area of youth crime prevention. It can help build the confidence, vision and hope of young people and teach them that the values of caring and sharing are central to building the fabric of the country.

For members of the House who may not be up to date on the project, in July 2002 Canada is hosting the next World Youth Day celebration in Toronto. We as a nation, along with the Catholic church and the Conference of Bishops of Canada, will be inviting probably close to a million people from all over the world to come to Toronto for five days from July 18 to 28.

When these young people come together they will be demonstrating to us as parents and legislators that they are interested in working in their own communities and countries on issues related to personal development, human development and whole person development.

This is one thing I wish we could talk about more today when debating the legislation before us. I sense that members of the Bloc Quebecois are much more sensitive about the notion of personal development and growth than many of us, quite frankly. They have done a magnificent job in the debate today in talking about the personal growth of young people.

I wanted to speak to the bill today and remind the House of World Youth Day because it is a concrete example of where all members of the House have come together with over 13 departments of the Government of Canada to touch a million young people from all over the world.

Our former ambassador to Russia, Ann Leahy, and her assistants in Toronto are busy organizing the event. I wanted to put it on the record today because as the year unfolds I do not think we as members of parliament can do enough in the whole area of prevention, of touching young people before they are put at risk.

I believe that has been the mission of the member for Wild Rose for most of his life as an educator. It was the primary point he was trying to get across today in the House when he talked about his experience as a principal and an educator. He said we need the tools that will allow us to assist in the personal development of young people.

I go back to the preamble of this piece of legislation which reads:

Whereas communities, families, parents and others concerned with the development of young persons should, through multidisciplinary approaches...respond to the needs of young persons, and...provide guidance and support—

That is where I want to come from. We do not do enough in Canada to build dreams and hope and give proper instruments of support to young people. Quite frankly that is why I am pleased that we as the House of Commons have been so united in promoting this event which is coming to Toronto in July 2002.

Some people have not connected with the profound impact the project will have. I will give an example. If we hosted the Olympic games we would touch, at most, 300,000 people per day. With this project we will be touching one million people or five times that number. I will be splitting my time with the member for Chatham—Kent Essex.

On behalf of the House of Commons and the entire federal team under the direction of former Ambassador Leahy, Cardinal Ambrozic, Bishop Meagher and Father Thomas Rosica, I want to convey that we believe in working with young people to develop the whole person. We will be with them in Toronto in July 2002.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, May 29th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I have witnessed the member's passion and his constructive criticism in the House on justice issues for a number of years. I like many of his ideas, especially the idea of having camps or discipline centres. I do not like the word boot camp but I like the notion of having rehabilitation centres where people could be taught skills, where they could be given a sense of discipline, a sense of athleticism and all the things that would make them a whole person.

The member has given 30 years of his life to young people through the educational system. He talked about the notion of working on prevention. The area of prevention is an area that does not get enough discussion time in the House. Could the member tell us from his experience where he has seen the best results of preventative measures young people?

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the member. Would he be supporting the motion today? Yes or no.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I too acknowledge that the member for Rosemont—Petite-Patrie gave a great speech.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health acknowledged, through the amendment, that we would be respecting jurisdictions as the debate moves forward.

The member just said that we need to speak for municipalities in the House. Does that mean the Bloc Quebecois would support the motion that is on the floor of the House today? Given his experience on Quebec's special high standards, his acknowledgement that infrastructure is needed, that we do have some challenges to meet on our crown lands and that these issues do need the full light of day, would the Bloc Quebecois support the motion? We would need the co-operation and support of the Bloc Quebecois to make this happen.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, on behalf of all of us here, our thoughts are with the hon. member and the challenge he faces as the federal leader for the community right now in dealing with this issue. In my humble opinion this is precisely an area where the national government must address the emergency immediately.

I want to remind members about the foot of snow we had in downtown Toronto about three years ago. Our mayor declared a national crisis and called the Prime Minister to ask for the army. Within hours the Department of National Defence was plowing the streets of Toronto. I think there may have been eight or ten inches of snow on the streets and everyone thought this was a great national crisis.

I believe we are sensitive about intervention and trampling on rights of municipalities and provinces but, in a case like this, I do not think it is inappropriate for the municipal leaders to reach out to the local member and to the national government to ask for help. I think as members of the House of Commons we should all be there.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I want to salute the member for Red Deer who has taken an early lead on this issue over the last few months, and even before that with his history as a biologist. I believe he touched on a very important point in his speech when he linked health with this issue.

Could the member say a few words on whether or not he believes that linking the issue of health with clean water and food might be the way we could capture the imaginations of all members in the House and that this issue should be put on the front burner.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, this gets me into trouble from time to time in the House. If someone in the House comes up with a good, constructive idea that will make life better for Canadians I do not care where the idea comes from. If the premier of Quebec has the model for drinking water we will look at it. Maybe it will end up being the model for all of Canada.

There can be philosophical differences on certain issues. If I understood the motion of the member for Fundy—Royal, the best formula or plan for drinking water should become the national standard regardless of who proposes it. One either opts in or one does not. If the province of Quebec has the best standard then Ontario and the rest of the country should follow it.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I totally support the view of my colleague, who is an educator, a biologist and the chief environmental critic for the Canadian Alliance.

I hope the House leader of the Conservative Party, the House leader of the Canadian Alliance and our own House leader will come here tomorrow and say that now is the time to move forward on the security of our freshwater. All the goodwill we can muster here today can be a moment of special hope for all Canadians, not just on drinking water but on all aspects of water.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, my conversion is limited to water. My interventionist passion continues unchanged as far as other issues are concerned.

I would give a very specific example. I do not want to take away from the issue of water that we are dealing with today. On that issue I will bow to the provincial jurisdiction the Bloc Quebecois guards so dearly, but I will not bow and I will intervene with vigour in any province that is not living up to its requirement to provide more affordable housing.

Water is too fragile an issue. I have had a conversion and I will bow to the provincial jurisdiction.

[Supply, May 8th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I wish to compliment the member for Fundy—Royal on bringing this issue to the floor of the House of Commons today.

As many members will know, over the last few months a number of us have been seized with this issue. We have been trying hard to work on terms of reference that would be acceptable to all parties for a special committee of the House that would move this debate forward. We want to make sure that the security of our freshwater, the quality of our drinking water and all facets related to water are dealt with in a proper fashion.

I was particularly reassured today, and it is the reason I will be supporting the motion, that all members who have spoken to the motion have said that it is not a partisan issue. It is an issue on which we all have to come together. We all have to figure out a way to make sure that laws are put in place to ensure the quality of our drinking water.

It is very important that we first begin by acknowledging the work of Senator Grafstein in the other place. He tabled Bill S-18, an act to amend the Food and Drugs Act dealing with clean drinking water. I believe it is at second reading right now.

I appeal to all members, their staff, other legislators, journalists, environmentalists and people interested in the issue to get a hold of Senator Grafstein's bill. I am sure the research he has done in this area would be deemed acceptable to the point where we could move the bill from the Senate into the House of Commons. Together we could create an historic moment where the Senate and the House of Commons, in the interest of all Canadians, would work together to ensure that we have clean drinking water in every part of Canada.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health suggested an amendment to the main motion a few minutes ago that talked about making sure we are respectful of provincial jurisdictions. It is a very important amendment which hopefully the member for Fundy—Royal will accept. It would be a tragic day in the House if we could not get together, because there was some unease by the Bloc Quebecois and other members who felt we were trying to interfere with provincial jurisdiction.

That is not the essence of the motion. We understand the provinces jealously guard their areas of jurisdiction and that we had a tremendous disaster in terms of water quality in Ontario. The world knows about it. We are very sensitive because on an issue like this one Canadians do not want for a moment to be criticizing one another.

We must get together to resolve the problem. We must make an effort to put forward the collective will of all parties of the House to make drinking water better for everyone in the country and perhaps even a template for the world. It would be awful if through a few words the spirit of good will were to fall apart.

It is very important that all members support the amendment and that we respect provincial jurisdictions. It is no secret that traditionally I have a reputation for being a passionate centralist and interventionist. This has been my political background. The issue is so fragile and important that if we are to create a national will all of us will have to put a drop of water in our wine. We will have to bend a little and park some of our traditional philosophical views. Nothing is more important than the quality of our drinking water.

As a nation we have a very special trust not only for Canadians but for the rest of the world. I hope the debate will lead to the next part of the discussion on water technologies. As a nation we have some of the best water purification technologies on the planet. We have a responsibility to take that technology and make sure other parts of the world that are disadvantaged get to share it.

The whole area of water purification technology will end up as another issue for debate, which is very important. On this issue we cannot just think about our own constituents and our own country. We have to reach out to the rest of the world and share the technology.

Over the next little while another issue will be water and our trade agreements. There is no mistake about it. In 1995 I spoke to Mr. Nelson Riis' private member's bill banning bulk water exports. I supported his bill, but when we get into the area of water eventually we come to issues that are explosive and sensitive for us and the House of Commons must deal with them.

I hope the spirit of today's debate will continue. When our House leaders get together tomorrow I hope they will put the special committee of the House on track so that it can move ahead on these issues. We need to deal with them in a constructive way by bringing in some of the best minds in our country and in other countries to talk to us about all facets of water.

I should like to make one final point which I touched on in my question to the right hon. leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. It has to do with water quality on Indian reserves.

The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has done a tremendous amount of work on this issue. I believe, without causing any problems with our provincial or municipal friends, that if we started working on the quality of drinking water in an area where we have constitutional jurisdiction such as on reserves this would be a great beginning.

If we could have the best quality of drinking water on our Indian reserves, it could be a template or a model which other municipalities or provinces could voluntarily pick up. It would save some of the potential for disagreement or interference.

I appeal to the House that we urge the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to put that file on a fast forward track to a jurisdiction where we have nobody holding us back. We should make sure that our reserves have the best drinking water in Canada and then we could build from there.

I congratulate the hon. member for Fundy—Royal on the motion today. I hope that it leads to a long and vigorous debate on all facets of the security of freshwater in Canada.