Lost her last election, in 2004, with 6% of the vote.
Transport Of Mox September 22nd, 2000
Mr. Speaker, how can the minister explain that Transport Canada took less than 24 hours to analyze hundreds of scientific documents, one by Dr. Edwyn Lyman in particular, which demonstrate that the shipping of plutonium by air is extremely dangerous?
Transport Of Mox September 22nd, 2000
Mr. Speaker, in the matter of MOX, the public had confidence in the Department of Transport's public hearings.
Now the emergency plan accepted yesterday morning demonstrates that Transport Canada had no intention whatsoever of respecting the public's opposition.
Will the Minister of Natural Resources admit that the period of public hearings was nothing more than a façade of democracy, and that he never had any intention of taking the public's opposition into consideration?
Supply September 21st, 2000
Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the Liberal Party member. I think he has just given us all the solutions his government ought to put forward but fails to put forward. It has the power to take action but does not. Why? The member has said that the government has powers it is not using. I have a question for him. I belong to a coalition which is defending consumers against gasoline price increases. We have been bringing pressure to bear for a year and a half now. We have boycotted Petro-Canada and now it is Ultramar. People in my riding no longer go to Ultramar and they did the same with Petro-Canada. I ask my colleague this: If tomorrow morning we were to tell the Canadian government to suspend its excise tax and its GST and to tax the oil companies' profits, would he agree?
Supply September 21st, 2000
Madam Speaker, I am extremely disappointed in the performance of the Canadian Alliance member.
I thought that the motion introduced in the House this afternoon was so that taxpayers would benefit from what reformers were proposing.
I note that the member, in his speech, says that it is the oil companies that should have all this money and then make even bigger profits.
I am truly disappointed and I would like the Canadian Alliance member to tell me what place there is for consumers in all this. Where do they come in, the people who are paying 79.9 cents a litre for gasoline, the people who are going to be paying astronomical amounts for heating oil next fall? Is he there to defend ordinary folks or the oil companies? I am extremely disappointed.
Supply September 21st, 2000
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. In his response, the member for Toronto—Danforth involved the provincial governments. The question—
Supply September 21st, 2000
Madam Speaker, I listened very carefully to the member for Toronto—Danforth.
Today, we can see once again that Liberal members are living in the past. They talk about what they should have done or about what they did. But what are they doing right now about helping Canadians cope with the gasoline prices they are now facing and will continue to face?
Last year, in my region of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, the Canadian government collected close to $52 million from taxpayers, through its excise tax and GST.
What did the government do with that money? I was told by the office of the Minister of Finance that the money was distributed to the various departments. Today, through the Canadian Alliance motion before us, we are asking this government to act and actually do something for those people who are faced with a serious problem that will get even worse.
Importation Of Plutonium September 21st, 2000
Mr. Speaker, Transport Canada has just made its decision: Canada will fly in MOX plutonium from the Russian Federation.
How can the Prime Minister justify importing MOX over the opposition of hundreds of Quebec municipalities, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the general public, and despite American studies which indicate that shipping by air is the most risky means?
Marie-Louise Gagnon September 21st, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the residents of Appartements Louise in Jonquière have a special reason to celebrate because, on September 30, Mrs. Marie-Louise Gagnon will be celebrating her one hundredth birthday.
Mrs. Gagnon was born in 1900 in Pibrack, in the Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean region. Mother of eight, she can point with pride to 35 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Gagnon remembers, perhaps with nostalgia, the wonderful roaring twenties. Her memories of the two world wars and the Depression are sad ones, but Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon is still a source of wonderment.
She has lived through the key events of the past century and her recollections are part of our collective memory.
What better to wish you than health and the love of your family? And for the one hundredth time in your life: Happy Birthday, Mrs. Gagnon. You have earned it.
Importation Of Mox September 20th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Natural Resources keeps repeating that the importation of MOX does not pose any risk.
Yet Dr. Gilles Grenier, who is an expert on emergency situations relating to nuclear accidents, recently said that new confidential data at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited basically match the worse case scenarios described by those who oppose the project.
In light of this new information, does the Minister of Natural Resources still believe that there is no risk for the population?
Species At Risk Act September 19th, 2000
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleague the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry.
He has given a very important new dimension to the work we are doing on Bill C-33. The new dimension he had to propose this morning relates to the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments.
Despite what the government says, it keeps on violating the Constitution Act of Canada. I think that, since the Bloc Quebecois was first elected, ours is the only party in the House of Commons that stands up for the constitutional right of the provinces laid down in the Canadian constitution.
I would like my colleague to give us specifics to prove beyond all doubt that, with this bill, the government is once again violating the constitution and looking for yet another fight with the provinces.