Deborah Grey

[Petitions, February 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have another intervention. We have an enormous number of signatures here. Actually there are 4,442 signatures from people all across Canada. I have presented approximately 20,000 of these petitions and signatures already.

The petition is from Canadian citizens who use alternative medicines, such as vitamins and supplements, for preventive health care and, according to what we are looking at today, which is most important, these are out of pocket expenses. These Canadians should obtain tax relief on personal income tax returns by means of using receipts from licensed health food stores and not only “as recorded by a pharmacist”, as is quoted in section 118.2(2)(n) of the Income Tax Act.

These petitioners are calling on Parliament by the thousands that the government take necessary steps to change section 118.2(2)(n) of the Income Tax Act to allow receipts for vitamins and supplements to be used as a medical expense on personal income tax returns and be GST exempt. I thank the people who have sent these in and to Stella Melnychuk who has done a great job getting these to me.

[Government Appointments, February 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pity we ruined that reputation by sending him there in the first place.

It certainly seems true that the contract scandals are at the pleasure of the government, and they do not end. The Auditor General is about to release a report that will likely reveal damning evidence of Gagliano's involvement in the scandal. He gets a one-way ticket to Denmark to avoid the heat. Why will the Prime Minister not just terminate Gagliano, just like he has done to so many of his former cabinet colleagues?

[Government Appointments, February 6th, 2004]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we all await that report, that is for sure.

One of the Prime Minister's long-time cabinet colleagues, Alfonso Gagliano, got a pretty soft landing over in Denmark to avoid facing the consequences of his involvement in those contract scandals. Why will the Prime Minister not just stand up, admit the gag is up, and bring Alfonso home?

[Reinstatement of Government Bills, February 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, you and I go way back. We are a little long in the tooth in this place.

You did make a reference to the ruling of Speaker John Fraser in 1991. You and I both served in the 1988 Parliament when Brian Mulroney was the Prime Minister. I can remember sitting in the back lobby here with my Liberal colleagues, and Mr. Speaker, you were one of them. They were thinking up ways that they could cause mischief when the House prorogued.

Dead meant dead, it seemed to me back then. This was a way for the government to get out of it, if it had difficult legislation where its own backbenchers were causing problems. They were able to kill legislation. That is what prorogation did. It killed it dead. That was before 1991 when Speaker Fraser made his ruling. I do find this a little strange. There are a few of those folks left, and when it seems to suit them now, everything is okay. They can just resurrect this stuff.

Mr. Speaker, I know that when you and I started in this place, prorogation meant dead equals dead. That was before 1991. I would like your input on that because I remember listening to you in the back lobby here about prorogation and how legislation could be killed and could not be brought back.

[Transport, November 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, for corn's sake, we have a little tourism out west ourselves.

Red Deer is only one example of western airports that have been virtually ignored by the government. Swift Current, Tofino, North Battleford and Yorkton have received precious little funding despite growing needs.

The Prime Minister's understudy laments about western alienation, but cheating these airports certainly is not the way the west is won. Looks like he has been caught with his flaps down. How can the Liberals claim to care so much about the west, yet leave the airports running on empty?

[Transport, November 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, before our Prime Minister lifts off, I would like to remind him that the airport in Red Deer, Alberta is open 12 months and it has over 40,000 flights per year. It has made requests for funding but it has received nothing. In contrast, the airport in Charlevoix is closed for more than half the year and has fewer than 1,500 flights, yet it received over $5 million in government funding, compliments of the former finance minister.

Could the government tell us why it is flying Charlevoix in first class and the west in coach?

[Member for Edmonton North, November 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, Elwin Hermanson and the Saskatchewan Party team came up a bit short in last night's provincial election, but they gained two seats and elected three MLAs in Saskatoon, not bad for a party that is barely six years old.

Elwin and I are longtime friends. We bought our Reform Party memberships the same night in Lloydminster, Alberta, on September 28, 1988.

I look back on the last 15 years of my life and the paths which Elwin and I have followed. After my first term as the initial Reformer in Parliament, Elwin and 50 others joined me here in October 1993. After the 1997 election, Elwin went on to lead the Saskatchewan Party and his province has been the better for it.

As I wind down my 15 years here in Parliament, I thank the Lord for giving me lifelong friendships with Elwin and Gail Hermanson and so many others in this place. God bless them all.

[National Defence, November 4th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, it only took him one day to decide on the Challengers. That is speedy.

The Prime Minister cancelled the contract. Well, it is the 10 year anniversary. Mr. Speaker, you might know that the traditional gift for the 10th anniversary is tin. We would take tin. We would take aluminum. We would take steel. We would take whatever he has as long as it is in the form of a safe, reliable, effective chopper replacement.

Robert Browning, the poet, said:

Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be.

We have all grown older. When can we expect him to cough up the best that is yet to be ?

[National Defence, November 4th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, a 10 year anniversary is a long time since the Prime Minister cancelled the Sea King helicopters. Now he is lifting off out of politics and is retiring but the Sea Kings are not.

Today the members across the way have said that it would be speedy, that it would be as rapidly as possible that we would get these replacements. The Prime Minister has used the excuse of the deficit being so bad, but that has been gone for years now. He has talked about interest rates, but in fact they are lower now than they ever have been.

With the deficit long gone and interest rates so low, how can the Prime Minister defend putting off this contract for even one more day?

[National Defence, October 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, all Sea King helicopter training flights have been grounded because of technical problems. This is unprecedented.

Who is responsible for this dangerous situation? The king of obstinance, that is who.

There is absolutely no excuse for the Prime Minister's unreasonable behaviour in delaying the acquisition of new helicopters for the last 10 years. The high flyer from Shawinigan is the one who should be grounded for good. Thankfully, sooner maybe rather than later, he will be.

He has been playing Russian roulette with the lives of our troops. They know it. We know it. He knows it and every Canadian knows it. He is just hoping he can sneak out of office before there is a major Sea King accident that he will have to take responsibility for.

There is no one more cowardly than a leader who will put other lives at risk because of pride and arrogance. A 10 year reign of error, promise maker to deal breaker. It has been a decade of delay, denial and deception. His D day is coming soon.

The Prime Minister will be judged as a leader of unparalleled stubbornness. I say shame.