Catherine Bell

[Homelessness, December 12th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, with a high today of four degrees, a low of minus one and a chance of rain turning to snow tonight, it is normal weather for the Comox Valley this time of year. It is winter after all, no worries unless one is homeless.

If people are homeless in the Comox Valley, they are making do the same as the homeless elsewhere. If there is room in the local 17-bed shelter, people may be using one of three shelter nights allowed per month. They may be couch surfing, sleeping in the car or sleeping in a tent provided by the Salvation Army.

Affordable housing is scarce and the competition for what does exist is fierce.

There are over 10,500 homeless people in B.C. today, according to a recent survey of 60 B.C. cities by the B.C. NDP homelessness critic, proving that homelessness is not just a bit city problem.

A 0.5% vacancy rate in Courtenay means that people spend far too much of their income on rent for unsafe and unhealthy living conditions and many are left out in the cold, literally.

When will the government recognize the housing crisis in this country and adopt a national housing strategy and show it values all its citizens enough to ensure that they can live in dignity and be nurtured in the emotional and physical safety provided by a home?

[An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River, December 11th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, I find it disturbing that it took so long to inform the ministers of this impending crisis, and that it would take international pressures and a shortage of this magnitude to bring us to this point.

I am going to pass it over to my colleague.

[An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River, December 11th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, I would then ask either of the ministers if they were informed.

[An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River, December 11th, 2007]

Thank you, but I would like you to answer my question, which was: Did you inform the health minister or the natural resources minister that there was going to be a shortage?

You would know that you are shutting down and you do not know when you are going to start up again. At some point you are going to incur a shortage of radioisotopes because these things do not get made by themselves.

[An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River, December 11th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, so if people were notified and ministers were obviously made aware, I am just curious: was anyone was made aware that if there was a prolonged shutdown there would be an impending crisis with respect to the radioisotopes? If they were, then why was something not done to mitigate that knowing it would go into a prolonged shutdown?

I just want to know if it would be the minister or AECL. AECL agreed to continue the shutdown. Did you inform any of the ministers that we were going to have a shortage?

[An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River, December 11th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, I am not sure, then, if the witness is finding issues with AECL's facility at Chalk River.

You are calling the safety into question, obviously, or you would not have shut it down. Would the Minister of Natural Resources have been made aware of this through your reports through the ministry or through that department?

[An Act to permit the resumption and continuation of the operation of the National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River, December 11th, 2007]

Mr. Chair, I have to say that I agree with my colleague from Winnipeg North that this is a terrible situation to find ourselves in. We are weighing on the one hand the emotional issue of patient care and the needs, health and safety of patients. It is a very real but very emotional issue that we are grappling with here. On the other side of that coin, we are also weighing worker safety and public safety in the Chalk River area and in the national research universal reactor at Chalk River.

I want to follow a line of questioning, if members will permit me, to find out how we got to this point, because I think it is important. I need to know, because I have asked this question of a couple of people and I think I know the answer, who does the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission report to in regard to its findings?

Do you report to a minister or directly to the government? When you find problems at facilities, where do you report those problems?

[Budget and Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2007, December 11th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I spoke on this topic the other day and I said some similar things. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and did not get to say everything.

My hon. colleague mentioned how we were accelerating development in some parts of our economy, but not in others. I am speaking of the oil sands development in Alberta and what is happening there.

We are in talks about climate change and we are trying to accomplish something. The government says that it is getting things done for the environment. However, I have to wonder what it is doing except creating more carbon emissions. What we will see in the very near future is the acceleration of development in the oil sands with pipelines to the U.S.

Why would the government favour a large corporation that makes billions of dollars in profits at the expense of people who have to live on the streets, or people without child care, or people in the auto sector? There are so many other things where we could have had a better balance in our budget, but we are not seeing that?

[Budget Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2007, December 10th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree with my hon. colleague about the shameful practice of not supporting our veterans once they come home. I personally know a couple of people who served in Bosnia and are suffering severe psychological trauma as well as physical damage from the events that happened there. They feel that they have no support.

It would not take much money out of the billions of dollars that were given to corporations to help support the people who so sorely need it, people who did nothing more than serve our country so proudly. We have abandoned them by giving that money in corporate tax cuts instead of investing it in the health and peace of mind of our veterans and their families. It is beyond me why Canada is so cold hearted in that regard.

[Budget Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2007, December 10th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, absolutely, the government missed an opportunity to provide some investment in our tourism sector. The member talked about museums. That is one other part of our communities that actually pays for the debt vicariously by not getting the investment needed to continue operations in a much more growth oriented way.