Grant McNally

[National Library, October 4th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, many of our most treasured historical documents continue to be exposed to irrevocable damage. The National Library of Canada is tasked with preserving Canada's published heritage so that it is available for present and future generations. Yet over $2 million of irreplaceable information has already been lost since the Liberals took over in 1993.

Works like the original hand drawn maps of Champlain, pages from the original Guttenberg Bible and the first newspaper ever published in Canada are threatened daily by leaky roofs, exploding pipes and a climate so humid that it routinely sets off the fire alarm.

When asked about her plans to protect the 20 million items representing our shared history, the heritage minister said that the government was still deciding on whether or not this was a priority. I find it amazing that the minister can find half a billion dollars for new culture spending but is still mulling over whether she will take action to find safe storage for priceless documents.

The current repair costs already exceed the budget. Collections are being stored under tents of plastic and the rains are going to come. Will the Minister of Canadian Heritage commit today to saving what remains of these irreplaceable documents before it is too late?

[Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada Act, October 4th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up with two other comments. One of them deals with airport security. Some individuals have told me they are still concerned about workers at the airports not going through metal detectors but coming to work with uniforms and security or clearance badges. I have not heard the minister address that concern. It is something that has to be looked at.

We have seen that the individuals who perpetrated the crimes of September 11 will go to any means to conceal their actions and participate in devious methods to gain access to secure areas.

I want to talk about something that I had hoped the immigration minister would have talked about: interdiction, sending individuals abroad. We have had an interdiction program in Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers worked with forces from other countries to expand our security perimeter not just to North America but to other areas where individuals who boarded planes to come to North America might gain access to our country.

This was a very good pilot project. I have not heard the minister talk about extending it. This would be the time to effectuate the program. It is an issue that I raised in committee a number of years ago. My colleague was also on the immigration committee in previous years. I would like to hear her comments about both airport security and the idea of interdiction abroad.

[Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada Act, October 4th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I can only echo the comments of my colleague when she stated that the government has been slow to respond to issues of importance. She has indicated that this housekeeping bill could have been passed any time in the last nine years.

The government is continuing with a legislative program as though nothing has happened, at a time when we are facing a changed reality not only in Canada but in the world due to the events of September 11.

It is making some movement in some areas. However it has been very slow. It has not been comprehensive. It has not included all members. It has not activated our committee process in a meaningful way to address legislation that would take a look at issues such as border security and the perimeter of North America.

It has not taken any bold initiatives in bringing forward anti-terrorism legislation immediately. It has not brought a budget to the House to discuss with the people of Canada what the priorities of the government will be and how it will address issues such as border security, immigration and increased resources to find individuals who are under deportation order or are illegally in Canada.

We have not seen any concrete leadership in those areas. We have seen it in the United States and my colleague referred to that. We have seen the house of representatives and the senate committees getting to work the very next day after this event and changing the entire legislative agenda in the United States. It is changing the agenda of other legislatures across the world, yet it seems to have merely a ripple impact in the House of Commons.

I have stood on a number of occasions since September 11 and congratulated the government when it has done a good thing. I have also indicated that it is not doing enough.

We can tell when someone cares about an issue by the time, the effort and the resources they put into something. We implore the government to take this a little more seriously, to set the tone, to change the direction in this place, to bring us together in a less partisan way and to put us all to work. We are itching to make some concrete changes in these areas which in many ways have accumulated due to the neglect of resourcing from the government for the last eight years. I would like my colleague to comment on those concerns.

[Supply, October 2nd, 2001]

Madam Speaker, the member mentioned that we will all remember where we were when the event happened. I had landed in Halifax a couple of hours before the incident and was unaware of what had happened. I found out when I was on the phone checking in with my staff.

I was at a camp ground in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, and the person on the phone next to me was an American tourist. The individual was going through an address book to look up the phone number of a son or daughter who worked in the World Trade Center. Unfortunately I was not able to talk to that tourist who left before I got off the phone.

There is goodwill in this place at this time between all opposition parties and the government to work in a co-ordinated way to address the horrible event. We will co-operate not only to help our American friends but to fix systems that need to be fixed within our own country such as internal and border security, RCMP funding and other issues.

Actions speak louder than words. Would my hon. colleague ask his cabinet colleagues and the Prime Minister if they would be willing to take leaders of the opposition into the privy council during this time to explain to them in a non-partisan way what is going on and thereby gather support from the opposition parties?

[Supply, October 2nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague for her speech and her balanced response. I would like to ask her about something that has been brought up in debate a bit today and in previous debates on this issue, that being the rush into military action.

There are some who have made the claim that we need to take our time, to have a measured response, which I would agree with, and not rush into any emotional act of vengeance against perceived perpetrators of this crime against humanity. At the same time I would submit that to all appearances to date there has been a measured response. There has not been a rush to military action by the United States, which has suffered this great blow. There has been the building of an international coalition. There have been consultations and to this point there have been no military strikes.

I would submit this question to my colleague. While it is time for action and we need to be considering these questions, would the hon. member agree to bring to her colleagues in the government the notion that in Canada right now there is an opportunity to work together as members of parliament in a fashion that we have not seen before? I believe there is an opportunity to drop down the partisan walls, to come together to fashion a Canadian response to how we would help our American friends and colleagues, with both support and, perhaps, military intervention. Would the member take the message back to her colleagues on the government side that there is a time for action and it is now, that there is input required and that there is the goodwill among all members of the House to roll up their sleeves and get at this in a measured way? Would she be able to do that?

[Supply, October 2nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure also to add my voice of support to the motion before us brought forward by our colleagues from the New Democratic Party. It is a well worded and well thought out motion. Members of the Progressive Conservative Democratic Representative coalition are supportive of the motion.

I would like to frame my comments in three areas today. The first is the government's response to the events of September 11. The second is a response to this actual motion. The third is what our response should be as members of parliament to the events surrounding September 11 and the actions that need to be taken as a result of those events.

Let me start with the good news first. I commend the government for its response on the actual day of September 11 when airplanes were being diverted and also the Canadian people who responded so overwhelmingly with their good nature to help stranded travellers from around the world who unexpectedly ended up here in Canada.

The memorial service held on the first Friday after the tragic events was a positive event which showed that Canadians were concerned about this issue and that we had great support for our friends and neighbours in the United States, our closest friend and ally. We commend the Prime Minister for going to ground zero this past weekend, perhaps later than he should have, and we commend him for inviting the leaders of the opposition parties to go as well. That is the good news.

There are things that could have been and still can be improved in the government's response to the issues surrounding September 11. There seems to be a hesitancy to come to parliament with concrete plans and actions as to what the government is doing. We have been given glimpses into what the government will do in the future through media reports and speeches given at party fundraisers. We invite the government at this time to make these suggestions and come forward with these ideas in this place.

If ever there were a time in our history as a country and as a world where there is an opportunity for leadership and opportunity to operate in a non-partisan way, it is now. There is goodwill among the members of the opposition toward the government at this time to work together in a way we have never seen because of a set of tragic circumstances which none of us could have foreseen. There is a time right now for us to grasp together this goodwill and put it into play.

Members from every party are waiting to roll up their sleeves and get involved. Many who are on particular committees are involved already. Others are feeling a bit shut out of the process, as my colleague just mentioned. We want to be involved with the government. We have some ideas and suggestions that we think are good and we know the government has good ideas. Let us make this place more meaningful and relevant by bringing them to the floor of the House of Commons, by striking some special committees, by getting the members involved and by bringing together the ministers directly responsible so we can move forward in a co-ordinated way.

Canadians are waiting for that. They are urging us as leaders in the country to do this. There is goodwill from Canadians and members to do this. Let us get on with it. I would urge the government to demonstrate by its actions some bigger steps of leadership. We acknowledge it is a difficult task and it can be all-consuming, but at the same time we encourage it to move forward and trust not only its colleagues across the way but the people of the country by demonstrating leadership in areas in which it has been lacking in some degree to this point.

I was disappointed that the Prime Minister did not go to the United States quicker, or perhaps even attend the joint session of the speech given by President Bush a week ago.

I was disappointed with the minister for multiculturalism yesterday. She has been rather silent over the last couple of weeks since September 11. Then the first major public attention she received turned out to be rather negative. She was in attendance at a speech given with extremist language directed toward the United States and sat in silence.

That is not the kind of message we want to send out not only to Canadians but to our neighbours to the south. We want to combat extremist language and attitudes of intolerance and hatred toward people within communities across Canada and also toward our neighbours to the south. We cannot have one without the other. We must stand against intolerance and extremism in all circumstances. That definitely did not show leadership on the part of the minister for multiculturalism.

In fact, I said earlier in this place that I agreed with the comments made by the New Democratic Party member for Halifax who condemned those comments. I echo her comments that the minister's credibility is seriously damaged in the area of implementing any kind of plan or program to combat the intolerance in these communities that are receiving these kinds of attacks in light of the events of September 11.

The motion brought forward by the NDP states that there needs to be a detailed plan with budgets and timelines laid out before the House, and I agree with that. How could we then expect the current minister for multiculturalism to be the one to implement such a plan given her woeful record in this area in the last several months in this place? We need a credible display of leadership in this area.

I want to touch briefly on the motion. It is a detailed motion, but I particularly want to pay attention to the last section that talks about a plan. It states:

--the steps Canada will take to implement an action plan, including detailed budgets and timetables, to fight the rising tide of intolerance and racism, directed against Arab and Muslim Canadians, in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

That is a good part of the motion. I disagree with others in the House who have said that they cannot support the motion because of this wording. I believe this strengthens the motion and we should all support this part of it.

We should go even a little further and ask the government for a detailed budget and detailed plans on issues such as border security and funding to the RCMP, CSIS and our customs agents who are the frontline workers when it comes to border security, airport security and other measures. This is another area the government needs to improve on. It needs to have ideas and plans specifically related to these issues, as well as the ones outlined by the New Democratic motion.

I would like to move to what our response should be. Our response should be to support this motion, to ask for more details, to move ahead and to work together in a non-partisan way.

The leader of our coalition made a good suggestion yesterday when he said that the government and the Prime Minister could show some leadership by including the leaders of the other parties in the Privy Council as the situation gets more serious so that we could, in a concrete way, see the actions of this government to be inclusive of all parliament. Then we could march together united against terrorism, against extremism, and against those who would use the name of a particular religion to sully the reputation of many others. We must fight these things in our country and our world. We must move ahead in a unified way.

[Supply, October 2nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the leader of the New Democratic Party for her speech. I also congratulate her for the comments she made yesterday, condemning the comments made by Sunera Thobani who said that today in the world the United States was the most dangerous and most powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence and then went on to say many other things that were unacceptable in this changing climate due to the events of September 11. I believe the leader of the NDP did a good thing by condemning that.

I also believe the New Democrats have brought forward a worthwhile motion today. I think all of us on the opposition side appreciate it and hope there is wide agreement with this debate today.

[Export Development Act, October 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the wide ranging comments of my colleague and focus on two points, some of which were mentioned by the previous member, those being the issue of accountability and the issue of political interference.

First, in the area of accountability, as my colleague mentioned, when there is a perception generated over time that failed candidates are appointed to boards or friends of the government are appointed to the boards, whether they are the best people for the jobs starts to wane as the important question. The perception simply becomes that people are being appointed because of who they know on the government side. I think that is to the government's detriment. If it were able to be more transparent and not shroud the workings of the EDC and CIDA in secrecy, which my colleague referred to, I think it would do the government well.

I am wondering if my colleague might have some specific examples that he may have uncovered in his good work in this area, specifics that he knows of having to do with political interference or with political appointees to different boards that have been involved in the granting of government contracts.

[Export Development Act, October 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on a comment my colleague made regarding missed opportunities. It triggered many thoughts in my mind, and probably in the minds of many of my colleagues on the opposition benches, regarding areas in which the government has not seized opportunities.

In addition to missed opportunities in other areas we are dealing with the issue surrounding the events of September 11 and the fact that the government, in particular the Prime Minister, is not speaking to the House about what his plans are. Apparently he will be talking about them at a fundraiser. He has been talking about policies on CNN rather than in the House.

Could my colleague expand on the notion of missed opportunities? It is becoming a theme not only for this piece of legislation but for the government.

[Customs Act, September 21st, 2001]

Madam Speaker, many Canadians are disappointed that the Prime Minister has not yet set foot in the U.S. We know he is going on Monday. They wonder why he has not travelled to ground zero when so many world leaders have crossed oceans to go to the United States. Would the member like to comment on that?