Grant McNally

[Petitions, October 20th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to present several petitions on behalf of the good people of Dewdney—Alouette and surrounding areas.

I have approximately 1,200 signatures from individuals who are asking members of parliament to oppose any amendments to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or any other federal legislation which would provide for the exclusion of the reference to the supremacy of God in our constitution and laws, and I certainly agree.

[Immigration, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, so much for another Liberal infomercial.

The Liberal government has clearly failed to fix the broken immigration system. This week we learned that some of the ringleaders of the west coast people smuggling ships will not be prosecuted. The minister assured Canadians that people smugglers would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

This is an important question and hopefully a junior secretary will not get up to answer it. Why has the government gone back on its word to prosecute these people smuggling criminals?

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, to simply say something and say it is true is an interesting concept. Actions speak louder than words. The member's solution to the immigration crisis is to make an educational video and send that across the waters to folks so that they know to please not come because we are not sure what to do with them when they get here. That is the member's approach to this crisis.

Rather than work for legislative change with some teeth in it that will make a change and send a message internationally that Canada is not an easy mark for those who would abuse our immigration system, the member and her colleagues sit idly by and offer solutions such as waiting for winter so the boats stop coming, or putting together an educational video so that people stop coming. Those are their suggestions, rather than using the legislative powers we have in the House to take action and make a change.

We can work together in the House to make legislative changes to send a message internationally that Canada will not be an easy mark for those who choose to abuse our system. We want a positive system.

A member has shouted out a comment that I am not going to repeat because it is in contempt. He said it the other day in question period under his breath. He does not have the intestinal fortitude to stand in his place and make that accusation because he knows he would be thrown directly out of this place. He does not have the guts to stand and deliver; rather he holds his hand in front of his face and utters scurrilous remarks toward opposition members.

That is the approach of the government, to run scared, to do nothing and utter attacks against those who offer positive proactive solutions for change. Shame on the member and shame on every one of the Liberal members for standing idly by and doing nothing once again. That is the Liberal government's approach to governing. Shame on the Liberal members.

The day will come soon when we will be in the Liberal government's place making positive proactive solutions to address the concerns of this nation because the Liberal government simply refuses to do so.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is a broken system. The member is in la-la land. The member sits on the immigration committee and he talks about simplistic answers. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration said wait until winter so the boats do not come anymore. What about that for a simplistic answer. That is the suggestion offered by the minister and her mouthpiece the member for Kitchener—Waterloo.

I was in the member's community. Talking about immigrant communities, I talked to some of his constituents who said they gave the member a petition and he lost it. That is the kind of approach the member takes to constituent work. Now he has no answers. His government has no answers to this crisis. It is clear. The facts are in.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

That is right. The minister said wait until the weather gets bad so the ships stop coming. What kind of approach is that? That is the government's solution to a very important issue. It is a do nothing approach, just wait and hope that people do not notice. Well, people have noticed. If the Liberals will not change the system, we will work day after day to sit on that side in order to put in place our proactive solutions.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I can only say in response to that very good comment from my colleague that it is clear that the government has no answers.

The member for Vancouver—Kingsway across the way is a member of the immigration committee. She is simply not offering any solutions.

Members of the government, ministers of the crown have said very interesting things. The Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific said it is sad that Canada's screening process is being abused, and he is angry because the generosity, the goodwill Canadians have toward genuine refugees has been abused. That is what he has said.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to enter into the debate on the Speech from the Throne.

It is quite evident from what was not in the Speech from the Throne that the government is clearly failing in a number of areas. At a time when the throne speech is to lay out the government's priorities in the areas that it needs to pay attention to, it neglected four of the major issues that are huge in the country right now. Many people are talking about those issues and many people are looking to the government for answers. There was a failure of the Liberal government to acknowledge those issues or spell them out in any remote detail or even in any generality.

One of the major four areas is the fishing crisis happening on our east coast. The government did not talk about that or mention it in the throne speech. The government did not address agriculture in that throne speech. That is a major issue for many hard working Canadians in the agricultural field and it affects all of us.

It has neglected to talk about the airline industry, as was just pointed out by my colleague for Calgary Centre. It has failed to talk about immigration and the crisis happening in the broken system that became so clearly evident this past summer off the west coast of Vancouver.

I will focus most of my attention in my speech this morning on the broken immigration system and the failure of the government to address the crying need for change in that area. It is woeful that the government has not taken action. The incidents that happened this past summer of which all Canadians across the country are aware have in essence highlighted and shone a beacon of light on the government's failure in this area.

The immigration system has been broken for a very long time. Members of the opposition have been talking with the government, pleading with it for a number of years to change the system. My colleagues that were here years before I came here made a lot of proactive positive suggestions to the ministers of immigration, to the government, to the Prime Minister, and they have not acted on them. They rebut any idea of change out of hand because it comes from opposition members or from anybody else. They believe they have the answers and will do what they want.

With that kind of attitude and that kind of approach to governing the Liberal government gets itself into the position of crisis after crisis after crisis because of its inability to be proactive and its inability to look at positive solutions suggested by others, even by people in its own caucus. They are rejected out of hand. As a result of that attitude, that underlying philosophical approach to governing, the government neglects its responsibility. That is not acceptable.

Members of the opposition will continue to urge that the government take action. Failing that, we will work in whatever way possible to become the government so that we can put in place proactive positive approaches that solve glaring problems across the country which the government is not willing to even go near.

I will move into a little more detail about some of points made about our immigration system. I will quote a piece of information that came from a report commissioned by the minister of immigration entitled “Not Just Numbers: A Canadian Framework for Future Immigration”. This study was put together by some independent individuals who did a broad based consultation process, in the government's own words, to find out what needs to be done. Here is something that was included in the report:

In recent years in Canada, over half of all the asylum-seeking arrivals at ports of entry had destroyed all identification documents before being seen by officials—

It goes on to say:

Recent arrivals have mainly come from countries which are stable enough to provide identification documents. Generally, these individuals are uncooperative and refuse to provide their names, their countries of origin, or anything else that might assist the expeditious processing of their claim. The idea that all such persons are reluctant to give such details because of refugee-based fears, or that the persons helping them enter Canada are latter-day Raoul Wallenbergs, is naive. The people-smuggling business is now as lucrative as the international drug trade.

This was in a report submitted to the government, commissioned by the government and in fact has been lost on the government. It is another report that has simply been shelved or put away to gather dust for another day. We can say this because the government has rejected that notion out of hand as well as many other proposals which have been put forward. It is a shame that is its approach to governing.

Immigration department officials in response to the people smuggling that occurred on the west coast this past summer have said the following. An Immigration Canada spokesperson named Jim Redmond has said:

This is not a humanitarian movement; this is almost a slavery movement. It's hard on the people who are smuggled. It's organized crime at its worst.

He also said:

There is a good chance we could have more arrivals this year. It would be naive to say it's all over.

What appears to be happening is that the Liberal government is hoping the issue will just fade away. If it does nothing long enough other issues will pop up which will take the attention away from this glaring failure within its mandate so that it does not have to act on it. The underlying approach of the government is if it does not do anything long enough maybe people will forget about it.

People are not forgetting about it. They are realizing that the government is failing in the area of addressing the immigration system. I have sat with my colleagues for two years on the immigration committee. We have had many good debates. We have tried to work together. We have had many very heated debates at times too about the issue because it is a very important one.

We have been able to work co-operatively at times to look at ideas and solutions. What tends to happen is they get rejected because they are not approved by the minister, by the prime minister or by the cabinet. That is a shame too because there are many things we would like to see happen that are not happening.

The Reform Party offers a proactive positive approach rather than this force of negativity of doing nothing offered by the Liberal government. We have ideas, suggestions and solutions which have been put forward time and time again. I will mention a few of them.

We have to move away from the voluntary compliance system within the immigration system when individuals claim the protection of Canada. They can come, claim refugees status and then be told to appear tomorrow or next week at a hearing.

Those who are not true refugees will abuse that and often do. They disappear and do not go to their hearings. That is a problem. We need a system that addresses that, a system that has individuals maintained in an area until it is determined whether they are really refugees or not.

That process needs to be expedited. It cannot go on for years and years and years as it currently does. Members know that refugee cases go on for years. People's lives are in limbo. It is not fair to them and it is not fair to Canadians.

That process needs to be determined quickly, in a matter of days and weeks, not months and years. It needs to be done quickly, and once a decision is made, then it should be acted upon. If the person is determined not to be a refugee, then they should be removed from our country post-haste. If a person is determined to be a refugee, then they should be integrated into our communities as quickly as possible.

The Liberal government's approach is to leave people's lives in limbo, to allow people who are not refugees to be here and then to go after people who are true refugees and deport them. The system is broken at both ends and this Liberal government is failing.

The facts are in. The perception across our country is that this government does not think it is a problem. The Prime Minister himself said there is nothing wrong with our immigration laws and there is nothing wrong with our refugee process. He said that this summer. In light of what is happening on the west coast, it is unbelievable. It is absolutely shocking that this government, in the light of information, details and facts from its own people, fails to act. It is unbelievable.

I urge my colleagues on the government side to apply pressure to change the system. Failing that, the members of the opposition will work day after day in this place, in committee and on the streets of our nation to be proactive and positive. We will make a commitment here and now that we will change the system not only within immigration, but within all the other areas outlined in the Leader of the Opposition's speech for a positive vision for the future of this country, because it is clear that today in this land the Liberal government has failed and is visionless. We will carry the day. We will put in place the positive solutions that will reshape our country and take our country ahead for the next generation.

[Speech From The Throne, October 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, obviously we have again heard non-answers from a government member to some very direct questions from my colleague from Wild Rose.

The member talked about being on track. Someone needs to wake her up because there has been a derailment. The government is very off track.

The member mentioned broad based tax relief as though the government had actually delivered it. She talked about $16.5 billion of tax relief but, surprise, neglected to mention that the government at the same time has wrung $18 billion out of the Canadian people in tax increases. We talk about the $16 billion of tax relief but we do not mention that we have raised and wrung $18 billion more out of Canadians at the very same time. That is a net loss and the member has the gall to stand in her place and defend her government by saying that it has provided broad based tax relief. How can she do that?

[Speech From The Throne, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, that was quite an interesting speech. I would like to highlight a couple of points my hon. colleague made.

He said “We have done this” and “We have done that”. “We have balanced the budget. We have reduced the deficit”. I would remind him that it is the hardworking Canadian taxpayers who have done that work, not he himself or his government. It is the taxes that have been wrung out of individuals, to the tune of $6 billion from people making $20,000 a year or less, that have balanced the budget and reduced the deficit, not the Liberal government.

The member also mentioned that Liberals are the defenders of health care. They are the slashers and burners of health care. They have cut over $21 billion from health care and social services since 1993 and have reinvested, their code word for spending, $11.5 billion. That is $8.5 billion less in funding than when they took over in 1993. How can this member boast of his government's accomplishments when it has slashed and burned the health care system that he says he is defending? How can he do that?

[Speech From The Throne, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it hurts me to say this but I would like to compliment my two Liberal colleagues on their speeches. I do so because they spoke from the heart. While I fundamentally disagree with much of what they say, they have the ability to speak from their hearts rather than from a canned speech handed to them by somebody in the lobby. I disagree with much of what they say but I appreciate the fact that they are speaking from their hearts. Perhaps they could talk to their colleagues and give us a little more entertainment in this place.

My colleague made a comment about whom people should trust or believe. People should look at the actions of the government, not at the words but at the actions and what has happened.