Nelson Riis

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest, as I always do, to my friend's comments. I acknowledge the fact that approximately 25,000 young people are incarcerated in Canada each year.

If I can quote from the hon. member's speech, he was concerned that the handling of young offenders would differ from province to province as a result of the legislation. That might be just paraphrasing, but I think is a fair comment to make.

In the discussion we are having today and will probably have for some time, it is important that we keep as much balance among ourselves as we try to improve the legislation.

While there might be a criticism, while there might be a variety of ways of dealing with young offenders across the country, would the hon. member not agree there are provinces that have dealt with young offenders more effectively than others and that by having this flexibility it gives those provinces which have a progressive and effective way of dealing with young offenders more opportunity to continue in that way?

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 1998, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my hon. friend and neighbour. I agree with about 96% of what he had to say.

He read from the Income Tax Act, which is always a useful thing to do to point out how convoluted the act is and why people have to hire tax accountants and tax lawyers to do the most simple tax form transaction.

I know my friend is concerned about the growth of the underground economy. Many people have decided not to carry on business transactions above the table but to do it below the table. This results in a significant loss of revenue to the national treasury.

Is the reason so many people have decided to go into the underground economy a reflection of people's loss of faith in the fairness of our present tax system?

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 1998, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with the point my hon. friend makes. I suspect we have all had similar experiences, too many of them.

He referred regularly to the department and to the officials as not being prepared to bend or to be more humanistic and so on. Would he not agree that the responsibility for this law that he refers to, regarding the payment of moneys destined to assist children, is not a bureaucrat's decision or the department's decision but a political decision taken by the political leaders in government? If people have concerns about the Income Tax Act they ought not take them out on an official. They are just carrying out the law that has been introduced by the Liberal government, by the cabinet and by the Prime Minister.

Could he clarify this? He seems to be antagonistic about somebody, but surely it is not the bureaucrat. It must be the people who actually make the laws not the ones who carry them out.

[Petitions, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to stand, pursuant to Standing Order 36, to present a petition on behalf of a number of residents throughout British Columbia.

While they do not really say, I suspect they are really distressed that the signing of international trade agreements, like the North American Free Trade Agreement, limits the ability of parliaments to pass legislation to protect the environment and the health of Canadians.

The petitioners are distressed and are presumably asking the government to rethink some of the provisions of these trade agreements.

[Petitions, April 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Kamloops, Chase, Clearwater, Barriere and Savona, who point out a number of concerns they have regarding a recent United States customs announcement which will put in place additional barriers to the export of Canadian softwood lumber to the United States.

The petitioners ask the federal government to take whatever action is necessary to bring to an end this continuing harassment of Canadian producers.

[Sikhism, April 13th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, these are very special days for Sikhs in India, in Canada and throughout the world.

Three hundred years ago the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, restructured the Sikh community known as the Khalsa. The first baptism ceremony took place on April 13, 1669 in Andapur South, Punjab, India. It was the first day of the Festival of Vaisakhi and since then Sikhism has grown to be the fifth and youngest of the world's great religions.

Founded by Guru Nanak, it evolved through the 10 living gurus until Guru Gobind Singh passed the rule of the religion on to the devout followers of the religion and the Guru Granth Sahib a collection of holy scriptures of all the gurus and of other enlightened persons.

This year we celebrate the inauguration of the Khalsa and today we acknowledge the first baptism ceremony of a religion from which we all have much to learn.

[Supply, April 13th, 1999]

I hear somebody saying “Lou who?” To be fair, he may have spoken but the reality is he has sat in the back row and has not said a single thing on a single issue publicly about British Columbia. That is why British Columbians feel short-changed.

The fact that the Liberals have put together this little travelling road show to go about western Canada unannounced seeking the reasons for grievances is another abuse of this institution. We have representatives from western Canada here that well know the concerns. They could easily be sought out in terms of advice. Instead of using parliament as a tool, they twist the partisan part of this place and send out a group of Liberal backbenchers and Liberal senators. If there is one thing that will alienate western Canadians it is that.

I know from my own riding that the Liberals sent out a certain individual. I will not name the person, but when she arrived in Kamloops I can tell the House the response she received. I can tell the House how people feel about it. They had an elected representative from British Columbia, an elected representative from Kamloops. They wondered why somebody from Ontario was being sent out there to find out their views when their representative could have been asked about them.

She goes out there regularly. I do not know who she talks to but she talks to a few folks. I know what people are saying on the street about these visits. I suspect it is the same as they are saying about the delegation that visits certain parts of western Canada in secret.

That is the reason there is a feeling of alienation. We elect people and then the government ignores the individuals concerned. We elect individuals and they are completely ignored by the government.

I say with reluctance that its arrogance will grow and grow so that in another two years from now it will be almost intolerable. The level of arrogance will be almost intolerable as we move toward the next election. It seems to be a pattern that develops in this place. That arrogance is reflected in the fact that when the government wants to know what is going on in British Columbia it sends out a group of senators and Liberal backbenchers.

[Supply, April 13th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, perhaps I can use an example to respond to my hon. friend. A little while back there was a byelection in Port Moody, British Columbia. The individual elected used to be mayor of the community of Coquitlam. During the election campaign he said he would come down to that town and raise hell. He would speak up for British Columbia. He would be on the floor of the House of Commons and even speak out against the government if he had to. He said that time and time again during the campaign. People listened to him, believed him and elected him. I ask members if they have ever heard this hon. member speak in the House?

[Supply, April 13th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, I must say I always welcome the opportunity to talk about topics such as why those of us who represent the regions sometimes feel alienated from the central part of the country and why there are concerns in the regions of Canada. I say this today with a certain discomfort in light of the events that have surrounded us. We are in a state of war. We are in an offensive operation against a sovereign nation.

The news reports this morning are of Serb infantry troops crossing into Albania and seizing Kamenica, a village in northern Albania. There seems to be an expansion of the war. There are topics we could talk about in terms of welcoming refugees in particular those with family connections here in Canada and the use of spent plutonium on the bullets of weapons from certain countries. We could talk about a whole number of items, but today we are talking about alienation particularly from a western perspective. Therefore my comments will focus obviously on that.

There is a school of history which is called the heartland hinterland school. It is where we try to describe what goes on in our country in terms of recognizing that the heartland of Canada is mainly parts of Ontario and Quebec and the rest is a hinterland and the relationship between the heartland and the hinterland.

It is important when talking about the alienation of regions to recognize that we are talking about western Canada, British Columbia, Yukon, the north, Atlantic Canada. But there is also northern Ontario, the Gaspé and other regions which feel very alienated from the centre, meaning the central triangle in Ontario and Quebec.

There is no question there are serious problems in the regions of Canada. One of the reasons I suspect these concerns and problems go unaddressed in any serious way is the result of simple demographics. There are more MPs in the city of Toronto than in all of British Columbia. That tells a bit of the tale. When we look at representation by population the vast majority of Canadians are focused in central Canada, their representatives are from central Canada. The regions are a long way away in geographic terms. I suspect they are a longer way away psychologically also.

As a representative from western Canada, in particular British Columbia I want to toss out a challenge to my Liberal colleagues across the way. Over the years there have been shared programs between the federal and provincial governments. Recognizing that British Columbia has a little over 12% of the population of Canada, I have yet to determine a single shared program where British Columbia gets 12% of the benefits. There is not a single one.

I would like to be contradicted. Therefore I am challenging my Liberal friends opposite to identify for me a single program over the last 20 years where British Columbians have simply received their fair share.

We do not want more than our fair share. We do not want an excess. If we have 12% of the population and highway funds, for example, are being divvied up, we should get 12% of the funds. What do we get? Nothing, absolutely zip.

When we look at the money the federal government collects from gasoline taxes and where it invests that money in highways, is a single cent invested in western Canada? No, not a single cent. Is it any wonder western Canadians feel somewhat alienated?

We could talk about the north, about Yukon. Yukon has been dealt devastating blows by the federal government. It lost its weather station. This is a part of the world where the weather is crucial but the weather station is gone. It is the one part of Canada where the stay in school program has been most successful, but it has been yanked out of the territory.

There have been major cuts in crucial health programs particularly for aboriginal peoples. Then there is the privatization of the airport which has a particular impact in the north. Those of us who travel and use airlines have to pay a certain fee in some airports. In Whitehorse a fee for cargo has to be paid as well. As a result of the fee that is added on in terms of this airport user fee there is a huge extra cost for bread and milk in remote communities.

I could go on and talk about the Devco fiasco in Nova Scotia, the Sable Gas disaster or the shipyards on the east and west coasts that are crying for work. The unions come forward with very complicated, complex and thoughtful programs in terms of how to develop our east and west coast shipbuilding industries and are virtually ignored by the federal government.

To someone from British Columbia one thing symbolizes the frustration we feel. It is fair to say that as we have attempted to diversify away from the resource based industries that are known to have built British Columbia, we have been developing the film industry. We now have the largest film industry in Canada. Yet when we look at the number of dollars the federal government invests in the film industry in British Columbia compared with Ontario and Quebec, it is infinitesimal.

When there is a significant effort to diversify away from the resource based economy, is there any serious help from the federal government? The answer is no. I am not here to say that there is no help, that there is absolutely nothing, but it is pretty close to that.

The economy of that region of Canada to a large extent is based on the resource sector, on agriculture, mining, forestry and the fishery. Members should come to British Columbia and have a look at the fishery industry. A disaster is unfolding. Granted, the federal government has come up with a few dollars to help out but not very much. Whole sections of the British Columbia coast are absolutely devastated economically because of lack of support for the west coast fishery. I do not even have to talk about the east coast fishery because we know what has happened there.

We could look at agriculture, the struggling sector in all regions of Canada, and see where the federal government is taking us in terms of support. It is relatively abysmal.

Mining has been essentially abandoned. We could consider the importance of mining for the north, for British Columbia, for the northern parts of the prairies, for northern Ontario, and for the regions of Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. It is a critical sector that has by and large been bypassed by the federal government.

I know it is not terribly romantic. The romance now is in the high tech sector, the information technology sector and so on. That is where the investments are being made. Not surprisingly those operations are by and large located in central Canada, again to the abandonment of those of us from the regions of Canada.

I want to point out that the issue of water diversion concerns us. Water diversion and the sale of freshwater are probably not huge issues in downtown Toronto or downtown Montreal, although they are probably issues with some people. For those of us who represent the regions of Canada they are major issues.

A little while ago a motion was passed in the House which called for an immediate moratorium that the government should announce on freshwater exports to the United States and northern Mexico eventually. It also called for the government to bring in policy as quickly as possible to safeguard that very crucial resource for the future.

We passed that motion unanimously. That should send a pretty clear signal to the government that the House of Commons, representing every part of Canada, wanted action immediately on the preservation of Canada's freshwater resources.

What did the government do the next day? It went to the United States and asked the Americans what they thought about it and what they suggested it do in terms of our freshwater. From where did that initiative arise? Who suggested that we go to the Americans and ask what they thought about exporting water, diverting rivers into the United States, and that sort of thing? That is where we are today.

I challenge my Liberal friends across the way to identify for those of us in the opposition parties a single program where British Columbia gets its fair share, one program where British Columbia which represents 12% of the population of Canada gets 12% of the action. I see the minister from British Columbia is here. I know he will be standing in a moment or two to list those particular programs. I look forward to those comments.

[Supply, April 13th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, the member does not admit that there is any problem at all.

Would he at least be prepared to say that in the regions of Canada, in the fishing sector, the mining sector, agriculture and forestry, there are some issues that are yet to be addressed seriously? It is not a perfect world out there in the regions of Canada, particularly those in the resource sectors.