Ronald J. Duhamel

[The Budget, March 14th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, frankly I am very disappointed to hear such an irresponsible analysis. The President of the Treasury Board indicated clearly to the member for St. Albert that there had been no increase.

The president undertook, on March 2, to look into the specifics of the matter and to provide him with additional information. And that is what I am doing this evening. I would like to provide a more detailed answer.

I hope there is no attempt on the part of Reform Party members to suggest their analysis is accurate. The problem may be confusion with the terms executive and management. In the context of part III of the estimates the term executive is a classification term referring to a specific occupational group. The term management is used to refer to an activity, a function or planning element which is used for the purposes of resource planning.

More specifically, reference was made to figure 6 on page 2-43 of the part III for Treasury Board where there is mention of 85 FTEs, full-time equivalents. These FTEs are made up of 19 for the president's office, 16 for the secretary's office, 5 for the office of the chief informatics officer, 22 for the planning and communications directorate, 10 for legal services support and 13 for a special reserve. This total only includes four positions that are executive or the equivalent. Therefore, it was erroneous on the part of the hon. member to draw the conclusion that the secretariat was increasing its executives.

There was no increase.

I want to finish off very quickly by saying there has been a decrease over four years of about 30 per cent. We expect this decrease will continue.

Surely the hon. member knows that nobody gets paid $350,000 a year.

[Manitoba Sports Teams, March 14th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in recognition of two recent Canadian championship teams from Manitoba.

This past weekend Mr. Kerry Burtnyk and his team members, Keith Fenton, Rob Meakin who is a constituent of mine, and Jeff Ryan captured the brier in Halifax. It was Burtnyk's second win. He first won the brier 14 years ago. Mr. Burtnyk and his team will go on to represent Canada at the world curling championships in Brandon beginning on April 8. We wish him and his teammates the very best of luck.

I also wish to give my wholehearted congratulations to the University of Winnipeg Wesman women's basketball team. They won their third consecutive university championship this past weekend. The Wesman beat the University of Manitoba Bison squad 72 to 61. A healthy rivalry exists between these two teams. In fact it was earlier this year that the Bisons ended the Wesman's world record setting 88 game winning streak.

These athletes deserve recognition for their skill.

These athletes are champions; these Canadians are a source of inspiration to us all.

[Firearms Act, March 13th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, you will perhaps recall that the Department of National Defence had requested an environmental assessment be initiated to study the impact of an increase in the activity of low level flights at CFB Goose Bay.

The panel known as the FEARO panel has submitted its report to two of my colleagues, the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of National Defence. The panel has made every effort to hear from groups and individuals interested in putting their views forward. It has made recommendations to the government after considering their views.

The panel concluded that stopping the military flights would be very damaging to the region's economy. It recommended that this activity be allowed to continue, under certain conditions set out in the report. According to the seven members of the panel, there was little concrete evidence, at that stage, that the flights had a substantial negative impact on the environment, human health or the community.

The federal government is now studying the advice of the panel and will prepare a response to the panel's recommendations. It will be made public on completion.

[Petitions, March 13th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present another petition in which the petitioners point out that unnecessary violence and abuse of all forms, be it verbal, physical or other, in society in general, on radio or on television has become a serious problem. They point out that it is neither necessary to inform nor to entertain.

The petitioners want government to ensure the CRTC controls these kinds of abuse and violence. They applaud some of the initiatives taken recently to modify and reduce abuse and violence on radio and television.

[Petitions, March 13th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, these petitioners recognize that the majority of Canadians respect the sanctity of life. They want the government to prohibit assisted suicide. They do not want the law to be amended in any way to make suicide legal.

[International Women's Week, March 3rd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, this week men and women around the world are celebrating International Women's Week. On this occasion, I would like to emphasize the important social contribution made by women internationally and praise their many successes.

Status of Women Canada has selected "Creating a World of Equality" as this year's theme.

Internationally Canada has been a leader with respect to the advancement of women's rights and the empowerment of women in developing nations. Nationally Canada has made great strides in this area.

The fact remains however that we all, men and women, have much more to accomplish in this regard. As a Liberal member of Parliament and father of three young women, this week is especially meaningful to me. I remain full of hope that my daughters and young women everywhere will live in a world which will allow them to achieve their full potential, where "Creating a World of Equality" is becoming an increasingly important guiding principle.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank the hon. member for his question. Of course, the budget will hurt some Canadians. Let me repeat that this budget is tough, but fair. I do not think that it is harder on any particular group.

There is another consideration. If I am wrong, what can we do collectively to try and counteract this? Now that a decision has been made, what can we do? Asking the reasons for a delay serves no purpose. We all know that, often, consultations must be held. We cannot simply say: "There, it is done." In other cases, time must be given to adjust to new measures. This is, in my opinion, a reasonable approach.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the question. First, I am delighted that my colleague acknowledges there have been a number of newspaper articles-I remind myself I am not supposed to use those as props-that have seen the budget rather favourably. They said not only is it a good first step but that it is going in the right direction and that we are going to get there.

There is supposedly no plan. That is not accurate. I know my colleague is a honourable person and he is not trying to suggest anything Machiavellian. There is plan. We have indicated in the red book that 3 per cent of GDP was our objective. Once we have attained that then we are going to eliminate the deficit and start attacking the debt. My colleague knows that.

Mr. Speaker, you know that this other Mr. Speaker is aware of that which I speak. There is a plan. It is as plain as one's nose on one's face, and particularly plain when I talk of myself in that way. There is a plan. We will reach that objective. Subsequent to reaching that objective we will eliminate the deficit, attack the debt, and the country will be on a sound footing.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

Patience. You see, Mr. Speaker, they want us to do everything today, even when they are not ready. In fact, this government will ensure that it is done, but without being unreasonable. When we decided to cut transfers, we did not say right now, as of midnight tonight. We are giving people time to adjust to the change. It is the sensible way to go about it. We did not smash everything at once with the government's big hammer. We are kind. We are giving them time to adjust.

As far as banks are concerned, $100 million is a lot more than what I have presently in my bank account. It might be a significant percentage of their revenues. Could it be higher? Of course, it could. What will the impact be? If we were to increase it a lot more, will it have a negative impact on job creation? The problem is that they refuse to look at all the other sides of the medal. They only look at one. They keep on referring to something people dislike, such as the banks' huge profits, and they try to exploit it. I do not find this very honest on their part.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

As for the three specific questions on cuts in the west versus those in the east, you know, Mr. Speaker, the people from the west-Mr. Speaker, I thank you for having reminded me to address my comments to the Chair because it is my intention to do so.

That is the problem with Bloc members. They are like that sometimes. It is sad because there are people, men and women, who are very broad-minded when they want to- Here is what Westeners are saying: We had a 100 per cent cut, while in the east they suffered a cut of only 30 per cent.

This is how people think. One member said that they would receive compensation. Of course, but if their subsidies are totally eliminated, perhaps it is only right for them to be compensated.

Mr. Speaker, they do not want to consider this: compensation for having lost 100 per cent of their subsidies. But a 30 per cent reduction is not fair. Members should think about it.

As for family trusts, we are the first government to act on the issue.