Elsie Wayne

[The Budget, December 12th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I will address an issue that has not been addressed in the House of Commons and in the budget. Enough money has not been given to our military in the budget.

The hon. member is talking about what happened on September 11. Following that we sent our men and women over to Afghanistan. We are talking about sending more, but we do not have the tools or resources for those men and women.

I do not know if the hon. member is aware that the filtration system on the supply vessel, the frigate that went over there with our men and women, broke down. They did not have any water to drink. They could not wash their hands. They could not take a shower. That was for over a week.

This was to be a military and security budget. The military got $300 million, for heaven's sake, to buy the equipment that it needs. That is nothing. Could the hon. member tell us when the government will put some money into the budget for boots, for equipment, for uniforms and for tools so the military can do its job? It did not put it in this budget.

[National Defence, December 12th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, last week the auditor general said that the government's claim that our Canadian forces have never been more combat ready “should be taken with a grain of salt”. Despite this critical report, this week the finance minister allocated a measly $300 million to purchase and maintain the equipment needed for our forces for combat.

Has the government made a major policy reversal and decided that our Canadian forces will no longer be a combat ready force and is--

[The Budget, December 11th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, every presenter that came before the defence committee this past year, all military experts, retired officers, the CDA, stated that our military has been financially neglected by the government. They also stated, as did the auditor general, that $1 billion a year for the next five years is required just to stabilize the military.

We have asked some of our men and women since September 11 to go in harm's way. How can the Minister of Finance justify his paltry contribution to the military?

[The Economy, December 11th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker,

T'was the night before Christmas and all through this place, Only the Minister of Finance sat with a smile on his face. The critics were reading their questions with flair, About the new budget and who it would spare. The Liberals were snug all tight in their benches, While the opposition dug deeper, down in their trenches. The minister's speech filled with language so dense, Did not do nearly enough for our national defence. So I in my sweater, stood up from my chair, And as loud as I could, shouted: “That is not fair!” But all of the money was already spent, What else to expect from this government? So while I'm here standing, shaking my fist, I know that ol' Santa is checking his list. He knows who's been good and knows who's been bad. And still using the Sea Kings makes him real mad! So for this year like last--try as he might, The minister won't get the chair to his right.

I wish everyone Merry Christmas.

[World War I, December 11th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. minister for what he has done today in the House of Commons for these 23 first world war veterans.

It is an honour to rise today and pay tribute to these men. When the Great War began in August 1914, Canada was still in its infancy. In many ways the volunteers who joined the Canadian expeditionary force reflected Canada itself: young, full of innocence and eager to prove themselves.

None of the soldiers, regardless of what part of Canada they came from, could have been prepared for what they encountered. The barrages of artillery and constant machine gun fire that surrounded them always left them wondering “Why am I here? Only for my people back home in Canada and around the world”. They constantly waited for the whistle to blow that would send them across the mud fields of the Somme, Vimy Ridge or Passchendaele.

My mother's only brother, my uncle Samuel Cook, was one of those who was in the first world war. He was shot. The bullet went through his neck, through one side and out the other. However he was one of those who came home.

I had the honour and privilege of visiting Vimy and seeing all the names of those who were lost in the war. Their bodies did not come home. Their names are on the monument. These 23 men walked past friends who had fallen on barbed wire fence and much too often had fallen to death. In the four years of fighting 10 million soldiers were killed and 20 million were maimed.

The war was a psychological nightmare for all. We are not here to debate the 23 soldiers who were executed for military offences. We are here to remember and honour them. They experienced horrors we can only imagine. Even then it is beyond our grasp. We are aware now that the horrors and subsequent reactions were beyond their control. We cannot go back in time to help them through the horrors but we can give these 23 soldiers a dignity that is their due. They were Canadians. They were soldiers. They were men who made sacrifices. Their names should now be included in our The First World War Book of Remembrance , and rightfully so.

I thank the minister and the House, particularly at this special time of Christmas. Lest we forget.

[National Defence, December 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, we all want to salute our forces but we cannot salute the government.

Our military personnel are being put in harm's way by their own government according to the cold, hard facts of the auditor general's report: borrowed batteries; duct tape; the Aurora fleet not ready 58% of the time; Sea Kings not ready 70% of the time; training problems; no spare parts; lack of specialists; tour fatigue; scheduled maintenance cut in half.

What does the government intend to do to correct this injustice to our Canadian forces?

[National Defence, December 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence continues to tell the Canadian people that the Canadian forces are more combat capable than they were 10 years ago but the auditor general says this is not true and we all know it is not true.

Our national media is flooded with the embarrassing and disturbing details of the results of the bad management and inadequate resources the government has offered our military.

How can the government expect our men and women in the military to do their jobs properly and safely, given the lack of support from the government?

[Supply, December 4th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, a major concern of ours is that the government is going to foreign countries to buy vessels. That is what has happened to our shipyards. Ships are not being built in Canada. The government's priorities are all mixed up. It does not see the priorities.

When I asked the government why it was doing this, the reply I received from one of the ministers was that we were into high technology these days. Ship building is high technology. The government needs to take a second look. The Minister of Industry had better get his priorities straight right away and get our shipbuilders back to work.

[Supply, December 4th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly do think it is right for the government in B.C. to be build those ferries. It should also be noted that there has been a reduction in coastal defence vessels from 12 to 6. The coast guard needs ships, ferries, frigates and whatever and they should be built right now in Canada.

This government has decided to spend $1.2 billion more to buy ships from another country. What do the other countries do? They have sweatshops in which the men and women work for perhaps $1.50 an hour. We do not stand for sweatshops. What we stand for is dignity for every man, woman and child in this country. That is what I believe in.

We were so proud when we built those frigates. The admiral would come when we launched one of them, and the men and women were so proud of what they had done. The admiral would be present at every launch and would praise the men and women at the shipyard in Quebec and the men and women at our shipyard.

How can we look ourselves in the face now when we see what has happened to our navy? Look at it.

When it comes to illegal immigrants out west, we need to have the ships for the coast guard and for our navy. We need to put our men and women back to work. Let us make them a top priority.

[Supply, December 4th, 2001]

The member is right. They sunk it. That minister came to my riding in Saint John, New Brunswick and held a meeting with the men and women who worked at the shipyard. He told them he would be the saviour of the shipbuilding industry. The late hon. Pierre Elliott Trudeau knew there had to be a shipbuilding policy for the navy and he put money into the shipyard in Saint John. The hon. Brian Mulroney knew there had to be a shipbuilding policy for the navy and put more money into it, as well as the shipyard in Quebec.

We split those contracts between Quebec and New Brunswick. Where are the shipyards today? The shipyard in Quebec has gone into bankruptcy. Our shipyard in Saint John has a lock and bolt on the gate. We had about 4,000 men working at our shipyard in Saint John alone. When we take Quebec and all the companies that have supplied all the resources, parts and things that are needed, we are talking about 100,000 people in Canada who are no longer working, feeding their families, clothing their children and educating them.

This is the most serious situation I have seen in Canada in the last 15 to 20 years. I am truly upset about it because it hurts.

I just came from a meeting with representatives of the chamber of commerce of the Atlantic region. They asked me what is happening at the borders and said that something had to be done. They are asking for perimeter clearance. They want continental security but they have to have clearance.

Of corporation exports, 80% cross the New Brunswick border at Woodstock, Calais and St. Stephen. We have been told that the government will have pilot projects at borders, but once again we are not included. Why do people not understand that the people back east play a major role in the economy of the country? Those men and women who work there do a fantastic job. We have exports that cross that border, such as lumber and seafood. Farmers in the maritime provinces bring their food across the border to those people who want it. We do not get everything from the U.S. The U.S. gets things from us as well.

We have to have some kind of a project whereby we are treated fairly. All we have ever asked for is to be treated fairly. We are saying that the government should create a binational or trinational border management agency that would jointly monitor the entry of goods and people into and out of the North American continent and across the Canada-U.S. border.

As well, the port police have been taken out of all our ports. Those port police took seven courses to become port police and they all did a fabulous job. We did not have the problems of illegal immigrants coming into the country either out west or down east when the port police were there. It is unbelievable the amount of drugs coming into the country and there are no port police to look after that.

There are so many areas that need to be addressed, but if the military issues are not addressed in this budget, the government will never be able to face the public of Canada. If the security issues are not addressed in the budget next week, there is no way the Minister of Finance will sleep nights because those men and women, who put their lives on the line for all of us, their relatives and everyone, will be after the government, and rightfully so.

I and my party will be there to support those men and women in uniform. We certainly will fight for them and we will never stop until they are given the tools to do their jobs.