Elsie Wayne

[Kosovo, April 27th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, my question relates to the Prime Minister's announcement this morning. We all hope in the House that the Prime Minister will make a full report to parliament on the NATO Washington meeting, as Prime Minister Blair did in his parliament yesterday.

Have orders in council been passed authorizing the sending of Canadian air force personnel and peacekeepers to Yugoslavia? If not, how are their veterans benefits being secured?

[Kosovo, April 22nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, that is very interesting, but there is a little more the minister has to do. Our Canadian forces personnel have been active in the skies over Yugoslavia for almost a month, but to date cabinet has not made them or their families eligible for veterans benefits through an order in council. When is this government going to do the right thing and initiate an order in council that would support these brave men and women serving in the Balkans?

[Kosovo, April 22nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, BBC World News reported that some British soldiers serving in the Balkans suffered a $10 a day pay cut and German troops are getting an extra $100 per day.

My question is for the Minister of National Defence. Will he assure the House that Canadian forces personnel are getting the pay they deserve for combat operations?

[St. John Ambulance, April 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, in 1882 the St. John Ambulance Association took root in Canada. Over the years, this ever-vigilant community service group has grown to become a large family with volunteers numbering 25,000 nationwide. In 1099, the Order of St. John, an order of Benedictine monks, ran a hospital in Jerusalem caring for those in need. From this history comes our modern St. John Ambulance Association and Brigade. After nine centuries of helping others, the St. John Ambulance Association has become the oldest charitable and humanitarian organization in the world. They are committed to enabling Canadians to improve their health, safety and quality of life by providing training and community service.

On behalf of the PC Party of Canada, I would like to thank Mr. David Johnston, Chancellor of the St. John Ambulance Association of Canada, the workers and the volunteers, and I wish them all a wonderful year of celebration of 900 years of community service.

[Shipbuilding Industry, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday and the day before the union was in town from Saint John, New Brunswick.

We had 4,000 men working at our shipyard. We are now down to 200. He refused to meet with them. The Liberal premier of the province of New Brunswick came out today condemning the minister because he would not meet with those people.

I ask the Deputy Prime Minister to ask the Prime Minister to please instruct his minister to sit down and draft a new shipbuilding policy.

[Shipbuilding Industry, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have asked the Minister of Industry numerous times to meet and work with officials from the Canadian shipbuilding industry and repeatedly he has refused, citing that we now have a national shipbuilding policy that is competitive.

If this is correct, why have we lost over 6,500 jobs already and are about to lose 2,000 more before the end of this fall.

Will the minister agree that the shipbuilding industry is in crisis in Canada? Will he please sit down with the shipbuilding industry and talk about a new shipbuilding policy?

[Budget Implementation Act, 1999, April 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed. No matter who sits in parliament and who sits on the government side, at this time in the history of the country it is very important that the right things be done. It is time that the government stop to take a look at itself and at Canada as a whole to see exactly how its policies have affected certain regions of Canada.

I am talking about my part of Canada, about the maritime provinces and Newfoundland. It is time that it sat down to take a look.

There are over 100 members from Ontario, some of whom have no interest whatsoever in what is happening in other regions of Canada. Decisions are being made that have real negative impacts on other regions.

I think back to the red book. I will never forget the red book when the Liberals were running. They were saying how they were going to abolish the GST. We all know that the GST is still there.

They were going to abolish the GST. They came into the maritime provinces and what did they do with the GST? It was turned into the HST and now there are moms and dads who have to pay more taxes on more items than ever before. A lot of those parents are living in poverty. They cannot afford to pay taxes on the diapers for their little ones. They did not have to before when we had the GST, but they have to now. For all the needs of those little children they are finding it extremely hard, they truly are.

When I attended the public accounts meeting the auditor general said that the government was not doing proper accounting. He did not just say it once. He told it year after year that it had to change what it was doing.

The government is telling us how wonderful everything is. The hon. member who just spoke referred to health care. He is absolutely correct. Having had a loved one who was just in the hospital and knowing how the nurses with so many cutbacks are working so hard, I ask myself what we are doing. The government talks about putting the money back into health care. In the next five years we will not have as much money put back into health care as the Liberals took out of health care since they came to power.

Then I look at the shipbuilding industry. The government and all of us want people to pay taxes. People want their dignity and they want to pay taxes. The only way they can do that is when they are working.

Just the week before last week in the city of Saint John a group of business people came from Louisiana, U.S.A. They were looking for people who could do shipbuilding. They said that Saint John, New Brunswick had the most qualified people in shipbuilding anywhere in the world. They offered 200 jobs and the men are going to have to go.

Why are they going to have to go to the United States? Because this government absolutely refuses to bring in a national shipbuilding policy for us to compete around the world on contracts. We could put 12,000 people to work in shipbuilding from British Columbia to Newfoundland. There would be spin-off effects for the economy in all regions of Canada. Companies would have to produce the parts. It would put other manufacturers back to work as well.

We are talking of over 200,000 people. They would all pay taxes. It would make it easier for the government to have a better budget. It would make it easier for all of us to have a better living.

I do not know if any of my colleagues on the government side have had little children come into their constituency office, as I have. A little girl came to me two weeks ago with tears in her eyes to tell me that she had to leave. I said, “Where are you going, darling?” She said, “We have to move to the United States because there is no work for us here. I have to leave my nanny and my grampy and all my cousins. But that is the only place daddy can get work”.

I do not know what has happened to us in Canada. I really do not. I look at my colleagues and the government ministers and I find they are not compassionate any more. We have an opportunity to bring dignity back to the lives of Canadians but we can only do that when the government is going to listen.

In the House this week people from my party and other parties were talking about Newfoundland and the fishery. I do not know, Mr. Speaker, if you have been to Newfoundland but it is a beautiful place and the people are wonderful. To tell all of them they have to go to the United States is hard to take.

It is time for the Liberals to sit down. It is time for them to look at my community which has lost over 10,000 people since the Liberals came to power. It is because of their programs. It is because of their budgets. It is because of what they have adopted as their policies. It has just about killed the Atlantic region, Newfoundland and Quebec as well. I am really upset.

Quebec is a shipbuilding province. Quebec also wants to put its people back to work. Just this past week we had the world curling championships in Saint John. I had people from all across the country, people from Saskatchewan, people from B.C. coming to talk to me. They said, “Please, get someone on the government side to listen”. This is a most serious situation.

I listen to what the government members tell me. They say that the only jobs they have created are through free trade and NAFTA. Where did free trade and NAFTA come from? It certainly was not from the Liberals. No, sir. It came right from the PC party. I have to tell those who are working that it came from those policies, not the Liberals' policies.

When it comes to shipbuilding I am begging the Prime Minister to intercede. I am begging him to take a stand. I am begging him to tell his Minister of Industry that it is time for him to listen.

Something happened today in our local Telegraph Journal that has never happened before. The premier of the province who is a Liberal, Camille Thériault, was condemning the minister for not meeting with the union boys who came up here. The minister wanted to meet with them. The mayor wanted to meet with them. He will not even talk to them. He will not even meet with them.

I do not want to be negative. I want to be positive. I am happy to say when the government does something right.

We will continue to fight for our people. We will continue to fight for them until we get a policy that puts them back to work and they have their dignity and they can feed, clothe and educate their children, but they cannot do it with the budgets and policies brought in by this government.

[St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I come from the most Irish city there is in Canada: Saint John, New Brunswick. I want to bring greetings from Saint John to all of those who are Irish in the House of Commons. But more than that, out of respect for you, Mr. Speaker, for whom I have great respect, I would like all of my colleagues, if you would allow us, to sing a chorus of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. I ask them all to stand.

[Supply, March 16th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, has the government looked at the reasons we have such a problem these days with our young people? I get really worried when I hear there is to be a debate on whether we might legalize marijuana if only for health care use.

Once we do that we also send a message to young people that marijuana is all right for them to use as well. We have to look at the drug situation which is terrible. It is the worst I have ever seen in Canada.

When they took out the port police in my riding of Saint John, New Brunswick I told them we would have cocaine like never before. We have cocaine houses all over the city. They were never there before. Because of the drug situation we have the break-up of families.

We have to look at what is causing this problem with youth crime. It comes from drugs and break-up of families. We have to see how we can solidify that family unit. Have they looked at this? What steps will they take to correct this terrible ailment we have in society today?

[Supply, March 16th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I noticed that all of those who spoke today referred to child pornography in B.C. Anyone involved in child pornography is sick. We have to take necessary steps. We all have to come together, fast track and do whatever has to be done to correct this situation in B.C., because we do not want anyone else across the country doing it. We have to think about those little children.

The Prime Minister told me that in 1972 he received pictures of little girls and at that time he was trying to do something to straighten it out.

What steps does my colleague from the NDP think all of us collectively should take to straighten out this matter immediately?