Lost his last election, in 2000, with 33% of the vote.
Research And Development February 10th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the president of the Medical Research Council of Canada, Dr. Henry Friesen, recently wrote that the health of the health research enterprise is in serious jeopardy. Its funding has been slashed back to the 1987 levels, and it is now forced to reject 80% of its research requests. Canada is the only member of the G-7 to have cut support for medical research.
Is this the minister's great vision for the future of health care in this country?
Junior Women's Curling February 6th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to offer heartfelt congratulations to the new Canadian junior women's curling champions on behalf of all citizens of Tobique—Mactaquac
Last weekend the Grand Falls curling club rink of skip Melissa McClure, third Nancy Toner, second Brigette McClure, and lead Bethany Toner made all of New Brunswick proud when they beat the Ontario team in a close final.
The McClures and the Toners have proven what we in rural New Brunswick believe, that if you set your goals high and work very hard, you can accomplish almost anything.
Once again, congratulations and we wish them the best of luck when they represent Canada at the world junior women's curling finals this March in Thunder Bay.
Search And Rescue December 11th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, what is very clear is that this minister has tainted the entire process by his dithering. Well, time is up. In 25 days all four helicopter bids expire. If that happens, the defence minister will have to restart the process at a cost of millions of dollars.
What is the minister going to do? Is he going to try to sneak this announcement by Canadians on Christmas Eve, or will he have to start the process all over again from scratch?
Search And Rescue December 11th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, information has come to us that there was a meeting of the inner cabinet last Thursday at which the decision was taken to choose the EH-101. That information was subsequently leaked to the other bidders before it was announced to the full cabinet.
When the Prime Minister learned about this, we were told that he hit the roof. He even asked the officials to leave the cabinet room and put the entire process on hold until further notice. Can the defence minister confirm this?
Questions On The Order Paper December 10th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House because it has been a number of weeks since I placed two questions concerning helicopters on the Order Paper. I would like to know when the government intends to answer them. I know the House will adjourn tomorrow. If I do not get an answer by tomorrow will the questions be brought back to Parliament after the Christmas break?
Helicopters December 8th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, since the Liberal government took office in 1993 there have been 770 emergency landings by Sea King and Labrador helicopters, including two deaths in 1994.
It costs $66 million a year and takes up to 30 hours of maintenance for each hour of flying to keep these aging helicopters in the air.
Last month six Labrador choppers were grounded for two weeks and we learned that the Sea Kings have cracks in their airframes.
This weekend the navy's entire fleet of Sea Kings was grounded because of a problem with the hinge assembly on the main rotor head. The Minister of National Defence described the situation as being not very much of a problem at all.
In case the minister has not noticed, the main rotor is the device that keeps the helicopters in the air. It is not good enough to patch and bandage these old machines at great expense to the taxpayers. It is time the government showed some leadership by announcing a replacement helicopter contract.
Postal Services Continuation Act, 1997 December 2nd, 1997
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague on the other side of the House. It goes for both sides. Back in 1987 and 1991 we were in power. We legislated them back to work even before there was a strike. There was no strike. The member's own government voted for it. This included the prime minister, the finance minister, the labour minister, the minister of public works. They were all on board. What is the problem with the member's party today that it has allowed the strike to drag on for a week and a half? Canada Post could lose $20 million a day, which is not marbles.
Postal Services Continuation Act, 1997 December 2nd, 1997
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague from New Brunswick for the NDP. We are not against unions at all but we need to be responsible.
The union at Canada Post represents 45,000 workers. Canada Post has been losing millions and millions of dollars. Businesses have been losing millions of dollars. Charities have been losing millions of dollars. And what about the other 29 million Canadians who deserve to get their mail?
In this country we have a law that police officers cannot strike. We believe that Canada Post is an essential service the same as the police officers in Canada. I am not against the union. I support the union in some cases but there has to be fair bargaining.
This strike has dragged on for the last week and a half. How many more millions of dollars does the member want to inflict on Canadians and on Canada Post? How far does it have to go for the member to recognize that they cannot reach an agreement? Something has to come out of this.
As my hon. colleague should understand, we are all here as members of Parliament to do a job and to represent Canadians. The next few words are very important: the interests of all Canadians, not just the union, all Canadians. Until the hon. member can differentiate between a few thousand workers or all Canadians, I think the hon. member has a few problems in this House.
Postal Services Continuation Act, 1997 December 2nd, 1997
Oh, now it is up to the government. The government is going to pick up the tab, but who is the government? It is the Canadian people. I say enough is enough. We are here to do a job. Let us make sure that the money is well spent and put in the right place. This morning I was glad to see that Canada Post would be legislated back to work because we just cannot afford to have the corporation lose $20 million a day.
Postal Services Continuation Act, 1997 December 2nd, 1997
Madam Speaker, I agree with the hon. member from the Reform Party when he says that he agrees with most of what I had to say. I would have been happier if he had agreed with all that I had to say.
To answer the questions, if we were the government we would go the extra step because we believe that Canada Post is an essential service. In 1967 or 1969 the United States passed legislation to make it against the law for postal workers to strike.
With this postal strike now, right around Christmas, how many businesses are hurt, how many thousands of jobs are lost. Talk about the children of this country. Santa Claus is a big thing for them. They are not even sure if they would be able to send mail to Santa Claus. I may not believe in Santa Claus but there are a lot of kids in this country who do.
I totally disagree with the government's route on this that it waited so long. The economy of the country has been almost crippled by this strike over the last week and a half. Canada Post is losing $20 million a day. I have been in business for some 15 years. I do not know of any corporation or any business in this country that could sustain a $20 million loss per day. I do not know of one. Yet we have a government that has kept sleepwalking through the whole process and waited to take action until this last week and a half.
If we look at the papers from last year, Canada Post claimed that it made $112 million in profits. After five days of this strike there goes its profits for this year. Who is going to pay the difference this year? Canada Post is not going to make a profit. It is going to have a deficit.