Brian Tobin

[Flags Of Convenience, March 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada asked NAFO members back in November to convene a joint meeting or démarche with Canada and some of the countries that provide flags of convenience.

In fact Japan, the European union, Russia and Canada made a joint démarche to Honduras and to Panama within the last few weeks. These nations have been asked to quit providing flags of convenience to vessels that intend to ignore international conservation rules.

I am pleased to report not only have we made such a request, but we have also had a meeting with two of the four countries that are providing flags of convenience. They have committed to action in legislation by May.

[Kemano Project, March 18th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, following a number of conversations I have had in the last few days, including a conversation yesterday with the member who has just put the question, I have been attempting to ascertain all of the facts with respect to the continuance of the hearings and the participation of all relevant groups.

I have had an opportunity to discuss this matter with interested colleagues, including my colleague and friend the Minister of the Environment. Once we are in possession of all the facts we have undertaken to see whether there are additional appropriate measures which can be taken by the Government of Canada to ensure that indeed the commitment of the Prime Minister to open and transparent hearings is fulfilled.

We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to come forward in the days ahead.

[Points Of Order, March 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for what I think is a very generous act on his part. I too have been guilty of similar types of comments in the heat of the moment on occasion.

[Sealing, March 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for St. John's West for her question.

A contract has been entered into between Terra Nova Fisheries of Newfoundland and Labrador and a Shanghai firm in China. It is a contract that provides for the use of some 50,000 mature, adult harp seals out of a quota of 186,000 from a healthy and growing herd of three million.

The contract utilizes the full seal. It involves the shipment of machinery into Newfoundland and Labrador for semi-processing of the product into pelts, blubber oil, byproducts and oils for finished processing of pharmaceuticals in China.

The project is not dependent upon any one part of the animal. It is not even directed at any one part of the animal. Rather it is a normal processing operation, I remind the House, that flows from a 500-year old tradition. I believe it is good news for Canada.

[Kemano Project, March 11th, 1994]

I have to say that I find it incredible that the Reform Party stands in the House almost daily under the guise of question period and demands of this government far deeper cuts, cuts in the range of billions of dollars. Nothing is sacred, not senior citizen pensions, not medicare, not welfare, but in the next breath the same party can stand and demand that all groups and all individuals, all the thousands of applications for intervener status, ought to be met with a yes from the government.

There is not a bottomless pit of money. We are going to act responsibly. We are going to see that those who have the greatest need are served in providing intervener funding. The member should get his priorities straight.

[Kemano Project, March 11th, 1994]

No, Mr. Speaker, it is not the view of the Government of Canada that one group or another in society has a greater right to be heard in the course of hearings of the British Columbia Utilities Commission.

What I have stated in my correspondence, as referred to by the member in asking his question, is that the Government of Canada has provided some assistance for aboriginal groups to participate on an intervener basis. Clearly and I think the member would agree, certainly I hope his party would agree, there is at least the proposition to be put that aboriginal communities and aboriginal peoples have been first impacted by the consequences of the project in question. Therefore it is necessary to ensure that aboriginal people have the means to participate in the hearing process should they so decide.

To my knowledge, no such formal decision has been reached one way or another to this point in time with respect to their intervener status.

[The Budget, March 9th, 1994]

I am answering the question. The member does not like the answer. We start by cutting the $2 billion for fishermen and plant workers. That is what the member wants. Then we would cut all unemployment insurance payments in total so there would be no more unemployment insurance plan. Then we would begin to cut medicare and do away with medicare as a universally accessible plan and ensure that people would pay their own way. The member is nodding his head yes. When done with that we would then cut out all regional development funding so that those who lived in areas of highest unemployment would be left to their own resources. At the end of the day we would simply take the keys to Parliament and the notion of parliamentary responsible government and we would turn them over to Walmart.

The Parliament of Canada is not McDonald's. It is not Walmart. It is up to government to use the tools and the resources of the nation to give direction and shape to the country. We do not give shape to the country by abandoning public policy to public accountants. We will not do it.

[The Budget, March 9th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the member wants an answer and I am going to give him one.

What the member is suggesting, to reverse the situation, is that rather than add $100 billion to the debt, he is now referring to approximately $30 billion of deficit on average over the three years, a little more for $100 billion after three years. The member is really suggesting that we should cut out an additional $100 billion of expenditure. Is that not true? I see everybody but the leader of the Reform Party nodding yes. He is a bit more cautious.

By cutting out $100 billion we would start, according to the hon. member-

[The Budget, March 9th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, we have a saying in Newfoundland. When someone is awfully bold we say they have more nerve than a toothache and a vicious one at that.

Here is the member asking me why we did not tell Canadians about the fiscal situation of Canada. The hon. member's leader made a notable contribution to the leaders' debate during the last election and the leader of the Reform Party will remember this. He kept asking the then Prime Minister what the deficit was and what the deficit would be. Up to that point we were all told the deficit this year would be about $33 billion. It turned out after we came to office that the deficit was $46 billion, $13 billion higher than the government had admitted.

Having the member ask me why we did not know this is amusing, given that the member who just asked the question spent his first four or five years in this place sitting on the government benches, the Tory party benches.

Why the member would now ask me what he was doing jumping up and down voting yes every time the government he supported proposed a motion, I do not know. I do not know what he was doing and I do not know what questions he asked in his caucus.

What I do know is that he was a loyal follower, notable for his capacity to get up and bow yes whenever Mr. Mulroney asked his permission to spend more money. It takes a special kind of nerve, like an open, raw wound, for this member to stand here now and complain. This member ought to be put on the bow of a boat out at 200 miles because he bellows so loud and makes so little sense that he would scare away all foreign fishing vessels.

[The Budget, March 9th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I did not talk about the Hibernia project because I wanted to focus on what I think is an exciting new dimension. There are a bunch of young men and women, some in their twenties and thirties who are developing software, not importing technology or software, adding some value and sending it off. The resource is their own imagination.

Limitations are those they impose on themselves. They are taking tools of modern technology and using those tools to create new knowledge based industries and exporting them around the world.

I find it fascinating this kind of activity happens on an island province where traditionally we do not expect that kind of development.

I want to acknowledge that today. This kind of development is every bit as exciting when one young firm with a handful of young engineers and a couple of people prepared to write and develop new software develops a brand new industry based on knowledge and the extent of its own imagination.

I find it every bit as awesome to contemplate as Hibernia, which is in itself an incredible feat of engineering. It has contributed significantly to the economy of the province of Alberta.

I do not want to belittle Hibernia. It is an important project. Another government in another day committed the funds to that project. It can lead to a series of new offshore developments. Mr. Speaker, knowing your former interest and expertise in matters having to do with energy development in Canada, I do not want to diminish from the project at all.

I simply want to take this opportunity to acknowledge what is being done by young incubator companies. They are not waiting for your permission or mine or even our acknowledgement. They are out there competing and winning in the world market. I think that is exciting and ought to be acknowledged and encouraged.