Sarkis Assadourian

[Canada Shipping Act, 2001, March 14th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I have followed the hon. member's speech for the last 20 minutes. He opposed everything in the bill but did not propose any concrete solutions to the problems that he saw. I know his job as an opposition MP is to oppose whatever the government proposes, but I wonder if could propose some constructive solutions for the government to look at.

The member mentioned that we have to meet and exceed standards. If he is not happy with the in the way we meet and exceed standards, what would he propose? How much more does he expect the government to do? I wonder if he would comment on those two points.

[Supply, March 13th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, everybody agreed to the motion in the name of the hon. member for Langley—Abbotsford. Obviously he stood up and voted against his own motion. How can that be?

[Supply, March 13th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, today in the National Post I read that the opposition MP who spoke earlier and his colleagues support this registration. At the same time, he admits that this registration will not prevent people from committing a crime.

Let us compare this registration to gun registration. Why is it that in this case registration will help to prevent crimes but gun registration will not?

[Supply, March 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, earlier I was following the hon. member's speech in which the used the phrase that this is contempt for parliament.

I wonder if he would describe what he did in the previous parliament, which was contempt for parliament and for the people of Canada when he resigned his seat for the leader of the opposition, now leader of the fifth party in the House. He took the population of his riding for granted when he thought the people would vote for the Conservative Party. He resigned his seat and got a job in the leader's office. Then when the election was called last October the member ran again and won the election. I wonder if this would be considered contempt for parliament and contempt for the people of Canada.

[Foreign Affairs, February 22nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Violent conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people continues to escalate at an alarming rate in the Middle East.

Will the minister tell the House what initiatives the federal government is undertaking to promote an end to the violence and a renewal of the peace process in the Middle East that is so desperately needed today?

[Automobile Industry, February 20th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Industry. Yesterday a delegation from Canadian Auto Workers, led by Buzz Hargrove, met with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Industry and members of the caucus to discuss the current situation of the Canadian auto industry in the light of the end of the Canada-U.S. auto pact.

Will the minister inform the House what impact this development will have and what the position of the Canadian government will be in the context of NAFTA following the expiry of the auto pact?

[Supply, February 20th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I believe the member supports the motion introduced by the NDP. He addressed the question of regional issues in this Confederation, but I am sure he knows that the headquarters of the Alliance Party is in Alberta.

How could he claim the Alliance Party is a national party when its headquarters are in Alberta? Would this be supporting separatist concepts in the west, or is he talking about moving the national headquarters of the Alliance Party from Alberta to where it belongs in Ottawa?

[Supply, February 20th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important issue, especially in a system like ours.

The hon. member mentioned that she is supporting proportional representation. Some countries in the world, especially east European countries, have such a system. Some countries have a mix of PR and first past the post.

If proportional representation is NDP policy, would it consider adopting it in the two provinces that have NDP governments? It could be tested at the provincial level before being tested at the federal level. If PR is that party's policy, perhaps it should consider adopting proportional representation in a province where it has control. We could then see how the public would react, and perhaps it could then be adopted federally.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, February 12th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, earlier I asked the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre two questions and did not receive any answers. I hope he takes a few hours tonight or tomorrow before he comes to the House to research the questions in order to give me the appropriate answers, because I am looking for them. They are very valid and important questions for the taxpayers of the country.

[Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act, February 12th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I have two questions for the hon. member from the NDP. Could he tell the House what the return is on capital investment of banks? I want to know how much money they invest in total and how much they get in return. If he knows the answer to that, I would appreciate hearing from him.

Second, how much of the profits banks make came from service charges to consumers last year?