David Collenette

[National Defence, November 2nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the only comment I wish to make is that as a result of the budget cuts that we announced in February of this year defence spending in Quebec actually increased by 3 per cent. That was because of the severity of cuts elsewhere in the country.

I have said this before in the House. We will look at the committee's report. We will look at the report of the hon. member and his party and we will take all of that into consideration in the formulation of a new policy.

[National Defence, November 2nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, it sounds to me as if the hon. member is reflecting upon the position taken by his defence critic in response to the committee's report and that is that the Bloc Quebecois advocates defence spending be reduced in Canada and Quebec of course as part of Canada by 25 per cent.

I do not think that is widely known. It was said in the election and it has been reiterated. That is very interesting.

With respect to the report of the hon. members, I have read it with interest. I have read the report of the defence committee. All the members of the House and Senate who took part should be congratulated.

The government will certainly consider its recommendations in the development of the new defence policy.

[Government Spending, November 1st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have no knowledge of the specific question the hon. member has posed.

Quite often there are training flights using A-310s and Challengers. I will look into the matter for him.

[Bilingualism, October 27th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my colleague for his question. It is a legitimate one. I must reassure him of the importance I myself attach to this subject, especially making the Canadian Forces bilingual, including the Royal Military College in Kingston.

I would like to inform the House that I have appointed a special committee to review and monitor the bilingualization of the Royal Military College in Kingston, with three top-flight members, including the former commander, General Émond, the former principal, Roch Carrier, Dr. Paule Leduc of the Privy Council, and myself as chair. This committee will make recommendations on all the aspects raised by the hon. member.

[Communications Security Establishment, October 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I will not repeat the answers I have given in the House. At this moment the privacy commissioner is conducting an examination of CSE. It has been done in the past, it is a matter of routine business and it will conclude shortly.

[Communications Security Establishment, October 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is absolutely no.

[Communications Security Establishment, October 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and I, as the responsible minister for the operations of the CSE, have given those assurances.

[Communications Security Establishment, October 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I stated in the House that it is not our intention to discuss recent operations of the CSE.

[Communications Security Establishment, October 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I believe the privacy commissioner is an officer of the House or reports through the statute to the House of Commons. There was an audit done by the former privacy commissioner. It is done every number of years.

There is one that is ongoing. In the fullness of time I assume the present privacy commissioner will have the same opinion the former privacy commissioner, Mr. Grace, had which is that the operations of the CSE fully conform to the privacy act.

[Communications Security Establishment, October 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, we have said a number of times that the Privacy Act has to be obeyed by all Canadian agencies and that includes the CSE.

The databank at the CSE is exempt from the provisions of the Privacy Act. That does not obviate the fact that all activities of the Communications Security Establishment follow the law explicitly. This has been affirmed by the former privacy commissioner, Mr. John Grace.

At the present time the privacy commissioner is conducting an ongoing audit to update him and his agency with respect to the activities of that particular organization as it applies to the Privacy Act.