David Collenette

[National Defence, February 20th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence certainly recognizes the challenges of the armed forces. That is why he publicly called for an increase in the budget and received moneys in the budget. He knows the needs and those needs will be met with the increased funding.

[National Defence, February 20th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I regret my colleague is unable to be here today. The new technology that has been alluded to in the press is something that will put Canada on the cutting edge in terms of defence. That has only been assisted by the money that was received in the budget, the $800 million extra a year that will help the Canadian armed forces.

[Canada-U.S. Border, February 19th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should acknowledge the fact that after September 11 the Prime Minister established a security committee of cabinet, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, which has tried to resolve all of these bilateral security issues, particularly in the transportation sphere. I think we have been very successful.

The United States, once the case is taken to it, accepts our logic. I believe that many of these problems are being dealt with and will continue to be dealt with in a very efficient way.

[Canada-U.S. Border, February 19th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, one of the problems we have had since September 11 is that the U.S. Congress has acted with great haste to deal with security threats and sometimes the legislation has unintended consequences. The hon. member has just explained one of those unintended consequences. We have worked with the department of transportation in the United States and we are close to resolving the issue.

[Highway Infrastructure, February 18th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question of the hon. member, who is well known to the House.

I want to assure the House that my colleague, the Minister of Industry, who is responsible for infrastructure, and the officials at Transport Canada are working on this issue together with the Government of Quebec. I hope that an agreement will soon be reached.

[Ethics, February 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the right hon. member knows full well that the Prime Minister attends question period regularly. He will be back later in the week and I am sure he will entertain that question.

[Ethics, February 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, these are prime ministerial guidelines and the Prime Minister will answer for those guidelines in the House when he is next in the House.

[Ethics, February 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately the Prime Minister had to leave question period. I will certainly take notice of the hon. member's question and we will get an answer for him.

[National Security, February 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I think I just answered the question. Once the breach was found through an internal audit on the internal system we dealt with it. Officials have assured me that there has been no breach of security.

[National Security, February 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is, inadvertently I am sure, misleading the House in mixing up the issue of the inappropriate information on the website from Transport Canada and Bill C-17.

Appropriate safeguards for personal information have been incorporated into Bill C-17. If the hon. member is still dissatisfied, he has the opportunity at committee to try to convince us to put forward amendments.