Julian Reed

[Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Suspension Act, March 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, this is just for the hon. member's edification. He said he did not hear of any objection among voters to proposed redistribution. I would inform him that the riding of Halton-Peel has received objection loud and clear to the way the proposed lines are drawn.

The chamber of commerce of one of the major municipalities in the riding has expressed objection. Even a returning officer has expressed an objection to the way these lines are presently proposed. I want the member to know it is not some concocted situation; my own constituents are telling me this.

There are some other things to consider. The region of Durham is not in the riding I serve but it has now moved to reduce the number of school trustees. Here we are with a proposed redistribution that would add members to the House probably with a carrying charge of-what do we cost, a half a million dollars each per year. If we add six new members we are adding another $3 million.

The hon. member may not consider that to be important in the scheme of things. However some of us do consider it important especially when our school boards are taking the initiative and making serious changes in the density of representation in their districts. It is something the House may well consider in the years to come.

If one looks at Australia for example there are about twice as many voters per member in that country. We are at the point where we have to make some changes. Either that or we are going to have to knock out one of these walls.

[Applications For Benefits, March 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this motion very strongly. I speak as a former provincial member who has had direct experience with some of the very issues the hon. member has brought forward with this motion.

Fairness in government depends on being able to impart information to the population in order that what is going on is understood. Very often the potential recipients of some of these programs that they do not get are not understood by the people who deserve them or by the people for whom they were created in the first place.

I recall one story of a gentleman who was very seriously impaired through asphyxiation. He was a mechanic in a garage and inhaled a lot of carbon monoxide. He had to be given resuscitation to be revived. He did not recover to the fullest extent so that he could go back and pursue his trade. When I met him it was during a period when I was not an elected member. I was in self-imposed retirement. I knew of his financial circumstances and they were very modest, to put it mildly. I asked him if he was receiving the supplements to which he was entitled. He said he had a disability pension. I asked if he got a guaranteed income supplement that the province of Ontario provides. He did not know about that.

We were able to start some wheels turning and he got the supplement. However his entitlement went back to the time of his accident, the time he was so badly injured. He did not receive anything for that time period because application had not been made.

I would say that is the motivation of the hon. member in putting forward this motion. It is in order to correct what really is an injustice when the programs of government or what government does are not fully known by everybody.

I am supposed to be familiar with all of the government programs. I do not know them all. I can say what it is like for a

private citizen who continues working day to day and really does not have direct familiarity with what is going on.

To be generous, I find the idea or concept put forward by my hon. friend in the Reform Party that "I'm all right, Jack, so everybody can look after themselves" unacceptable in this day and age. I believe we have a responsibility to make sure that whatever an entitlement is for a citizen that the entitlement gets to that citizen sooner or later.

I understand details are going to have be worked out and there will have to be some limitations and so on so as not to create the extreme kind of circumstances that my friend in the Reform Party has brought forward.

Certainly the intent of this motion is clear and laudable and I am delighted to endorse it.

[Hazardous Materials, March 18th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.

In December 1993 a resident of the constituency of Halton-Peel experienced an alarming accident when a cotton housecoat she was wearing caught fire causing a powerful blue flame.

During the investigation of this incident, a federal lab report indicated that the flammability of cotton is significantly increased with the use of household fabric softeners.

What measures have been taken to publicize and correct these hazards?

[Immigration Act, March 17th, 1994]

Madam Speaker, I proudly rise to support this bill introduced by the hon. member for Scarborough-Rouge River. He has set a course that is practical and realistic in terms of solving some of the problems we presently have in the immigration system.

I would like to see this idea expanded toward the family sponsorship of immigrants. There are increasing numbers of experiences where families sponsor immigrants to come to Canada. Then in a very short time for whatever reason they abrogate their contract with the federal government to continue their support. Therefore, seems that the principle of bonding would be a very practical means of accomplishing this.

I also suggest to the hon. member that in terms of student visas, young people who come to Canada to get their education, the principle of bonding could be applied as well. That would allow Canadian educational institutions to offer their services to young people from other parts of the world.

I speak from personal experience. Some of my friends and I attempted to have a young Dominican man admitted into Canada to complete his education which he could not get in the Dominican Republic. He was turned down twice. A write-in campaign was launched with the minister and with the adjudicating officer in Santo Domingo. He had to participate and take documentation with him to show he had won the president's citation four years in a row in that country and that he was a highly respected member of his community, and so on.

Finally after the third attempt, this young man came to Canada. He is here now completing his education in computer science. He will go home bringing something very new and special to that country. His mother continues to reside there.

This is a very positive step. Having run this idea by my constituents in the last few months in speaking to chambers of commerce and various people I have received only positive response. They felt very strongly that this was a good new direction to take and that it would help very much to solve some of those problems that end up often causing a backlash among settled citizens in this country. Anything we can do to overcome that is a positive step.

My constituency office has been in touch with various people in the immigration department. The suggestion has been floated there. I can say it has received positive response even there.

I commend the hon. member. This is an excellent move. I would like to see it expanded and moved into a larger base. I do not believe for one minute that my friends in the Reform Party can be serious that this would simply be tacked on as a cost of doing business, if you like, for somebody to buy their way into the country.

It seems to me that all that needs to be dealt with there is how that bond is applied and at what level. This is a mechanical process and I do not think it needs to be simply the price tag for getting into Canada.

I appreciate the opportunity to endorse this bill.

[Supply, March 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the hon. member how he would respond to the people in the municipalities of my riding who have said to me very enthusiastically that because of the infrastructure program the municipalities were able to update projects that had to be delayed in the past because of the recession and that the benefits will accrue over the next 10 to 15 years, well beyond the time that the mechanics of the infrastructure program are under way.

I wonder how he would respond to that in making the statement that this is strictly a temporary thing with an end and once it is over it is over and gone.

He alluded to that early in his speech.

[The Budget, March 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a couple of minutes to reminisce after hearing the words of the member for Rimouski-Témiscouata. In 1967 I had the distinct privilege of travelling through the member's riding with 200 Boy Scouts from western Ontario. It was during Centennial Year. We travelled 3,600 miles, as they were in those days,

through the south shore of Quebec and into the maritimes and so on.

One evening we camped in the town of Rimouski in a field beside the high school. Maybe it is still an open field, I do not know. We were wonderfully treated by the people of that town and by one of the service clubs. We were treated to a typical south shore dinner of turkey and rabbit. It was a wonderful evening.

We could not speak very much French and the local people could not speak very much English. However, I recall that when we returned to the campsite from dinner the young people from the town of Rimouski had all gathered and made a big bonfire. We discovered that we could sing together. We sang songs in both languages until about three o'clock in the morning. When we finally recovered and got on the buses we recalled it as one of our most wonderful experiences.

I was very interested as the hon. member talked about the need to support national identity. I concur with her in that regard. It seems to me that our duality and our national identity needs all the support it can get these days. I stand with her in that regard, even though I had a bit of a problem when she said she felt that somehow it was a lost cause. I want to go on record as saying that I do not believe it is a lost cause at all. It is the thing that makes us different in North America; it is the thing that makes us great.

I want to ask the member a question. At the outset of her speech she talked about the government is attacking the most disadvantaged seniors. Does she feel the 25 per cent of senior citizens who are in an upper income bracket of over $25,000 are disadvantaged senior citizens? I would have to challenge the statement.

I realize senior citizens deserve support and protection, but I believe many seniors in upper income brackets are willing to participate in helping Canada get out of its financial difficulty.

[Supply, March 8th, 1994]

Madam Speaker, I have listened to the last three debates with great interest.

I heard the passionate debate by the hon. member for Halifax pointing out that the struggle for equality and the struggle for the ability of women to freely make their decisions are not finished yet. I listened to the hon. member for Calgary Northeast whose vision of this motion seems to be that the socialist hordes are waiting outside the door ready to trample a civilized society. Of course, the most recent speaker tried to inject some fairness into the whole debate.

I would like to tell a little story which exemplifies how slow this process has been over the years. I had the privilege of growing up in a household with a mother for whom equality was taken for granted. She was a modern language teacher educated in Paris during the 1920s when that was not supposed to happen. Her sister, my aunt with whom I talked about an hour and a half ago is a retired anaesthetist.

There was no question of income equality or gender discrimination. They were both at the top of their fields. They did what they did and were the very best at it. They were pioneers. The reason they achieved what they did was because their mother understood the importance of seeing they got an education to the utmost extent of their ability. They had the ability to make their own decisions freely and clearly then without being shackled by the things which are presently holding women back. That process has been very slow. If we do not make some kind of change or some kind of move we may be looking at the same kind of evolution 50 years from now.

A motion like this does not develop a gathering of the socialist hordes. Rather it recognizes that women who are on the move need to have the freedom to make those decisions on their own. Hon. members will be able to relate to many situations right now of women who are precluded from deciding their futures on their own terms.

Does the hon. member not agree with the necessity of being free to make decisions? Does she not agree that all women do not yet have that capability and that perhaps we in this House have some opportunity to advance their cause?

[Excise Act, February 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to that contribution from the hon. member for Calgary Centre.

He has taken quite an enlightened approach to this problem and pointed out a problem that every member has in the House which is that his or her constituents are split on the issue of taxation and the impact of taxation.

It should be reinforced that the only reason tax reduction was introduced was that simply to impose an export tax would only look after about half of the cigarette smuggling problem.

Close to half of the product that has been coming across the border as we all know now is counterfeit. It is manufactured in the United States and it has very nice looking Canadian packages and Canadian labelling. It is very difficult to tell it from the real thing.

That was obviously the reason why that tax reduction was introduced. One thing that we can do is convey to all the citizens of this country through our constituencies that there was a reason for it. It is not intended to knuckle under to the tobacco industry. As a matter of fact it will be reinstated as soon as this problem is brought to an end.

It is also important to put on record that Mr. Clinton in the United States with the introduction of his medicare bill has made it clear that tax will be added to American tobacco. That effort should help us a great deal. It behooves us all to encourage Mr. Clinton to bring that new tax in in the United States sooner rather than later.

This is where the member for Calgary Centre slipped. He had my attention until he said there is no law enforcement. He will find and we all will find very quickly that the law is being enforced and it is being enforced very well. The RCMP is doing its job.

Already we have a news report that in one area particularly smuggling has been reduced to a trickle. The smugglers are beginning to be put out of business. In the next few months we will be standing in this House applauding the RCMP for the very fine work it has been doing.

[Excise Act, February 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the hon. member how she expects by zeroing in on enforcement alone she can enforce the laws on the world's longest undefended border and the world's longest sea coast.

[Excise Act, February 22nd, 1994]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that correction. I will start again. Pardon the oversight.

It is the young people who unfortunately have been buying these lower priced contraband cigarettes. As a result, more and more young people are being exposed to tobacco because of the smuggling. Therefore attempts had to be made to correct the problem.

I advise the hon. member that the situation in which the tax has been dropped is considered a temporary situation and will be corrected as soon as the issue of tobacco smuggling is corrected.