Julian Reed

[Excise Act, February 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of questions. I was listening to the hon. member and her obvious genuine concern about the fact that smoking is an addiction. I speak as former chain smoker. I ended that practice about 25 years ago.

There is a little mythology that has to be cleared up here. I wonder if the hon. member could tell us who she thinks is smoking the contraband cigarettes, who she thinks is smoking the cheap stuff.

If you go into schools you will find that counterfeit cigarettes are being sold out of the trunks of cars.

[Income Tax Act, February 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. member for his comments regarding small business and senior citizens. In the riding of Halton-Peel small business dominates. There is no large industry. Therefore, between farms and small and medium sized businesses, it looks after about 90 per cent of people in those kinds of pursuits.

Not being a financial specialist as is the hon. member, I have trouble keeping my household accounts in line. I would like to make one small comment regarding the flow-through shares issues and the resource industries that are going to be positively affected by this.

Some years back flow-through shares were a common thing in this country. I do not recall what year they were done away with. We must remember that the technology of the mining industry has been centred in Canada, much of it in southern Ontario. Resource industries, which we tend to dismiss as we move into high tech and electronic highways and these types of things, still are the backbone of the economy of this country and will continue that way for many years to come.

I wonder if the hon. member could enlarge on those elements, the flow-through shares and so on that are going to positively affect the mining industry.

Being a layman, and probably many who are watching this on television will be lay people as well, I do not understand flow-through shares. I do not think many of us do.

[The Environment, February 10th, 1994]

My question is for the Minister of the Environment. Members of this House and many Canadians are now aware that ethanol is increasingly being used, across North America, as a gasoline additive for automobiles.

Would the minister explain to the House what measures are being taken to advance the use of ethanol across Canada and consequently enhance the quality of our environment as well as the bank accounts of our farmers?

[Pre-Budget Consultations, February 1st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate the hon. member for Durham for injecting a very fresh idea into this debate. He and I share something in common in that the agricultural parts of our ridings are farms that are agriculturally valued very differently than farms in other parts of the country.

When a farm is passed on and when there is succession right now, the paper value of the farm far exceeds its value as a working farm. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that the $500,000 exemption continue.

I am just old enough to remember when death duties existed in Ontario and I saw farms being lost to government, farms that had been in families for generations.

The member talks about cancelling the $100,000 capital gains exemption. Does he simply feel that it is too small? Is that his reason for wanting to cancel it and dwell on the $500,000 exemption?

[Petitions, January 31st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I beg to present a petition signed by 539 citizens of the great riding of Halton-Peel asking the government to amend the laws of Canada to prohibit the importation, distribution, sale and manufacture of killer cards and to advise producers of killer cards that their products if destined for Canada will be seized and destroyed.

[Ethanol, January 31st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment has created a task force on ethanol which I have been asked to chair. I have in turn asked the hon. member for Lambton-Middlesex to co-chair this venture. In previous Parliaments the interest in ethanol as a motor fuel was driven by her predecessor, the hon. Ralph Ferguson, whose research effort and sustained enthusiasm will make our work much easier.

Ethanol is already in use in Canada in a limited way. Now is the time to expand its horizons. The addition of just 10 per cent ethanol to gasoline reduces carbon monoxide emissions by approximately 25 per cent. As well it raises octane ratings and helps to keep engines clean.

The accrued benefits to both urban and rural Canada make this renewable fuel initiative a natural path to follow.

[Foreign Affairs, January 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, to rise in a maiden speech on an issue as important as this must be something rather providential, to participate in a debate in which the members have been so constructive. Our colleagues in the Liberal Party, my new friends from the Reform Party, and my new friends from the Bloc have all contributed today not only to a tribute to the expertise, the training of our troops in the very special role we play on the world scene but have also offered a series of constructive suggestions which I hope will be duly noted and dealt with.

I was particularly impressed with my friend from the Reform Party this morning who suggested that because of the expertise we have developed in this country in peacekeeping that we might be in a position to provide that training on an international basis.

We have done that before. In the Second World War we had the Commonwealth air training plan. We provided opportunities for people who were close to the scene in combat to get out of the combat zone and properly train for their role in war. I hear

my friend from the Bloc endorsing that tonight and it is very refreshing. I also say that because as a former member of the Ontario legislature for 10 years I do not think I ever had the privilege of participating in a debate that was this constructive and lacked the interjections which I have become used to over the years.

Being a soldier, a service person, always has been dangerous. Being in combat is highly dangerous. I wonder whether playing this humanitarian role, which is neither peacemaking nor peacekeeping is even more dangerous. It is more dangerous because of the continuing barrage, the continuing intimidation, the continuing challenge to the psyche of our service people over there on a daily basis. It never stops. It goes on and on.

Yet with the training that these people receive and the level of professionalism they take such pride in and we are so proud of, they carry on through it all. Very often it is through the worst of conditions, conditions that you and I, Mr. Speaker, could not possibly imagine.

Reference was made to the boy scouts and the way Canada very often participates in that altruistic mode. Having been a boy scout for 30 years I must say that I am kind of proud that we do that in Canada, in spite of the fact that sometimes we tend to walk where angels fear to tread.

I join this debate in expressing great pride in those service people and recognizing the unique role Canada plays in the world. We are indeed the best at what we do. We should always recognize that very special responsibility.

Canada has continually been an ardent supporter of the United Nations. Indeed Canada pays its dues. We are there when we are called upon. We wish that every member country would accept that same responsibility. Perhaps as time goes on we are going to have to face that question with the United Nations as to whether it becomes what the late Mr. Pearson believed it could become at its very best or leave us hanging with some other member countries rather high and dry because others will not shoulder their share of the responsibility.

Part of our reason for needing to stay as an agent of humanitarian aid in Bosnia is part of our recognition of the importance of the United Nations and our desire to keep it not just alive, but well, thriving and growing.

This debate was precipitated by the news report of the apprehension and detaining of 11 of our service people by what it turns out to be a group of people who might have been less than compos mentis at the time, to be generous. That was the bad news that was reported to this country which really was the trigger that got this debate going.

We should point out in fairness and in perspective that all of the functions that go on in Bosnia are not those kinds of critical situations. It is not news to report that there are hundreds of tonnes of food being shipped every day into these various hot spots. It is not news when nothing happens. It would be like reporting that there were 5,000 safe take-offs and landings in Canada last week. That is never reported but when there is one aircraft accident or a nose wheel collapses, it makes the front page. I would suggest to all of us that we have to put what we read in the newspapers and what we see on television into that proper perspective.

I would like to make a personal comment on air strikes. It seems to me that air strikes under these conditions would be a gross admission of failure, of our inability to handle the situation in any other way, the very last resort.

As has been pointed out there are about three million souls in Bosnia who depend on the countries under the United Nations that are delivering humanitarian aid daily. They have no other means of continuing their physical existence, so we have that responsibility.

Finally I would like to make a suggestion to the Minister of National Defence who is here with us tonight listening to this debate. I am not sure whether our soldiers would really appreciate it that much but perhaps we could send them some copies of the Hansard which contains this debate to let them know what we think of them and how proud we are of the work they are doing.