Ian Murray

[Petitions, October 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition signed by approximately 16,000 Canadians from the Vancouver area.

They draw the attention of the House to the human rights abuses occurring in Indonesia. Over 1,300 people have been killed, hundreds of ethnic Chinese women have been brutally raped, and property has been destroyed and looted.

The petitioners call upon parliament to appeal to President Habibie of Indonesia to protect the rights of the ethnic Chinese and to bring to justice those who masterminded and participated in the racial riots.

[Jacob And Mathew Brown, October 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the selfless contribution of two young individuals from Carleton Place in my riding.

For the past four years Jacob and Mathew Brown, aged 8 and 10, have forgone their birthday presents in favour of family and friends making a donation to breast cancer research. In addition, the two brothers have been making beaded jewellery to be sold at local craft fairs. Jacob's and Mathew's altruistic acts have amounted to donations of over $1,700 to breast cancer research.

This year it is estimated that close to 20,000 Canadian women will contract breast cancer. The cause is unknown and it cannot be prevented.

Only by funding research can we hope to find the cure for this horrible disease.

Mathew and Jacob have asked me to pass along this message to Canada: Children can make a difference. They ask everyone to take up the challenge to help defeat breast cancer.

I congratulate these two boys on their continuing dedication to an important cause.

[Canada Small Business Financing Act, October 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank my colleague from Brandon—Souris for support in moving this bill to committee as quickly as possible.

The one comment I wanted to make is to correct something my colleague from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca made in response to the previous speaker. He was talking about the number of loans that might or might not have been made without the Small Business Loans Act. I believe the figure he referred to was 90% that would have been approved even without the act being in place.

All members of parliament received some documentation from the Minister of Industry on Bill C-53 entitled “Meeting the Changing Needs”. In that document there is an item about incrementality, in other words, measuring the extent to which loans made under the program would not have been made at all or would have been made under less favourable terms in the absence of the SBLA program.

I just want to quote from the document. “While incrementality is difficult to determine, studies have shown that under a broad interpretation, as many as 86% of loans guaranteed under the program since 1995 are incremental”. This means that either these loans would not have been made at all to the small businesses concerned, and that is 54% of firms, or they would have been made under less favourable terms, and that applies to 32% of firms applying.

I just wanted to have that on the record. Even recognizing it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the subject of incrementality, the latest studies that the Department of Industry had undertaken on its behalf have shown that it is a very significant program in terms of making access to capital available to small businesses.

[The Environment, April 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, last December in Kyoto this government agreed to a protocol that committed Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by the period 2008-2010.

This week Shell Oil withdrew from the U.S. lobby group known as the Global Climate Coalition. This group opposes the protocol.

We, as a government, are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and honouring our Kyoto commitments. Since Kyoto, Canada and the international community have been directing our energies to how we will meet our commitment, because meet it we shall.

To achieve this Canada will be working with the provinces and territories, as well as with local governments, community organizations and the private sector. That is why today in Toronto the ministers of environment and energy are meeting their provincial and territorial counterparts. They want to work with all sectors to design Canada's national implementation strategy.

Companies like Shell and other people who believe that climate change is not an economic drain but rather an economic environmental opportunity are the leaders who will make our Kyoto commitments a reality.

[Industry, March 19th, 1998]

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

Many people in various regions of the country have worked long and hard to attract a semi-conductor manufacturing plant to Canada. Can the minister tell us if this effort has reached a dead end or is there still hope that a major chip fabrication plant will be built to serve our high tech industry?

[Cambrian Systems Corporation, March 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, last Tuesday I was pleased to announce a $2.28 million investment by technology partnerships Canada in a Cambrian Systems Corporation project. The project will create up to 220 jobs directly in the Ottawa region and approximately 71 indirect jobs across Canada by 2001.

This repayable TPC investment means that the Government of Canada is partnering with Cambrian Systems Corporation of Kanata in the design, manufacturing and marketing of fibre optic communications transport equipment which will revolutionize information highway connectivity.

As the need grows for networks to carry more information, Cambrian will act as a catalyst in the development of a new system using individual colours of light to transmit information over fibre optics. Known as DWDM based photonics networking, this technology is expected to become an important means of communicating in the next millennium.

This investment by Industry Canada will ensure that this important communications system will reach the marketplace sooner, to the benefit of all Canadians.

[Ice Storm, February 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the great ice storm of 1998 affected millions of Canadians in eastern Ontario and Quebec. For many of us it was an inconvenience that demonstrated how greatly we rely on electricity just to function in our homes. For others it meant real hardship and, tragically, in some cases death.

Any time human beings are faced with a major crisis we learn something about ourselves. As someone who witnessed firsthand the reaction of people in the communities of my riding of Lanark—Carleton, I can assure everyone that Canadians do care about their neighbours.

While images of devastation will remain with me, I will, more important, remember the selfless actions of people who rallied to help those whose health, property and even lives were threatened.

Before the Canadian armed forces arrived and before we knew the extent of the emergency, volunteer firefighters in every community, on their own initiative, swung into action.

Mayors, reeves and councillors from each municipality reacted swiftly.

The devastated townships around Carleton Place, Smiths Falls and Perth will long remember how those small towns came to their aid.

We all owe a great debt to the soldiers—over 800 in Lanark County alone—who demonstrated why Canadians can be justly proud of our armed forces.

It will take years before the physical damage caused by the storm is repaired.

[Canadian Marconi Company, December 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday I was pleased to announce a $1.1 million investment in the Canadian Marconi Company of Kanata through the Technology Partnerships Canada program. The repayable investment will be used by CMC to develop a display control unit for the United States Army's medical evacuation helicopter the Black Hawk.

Not only will this cutting edge technology create 20 new jobs, maintain 15 existing jobs and generate $47 million in export sales, it will also open the door to new opportunities by enabling CMC to become a prominent avionics integrator.

Congratulations to the Canadian Marconi Company and the federal government for proving once again that building partnerships between government and the private sector can only increase Canada's competitiveness in the knowledge based economy.

[Telemarketing, November 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry.

Canadians have become alarmed at the victimization of vulnerable people by fraudulent telemarketers. Could the parliamentary secretary assure the House that the amendments introduced to the Competition Act will be effective in ending this deplorable practice?

[Centres Of Excellence, October 31st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Industry. Innovative centres of excellence were designed to encourage co-operation among industry, universities and colleges.

Could the minister advise the House whether these centres have been successful at achieving their aims?