John Manley

[Gas Pumps, May 15th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I fully agree that it is very important for inspectors to be vigilant, so that they can detect the kind of problems raised by the hon. member.

[Gas Pumps, May 15th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I too read a remark to that effect in the weekend papers. The hon. member may be interested to know that a maximum margin of error of 0.5 per cent has been set for gas pumps. There are federal employees assigned to inspect the pumps and we hope to have a report explaining these discrepancies in the near future.

[Telecommunications, May 15th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat for the hon. member. He seems to have failed to read a document which I think has been in the public domain.

Certainly others have quoted from this submission received by the government from Power Direct, one of many received after the expert panel's report was tabled. In the case of this one, which asked that we make changes to the direction and table it on April 24, he will know we did not make changes to the direction and we did not table it until April 26.

On many important elements we did not take its recommendations. What we acted on were the very general and very supportive recommendations of the Consumers Association of Canada, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, ACTRA, et cetera. We took our recommendations from people who are concerned about competition in this field in Canada.

[Telecommunications, May 15th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, although this information is a little dated, I am pleased to answer the hon. member's question. If he had read the document, he would have noticed that we did not follow Power DirecTv's recommendations. In fact, we received many other recommendations in that period. We did not accept all of the suggestions of Power DirecTv, but we did accept all of those made by the Consumers' Association of Canada. The recommendations we accepted were the ones made by that association.

[Questions On The Order Paper, May 10th, 1995]

There was no Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB) advertisement placed on pages 80 and 81 of the December 5, 1994 edition of Maclean's.

FBDB placed an advertisement on page 49 of the November 28 edition and on page 101 of the November 14 edition. Both were part of FBDB's national advertising campaign. The November 28 advertisement was free, i.e. , at not cost to the FBDB.

The regular price for an advertisement like the one full page, four colour, that appeared in the November 14 edition of Maclean's is $27,480. The actual cost to FBDB for that ad was $23,076, representing 19 per cent off the regular price.

It should be noted that FBDB advertising is entirely paid for by the bank, which operates on a full cost-recovery basis in its financial services.

In its last examination report to the FBDB 1993, the office of the auditor general noted that the bank lacked comprehensive plans for marketing its services. To address this concern and achieve its objectives related to the complementary lender role of the bank, the bank seeks the expertise of external experts to develop, co-ordinate and implement national advertising campaigns, in order to maximize its impact with target audiences and minimize its costs.

Therefore, the purpose of FBDB advertising is to accurately and timely inform as many small and medium sized businesses as possible and potential entrepreneurs of the availability and nature of the innovative financing and management products and services offered by FBDB.

FBDB national advertising is limited to print, media, such as magazines and newspapers. FBDB does not advertise on a national basis on radio or television.

A smaller annual budget is allocated to each of the bank's 78 branches nation wide for the placement of local advertising in their community. Branch managers typically use the most effective local print media for reaching small and medium sized businesses and promoting local financing and management services programs offered by the bank. Exceptionally, a very small proportion of local radio advertising may be used. No television is used.

As mentioned, there is no national advertising on radio and television and only print media are used. A specific breakdown, along the categories listed above, is not recorded. Total amounts spent during past fiscal years since 1988 are as follows:

Total amounts spent for fiscal year 1995 are not yet available.

Question No. 165-

[Internal Trade, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I can do no more than refer the member to the bill and ask him to read its terms so that he can see the provision about which he complains states:

For the purpose of suspending benefits or imposing retaliatory measures of equivalent effect against a province pursuant to Article 1710 of the Agreement,

The provisions of the bill are limited by the agreement. I regret that words spoken by officials were taken out of context and misquoted, I might add, by a journalist. I am sure it has never happened to the hon. member. I would like to emphasize the importance of reading the bill before the House.

[Internal Trade, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is wrong. The ministers responsible for internal trade met in Calgary a few weeks ago. Together with the other ministers responsible, I announced at the time that this bill would be tabled in the House of Commons after the Easter break.

I repeat that there is nothing in the bill, that it is simply not possible for the bill to contain provisions that go further than the agreement itself. It is certainly possible for us to implement the internal trade agreement, to table in the House of Commons a bill applying only to the measures included in the agreement without going any further.

[Internal Trade, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, let me again try to explain to the hon. member. The provisions of the bill are limited by the agreement on internal trade. That is the case in the wording of clause 9 of the bill. It is the same wording as applies in the implementing legislation for the World Trade Organization and NAFTA. It is normal wording.

The agreement limits very specifically the occasions when the federal government is involved in a dispute resolution. Most of the agreement on internal trade has to do with regulating disputes between provinces. Only in the rare case where a company is discriminated against because of its federal status or because it is federally regulated would the federal government be involved in the process of dispute resolution which starts first

with consultation, second with the appointment of a panel, and then the resolution of the dispute by the panel.

If the dispute were resolved in favour of the federal government, if the province refused to take the measures that were dictated by the panel, if a year passed without that happening and further consultation did not occur, then possibly the federal government could withhold benefits in the sectors concerned with the dispute or the sectors involved in the agreement on internal trade.

This does not at all pertain to the issues of health and social transfers raised by the hon. member in his first question. It is ridiculous.

[Internal Trade, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I put the question to Mr. Knox this morning and he told me that the reporter had completely misunderstood him, which is not surprising. I can read the provisions of the agreement to the hon. member if he wants me to. I would like to stress this point because the federal government is very seldom in a position to intervene in a dispute. This applies only to those companies that are subject to action because they are federally regulated.

If this takes place after every other recourse provided for in the agreement has been exhausted, then the government may suspend the application of certain provisions with respect to a province, but on the following conditions: benefits must be suspended or retaliatory measures imposed in the same sector as the measure considered inconsistent with the agreement; moreover, benefits may be suspended or retaliatory measures may be imposed in other sectors covered by the agreement only when it would be impractical or ineffective to suspend such benefits or impose such measures.

It is strictly limited those sectors covered by the agreement. So there is no problem.

[Internal Trade, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is mistaken once again. If he would read the bill, he will see the following, and I quote:

-pursuant to Article 1710 of the Agreement, the Governor in Council may, by order-

In order to understand the bill, the member will have to read the entire agreement on internal trade.

Had he read it, he might understand that the federal government's power in this area is very limited and applies only in the case of provincial discrimination against a company because of its federal status. Then there has to be a hearing before a committee to resolve the dispute and then another for the company and then the province involved has to refuse to implement the terms of the agreement.

The only provision then is that all parties must comply with the agreement. There is nothing like what the member for Roberval has suggested.