Eugène Bellemare

[Montfort Hospital, April 11th, 1997]

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

Mike Harris and his Conservative government are slashing Ontario's hospital services. They are trying to lay the blame on the federal government, citing cuts to the province's transfer payments.

Of the large hospitals slated for closure, three are in the national capital, including the Montfort hospital, the only French language teaching hospital in Ontario.

Would the minister inform the House who is really to blame and responsible for shutting down hospitals, especially the only francophone teaching hospital in Ontario?

[Journée Internationale De La Francophonie, March 18th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, Thursday, March 20 is the Journée internationale de la francophonie. Since 1970, Canada has been a world leader in promoting la francophonie and a founding member of the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique.

Canada holds an enviable position as a member of the major organizations of the international community. Its linguistic duality and cultural richness make it a partner that is in demand in la francophonie, a network of 49 countries and governments that has in common the use of French.

Belonging to la francophonie also means showing the rest of the world the essence of our Canadian culture and giving 8.5 million French-speaking Canadians a chance to reach out to the rest of the world and to exert their influence in many countries.

Happy Journée internationale de la francophonie to all francophones and francophiles in Canada.

[Montfort Hospital, March 3rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, Mike Harris and the Conservative government of Ontario are slashing the province's hospital services.

The health services restructuring committee has just recommended the closure of the Montfort hospital, the only French language hospital in Ontario. To close the Montfort is to threaten French life in Ontario, particularly in eastern Ontario where 40 per cent of the francophones live.

Mike Harris should be ashamed. The Ontario Minister of Francophone Affairs, Noble Villeneuve, the only francophone in cabinet, should also be ashamed for not defending the rights of Franco-Ontarians in this matter.

[Team Canada, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I hope Premier Bouchard will seize the opportunity today to tell Quebec's manufacturers and exporters about the privileges of being a member of Team Canada.

We congratulate Mr. Bouchard for making a commitment to eliminate Quebec's deficit within three years. It would be wonderful if his finance minister, Bernard Landry, could come back to earth and address the real problems facing Quebecers instead of creating diversions and attacking everybody. His manoeuvring does nothing but hide the real needs of Quebecers, namely responsible fiscal management and job creation in the private sector.

We have to accept the responsibilities that come with leadership, pull up our sleeves and show how co-operation can help our federation serve the interests of all Canadians, including Quebecers.

[Supply, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the member of the Bloc Quebecois is trying hard to tarnish even more the Canadian army's reputation. We know full well that members of the Bloc have no intention of trying to improve the situation with regard to the Department of National Defence. They just want to drag this department through the mud.

As a matter of fact, was the member who just said-or should I say he was mumbling-all kinds of things about DND not the one who wrote to our military personnel before the referendum to try to form his own separatist army? If it was not him, it surely was his colleague or another one of these separatists who are out to destroy DND.

Yes, we had problems in Somalia. The government knows that. When did these problems occur? They occurred under the Conservative government, before 1993. The Prime Minister has fulfilled his responsibility and conducted an inquiry. The inquiry has already been granted extensions two or three times. Will it be allowed to drag on until the year 2025?

We must immediately implement procedures that will improve the military. That is what the defence minister is doing right now. The main objective of this government and of all parliamentarians is to improve our national defence department, not drag it through the mud as you, separatists, are trying to do.

[Petitions, December 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I also have seven petitions signed by 139 of my constituents. The petitioners ask that Parliament not amend the human rights code, the Canadian Human Rights Act and the charter of rights and freedoms in any way which would tend to indicate societal approval of same sex relationships.

[Petitions, December 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, according to Standing Order 36, allow me to table a

petition signed by 60 constituents from Carleton-Gloucester. The petitioners ask that Parliament not increase the federal taxes on gasoline.

[Food And Drugs Act, December 9th, 1996]

Obviously, I must be hitting a sore spot with the Reform Party since I am being heckled from the other side. They would like to protect the trade secrets of Kentucky fried chicken. Imagine that, 11 herbs. We do not want to know about the herbs, we want to know about the contents which could create a reaction, certain nuts for example. We do not want to know the secrets, we want to know the contents which could create a reaction.

I hope there are more opposition MPs who will support this bill at least in principle.

People who pay for food should receive good food. They should be able to get information about the food they receive. I commend the hon. member for Burlington for her very sensitive approach to this problem.

[Food And Drugs Act, December 9th, 1996]

I hear some members from the Reform Party stating that I am a little silly in my presentation. They do not want restaurants providing information to clients, obviously. They feel that in order to make all the employees knowledgeable of the food content would be an overstatement and an exaggeration of a commitment.

The member also stated that restaurants would be giving away trade secrets.

[Food And Drugs Act, December 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment on the speech just made by the Reform Party member for Surrey North.

She seemed to have great concerns about the private member's bill of the member for Burlington. The member for Burlington wants restaurants to provide information about the content of the food they are serving so that people will not die from sudden shock which might happen with a reaction to the food.

I was surprised that the member for Surrey North was not more sensitive. She said that putting too much responsibility on restaurants is what our colleague wants. On the other hand, she said that we cannot expect restaurants to save someone's life if the person goes into a food reaction shock, that the onus is on the individual. I would suggest it is the responsibility of the restaurants to know what their products are all about because the lives of their clients might be at stake.

The member for Surrey North also suggested that we should have more statistics in order to justify this bill. This is awful. Should we have one death, 100 deaths or 1,000 deaths in Surrey, B.C., or should it be in Montreal?

People want to know what is in food.