Stéphan Tremblay

[Canada Marine Act, September 27th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-44 which concerns shipping.

First of all, I would like to digress somewhat. Speaking of transport, two weeks ago in my riding we opened the Véloroute des bleuets, a bicycle path around the Lac-Saint-Jean that will give all visitors as well as residents a chance to tour this lovely region. It is probably one of the few bicycle paths that forms a loop, in other words, you never cover the same ground twice.

I say this just in passing. Now, from cycling to boating.

Shipping is probably one of the most important economic sectors in Quebec and Canada. Need I add that it helped create our two countries. That is why it is essential to consider every aspect of a bill that concerns this sector before taking action.

[Job Creation For Young People, September 24th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am sick and tired of the government using my generation to score political points.

When all is said and done, does the minister realize that the government's reluctance to invest in jobs for young people speaks volumes about its lack of imagination in dealing with young people and the terrible unemployment problem?

[Job Creation For Young People, September 24th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment on the Prime Minister's earlier remarks. He alluded to the age of my hon. colleague from Témiscamingue. All in all, I would rather have less experience and more common sense.

This morning, the newspapers reported that, as of August 26, the government still had no strategy for using the remaining $45 million out of the budget originally earmarked for youth programs. That makes no sense, considering that one young person out of four is desperately looking for work.

My question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. How can the minister justify his government's inaction? Does the government lack imagination or is it hoarding money so it can spend it during the months preceding an election to charm young voters?

[Child Poverty, June 14th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development.

On November 24, 1989, the House of Commons passed a unanimous resolution to eliminate child poverty before the year 2000. But UNICEF tells us that, of all the industrialized countries, Canada has the highest rate of child poverty, second only to the United States.

Does this observation about child poverty give the Minister of Human Resources Development an incentive to put back on the table the $630 million he had available last December to fund day care in Canada?

[Student Loans And Scholarships, June 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, as with the proposed partnership in the area of manpower, will the minister acknowledge that his government is simply meddling further in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction?

[Student Loans And Scholarships, June 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development.

With the Quebec government's announcement in May of a change in the rules for awarding student loans, the minister said that he intended to examine the scope of Quebec's decision. The

federal government contributes only $98 million of the $472 million in the Quebec program or 20 per cent.

With its 20 per cent contribution to the Quebec loans and bursaries program, would the minister confirm the government's intention to push Quebec to change its policies?

[The Judiciary, June 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, last Wednesday, Micheline Paradis, a lawyer from the Lac-Saint-Jean riding, was appointed to the Quebec Court.

She is the first woman judge in that region's 160-year history. When she began her career some 20 years ago, there were practically no female lawyers in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Today, over 50 per cent of the members of the regional bar association are women. This appointment opens another door and represents another step toward equality between men and women, thus enhancing Quebec's judicial system and giving it even greater credibility.

I am happy to congratulate Ms. Paradis on how far she has come and I wish her the best of luck in her new career.

[Civil Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act, June 4th, 1996]

Madam Speaker, we are hearing absolutely incredible things in the House today. We are getting back at the linguistic debate. We wanted to talk about the issue of security, and we have taken for granted that French had its place in the air in Quebec, but our colleagues beside us want to

debate the linguistic question again and are saying that French should be eliminated. I will not get into that debate because it is obsolete.

I would prefer to point out the intervention of my colleague for Laurier-Sainte-Marie, who was quite eloquent. He said something that I found interesting and really true. He said that, at some point in time, he was the only passenger aboard an Air Alliance plane, probably a DH-8 that can seat approximately 30 people. That illustrates very clearly the problems of small carriers. You see, a big carrier servicing the Vancouver-Montréal line has no problem because its planes are 80 per cent full most of the time. They have big planes that cost a lot of money, but there are a lot of passengers. So, they are profitable.

But, in regions, the reality is much different. The planes take off even if there are only one or fifteen passengers aboard. It does not mean that that sole passenger is not important. That passenger must be flown to Montreal. There is an air service between Montreal and, for example, Alma, which is also in my riding. This service is very important and very costly, in terms of privatization, because small carriers have very high costs even if they have only a few passengers. That explains the price of plane tickets. And this is my concern because small carriers are finding it hard to survive, due to the situation mentioned by my colleague and that small carriers experience every day. We will have to think seriously about it.

Therefore, the question I put to my colleague concerns the fact that Nav Canada will not be accountable to the government, just like ADM is not. A board is set up and the government says that if a bad decision is made, it is not its problem because it was taken by the Nav Canada board. I would like our colleague to talk a little about the problems that that may cause, since he knows better than me ADM's situation.

[Civil Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act, June 4th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I would point out to my Reform colleague that although we sometimes talk about Reform measures, I have a feeling that we are dealing with Conservative measures from 20 years ago, when we discuss language in air navigation services. Moreover, my colleague is a private pilot and I find it fascinating to hear him say such things.

I think that French has been used as a language in Quebec airspace since 1977 or 1980-I am too young to remember-and it has been demonstrated that safety is not threatened. It was proven a long time ago that, for example, if a pilot landing a 747 in Montreal exchanges traffic or flight information with the air traffic controller in Dorval or Mirabel in French, safety is not compromised. This was the subject of a debate several years ago. Some members of Parliament even said: "If bilingualism ever comes into effect in Quebec, I will no longer want to fly in that province's airspace". Come on. That is just another case of scaremongering. This is incredible. All this to tell him that I am a little disappointed to see us get into this debate, which, in fact, is beside the point.

I would like to put a question to my colleague, whose speech was full of praise. As a pilot, I, of course, see this whole matter from a certain angle while she, as a passenger, sees the potential commercial effect on safety. I would like to know how, as a passenger and user of air transportation services, my colleague feels about this bill, which might threaten the safety of airline passengers.

[Civil Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act, June 4th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to put a question to my colleague, the member for Beauport-Montmorency-Orléans, regarding his very eloquent remarks.

Furthermore, I am 100 per cent in agreement with his thoughts on defence. Why should small carriers, who are struggling, have to foot the bill, when the Armed Forces, with their huge budgets, their hours of F-18 training sometimes estimated as costing $20,000 an hour, and I am not exaggerating, would not even be asked to pay for the air navigation services they use.

I think my colleague raised a very good point here. Before asking my question, I would like to go back briefly over the earlier debate regarding ATAC. Earlier, we heard that small carriers were going to be very well represented on Nav Canada's board, because of the fact that ATAC represented Air Canada as well as the small carrier in my riding.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that we know that what drives the world nowadays is money. I would point out that ATAC, the Air Transport Association of Canada, gets approximately 80 per cent of its funding from large carriers. So if you think that the small carrier in my riding, when he wants to have his say, will ask the president of ATAC if he would mind lowering user charges, or keeping the DME or VOR service in his sector, or whatever, I am sceptical. The president of ATAC will wonder what his contribution to funding is. He will not say it out loud, of course, but he will think it. There is every reason to be worried.

The other point that was also mentioned earlier was ATAC's interest in preserving the use of French. I could tell you that when people spoke to us about ATAC's use of French, all that was bilingual was the letterhead. That was all. Apart from that, all its articles of incorporation were in English.

So I think we have good reason to have certain doubts about the quality of French or about bilingualism in this area.

I would like to put a question to my colleague, with whom I was discussing this issue a few moments ago, about his concerns regarding French in aviation.

I have over 1,000 hours flown as a professional pilot. When we talk about navigation assistance services, assistance is really the key word. When it is nice and sunny on a Sunday afternoon, it is not so bad because there is no problem. But when the ceiling gets low and weather conditions become difficult, when you start to worry and find yourself in trouble, that is when you really need navigation assistance. I can tell you that it is serious. That is where this issue becomes relevant. When you start to get nervous in the cockpit and you have to speak English on top of that, it becomes dangerous.

I would like my colleague to talk about his concerns regarding the use of French in aviation in Quebec and in the Ottawa area.