Antoine Dubé

[Tobacco Act, March 4th, 1997]

moved:

Motion No. 5

That Bill C-71, in Clause 12, be amended by replacing line 2 on page 5 with the following:

"that is activated before each transaction or that is in a place to which young persons are not permitted by law to have access."

[Tobacco Act, March 4th, 1997]

More so the people opposite.

[Via Rail, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, today we welcome VIA Rail's decision to impose a moratorium on the abandonment of the railway tracks at the Lévis station, to the benefit of the Charny-Sainte-Foy line. The representations made by the Bloc Quebecois, the Government of Quebec and local stakeholders have paid off. This project could have resulted in serious safety problems.

Passenger trains serving eastern Canada were to go through Charny's Joffre yard, cross four railway crossings, and even back up over the Quebec City bridge, toward the Sainte-Foy station. These dangerous manoeuvres by passenger trains must be reviewed more thoroughly.

Thanks to the moratorium, all the parties concerned by the abandonment of this rail line will have the time to look at the various alternatives and to make the best decision in the interest of the region and of train users.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, truth is hard to accept as we can see. The Liberals do not like it when an opposition party does its work properly in this House. Members of this government would like us to sleep on the job, but we will wake them up.

If they agree with the bill, I suggest that the Minister of Health and his parliamentary secretary become the Don Quixote of health. I suggest they take real measures and tell people about it through adequate prevention and information programs. I suggest they invest funds to inform the people that tobacco is a dangerous product, harmful to health, and to convince them they should not smoke instead of introduing a hypocritical bill which will solve nothing, which is unenforceable and which will not be enforced.

The best proof of this is the law forbidding the sale of tobacco products to young people under 18 in Canada. Do you know that 25 per cent of all convenience stores in Canada do not respect that law? Do you know how many federal inspectors there are to ensure enforcement of that law all over Canada? Forty. It is totally hypocritical.

The parliamentary secretary accuses us of using rhetoric. Those who use rhetoric are on the other side of the House. They are the ones who write equivocal and obscure bills. I almost feel I could use words like misleading or deceptive because in fact this bill will solve nothing at all. The government shows no compassion, no willingness whatsoever to deal with the issue of sponsorships.

Please excuse me Mr. Speaker, I am furious, but I will calm down.

In Quebec, organisers of cultural and sports events are raving mad. This government does not realize it is heading in the wrong direction. We invited it to take its time. Instead, it is forging ahead, using the steamroller approach, ramming this down our throats to expedite it before the election. They had better be careful, they are going to hear about this during the election campaign. The Bloc Quebecois will harp on the issue day in and day out. This is the wrong way to go and it is unacceptable. This way of doing things is far from transparent. Yes, these are words, but they have no meaning. Any one can challenge them. They create uncertainty for everybody.

This morning people are wondering if the Grand Prix de Montreal is going to go ahead anyway. The government is proposing amendments to subclauses 24(2) and 24(3). But all they do is restrict publicity to the site of the event.

Our question is simple: Will it be possible to broadcast the Grand Prix de Montreal on TV? Will it still be possible to show a car sponsored by a tobacco company? No, it will not. Clause 31 says no. Clause 31 goes as far as saying that as of this year, not within two years, not within 18 months, it will no longer be possible to film cars coming to the Grand Prix from outside. But they did not say anything about that.

If this is not true, they should say so, and move amendments in the House to this effect.

I believe the bill is badly flawed on two accounts. On one hand, its avowed objective is to ban this and that, but it leaves it to the regulations. However, the minister has not said what will be in his regulations. To defuse the controversy, this blustering health minister could let us know clearly what will be allowed and what will not. But he is doing nothing of the sort.

All he wants to do is to look tough, to project the image of someone brave enough to get a controversial bill passed. But in fact, without the regulations, nothing in this bill can be implemented.

This is why I have something to suggest to the parliamentary secretary who, through the whole process I must say, has listened more than the others to the arguments presented by the opposition. He has been very attentive.

I suggest he goes back to the drawing board before it is too late, and I urge that this bill be not rammed through the House before its disastrous impact on cultural and sports events has been reviewed.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

We will not let the government ram this bill through. We will not let the Minister of Health show off and make believe that he can play tough. This Minister of Health-who is not here, but I cannot say that-told the anti-smoking lobby that if he did not get this bill passed, people should not vote Liberal.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, to begin with, I was almost going to say "finally", but I am not sure it is the right word to describe the report stage of this bill, which rightly infuriated hundreds of people and organizers of cultural and sporting events, primarily in Quebec.

Organizers of such major events as the Festival du jazz, the Just for Laughs festival, the Montreal Grand Prix and many other events are concerned about the future of these events, as are many individuals. Basically, they are concerned about the future of Quebec culture. There is also the economic aspect to be considered, which represents millions of dollars.

Here we are at report stage. The first group of motions contains amendments Nos. 1, 3, 8, 26 and 29. I will abide by the Speaker's decision. I must say the opposition cannot be opposed, since, in certain cases, the amendments involve changes in the definitions of words and, in others, the definition of tobacco products is broadened somewhat. The official opposition agrees with these changes.

As this is my first speech, I must recall certain events. In December, the Liberal government wanted to fast track the bill through. Accordingly, only one speaker was permitted from each party. I was the only member of the official opposition to be able to speak in the House at second reading. One single speaker.

Then, when the bill was being examined in committee, they tried to bulldoze the work of the committee. They wanted to hurry our work along. And this was done with the complicity of the third party, the Reform Party. What a scam, even before reading the bill, the Reform critic agreed to rush it through the House before Christmas.

We are more serious than that. We read bills, we read them clause by clause. Although we share the objectives of the Minister of Health, we do not agree with his methods.

This bill is vague, it will not be enforceable, and it may be challenged before the courts. More time is needed to review it and to determine the very important impact it will have. The Minister resorts to such tactics as reversing the burden of proof; we think we

should proceed with caution and take our time. We think the minister should be careful not to jeopardize cultural and sporting events.

We worked, we took the time to hear all the witnesses, including representatives of the Chamber of Commerce of Montreal and spokespersons for major events.

Finally, the official opposition, the Bloc Quebecois, was the only party to study and criticize this bill. We asked for explanations and clarifications, which were given in some cases. We also proposed amendments during the clause by clause study. Most of these amendments were rejected. However, we eventually succeeded in convincing the parliamentary secretary to accept one of them. To everything else, the government and its representative on the committee turned a deaf ear.

We were successful in impeding the passage of this bill before the holiday season, as the government intended. It wanted to have this bill adopted during the holidays, when everybody is partying, so it would go unnoticed.

What are they doing at report stage? Using the same kind of strategy. They schedule it on a Friday, hoping that members of the official opposition will not be numerous enough to defend Quebec's interests, cultural and sports events, and Quebec culture. They hoped that we would not be here, in the House, but here we are.

[The Budget, February 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, perhaps I will give the hon. member an opportunity to complete what she meant to say by asking my questions.

Listening to her, I felt she had great concern for the family and for children, which is laudable. I also heard her talk about her attempts to have the finance minister soften his position about the GST. I have some questions in this respect.

As a member of Parliament, is she sensitive to the requests of Bloc members who want to obtain for Quebec the same compensation, which would amount to $2 billion, as that granted to the maritime provinces with regard to the GST? That was my first question.

My other question deals with the amounts provided for children. Does the hon. member think that another $33 for every child living in poverty is enough? Will this really improve the situation of children?

It is all very well to talk about millions of dollars, but we know that 1.5 million children are living below the poverty level in Canada. That is a lot of people. We may sometimes talk about amounts like $200 million, but when this amount is divided among all recipients, it does not look so impressive.

Therefore, I would ask the hon. member whether she is really satisfied and whether she really thinks that this will improve the situation of poor children in Canada.

[The Budget, February 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the comments of the member for Annapolis Valley-Hants.

Naturally, since he is on the government side, he is trying very hard to sell that budget to Canadians.

I would like to ask if he feels comfortable knowing that the Minister of Finance's deficit reduction, his great accomplishment, has been achieved thanks to the $5 billion cuts in unemployment insurance and the $4.5 billion cuts in transfers to the provinces.

He speaks about the measures implemented by the government, but we say they are a mere pittance, nothing but election goodies. He speaks about farm credit, but I must remind the House that farm credit does not mean grants; it means credit and therefore, debt. The figures represent loans and not costs for the government. The government simply makes the money available, but the amounts have to be paid back.

As far as students are concerned, I was in charge of the youth portfolio until a few months ago and I can tell the House the situation for young people is appalling; they are loaded down with debts. What measures is the government taking? It is giving the students more time before they have to start paying back their loans. That will not solve the problem of student debt, it will not help reduce the high number of student bankruptcies in Canada. There is something missing and that something is job creation.

I wonder if the member is comfortable with that idea. He comes from a rural area and he must realize that, in the end, most of the cuts were made at the expense of the provinces and the needy.

[Tobacco Bill, February 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know how the parliamentary secretary can say that, when the minister refused to meet representatives of the sponsors.

On October 22, the Prime Minister said before the Chamber of Commerce in Montreal, and I quote: "By working in a spirit of co-operation, we can put Montreal back on its feet. We have no choice, we must succeed".

Are we to understand that his work on behalf of Montreal is limited to adopting a bill that threatens more than 2,000 jobs and over $90 million in economic benefits there?

[Tobacco Bill, February 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Acting Prime Minister.

Despite his attempts to exert pressure, the secretary of state responsible for regional development in Quebec has failed. The Minister of Health this week tabled a number of minor amendments to his tobacco bill, which simply put the problem off until after the election. All the organizers of sporting and cultural events are angry and disappointed at the work done by the secretary of state in the matter of sponsorships.

Will the Acting Prime Minister acknowledge that, despite the fine words of the secretary of state for Quebec, the government has found no other way to ensure the viability of sporting and cultural events in Quebec and Canada?