Martin Cauchon

[Gun Registry, February 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are proud of the gun legislation in Canada. It is a question of privilege, it is not a right. We are a different society. We are pleased with what we have done.

The gun registry works well. Licensing has been terminated. At this point in time we are proceeding with registration. Indeed, in order to provide good service to the population we are outsourcing as we have done with other departments. Privacy concerns will also be addressed.

[Gun Registry, February 25th, 2002]

Basically, Mr. Speaker, what we are talking about here is outsourcing. The aim and goal is to make sure that we will keep offering the Canadian population very good services, and of course privacy concerns will be addressed and taken care of.

[Justice, February 21st, 2002]

Simply put, Mr. Speaker, we do not talk about privatizing. The aim and goal of what we are doing essentially is outsourcing. It is to make sure that we will keep being able to offer good services to the Canadian population and deliver what we said we would deliver.

[Justice, February 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I know of the matter and of course I will be working with the committee. I want to hear from stakeholders, from people all across the country, in order to see what we are going to have to do. Therefore, I do understand that the matter is under study and I will fully co-operate with the committee.

[Young Offenders, February 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the hon. member for her excellent question.

Bill C-7 did indeed receive royal assent yesterday. It is normal for a certain period of time to go by before legislation takes effect.

I would simply like to say that the bill was the subject of many discussions, particularly last week at a federal-provincial-territorial meeting. Because of the broad consensus for more time, which has been repeatedly expressed for quite a while now, all the provinces and territories have agreed with me to postpone the coming into force of this legislation until April 2003, so that they can make the necessary preparations and go ahead with an excellent bill.

[Access to Information Act, February 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, what the hon. member is talking about is the interpretation of the Access to Information Act. The interpretation is based on the DAGG case of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Of course we need a balanced approach regarding the Access to Information Act, as well as the privacy issue. When we look at what we are doing, we are meeting the exact criteria of the DAGG case of the Supreme Court of Canada .

[Highway Infrastructure, February 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, indeed, commitments were made by the Liberal Party during the election campaign, and these commitments are now part of the government's agenda.

I would like to thank and congratulate all the members of the Liberal Party who worked hard to ensure that these issues are given proper priority.

What is happening is that members opposite are now realizing that, through the work of members of this party, we have developed tools to make sure that we can deliver. We will deliver and we will do so with the co-operation of all the provinces.

[Taxation, February 8th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we were made aware of the situation some time ago. I can tell the member that Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and Human Resources Canada have been working together to ensure that the population is better informed and that they will have access to that tax credit.

[Justice, February 7th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the member is pointing at a very important question today.

The question of legal aid is of course about access to justice. A decision on that side is always taken by the provincial government. Indeed the Canadian government is getting involved through funding.

I am pleased to announce that we increased the funding to the provinces last year. We went from $80 million on a yearly basis to $100 million.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, February 4th, 2002]

As I said, Mr. Speaker, the question of native young offenders is very important. It is so important that in looking at the declaration of principles, we will see that aboriginal people are taken into consideration in many principles.