Roy H. Bailey

[Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, October 29th, 1998]

Madam Speaker, many more people in Canada subscribe to the weekly newspaper industry than they do to magazines. I want to make that clear. I am talking in particular about my province, but no matter what province people live in, most get their culture from the weekly newspaper.

The hon. member mentioned that Canada Post was going to relinquish something in the order of $18 million to drop the rate of postage for items coming into Canada. Because of Canada Post some weekly newspapers have to drive or truck their papers to different locations. Through Canada Post it would take a week or so before the papers reached their destination. Those sending items to Canada have to pay the same rate as if they were mailing it at a local post office. Why? There is an inconsistency in losing $18 million. The answer was that it will not cost the Canadian taxpayers. Canada Post is losing $18 million and there will be no cost to the Canadian taxpayers?

Where does the hon. member think they are going to find this $18 million? Will it be done by putting a higher postage rate on our weeklies?

[Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, October 29th, 1998]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Medicine Hat will know where I am coming from when I talk about one of the cultural things on the prairies, weekly newspapers.

Everybody looks forward to a weekly newspaper. Because of the sparse population one of the biggest cost factors this cultural avenue has is the high cost of Canada Post. The hon. member in the NDP asked a question about this. Now we are going to give special reductions to some newspapers coming into the country. I cannot wait until my weekly newspapers that have been fighting with Canada Post forever about special rates to get their cultural piece of information out find out about a special Canada Post regulation to bring magazines into Canada. Every small paper struggling to survive is going to damn this government if this proposal goes through.

I would like the hon. member for Medicine Hat to comment on our cultural activities.

[Nunavut Act, October 28th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question regarding the judges system in the new territory.

In 14 months we will be into a new millennium. With the type of justice system the bill will bring in, what hope do these people have to have enshrined later on in the history of the new territory the same type of justice system the rest of Canadians enjoy?

[Nunavut Act, October 28th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member for Yukon and my colleague in that people living in remote areas should be as close to the justice system as possible. I believe that we owe that to the people in the remote areas of Canada.

But I have a concern. Was the hon. member thinking that maybe decisions by the judges would be different in remote areas than they would be if the committing of a crime was 200 miles south? Is there a difference in the interpretation and in the punitive measures? Is that what the member meant? If not, then just count me wrong on that, but I kind of got that impression from what she was saying.

[Agriculture, October 22nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to tell the House and all Canadians of an increasing economic gravity facing thousands of farmers in western Canada.

In 1938 the sale of 26 bushels of wheat would clothe a farmer for the winter. In 1998 it would take 206 bushels to clothe a farmer for the winter. In 1938 the combined property tax to pay the taxes on 640 acres of cultivated land would take a mere 273 bushels. Today on the same section of land it would take 1,443 bushels.

If this economic disaster area does not receive some immediate help, the results will the threefold. First, there will be an increase in abandoned farms. Second, there will be an increase in bankruptcies and, third, there will be an increase in financial foreclosures.

We must not turn our backs on—

[Petitions, October 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition requests that it be enshrined in the Marriage Act and spelled out very clearly that marriage is a voluntary union of a single, unmarried male and a single, unmarried female.

[Petitions, October 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to submit two petitions signed by individuals in my constituency, as well as by people from across Canada.

The first petition calls on parliament to significantly amend the Young Offenders Act. There are hundreds of petitioners calling for this.

[Extradition Act, October 9th, 1998]

Madam Speaker, does my colleague agree that this bill in its present form will do nothing at all to have a catch-up? There are approximately 18,000 refugees in Canada. This deportation bill will have no effect at all unless there is some screening for people coming into this country the same way there has been in the past. We will be no better off with this bill in place in getting rid of the large number of people claiming refugee status than we were before the passage of this bill.

[Tobacco Act, October 8th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have been involved in the business of education for a number of years. I am surprised with the advertising and the means by which young people are getting tobacco products. Does my hon. colleague not see that there are more and more young people, particularly young girls, smoking cigarettes now than there was during my time in the field of education?

[Tobacco Act, October 8th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the hon. minister has spoken. He said that they will spend $100 million on education programs.

Where I come from people have an expression “Put your money where your mouth is”. How much money will the government take in revenue every time it spends $100 million in five years? The problem is that a very small percentage of the revenue taken is being spent on educational purposes to prevent smoking. Yet they are filling the coffers of the government on the backs of healthy young people and are spending a mere percentage of what is taken in. That is why—