House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 1997, with 40% of the vote.
Jennifer Robinson February 28th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, once again Windsor proves itself to be a city of champions, a city where first place finishes are the standard.
Our new Windsor hero is Canada's figure skating champion Jennifer Robinson. Her next accomplishment will be to represent Canada at the world figure skating championships in Edmonton.
I know all hon. members will join me in congratulating Jennifer on her success and in wishing her well in Edmonton.
Finance December 14th, 1995
I hear noise from the member from Halifax-Holt Renfrew. I could put Windsor up against Halifax any time.
Windsor has a tremendous industrial base which has brought us out of the recession ahead of many other communities. The big three in the auto industry, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, have provided us with a stable base of jobs over the last little while. The products we produce in Windsor, ancillary to and which feed the auto industry, have resulted in a tremendous tool and die industry and a tremendous mould industry which now exports a large percentage of its products.
In addition to the big three other industries thrive in Windsor. Our newest, the Northern Belle Riverboat Casino, which opened
yesterday morning as an extra venue, has been a tremendous boon to us and a real jump start for the diversification of our economy.
Windsor used to be a pass through on the way to the rest of Canada. It is the biggest border crossing in North America. People would nod at Windsor and keep going. Now Windsor is a destination. This means a lot of change in the way we do business, change in the other kinds of attractions that many creative entrepreneurs in Windsor are developing, and change in many aspects of the hospitality industry.
The casino is worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Ontario and millions to the federal government as well. To put it in perspective, the casino attracts a minimum of 17,000 people a day to our city. Of those 17,000, roughly 80 per cent to 85 per cent come from the United States. That is offshore money coming to Canada, being spent in Canada and employing thousands of well paid union workers, all of whom are paying income tax, property tax, provincial sales tax and GST to government coffers. Funds are being generated for all three levels of government in order to reduce deficits and in order to give all three levels of government another source of revenue.
In terms of the casino and its operation in Windsor I cannot urge strongly enough upon the Minister of Finance and the government to stay away from the impulse to tax the proceeds of casino gambling. This is foreign money coming into the country. Essentially we have discovered a way to tax Americans. We have to stick with it and keep this money here and keep those people coming to the biggest single tourist destination in North America.
Another industry in Windsor that needs looking at by our government is the distillery industry. Within the city of Windsor, in the township of Maidstone in the riding of Essex-Windsor, and in the town of Amherstburg, also in Essex-Windsor, we have two distilleries. Hiram Walker operates a plant in my riding of Windsor-St. Clair, which used to be called Windsor-Walkerville after Mr. Walker. It operates a storage area in Maidstone township where it is the biggest municipal taxpayer.
The Seagram company operates a distillery in Amherstburg. The beverage alcohol industry produces hundred and hundreds of jobs in our communities. Yet this is a commodity which is so heavily taxed by provincial government and to a certain extent by the federal government that it is not operating any more on a level playing field with other forms of beverage alcohol such as beer and wine.
In addition, because the taxation level is so high, the problem of smuggling has increased in terms of beverage alcohol, particularly in terms of distilled spirits. The federal government needs to take a hard look at this, as do all the provincial governments, in an effort to reduce crime, in an effort to increase revenues from excise tax by actually being able to collect it, and to equalizing the playing field among all forms of spirits so they can compete adequately.
Another major employer in the city of Windsor that could use a look at by our government is our university. The University of Windsor is a major employer in our community, again employing hundred and hundreds of people. It is a major contributor to the skills level in our community. Our community, fast becoming a place of high tech industry, requires high tech jobs.
The university has worked in partnership with the federal and provincial government and with private industry to produce research and development facilities and to produce good, well trained employees in order to benefit and promote the economy of not only our community but of the entire country.
Small business in Windsor has always been entrepreneurial. It has been exciting and forward looking. It employs thousands and thousands of people. I urge my colleagues in the government to take a hard look at what we can do for these types of industries, for these types of workplaces, for these creators of jobs.
The city of Windsor, the town of Tecumseh and the village of St. Clair Beach, all of which are in my riding, are successful right now. They are not selfish places. We are not a community that begrudges help to other communities. We are vitally interested in the unity of the country, vitally interested in the well-being of the entire country, every province, every region from sea to sea.
We are not perfect. We need help. We are concerned about social problems, as are other Canadians. I will outline a few of those.
Windsor, like every other community in Canada, needs help with child care. We all need to move forward in this area. Child care needs to be a part of the basic social fabric of the country. Single mothers are out of work. Child care would allow them the opportunity to get training and to get back to work while they know their children are in a safe and healthy environment.
It takes the activity of government to do that. Unfortunately in Ontario we do not have a provincial government which will do that now. However, we do have a forward thinking federal government which made some announcements yesterday that should help this situation. I hope the budget will also stress the need for child care.
Windsor has always had a tremendous record in terms of charity and in terms of charitable giving. Windsor likes to share its good fortune with others. However, Windsor lives in the shadow of the United States. Perhaps the most stunning landscape for visitors to Windsor is the city of Detroit which looms on our horizon.
It is important as we consider the broadcast industry over the next year in Canada to remember that communities like Windsor will suffer if we do not take good care of both private and public broadcasting.
These are a few things which concern my constituents. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to bring these concerns to the attention of the government.
Finance December 14th, 1995
Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity to wish the people of Canada the best for the season from the constituents of Windsor-St. Clair. I congratulate my colleagues on the end of the term and thank them for their co-operation over the year. I wish them the very best and of course yourself as well.
Election day 1993 gave us a tremendous majority and with that came a mandate for change. Windsor and Essex County is one area in which there was a tremendous Liberal vote. The ridings of Essex-Windsor, Windsor West, Essex-Kent and my own riding of Windsor-St. Clair voted overwhelmingly Liberal and remain overwhelmingly supportive today of the Liberal government.
That is not to say there is not room here in a prebudget debate for us to set out a little shopping list of things we are concerned about, that there is not room to say the people of Windsor have their concerns and they want to communicate to the Minister of Finance and to the government those concerns.
Windsor is a special place. It is the centre of my universe. It is special because of the way its people relate to one another, try to take care of one another and relate to the rest of the nation. People who do not know the community tend to think of Windsor as a blue collar town, as perhaps a kind of rough, tough and ready border city. They are right, it is, but it is also a very sophisticated and very beautiful community.
Petitions December 4th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the second petition relates to the issue of doctor assisted suicides.
Petitions December 4th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, today I have two petitions primarily from the riding of Windsor West.
The first petition refers to the steps the petitioners wish to be taken with respect to the apprehension, investigation, punishment and release of dangerous sex offenders and pedophiles.
Casino Windsor November 27th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, December 12 is the grand opening of Windsor's second casino location, the Northern Belle Riverboat. With this event the total number of casino jobs created in Windsor will rise by 950 to a total of 3,000. Ninety per cent of these jobs are from the Windsor-Essex county area.
The Northern Belle will entertain 2 million patrons on top of the 5.5 million that already visit the existing site. Eighty per cent of those visitors are U.S. residents. That means 80 per cent of the dollars spent are foreign dollars.
One of the major competitive advantages to Casino Windsor over its American counterparts has been the safety factor which will be further strengthened by the recent successful passage of the government's gun control legislation. The legislation will not only increase the safety of Canadians in Windsor. It also means good
economic sense in Windsor because it leads to an environment in which job creation thrives.
Treatment Of Municipal Sewage November 21st, 1995
Are you going to make the announcement?
Department Of Human Resources Development Act November 20th, 1995
A phoenix is a bird that cheeps and this phoenix is certainly about the cheapest around.
Canadians are demanding alternatives to the status quo. Canadians are demanding efficiencies. The bill does not deals with substantive issues. The bill deals with issues consequential to not creating a new department but merging three different departments. The bill is about efficiencies, about preventing overlap and about producing better results for the Canadian taxpayer.
Members know that the Department of Human Resources Development already exists through orders in council. An obvious question might be: Why bother proceeding with this in a legislative format? The department is working. Why not put the legislation off until other substantive issues could be included? It is a fair question and I would like to address it briefly. In my view there are essentially five reasons why we need the bill and why we should proceed without delay.
First, we need a straightforward way to clarify the role of the department and to clarify ministerial responsibilities. The existing arrangements are set out through orders in council. They are perfectly legitimate as transitional arrangements. However, in the final analysis the government, and I am sure everyone in the House, even the great Reform phoenix, would prefer to see this complex trail of statutory powers leading back to the enabling legislation of many different founding departments replaced with one single, coherent bill that sets out the mandate and the powers of the department in one place. That is just common sense. It ought to appeal to all of us. It certainly ought to appeal to the Reform Party.
Second, by providing that single coherent mandate we could then clarify the identity of the department, something that is important both for its employees, although I do not think the Reform Party is worried about them, and for its clients, Canadian citizens, people the government cares about.
For more than a year employees from the four founding departments, labour, employment and immigration, health and welfare and the secretary of state, have been working together to create a new organization. They have accomplished a great deal but their own sense of belonging, being part of a single focused organization, really cannot be complete until the legislation is passed.
Bill C-96 means that the people who work for the department can turn the page and head into a new chapter. At the same time people in organizations who work with the department need to know with whom they are working. This is difficult when, for example, departmental officials at this point legally cannot really use human resources department letterhead. For legal and contracting purposes they still use letterhead from departments that in the
eyes of our partners do not even exist any more. That may seem like a minor issue, but it creates a great deal of confusion among our partners and is expensive.
It is related to the third reason why we need Bill C-96 now. It would be overstating the case to say that existing arrangements are an administrative nightmare, but it does not overstate the case by much. Without enabling legislation for the department even simple issues like getting a person transferred turns into a complex, time consuming and costly process.
When more detailed contracts are involved the process gets very messy. This is understandable and unavoidable during a major restructuring and transition, but there comes a time to bring that transition to an end. Two years have passed since the reorganization started and the time is now because we need to move forward. This is the fourth reason for the bill.
We have to consolidate the progress we have achieved in integrating social and labour market programs and sharpening the focus on developing Canada's human resources. More important, we need to clear the way for further progress.
As we undertake a major overhaul of the UI program, as we develop new programs and services under the human resources investment fund, as we work to improve programs for seniors, as the department implements the next phase of re-engineering and streamlining services to Canada, we need to clear the way.
This brings me to the fifth and most important reason we need the bill. Canadians need and deserve the best possible service. In the end that is what really matters about the bill. In the end that is what Liberals worry about. The displaced workers who walk into the Canada employment centre in Windsor, Ontario, deserve the same kind of integrated, results oriented support focused on helping people adjust and get new jobs.
The single mother from my riding who is looking for help needs the kind of integrated service that will help her care for her children while getting the skills and income support that will help her to build a life with a future.
The young person stuck in a cycle of dead end jobs and unemployment after leaving school needs help breaking that cycle. That is what Human Resources Development Canada is there for. We need to ensure that the department can do its job. It is important to clear up the administrative tangles left over from earlier times. It is important to establish a clear identity and a coherent mandate for the new organization to function properly. It is important to ensure that as the department looks to the future there is a solid foundation to build on.
It is important also to continue to fulfil the overwhelming desire of Canadians, a desire that is clear in all 10 provinces and in the territories. What Canadians want is a strong federal government that can make sure that programs and services are delivered uniformly across the country.
Bill C-96 provides the department that will provide that foundation in the human resources development area. We need to pass the bill. We need to get on with the work of serving Canadians.
Department Of Human Resources Development Act November 20th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in the debate on Bill C-96, the Department of Human Resources Development Act.
I am also pleased to respond to some of the suggestions of the member for Okanagan-Similkameen-Merritt. He said that his party seeks to eliminate overlap and inefficiencies and is a rising phoenix. The phoenix is dragging its tail. It is trying to make its point on cheap shots about the Prime Minister and about the minister of human resources.
United Nations November 20th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, 1995 is the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. On Wednesday of this week the Secretary-General of the UN, His Excellency Boutros Boutros-Ghali, will be in Ottawa to commemorate this event.
It is fitting today to remember that Canada is a founding nation in this great institution. For me it is also fitting and a great honour to recall the contributions of my predecessor from Windsor-St. Clair, the Right Hon. Paul Martin, Sr., who was committed to the success of the United Nations and who was there at its inception.
I know that all members will join me in welcoming His Excellency Boutros Boutros-Ghali to Canada and in wishing continuing success to the UN.