Marcel Massé

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, November 18th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the CBC's independence is recognized in the Broadcasting Act. However, the government wants to reduce the uncertainty. In this case there have been consultations with our caucus colleagues, including the member for Parkdale—High Park. I am grateful for their suggestions. The government has decided to amend Bill C-44 to continue to name the order in council appointments to the CBC on a good behaviour basis.

I want to mention here that the government has decided to change Bill C-44 to retain the type of appointment—

[Pay Equity, November 17th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the union appealed when it did not like the judgment in the Bell Canada case. In our case we cannot as a government treat two groups of women, the 20,000 women in the Bell case and the women in the public service, in different ways. We still have the same problem. We have two different methodologies and we still must ask the court to clarify the law. We believe in the principle of pay equity but we must treat women, whether in the private sector or in the public sector, in the same way.

[Pay Equity, November 17th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the basic issue has not changed. There are two groups of women that would be submitted to two different systems of pay equity and we have to appeal to make sure the law is clarified.

The judge did not make a decision on methodology in the judgment of today but merely sent it back to the tribunal of first instance. Therefore we are back with exactly the same problem we had. We have two different methodologies. We cannot treat two groups of women differently in terms of pay equity. We are in favour of the principle but we have to appeal.

[Employment Equity, November 6th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that the Canadian government must give fair treatment to visible minorities. There is also no doubt that the visible minorities represent a larger percentage of available labour than is employed in the federal government.

We have been putting into place a number of measures to increase the number of people from visible minorities in the public service. We have succeeded to some extent. There is still a lot of improvement to be made.

In particular, this year Treasury Board has allocated an additional $11 million to improve employment equity.

[Forest Industry, November 4th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we welcome the woodlot owners' request.

We agree that the best way to deal with this situation is for both levels of government to sit down together as soon as possible and work out a plan, with costs being shared 50:50, to solve the problems experienced by woodlot owners and compensate them.

Now, this means that the provincial government has to agree to sit down with all interested parties in the next few weeks and to ensure that the program will be funded according to a 50:50 formula.

[Year 2000, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, of course there have been all kinds of forecasts about the January 1, 2000 problem.

There is no doubt that we are trying to prepare the government and the various government departments to be absolutely ready for that date. Even the Bank of Canada is considering increasing the money supply.

The government has made plans to deal with the various contingencies that may happen at that time.

[Bill C-44, November 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the full independence of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is guaranteed by the Broadcasting Act. However I would like to ask a question of my colleague from the Bloc. If holding office during pleasure under the federal act is so dangerous, how is it that the chairman of Télé-Québec is appointed under the very same conditions?

[Government Expenditures, November 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the total amount given for the millennium which is $145 million has been set in previous estimates. The member could easily have picked up the amount at that point and made his comments on it. I will repeat my comment.

The really large amounts in the estimates are transfers to various parts of the population that found themselves in difficulty, the salmon fishermen, the people affected by the ice storm and the increase in payments to the health transfers. Are these the payments my hon. colleague would like to see decreased?

[Government Expenditures, November 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the only new spending in the tabling of the estimates was $628 million for the Pacific salmon fishermen and the post-TAGS program. The others were expenditures that were already announced in the previous estimates.

I would like to know what the hon. member is against. Is it the payments to the British Columbia salmon fishermen? Is it the payments to the people who were affected by the ice storm during the winter? Were these the payments that came from the increased health payments?

[2000 Problem, October 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, yes, the Canadian government has been spending a lot of money in an effort to get ready for the Y2K problem.

In the latest report published by Treasury Board, we indicated the percentage of achievement of work on government-wide critical systems. This shows that most of the departments, if not all, will be ready for 2000.

However, we are not taking any chances. We are ready for all contingencies and we have asked the various departments, particularly the emergency preparedness group in the Department of National Defence, to be ready.