Marcel Massé

[Bill C-44, October 26th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the CBC's independence is clearly guaranteed under section 46(5) of the Broadcasting Act, which reads: “The Corporation shall, in the pursuit of its objects and in the exercise of its powers, enjoy freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence”.

I think the government clearly indicated its desire to see the CBC enjoy total cultural freedom.

[Bill C-44, October 22nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, quasi-judiciary agencies, which must of course retain their independence, will need to have presidents or board members who conduct themselves properly, while all other agencies, whether cultural or otherwise, should have administrators who hold office during pleasure, so that they may be removed when their behaviour warrants it.

[Industrial Development, October 5th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague is talking about an infrastructure program. I believe we have already indicated that infrastructure projects that meet the needs of the three levels of government have been chosen in conjunction with the provinces, including Quebec.

There may be another infrastructure program in a future budget, but that has yet to be determined.

[Pay Equity, October 1st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the judgment of the tribunal on human rights has been appealed. It has been appealed for a very clear reason, for the reason of equity.

There was a previous judgment by the federal court concerning about 20,000 women and Bell Canada which used a certain methodology to determine what the payment should be. The tribunal has used a totally different methodology which our legal experts say is incorrect.

Are we going to use two different standards to pay two groups of women, one for the private sector and one for the public sector? Obviously that would be inequitable and that is why we asked the court to address the question.

[The Late Gilles Rocheleau, September 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, this year, the people of Hull—Aylmer lost a man who had devoted his entire public life to the service of his fellow citizens.

Gilles Rocheleau served the City of Hull for 14 years as alderman and mayor. He then went on to represent his fellow citizens in the Quebec National Assembly for seven years, serving first of all under Claude Ryan and then as a minister under Robert Bourassa.

Finally, in 1988, his fellow citizens elected him to this Parliament to defend their interests on the federal scene. Gilles, as he was fondly referred to by everyone in the Outaouais, was a man with definite ideas and no hesitancy to express them, but he will long be remembered by all, primarily for his love and legendary devotion to his fellow residents of west Quebec.

On behalf of the Government of Canada, I offer sincere condolences to his wife and family.

[Ice Storm, September 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, under the disaster assistance arrangement, the provinces are responsible for both managing the situation and paying municipalities, individuals and organizations for the losses suffered. The role of the federal government is to reimburse the province afterwards, based on a set formula.

What happened in this case, is that the PQ government refused to pay the municipalities the amounts they may be entitled to, claiming this is a provincial jurisdiction. And the provincial government cannot hide anything because we are not paying—

[Pay Equity, September 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the basis for the conciliation board was established and negotiations on pay equity have not been interrupted. Tomorrow there is a meeting between the union and the government on pay equity.

I agree that a negotiated settlement would be the best way to solve that problem. I ask my colleague to plead with the union to offer to workers the offer we have left on the table.

The union has refused to propose to its employees—

[Pay Equity, September 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the question because it permits me to restate the issue.

The issue is very clear. The government believes in pay equity but it does not believe in two standards of pay equity, one for the private sector in the Bell Canada case and one for the public sector in the case of the human rights tribunal. With two different interpretations of the law by two different tribunals it was clear that we had to go to the appeal court and ask them to interpret the law in the same way for the private sector and for the public sector.

[Pay Equity, September 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the government is clearly in favour of pay equity, because we passed the first piece of legislation and have already paid out over a billion dollars for pay equity, in addition to putting another $1.3 billion on the table.

Certain federal court decisions were contrary to the decisions by the Human Rights Tribunal. We will have to leave it up to the courts to decide which is the correct interpretation of the law.

[Criminal Code, June 12th, 1998]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-51, an act to amend the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)