House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • Her favourite word was quebec.

Last in Parliament October 2000, as Bloc MP for Laval East (Québec)

Won her last election, in 1997, with 38% of the vote.

Statements in the House

The Late Walter Harris February 18th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, Walter Harris, who passed away not long ago, was born January 14, 1904 in Kimberley, Ontario. In other words, he lived through almost the entire 20th century. In his 95 years, he served his fellow citizens in his community and his country well as a lawyer, soldier, member of parliament and minister.

Walter Harris was elected for the first time in 1940 in the riding of Grey—Bruce. In his first term of office, he served in the Canadian army during the second world war. Re-elected in 1945, he soon became Louis St. Laurent's right hand man.

In fact, Prime Minister Mackenzie King appointed him parliamentary secretary to Mr. St. Laurent, when the latter was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1947. When he became prime minister, Mr. St. Laurent kept Walter Harris on as parliamentary secretary.

Mr. Harris' patience and loyalty were rewarded. After his return to office in 1949, he was appointed to cabinet as minister of citizenship and immigration. The position was especially important because Canadian citizenship had just been made distinct from British citizenship, and, in this post-war period, Canada was getting thousands of immigrants.

Re-elected again in 1953, Walter Harris took on his heaviest responsibilities in the final three years of his career. From 1954 to 1957, as Canada was going through a period of expansion, he served as minister of finance.

Of the three budgets that he brought down, it is the second one that gave him the greatest shock. In this regard, I would like to recount an anecdote.

Before the 1956 budget speech, a journalist from the Montreal Gazette wanted to play a trick on a colleague from La Presse and pretended that he had received, by mistake, a full copy of the new budget. The other journalist quickly informed the Prime Minister's office, which called the minister of finance. Having heard the rumour about a budget leak, the minister set to the task of writing his letter of resignation.

Fortunately, the prime minister already knew what had happened and he sent a secretary to inform the minister of finance that the whole thing was a joke. History has a way of repeating itself.

After 1957, Walter Harris had a long career as a lawyer in Markham, Ontario. He and his wife Grace Elma Morrison had three children, Fern, Margaret Helen and Robert Walter.

The Bloc Quebecois offers its most sincere condolences to all the surviving members of his family, and to the members of the Liberal party who knew him.

Black History Month February 18th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, February is Black History Month.

It gives us the opportunity to underline and appreciate the important contribution that people of African origin have made to Canada and to Quebec. Thousands of them worked to build a better Quebec, and they were not always able to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Today, racial discrimination has regressed, but as Dan Philip, chairman of the Black Coalition of Quebec, pointed out: “We have to work hard and to work together within a Quebec that is open and friendly, a Quebec where all forms of discrimination would gradually disappear”.

I am proud to announce that, tomorrow, a young woman from my riding, Jennie Dorsaint, will receive the Mathieu Da Costa award in recognition of her efforts to bring together people from different cultural backgrounds.

Thank you, Jennie, for promoting mutual understanding and respect among Quebeckers of various origins.

The Budget February 17th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the very day the budget was presented, the situation in the emergency rooms of certain hospitals was critical.

The Minister of Finance does not appear to listen to the news before he retires. If he did, he would not spend millions of dollars, when he prepares his budgets, on fattening up the mandarins of Health Canada and ordering empty studies on matters of no concern to him.

This House must realize that, with the hundreds of millions of dollars the federal government will be wasting in duplication and useless programs, such as telecare, the provinces could create hundreds of jobs and make available thousands of beds in emergency rooms so as to help the sick directly.

Let us remind the Minister of Finance that Internet does not attend to fractures, people do. No, the Minister of Finance did not listen to Canadians and Quebeckers in this budget. He tried instead to respond to the federal government's obsession with its own visibility.

It is sad to see that this budget marks the start of the ravages to the social union agreement that—

Export Of Candu Reactors February 11th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, my supplementary question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Can the Minister of Foreign Affairs tell us whether he intends to follow up on the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs calling upon Parliament to conduct “a separate and in-depth study on the domestic use, and foreign export of, Canada's civilian nuclear technology”?

Export Of Candu Reactors February 11th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday the Minister for International Trade revealed here in the House that the federal government wishes to continue exporting CANDU reactors.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Given the lack of scientific and social consensus on the safety of Canadian nuclear technology, can the Prime Minister guarantee that his government will not advance the billions of dollars required to purchase new CANDU reactors to Romania and Turkey?

Colombia February 10th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, in less than a week, there have been reports from Colombia concerning a murderous attack by paramilitaries, the murder of two human rights activists, and the kidnapping of four social workers affiliated with the Canadian Catholic organization Development and Peace.

According to a spokesperson for that organization, the kidnap victims were monitoring the actions of paramilitaries in the regions where land is being confiscated. It appears that they were taken in order to sabotage the peace talks between the Colombian government and the guerrillas.

Twenty-five thousand Colombians have protested in the streets of Medellin against the misdeeds of the paramilitary forces. The Bloc Quebecois joins its voice to theirs in demanding that the four people being held hostage by the paramilitaries be freed and the peace process in Colombia resumed.

Export Of Candu Reactors February 9th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.

In December, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade released a report recommending, and I quote: “That the Parliament of Canada conduct a separate and in-depth study on the domestic use, and foreign export of, Canada's civilian nuclear technology”.

Why is the Minister for International Trade delaying a moratorium on the export of Candu reactors until all the dangers involved in the use of this reactor are known?

Transit Passes February 8th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, I too wish to speak to Motion M-360, introduced by our colleague from Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys.

The motion reads as follows:

That, in the opinion of this House, the government should consider making employer-provided transit passes an income tax-exempt benefit.

The Bloc Quebecois will be supporting this motion. I believe it is our duty as legislators to adopt policies which make it possible to attain objectives of public interest which are of vital importance.

If the government accepted tax exemption for employer-provided transit passes, it would be exhibiting fairness, encouraging public transit, and effectively combatting pollution.

At the moment, we have a situation of flagrant inequity: employees who take public transit and receive bus passes from their employers are deemed to have received a taxable benefit. To put it clearly, this benefit is considered to be income, and therefore taxable. On the other hand, according to a Revenue Canada interpretation, those whose employer provides parking can benefit from a tax exemption. There seems to me, therefore, to be a problem of equity here.

Responsible public policy dictates that we must stop encouraging automobile use over public transit. Public transit is safer, more economical, less polluting and, most importantly, accessible to more people. They are thus perhaps more humane, certainly more cost-effective, healthier and more democratic.

When he introduced the motion, the hon. member for Kamloops. Thompson and Highland Valleys gave a detailed explanation of how the Americans implemented this system. There is no lack of precedent, therefore, on which we can build. The benefits to public transit in the U.S.A. are undeniable. Everywhere that employees were able to take advantage of this measure there was an increase in the use of public transit, and major improvements to infrastructures and services to the population.

It has become obvious in the greater Montreal area and other areas in Quebec and Canada that, when services are cut, there are fewer users. And when the demand drops, bus routes are removed. This creates a vicious circle of the worst kind. On the other hand, whenever the demand for public transit is encouraged, a virtuous circle is created, which promotes the expansion of public services.

It was no accident that the three major urban transit companies in Quebec, namely the Société de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal, Société de transport de Laval and Société de transport de la rive sud de Montréal, as well as most if not all their unions and employees are asking that we support a progressive and innovative policy. In addition, it seems obvious that promoting public transit is also a matter of social fairness.

As our colleagues so aptly pointed out, and I quote:

It is unfair that low-income families have been left with less access to educational and job opportunities simply because they do not own a vehicle.

That is to say nothing of the environmental aspect. According to a Transport Canada 3000 report, it is estimated that transit passes could help reduce automobile travel by as much as 300 million kilometres over 10 years.

This would result in lower noise levels, fewer traffic jams and accidents, less congestion in parking areas as well as tremendous savings in terms of fuel and other non-renewable resources.

Finally, if approved, this proposal would assist in fulfilling Canada's Kyoto commitments. For the record, I will go over them briefly.

The Kyoto protocol calls for an average 5.2% reduction of greenhouse emissions in all industrialized countries between 2008 and 2012. This means that Canada will have to reduce its 1990 levels of emissions by 6 per cent. However, the federal government has been dragging its feet regarding this issue. It has long put off any concrete measure to help fight climate change, which is a result of the greenhouse effect.

Following the signing of the Kyoto protocol, the federal government proposed the setting up of task forces, where some 450 experts would try to devise a strategy. While the 1998 budget provided for $150 million over a three-year period, it was only on October 19 that the first initiatives were announced, and that a Canadian strategy finally seemed to be taking shape, following the Kyoto protocol.

The government will spend millions to correct this environmental mess. Therefore, some may think it will surely refuse to make transit passes an income tax-exempt benefit, since this measure would deprive the government of valuable tax revenues. This is not the case. Indeed, how do these revenues compare with the savings in the health sector and in the budgets for the construction and renovation of our infrastructures, not to mention the incentives related to employment and distributive justice?

Why does the government not cut the billions of dollars that it has been giving for years to the oil and nuclear industries? Oil consumption is the primary cause of greenhouse gases, that scourge that those in Kyoto said they wanted to fight.

As for nuclear technology, it creates more problems than it solves. For example, CANDU reactors are neither efficient nor profitable and they pose a major threat to human safety and international security, since it is possible to divert that technology and use it for military purposes. Just remember, barely a few months ago, when the Indo-Pakistani crisis brought the threat of a nuclear conflict to the whole world.

Some might accuse me of exaggerating in establishing a link between bus passes and nuclear threat. Not so, considering that cumulative short sighted policies have often led our world on the brink of disaster during the 20th century.

We are moving step by step on the road to a better world. With the 21st century just months away, let us take a measure that will promote fairness, a healthier environment, sustainable development and a more just society.

The motion of the member for Kamloops—Thompson and Highland Valleys seeks to do that, and we support it.

Atomic Energy Canada Limited December 9th, 1998

Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary for the Minister of Finance.

In his March 1996 budget, the Minister of Finance announced that financial support for AECL would be cut. However, the public accounts reveal that they increased by 13% in 1996-97.

How can the Minister of Finance justify such a variance between what his budgets say and what his government actually spends?

Atomic Energy Canada Limited December 9th, 1998

Mr. Speaker, the Financial Administration Act provides that the business plan of each crown corporation must be approved by the government and that a summary of this plan is to be tabled in parliament.

According to the auditor general, however, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has not met this requirement for the past three years.

When does the President of the Treasury Board intend to show transparency and let us know the size of the financial black hole that Canada's nuclear program is?