Douglas Young

[Questions On The Order Paper, September 27th, 1994]

Transport Canada and the Grain Transportation Agency do not have the necessary data-information with which to comment on this issue.

Question No. 30-

[Questions On The Order Paper, September 27th, 1994]

Transport Canada and the Grain Transportation Agency do not have the necessary data-information with which to comment on this issue.

Question No. 29-

[Questions On The Order Paper, September 27th, 1994]

(a), (b) and (c). Transport Canada and the Grain Transportation Agency do not have access to the necessary data to answer this question.

Question No. 28-

[Trois-Rivières Airport, September 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows very well, I met with him on this subject and explained to him that no air service is planned for Trois-Rivières-that fact remains. Coming up with a solution is particularly difficult, especially for the runway. I promised the hon. member that I would look into the matter. I asked him to contact the man who represented that riding in Parliament for nine years. I will do what I can so that the people of Trois-Rivières have an effective service that fits in with the new airport management system in this country.

[Trois-Rivières Airport, September 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, of course, for nine years, a member of Parliament represented that riding. The commitments to which my hon. colleague refers were an agreement in principle, as he said in his question. Even in Trois-Rivières, it takes money to meet such commitments.

[Canadian National Railways, September 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member would know, a number of steps would have to be taken. However, I do not want to give any indication as to how the government is going to respond to an unsolicited bid.

If we were to entertain this kind of change in the rail system in Canada it would be one that would involve the levels of government, employees and communities that would be affected. It would be a major policy decision. Nothing of that nature would be undertaken hastily.

I do want to reassure the hon. member that the Government of Canada is undertaking and has been working actively at reviewing a national rail policy. Obviously with the merger talks that went on between CN and CP there was a need to address that entire question and we are going to continue to actively pursue that.

[Canadian National Railways, September 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, in answer to the hon. member obviously this proposal submitted by CP is an unsolicited bid, as the hon. member would know. As I have indicated, we do not propose to respond to that bid in any hasty way. We are going to have it analysed very carefully.

The whole question the hon. member raises with respect to the CP bid is one of government policy. Obviously we will want to have a lot of input because it would be a major decision if we were to change the fundamental rail policy in this country as this bid would have that effect.

[Questions On The Order Paper, September 20th, 1994]

The port of Saguenay has sought approval to develop a new forest products terminal at Grande-Anse. It proposes that on the basis of its own traffic forecasts, current facilities will soon be at capacity and a new facility is required.

Port Saguenay is administrated by the Canada Ports Corporation, a commercial crown corporation. Infrastructure developments undertaken by the corporation must be commercially viable.

The proposal to expand the Grande-Anse terminal was only put forward on the basis of $23.5 million in grant funding being available to finance the project. This grant funding is not available and the expansion is currently on hold. The Canada Ports Corporation will continue to monitor the viability of the proposed expansion.

Question No. 70-

[Air Transportation, June 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, although I alluded to the Bloc Quebecois's interest in bilingualism in previous questions, it is now clear that the issue being raised is not one of safety, or of protecting the interests of people travelling in Canada; it is just petty politics again. Stick to your knitting, and I will stick to mine!

[Air Transportation, June 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, if someone is being stubborn in the House today, it is certainly not the Minister of Transport. We are trying to explain to our friends in the Bloc Quebecois that we are committed to ensuring the safety of the air navigation system in Quebec and the rest of Canada.

We are doing our best, with the technology that is available to us, to provide this service with every means at our disposal. The hon. member knows full well, if he has done his homework, that the only situation where communication over Quebec territory is not provided in French is in the Magdalen Island region, for aircraft travelling at 29,000 feet.

We will continue our efforts to provide service over Quebec in the language of the pilot's choice. We will continue to do so with every means at our disposal, and I hope the hon. member does not want to create the impression, among people travelling in Canada, that situations exist in which safety is in any way compromised, because he certainly risks creating that impression by continuing to raise such questions.