Mr. Speaker, the minister talks of sharing, but is he aware that this is the third decision by the federal government in only six months that is unfavourable to Quebec fishermen?
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 1993, with 55% of the vote.
Fisheries May 2nd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the minister talks of sharing, but is he aware that this is the third decision by the federal government in only six months that is unfavourable to Quebec fishermen?
Fisheries May 2nd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
On April 13, in an unprecedented decision, the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans revealed his plan for managing snow crab in 1995, which will deprive Quebec fishermen of 400 tonnes of crab, which will be transferred to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. This improvised transfer will mean the loss of 40 plant jobs and over $3 million for fishermen of the Gaspé and Magdalen Islands.
How does the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans justify his decision to transfer 400 tonnes of crab fishing quota from Quebec to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia?
Labour Relations May 1st, 1995
How can the minister justify the fact that his colleague, the Minister of Labour, who was so eager to bludgeon rail workers upon taking office, no longer finds the time to include antiscab provisions in the Canada Labour Code?
Labour Relations May 1st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. At the Liberal convention in Trois-Rivières last weekend, the Minister of Labour said that including antiscab provisions in the Canada Labour Code was no longer a priority for the government. The minister has clearly chosen to devote herself full time to the Quebec referendum, thus neglecting her responsibilities as federal Minister of Labour.
How does the minister justify the about-face of his colleague, the Minister of Labour, who now refuses to table a bill that would add antiscab provisions to the Canada Labour Code after promising to do so upon taking office?
Government Spending April 25th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, five months after taking office, the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans won the award for claiming the highest travel expenses of all federal ministers. This piece of news had already angered taxpayers, who expected the Liberal government to keep its promises and stop wasting taxpayers' money.
Well, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has done it again, spending over $200,000 on redecorating and refurnishing his headquarters in Ottawa.
How can we let a minister spend so much money on fancy furniture, when his own government is cutting billions of dollars from social programs?
The Liberal government is asking the middle class and the most disadvantaged to make sacrifices in the name of deficit reduction, but is unable to eliminate the advantages enjoyed by the lucky few who are squandering taxpayers' money.
By acquiring this furniture, the fisheries minister is taking taxpayers for a ride.
Labour Relations April 5th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, Ogilvie Mills workers have, once again, demanded that the Minister of Labour table an antiscab bill aimed at businesses under federal jurisdiction. The minister responded like her predecessor, saying simply that she was reviewing the matter.
The government has been studying the issue for nearly a year and a half and the only reason for this delay is a total lack of political will. The federal government is quite familiar with the type of provisions already in effect in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
The Bloc Quebecois, for its part, recently tabled in this House a bill which would provide adequate protection for the workers currently hurt by their employers' disloyal practices. The minister is quick to trample workers' rights, as she did in the rail labour dispute, but she is unacceptably slow in responding to their legitimate demands.
Fisheries April 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, considering the items still outstanding, how does the minister
explain the presence of ten Spanish trawlers in the contested area, as negotiations continue in Brussels?
Fisheries April 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. The minister claims that negotiations between Canada and the European Union are progressing at a rate that leads us to conclude that an agreement is imminent. However, we are witnessing a hardening of the position of spokespersons for the European Union, especially Mrs. Bonino, European commissioner for fisheries.
Could the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans report on the progress of negotiations under way in Brussels, and does he still maintain that Canada and the European Union are on the verge of reaching an agreement?
Petitions March 30th, 1995
Madam Speaker, this morning, I have the pleasure of tabling in this House a petition signed by some 160 seniors criticizing the government for installing a voice mail system.
The petitioners say, among other things, that they are entitled to appropriate service-a fair description, in my opinion-and call on the government to abandon its plan to install voice mail, particularly for seniors.
Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, 1995 March 27th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I will therefore talk about the amendment proposed by the Reform Party to narrow the deviation from the provincial electoral quota from 25 per cent to 15 per cent. First, I would like to point out that Quebec also voted against the Charlottetown Accord. Obviously for different reasons, but this is probably the only point in history where we agreed. This is just about the only time in the year that the Bloc Quebecois and the Reform Party agreed. It was, nevertheless, for a good cause, basically.
In order to understand what the 25 per cent and the 15 per cent situations represent, we must situate ourselves both geographically and demographically, since our role in the House is not just to represent an area and not just to represent people, but to represent the people in a given area. From these two starting points, we must look at the two elements in the process. There are regions where it is easy to comply with the principle through geographic juggling or playing with certain boundaries and thus relatively easy to move the scale 25 per cent or 15 per cent higher or lower. It is a matter of mathematics.
Clearly mathematics does enter the picture at some point. However, where mathematics takes a back seat is where geography comes into play. There are regions, not only in Quebec, but in Ontario and in the Yukon, where this is not possible. I am sorry, but our role here in the House of Commons is not a static role where we represent people mathematically. We are here to represent people according to the demographics of regional characteristics. Within the process, certain basic elements must be taken into account. I will give you a specific example. Naturally, I will give you the one I know best, that of my riding.
My riding is the third largest riding in the country: 465,000 square kilometres. It is a little more than half the size of Ontario, just to give you an idea of what 465,000 kilometres means. It is not the kind of vast area where people live in 10 square kilometres and the rest is forest. No, there are people living throughout it in its farthest reaches. There is even a place where there are fewer people-at the heart of it. So, reasonably, a member has to take the time to visit the people, and the people also are entitled to see those they voted for, those who represent them, whether they voted for them or not, because they are there to represent them.
Mr. Speaker, 465,000 square kilometres, that is over 82 times the size of Prince Edward Island, which has four MPs. Therefore, if we were to calculate the ratio, there should be 328 MPs for the riding of Manicouagan, which is more than the number of members currently in the House of Commons. If you want to talk math, so will we.
It makes no sense, except that there would be a lot of Bloc Quebecois members. We are losing in all this, but what can I say? It is something we must accept.
Now, back to the debate, because we must not lose sight of any of these issues in the parliamentary process. And when we take into consideration goals that we must strive to attain and, I should add, never give up on, this is stricly in the interests of the good representation of the taxpayers who pay our salaries.
It takes three hours by plane to get to Blanc-Sablon, in the eastern corner of my riding, and if I want to visit other taxpayers in the north end of my riding, I have to first go back to Sept-îles before taking another three hour flight. I have to block off several days, even weeks, if I want to go to Blanc-Sablon. In fact, I had to prepare a schedule when I appeared before the committee.
To really visit everyone in my riding, not in a whirlwind tour, but to actually go to each location and meet an organization, for example the municipal authorities at city hall or the members of a chamber of commerce, it takes three weeks non-stop, with no days off, and that is if weather permits. I must honestly admit that over the last year and a bit, I still have not been able to do a complete tour of my riding because all too often the fog prevents us, slows us down, makes us push back our schedule by a day. Taxpayers nevertheless have the right to meet their elected representatives. And it is the duty of elected representatives to meet taxpayers on their own turf so that they can better understand certain peculiarities, because regional particularities do come into play.
In the north, for example, we find native communities, where hunting and fishing are the main issues. In the southwest, which covers the area from Sept-îles and Port-Cartier up to Franquelin, including Havre-Saint-Pierre, we find mostly mining and logging companies, naturally. Fermont is another mining town a little further to the north.
That is where the road ends. That is another factor to be considered. There is a proposal to amend the variance from 25 per cent to 15 per cent. When the road ends, it does not matter whether it is 15 or 25 per cent. These people have the right to live, to have access to food, to health and public services.
We are talking about quite a different set of logistics just to meet with them. There is no comparison. In this sector, 75 to 80 per cent of the inhabitants live off the fishery. But there is no road. There is only the boat or the plane, and in winter, the snowmobile.
We know what happened recently in Blanc-Sablon. There is a great deal of snow, Mr. Speaker.
In conclusion, we must not take our search for a mathematical formula to extremes. We must continue to be proud of the work we are doing, and proud as well that we are able to improve the
quality of service to these people, because they too have rights and obligations, as do we, their elected representatives. We must not allow a mathematical formula to make a mockery of what we do.
In order to bring it into line, my riding would have to be enlarged by almost half the area of the entire province of Quebec. We would be looking at more than one House of Commons. No. I think that, out of respect for taxpayers, we should stick with figures that take geography and demography into account.