Bev Oda

[Citizenship and Immigration, November 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, letter after letter to newspapers over the weekend voice the outrage Canadians feel over this government's unfair immigration policies. Liberal promotion of favouritism and queue jumping has angered immigrants and their families. The Prime Minister must know that all the actions of his immigration minister have upset all Canadians and not just recent immigrants.

Will the Prime Minister do the right thing, restore integrity and fairness to the immigration system, and fire the minister?

[Citizenship and Immigration, November 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the immigration minister's actions are hypocritical. She says she's against importing women into Canada to work demeaning jobs, but then says it is okay. She says she is the minister of hope and dreams, but is allowing 700,000 immigrants to languish in the queue while she rewards her campaign workers.

Will the Prime Minister admit she has failed as an immigration minister and fire her?

[Canadian Heritage, November 25th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, 50% of the moneys raised goes back to the magazine. This grant application was languishing in the department for over six months. Does the minister expect Canadians to believe that a $40,000 grant only one month after she was the cover girl is merely a coincidence?

[Canadian Heritage, November 25th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the September issue of a magazine featured the Minister of Canadian Heritage on its cover. We have now learned that the same magazine received a $40,000 grant from the minister's department.

Has the minister learned nothing from the sponsorship scandal? Why is she handing out taxpayers' money to buy her own publicity?

[Daniel Andrew Iannuzzi, November 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to Dan Iannuzzi, who passed away in Rome over the weekend.

Dan Iannuzzi, a third generation Italian Canadian, dedicated his entire life to international and multicultural media. He founded Corriere Canadese and the Ethnic Press Association of Ontario.

I have known Dan for over 28 years, an inspiration to many over the years and a friend of my family. He was a man with deep passion and a vision for Canada. I worked with him when he fought for and launched CFMT-TV, the first multilingual television service in the world.

Dan Iannuzzi was fiercely Canadian and proudly Italian, the masthead on his newspaper. The country has lost a champion and community leader with the passing of Daniel Andrew Iannuzzi.

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I rise on a point of order. May I remind the minister that the length of time to respond should correspond to the length of time it took to ask the question.

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I rise on a point of order. My concern is about the length of time of the response compared to the length of time it took to ask the question.

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, in light of the minister's response, I would assume then that redistribution would come out of administrative and departmental costs. May I then ask the minister for her assurance that no program will be cut and no funding agency will be cut, and that the levels of support will be guaranteed this year and into the next year?

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, the government claims to be a strong supporter of the arts. The minister is in control of the budget for this industry and this ministry. In light of the $9 billion surplus that the government has accumulated this year, why can the minister not protect the arts and creators from 5% funding cuts?

Just this weekend in Montreal the minister confirmed that the federal government will be asking all of the main cultural agencies to look at ways of reducing their budgets by 5%, including the CBC, Telefilm and the National Film Board.

It is time for the minister to do more for the arts community than tour around the country professing support for the arts. It is time for her to work to protect this important segment of our country from 5% cuts across the board. Actions do speak louder than words. If the government really supports the arts, these agencies should be exempt and I ask the minister, why are they not?

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I would like to move on.

Given that the last reported figures show that $4.3 billion of production was done in Canada in television programming; given that, of that, the largest portion or $1.9 billion was foreign interest or foreign service production, primarily American production; given that these levels of production also represent over 133,000 jobs in Canada, with government support programs going only to television programs and film, but little into capacity building and with the rising Canadian dollar, with the American movement to produce more in the U.S. or Europe, with the Americans initiating legislative measures to keep more production in the U.S., we are already seeing a drop in the production industry's level of activity here in this country.

What has the minister included in these estimates to build capacity and to strengthen the Canadian production infrastructure and keep those 133,000 jobs in Canada?