Bill Casey

[Supply, May 28th, 2002]

Two for one. From the beginning, members of the Progressive Conservative Party have pressed the government to do what we did when we were in power. We got the industry together and met with them regularly. I know because I was there. We met with the industry regularly. We succeeded in coming up with a strategy. We negotiated with the Americans and we came up with a settlement. We have encouraged the Liberals to follow our lead and do that again. Would they do it? No, they would not.

Now we find ourselves in a situation where we have a 27.2% duty on all softwood lumber going to the U.S. We have asked the government to fight back, not to just knuckle under and do what the U.S. says. We have asked it to argue from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness. We have asked it to stand up to the Americans like we did when we resolved this issue the last time.

The Progressive Conservative Party also has urged the government to deal with the victims of this. It is the government's fault and there are victims because of it. It should establish a cabinet committee at the very least to focus on this and not leave it up to one minister who passes it off to another minister who passes it off to another minister. There should be a committee responsible for dealing with this, with the negotiations and with the results of the failure.

The government should co-ordinate assistance and come up with programs to help the people in the industries and in the communities who are suffering so much from its failure.

We will be supporting this motion today, but it is really unfortunate that the motion is even here.

[Supply, May 28th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise for this debate. It is a subject we have talked about on several occasions, it continues to go on and on and it will go on as long as the government is here.

I will be dividing my time with the member for Brandon--Souris who will address the agricultural side to this debate and I will focus on softwood lumber.

The motion is really quite telling and I am sure the government cannot be too proud of it. It reads:

That this House has lost confidence in the government for its failure to persuade the U.S. government to end protectionist policies that are damaging Canada's agriculture and lumber industries and for failing to implement offsetting trade injury measures for the agriculture and lumber sectors.

The government has failed but it is not all its fault. The U.S. has used strong-armed tactics and taken a very inflexible approach. However the fact of the matter is that this government has failed Canadian industry whereas the American government has succeeded in representing American industry very well. The American industry interests are looked after and the Canadian industry interests are not. The government has failed because it has a lack of imagination, initiative and inability to bring together the industry, provinces and all stakeholders.

Everybody on the opposition side harped on for months and months about this. Rule one is that united we stand, divided we fall. The government allowed the Canadian initiative to be all over the board. Representatives from the provinces went to Washington. Representatives from the regions went to Washington. Lumber groups went to Washington. Then the federal government went to Washington and it was surprised to find out it was the last one to go and that everybody had been there before it. There has been a total lack of co-ordination with the industry and a total failure on behalf of the government.

It is a failure because we have a 27.2% tariff on our lumber industry. The government has failed where others have succeeded. Previous governments, and one of which I was a member, ran into the same opposition, the same protagonists, the same issues and the same arguments and we overcame them. This government has not been able to overcome them because it does not have the imagination or whatever it takes to do that. It has failed. It simply has not been able to match the Americans person per person in its arguments.

Now we find ourselves in a very serious situation. What are the results of the failure? Thousands of people in the industry will be laid off and are being laid off as we speak. Communities are totally affected because many of them are one industry towns. This means that the small businesses, the corner stores, the clothing stores, the car dealers and everybody are affected by the downturn when a mill closes in communities. It has a tremendous impact. Businesses will be lost, never to come back. Savings will be lost forever. Houses will be lost. The impact is pervasive in these communities, and this will happen across the country.

It means that kids will not go to university. There are so many impacts. What is the government reaction? The minister said that there were no direct job loses linked to the situation with the U.S. and that the government could not intervene every time there was a natural restructuring in one industry's market and that things would have to be sorted out. Ask the people who are losing their homes, their small businesses, their RRSPs, their retirements and everything else, if there is an impact. The minister said there were no direct job loses. That is just not true.

The failure is easy to explain. I picked out two quotes, one from an industry in Canada and one from the trade representative in the United States. The president of Doman Industries said:

Governments should be embarrassed by their lack of progress in negotiating a settlement and provide help to forest dependent communities

That is a Canadian industry saying that the government should be ashamed.

The other quote is by Mr. Zoellick, the U.S. trade representative. He said:

The sense I've gotten from the Canadian government is they're not interested in further discussions--they're going to play this out at the [World Trade Organization].

He went on to say that it was a callous and awful attitude to take. That was his impression of the Canadian government's reaction, that it did not want to negotiate or deal.

Meanwhile people and communities across the country are suffering and losing everything they have. The industry is in chaos. They do not know where to ship their products. They do not know whether to send them east, west, south or north. They do not know how to handle it.

From the beginning everyone on the opposition side said over and over to get the industry together and establish one strategy. It said not to let the provinces, or the lumber organizations or the regions go to Washington to independently negotiate. However that is what the government did. Instead of getting everyone together and allowing the federal government to negotiate the deal, it let everyone go to Washington. This happens frequently. Then when representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International trade went down, they were the last ones to arrive. The Americans must be laughing at our approach to this. We have failed to develop a strategy which reflects the entire industry.

Let us compare this with how the U.S. government has done it. It has worked hand in hand with its industry. In fact, at the direction of the U.S. lumber industry, it has established strategies and tactics, exactly what the U.S. industry wants, and it has succeeded. The Canadian government does not bring the stakeholders together. It thinks it can do it all by itself. We have the provinces and the regions going to Washington. It must be a joke in Washington.

In the face of failure, how do we react? Do we reach out to the people affected? Do we try to help? No, the government has said that there are no job losses and that everything is just hunky-dory. It is like saying people have jobs but they cannot go to them and they will not get a paycheque. It is incredible how the government is allowing a wave of devastation to go across the country, one that will hurt all these communities.

The government has created the problem. It should be part of alleviating the problem. I am not saying it is simple because the Americans are tough negotiators. However the government has failed where other governments have succeeded in dealing with the same issue with the same people. It should stand and say that it is responsible and it will help.

I saw on television yesterday that the government announced a $20 million advertising program that would solve the problem. It will spend the money in the U.S. and probably funnel it through Groupaction in Quebec. The only result will be that the friends of the Liberals will get their kickbacks and their share of the $20 million.

[Public Safety Act, 2002, May 27th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to compliment the previous speakers for their remarks, which I think were very good and right on the money.

This whole thing seems ironic to me. We are talking about a bill that is a response to the assault of September 11, and it turns out that like so many bills the Liberals have now it is an assault on parliament. It tries to restrict parliament's control and role in so many things. Just a few minutes ago we talked about Bill C-56 and the same concerns were raised in that debate. The same concerns were raised with the bill prior to that one. The problem is that the government is trying to restrict parliament from doing its duty and is trying to remove the role of parliament from many aspects of government legislation.

It is ironic that Bill C-55 is here only because parliament complained so much about Bill C-42 that the government withdrew it and replaced it with Bill C-55. I believe that is proof positive that parliament does play an important role in reflecting the interests and concerns of Canadians. However, this bill again restricts the role of parliament in so many ways and it goes along with so many actions by the government to adopt and establish agencies that are out of the reach of parliamentarians and committees. It has adopted foundations that distribute money and has privatized organizations like Nav Canada so that we can no longer have access to information for reports on safety and on the aspects of aviation that are so important to Canadians. This is a constant thing. Every single bill that comes forward seems to have an element in it that takes away our role in parliament, even though the very existence of this bill is proof positive that parliament does play an important role.

The bill takes tremendous powers from parliament and gives them to a minister. It is hard to believe that the government has even proposed such a bill. The interim orders that a minister can establish can remain secret for 23 days. They can go 45 days without cabinet approval. A minister can create a military security zone and not even seek cabinet approval for 45 days. What can possibly be the excuse for that? Why would it take 45 days to get the cabinet together if there is an emergency that justifies such a measure? Why is that not a few hours? Someone has proposed 72 hours. Why is that not acceptable? Why do we have to wait 45 days to get cabinet approval, much less keep it secret for 23 days? This is just absolutely amazing and there is no need for it. It must be an attempt by the Liberals, or the officials working for the Liberals, or someone, to establish power, maintain it and take it away from our parliament.

If we compare this to the Emergency Measures Act, which is designed to do much the same thing, only for different reasons perhaps, it really brings out the differences, the anomalies and the unacceptable conditions in Bill C-55. The emergency measures must go to parliament within 7 days, not 45 days. They must come back to parliament and we must vote on them here in parliament. Under the actions in Bill C-55 we would never vote on that. Why? Why would the Emergency Measures Act require a vote in parliament and Bill C-55 not require a vote in parliament?

Parliament could actually turn down an emergency measures recommendation or order by a minister. Under Bill C-55 parliament cannot even touch a recommendation. Under the Emergency Measures Act every regulation must come back to parliament and must be reported within two sitting days. Under Bill C-55 they never have to come back to parliament. Bill C-55 would come into effect immediately. There is not even a declaration of the implementation required under Bill C-55. There does not even have to be a petition to bring it in. Bill C-55 must be reported only 15 days after the House returns to sit again. If it does not sit, this is not reported at all. There is no requirement. There is no debate, no accountability, no nothing. It cloaks every aspect of Bill C-55 in secrecy. Parliament is left literally completely out of the loop.

This is a public safety bill but we should almost have a parliamentary safety bill to protect parliament. We should bring in a bill to protect parliament and our role to make sure that we still have a role in issues such as these, issues such as security and safety, a role that the bill tries to take away from us.

As the privacy commissioner said, as reported by the previous speaker, he takes total exception to this and says that the Liberals are trying to create a totalitarian society. Their response is to attack the privacy commissioner. This is a new strategy of the Liberals. They recently had an array of members of parliament attack the auditor general when she came out with a report they did not like. Now they have attacked the privacy commissioner. The Liberals establish these positions and support them, but if these people do not agree with them, they attack them. Then there is the ethics counsellor, who just does exactly whatever the Prime Minister wants him to do.

It is a serious issue. Many Canadians are concerned about the direction the government is going in. They are concerned about the intrusion of the United States on our sovereignty with this whole security aspect and the demands of the Americans to have their customs throughout Canada at our ports and in our airports. They want to take over our military by creating a perimeter security philosophy. What they really want to do is to control it; they do not want to share it. They want to control the customs officers in Canada. Again it seems that the Liberals are falling for this and going along with it. Although the United States is a very important friend to Canada, we must maintain our distance and our sovereignty. I hope that we do not move any closer and comply with some of the requests that the Americans continually are coming up with.

Our industries are now finding that the Americans are changing the rules every day. When truckers arrive at the border with a load of goods or even seeds or agricultural products, they find that the rules have changed and that they cannot proceed in the same way they did last week or the week before. The Americans are trying to control trade, security, the police and the military. This is a very dangerous direction to take and Bill C-55 plays into those hands.

Under the bill, the powers given to a minister require that cabinet be notified only after 45 days. I come back to that again because I think it is so unacceptable that cabinet does not have to approve some of these actions that a minister can take. It puts tremendous power in the minister's hands. That should be changed, if nothing else.

We support the amendment today because of these actions, because they put so much power in the hands of a minister when it is not necessary. I have no idea why the Liberals have come up with these conditions in the bill for transfer of the power to ministers. It is not necessary. They have lost total respect for parliament. They want to keep parliament out of the loop. They want to have just a very small number of ministers over there, not even the entire cabinet, making all the decisions and having all the power, and they want to have all the Liberal members stand up like trained seals and say yes, that they support it and they will do it. It is amazing that they continue to do this.

[Government Contracts, May 24th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the government clearly has failed the test. It said it has a new atmosphere of openness and transparency and yet would not answer the most simple question.

What we want to know is who ordered this disturbing clampdown on information by VIA Rail. Was it the Prime Minister's former chief of staff or was it the Prime Minister himself? Have other clampdown orders been applied to other government agencies and foundations?

[Government Contracts, May 24th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, a few minutes ago the Deputy Prime Minister said that the new goal of the government is an atmosphere of transparency and openness and even challenged the opposition to meet the test. I have a test for the government.

VIA Rail refuses to provide any information on questionable untendered advertising contracts and says it will only respond to and answer to the government. Under this new veil of transparency and openness, will the government provide all the information on those questionable untendered advertising documents?

[Supply, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, to quote the Prime Minister, he said in the House that honouring the promises they made is a key part in restoring the trust of Canadians. The Prime Minister promised to establish an ethics commissioner who would report to parliament. Does the member think the Prime Minister should keep that promise?

[Supply, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first, the member said that he listened in disgust to the Prime Minister this morning. My reaction was different. It was more amazement and bewilderment that the Prime Minister could stand and say that we had to maintain the decorum or that we could not let these questions bring parliament into disrepute. When the Liberals were in opposition, their full time job was to bring parliament into disrepute and they left no stone unturned doing it.

Anyway to answer the question, I have a quote here from the Prime Minister who said:

There can be no substitute for responsibility at the top. The Prime Minister sets the moral tone for the government and must make the ultimate decisions when issues of trust or integrity are raised. That is what leadership is all about.

No one should blame the bureaucrats for this. There is a tradition and a precedent for accountability by ministers and that is completely disregarded by the government.

[Supply, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the test that the hon. member just handed me, and I will do my best to pass it.

If the government abided by the present rules we would not need any changes but unfortunately it is not doing that. We have seen that by just reading the newspapers over the last little while.

There are other democracies that have committees that deal with ethics issues and which report back to their parliaments and legislatures. This one does not have that. We have an ethics counsellor who is not an ethics counsellor but rather the first line of defence for the government. Whenever the government has a problem or gets into a bind, it calls the ethics counsellor and the ethics counsellor writes a report saying that everything is squeaky clean. That is the government's first line of defence and that is a bad mistake.

I will mention to the member three changes I would like to see made.

First, I would like to see committees of the House allowed to elect their own chairs in a proper way. Second, I would like to see committees allowed to choose their agendas, not be driven by ministers who tell it to do this or that. Third, is the same one I mentioned in the first place and that is an ethics counsellor who reports to parliament.

[Supply, May 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, this is not a happy debate at all. It is interesting that I am one of two members who were defeated in 1993 from the previous government because of accusations and innuendo by the Liberals, the rat pack in particular. They criticized us very effectively while we were making a lot of profound changes and as the previous speaker said, we did not do everything right.

However, because those accusations were repeated over and over we were defeated, all but two members. We went from 160 seats down to 2 and I was one of the ones defeated. I was told to go home because we had done things wrong.

In 1997 I was fortunate enough to win again. I somehow recaptured the trust and faith of people. They voted me back in and defeated the Liberal who had replaced me. I was re-elected in 2000. I am proud of that and grateful for the opportunity to be here.

As foreign affairs critic I get to visit other countries that do not have a parliament that works like this. To see our parliament downgraded and degraded, like has been happening in the last little while, is sad for me. I value this experience and appreciate the value of parliament and the role we play. I truly believe in parliament and the parliamentary system.

This morning I talked with John Christianson, a reporter for the Truro Daily News . He asked about what was going on in Ottawa. I was talking with him about a local issue. I said we have an opposition day debate about corruption that would probably go on all day. I started to tell him some of the issues and he said there is so much of it now that reporters do not pay any attention or listen to it.

That is the perception out there with the thinking public. There is just so much of this stuff going on, whether it is corruption, incompetence or whatever. People do not even pay attention to it any more.

This morning I was looking at a newspaper. It had a picture of a ski chalet. I had to look at it two or three times. This is no ski chalet. In Atlantic Canada it would be a mansion. I do not know what to call it but it is a castle. I wondered where the money came from to build the castle. Did it come from the department of public works through these millions of dollars in contracts? Then the minister of public works is in there enjoying the castle. No wonder people wonder.

As the whole debate has come out, the son of the current minister of public works used to work for the previous minister of public works, Alfonso Gagliano. When the current minister became minister the son was moved over to another department.

There are rules in the public service. People in my riding cannot even apply for a job in Ottawa because they do not have the right postal code. Here is a minister's family member shuffled from place to place, and there are more family members in the government, as well. I do not want to drag in the family members but it is a fact. They have access to these jobs when people in my riding cannot even apply for them. No wonder people question what is going on and get tired of listening to it.

In the millions of dollars of contracts, who can figure out what $50 million in advertising went to? Are we talking about signs at arenas, pins or flags? What are we talking about? With millions and millions of dollars, no wonder people are leery. Then there are $10,000 a plate dinners to meet the Prime Minister. How many veterans will be there at the dinner? How many people with disability pensions will be at the $10,000 a plate dinner to talk with the Prime Minister about their problems of not making ends meet on $672 a month? Making $672 a month, how does one go to $10,000 a plate dinners to talk to the Prime Minister face to face? No wonder people are leery of the whole screwball outfit we have over there.

I paid particularly close attention to the Prime Minister's speech. He listed the eight points that he would change. They are probably good but they are extraneous points. He could have been so much more effective if he had just said that he would keep his promise and make the ethics counsellor answer to parliament.

He went on and on about unity which has nothing to do with this debate. He did admit some mistakes were made but he did not address the issue of the ethics counsellor.

Imagine if Sheila Fraser were the ethics counsellor and she answered to parliament. Imagine the mess that outfit would be in. This is why the government will not allow the ethics counsellor to report to parliament even though the Prime Minister promised to make the individual accountable to parliament.

The Prime Minister said that honouring the promises he made was a key part in restoring the trust of Canadians. Right off the bat he is acknowledging that he is not going to restore the trust of Canadians because he is not going to honour his promise to make the ethics counsellor accountable to parliament. That is all he had to do today to resolve a lot of the issues at hand and to stop calling parliament into disrepute, and he said that we should stop calling parliament into disrepute.

I remember a time a few years ago during 1988 to 1993 when the Prime Minister and his party had no hesitation in calling parliament into disrepute. They used every trick in the book. Some members may remember seeing the climbing over the desks, the screaming, the hollering, the accusations and innuendoes. They did not hesitate to call parliament into disrepute. Imagine an hon. member climbing over a desk to get to a minister. If that is not putting parliament into disrepute, then nothing is.

I wish only one thing. I do not care about the eight promises the Prime Minister made. I do not care about the eight points he made. This is about the integrity of this House, which I value. If we are going to have integrity in the House, it is clear that the ethics counsellor will have to be totally independent and accountable to parliament in the same way the auditor general is.

The auditor general has done this country an extreme service by the reports she has made. They are courageous and will help the country and the government to address issues that should have been addressed a long time ago. We should all be grateful for that institution. We should also be grateful for an ethics counsellor who reports to parliament in the same way the auditor general does.

All we are asking is for the Prime Minister to keep his promise. He said that it was important to keep promises. He also said another important thing and that was that the ethics counsellor should report to parliament. If the he had kept his promise requiring the ethics counsellor to report to parliament, all of this would have been dealt with.

I hope all members of the opposition as well as all members of the government will continue to put pressure on the Prime Minister to bring that about so that the ethics counsellor will report to parliament.

[Softwood Lumber, May 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, once again I rise to question the effectiveness of the Minister for International Trade in the most important softwood lumber negotiations with the United States.

The government is now trying to paint the decision to refund Canada's $760 million in bonds as an achievement when in fact the new charges went into effect yesterday and will cost billions of dollars to the industry. The president of Doman Industries, a major player in the softwood business, says:

--governments should be embarrassed by their lack of progress in negotiating a settlement...

Even worse, the U.S. trade representative, Ted Zoellick, said this week:

The sense I've gotten from the Canadian government is they're not interested in further discussions...

I hope the government can explain that to the thousands of workers who face unemployment. The long term solution to this crisis will be a negotiated agreement. A great start would be for the minister to pick up the phone, call Mr. Zoellick, and tell him we are interested in negotiations.