Bill Casey

[Excise Act, 2001, April 9th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-47. Based on the debate I heard from the member for Regina--Qu'Appelle and others we would not know it was Bill C-47 because they talked about the airport security tax, the Tobin tax and all these things. I will follow his lead and talk about something else myself.

Bill C-47 is a housekeeping bill that would do a lot of things to clean up the act as far as tax collection goes and to define things for people involved in the wine, spirits and tobacco industry. It would do a variety of things including increasing the tobacco tax by $240 million annually, which will be the lead-in to the subject I want to talk about.

I feel obligated to mention a few things about Bill C-47. It would change the framework governing taxes on spirits, wine and tobacco. It would make the duty charged on wine the same as the duty currently charged on spirits.

The bill would bring in licensing registrations and regulations for the transportation industry to prevent trafficking and control of the movement of spirits and wine. It would create new provisions for offences for those breaking the law with regard to wine, spirits and tobacco.

The legislation would merge some already existing taxes which should make it simpler for industry to handle. It would make the federal tax on cigarettes the same all across the country which it should have been all along in any case.

I was watching television the other evening and I saw a Health Canada ad that said 45,000 Canadians die from smoking cigarettes every year. I thought to myself that figure could not be right. That is 10 times the number of people killed in the World Trade Center attack, and according to the ad it happens every year. I thought it must be wrong.

I contacted the Department of Health to clarify the figure and to ensure it was not providing the wrong information to Canadians. The department sent me a report confirming that in Canada 40,000 to 45,000 Canadians die of smoking related diseases. That is the same as having a World Trade Center attack every month. It is absolutely incredible. If we were to think about this, 45,000 Canadians die every year, year in and year out.

The report goes on to say that this impacts on the cost of living in our society of $15 billion a year. It is $2.5 billion directly to our health care system at a time when it is strained to its very edges, and yet we have this extra burden that does not have to be there.

The report from the Office of Tobacco Control, Health Protection Branch, stated:

According to this analysis, smokers cost society about $15 billion while contributing roughly $7.8 billion in taxes.

If it is killing 40,000 to 45,000 people a year it hardly seems like good value. A rough calculation indicates that at 41,000 people dying per year with a $7.8 billion tax revenue, that amounts to $190,000 per person. This is crazy. It is absolutely ridiculous that 45,000 people a year die from tobacco related diseases.

I commend and encourage the health minister to use these ads more that tell us about the dangers of smoking and about the incredible costs incurred. I encourage her to do more of these ads and make them clearer. I want her to point out the number of people who die every year in Canada is the same as 10 World Trade Center attacks. In the U.S. it extrapolated into an unbelievable number, but we are not talking about the U.S. we are talking about Canada.

The Canadian government, the military, everybody in Canada has turned a focus on the horrible terrorism act in New York which killed 4,000 people, but we have 45,000 people dying every year from smoking related diseases. It seems to me a misguided focus. If we are to address this issue the government has to come up with more ways to discourage people.

In the documents provided on Bill C-47 the government says it would increase the taxes on tobacco by $240 million annually. It claims that this would discourage tobacco consumption. I do not think that $240 million will discourage tobacco consumption enough. It does not provide educational material for young people, for smokers and does not help people get off the smoking habit. That is not nearly enough based on the numbers available and based on the study on the costs of smoking in Canada.

The numbers are absolutely incredible. They just go on and on in this report about the damage. It says that in 1991 approximately $2.5 billion in health care costs was attributable to smoking. That was 4% of the total health care budget in Canada.

That is just the beginning. There are extra costs for hospitals, physicians and absenteeism, and all other costs attributed to the smoking habit, which in 1991 was estimated at $15 billion. If we were to think about that, the whole health care budget was only $66 billion and the smoking attributable costs were $15 billion.

While we are talking about Bill C-47 and extra taxes on tobacco I raise the alarm bell and encourage the Minister of Health to increase those ads and put them into perspective for people so they can understand how dramatic the damage is that smoking is doing to our health, especially to young people, based on the charts and information that Health Canada supplied me. I hope we can raise the level of public awareness on this.

I compliment the Minister of Health for placing these ads. I have spoken to her today about how effective they were on me. In fact, they were so effective I thought they were wrong. The numbers are so high, they are hard to believe. I hope the Minister of Health will continue those ads, maybe even broaden them out and put them into perspective for people.

When I say that 45,000 people a year die in Canada people shake their heads and say that it is a lot. However, when I put it into perspective and say that it is 10 times the number of people that were killed in the World Trade Center they are flabbergasted. That is almost a World Trade Center catastrophe every month in Canada.

We should not accept this. We should not stand for it. We should do everything we can to bring this awful disease or addiction or whatever we want to call it to a minimum level at all costs because the real cost in money and in lives is incredible, especially at a time when much of the time we spend in the House is talking about health care.

Here we are spending $3, $4 or $5 billion on health care costs which could be controlled or reduced. I hope we do that in this case. I want to say those numbers again. That is $3 or $4 billion in health care costs because of smoking related and smoking attributable ailments.

When the government is talking about raising an extra $240 million in taxes as opposed to the cost directly attributable to our health care system of $4 billion, it is incredible. We should all be aware of this and the government should be doing more to raise public awareness of the situation and push for a correction.

I will now go back to Bill C-47 which is what the bill is about, although the bill does mention tobacco. It has several clauses with respect to tobacco, tobacco controls and tobacco taxes. I would like to see much more of that restriction. I would like to see a more concentrated, focused and increased effort on controlling tobacco and helping people get off the tobacco addiction.

Does Bill C-47 have some positives? We think it does. Bill C-47 would merge taxes which already exist to make it simpler for businesses to handle. It would make the taxes on tobacco the same right across the country, which is what it should have been all along. It would change the form of penalties resulting from excise tax, and we support the move in that direction. The increase in the export duties should discourage smuggling Canadian cigarettes back into the country which has been a problem in the past although it is reduced now.

On the down side, Bill C-47 increases the taxes but again does not specify where the taxes will go. Will it go toward helping people to understand their addiction to tobacco and the terrific price it costs in human lives, sickness, dollars and the strain on our health care system? Will that be where the money goes or will it go into general revenue like the EI fund? It is absolutely wrong for the $40 billion surplus in the EI fund to be going into general revenue. I consider that to be fraud. Every employee in Canada who gets a paycheque pays an EI premium but it is not an EI premium. It is an extra tax. If the government wants to take this money and put it into general revenue as a tax it should be marked extra Liberal tax, but it is not. It should be designated as a Liberal tax and not an employment insurance premium.

I appreciate the chance to speak to Bill C-47. We will be supporting Bill C-47 but I do hope my comments have not fallen on deaf ears. I hope the Minister of Health understands that I appreciate what she has done in the direction of raising public awareness of the damage smoking does to health and the costs to our health care system but I hope she will enhance that. I hope she will put more money into that budget and maybe take some of this money and put it into a budget to increase public awareness and help people get off the addiction to tobacco.

[Question No. 109—, April 8th, 2002]

With respect to the Department of National Defence's hiring of Reid's Bus Service to transport cadets on a round trip from Parrsboro to Amherst on February 2 and 3, 2002: ( a ) what was the cost of the transportation service provided to DND by Reid's Bus Service; ( b ) how many independent companies were asked to provide competitive quotes; ( c ) what is the current policy regarding private transportation contractors for cadets in rural communities like Parrsboro; and ( d ) does the service provided by Reid's Bus Service represent a policy change and, if so, under what authority?

[Softwood Lumber, April 8th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the failure of the softwood lumber negotiations has resulted in plants closing and thousands of workers being laid off. Not only that, the companies involved are now being faced with millions of dollars of legal costs to fight the NAFTA and the WTO battles.

Has the government considered helping these companies pay the legal costs to fight the NAFTA and WTO battles?

[Softwood Lumber, March 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the simple fact is that the Conservative government to which the minister referred successfully negotiated a deal to keep the factories open, to keep the softwood mills going and to keep the workers going. This government has failed. The Conservatives succeeded where the Liberals have failed.

In the House the minister promised to come up with a plan with the industry and the provinces to help the thousands of people that have been thrown out of work and the communities that will be devastated. When is that meeting to be held?

[Fisheries, March 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am trying to listen to this riveting speech but I am being distracted by the parliamentary secretary who is here in his pyjamas. I wonder if you could have him correct that.

[Fisheries, March 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it has been an interesting evening. A lot of the members who are speaking are maritime members. It is interesting to hear the focus on Atlantic Canadian issues, especially from those members who are not from Atlantic Canada. They are now starting to get at least a little impression about what Atlantic Canada is like, what we are about and some of the things we face.

I also find it incredible that we are talking about overfishing. I remember in 1991 when that great Newfoundlander John Crosbie made the incredibly tough decision to put a moratorium on fishery. It was a heart wrenching decision. Those of us who were here will never forget the anguish that he went through, and many of his colleagues went through, to shut down the fishery in his own province. It was a courageous move. He took an awful lot of criticism and ridicule over it but it was the thing to do and he put the moratorium on. Here we are 11 years later talking about overfishing.

The only reason we are here tonight is because the hon. member for St. John's West brought it up after a Russian vessel was arrested for polluting Canadian waters and it was discovered that it had illegal fish in the hull.

Why are we faced with it? It is because the rules have not been enforced; the NAFO agreement is not working; and the NAFO countries are not abiding by the rules and not respecting the fishery.

Another thing that I find incredible is the convergence of issues that we have been talking about today. We talked about species at risk all day. Here we are talking about a fishery on which there is a moratorium because the species are at risk and there is no enforcement. Here we are still talking about overfishing even though the species at risk is what we talked about all day. It is an amazing coincidence.

Another coincidence is the census that just came out that said that government policy, it did not specifically say government policy, is driving people out of rural Canada into the major population centres. It even identified Newfoundland and Labrador as the worst victim of this out migration.

It is not only the fishery policy, it is the economic development policy that has been slack for rural Canada, Atlantic Canada and other parts of the country.

It is policies like moving the department of Indian affairs Atlantic regional office from a small town called Amherst to a major centre because the bureaucrats want to move. There are 140 families that work for the Atlantic regional office of Indian affairs but it does not matter about the 140 families. There are a couple of bureaucrats who want to live somewhere else so they are actually considering moving this regional office.

It is policies that affect Canso, a small town in the riding of the hon. member for Pictou--Antigonish--Guysborough, which is completely shut down because of overfishing and fishing policies that have been abused and mismanaged over and over.

It is ironic that we are talking about the Faroe Islands which is under management by Denmark. Today we talked about our new ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Gagliano, who will now go over there and speak on our behalf on these issues.

Tonight someone mentioned the debate we had on softwood lumber and how the Prime Minister was involved in that debate. However in less than three hours from now the Americans will probably be successful in putting a huge countervail charge or export tax, or whatever on this resource. This is another resource that is being battered around by foreigners in the same way our fishery is.

It is ironic and amazing how many things converge on these issues because of government policy, lack of action, lack of policy, lack of administration, lack of enforcement and management by dealing with a crisis only.

I believe that tonight we will make some headway on this issue. I believe it will get some attention. It might have just been a little announcement that a Russian ship was caught for pollution charges and found that there was fish in the hull. Thanks to the hon. member for St. John's West who brought our attention to it and who created so much focus on it and raised public awareness.

It is interesting to hear all the speakers from all over Atlantic Canada, Scarborough, British Columbia and everywhere else become involved in this. We are starting to the get the impression that maybe there is a little awareness about the situation that people in Atlantic Canada are facing over this fishery.

When it first happened, and for 10 years maybe, the attitude was that there is a problem down there, let us throw some money at it and maybe it will go away. However, that is not the case. Money is not going to fix this. This is a way of life and it is a heritage. It is a tradition that has not been protected and it has been abused.

Perhaps now the government will take action to take control one way or another over the nose and tail of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap and really protect our resource. There is no reason why foreigners should be able to fish that area dry, dump their bilge waters, abuse our waters and our fish, and our systems and environment with no enforcement or repercussions.

Hopefully this debate will generate some interest and some focus on it. We know there are not enough fisheries officers, patrol boats, or helicopters. We know there are not enough resources put into the fishery to protect it and enforce the rules. Because of that NAFO countries are running roughshod over our rules and our fishery.

This was a Russian ship under Icelandic control. How many other ships are out there from how many other countries doing this? How many are doing the same thing that we do not catch because they do not dump their bilge water? It is a crisis and hopefully we will get some action.

We need a real plan. There are some options and it is certainly encouraging to hear government members talking about this. I hope they speak tomorrow to their colleagues, to their minister, to their Prime Minister as we have been for a long time. It is healthy and encouraging to hear this.

We are talking about the health of our communities in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Quebec as well. The accidental boarding of this ship was a stroke of luck. It was certainly a stroke of luck and good management. The hon. member for St. John's West ensured that it did not slip through the cracks and we got the attention on it.

With regard to Denmark, I picked up a report a few minutes ago from the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization called “Canadian Assessment of Compliance in the NAFO Regulatory Area”. Lo and behold, the meeting was held in Helsingor, Denmark, which again is the parent country of the Faroe Islands which today was isolated from our ports. So a lot of different approaches are tied together. They all come together in this whole story but this is an incredible report which was given just two months ago in Denmark.

It says Canada is increasingly concerned about the unacceptable level of non-compliance fisheries and it goes on to detail the incredible circumstances. Observers reported one CP had 655 fishing days in shallow water and 40% of these days were clearly utilized for moratoria species. On these days a catch of moratoria species was five times that of legal fish. What happened to them? Was there any enforcement or protection? No, there was not. There was nothing done to protect our resources.

Legitimate shallow water fisheries do occur for skate and redfish. During the remaining 400 days that operator harvested at a daily rate of 18% of non-moratoria fish. This is incredible.

The Canadian assessment confirmed that directed fishing and excessive bycatch on moratoria species was rampant. Exceeding allocations and misreporting was frequent. Directed fishing after closure was always increasing, frequency of net size violations was everywhere. There were always non-submissions or late submissions of observer reports.

In 2001 one of the contractors exceeded its Greenland halibut allocation by 23%, that is 3,000 tonnes. In 2001 there was a significant misreporting of 3L shrimp and 3M shrimp, particularly in December. What happened? Nothing happened nor was there any enforcement or any repercussions.

In 2001 two contractors fished in excess of 100 days yet reported catches within the quota. In 2001 the requirement for each contractor to limit the number of vessels fishing shrimp in 3L at any one time to one vessel was ignored. It goes on and on. It is an incredible report and everybody should read it.

Another violation refers to mesh size. Vessels from one contractor continually used small mesh gear and liners in the 3O redfish fishery. Over a period of just 30 days Canadian and EU inspectors issued four citations for use of small mesh gear or liners to vessels from this contractor. Citations, but what happened? Nothing.

These are the reasons why our fisher people in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Canso are all out of work. In 2000 three contractors did not submit any reports. In 2001 six have yet to submit a single observer report. This is the Canadian report just presented two months ago. In a total of 200 shrimp reports 80% of a total estimated requirement of 250 have not been submitted. As one of the members said it is one thing to have regulations but if we do not enforce them it is the same thing as not having them.

Non-compliance in the NAFO regulatory area was increasing. Non-compliance was increasing, not decreasing. The deterrence capacity of some contracting parties enforcement programs was questionable given the frequency and continuing nature of non-compliance. Nobody was even trying to stop it.

The report indicated that many contracting parties did not review observer reports or respond to clear incidents of non-compliance. It stated that the continued discrepancy between observer reports and dock side inspections had yet to be resolved. NAFO was not going to do anything about it. It just said it had to be resolved. It just goes on and on.

The report recommends that Fisheries Canada should consider and adopt specific management and conservation measures to stop significant incidents of non-compliance. That makes sense. Why does it not do it? It adds that this should include effective measures to stop directed fisheries for moratoria species and stop misreporting excessive catches.

It recommends the following next steps: verification and reconciliation of all dock side inspections and observer reports should be implemented; standardization of sanction regimes for mesh size; increasing interaction between inspectors and observers at sea; providing real time observer reports to NAFO and inspecting contractors to guide sea and dock side inspections.

This is not in the report but it was said tonight more than once. The people in the industry must be involved; they must have input. They must have some control over fisheries management. Time after time these are the people who have been proven correct. They have been proven knowledgeable and they have been proven right.

There are three options available. Canada must demand that NAFO takes action to enforce quota allocation. It must do that. It is only fair. Canada must claim custodial management over the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap. We should extend unilateral jurisdiction over the entire continental shelf, nose and tail of the Grand Banks. Finally, the fishery inspection infrastructure and equipment must be brought up to snuff. It must be brought up to an adequate situation so it can handle enforcement and control of the fishery.

We have seen our fishery devastated. It is 11 years after the moratorium and we are still standing here talking about it. I hope John Crosbie is not hearing this discussion tonight.

[Softwood Lumber, March 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, month after month, week after week, the Minister for International Trade stood in the House and assured us that he would accept nothing short of free trade in softwood lumber.

Why is he caving in at this 11th hour and changing the position he repeated to us so often?

[Privilege, March 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the motion by the hon. member for Mercier.

I will be brief. There are two issues I will raise. First, at an earlier meeting I asked that the committee be allowed to hear witnesses to explain how the process of appointing ambassadors or high commissioners works. We were refused the witnesses. We were told we could have access to all the material the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade had. We were told we could have briefings and all the information ambassadors are provided with.

We went along with that. We had a briefing. However when we asked for the material it was refused until this morning at 9 o'clock. The moment the meeting started it was placed on our table. We had asked for it as early as February. The instructions said the committee did not need witnesses because we had access to the material. However we were denied the material until 9 o'clock this morning, the minute the committee started. It made it impossible to do any homework or be prepared for the meeting.

Second, in the briefings we had with foreign affairs officials we asked what the criteria were for ambassadors or high commissioners. One of the main ones is the quality of the people and their track record of ethical behaviour. The only way we can determine whether the ambassador designate has a good track record or strong principles is to question him about his track record as a minister. We were denied the right to ask even one question about his background. We wanted to ask him about certain allegations but we could not do our job and determine whether he had done a good job in the past.

It is not we who are making the allegations. In the paper today it says “Boudria blames predecessors: Gagliano was in charge of department”. The opposition is not making the charges. The government is making them. We want to find out if they are real.

If an ambassador representing our country is tainted with allegations which may or may not be true we should find out if they are true. If he is tainted it taints the entire foreign service. It tarnishes the reputation of Canada which is so important to all of us. I therefore support the motion.

[Indian Affairs and Northern Development, March 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the recent census report indicating that Canadians are moving to major population centres in Canada and away from rural Canada comes as no surprise to us in rural Canada. Government policies since 1993 that encourage this phenomenon are a virtual attack on rural Canada and smaller communities.

A perfect example is the recent effort by Indian affairs to relocate its Atlantic regional office from the small town of Amherst, Nova Scotia, to a larger centre, which will result in the displacement of 140 employees and their entire families. These employees would prefer to stay right where they are but senior officials in the department are determined to move the office. The cost would be high with no improvement in service. Families will be split up. Once again, we are a victim of the Liberals' attack on rural Canada. There is no justification for this move.

I ask the minister of Indian affairs to cancel the study and leave the regional office right where it is.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2001, March 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it was perhaps a Freudian slip when the parliamentary secretary said that there was zero policy. In any case, it is not a zero policy. It is a policy. My complaint is that it is a policy of the government to have these quarterly reports. We are asking that it be legislated. Policies can be changed with the snap of a finger. If the government does not like what is happening, it will just change the policy and we will never even know it has changed the policy. We in the House want this in legislation so we know we will have an annual report.

This goes back to the ethics counsellor, who was supposed to report to parliament. In the red book it is very clear. In the red book promises of the Liberals they said we would have an ethics counsellor who reports to parliament. They have changed that. They have a new policy now. The ethics counsellor reports to the Prime Minister.

We want this report made to parliament. We do not want a policy. We want it legislated so we know that we can count on having this access to information. This is a matter of public safety for Canadians. If this information is available to all of us then we can insist that the right steps are taken to ensure that dangerous driving and other actions that are inappropriate or present a danger to Canadians can be restricted or some action can be taken. By this policy, in refusing to bring this to parliament, it denies us access and prevents us from doing our job, so once again I ask the parliamentary secretary to change his mind, put this into legislation and demand that this be an annual report to parliament.