Charlie Angus

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I received 52% in grade 10 math and figured I would be better off as a musician. I will ask the hon. member to clarify for me in my really poor reading of accounting. Did the hon. member say there would be no cuts to the Canada Council? I heard the term reallocation, but people in the field have told me there are cuts. Will there be cuts in funding to artists this year and to programming at Canada Council or not?

[Supply, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, it is an honour to rise here tonight and discuss culture and heritage in the House.

It was 24 years ago that I quit school with the plan to be an artist. I believed at that time that if I worked hard, worked every single day, and if I put everything in my life on the back burner, I could make a living in Canada as an artist. After 24 years I found out a simple thing: that the difference between a large pizza and a professional artist in Canada is that the large pizza will feed a family of four. I had five in my family to feed and that is why I am now a politician, for the time being anyway, and as long as the good people of Timmins--James Bay prefer my singing in the House rather than my singing on the floor. I say that because I learned one lesson and I sometimes think that I might have made a mistake in my career.

About 14 years ago I made a conscious decision not to go to the United States because I believed then that Canada was a place worth celebrating and that our stories should be told across Canada. Many of the stories I told were in western and northern Canada. I notice that other groups that made that same decision with me at the time are no longer doing their arts full time. Friends of mine who went to the states are still working.

When we are talking about funding artists in Canada, we have to realize that we are spread out over such vast distances that it is virtually impossible in a market economy for an artist to make it across Canada more than once a year and make it consistently.

I am very concerned when I read the spending estimates. Canada Council is looking at a cut from $153 million today to $125 million over the period of 2006-07. That is $28 million. I was never very good at math, having left to become a musician, but I am told by my friends at the Canada Council that it is looking at numerous cuts.

I know Canada Council has taken serious hits and now we are talking about taking money out of programming. That is where it is going to come from. I would like to ask the minister to explain to me, how can we talk about protecting Canadian culture when the money is coming out of the pockets of the artists?

[Supply, November 4th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, we could look at the negative things which are the broken Liberal promises or we could, as Johnny Mercer would say, accentuate the positive, which is the whole issue of equalization payments and clawbacks.

I am feeling very good tonight in the language being used about giving people a chance to come up. That is really moving. It is good for Canada because there has been a fear that some of the hon. members of the opposition are negative about that approach. I think the idea of equalization and ending clawbacks that we are going to apply to Newfoundland we could perhaps apply to Canadians in general.

For example, in the province of Ontario a few years ago the Ontario Tories came up with the idea of clawing back money that was given by the federal government to the poorest children in the province. Many women have come to my office over the last year asking me to explain how a program designed to put food into the mouths of the poorest children of Ontario could be clawed back by the Conservatives. I had no answer for that. How could one steal food out of the mouths of babes?

I think about the example a few years ago of a woman in Ontario who was nine months pregnant and was left locked in a room to die because she was collecting welfare payments at the same time that she was getting student loans. That was a program that was not illegal under the New Democrats but the Conservative government decided it was an unfair equalization. She could have been allowed to pay back the money as some provinces are allowed to pay back over-equalization but the Conservatives did not allow her to pay it back. Instead they made an example of her.

We are setting a precedent tonight. I will tell Canadians that they should not be afraid of those hon. members, that those people have turned over a new leaf. It is a good sign for Canada. I would like to commend the hon. member of the opposition for his warm stand for Canadians. We are setting a wonderful precedent.

[Industry, October 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the mayor of Timmins, Ontario joined the growing chorus of concern over the sale of base metal operations to Minmetals. He has written an open letter to the Prime Minister underlining the fact that there are communities completely dependent on these resources.

Instead of sitting back and waiting for this deal to be inked, will this government respond to the mayor's request, invite the base metal communities to come forward and bring their concerns in setting up a full review of this deal?

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, October 29th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians from coast to coast to coast are very strong supporters of public broadcasting. Yet for years the Liberal Party has used the board of the CBC as a dumping ground for pals and payers to the party. Since 1936, 90% of the appointments to the CBC have been buddies of the governing party. What a dismal record.

The heritage committee has come forth with recommendations for setting up a transparent nomination procedure for CBC appointments. A new president is being appointed and Canadians are asking the government to turn over a new leaf.

Unfortunately it looks like the Liberals will be singing from the same old songbook and so the long list of Liberal appointments, anointments and reappointments will continue. We deserve better.

Stop using our institutions as a retirement home for political cronies.

[Youth, October 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am calling for an action plan to address the devastating impacts of youth out-migration in rural and northern Canada. The continual loss of young people from the north has created a crisis that threatens the very future of our region. How do we build a 21st century economy when our young entrepreneurs are the first to leave?

Northern College in South Porcupine, Ontario, has responded with the graduate alliance program. It helps place university and college graduates with northern businesses. This is a vital program in keeping graduates in the north.

Unfortunately, this program is being cancelled because it no longer meets federal priorities. We cannot afford to lose this program. We need to build on its success. Furthermore, we need a broad strategy to develop youth leadership, employment support and relief of student debt.

We have to work with young people to create a generation of leaders. They must know, understand and live their culture, develop resources and participate in the new economy.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a few questions of the hon. member, being that I represent the great people of the Cree, who live on the other side of James Bay. It is an unfortunate situation that the Cree are not representing themselves here in the House and have to rely on us to speak on their behalf.

We see the terrible poverty that the Cree are living in on the James Bay and Hudson Bay coasts. We see the lack of opportunities given them and the continual failure of the federal government to respond to them.

I would like to ask the hon. member what he thinks of what is happening in Ontario, where the provincial legislature is moving forward with a resource revenue-sharing agreement for all northern first nations people, so that for their traditional lands, any hydro, mineral or lumber development on those lands must include resource revenue-sharing with the first nation people on whose lands that development is taking place.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the member's speech brings up a number of points of concern that I would have.

I was interested to hear his concern that farmers who should be getting the BSE money are not getting the BSE money. This is an issue that is coming to us in our area in terms of CAISP funding.

I would like to find out if he has any suggestions regarding the issue of hepatitis C where money that should have gone to people who needed it went to the wrong people. We hear much about the kind of profits that packers have made. We have many concerns about regional capacity and the ability of regional smaller plants to stand up to the packers.

We also have a real concern with the kind of money that will be flowing out now. Our farmers are more under the thumb of the big packers now than they have ever been.

I would ask the hon. member, does he have any suggestions or any insights into this that might enlighten us?

[Noranda Inc., October 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, thousands of jobs are dependent upon the mines and smelters of Noranda and Falconbridge, yet the minister refuses to have this takeover examined by the industry committee.

Vague promises are not good enough for the people of northern Canada. I ask the hon. minister to tell us what concrete steps will be taken to review the sale of Canadian copper and nickel resources to the government of China.

[Agriculture, October 12th, 2004]

Madam Chair, I was at one of our northern fall fairs in an area that used to have massive agriculture. I was told about the Saturday morning farmers' market where American tourists used to come, but they do not have farmers at the market any more. They just have local people selling little Phentex booties and folk art. The tourists asked why they called it a farmers' market and where were the farmers? The person said “nobody wanted farmers and there are not any anymore”.

I would like to get a sense of what is happening in New Brunswick because every time I go back to my riding, the overall sense I get is of despair. Earlier this summer people were positive. They thought the border was going to reopen and they could hold on, but people are now talking about what they are losing. They do not know where the money is. We are being told that this program will put money in farmers' hands this fall, but there does not seem to be any program in place. Our farmers are not eligible for CAISP though they thought they were. They do not know how this feeder set-aside works. They phone me and ask how they can get this money.

I do not tell them where to get the money because I know how long it took them to get the last round of money. Farmers in my region are deciding whether to pack it in or not and already half are downsizing their herds. They cannot wait any longer and they hear that there is going to be money in their hands this fall.

I often feel like a discredited person when I go back to the riding and tell them there is going to be money because I do not know where that money is. I would like to ask the hon. member, does he have a similar experience in New Brunswick? Does he know if the money is there?