Charlie Angus

[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?

[Agriculture, October 12th, 2004]

Madam Chair, in terms of supporting regional capacity and in terms of what the member said about packers, the one thing we can say for sure out of this debacle is that they have made a killing on the backs of our farmers. We have heard a lot of talk about regional capacity but I am very concerned that at the end of the day the packers will be stronger than they were at the beginning of this. They will have more power to undermine any small regional plants that get off the ground. I have not yet seen anything in any of the plans that will support our regional plants standing up to either price dumping or predatory practices on the auction floors.

Does the hon. member have any suggestions about what direction the government might take?

[Agriculture, October 12th, 2004]

Madam Chair, the hon. member raised some interesting points about our need to get the border open.

We are hearing some very disturbing words from stateside that R-CALF is preparing for any moves we make to open the border in terms of injunctions they will bring in so that they can drag this out for years. I am wondering if the hon. member has heard any similar talk from his people in Alberta, because that is what I am hearing in Ontario in terms of R-CALF.

[Agriculture, October 7th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, this is a terrible drama that farm families are living. In fact this afternoon we received an e-mail from a woman who told us that her father is considering shooting the family cows because he cannot wait any longer. I might sound dramatic, but we have newspaper articles of the rise in suicide rates across western Canada. Our farmers are going down one by one.

I appreciate the minister's sincerity on this issue. My concern is that what we are talking about is a year too late. We are talking about ramping up capacity. The big packers are ramping up to 1,000 a day because they can. Our small regional capacity will not be in place in time and we know that.

We know that a loan loss guarantee, as the other hon. member said, will not put cement in the ground. When our members came and spoke in the summer, that is why they said that we needed the plan in place before the beginning of the fall auction season. That has not happened, and we do not know when that plan will be in place.

Therefore, rational business decisions are being made by farmers and, unfortunately, the rational business decision for many farmers is to give up because they cannot go on any longer.

[Agriculture, October 7th, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I want to clarify. Because of our commitment, would we get a floor price for cull cows?