David McGuinty

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to make Certain Payments, June 16th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by reminding the member that some 11 months ago the Canadian people made a choice. The choice they made was to send the government in minority form into Parliament here in the House of Commons.

What is actually quite amazing is to hear the members opposite continue to refer to the government as apparently illegitimate and a government that is clinging to power, while their own leader seeks to undermine that power and steal it.

The reality is that the members opposite have lost sight of the fact that the Canadian people have spoken. They may wish to question the wisdom of Canadians in their choice but our job was to come here as a government in minority form and govern, which is precisely what we are doing.

The member opposite said that she was a former negotiator. As one former negotiator to another, she would understand that there is an obligation here in the House, in minority government form, to mediate through and find the middle ground and provide the kind of government Canadians are looking for.

We hear from the other side regularly about the fiscal performance of the government. Let us look at the case of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves and the wonderful new republican government of Ontario. We remember the republican government of Ontario: a $25 billion increase in the debt and a $6 billion hole that the people of Ontario are still digging themselves out of. There are many examples of republican governments here in Canada and in the United States.

My question for the member is simple. Where is the evidence in the past 25 years of the fiscal performance of the Progressive Conservative Party, the Reform Party, the Alliance Party, the new Conservative Party, the Reform Conservative Party or the not so progressive Conservative Party?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2005, June 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to respond to some of the comments that were made by the member and perhaps pick up on some of the debate that has been going on for the last little while.

I want to remind the House that this is not merely about hot air credits and to position it as such is really a falsehood. In fact, let us look back at the genesis of the Kyoto protocol. First, if we look at the reason why Canadian industries, as the member has rightly pointed out, have so readily embraced the notion of a domestic and international trading system, it is because they know what we know, which is that the international agreement and the Kyoto protocol call precisely for an emerging international trading regime. They wanted to get the jump on their competitors and, for that matter, ahead of the regulators who would be creating such a trading system.

The second reason that the protocol embraced an international trading regime is twofold: first, to facilitate capital flows into emerging economies in developing countries that are desperately in need of enhanced receipt of capital flows. We know that private capital flows have displaced public capital flows in terms of international aid by about 500-fold. This was considered to be a major mechanism through which we would be able to facilitate capital flows into those countries. Second, to facilitate the ultimate entry of those emerging economies and those developing countries into the Kyoto protocol in due course as signatories.

Canada is doing here exactly what the protocol set out for industrialized economies, which is to be a full participant by taking a leadership role by creating a domestic system and in so doing, getting the jump on the international system.

The question I want to put to the member is clear. If Canada was not to participate in the international trading system, what would we say to those players, those actors in Canada, and for that matter in the United States on a state by state level, who want to get more experience from trading and who ultimately want to help design the international trading regime? I think most Canadians actors would say that they want to harvest a market mechanism to achieve an environmental improvement. Clearly, the other side of the House does not.

[Supply, June 3rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, discussions have taken place among all parties and I believe you would find consent for the following order:

That, at the conclusion of the present debate on today's opposition motion, all questions necessary to dispose of this motion be deemed put and a recorded division deemed requested and deferred until the end of government orders on Tuesday, June 7.

[Child Care, May 31st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, five provinces, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia, have signed child care agreements with the Liberal government.

These agreements are part of the promise made by our government to provide $5 billion over five years for creating an early childhood education and child care system in every province and territory.

Adoption of the budget at second reading has brought us one step closer to securing the funding for child care. The budget bills are now before the finance committee and Canadians want all political parties to put the public interest first and support Bill C-43 and Bill C-48.

As the chair of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada said:

Children and families right across Canada are now being held hostage to political opportunism...We need an activist Parliament to get the things done that matter most to Canadians, such as putting in place the foundation for a pan-Canadian child care system...

Let us get on with this budget, get on with the process and give Canadians the national child care program they deserve.

[Petitions, May 6th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a petition signed by over 500 Canadians. It deals with the Copyright Act.

This petition recognizes the Copyright Act as a careful balance between the rights of creators and the rights of the public.

The petitioners want the House to maintain this balance by not extending the term of copyright and preserving all existing user rights to ensure a vibrant public domain. They also request that users be recognized as interested parties and, as such, be consulted about any proposed changes to the aforementioned Copyright Act.

[Canadian Association of Research Libraries, May 6th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to offer congratulations to Ms. Leslie Weir of the University of Ottawa. Ms. Weir has been the chief librarian at the University of Ottawa since 2003. She is widely admired in the profession as an innovator in providing electronic information to the teaching and research community that the University of Ottawa serves.

In April of this year Ms. Weir was elected vice-president and president-elect of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. She will serve as president from 2007 to 2009. This association is the leadership organization of Canadian research librarianship. Its members are the 27 major academic research libraries across Canada, Library and Archives Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, and the Library of Parliament.

I ask all members to join me in congratulating Leslie Weir for the considerable honour of her election as president of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.

[National Day of Mourning, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the annual National Day of Mourning was held Thursday, April 28. I rise today to commemorate those who have been killed or injured in the workplace.

Every working day in Canada, nearly four people die from work-related accidents or illnesses. Those four people could be members of your family or mine.

The significance of the National Day of Mourning is striking when close to 350,000 people are injured seriously enough to prevent them from reporting to work for at least one day, while the total number of work related injuries and illnesses occurring each year in Canada is close to one million.

Workplace deaths are increasing, and this day serves as an important reminder that much remains to be done.

I ask all hon. members to take the time to remember the workers who have lost their lives or been injured on the job. Let us honour them by putting forth our best efforts to foster safer and healthier workplaces through continued education, awareness and cooperation. Let us prevent these needless tragedies from ever happening again.

[Lazare Gionet, April 6th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to pay tribute in the House today to Lazare Gionet, who passed away last Friday, just four months short of his 109th birthday.

Mr. Gionet was born in St. Paul, Middle Caraquet, New Brunswick. He followed in his father's footsteps, farming and fishing until he joined the army at the age of 20. After the war, Mr. Gionet married Lauza Hébert, with whom he had nine children. One of them, Armand, was killed during the second world war.

Remembrance Day was always extremely important to Mr. Gionet, who attended the ceremonies each November 11 until he turned 101. In 1998, he also took part in a trip to mark the 80th anniversary of the war to end all wars.

On behalf of all the hon. members and all Canadians, I extend my sincere condolences, in this Year of the Veteran, to the family and friends of Mr. Gionet. He will not be forgotten.

[The Environment, March 23rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, while it is clear that the opposition continues to be firmly and completely opposed to the Kyoto protocol, the government continues to work with Canadian stakeholders from all sectors to achieve meaningful greenhouse gas reductions.

In this regard, could the Minister of Natural Resources please confirm that the Government of Canada has reached a voluntary agreement with the auto industry on reducing vehicle greenhouse gas emissions?

[Veterans, February 24th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to know more about their heroes. I am speaking of those men and women who served our country during times of war.

I am pleased that budget 2005 provides new funding of $6 million per year for future commemorative activities so that more Canadians, in particular younger Canadians, can learn of the achievements and sacrifices of Canada's veterans.

This is in addition to the $16.5 million announced last year to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war and to celebrate the Year of the Veteran.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women who fought for Canada and this budget helps us to accomplish that lofty goal.