Dennis Bevington

[Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act, May 12th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, a discussion of the importance of collective bargaining for the RCMP, I think, is overdue. A number of years ago RCMP officers, who worked on the police association, informed me that there were upwards of 6,000 grievances that were filed and still not acted upon within their hierarchical structure. So pay issues are one thing. Issues of pensions and working conditions are another. So, all these come together.

My question for my hon. colleague is this. Over the course of the Liberals' tenure and control of Parliament, where were they on giving the RCMP the ability to have collective bargaining?

[Electronic Commerce Protection Act, May 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, when we think of the Internet and the way it is used, and the viruses and the ability to manipulate the information, I am concerned about this bill as well, because, of course, many false and fraudulent messages can be set out with the snap of a finger, from a variety of locations, and could target innocent businesses.

We could see a situation where businesses that did not want to be on the Internet and were not sending spam could find themselves in litigation or under investigation for things they had nothing to do with.

Honestly, how are we going to enforce the provisions of this bill once we enact it?

[Electronic Commerce Protection Act, May 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned about this bill in terms of how it is going to be policed. I am very concerned about the provisions in the bill for actually enforcing this legislation, the cost of to the taxpayers of doing this and the permutations that are going to be involved.

Has my hon. colleague put some time into considering how we are going to maintain a system of enforcement and what the cost will be to the taxpayers?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 8th, 2009]

With regard to travel to the Northwest Territories (NWT) by federal officials or employees of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada, National Defence, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Canadian Revenue Agency, based in the provinces, for each year since 2006 to 2008: (a) on what dates did they travel between Edmonton, Alberta and (i) Hay River, NWT, (ii) Yellowknife, NWT, (iii) Norman Wells, NWT, (iv) Inuvik, NWT; (b) what was the total air fare paid for the air portion of the Edmonton to and from the location in the NWT destination listed above, per flight; (c) what is the basis for that fare, including but not limited to class of fare, taxes and surcharges, discounts or passes used; (d) in each instance where the fare paid exceeded the lowest available airfare on that date, why was the lowest fare not used; (e) were T4As or other taxable benefit advice issued to these officials or employees with respect to this air travel; (f) if such advice was issued, what were the amounts; (g) for each official or employee who travelled to the NWT what was the amount paid, per official or employee for meals and incidental expenses; (h) in each instance where an official or employee was reimbursed for meals and incidental expenses and receipts were not provided and an allowance greater than $45 for the year 2006 or $51 for the years 2007 and 2008 was given, was the official or employee issued with a T4A or other taxable benefit advice; and (i) in each instance where such advice was issued what were the individual amounts?

[Electronic Commerce Protection Act, May 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I was struck by the comments my colleague made that Canada is in fifth place in spam production. I was also struck by the other countries that are engaged in it as well. It suggests that there is probably spam legislation out there that has forced spam producers into different areas.

The electronic media is a global medium with the ability to move spam origination from one place to another. Therefore, I am curious about this legislation in terms of whether the legislation will target the person or agency who benefits from sending the spam rather than perhaps the originator of the spam message. If spam is being sent from Nigeria, it could well be coming from Canadian companies or Canadian concerns and simply bypassing the legislation.

Perhaps the member could talk a little more about those details and assure Canadians that this is actually going to work for us.

[Electronic Commerce Protection Act, May 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his very clear enunciation of the evil empire of spam. We are all familiar with it. Do we understand the full nature of what we are taking on in terms of the ability to enforce the requirement of the CRTC to investigate many of these potential complaints? The enforcement around infractions with very large penalties suggests that this may be very litigious. Perhaps the hon. member could comment on this.

[Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, May 4th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I think the House has to recognize that this bill speaks to an area in the Arctic that is not accessible by ships right now. What it does is focus attention on all the issues we have within the waters of the Arctic that are now accessible within the 100-mile limit. To that extent, the bill is useful.

We have had the debate here in Parliament. We have talked about the issues. The government needs to provide leadership, and it also needs to work much more closely with the international community that has significant interest in the Arctic.

Those are the results that I want to see from this bill. Those results will mean that we will protect our arctic waters.

[Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, May 4th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, the Arctic marine shipping assessment, which was presented in Tromso, talked about the expanded marine traffic increasing the possibility of introducing alien species into Arctic waters, which is of major concern, and then pathogens from ballast water discharge and hull fouling.

These activities occur with ships all over the world. The difference is, within the pristine Arctic conditions, the introduction of any of these fouling emissions can have a serious deleterious effect on that environment.

All of us in this world want to maintain what is good in the environment now in the face of what has happened over the last hundred years.

[Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the major issues facing Canada with international agreements really lie with Canada and the U.S. We need to sort out the issues of the Northwest Passage in a fashion that we can move ahead. We need a certain measure of understanding between the United States and Canada as they both have valid interests, Canada in protecting its territorial waters and the U.S. in ensuring it has some valid access. Those things have to be worked out between the two countries.

A much more interesting near time issue is the boundary between Alaska and Yukon, which, since 1982 when the U.S. changed its policy on the boundary, has left an area of 4,000 or 5,000 square kilometres in the Beaufort Sea. This is likely a development area that is under dispute between Canada and the U.S. Those bilateral discussions must go ahead in a fashion that can lead to a solution.

When we are talking about the Beaufort Sea, we are talking about an area that is under active exploration right now. To have this extent of a border issue in that area is not acceptable. We need to work in that area. I have not heard that the government has made any movement in this regard.

[Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the bill does not address that issue very well. It would simply extend the boundaries that we would protect. Without the work going into the issues that I have talked about, we are very much leaving ourselves at the mercy of the good intent of the industries that are going to be engaged in the North.

We need to take real, concrete steps to ensure that ships and industries that want to utilize the resources in the Arctic, be it fishing, tourism or oil and gas, follow very strict guidelines. In fact, we do not only need guidelines, regulations that ensure these vessels and crews act in a manner that is acceptable and uniform across the Arctic waters.