Dick Harris

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 16th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, when most Canadians turn the water on to have a drink or for cooking, they are not really worried about their safety, but this is not the case with many first nations. There are still far too many communities with risky drinking water systems.

This is a critical issue for first nations and one they often identify as one of their top priorities. The current state of drinking water on reserves needs improving and it needs to be addressed now.

Could the Minister of Indian Affairs tell this House what our government is doing about this critical issue?

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals talked about the Kelowna accord, but for 13 long years they did nothing for aboriginals except come up with a bogus $5 billion press release in the dying days of their government. This press release, best described as cheap electioneering, had no budget, no specifics, no plan, no nothing.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development tell us how Liberal cheap promises, with no delivery, simply do not advance anything first nations really care about?

[Criminal Code, April 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Burnaby—New Westminster, I believe, did everything but drop to his knees and beg people to phone in, in opposition to this bill. I would say to that member that his pleading, his begging, his imploring for people to phone in, in opposition, is not necessary. People are already phoning in. In my riding of Cariboo—Prince George, my offices, both here and in the riding, people are phoning in. I have listened to them. They have overwhelmingly been telling me to support this bill, which I will.

[Fisheries and Oceans, April 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, under the previous Liberal government, we saw systematic and continued reduction to our fisheries and oceans enforcement resources.

Fishermen and the fishing industry were neglected by the previous Liberal government and suffered directly from these cuts. The fine individuals who do the job of monitoring and surveillance of Canadian waterways were stretched to the max due to lack of resources.

Would the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans please update the House on the progress our government has made in this area?

[Business of Supply, March 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the attempt of what we are discussing today is to make the regulatory system more efficient by combining and streamlining the different jurisdictions into a single window regulatory system. Businesses across the country do this. There is no reason why—

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the member for Joliette as he gave his presentation and all the time I was thinking about the hypocrisy of what he was saying. He is criticizing this government in saying that our plan is not this and not that and does not meet his expectations.

Yet when this government put forward a program of $116 million for the public transit trust to help with vehicles in Quebec and clean up the pollution and emissions coming from those vehicles, that member and that party voted against it.

While the Bloc continuously called to the previous Liberal government for $300 million for an ecotrust and was refused, we gave $350 million for the ecotrust to help Quebec clean up its environment and meet some of its goals, but that party voted against it.

That party and the NDP are brothers and sisters in hypocrisy. They say one thing but do another. They do not know good environmental programs when they see them.

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am seeking correction if I am wrong, but it appears to me that the member used a report of some sort as a prop during his speech. I think that is the Liberals' fifth environmental plan or some number like that and it is still not workable. Is the member permitted to use that book as a prop? If not, perhaps he could withdraw it. If so, then I stand corrected.

[The Environment, March 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, this is astonishing: the Liberal member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca continues to attack both this Conservative government and the B.C. provincial government for, get this, wanting to stop the discharge of raw sewage into Victoria harbour.

My question is for the Minister of the Environment. Why is it so important to health and safety to stop this dumping of raw sewage, something the Liberals failed to do in 13 long years?

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2008]

They had a chance but they blew it.

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, listening to the leader of the NDP, one has to wonder just how tight is the ideological straitjacket of the NDP. The people of Canada look to a government to responsibly address climate change, to responsibly address pollution and carbon emissions. They want a government that will show leadership. That is what we have done.

While we were creating a made in Canada plan that works for Canadians, that is saleable to the world, and we were costing it very carefully, all along the way the NDP and the former Liberal government were supporting a Kyoto plan that had absolutely no cost attached to it, no reachable goals that were realistic and was vague at best. That is not responsibility.

While the NDP would support a plan that gave little regard to whether we ran a huge deficit in our environmental plan, we are not like that. We do not do that. We will address the environmental challenges we have.