Francis Scarpaleggia

[Darfur, April 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the conflict in Darfur.

In the past four years 200,000 people have been killed and at least two million more have been displaced. Currently, approximately four million people are receiving humanitarian aid.

The situation is so bad that the United Nations has called it the world's greatest humanitarian emergency. Weak, uncoordinated efforts by the international community over the past four years have done nothing to alleviate the suffering. That is why, today, members and senators from all parties join me in urging the government to take different measures and mobilize the international community to resolve this ongoing humanitarian crisis.

I would also like to remind my hon. colleagues that, as Edmund Burke said, “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph”.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2007, April 16th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, my question for the hon. member is the following. It seems to me that in terms of the government's promise on income trusts one of two possibilities exists. First, at the time when the government made the promise, it fully intended not to keep it. Second, it did not understand the situation that income trusts might be problematic and it woke up to the problem much later. In other words, the government was in fact incompetent.

Therefore, either the government was knowingly misleading the Canadian people or it was incompetent. These are mutually exclusive possibilities, so it has to be one or the other. Could the hon. member comment on that.

[Lana Hamilton, March 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with deep sorrow to mark the passing of one of the West Island of Montreal's most wonderful and engaging citizens.

When Lana de Liamchin Hamilton passed away in early March of this year, I, like all those who knew her, felt a mixture of sadness and humble admiration for a woman whose tenacity and generosity of spirit continually inspired others to meet the challenges of life head on.

When Lana was diagnosed with cancer over six years ago, she was given only six months to live. However, succumbing to such depressing news just was not Lana's style. Over the next six years she delighted in proving the doctors wrong. Even amid the most difficult moments of her illness, she was a relentless force of kindness and youthful vitality.

Of all the things we will remember about Lana, of all the things we will miss, it is her tenacity and boundless faith that will leave the greatest absence in our hearts. However, we are all immeasurably better for having known her. In the years to come, our memories of Lana's warmth and determination will continue to live on.

[Kyoto Protocol, March 28th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to support the members of the environmental committee at Félix Leclerc secondary school in my riding. This group of students believes that the Government of Canada should support and honour the Kyoto protocol.

To show their support for Kyoto, the members of the committee—Saranya Danasekaran, Dominique Brown, Stéphanie Trottier, Miguel Degiovanni, Véronique Bader and their teacher, Louise Major—sent me a petition signed by 350 students, teachers and administrative personnel at Félix Leclerc.

Like most members of the House, I support this call to action. I therefore urge the government to pay attention to what young Canadians are telling it and to show some international leadership on this critical matter.

[Foreign Affairs, March 27th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, last fall, the minority Conservative government cut the funding to the Public Diplomacy Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the branch responsible for the international promotion of Canadian art and culture.

The $11.6 million cut will almost certainly mean the end of a variety of important promotional tools, including the exhibition of Canadian art in our embassies around the world.

Was Margaret Atwood right when she said, “there's more culture in a cup of yoghurt than in the Conservative government?”

[National Optics Institute, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this minority government will soon table its budget and everyone is talking about which programs and organizations will be targeted by the government.

One of Quebec's gems is the National Optics Institute, which is a leader here and abroad. Canada must invest in knowledge. That is the key to development in the era of globalization.

What does the minister intend to do about INO's request for $32 million in funding?

[Committees of the House, February 27th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I greatly appreciated the hon. member's statements and would like him to comment on two points.

First of all, he said that the government is very happy to take a piecemeal approach, when it feels like it, without consultation, without issuing a white paper or what have you, as was the case, for example, with the purchase of military aircraft.

Does the member know that the current Conservative government is working piecemeal to restore the old War Museum just down the road from here? I would like to hear his views on this. I would also like to hear what he has to say on the back-room dealings to have the Portrait Gallery of Canada moved to Calgary, and on the fact that these things are going on, it is happening, even if there is no official policy, especially in light of the coming election. What does he think about the government's piecemeal measures?

Finally, I would like him to talk about the fact that a motion is not a bill. We are not approving budgetary allocations here. The parliamentary secretary said that he was not entirely happy with the wording or details of the motion, and that this is why he is dragging his feet.

The spirit of the motion is what counts, and the newspapers will not dwell on minor details like the wording. They will simply say that the Conservative government does not want to support Canada's railway heritage. What does the member think about this?

[Committees of the House, February 27th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's point, but sometimes it takes a first step. Sometimes it takes a step in the right direction. The motion is asking the government to take that first step.

It would not really be a first step because the media has been full of reports about how the government is active on transforming the old war museum into a new kind of museum. The newspapers are full of stories about how it is active on the portrait museum file.

I would like to ask the hon. member, is piecemeal all right when the government is doing it, but not good when it is a suggestion from the opposition?

[Committees of the House, February 27th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I would go back to what I said at the end of my intervention, which is that I do not believe we should look at this motion as pitting one community against another or one part of Canada against another.

This motion represents a new direction in museums policy whereby we would no longer only have national museums in Ottawa. There would be a national railway museum on the south shore of Montreal but we would not be funding that museum per se. We would be funding its collection, which is spread across the country.

The idea would be that the museum would work with other museums, such as those in B.C., two of which, by the way, appeared before the heritage committee when it studied this issue. I was not aware of the Squamish museum and I appreciate the hon. member mentioning it, but there are museums across Canada that currently hold artifacts from the Exporail Museum for display. This community is quite well integrated. The players know each other and work together.

The importance of Exporail in all of this process is that it has the body of knowledge, so to speak. As I mentioned, the founding of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, out of which Exporail was born, goes back 75 years, so it has the critical mass and expertise. I would encourage the member to visit it some day as it is a really remarkable experience. It has rooms of engineering designs, et cetera, so it has the expertise to evaluate.

The Lord report underscores that, of all the railway museums in Canada, Exporail is the one best suited to the task of evaluating what should be funded, what should not be funded and so on.

[Committees of the House, February 27th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the reason I talked about the role of rail transport in relation to the future of our country and sustainable development in Canada and around the world is of course because this is one of the challenges that we are going to have to face and that we have already faced in the past. The federal, provincial and municipal governments have all invested in new rail infrastructures.

I raised this point because I wanted to stress the fact that, obviously, a museum takes a look at the past, but must also be a vibrant place turned towards the future. When we think about rail transport and the future, it is pretty obvious that the future lies in public transit. This railway museum is not exclusively about intercity or trans-Canada trains: it also takes a look at the development of commuter trains, tramways and subways, such as the metro in Montreal.

I also mentioned that rail transport is critical to the economic development of developing countries. It is a tool that will help society develop in Canada, in North America and around the world.

When I looked at the museum's collection, I did not see everything. In order to be a vibrant place, this museum should—and perhaps it has already done so—take a look at the future, and possibly show us futuristic designs of the trains of the future. As I said, this may already have been done. When I referred to the railway as a solution of the future to the problem of climate change and air pollution, I wanted to stress that, in my opinion, museums should also look to the future.

The Lord report is a rather voluminous document. It seems that Mr. Lord is one of the most renowned experts in the area of museums. I must congratulate the Quebec government for believing in the Delson/Saint-Constant museum, for believing in its value, to the point of commissioning a study to see where this museum fits among all the museums in the world and in Canada.