Garry Breitkreuz

[Canada Grain Act, April 18th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest as my colleague outlined some of his concerns with regard to Bill C-40. I wish that he would complete his remarks and give me a little bit of the feeling of what his constituents are saying with regard to this. I will give him an opportunity to complete his remarks that he was unable to do in the time allotted. I feel it is very important to get some of these comments from the people in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on the record. I hope the member will comment on some of these things.

[Standing Orders and Procedure, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Cypress Hills—Grasslands has the right to ask a question of another member in this House and ask him for the remaining amount of his comments. That does not violate anything in this House. He has that right.

Furthermore, the time that we are wasting discussing this should not be taken away from the member. He should be allowed to finish his comments. Mr. Speaker, I hope you will see fit not to deduct this time from him.

[Petitions, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure of presenting quite a number of petitions with thousands of names from Ontario, Alberta and B.C. on the issue of marriage.

The petitioners would like to draw to the attention of the House that the majority of Canadians believe that fundamental matters of social policy should be decided by elected members of Parliament, not the unelected judiciary. They support the current definition of marriage as the voluntary union of a single man and a single woman.

They ask, therefore, that Parliament ensure that marriage is defined as Canadians wish and petition Parliament to use all possible legislative and administrative measures, including invoking section 33 of the charter if necessary, to preserve and protect the current definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. All these petitions are of the same nature.

[Question No. 88, April 4th, 2005]

With regard to the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Canadian Firearms Registration System (CFRS) Alternate Services Delivery (ASD) contract that was eventually awarded to Team Centra (a consortium of CGI Group and BDP Business Data Services Limited) in 2002: ( a ) were bidders required to agree to pay a penalty of $30,000 per day for every day their system was not implemented after the Service Effective Date (SED) to defray costs of paying two vendors, E.D.S. of Canada Ltd. (EDS) and Team Centra, at the same time and, if so, was this clause or a similar penalty clause carried forward into the contractual agreement between Team Centra and the Crown; ( b ) what was the official Contract Notification Date (CND) as required by the RFP; (c) what was the exact contracted SED; ( d ) in accordance with the RFP requirement, how much has Team Centra paid to the Crown based on the contracted SED; ( e ) how much has the Crown paid to EDS, Team Centra, CGI Group and BDP since the original SED of the ASD contract with Team Centra; ( f ) what deliverables were provided by EDS in return for these payments; ( g ) what deliverables were provided by Team Centra in return for these payments; ( h ) is the anticipated overlap of the two systems (CFRS I and CFRS II) still in accordance with the requirement in the RFP; ( i ) was the intent of the RFP to ensure no payment was made to the “Systems Integrator” until the system was delivered and, if so, when was the system delivered and what was the ongoing monthly charge to the Crown from Team Centra, CGI Group and BDP and what was the purpose of these charges; ( j ) has the user acceptance testing taken place on the Team Centra Application Code; ( k ) what was the value of the EDS Change Request to incorporate Bill C-10A amendments into the CFRS I system and why was this request needed; ( l ) what is the estimated dollar value and revised end date for the contracts currently under review with Team Centra, CGI Group and EDS; ( m ) why was the interface with the Canadian Firearms Registry On-Line (CFRO) considered a change request to the original Team Centra contract if it was expressly stated as a mandatory requirement for all bidders; ( n ) what was the value of the contract amendment, if any, of the Team Centra solution to the CFRO interface; ( o ) what is the contracted cost and actual cost paid to Team Centra for the ongoing maintenance and support for the CFRS II system; and ( p ) what is the contracted cost and actual cost paid to EDS for the ongoing maintenance and support for the CFRS I system, excluding change requests?

(Return tabled)

[Question No. 82, April 4th, 2005]

With regard to the e-mail sent to all Members of Parliament on December 6, 2004, by the Honourable Roy Cullen, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, in which he stated: “So far in 2004, the Canada Firearms Centre (CAFC) has already produced more than 1100 affidavits to support the prosecution of firearms related crime. A further 1152 affidavits were prepared in 2003 building on 381 affidavits produced in 2002.”: ( a ) how many and what types of “firearms related crimes” were being investigated that prompted the need for these affidavits to be requested and issued; ( b ) how many individuals were charged, what charges were laid and how many convictions were obtained as a direct result of these affidavits; ( c ) what other Criminal Code offences were these persons charged with in addition to their “firearms related crimes”; and ( d ) how many people were charged just because they had failed to obtain the proper licence or registration certificates required by the Firearms Act and not because they had committed any violent crime?

[Question No. 81, April 4th, 2005]

With regard to the e-mail sent to all Members of Parliament on December 6, 2004, by the Honourable Roy Cullen, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, in which he stated: “Moreover, about 6,000 firearms have been traced in gun-crime and firearm-trafficking cases within Canada and internationally.”: ( a ) how many of the 6,000 firearms traced were actually found in the old Restricted Weapon Registration System; ( b ) how many of the 6,000 firearms traced were found in the new Canadian Firearms Registry; ( c ) how many of the 6,000 traces led police investigators to the registered owner of the firearm; ( d ) how many of the registered owners identified were charged with the original crime in which their registered firearm was involved; and ( e ) how many of the registered owners identified were charged with providing their registered firearm to the criminal or criminals involved in the original crime being investigated?

[Liberal Party of Canada, April 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, for the last month I have been making notes of the responses from ministers and I have concluded that dithering is contagious. The dithering disease is spreading from the Prime Minister to his cabinet.

Here are just a few of the dithering phrases used by Liberal ministers as they explain their inaction to questioners, “This is an issue that requires further discussion”. “We are currently studying the matter”. “The Kyoto plan will evolve over time”. “The answer will come in the fullness of time”. “We will do what is right at the time of our choosing”.

Liberals are dithering on the softwood lumber dispute, dithering on a Kyoto plan, dithering on Senate reform, dithering on western alienation and dithering on real solutions to the crisis in agriculture.

It is not just the Prime Minister who is dithering. It is the whole rickety cabinet.

The Liberals have no agenda and no vision whatsoever for the country so they dither and fiddle while Rome--I mean our tax dollars--burn.

[Petitions, March 23rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I also have petitions on another topic, euthanasia, which come mainly from the town of Langenburg in my constituency. The petitioners look to section 241 of the Criminal Code as making it against the law to counsel or aid anyone in committing suicide. They point to the Rodriguez case as finding no charter right to suicide. If section 241 were struck down or amended,such protection would no longer exist.

The petitioners petition Parliament to retain section 241 of the Criminal Code without changes in order that Parliament not sanction or allow counselling, aiding or abetting of suicide whether by personal action or the Internet.

[Petitions, March 23rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to submit many more names to the long list of thousands of names I have already submitted with regard to marriage. Most of these come from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The petitioners state that throughout history strong families have been the essential basic unit of all successful societies and that traditional marriage as defined as the union of a man and a woman has always been a critical institution of promoting and protecting strong families. They state that legalizing same sex marriage in Canada would undermine traditional marriage and society, and would undermine support for families as well.

The petitioners ask that Canadians concerned about our future urge the government leaders to do whatever is necessary to preserve traditional marriage in Canada.

I have quite a number of these petitions.

[Agriculture, March 23rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, Liberals touted the 2005 federal budget as one for all Canadians. After reading the fine print, we see agriculture got a kick in the teeth from the Saskatchewan finance minister.

The farm improvement loans program was quietly scrapped by the Liberals. Program loans had a special interest rate and special terms and provided farmers with a real option to regular loans. Lenders would set up similar loans using the program's low rates and terms.

With border closures and poor growing conditions, cutting this program hurt small farms and youth wishing to start farming. Farmers continue to wait for the 2003 and 2004 payments under the CAIS program. It is still not working, despite the announcements. Slaughtering plants are not being set up in a timely fashion.

Why do the Liberals continue to fiddle while Rome burns? That is called dithering.