Gary Goodyear

[Judges Act, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I guess it is just a comment to clarify some of the misunderstandings in the House by some of the members opposite.

I wonder if the member is aware that at some of the committees she refers to the motion that was ruled out of order was on the advice of the leading legal counsel for the House of Commons. The majority, through their tyranny of games and whatnot, had ruled the chairman out of order on a perfectly legal ruling and that in fact is the cause of all the trouble at committees right now. Members of the opposition continually rule perfectly rightful rulings by chairs out of order to try to take over the committees.

I wonder if the member knows that to be true. I am sure she does because I know the member is honourable. I would ask if she is aware that the motion that was ruled out of order was actually attempted to be expanded to look into all of the advertising habits of all the parties and that motion was ruled in order, but the members opposite refused to do that. I am not sure the member is aware of that truth. I wonder if she could comment on that.

[Judges Act, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the member opposite, I believe all the parties in the House, except the Liberal Party, are done. Speaking to this, I understand there was an agreement that one speaker would be put up by the opposition. In fact, one of the members of the Liberal Party attempted to put forward a motion that this bill now pass in the House. However, members of the Liberal Party objected to that motion by their own member.

I wonder if we could have a clear answer on why the Liberals are filibustering this issue. Is it because Bill S-3 is coming up later on in the House and there is an attempt to delay debate on that?

[Judges Act, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the member's support for the government's agenda, particularly on the crime initiatives and the jurisdiction of justice.

I have listened all morning to a number of members opposite. They continually say that they support the bill and that the government maybe should move a little faster on it. I want to thank the members for their support, but my question actually leads to what happened a few minutes ago.

I asked if there was consensus that only one speaker by the Liberals would be put up and we could move on with this issue. They have put up a number of speakers and when the member himself put forward a motion to have the bill now passed, members from his own party ran out and said no. Is this a flip-flop or just a lack of communication on the part of the opposition?

[Judges Act, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I have to congratulate the member for attempting to move a motion even though it is not parliamentary procedure to do such a thing.

[Judges Act, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the many comments, including some from that member's colleagues on the other side, about the government's move forward on a number of different programs. It is a great thing for Canadians to see progress on the justice file.

I wonder if the member would comment on the fact that sometimes it takes a little while to research and find qualified individuals who will serve Canadians properly. It has taken a while to get this legislation forward because sometimes it takes time to find good qualified people.

I noticed that an agreement was reached among parties that since this legislation was agreed upon only one speaker would be put up by the Liberal Party and then we could move forward on this initiative. However, I see that a number of members on the opposite side want to get up and speak. That, in itself, is fodder for that party as those members continue to delay things.

I wonder if the member could comment on why the Liberals are delaying this legislation.

[Judges Act, April 14th, 2008]

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. My apologies, but I have been listening to the member for quite a while and he is speaking about the court challenges program. I wonder if the member could be reminded that we are not dealing with that program right now, that according to the orders of the House, we are dealing with Bill C-31.

[Treatment of Rare Disorders, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in the House today on behalf of my riding of Cambridge and North Dumfries and speak to this very important motion.

The government understands the seriousness of the issues faced by Canadians who suffer rare diseases. We have taken action on these issues for this vulnerable population of Canadians and will continue to do just that.

These disorders affect a very small number of people, which is the good news, sometimes fewer than 100 people in the entire country, making them difficult to diagnose and even harder to treat. The government recognizes that Canadians who suffer from rare diseases can face unique challenges, due in part to the limited information available to doctors, hence making it even more difficult to diagnose and leaving treatment options restricted.

Rare diseases means just that. They are rare. Very few people get them, but that truth makes it a very tricky thing to develop drugs for them. Appropriate testing is difficult and the potential market is very small. Research and development is often prohibitively expense for drug companies.

Perhaps it might be useful to briefly explain the system and how it works and the roles of the different participants.

The federal government is responsible for deciding what products can be sold on the Canadian market, based on sound and practical assessment of the drugs benefits and its risks. We first must do no harm. This is done through a review of the safety and efficacy data from clinical trials conducted on patients. In fact, therein lies one of the problems.

Traditional clinical trials use hundreds and in some cases thousands of patients in a study. Clearly this is not an option for analyzing treatment protocols for rare diseases. This means that by making regulatory decisions about drugs for rare diseases, it is just that much more difficult and that much more challenging.

However, after all that has been done, after all the trials and the research, the drug is approved for sale in Canada. Now each public drug plan, provincial, territorial and in some cases the federal drug plan, for example with first nations or veterans, must decide whether to pay for the drug treatment in their respective jurisdiction.

The high per patient treatment cost means that there will almost never be considered a cost effectiveness using traditional measures and traditional methodologies. It is challenging to know where to draw the line or whether we should even apply different standards if we were to do so, considering only the rarity of a condition.

Physicians must make difficult decisions on how to prescribe these drug therapies or even if they should prescribe them at all based on limited data. Patients must make the ultimate choice of whether to use them and, sadly, sometimes there are no other alternatives.

The good news is the government is taking steps forward on a system meant to improve the health of Canadians, including those with rare diseases. Our recent investment of $113 million in the food and consumer safety action plan is evidence of this progress. The action plan includes a comprehensive set of measures to improve the safety of products that we use, including prescriptions drugs for rare diseases.

[Criminal Code, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. friend, who has been speaking of this issue for a long time. My question goes to the definition of “knife”. In my own riding of Cambridge, a drug dealer was hacked to death with a machete and the person who did it got nine months of house arrest under the Liberal justice system.

[Aerospace Industry, April 10th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, that the Liberals across the way now complain about a file and an industry they completely mismanaged is the epitome of hypocrisy.

Today we have heard that based on the current information the Minister of Industry has decided that the sale of MDA is not in the best interests of Canadians. While the space cadets across the way worry only about getting back to power, the Minister of Industry is worried about the Canadian space industry.

Could the minister tell us what he has done and is about to do for the industry in Canada?

[Business of Supply, April 8th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians, and certainly parliamentarians in the House, would be hard pressed to find an example of a greater global success than the respectful leadership that the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence portrayed to the world in representing Canada at the recent NATO conference.

I want to congratulate the minister and the Prime Minister for what I found to be an extremely proud moment, which was under-reported in the media here at home. Internationally, we were praised for pretty much rewriting some of our NATO commitments and bringing that entire faction together.

We have heard calls from the NDP to basically cut and run and leave Afghan folks in the midst of these al-Qaeda terrorists. Are we getting close to the point where the security of that nation can be left to the nation of Afghanistan itself?