Gerry Ritz

[Ethics, October 28th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Agriculture has a dismal record of getting cash out to primary producers and I am sure they would be interested to know how many undeclared gifts of over $200 the minister has accepted in the last little while.

[Supply, October 28th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the minister rattle on and on about Bill C-20 as the placebo, as the answer to all our ill will here.

The problem with Bill C-20 is that we have had a majority government for 10 years and it has not moved on it. If child protection is a priority, I would hate to see something that is not a priority. This is a snail's pace, even worse. We are going backwards according to police associations and the justice community. They are saying that Bill C-20 does not do it.

The big thing the minister goes on and on about, and I have to reply to a petition I have here on child pornography, is the increase in maximum sentencing. It is not the maximum that needs to be increased. It is the minimum that needs to be increased. That is not addressed at all.

I have a short question for the minister. Where is the truth in sentencing in Bill C-20? Where is the consecutive sentencing for perpetrators of child pornography in Bill C-20?

[Elk Industry, October 7th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, Bob Nelson of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan asks why the Liberals continue to ignore the elk industry while it struggles alone to restore markets unfairly restricted by a couple of cases of chronic wasting disease. Sounds familiar, does it not? A viable industry is being hammered by foreign politics while these Liberals sit on their hands. Bob writes “The industry has lost over $32 million in sales to Korea, as well as around $10 million per year in live animal sales to the United States”.

Both Korea and the U.S. have chronic wasting disease in their own herds, so protection from Canadian animals is not an issue here. Back in March of this year I wrote to the Minister for International Trade to demand an explanation of what his department has done to resolve this issue. So far, there has been no response and no resolution.

The Canadian market for elk and their nutrient rich antler velvet involves 79,000 animals and an annual value in excess of $50 million. Why do the Liberals always let other countries walk all over our producers?

[Infrastructure, October 3rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that within the year Mr. McGuinty will have his own feuds with the finance minister over there too.

The Liberal concerns for infrastructure peak in the months preceding an election and then conveniently fade away. It proves the point made by H.L. Mencken, who the finance minister loves to quote, when he said, “and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods”. Nothing could be truer. Roads and bridges take years to build and need regular upkeep.

Why does the Liberal government always ignore these facts between elections?

[Infrastructure, October 3rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, when the smell of fresh asphalt is in the air, it must be election time in Canada.

For 10 years the phantom Prime Minister imposed tax after tax on gasoline. Then he had the audacity to add GST on top of that. Of the $5 billion he hoarded every year, less than 2.5% leaked into road construction between elections.

Is the present finance minister prepared to reverse this rip-off today, or is he just the new front man in these pre-election games?

[Petitions, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, last but certainly not least, many petitioners in my riding are calling for the government to get tough on child pornography. The government gets close, but it never quite implements legislation that will require child pornographers to really pay some stiff harsh penalties.

[Petitions, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, we are getting back into hockey season, so in the third petition, petitioners from Saskatchewan request that the revenue minister get off her back and not tax young hockey players as she did last year. That stopped as she reached the Manitoba boarder. She simply picked on Saskatchewan. We do not think that is a fair use of the revenue situation.

[Petitions, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in my second petition, the petitioners call upon the government to introduce in Bill C-13 that non-embryonic stem cells be used. Adult stem cells have shown significant research progress in dealing with some of those diseases.

This is an excellent petition.

[Petitions, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present four petitions today.

The first petition is signed by many of my constituents. The petitioners are requesting that the government have a full public inquiry into many of these government contracts that have gone off the rails, which is certainly a good initiative.

[Agriculture, September 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that no producers can wait another six months to see if they can trigger any payout from the minister's Russian roulette support programs.

When will the minister table a national plan that will actually address the health of our livestock industry? When is he will he do that?