James Bezan

[Prebudget Consultations, December 13th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, flipping through the report and looking at the recommendations, it is a good report and is pretty comprehensive. I know a lot of work went into it by all the members of the finance committee.

One recommendation that is important to my riding is the one on mental health because there is a mental hospital in my riding. I want to see more investment into our mental health system. I would like him to comment on that and also on infrastructure needs in rural communities which seem to be at a bit of a disadvantage compared to larger urban centres. I want to hear from him on that and how important it is to the overall economic growth and prosperity for all Canadians.

This probably being the last time I am going to be up, I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

[Interparliamentary Delegations, December 13th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1), I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian interparliamentary delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas, Canadian Section, respecting its participation in the fifth plenary meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas held in Bogota, Colombia, from November 19 to 21, 2006.

[Federal Accountability Act, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, when Canadians voted for change in the way government is accountable to the people, they voted for our Conservative government. When they were voting to end years of Liberal corruption and mismanagement, Canadians voted for our Conservative government. The federal accountability act has often been referred to as the toughest anti-corruption law in Canadian history and was brought forward by our Conservative government.

Could the President of the Treasury Board please advise the House on the status of the federal accountability act?

[Petitions, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition calls on Parliament to bring back the definition of marriage to mean the lawful union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

[Petitions, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of presenting two petitions today.

The first petition has over 250 signatures of petitioners calling on Parliament to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 18.

[Liberal Party of Canada, December 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, Liberals are getting over their hangover from last weekend and Canadians are bewildered by their decision. The Liberals soundly rejected the ideas of renewal, innovative thinking and women in leadership. Instead, they picked a leader that the majority of the Liberal caucus rejected and over 82% of delegates did not even consider as their first choice.

Liberals decided they wanted someone who sat at the cabinet table while they squandered billions of dollars on the ineffective gun registry, stuffed cash into brown envelopes during ad scam, and misplaced a billion bucks in the HRDC boondoggle.

However, the new Liberal leader campaigned on cleaning up the environment rather than the ethically challenged Liberal Party, and now has to defend his weak performance as the previous environment minister.

In her last report, the environment commissioner condemned the Liberal record of inaction and failure. The new leader presided over a 35% increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Canada's air quality dropped to 27th out of 29 nations in the OECD. The commissioner concluded the Liberal government was “not up to the task” of managing climate change.

I guess when it comes to the Liberals, it is back to the future, in a dithering kind of way.

[Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006, December 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member for Winnipeg Centre is going on about the Wheat Board. The debate right now is on softwood lumber and Bill C-24. I would ask that he get back on topic. I would ask that he discuss the matter at hand and not get off track.

[Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006, November 29th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the hon. member's speech and I have been watching the debate unfold for weeks now in the House of Commons. The NDP continues to spread the gospel message from the U.S. lobbyists. I just do not understand why the NDP is working with the U.S. lawyers and the U.S. labour groups who are opposed to this deal.

The reality is that this is a great deal. This is a deal that will put litigation behind us once and for all. The U.S. lawyers are of course upset about this and they have got into the minds of the NDP members, which is not that difficult to do, and have them being their puppets up here in Canada.

All the NDP cares about is keeping this in the courts, never coming to a deal, and keeping our communities and our lumber industry up in the air without any final result. The NDP has a lot of explaining to do when jobs are at stake here in Canada. The lumber companies in Canada want this deal. They want it finalized. They do not want any more politics and games being played by the NDP.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, November 27th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, many farmers in my riding of Selkirk--Interlake and other farmers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have suffered severe spring flooding over the past two years because of above average rainfall. Because of this, many cannot plant anything or even maintain their land.

Could the Minister of Agriculture update this House on what the government is doing to help these farmers restore their land and get back on their feet?

[Federal Accountability Act, November 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the federal accountability act has been stuck in the Senate for almost twice as long as it took for the House to pass it.

While unelected Liberal senators delay the accountability act, the leadership candidates for the Liberal Party have had absolutely nothing to say on accountability. As well, not one of those Liberal MPs who refused to vote against the accountability act has done a thing to get the act out of the Liberal Senate.

Could the President of the Treasury Board tell the House what he thinks the real reason is for the Liberal foot-dragging in the Senate?