James Lunney

[Kyoto Protocol, December 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today and enter into this debate on the ratification of Kyoto.

The Minister of Health, who represents Edmonton West, just spoke to the issue. She proposes that the risk to the oil and gas industry be reduced but at the same time we proceed somehow with ratification. That seems like an oxymoron. The very act of ratification itself without an implementation plan, supported by industry, exposes the industry to the worst risk. Already the consequences of that are manifest.

In spite of denials that such a report exists, my colleague had a report from Canada's leading investment dealers, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, in his hand yesterday during question period. The report surveyed 53 top American equity analyists. Two-thirds of those surveyed warned that implementing the international climate control treaty would harm the Canadian economy and would cause Wall Street to rethink energy sector investments in Canada. That fallout already is happening. We already have threatened cutbacks in investments from big international investors, upon which we rely on Canada's future developed, if we attempt ratification without an implementation plan.

The member from Winnipeg South Centre who just spoke a moment ago said that the interests of Alberta were different than the interests of people in Manitoba and other areas. The riding which I represent, Nanaimo--Alberni, is in British Columbia. We have a lot of people who are very concerned about the environment, as are myself and the members on this side. However we are also concerned about a plan. How does the member propose to address the issues that a province like Manitoba faces, with huge transportation distances between, for example, Winnipeg and areas like Morden and Winkler where some of my family lives? There are huge transportation costs and it is a very cold province. I grew up in Winnipeg and it was cold, something like Ottawa is today.

We need to heat our homes. It would be nice if everyone could go to energy efficient homes, but what kind of costs would be imposed on homeowners? The government wants people to buy energy efficient cars. When people living in rural areas go into town they need vehicles that can carry farm supplies and groceries. The grocery store is not a five minute walk away as it is for many of the urban members. How would the member address the huge transportation costs? We are such a cold nation. We have serious problems with which we have to deal in terms of heating our homes.

We might all want to go back to sod homes like the first inhabitants in Canada, such as Mr. Snorri Thorfinnson. We read about the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. They made thermally sound sod homes, which were a metre and a half thick. They worked pretty well and conserved heat. I am not sure that most Canadians are prepared to or will live in homes like that. We wonder how some of the advocates of the Kyoto protocol expect us to heat our homes. We wonder how we can expand and develop as a country, with the restrictions that Kyoto will put on us.

Today in my speech I would like to focus on several issues related to Kyoto: science, economics and Kyoto's effect on my riding of Nanaimo--Alberni.

On the question of science, the government's climate change plan on page 5 makes the statement that there is a strong consensus among scientists that climate change is already occurring and that human activity is contributing to it. Is there a strong consensus and is that an accurate statement? I would suggest that it is a very misleading statement. Climate scientists agree that climate is always changing, but to say that there is a consensus that human activity is contributing to that is simply not true.

A dictionary definition of consensus is that it involves general agreement or unanimity; group solidarity in sentiment and belief. However there is no unanimity or even general agreement among scientists that global warming is even taking place, let alone that human activity is causing it.

Regarding the anti-Kyoto scientific community, since the climate treaty was hatched in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, scientists have shown their dissent in four petitions. We have the 1992 statement by the atmospheric scientists on greenhouse warming with more than 100 signatures. In 1992 we had the Heidelburg appeal, with more than 4,000 signatures. These are not high school biology students. They are reputable international scientists with recognized credentials.

In 1996 the Leipzig declaration was signed by some 130 prominent U.S. climate scientists, including several who had actually participated in the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change, the so-called IPCC.

In 1998 the Oregon petition was signed by some 17,000 U.S. scientists, thus far. We might suggest that it is obvious that there is no strong consensus among scientists and the government is plainly misrepresenting the facts when it tells Canadians that there is.

Why is there no consensus? The general circulation models, the GCMs, are weak instruments of prediction. Predictions vary by as much as 300% in temperature forecasts. They require arbitrary adjustments. We always have to look at our assumptions when making scientific models because there is something in logic called a non sequitur. One can arrive at an erroneous conclusion by logical reasoning if it is based on a false premise.

We had better look what the assumptions are. The assumptions in this regard involve arbitrary adjustments. They cannot handle crucial mesoscale and microscale cloud processes. The forecasts of substantial warming depend on a positive feedback from atmospheric water vapour.

The GCMs cannot account for past observations. The temperature rose between 1920 to 1940. Then we had the cooling trend up until 1975. Since 1979, there was the absence of warming in the satellite records.

Other explanations which need to be explored are: reducing the positive feedback from water vapour; an increase in cloudiness; anthropogenic aerosols; man-made land changes; increasing air traffic; and solar variations including climate. Goodness knows, the solar variations have tremendous impact on climate. It appears they have throughout history, from the beginning of time and recorded history.

Will Kyoto work? Here is a quote from Richard Benedick, one of the chief negotiators for the Montreal agreement on ozone reductions. That was an effective international agreement. He wrote an article entitled, “How Workable is the Kyoto Protocol”, published in Weathervane .

According to Richard Benedick, “the Kyoto outcome will have an inconsequential impact on the climate system”. What sacrifices is the government asking Canadians to take on for an outcome that is very questionable indeed? It is a valid question.

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, a Princeton scientist and environmental adviser to President Clinton, was quoted in Science , December 19, 1997. He said, “It might take another 30 Kyotos over the next century” to control global warming. There is not a lot of confidence that the agreement, even if it were signed and if it were possible to implement and comply, would have a significant impact on global climate change.

Two-thirds of the countries are not covered by Kyoto. The total of CO

2

emissions could just as likely skyrocket if Kyoto is implemented. We might say that because the Kyoto deal allows for emissions trading. It does not require that Canada would make CO

2

reductions. Kyoto would establish emission trading credits. The scheme would allow Canada to buy credits toward its targets by transferring money abroad and in some cases to the countries that have worse environmental records, far worse than our own, and we could do that rather than make CO

2

reductions.

Implementing Kyoto as it is, a very weak, damaged environmental agreement, could endanger the environment rather than help it.

Now I have some facts. Man-made CO

2

accounts for about 0.4% of atmospheric CO

2

. Water vapour, which causes 97% of the greenhouse effect, accounts for 100 times more of the volume of CO

2

The Kyoto accord does not deal with the serious concerns about environmental contamination in general or air pollution in particular, for example, particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and smog. Canadians are being mislead somewhat in thinking that reductions in CO

2

will mean a reduction in the smog about which we are concerned.

It is interesting to note that weather balloons have shown no warming in the past 45 years. Anybody walking on the streets of Ottawa today would be hard pressed to think about global warming. In fact, we are in a freeze across the country. If there is any agreement on global warming, we are not experiencing it this week in Canada.

Weather balloons have shown no warming in the past 45 years. Satellites have shown no warming in the past 23 years. Both methods are infinitely more reliable than surface temperature readings. We might want to have that question answered. Could members opposite explain that to me? If we are so sure that man-made intervention is causing global warming and if we are sure that it is happening, then why have weather balloons not shown warming in the past 45 years nor satellites shown or confirmed that in the past 23 years? That is a valid question.

Let me talk about Kyoto economics. When we ask what the cost of implementing Kyoto will be to Canadians, we do not get much of an answer.

[Coast Guard, November 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, next week the Auditor General will report on the state of marine communications in Canada. It ought to be a shocker.

Since 1995, the Coast Guard has experienced amalgamation, downsizing and cross training. What committee found when we toured MCTS coastal facilities was appalling: failed transmitters, service interruptions, cancelled training programs and dedicated officers under great duress.

In this day of heightened worldwide alert, surely watching our coast ought to be a top priority. Will the minister commit to correcting the chronic million dollar budget shortfall right now?

[Hazardous Products Act, November 28th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to enter this debate tonight.

I wish to congratulate the hon. member for Scarborough East for the work he has done to introduce Bill C-260, an act to amend the Hazardous Products Act, and for reintroducing his bill when earlier efforts met the fate of other private members' bills, the political dead end.

Bill C-260 asks the Minister of Health to provide Parliament with reasons why the Hazardous Products Act should not be amended to include cigarettes in the flammability standards. Indeed, there are a lot of similar whys we might wish to ask the minister, such as why the Health Protection Branch has a lot of simple amino acids or minerals that promote health on a restricted list, that is, not to be sold by health food outlets, something simple like chromium picolinate, a simple mineral compound. Chromium is necessary to produce a glucose tolerance factor. Anyone with a blood sugar problem, high or low, should be taking a chromium supplement.

My hon. colleague, the member for Yellowhead, speaking on the bill during the first hour of debate rightly mentioned that the bill does not create a new bureaucracy, nor does it raise taxes for Canadians. We certainly appreciate that on this side of the House. The bill is about the safety of Canadians and making a dangerous product safer. Like my colleagues I hope that the members of the House will do the right thing and support the bill, and not relegate it to the political dustbin like so many other bills that have been brought forward by individual members.

We have heard a lot of distressing statistics related to fires caused by cigarettes. Indeed, in this hour of debate these statistics have been brought forward. These fires bring about deaths, injuries and significant material losses, losses of homes, furniture, forests and wildlife. Cigarette fires are responsible for one out of every five fire fatalities. Cigarette fires kill 100 Canadians every year with another 300 injured. The material damage caused by cigarette fires in 1999 was $36.5 million.

These are tragic numbers that could be reduced by requiring tobacco companies to make fire safe cigarettes. Why should cigarette paper include chemical additives that keep them burning without active participation, namely puffer power or pucker power? That is a valid question indeed.

In 1997 the Minister of Health said safe tobacco regulations were a priority. The reality is that neither the minister then nor the minister now has done anything to fulfill that commitment. Perhaps the previous minister was preoccupied with the issue of medical marijuana. He is well known for establishing a rock garden and that seemed to occupy a fair bit of his attention.

I would like to digress to this issue because it seems strange to me that the government could neglect a safety issue that Bill C-260 brings up, and yet proceed with so-called medical marijuana or be seen to be promoting marijuana smoking when there are some real safety concerns associated with marijuana smoking.

Researchers at the British Lung Foundation determined that smoking three marijuana cigarettes caused the same damage to the lining of the airways as 20 tobacco cigarettes and that tar from marijuana contained 50% more carcinogens than tobacco. I was at the CMA conference a year ago August in Quebec City. It happened to be the time when the then health minister was introducing strong measures to wrestle the tobacco companies to the ground over the use of the words light and mild. At the same time the irony was not lost on the medical doctors present who, during the question period, asked the then minister whether they were to assume the responsibility for the consequences of smoking marijuana, consequences that are not fully understood today or appreciated, particularly for long term use.

Three recent studies published in the British Medical Journal linked marijuana use with mental illness. Issues such as the lack of mental acuity raises important questions, such as operating heavy equipment or driving a car. What level is an impaired level for someone using marijuana? A joint today may have 10 to 35 times the TCP levels compared to the same product that some in the room may have experimented with in 1970.

One study found that smoking marijuana every day increased the risk of depression by five times and that smoking marijuana once a week doubled the risk.

A second study of 50,000 Swedish conscripts over 27 years found that marijuana increased the risk of schizophrenia by 30%.

A third study found that the earlier teenagers started smoking marijuana, the greater the risk of schizophrenia.

Tragically, this past week a teenager in British Columbia committed suicide after being found with marijuana in his possession and being grounded by his coach. We of course have sympathy for his parents and family in this tragic case but we must register some incredulity when the Senate committee advocated legalizing marijuana, not decriminalizing it but actually legalizing it, which would include people as young as 16 years of age. I understand that in most jurisdictions even to buy cigarettes people need to be 18 or 19 years old. We might wonder what some of the senators have been smoking.

While it seems that the government is rather unconcerned with safety issues around marijuana, it could and should show that it is concerned with the issue of cigarette safety, which of course is the subject of the debate tonight.

By requiring tobacco companies to make fire safe cigarettes, the government could help to prevent fatalities, injuries and material damage caused by cigarette fires. It could require tobacco companies to make cigarettes with lower paper porosity, smaller circumference, shorter filters, reducing or eliminating paper burn additives, and lower tobacco density. This would be a simple regulation to implement under the Hazardous Products Act, by including cigarettes in its flammability standards.

If the government does not want to take this simple step, then Bill C-260 should be passed to compel the Minister of Health to explain to Parliament why.

It is indeed a valid suggestion and we certainly support the intent of the bill. We congratulate the hon. member for Scarborough East for bringing the bill forward.

[Business of the House, November 22nd, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the intervention by the hon. member. I know that he is very knowledgeable on this subject and has done a lot of research, particularly in the area of the stem cell research embryonic versus adult.

There is a lot of discussion today about which is the right way to go, not only ethically but scientifically. We know that in our day we had tremendous breakthroughs, unlike the U.S. and Great Britain when they were dealing with this subject earlier. There really was confusion about which would be the right way to go. It seemed as though the industry felt it had to have embryonic stem cells.

However we have seen tremendous advantage in the plasticity of adult cells, which can change into different types of cells. Also, as he mentioned, we have tremendous possibilities if ova can be used. Then we would not need to have a bunch of extra embryos created for the reproductive purpose.

Dr. Françoise Baylis did some research on the effect of freezing these embryos and thawing them and on how many would be effective or would need to be destroyed in order to find any useful stem cells. Could the hon. member comment on that?

[Business of the House, November 22nd, 2002]

Madam Speaker, the member has raised an interesting subject. I have to admit that I missed the early part of his intervention, so my question may ask him for clarification of something he has already covered.

The bill does raise some very challenging components. It is a very broad bill, purporting to cover assisted human reproduction but going into a very broad area of scientific research as well, such as issues of cloning and therapeutic cloning. We know that the bill would ban cloning and, at the current time, therapeutic cloning. There is still some discussion about that.

I want some clarification. In the area of regulation, scientists are certainly looking for a lot of openness. There is a controversy about embryonic stem cells versus adult stem cells and a lot of questions remain to be answered on that front. There are very serious concerns concerning importing and exporting of sperm, of parts and even of embryos in relation to the bill, and even about the provisions regarding anonymity in donations.

My question is really about the equivalency provisions currently in the bill, which would allow provinces to have their own regulations that they could argue are equivalent to the federal jurisdiction. Does that not satisfy his concern about the provinces? It is still enabling an umbrella that would cover the country but allow provinces to make their own minor variations that they could argue are equivalent.

[Health, November 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first we had tainted blood imported from U.S. prisons. Now we are importing semen from U.S. prisons to produce Canadian children. The catastrophic fallout from disease spread by tainted blood has created thousands of victims and 20 years later continues to occupy the House and destroy the lives of the victims.

With recent deaths from organ transplants that contained the West Nile virus and untold pathogens yet to be identified, why is the Minister of Health establishing agencies to facilitate the international trade in human embryos, human cells and human body components?

[Canadian Coast Guard, November 6th, 2002]

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the hon. member from St. John's for his comments tonight. I wanted to draw to his attention our MCTS centres, the marine communications and traffic services centres, that are watching the traffic flow up and down the coast. I know the hon. member was with us when the committee visited these centres.

I wonder if he would comment on the problems we have with the ab initio training program. That is training for officers. I believe we have the best and well trained officers manning our posts, but they are getting older and many of them are nearing retirement. The training to replace these officers, which takes quite a bit of time, simply has not been done, especially from the west coast.

We visited the Canadian Coast Guard College in Sydney, Nova Scotia, an excellent facility. It is actually quite busy training officers from other countries who are coming here to receive the benefits of our knowledge. It seems tragic to me that we are not training our own officers to replace our hard-working people on the coasts.

In addition to that, I wonder if he would comment on what we saw in terms of notices of suspension shipping services that are not going out. The coast is not being watched at times and hundreds of miles of coastline are just simply not being watched at all.

[Petitions, November 6th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I have a petition related to the Coast Guard. The petitioners are drawing attention to the fact that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has not funded the Coast Guard adequately resulting in staffing problems and equipment shortages, as well as training deficits.

They draw attention to the recent tragic drowning related to the Cap Rouge II . They note that the Coast Guard is in desperate need of a new hovercraft. They also object to the fact that search and rescue does not seem to be a priority of the government.

The petitioners therefore are calling for the Coast Guard to be separated from DFO and established as an independent and well-funded organization to effectively patrol our coasts and provide search and rescue.

[Bamfield, British Columbia, November 6th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, October 31, about 200 people gathered in Bamfield, a beautiful village on the west coast of Vancouver Island, to celebrate an event that created a cable link across the Pacific Ocean.

In 1902, after 20 years of planning, workers connected 6,000 kilometres of undersea cable linking Bamfield and Fanning Island in the South Pacific. This undertaking, known as the “All Red Route”, completely linked the British Empire.

On November 2, two days after the final cable was connected, the message went out, encircling the globe and setting in motion advancements in communications that led to today's fibre optics and satellite technology.

Although the cable station was closed in 1959, the site is now home to the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, one of Canada's leading marine science institutions.

The centenary celebrations included a message from Queen Elizabeth, the unveiling of a commemorative stamp and a gathering of former cable operators, cable kids and historical enthusiasts.

Bamfield, leading the way into the 20th century with cable communications and now leading the way into the 21st century in marine science research.

[Health Care System, October 30th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on behalf of my constituents of Nanaimo--Alberni and my party to enter into this take note debate on health care. It has been an interesting afternoon. With the discussions that began a couple of evenings ago in the take note debate, a lot of ideas about health care have been put forward.

What is it going to take to restore timely quality care to Canadians? There has been a lot of discussion about the Kirby report that was just released. Is that going to provide solutions for us? Senator Kirby and his committee from the Senate are recommending a cash infusion of about $5 billion. In order to fund that, will there be an increase in income tax or in the GST or will it be both? On the government side there is a lot of breath-holding while waiting for Mr. Romanow's report, which is expected to come down next month. It seems likely that Mr. Romanow will be making similar proposals.

It sounds like a pattern we have heard before. Coming into the last election in 2000, there was the health ministers social contract, which was signed with an infusion of dollars to solve the health problems, and yet here we are two years later and more money has not solved the problem. The question that might be asked is, how much money will it take to solve the problem?

There has been a lot of talk about the rising cost of drugs and making sure that there is access to the drugs that people need, especially seniors on fixed incomes and Canadians who are required to take drugs.

I will review what has happened with health care costs in British Columbia. In 1990 when I moved to British Columbia with my wife, about 30% of all provincial government expenditures were on health care. By 2000, during the election, it was 40%. Now, just two years later, we are at 42%.

I know that B.C. health minister Colin Hansen is very concerned about those rising costs. In fact even though the government has put a $1.1 billion increase into the provincial budget for health care in British Columbia, there is still a widespread perception that it has actually cut health care funding because there are hospitals closing and services being withheld. The costs are rising so dramatically.

Perhaps we need to look at how many dollars are going to be sufficient and whether any amount of dollars would be sufficient if we keep going the way we are going.

Madam Speaker, I was remiss in not saying earlier that I will be splitting my time with the member from Surrey.

In our health care spending perhaps we need to look at how we are spending, and perhaps we are not going the right way. I practised for a lot of years as a health professional myself and sometimes I had to use an analogy with my patients. Because we lived on Vancouver Island I would say to patients that if they wanted to drive to Victoria and sincerely believed they were heading that way but noticed communities like Comox and Courtenay as they passed them, perhaps going faster or spending more money would not get them where they wanted to go. They were simply going in the wrong direction.

Perhaps that analogy applies in the health care debate to a certain extent. Perhaps we are missing the mark. Part of the discussion about health care that we need to have is being held to a certain extent, but I do not think it is near enough to the forefront, and that is the discussion about effectiveness and cost effectiveness. That is what I would like to talk a little about.

One of the situations to which I referred during the election involved a person whom I have known for years who ended up with chest pain. He arrived at a hospital on Vancouver Island. His pain was gone in a day but they kept him in hospital for ten days. He would rather have been at home. That was nine days that he did not need to be there. It was nearly $1,000 a day for a hospital bed that he did not need and someone else could have been using. What kind of efficiency is this? It was $9,000 worth of taxpayer dollars spent in the name of health care and it had nothing to do with health care. The only obscure connection is the fact that if they let him go home they knew it would take six weeks before he could get an angiogram in Victoria.

An angiogram was necessary to determine which type of cardiac surgery he would need, whether it would be angioplasty, cardiac surgery, stent surgery or bypass surgery. At that time in British Columbia there was a logjam of 600 people waiting for this procedure and wondering whether they would live or die waiting for an angiogram. Yet if the patient had had the money in his pocket, some $2,000 to $4,000, he might have gone down the street to a very well qualified and I think a very bright doctor in our community who is one of 1,500 doctors in North America who do an alternate form of therapy called chelation therapy. I thought we might talk about that for just a moment. What is chelation therapy? Maybe we should consider alternatives for Canadians.

According to Health Canada, cardiovascular diseases were the most expensive disease category in 1995, accounting for $7.3 billion or 17% of the total direct costs of illness. This is rather serious, as everyone knows, as does anyone who has experienced a heart attack or heart disease. I am sure there are many members in the House who have had surgery. My colleague right beside me can certainly testify to this.

I have here an article about chelation from The Globe and Mail of Tuesday, August 27. It states that patients of intravenous therapy swear that it gives them energy to burn. Now a new study will try to figure out if it works. I am sure this is anecdotal, but the article mentions one gentleman who lives in Burlington, Ontario, Mr. Lathe, who swears that chelation therapy has given him renewed zest. He walks with a spring in his stride, for up to seven and a half kilometres a day. He also testifies that he has had other improvements in his health. He is less forgetful. He said he has had an improvement in his “beep-beep”, something he said is a boon to a man of his age. He is over 80 years of age. In fact it was not a popular drug with a popular advertisement showing a man bouncing like a bunny and singing “good morning” that did it for him; it was an intravenous procedure that restored his function and he was pretty happy about it.

Early this month in the United States the National Institutes of Health announced a $30 million study led by the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to try to determine the effectiveness of chelation and/or high dose vitamin therapy for people with coronary artery disease. This is a five year trial with almost 2,400 subjects who will be receiving either chelation therapy or a placebo.

In Canada chelation therapy is largely unregulated, but I know from my own community that there are many people who have experienced chelation therapy and swear by it. I have seen people who were at risk of having amputations who have had their limbs spared because this intravenous chelation, which is designed to take heavy metals out of the body, in fact coincidentally seems to strip cholesterol out of the arteries and improves function that way.

There is a person in North Vancouver who has written a book called Addiction by Prescription: One Woman's Triumph and Fight for Change . We talk about the high cost of drugs, but perhaps drugs are not the only answer or in fact the best answer for all conditions. Joan Gadsby has written a book about benzodiazapines. Sadly, up to 30% of our seniors may be taking a drug, a tranquilizer or a sleeping pill that they do not really need.

Going beyond that, a Canadian company has come up with a very creative strategy for mental illness. It has found a very simple mineral supplement that reduces the need for psychiatric medications for patients who are bipolar. An article about it was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in December 2001. Why is it that Health Canada now has put the brakes on this study that got many patients off their prescription drugs and taking a nutritional supplement that would lead to them becoming low needs patients? This is something we want to see investigated further.

A startling article and new studies coming out are linking SV40, a monkey virus, to being a contaminant in our oral polio vaccine. There are recent studies linking many forms of cancer to a virus that contaminated polio vaccines: mesothelioma, osteosarcomas, retinoblastomas and, I know, non-Hodgkins lymphoma. About 6,000 cases a year are being diagnosed, an increase startling in Canada, but cancer viruses, it appears, can lie dormant in the body for decades before they are activated when the immune system is depressed.

Another article on the same subject states that nine million Canadians were vaccinated between 1955 and 1961. Whether they were infected is a scary thought but if it did come from the polio vaccine, perhaps we ought to look into it.

There are other studies that have just come out. I refer to Maclean's magazine in which it talks about autism and the mercury derivatives that may be causing great problems.

Perhaps we need to rethink some of what we are doing. We need to come up with creative strategies and look at all the alternatives as to how we can reduce costs by effective interventions. Then we would have the money to direct to our concerns for seniors, to palliative and home care and compassionate care for all Canadians.