Jean Chrétien

[Government of Canada, December 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I know that right hon. member very well. He just wants to attack people personally.

Here is a very dedicated, hardworking minister, who has a lot of experience in Parliament and who has done a very good job.

For Christmas, the leader of the fifth party, who is about to go soon, wanted to have another personal attack.

[Government of Canada, December 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I think our House leader is very competent. We have legislation in front of the House of Commons regularly.

I know that the leader of fifth party always is preoccupied by process and quantity. On this side of the House we are more preoccupied with the quality of our legislation, including the vote on Kyoto, which he voted against yesterday to protect his seat in Alberta.

[Foreign Affairs, December 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, if they ask us something, of course we are not like the member: If we have a request, we study the request, and I hope that people do before answering a question.

We have said clearly that we have not been asked. If they make a request we will look into it, but at this moment we are not interested. The policy is very clear and has been stated in the House by myself and ministers over the years.

[Foreign Affairs, December 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has said anything like that. As for the project of the Americans on the so-called star wars, we are not participating in that and we have not been asked to participate. It is just a hypothetical question that the hon. member is dealing with.

We have a policy that was clearly stated in the House of Commons many, many times and many months and years ago.

[Firearms Registry, December 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first, talking about people who do not know how to count, I remember very well in December 1979 when the leader of the fifth party could not count his own members in the House.

Second, I do not think he would be very keen to re-open the Al-Mashat affair.

Third, I just want to say that the Minister of Justice is handling the file very well. The gun registry program is very important for the Canadian people because of the safety in the cities and in the homes of all the nations. We have had some problems with it and--

[Health, December 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am not looking for a show. I am looking for results.

I think the best way to have a very productive first ministers conference is to have it like the one we had in September 2000 where the provinces agreed to make the results of their operations public. We want to improve it to make sure that the Canadian public is aware of the problems and the results of the Canadian system of health that is one of the best in the world.

[Health, December 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I asked Mr. Romanow to do a job and I thanked him for doing a good job. We have received all the reports, like the report from the Senate and some provincial reports.

The Minister of Health met with her colleagues last Friday to discuss priorities. They have looked at all the files. I will be meeting with the first ministers at the end of January.

I can give a guarantee to the hon. member that we intend to maintain the five conditions of the Canada Health Act and improve on it if possible.

[Government Contracts, December 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we have asked the Auditor General to investigate. She has reported to the minister. The Bloc Quebecois suggested that files be referred to the police whenever there was an indication of wrongdoing. That is precisely what we have done. With both the Auditor General and the RCMP involved, I would say that we have all the angles well covered.

[Kyoto Protocol, December 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, there have been hundreds of ministerial meetings since 1993 on both Kyoto and Rio. The time had come to act. We have made much progress.

I myself have had the opportunity to meet with representatives of the oil and gas industry, and they are asking us for something definite. If they do not have that, they will not be able to succeed. Companies like BP and Shell have succeeded in meeting their obligations at no cost to themselves. I am sure other companies in Canada can do the same. Canadians are, I am sure, not going to have any problem meeting the Kyoto objectives by 2012.

[Kyoto Protocol, December 10th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, at this moment we are dealing with the ratification. We have had over the last few weeks very good discussion with the private sector and the provinces and we have made a lot of progress.

I am sure Canada will meet interim targets like general targets in 2005 and 2012 because Canadian people keep their word.