Jim Maloway

[Standing up for Victims of White Collar Crime Act, December 14th, 2010]

Get tough on crime.

[Petitions, December 14th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I have a petition signed by dozens of Canadians calling on the government to end Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan.

In May 2008, Parliament passed a resolution to withdraw the Canadian Forces by July 2011. The Prime Minister, in agreement with the Liberal Party, broke his oft-repeated promise to honour the parliamentary motion. Furthermore he refuses to put it to a parliamentary vote in the House.

Committing 1,000 soldiers to a training mission still presents a danger to our troops and an unnecessary expense when our country is face with a $56 billion deficit. The military mission has cost Canadians more than $18 billion so far, money that could have been used to improve health care and seniors' pensions right here in Canada.

Polls show that a clear majority of Canadians do not want Canada's military presence to continue after the scheduled removal date of July 2011. Therefore, the petitioners call on the Prime Minister to honour the will of Parliament and bring the troops home now.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, questions are coming from a member of a party that cannot even get its own leadership to act in any concerted and consistent effort. That party has gone through a couple of leaders in the last couple of years.

I have given you answers to what has to happen in terms of reconstruction. I have given you answers with regard to the cholera outbreak, and certainly in terms of the political situation the government has to be—

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, since I listen to and rely on the hon. member for solutions to problems like this, I think she is in a better position to provide answers than I am.

As I have said before, this is a very serious problem, probably the most serious problem in Haiti. The citizens can wait a bit longer for construction projects and new infrastructure and so on, but they cannot wait for help to deal with a devastating cholera outbreak.

I am certain my colleague could tell me better, but I am sure that cholera is just one of the things that can happen. Other types of diseases are probably associated with it, so that if we let the cholera outbreak follow its natural course there will be another outbreak of something else, which will cause even more devastation.

We have to deal with problem number one right now, which is the cholera outbreak, and once we get that under control then we can worry about the political instability and the reconstruction efforts. There are ways to deal with the other issues, but the cholera situation is very disturbing and has to be dealt with right away.

That member is probably the best member in the entire House to understand these types of issues and explain the problem to people and tell them how to deal with it.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, on two occasions I have dealt with that issue. I have said very clearly that I think we should be looking at a version of the Marshall plan where the world leaders got together to look at what worked to reconstruct Europe and Japan after the devastation of the second world war, if we are really serious about dealing with the problem.

We have been dealing with band-aid solutions, incremental solutions, not only with regard to this particular situation, but others for many years. If we were to look at best practices and examples of what actually works, then we could look at the Marshall plan. It was something that did turn Europe and Japan around after the devastation of the war. If it worked in those situations, why can we not at least look at in a situation like this?

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for clarifying the points. I assumed that the matching funds program was over.

The fact is that when we are dealing with organizations, for example, Habitat for Humanity, I am not certain whether they go into a country and actually build the buildings on their own or whether they have to pre-clear through organizations. I am sure that is what it is.

I think that is a concern for a lot of people. They are reluctant to believe that there is an efficiency in giving the money over to another organization who then gives it over to another organization. At the end of the day, there is no report back as to what we got for our money or a proper accounting. I wish that could be the case.

It seems to me the best way to do it would be to have individual organizations like Habitat for Humanity go in and complete its whole project without going through intermediaries. At that point we would know that we were getting full value for our money, knowing Habitat for Humanity's record in this field.

That would be my observation, but the member and the minister would know better than I as to what the proprieties and rules are in dealing with situations like this and whether everything must go through a central authority.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his address this evening. I also thank other speakers tonight for their very insightful observations about the situation in Haiti. A number of them have been on the ground in Haiti and have had experience in that country. I have been to many countries over the years and some in that region but not in Haiti itself. Therefore, I cannot give an on the ground report as to how I saw the situation.

However, the country is a very poor country and has been for many years. When a country that does not have good resources and good infrastructure to begin with and then visit upon it a devastating earthquake, such as the one we saw last year, and, on top of that, the whole issue of political instability and the cholera outbreak, it is a recipe for a worsening disaster than what it currently has in its hands.

We have seen governments in the past respond to international tragedies that have occurred and all goes well for a little while when the issue is in the news and then it disappears from the news and we go on to another issue and the countries are left to fend for themselves. In this case, a lot of good has happened so far this year with Canadians responding in larger numbers than we have seen in many years and the government adding the matching funds idea, which I gather was not necessarily its idea. I think it has been tried before but it was a very well timed offer and as a result the government has indicated it has raised about $400 million through that effort, which is very positive. Now the issue is how it should be allocated or spent.

I believe the member for Edmonton Centre said that we do not want to be quick about allocating the funds because we want to ensure we get full value for our dollar. One of the reasons we are having a harder time raising donations from the public in all sorts of different charitable efforts is that the public in some ways has questions about how the money is being spent. People would like to have some feedback on how their money is spent. This could be a very good test case. The government and the minister should take it upon themselves to issue a report on how things are going with the donations that people have made. If people who contributed $100 or $200 to aid were to get some feedback on precisely what happened to their money, I think they would be much more willing to contribute once again the next year.

Given the magnitude of the problem and the fact that the situation in Haiti is getting worse, the proper approach would be for the Prime Minister to use his offices and his various channels to get world leaders to look at Haiti in the same way that the free world dealt with Europe and Japan after the Second World War. Every member in this chamber knows how much destruction there was in Europe and in Japan during the Second World War and yet, miracle of miracles, after the war we saw a full recovery in Europe and a recovery in Japan to the point where they became world powers in short order.

The question is, how did that come about? That came about with a concerted plan and, of course, a lot of money. The reconstruction of those devastated areas was done very successfully. Why do we not have the ability in this country collectively to replicate in a small way that experience?

In China there was an earthquake last year. I saw a CBC report, which I mentioned to the minister earlier today, where a Chinese official was giving a glowing report about Canada's participation in the reconstruction in China. The Chinese have a plan. Their plan is to reconstruct the buildings that I guess were built of brick and steel which were susceptible to collapse in earthquake conditions. The brick and steel are being replaced with Canadian lumber. To me that is a win-win situation. It will help us deal with our lumber issues. More important, on a long-term basis it will help the Chinese rebuild the cities that were devastated by the earthquake. When another earthquake comes about in the future, as it will, we will not be repeating the mistakes of the past.

A Conservative member talked about a church group that he is familiar with that has developed a new type of housing that they are looking at for the Haiti situation. I forget how he described the housing, but it certainly makes sense to me that it would be earthquake resistant and hurricane resistant. That is another liability the islands have in the Caribbean. For whatever it is costing them to put this housing together, that is a plus. To me, if it takes a few extra months to get it right and if we can rebuild in a smart way using best practices, then we are going to do well in the future.

Habitat for Humanity is very active. Former President Carter is involved in this. He has been involved in Habitat for Humanity in Winnipeg, rebuilding. I read all of the backgrounder information on the Haitian earthquake and it seems that almost every organization in the world is there. All of this is good because they can offer their expertise.

The question is, is anyone coordinating their efforts? Is there an overall plan? I am sure there is, it is just that I am not familiar with what overall plan would be.

The point is that we have to not only harness all those resources to get the job done and get it done right, but when stories come back to us out of the country about money that is stolen and misspent and construction that is done in a poor fashion, that is negative to our efforts for the future, because what happens is we lose support for the efforts we are trying to develop, in this case in Haiti.

I know my colleagues mentioned earlier, because I read Hansard, that no solution is going to work without getting the Haitians involved. I do agree that we cannot force a solution on them, and now they are in a political upheaval.

We cannot let the situation deteriorate to the point where there is anarchy in the country. If we follow this through and there is a breakdown of authority in the country, then it will have to resort to a military situation. I do not think we want to go there. We are not headed on the right track. Why are we having this problem? My guess is that people are waiting for results.

I have seen some news reports that indicate people are still living in conditions similar to those in refugee camps. Perhaps they may be safer than they would be in their houses if there were to be aftershocks or another earthquake. However, it cannot be a healthy situation for people to live there on a long-term basis.

The member who made the request for an emergency debate tonight was absolutely correct in his assessment of what needs to be done. It is important that we involve ourselves in the debate this evening. The question is what the final resolution will be out of the debate. If we simply have a debate and nothing happens afterward, then we have not really solved the problem.

I would have preferred to hear more concrete suggestions as to what should be done in this situation. It would have been good to have some sort of plan put forward by the Liberal Party, as a Liberal member made the request for the emergency debate. Maybe some option should have been given to the government as to where we should go from here.

Has the matching funds program run its course? I am not sure. I asked the member for the statistics and he gave them to me as best he could, but I do not know if the matching funds are still coming in or whether the program is finished. People are not thinking about it any more and have ceased donating.

What will be the status of the matching funds next year? Even though the situation might be as bad or even worse next year, are we looking at essentially no matching funds? As far as the people of Canada are concerned, it is already a past issue. It is a year old. They have given their $100 or $200 and have got their tax receipts. They have done their bit.

Where are the people in Haiti going to be one year down the road? Where are they going to be two years down the road? Are we simply perpetuating a situation that has existed for a long time and providing a band-aid solution? I have not heard any solutions yet from members of the opposition or the government. It has been more of an information gathering exercise to get an update as to where things are.

I want to indicate concern for the cholera outbreak. I am always interested when my hon. colleague from the Liberal Party participates in debates. I cannot remember her riding. She sponsored a debate recently on multiple sclerosis. She makes excellent speeches. I know she has been concerned about this issue as well

With the cholera outbreak on top of all the other problems in the country right now, this is not a very good situation. We have to get on top of that. The construction can wait a bit, but the cholera outbreak should be job one at this point. It has to be dealt with on a priority basis. Perhaps that is where the emphasis should be, that we deal with the cholera outbreak. We try to deal with the political instability there and get through that. Regarding the long term, I believe the minister is meeting with Hillary Clinton as we speak in Quebec and perhaps they will be addressing this issue. Perhaps they should be looking at a longer term solution in terms of major reconstruction.

We have to recognize that the world has been hit with a huge recession in the last couple of years. There are economies in Europe, such as Iceland, declaring bankruptcy. Ireland is in bad shape, as are Portugal, Greece and Spain. The United States is not in very healthy condition either. It might be a tough sell to be pushing a new version of the Marshall plan on these leaders at this point.

In the case of the Great Depression, members will know that the world economy languished in recession and depression for 10 years until a war started. All of a sudden there was a war and we were out of recession because we were building armaments and out shooting one another again. Maybe what is needed is a war, but a new type of war, a war on poverty. We could certainly start with Haiti's situation and put resources into Haiti to redevelop the country.

It brings me to another point. I have been in Mexico and Cuba many times over the years, and I can say that constructing buildings in Mexico or Cuba is not the same as building them in Winnipeg or Ottawa. In Winnipeg or Ottawa, buildings need a lot of insulation because of the very cold weather. In countries like Cuba and Haiti, they do not have that problem of having to build the buildings to deal with cold temperatures. My guess is that the construction costs on a per unit basis are very low when we are dealing with countries like those.

I think the minister is nodding but my eyesight is not what it used to be, so I cannot tell for sure whether he is nodding in agreement, but the costs are just not there in the same way they are in the northern climates. I do not know what the cost is for putting up mass units in these countries, especially when the profit motive is taken out of it. China has certainly been active, for example, in Cuba. The Chinese, in the last few years, brought brand new fridges into Cuba and basically delivered them to people's houses by the thousands. It was part of China's foreign aid program.

When we look at it on a non-profit basis, we look at where it is, we look at mass production, it seems to me that we should be getting a lot better value for our dollar than we apparently have been getting in the past.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I would refer the member to the Marshall Plan in Europe after the Second World War as an example of what can be done to achieve success. The countries got together and they were able to reconstruct the devastation from what was Europe at the time. Japan was totally reconstructed into a vibrant economy after being devastated by war.

There are examples of where things can improve. What are we doing wrong here? Are we expecting too much too quickly?

As I indicated, the government was on the file very early and we raised money but I do not think it is clear where all the money has gone or whether the money is finding its way to where it should.

Clearly these are issues, as the member indicated, that we need to sort out. It is about time something was organized here so that we can get a plan in place and one that works.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I was not sure whether the member was criticizing the government for not moving quick enough or whether he was making the statement, with which I would agree. As the member for Edmonton Centre said, slow sometimes can be better.

It is terrific that the government got the jump on this situation, that money has been collected, but we want to have things planned out because of the chaotic situation in which we find ourselves in that country and ensure we get good value for the dollar. Whether it is rebuilding with wood or whether it is rebuilding, as the previous member said, with a new type of construction as opposed—

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, the member indicated that $400 million had been earmarked for Haitian relief. Could the member deconstruct that $400 million and tell us how much of it was put up by Canadians in terms of donations and how much was matched by the government? Who is doing an accounting of this? When are the people going to get their tax credits for their contributions?