John Duncan

[Mining Week, May 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, this week May 21 to 28 marks the sixth annual Mining Week in British Columbia, the focal point being an awards luncheon in Vancouver on Friday, May 27 to honour achievement in B.C.'s second largest industry.

While this industry has struggled in the face of low world market prices with competition from abroad and detrimental land use decisions here at home, the B.C. industry remains a driving force, employing 33,000 British Columbians and generating billions of dollars in annual economic activity.

I congratulate the industry this week. I am sure my colleagues from British Columbia and across Canada wish this vital industry continued growth and a standing offer of assistance.

[Fisheries, May 10th, 1994]

Will the minister tell the House that already scarce west coast DFO enforcement and management programs will continue and that diversion of funds to the aboriginal fishing strategy will cease?

[Fisheries, May 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Today the minister tabled legislation to deal with the east coast fisheries disaster. We want to avoid a similar catastrophe in the west coast fishery. Local media reports in my west coast riding indicate that DFO is reducing-

[Points Of Order, April 28th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday under Standing Order 31, Statements by Members, I talked about a new federal building of 120,000 square feet. I would like to correct the record. The correct number is 40,000 square feet. In my metric conversion I cubed rather than squared.

[First Nations, April 27th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, this is another example of the need for this long awaited ethics counsellor.

Will the Prime Minister agree that the long awaited ethics counsellor would find this arrangement to be a blatant conflict of interest?

[First Nations, April 27th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

The wife of the chair of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has been hired by a federally funded Assembly of First Nations as a media relations officer.

My colleague from the Official Opposition has asked for the chairman's resignation. A spokesperson from the Prime Minister's office is quoted as saying of this arrangement: "This is not a conflict". Does the Prime Minister agree with this statement attributed to his office?

[Infrastructure, April 27th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government has decided to build its own $11.9 million office complex in Sault Ste. Marie. This steel, brick and glass building will include 120,000 square feet on two storeys to house the Canada Employment Centre, the Income Securities Office, Revenue Canada, Health Canada, Public Works and Government Services, and the RCMP.

Local property managers are outraged by this needless political project. A recent survey indicates there is over a 20 per cent vacancy rate in major downtown buildings. There is existing vacant office space, and a new federal building will create more vacancies.

Does the government not have better ways to put people back to work than pumping money into unneeded facilities in competition with the private sector?

[Sahtu Dene And Metis Land Claim Settlement Act, April 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the member who just spoke was a businessman in his previous life. Has he looked at the agreement from the standpoint of the new bureaucracy, how it would affect doing future business and how it would affect existing businesses within the settlement area?

[Sahtu Dene And Metis Land Claim Settlement Act, April 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, it seems a bit like the further we get away from the first presentations the more murky some of the debate becomes.

I would like to make a couple of points and then ask a couple of related questions. We are really looking for open debate. We are talking about an area three-quarters the size of Nova Scotia to be set out in fee simple and constitutionally entrenched. We wanted to create a circumstance in which we could get input from members interested in inputting into the process. There will be a diversity of opinion. There is no doubt about that. We are certainly not looking to be obstructive in any way, shape or fashion.

I am reminded of a current example in British Columbia where we have quite a raging debate right now on the Kemano project. That project was signed by two levels of government in 1951 originally and in the ensuing 40-some years many societal values and other things have changed. That agreement was not constitutionally entrenched, but we have a very complicated agreement here that is planned for constitutional entrenchment.

My first question for the member who just spoke would be: Is there not some sympathy with the argument that constitutionally entrenching this level of detail has some inherent dangers?

My second question relates to a statement the hon. member made relating to the Sahtu Dene and Metis co-operating on amending the constitution of the Northwest Territories. I would like clarification on that because that statement is something I am certainly not clear on.

[Sahtu Dene And Metis Land Claim Settlement Act, April 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have one more question.

There was some discussion about the history of these kinds of negotiations in the member's statement. I just wondered whether the member was familiar with the comprehensive western Arctic Dene-Metis agreement. It was signed in 1990 and included a larger settlement area, but it included this specific area within it. Would the hon. member comment as to why the fee simple transfer of ownership in that period of time to this group of people has approximately doubled in size since 1990?