Leon Benoit

[Privilege, November 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member carefully, and she made some very good points. The result of the scandal has hurt our political system. It has hurt this Parliament. It has hurt the Government of Canada. We cannot deal with this by hiding it and sweeping it under the rug. The way to deal with it is to talk about it, and that is exactly what we should do.

The member has talked about it very selectively. She quoted two parts in the Gomery report which are somewhat favourable to her party. The rest of the report is very damning to the Liberal Party.

To fix this system, the Liberal Party has to start from scratch and build a brand new political party. That has been necessary from time to time in the history of our country. This is the time. The Gomery report has put the nail in the coffin of the Liberal Party. I hope the member will seriously consider taking that action. It will take some time, but it is worth doing.

I am the first to acknowledge that throughout the past 100 years the Liberal Party has provided periods of good government. However, the last 12 years cannot be included in that period. That party needs to be replaced. I hope the building process will take place.

The Gomery report is extremely damning. The member is nodding, so I guess she knows the damage that has been done. Where do we go from here?

Today the leader of the Conservative Party put out his proposed federal accountability act, which would be the first piece of legislation passed by a Conservative government. There are four main points in the proposed legislation. I do not know whether the member has read the information, but if she has and if she is still here after the next election, would she support and vote for the proposed federal accountability act?

[Liberal Government, November 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, here is the record of 12 years of Liberal government.

Government spending on programs of hard-earned tax dollars has increased by 44%, or $49 billion. Health care is worse with longer waiting lists. Taxes have increased. Red tape has worsened. Seniors are worse off. Farmers are worse off. There is the $2 billion gun registry.

In fact, who is better off? Only the Liberals' friends. The list of scandals is long with Shawinigate, strippergate, Earnscliffe, ad scam, Radwanski, Dingwall, Ouellet, Pelletier. It starts to sound like the old country song I've Been Everywhere by Hank Snow. It is all Liberal names.

All of this is from the illegitimate Liberal government elected on stolen taxpayers' money funnelled to the Liberal Party.

It is time for a Conservative government led by the current Leader of the Opposition. His first piece of legislation as prime minister would be the federal accountability act, which would ensure that Canadians never again would get corrupt government like we have had from the Liberal government for the past 12 years.

[Privilege, November 3rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, as you have already had explained to you, I was singled out by name in the e-mail which came from the minister's office and was sent to groups across the country. I was not even at that meeting. I expect an apology from the minister. I would encourage you, Mr. Speaker, to give the minister a chance to apologize for trying to inflict this completely irrational harm on me through this e-mail sent through the minister's office.

Further, Mr. Speaker, I would like you to take into consideration whether it is appropriate for a minister to do partisan campaigning with taxpayers' money through a minister's office.

[Agriculture, November 1st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues for their thoughtful presentations on the issue.

I was somewhat disappointed that the Liberal member today gave a departmental speech. It really was not very helpful.

At least the Bloc member expressed some concern about the issue and went on to say that he thought there were some environmental concerns. He obviously had not read the report because it dealt with the possibility of environmental concerns.

Who shocked me was the member from the New Democratic Party. Obviously she does not understand farming and does not care about farmers. I thought she was going to propose that we put in place a program of live capture for gophers, give them counselling and then relocate them. That is where I thought her speech was heading, quite frankly. I do not think that would be too successful.

This problem has been in place since 1993 when the government at that time said that it had to get rid of this liquid strychnine. Under a motion passed in the House, I received all the documentation that was used by the government to make that decision. It was shocking. The information showed that the decision was based on virtually nothing. There were submissions by fewer than a dozen people in total. It should never have been removed. That was clear from the documentation we received.

Finally, the department has done a bit of a study. The problem is its study was based mostly on a larger study done by the environment department in the United States. The government took that information and tried to apply it to the Canadian situation.

Even with that, the report did say some positive things. The report said that the Richardson's ground squirrels are the major mammalian pest for crops. They are the most damaging pests for pastures, range lands and crop lands and that they do cause substantive damage. The report did say that. It went on to say, “there is a lack of practical alternatives at this time”. It will be retained for at least three years and will be reviewed at that time but in the premix form only, which is ineffective. The report did say that and it was somewhat helpful.

The report gave no reason for not returning the 2% solution of strychnine to farmers. It gave no reason at all for not returning it, except possibly this one issue. To be fair, I think this should be pointed out. There is a genuine concern regarding the swift fox and the burrowing owl. In those areas there may be a problem, although the report done by the PMRA in fact had no evidence that it is a problem.

I would suggest to be cautious in this regard where those endangered species are in place, but a study should be done to find out whether or not there is a problem. We will see as time goes on whether or not the PMRA bothers to do that study.

The study went on to say there is no danger to people. It went on to say that bystander exposure is considered to be minimal. The environmental assessment said that there is no danger of movement in the soil, that it will be persistent in the soil, which means it is not going to move anywhere. It went on to say as well that it is unlikely that aquatic organisms will be exposed to substantial levels of strychnine.

What the report did not say is something which I think farmers should put in their presentations to the PMRA. What it did not say is that shipping the mixed product is of some concern. Why ship a mixed product when securely closed little cans of the 2% liquid could be shipped and farmers could mix on their own? That is exactly what I am proposing.

Now is the time for farmers to get involved in this issue. If the PMRA gets enough pressure applied by farmers right now, before November 24 of this year, it may be able to have the 2% liquid solution of strychnine returned to farmers.

A point to be made is if farmers mix the 2% strychnine with their own grain, as they have safely done since 1928, they end up with a .4% solution that the premixed product actually provides. It really would not be doing anything different, except it would be doing it in a safer fashion where farmers mix their own and it would cost them a lot less money.

In summary, I want to encourage farmers to get involved. They have a real opportunity to get back the 2% liquid solution which is effective and which will save a lot of money. We should do it. Let us get on with this issue and save farmers up to $200 million a year.

[Committees of the House, October 26th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

[Criminal Code, October 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, when break-ins occur and their personal property has been stolen, it is seen by my children as something that is very serious. Certainly victims' rights go well beyond that. The problem in this country is that when it comes to balancing the rights of the criminal with the rights of the victim, for years now this government has chosen to always put more emphasis on protecting the rights of criminals.

I am not one who thinks that criminals should not have certain rights or that their rights should not be protected, but I am one who believes that victims' rights absolutely should be protected and that victims' rights have not been protected in law for some time.

It is a matter of getting the balance. It is nowhere near a balance now. All the focus has been on protecting the rights of criminals and the accused. If I were to be extremely cynical and partisan, I would say that the government is out to get the criminal vote now that it has allowed criminals to vote. I know that is probably going overboard, although with the frustration I feel sometimes, I am not so sure. I do not know, but I do know that the government has not come anywhere near finding that balance. A Conservative government under our leader will do that.

It is interesting that only now have the members across the floor decided to take part in this debate. I do not know where they have been if they are serious about honouring the memory of Chuck Cadman.

[Criminal Code, October 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, that is a good question. If I were to react off the cuff to this, I would be asking if the government has friends in organized crime who are going to benefit from softening this, but of course I know that is not the case.

It is really hard to understand why this has been done. It is a theme that is found in all of the criminal justice legislation that we have seen go through the House. I have been here 12 years and I have seen it in one piece of legislation after another. We hear the Liberals announce that they are going to make a change, get tough on an issue and actually deal with a problem and then we are bitterly disappointed every single time.

If people think I am exaggerating, they should go through all of the criminal justice legislation we have seen in this place in 12 years. They will not find one piece of legislation that actually does what has to be done to deal with the issue. It is a theme.

I am truly at a loss to know why the Liberals just refuse to deal with this in a way that allows our police officers to deal with it. Police officers throw their hands up in hopelessness. They cannot deal with the problem with this kind of legislation. Judges, who tend to be soft on crime anyway, seem to be somehow disconnected from the reality of what goes on in the streets. They cannot deal with it either.

It has to be made much more certain than it is now. This legislation is one more example of what the government has done in how it has weakened it and how it has not respected Mr. Cadman's desires and what he in fact put into his legislation.

I wish I could answer the question. I cannot impugn motives in this place and I honestly do not know the motives. It is very frustrating to me, to my constituents and, I am sure, to the member's constituents.

[Criminal Code, October 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to speak to Bill C-64 today. This bill has been touted as being a bill which would enact one of the key issues in Chuck Cadman's private member's bill, but I am disappointed at this weak and unsuccessful attempt. I believe it will do very little to nothing to deal with the problem.

Some amendments must simply be made to this bill, and we will certainly try to make these happen. In the end it will be up to the government and the other parties here in the House to support these changes.

Part of this bill deals with tampering with vehicle identification numbers. It also deals with the whole issue of auto theft which is a huge problem in this country as well as organized crime. Canadians are very much aware that organized crime is a growing problem in Canada. Anything we can do to tone down the success of organized crime is something we should strive to do. This bill unfortunately will do very little to nothing to actually deal with the problem.

The issue of vehicle theft can be demonstrated by a couple of statistics. There is probably over $600 million in costs associated with vehicle theft in this country right now. That is a lot of money, and every one of us feels it whether we have had our particular vehicle stolen or not. We feel it through our insurance rates. Young people can identify with this. When they buy their first vehicle, their insurance rates are very high. That is a result of the increase in vehicle theft. Over 170,000 vehicles are stolen across this country every year. This is a serious problem.

Mr. Cadman should be given a lot of credit for what he has done with respect to this issue. He also deserves a lot of credit for what he has done with respect to victims' rights, and I will talk about that a bit later.

I want to talk about how vehicle theft has impacted my own family. My wife Linda and I have five children between the ages of 23 and 28. All five of them now live in the Edmonton area. Every one of them has either had their vehicle stolen or had the contents of their vehicle stolen in the few years they have been in Edmonton. This has had an impact on their insurance rates as well as everyone else's insurance rates. It is a serious issue.

My oldest daughter had the contents in one of her cars stolen. We all know it is not easy dealing with insurance companies. We never get full value for what has been stolen. We have no hope of really ever getting back any personal items.

I have identical twins who are 26 years old. In one day one of them had the same car stolen twice. It was first stolen from a parking lot in front of his apartment building. Later that afternoon he saw a guy stealing his car the second time. This guy obviously had a serious drug problem. My son hollered at him from his balcony, but the guy went ahead and stole his car.

Over the years all of my children have driven a Toyota Camry. In certain models a thief can get into it with a screwdriver and start it up with the same screwdriver. These models lend themselves to being stolen. It is a popular car and a good car, so it is in high demand when it comes to vehicle theft.

For my son, the second time in one day was almost too much for him. The third time he almost had his car stolen, he hollered that he was coming down to get the guy. The thief did go away, so my son did not actually have it taken that third time, but it was only due to direct intervention by himself.

It is a huge problem. They of course learned after the first time not to leave a fancy stereo in a vehicle because they will lose it and never get anywhere near the value back. They had fancy stereos in their vehicles to begin with. The vehicles themselves were really not worth an awful lot of money but to them they were extremely important. They were students going to university with very little money, struggling to make payments to get through the end of the year, and then they have their cars stolen.

The first time, they had something like 200 CDs in the car, purchased over the years, of their favourite music. Try dealing with the insurance company to get that back. They had to and it was a pain. I do not blame insurance companies. It is a tough thing to deal with. How do they know what CDs they had? They did not have a list made. They remembered their favourites, did the best they could, and they got paid a small percentage of the value of replacing them. To some people that may not sound that important, but it was to them. They felt a deep personal violation.

Next to the home, I think having one's auto broken into is probably the most private and personal space that a lot of people have. Their cars are seen in that way. It is the type of society we are. They certainly felt that personal violation. I would suggest that the law is soft on the people who commit these crimes.

Some of the people who stole vehicles were found. My youngest son has had his car stolen twice in Edmonton. That is not a very good record. My youngest daughter has never had a car stolen, but she has had the contents stolen. So, all five of my children, over a period of the last six years since they have been going to secondary school or starting to work, have had their vehicles or the contents stolen. I doubt that this is an unusual story.

I wonder about the statistics and whether they are complete because in the case of my oldest son, who had it happen twice in one day, he did not report it. After a point, why bother reporting it? Nothing is going to happen. They became wise enough to know not to leave any contents of value in the vehicle. They probably know they should report it, but what is the point? The police say there is nothing they can really do about it, and there is nothing they can do without the law.

That is why what Mr. Cadman was trying to do here is of such value to society and he should be thanked for that. The government, in offering this recognition of Chuck, should have been more generous. The government should have been generous enough to take the intent and content of his bills and put them into its attempt at duplicating his efforts, but it failed entirely. This legislation, Bill C-64, dishonours the memory of Chuck Cadman and we simply cannot support this bill.

We will attempt to have it amended. This is a very small bill. Just so Canadians know, it is a one page bill. It is a very small piece of legislation, just a few amendments to the Criminal Code. I am going to read one of those amendments the government put in. Proposed section 377.1(1) reads:

Every one commits an offence who, wholly or partially, alters, removes or obliterates a vehicle identification number on a motor vehicle without lawful excuse--

That part is good. Unfortunately, the government went beyond that and said:

--and under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the person did so to conceal the identity of the motor vehicle.

The government has taken away all the value of the first part of that statement by putting in that vague clause which makes it almost impossible for police officers to get the evidence they need for judges to use in the courts so they can make this stick.

I know that people speaking on this bill will deal with the other sections that simply are inappropriate. It is such a simple bill that I do not know how the government could get it so wrong. We are only talking about a few paragraphs.

I encourage the government to honour the memory of Chuck Cadman, who did so much for victims on issues like this, by amending its bill to truly reflect what Mr. Cadman had in mind and what he put on paper in this regard.

[Agriculture, October 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, grain farmers are facing some of the toughest times in the past 30 years. Some people say that sounds like a broken record. How can every year be the worst? Others say that if things are that bad, maybe they should quit. That is absurd.

The fact is that farmers are quite willing to deal with weather problems and normal risks, but they cannot be expected to deal with spiralling increases in input costs like fuel, fertilizer and pesticides while they continue to suffer lower prices for their crops due to unfair trade practices in other countries. It is simply not fair and it is not possible.

One trade organization estimates that even marginal progress at the WTO trade talks would increase the price farmers receive for wheat by $1.80 a bushel for example, but the government does nothing to negotiate a fair deal. Furthermore, it refuses to fix the CAIS program to fairly compensate farmers for price reductions caused by unfair trade.

These Liberals have to get the boot before farmers simply cannot keep on operating.

[Criminal Code, October 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it seems to be an underlying theme with the government. It has caused great concern to me for the 12 years I have been in this place and it has been getting worse as time has gone on. The fact that it is happening is undeniable. The fact is it is hurting our society. People not only feel more vulnerable, but in fact they are, due to this weakness on the part of government. It is undeniable that is happening.

As to the motives for allowing that to happen, I simply do not understand the motives. Liberal members often say it is because of the charter that they are taking weak measures instead of the strong measures that we suggest which would make a real impact. I would suggest that the government is hiding behind the charter and is abusing the intent of the charter. On many occasions the Liberals are using the charter as a smokescreen, as a way to avoid taking tough action, or as a way to distort reality. They treat the charter as some document more holy than a holy book in this country.

Many Canadians have a great deal of respect for the charter. I would suggest that the government's use and abuse of the charter shows a lack of respect. This lack of respect for the charter is something I cannot understand. The Liberals talk about how important it is to them. They should show it by respecting the intent of the charter. They simply do not. As a result we see weak measures and the charter is used as a smokescreen.

I simply cannot answer the member's question. I cannot understand the motives. This does not seem to make any sense.

The member used the example of the age of consent. We wanted to increase the age from 14 to 16 years when it comes to adults of any age having sex with children, and yet the government refused to do that. The Liberals said that is wrong somehow. I would like them to explain to me how it can be wrong to increase the age of consent for our children to have sex with adults. A 50-year-old man having sex with a 14-year-old girl is legal in our country. I have a problem with that. I see that as wrong.

It is time the government started to take tough action. It can start with Bill C-65. It should do the right thing for a change. Put in place the tough sections of the bill that will make it really work. Do not hide behind the charter or whatever the government is going to hide behind this time.

The member asked a good question, but I really cannot answer it because I cannot imagine what the Liberals' motives are.