Maria Minna

[Vietnam, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, Canada condemns the execution of Ms. Nguyen Thi Hiep and extends our deepest condolences to the family.

The Vietnamese authorities have not responded to any of the concerns that have been raised by the government and we remain completely unsatisfied with the public renouncement. Therefore, the Minister of External Affairs has suspended all ministerial level contact between Canada and Vietnam, other than the contact that occurs in the context of multilateral meetings.

I am also postponing indefinitely upcoming consultations on existing development assistance and future programming in Vietnam. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has also requested that our ambassador to Vietnam, who is currently—

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 1999, April 6th, 2000]

moved that Bill C-25, an act to amend the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act and the Budget Implementation Act, 1999, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

[Ethiopia, April 5th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, Canada is very concerned about the escalating famine in Ethiopia. In response to this crisis, I am announcing that Canada will provide an additional $6.25 million for emergency food in Ethiopia. The funds will be used to purchase, transport and distribute emergency supplies. Monitors will be hired to ensure the aid reaches the most needy. We will be working with the World Food Programme.

This is an ongoing commitment we have in Ethiopia. Over the last three years we have spent $45 million in the region. We will continue to monitor the situation and support it.

[Canadian International Development Agency, March 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, as I have said before, no payments are made without supporting invoices. Second, we will not issue final payments to companies that do not submit final reports that are satisfactory. Third, we now have a new method of payment. A company will only be paid if it meets specific results which are agreed to in advance.

I provided the hon. member with a complete list of all companies that received CIDA programs.

[Canadian International Development Agency, March 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member, I am sure, is referring to the CIDA Inc. program. No projects in CIDA are paid without invoices being provided at any time.

[Canadian International Development Agency, March 3rd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I must say that I do not have that information with me. I will take notice and report back to the House on that particular question. I am not familiar with that at this point.

[Human Resources Development, March 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, first, we do not give grants. We work with companies that do work for CIDA in developing countries. I do not have the name of this particular company. I will look into it and give her the answer.

[Canadian International Development Agency, February 28th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, this is work that we do in developing countries. By far the majority of companies that do work in developing countries are small and medium size. There are also very large ones.

In this case these companies are world renowned for the quality of their work. We are doing projects in developing countries to assist them. As I said before, the party to which the member belongs used these very same companies when it was in power.

[Canadian International Development Agency, February 28th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, these are not grants. These are contracts that are given with specific requirements for projects in developing countries. Companies only get paid when they prove that the requirements have been met. Also, the same companies and organizations that we use are world renowned for the work they do in developing countries and they were used by the same party that is asking the question today.

[International Cooperation, February 28th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, my department has announced $1 million in aid for the tragedy in Mozambique, which is also affecting some nearby countries. As of yesterday I had announced $458,000. I added $550,000 today because the situation is getting worse, and we are monitoring the situation daily.