Maurice Vellacott

[Agriculture, February 15th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to draw attention to the arrival of farmers from Saskatchewan who will be in the gallery during question period. They moved their protest from the provincial legislature to the House of Commons.

I extend a warm welcome to Arlynn and Lillian Kurtz of Stockholm, Saskatchewan. Lillian, whom I have had the privilege to know in my former life, is on a hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of farmers in western Canada and their desperate need for some equalization payments sooner than later.

For four months the Reform Party of Canada has sponsored about 60 meetings in western Canada known as Action for Struggling Agricultural Producers or ASAP. Over 5,000 farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia have attended these meetings and voiced their concerns about failed government programs, frustrating bureaucratic roadblocks and political ignorance and neglect.

The Liberals opposite have responded in their typical fashion. To this day dollars from the ill-fated AIDA program, supposedly in the hands of farmers by Christmas 1999, remain missing in action. The government found money for those impacted by the Red River flood, by the ice storm and those affected by the maritime—

[Human Resources Development, February 14th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the matter of who those individuals are is questionable. The human resources minister spent months trying to cover up that audit.

Most people would be concerned that maybe their boss would be mad about that, but the minister knew that her boss would not care and in fact would approve because they both have a vested interest in flexibly shovelling large sums of money into their ridings as hastily as possible.

Is the real reason the minister did not worry about the audit that she knew the Prime Minister would be pleased with this mismanagement?

[Human Resources Development, February 14th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the human resources minister and Team Liberal have been throwing good money after bad. She has doled out millions of dollars to profitable firms even though those companies would have set up shop anyway.

What was the minister's motivation for all this generosity? In a word slush? The Ekos audit showed there has been political interference in spreading the Liberal wealth. That wealth is the taxpayer's. Is it not the case that the human resources minister ignored that internal audit because she just could not bear the thought of losing that slush fund?

[Human Resources Development, February 10th, 2000]

Why should we trust this minister to guard the documents that could seal her very fate?

[Human Resources Development, February 10th, 2000]

This minister is in a position to destroy or alter the documents that could cost her her job. Under any other circumstance, people under investigation lose their access to that potentially damning evidence. She has tried to cover up this billion dollar bungle for months now—

[Human Resources Development, February 10th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, to see the smirks of Liberal members opposite over the last couple of days about a billion dollar absconding of Canadian tax dollars is enough to make me puke.

[Human Resources Development, February 10th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we discovered that TJF lists are being altered and manipulated.

The Somalia scandal proved that this government cannot be trusted to protect against the destruction of important documents. The HRD minister and her officials who were responsible for this billion dollar bungle are still in custody of all that relevant data.

What measures is the minister putting in place to ensure that this does not become Somalia II?

[Criminal Code, February 9th, 2000]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-422, an act to amend the Criminal Code to prohibit coercion in medical procedures that offend a person's religion or belief that human life is inviolable.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to introduce today this bill to amend the criminal code to prohibit coercion in medical procedures. The purpose of the bill is to ensure that health care providers working in medical facilities of various kinds will never be forced to participate against their wills in abortion procedures or acts of euthanasia. The bill itself does not prohibit abortion or euthanasia but makes it illegal to force another person to participate in such a procedure or an act of euthanasia.

Incredibly, there are medical personnel in Canada who have been fired because the law is not explicit enough in spelling out those conscience rights. The bill will make those rights explicit.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Human Resources Development, February 8th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the transitional jobs fund list indicates 32 projects, with $14 million doled out, produced zero jobs. This is not about job creation. It is about sprinkling taxpayer dollars like pixie dust.

Why will the human resources minister not fess up to this scandalous absconding of tax dollars and simply resign?

[Human Resources Development, February 8th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I say to the Minister of Human Resources Development that her response “there is no money missing—we've seen the cancelled cheques”, is a ridiculous response.

How does the minister justify $900,000 on the TJF list given to Anvil Range with no jobs created; the $90,000 given to the Saskatchewan Dutch Elm Disease, which sounds like a Liberal disease, with zero jobs created; and the $72,000 given to Clifford Smith Trucking with zero jobs created? And on the list goes. How does she justify tax dollars being used for that kind of job creation?

This is job creation for Liberal candidates. It is about Liberal vote gathering. The jig is up. Instead of justifying millions of dollars for zero jobs created, why does she not create a job opening and simply resign?