Mauril Bélanger

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, basically, we agree with a great deal of what the hon. member has just said.

The government has introduced Bill C-27, the purpose of which is to establish ecological integrity as a basic and priority principle, and to proclaim loud and clear that this is a basic principle we consider of the utmost importance.

I hope members of all parties opposite will support this very important bill now before the House, because it shows that the government is committed to implementing the report of the panel on ecological integrity and to create eight new parks. This is in contradiction with some of the remarks of the hon. member opposite, to the effect that the government does not intend to keep its word and complete the national parks network.

We hope hon. members will support this bill, as the NDP critic seemed to indicate, because it meets the legitimate aspirations of Canadians, who want to preserve our national parks for future generations.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I believe my hon. colleague will acknowledge that the CBC is an independent body. It would be inappropriate for the government to tell it what to do. This would, essentially, be interfering.

Moreover, CBC President Rabinovitch acknowledged during his appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in February that the corporation had a mandate to represent the country's regions.

Canadians are free to contact Mr. Rabinovitch, or members of the board, to voice their concerns about future decisions.

[Council On Canadian Unity, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the friends to which the hon. member refers are the 89 members of this House who last summer were involved in the Interchange Canada program, which benefited over 700 young Canadians.

Every year 3,000 students, totalling over 52,000 to date, have benefited from the Encounters with Canada program.

That is who the government's friends were: young Canadians who benefit from such programs.

[Council On Canadian Unity, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, we have already answered that question. The programs I mentioned will be audited. These are the programs administered by the Council for Canadian Unity to which the Government of Canada contributes, for the benefit of the young people of Canada and the future of Canada.

[Council On Canadian Unity, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the people who benefit from the programs managed by the Council on Canadian Unity are the young people of Canada, primarily.

There is the Canada student exchange program in which 89 MPs took part. All political parties were represented there. Over 50,000 young Canadians participated in the programs of Encounters with Canada, and there was an Experience Canada program, which will be interrupted between now and the fall.

Those are the programs and the young people are the ones who benefited from them.

[Council On Canadian Unity, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, that is not the case at all.

The Council on Canadian Unity will have some of its programs audited shortly, some funded by the Department of Human Resources Development and some by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

[Jean-Claude Marcus, May 1st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, after 20 years at the National Arts Centre, Jean-Claude Marcus will be leaving his position as artistic director of the NAC's French theatre.

During his stint at the NAC, Mr. Marcus has been both an innovator and a pioneer. Among other initiatives, he created the NAC's youth theatre program, Grands-Galop et Petits-Trot, the program to promote theatre in the regions, including La Quinzaine, which we are all familiar with, and the specialized B.A. in theatre at the University of Moncton's department of performing arts.

Jean-Claude Marcus was very involved at the international level and his efforts to promote arts and literature in France and throughout the world were recognized when he was bestowed the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.

All of us who have been moved, touched and even shaken by the various NAC productions during the Marcus years—the last of these productions is to be announced this week—say thank you to Mr. Marcus and wish him and his wife a most pleasant time in France.

[Division No. 1275, April 10th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I am standing in this evening for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, as my colleague was unable to be with us this evening.

On February 28, budget day, the Government of Canada announced a $2.5 billion increase to the Canada health and social transfer for provinces and territories to be used over four years for health and post-secondary education. Let us not forget that this $2.5 billion increase follows the largest single investment in this government's history made through the previous budget, an $11.5 billion increase in funding over five years specifically for health.

In 2000-01 the CHST will reach a new high of close to $31 billion. Of this amount $15.3 billion will be in the form of tax transfers and $15.5 billion in the form of cash transfers. The bottom line is that the federal government spends in excess of 31 cents of every public health care dollar spent by governments in Canada. That is clearly more than 7 cents or 13 cents, as some provinces and the opposition claim.

Let us review the facts. It is projected that governments will spend—not individuals, but governments—$64 billion on public health care this fiscal year. Federal direct funding combined with CHST health spending means that about $20 billion out of next year's projected $64 billion in public health care spending, or 31 cents on the dollar, will be financed by the Government of Canada.

In fact if we factor in the $9.5 billion that the federal government will transfer to the less prosperous provinces and territories to invest in health care and other priorities, total federal transfers in 2000-01 will reach $40.6 billion.

All told, Government of Canada spending clearly exceeds 31 cents on the dollar. Let me emphasize, as the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have said, that if more money is needed to ensure accessible and sustainable high quality health care for the 21st century, the Government of Canada will be there.

[Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance, April 3rd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, it has been said that the transformation of the Reform Party into the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance or the Canadian Alliance means that nothing has changed but its name.

I wish to suggest otherwise. At least one thing has changed. For the first time since my election to the House in February 1995 all parties without exception support the Official Languages Act of Canada. The Reform Party used to advocate the abolition of the Official Languages Act. Not so the Alliance. The Alliance, we are led to believe, embraces Canada's linguistic duality and the Official Languages Act.

We wish members of the Alliance, and in particular the member for Yellowhead and the member for Saskatoon—Humboldt, a speedy and smooth conversion on their personal road to Damascus.

[French Language Colleges In Ontario, March 31st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the students and staff of the three colleges for any distress the postponement of the announcement may have caused them.

That having been said, the delay in no way changes our commitment to education for official language minorities in general and to Ontario's three French language colleges in particular. An agreement was signed with Ontario. Its contents will be made public in due course and our support for these communities remains undiminished.