Mauril Bélanger

[Canada Food Inspection Agency, February 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is fully aware that, since this issue is now before the courts, we should refrain from commenting on it.

Having said that, the hon. member also knows about the firm and continuous commitment made by this government, both historically and on an ad hoc basis, to Canada's minority official language communities.

[Patent Act, February 10th, 2005]

moved that the bill be read the third time and passed.

[Patent Act, February 10th, 2005]

moved that the bill, as amended, be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to)

[Quarantine Act, February 10th, 2005]

moved that Bill C-12, an act to prevent the introduction and spread of communicable diseases, be read the third time and passed.

[The Senate, February 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have a bit of a problem with the premise that Alberta is asking for no change at all. It is asking for change.

However, Alberta is part of the Council of the Federation, a group created by the provinces. Two premiers have received the mandate from the Council of the Federation to look at the matter of the Senate. They are currently looking at it. They have not yet reported. Let us wait to see if there is a consensus that can emerge from the Council of the Federation about the Senate, at which point we will advise.

[Criminal Code, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I believe if you were to ask it, you would find unanimous consent to see the clock as being 1:30 p.m. so that we can move on to private members' business

[Criminal Code, February 4th, 2005]

moved that the bill as amended be concurred in at report stage and read the second time.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2004, No. 2, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the speeches of the hon. member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell and the hon. member for Edmonton—Sherwood Park. They cited many figures and talked a lot about Canada's debt. I am no expert on the matter, but I have some figures that might give an indication of the extent of the debt at certain times in the recent history of our country.

In 1983-84, when the government changed, the debt was—if I recall correctly—roughly $198 billion. In 1993, when there was another change in government, the accumulated debt had reached $498 billion.

Mon colleague from Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, who said that the Mulroney government had almost doubled the debt, is mistaken. In fact, the Mulroney government more than doubled it. The debt went from some $200 billion to nearly $500 billion. Naturally, in 1993, during the first year the newly formed Liberal government was in power, a $42 billion deficit was added to the debt for the 1993-94 fiscal year.

For two or three years more, we continued to run deficits. Fortunately, they decreased year by year, and we finally managed to balance the books. For the past seven years, we have been generating budgetary surpluses. With these surpluses, we have been able to reduce the debt by $60 billion to, I believe, $501 billion now.

There is another important factor in all this. Hon. members should know that the debt to GDP ratio has decreased even more significantly. When the Liberal government was formed in 1993, the ratio was somewhere around 75%, while today it is less than 50%, which is why it is important to pass this bill.

[The Senate, February 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, maybe we have more candidates for the Senate than we expected.

This matter came up yesterday, it has come up a number of times and the answer is the same. The government is open to Senate reform but we will not do so on a piecemeal basis.

Until a consensus is obvious and emerges among the provinces, we will not proceed with piecemeal amendments to reform the Senate.

[The Senate, February 3rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite may not be aware of this but the provinces have created the Council of the Federation. Two premiers have been asked to look into the matter. They are debating it. They have not reported yet.

In all fairness to the provincial authorities, we should wait until they have finished their exercise and have at least indicated whether or not there is a consensus among the provinces.