Monique Guay

[Employment Insurance, April 26th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Revenue Canada systematically refuses to allow related persons working in a family business to qualify for employment insurance. This situation is being condemned by the Law Commission of Canada.

Will the Minister of Human Development Resources admit that such discrimination is totally unacceptable?

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Yukon for his remarks. He comes from a very special region with a very specific economy.

He said that the federal government is looking after this issue and is doing its job. A request has been made. We now have a coalition under the chairmanship of Mr. Poirier, the mayor of Boisbriand. The federal government has promised him, in October last year, to send two lobbyists and one administrator.

Six months have gone by, we are in April, and the government still has not done anything. Yet, I am told that the federal government is looking after this problem, that it is taking care of our business, but cannot even appoint two lobbyists and one administrator. This is mind boggling.

What is going on right now is wrong. I would like the hon. member to comment.

[Orphan Clauses, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, if the Minister of Canadian Heritage wants to demonstrate her lack of political courage, she is free to do so.

My question is for the Minister of Labour, and it is very clear. Is the minister prepared to pass legislation prohibiting the use of orphan clauses in the Canada Labour Code? Yes or no?

[Orphan Clauses, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Force Jeunesse and representatives from several groups, including the Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois are particularly supportive of the young Radio-Canada employees now on strike to protest their lack of job security, a form of discrimination in disguise.

We are not asking the Minister of Canadian Heritage to interfere in the negotiations. We are asking her to show the same courage vis-à-vis these young people that she showed when she denounced other forms of discrimination at Radio-Canada and said that they had better stop, and soon.

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, there is an obvious lack of good will here. The government side tells us that everything has been done to try to solve the situation and get involved.

Just now there are here on the Hill some people that are actively involved in this matter. I would like to mention in particular Mr. Luc Desnoyers and Mr. Poirier, mayor of Boisbriand and Chairman of the Coalition to save the Boisbriand plant.

Brian Tobin—I guess I can call him by name since he no longer is a minister—promised last October, that is six months ago, to appoint two lobbyists and one administrative clerk. Nothing has been done yet. When they talk about the government's will to get involved, they are pushing it a bit far. They cannot even appoint the two lobbyists and the administrative clerk they were supposed to appoint to help move this item along. This was six months ago.

I would like to have my colleague's view on the matter.

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like everybody to look through the same window. It is important if we want success in dealing with the GM issue. But that is not what is happening. The ball is being thrown back to us. We are being told that GM does not need money.

The situation is urgent. We could lose 1,400 jobs. The member, who was Minister of Labour, is fully aware of the very difficult situation that these people will be facing and the situation that is being created in the region. It is all very fine and well to manufacture parts, but without assembly plants, the auto industry will not get very far.

That industry must stay alive. As has been said, the need is there. We want the federal government's involvement; we have asked for it. The Minister of Industry was much more open earlier when he said that he was willing to look at possible solutions, that he was willing to go back to Detroit. Now all he has to do is ask the Prime Minister to join him.

So this is what I want to ask the member: if the minister is willing to do it, why, as parliamentary secretary, is he not willing to take the same position as the minister? This is not something for the next election campaign; we do not want bridges. We just want to save an industry that will shut down in September.

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. Liberal colleague for Beauharnois--Salaberry, not to name him, said a moment ago that nothing was done for the GM plant and that we were waiting until the last minute. I found that somewhat insulting.

We have been working on this issue for years. In our regions, in my region, many workers have been working for GM for years. We are concerned by this issue and we have been working on it for a long time. We are trying to find ways to solve the problem.

What is lacking now is the political will of the Liberal government. The Prime Minister of Canada should intervene. That is what is lacking now. That is the will we asking for. We are not asking for partisanship; we want to save this plant. It is not only this plant that we want to save, but the whole auto industry in Quebec. The GM plant was the only vehicle assembly plant left in Quebec, and now, the auto industry in Quebec is going to be totally wiped out.

I would like to hear from my colleague from Joliette who made a great speech.

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I really welcome this debate. I am glad to see that everybody is interested in this matter and recognizes that the government has to get down to work and is not doing so.

As I said previously, the Boisbriand area has already had to deal with the problem of Mirabel. This has affected us tremendously. Lots of people lost their jobs and the small neighbouring municipalities have had unbelievable financial problems. Mirabel was an important source of jobs, of well paying jobs. We have lost all that.

The Quebec government decided to create a duty free zone. However, this does not do much to solve the problem of an airport which is there but which is not being used, because the federal government made a mistake and decided to pass this hot potato on to the Quebec government.

We have a similar problem with Boisbriand. The Prime Minister has to accept to meet the people at GM and to sit down with them. As Prime minister, he has the power to negotiate something with the existing coalition and to submit the results to the corporation.

I would like my colleague to tell us if he agrees with that. Does he agree that the Prime Minister should, for once, take a firm stand and go to Detroit to meet with GM officials?

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I will keep it short so that my colleague has time to answer. I congratulate him on his remarks. Even though we do not always agree, we do share the same respect for workers. Here is my question.

Does he not think that 1,400 well paid jobs, including management positions with big salaries, represent an even higher social cost if these people end up unemployed, with no future left? Is the social cost not higher than if we had the courage to go down there to settle the problem with GM once and for all?

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I do not question the minister's good will, and I congratulate him on his remarks, but that does not solve the GM problem. This is urgent. Come September, we will lose 10,000 direct and indirect jobs if the Boisbriand plant closes down. We need action right now. This government should do something. It should meet with GM. Decisions have to be made quickly. We do not need to be told that smaller industries are springing up around other industries. We want to know what the government is going to do with the issue of GM in Boisbriand.

What can the minister tell all these workers who are going to lose their job in September 2002? That is what I would like to know.