Peter Goldring

[Labelling Of Toys, April 22nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in my capacity as official opposition critic for veterans affairs I wish to set the record straight. Canada's merchant navy seamen have for far too long been the victims of government bureaucracy and systemic procrastination by the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

The minister replied to my question in question period by saying that there were no outstanding concerns with regard to the merchant navy.

Canada's merchant navy veterans have long been fighting for recognition of their valiant effort before, during and after World War II. Merchant seamen were the first into the war and the last out of the war. They took our troops and supplies to Europe during the war and brought them home safely afterward.

The merchant navy served both Canada and its allies during the war. At one point the entire allied war effort had less than a month's supply of food and fuel left. It was the merchant navy, our Canadian merchant navy, that brought the supplies through and avoided what would have been a defeat at the hands of Hitler.

On March 30, 1998 I asked the minister why he would not give merchant navy seamen the status of war veterans and thus grant them the dignity and respect they earned. The minister said that merchant navy veterans were entitled to the same benefits as other veterans. What he failed to mention was that they did not have equal access to the benefits. Without equal access there are not equal benefits. This must change.

Currently our merchant seamen are classified under civilian legislation. This belittles the efforts of these veterans. These veterans sailed the same seas as the navy, faced the same planes as the air force and dodged the same bullets as the army. They are not considered to be war veterans in Canada. In other allied countries they would be entitled to the same benefits and war status as every other war veteran.

Legislation was drafted by a former Reform MP some time ago for the purpose of righting these serious wrongs. There were more delays by the minister. Many merchant navy veterans think the minister is waiting for the issue to die. On average three of these veterans die each week. Their average age is 87 years.

On March 23 representatives of the merchant navy war veterans met with the minister's staff. Here are eight of the requests they made at that meeting, requests they have been making for years.

The first is to recognize the merchant navy as a war service with full status as war veterans under war legislation, not under civilian legislation.

The second is to include the Minister of Transport in the vice regal party at the National War Memorial on behalf of the merchant navy and the 1,500 lives lost in war.

The third is to compensate merchant navy veterans or their surviving spouses for the denial of veterans benefits for over 50 years.

The fourth is to amend the Pension Act to recognize merchant navy veterans who were held as prisoners of war and to compensate them for missed opportunities and benefits offered to other prisoners of war.

The fifth is to return immediately outstanding wages and benefits being held from merchant seamen and their surviving spouses.

The sixth is to compensate merchant navy veterans because they were the only military service that paid income tax during the war.

The seventh is to restore the $88 million budgeted in 1992 to cover the expenses mentioned and to develop a program to publicize these changes.

The eighth is to allow merchant navy war veterans the same opportunity and access available to other war veterans.

These requests are clear, legitimate and fair. Not once during the March 23 meeting with the minister's office could they provide our veterans with a ray of hope. No commitments were given, no deadlines established, no promises made. Answers were sufficiently ambiguous to warrant a call for clarification and confirmation.

There is simply no time left for these veterans to wait for ambiguities to be cleared up.

[Canadian Armed Forces, April 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, members of Canada's armed forces have paid with their lives and health in service to our great country. How well we attend to our veterans' concerns is a measure of our national conscience and is the expression of the will of our nation. Some of our veterans' concerns still sit, as they have for over 50 years, gathering dust as we prepare to leave for another two week break.

Hong Kong veterans' enslavement compensation by Japan has not been resolved despite assurances. Merchant navy requests for full war veteran status have not been given in spite of recognition by other allied countries. Our gulf war veterans suffer ailments of the gulf war syndrome which has not been recognized as an official disease.

Most of these issues have existed for over 50 years. Most of the veterans have little time left to enjoy restitution. The veterans of Canada want our government to listen now and not later. Our veterans' concerns should not be a new millennium project.

[Petitions, April 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Chamber as the humble servant of the constituents of Edmonton East. I am pleased to discharge my duties today by presenting to this House a petition which is signed by over 700 persons.

The petitioners ask for a very prudent review of the mandate of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to discourage the propagation of pornography and to encourage the broadcasting of ecclesiastical programming that supports morality and wholesome family lifestyles.

The petitioners ask this House to heed their words and I concur.

[Merchant Navy Veterans, March 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in 1995 changes were made to the last post fund legislation to allow merchant navy veterans to be buried in cemeteries as Canadian war veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes these merchant navy sailors as veterans when they die but will not officially recognize them as war veterans when they are alive.

Can the minister explain why Canada's merchant navy sailors must pass on from this land in order to be recognized by this land?

[Hong Kong Veterans, March 26th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker: Shells rained down and brave men died, Canadians stood their ground. Their ranks finally broke, From the weight of superior force.

Interned in cells of true hell, Rotting flesh, disease and death abound. Convention was not a word Japan understood. Slavery for Hong Kong war prisoners was.

Four long years, Our soldiers were forced, To endure unspeakable horrors, And to slave at unbelievable tasks.

Sixty years hence nothing has changed. Japan and Canada have failed in their part, To compensate our brave Hong Kong veterans.

Questioned in this House November last, Committee resolve of December past, Both should have caused result Bud did not.

So I ask now When will government do honour to the task As the sands of time slip from our Hong Kong veterans' lives?

[National Unity, March 25th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, Pierre Cote held hearings in Quebec City to limit referendum funding to discourage a repeat of the Montreal rally. He is so very wrong. Canada's unity spirit is not bought with cheap flights. He cannot stop the Canadian will by limiting mere dollars. He cannot abate our support for Canada by writing new laws.

Canadians together celebrate our solidarity with Quebeckers. Canadians are there for floods, ice storms and for unity. Canadians will travel again and again when called. No mere man, no sum of money, no written law will sever our Canadian bonds. We will come by plane, by bus, by train. We will be there in thought. We will not fail in our task to give support to our fellow citizens in Quebec, to give support to a Canada in need.

That is our promise to Mr. Cote. He must know where reality lies. He will never extinguish our will.

[Liberal Party, March 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, membership indeed has its rewards. Liberal patronage continues: the Liberal campaign manager of Burnaby, B.C.; a prominent B.C. Liberal and oldtime golfing and business buddy of the Prime Minister; the nephew of the Prime Minister; the defeated Liberal MP for Halifax; the former legislative assistant to the Prime Minister; the wife of the former defence minister and director of the Liberal Party; the former president of the Liberal Kindersley-Lloyminister riding; the former Liberal MP for North York; the wife of a former aide to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau; the failed 1993 Liberal nominee for South West Nova; a former board member of the federal Liberal Agency of Canada; the former executive director of the Quebec Liberal Party; the former Liberal Minister of International Trade; the failed 1993 Liberal candidate in Selkirk-Red River, Manitoba; the defeated 1997 Liberal candidate in Laurentides; and the list of Liberal patronage goes on.

[Canadian Parks Agency Act, March 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I believe there is an absence of government members on the other side. They are few and far between. I would like to call for a quorum count.

[Canada Shipping Act, March 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, this new legislation which is listed as an amendment to part I of the Canada Marine Act is actually a replacement. Much of the old act cannot be traced in the new legislation.

There is no question the existing act is obsolete. It was after all passed in 1936 when Canadian vessels were defined as British, when records were kept in ledgers and when prescribed fees for certain documents and government services were in the 25 cent to $1 range.

Reform cannot express opposition or support for this highly technical bill until we have heard from industry representatives in a committee. This is especially true since we anticipate that the government has already drafted amendments which will be introduced at committee stage. It is our understanding that the government proposes to remove some problematic changes proposed with respect to the regulation of small vessels.

The bill contains two and a half full columns describing things which may in the future be regulated by governor in council with no reference to Parliament. There was a lot of this in the old act, but Bill C-15 confers wider ranging powers to the governor in council to regulate registration, the marking of vessels, fees, fines and licences.

This bill would give the governor in council almost unlimited power over specifications for the manufacturing or modification of small vessels. Hopefully that will be one aspect of the bill which the government proposes to withdraw.

The replacement part I will modernize the ship registration system. For example, the proposal to allow foreign owned vessels bare-boat chartered to Canadian entities to be registered as Canadian ships makes sense. Conversely, Canadian ships bare-boat chartered to a foreign lessee will be barred from flying the Canadian flag.

Bill C-15 gives Transport Canada full authority and responsibility for ship registration and related activities currently performed by Canada Customs. Another quaint Canadian custom is being eliminated.

Of course it would not be a Liberal bill without bestowing upon the minister another juicy patronage plum to be handed out. In this case Bill C-15 empowers the Minister of Transport to appoint a chief registrar who will be responsible for establishing a Canadian register of ships.

There will be mandatory registration for all Canadian owned ships exceeding 15 tonnes gross tonnage and not registered in a foreign country. The register will record the name and description of the ship, its official number, its tonnage, its owner's name and address, and the details of all its registered mortgages.

The chief registrar will have the authority to establish the criteria for applying for registration and will be required to approve the name of a ship. Canadians can rest easy because Bill C-15 gives the minister the authority to order that a name be changed if he believes the name would prejudice Canada's international reputation. No risqué innuendoes will be allowed in either official language.

The registry certainly needs updating. There are currently 45,000 entries on the ship registry, which is a physical impossibility. There are not that many vessels in Canadian waters. Bill C-15 will enable suspension and closure of registry entries, so inactive and bygone ships can be taken off the list.

As well, there were no provisions in the antiquated Canada Shipping Act for an electronic registry, meaning that the whole thing had to be on paper. Now the nation's ships, like its citizens, will be objects of computerized lists.

The registration of a Canadian ship could be cancelled or suspended due to improper markings, expiration of the certificate of registry and a ship's loss, wreck or removal from service. Ships can be reinstated too. A certificate of registry will have to be on board a ship in order for the ship to operate. Don't leave home without your licence.

Under the current CSA certificates of registration do not expire. Section 53(2) would keep certificates in place for up to three years in order to provide a transitional period during which ships can be brought under the new rules.

Bill C-15 continues the tradition observed in most maritime nations, except the U.S., that a ship be divided into 64 shares. The custom is variously attributed to the fact that ships traditionally had 64 ribs or the fact that under Queen Victoria shipowners were taxed 36% and were allowed to keep the remaining 64%. Now we have progressed to the point that in Canada millions of ordinary folk have to hand over fully half of their incomes to three levels of government. Under Queen Victoria they had taxation; under king Jean we have predation.

The minister will continue to appoint tonnage measures to calculate a ship's tonnage. Shipowners and shipbuilders will continue to be allowed to mortgage their ships and have that mortgage placed on the register.

When there is a change in ownership, owners of Canadian ships will be required to notify the chief registrar. If an unqualified person acquires a ship, an application for redress could be made to a court. For the record, a qualified person means a Canadian citizen, or permanent resident, or a company incorporated in Canada, or a province.

The old CSA exempts from annual inspections ships not in excess of five tonnes gross tonnage carrying more than 12 passengers and are not pleasure boats. Bill C-15 would raise that limit to ships not in excess of 15 tonnes gross tonnage. However, inspectors will be able to conduct spot checks on these vessels. It is not clear to me if this is an area in which the government now plans to change in committee.

Bill C-15 grants the governor in council the power to make regulations to prevent pollution resulting from the discharge of ballast water, thereby reducing the risk of oil spills in Canada's waters, including the Arctic. We already have zebra mussels and lamprey eels in the Great Lakes. Perhaps these regulations will be prevent future ecological disasters. The current requirement for ships to have on board an oil pollution prevention plan will be extended to shore based loading and unloading facilities.

Retired members of this fund, the St. Lawrence pilot pension, are subject to an act over 100 years old and to the antiquated internal rules of the corporation of pilots. Bill C-15 would redefine the pilot fund, recognize the plan as a registered pension plan, make the Pension Benefits Standards Act of 1995 apply, define the status of the plan with regard to the Income Tax Act and allow the governor in council to make regulations to carry out this part of the legislation. Of course, these pilots will continue to rip off Canadian shippers and grain producers but that relates to legislation other than to Bill C-15.

On balance, this seems to be a good housekeeping bill but the Reform Party will have to hear from the stakeholders before passing judgment.

[Petitions, March 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Chamber today as a servant of the constituents of Edmonton East. I am pleased to discharge my duties today by presenting to this House a petition.

This petition asks for the very prudent review of the mandate of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, to discourage the provocation of pornography and rather to encourage the broadcasting of ecclesiastical programming to support morality and wholesome family lifestyles.

The petitioners ask this House to heed their words and I concur.