House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 43% of the vote.
Public Safety March 19th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, it seems the simpler the question the bigger the diversion.
Yesterday, when the Minister of Public Safety was asked if he would put an end to the outrageous and reckless filming of immigration raids for reality TV, the minister grabbed some blue paper and plowed his way through the talking points three times.
Today, will the minister come clean on how much this offensive and dangerous PR stunt is costing Canadian taxpayers and will he immediately put an end to this practice?
Public Safety March 18th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, while we welcome new appointments to the committee, this group is still representing Canada internationally today.
The minister has another outrage to answer for today as Canadians across the country are shocked that he personally approved filming immigration raids for reality TV. This is not some episode of Cops. These are real people and real officers doing a dangerous job. Filming is exploitative and can put individuals in danger.
How could the minister be so reckless? Will he take responsibility and put an immediate end to this dangerous and offensive PR stunt?
Public Safety March 18th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association is apparently outraged that Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer would require, of all things, trigger locks for guns on display at gun shows. It is now asking the Conservatives to scrap provincial firearms officers entirely. This is the same group that the Conservatives have sent to represent Canada at the arms trade treaty talks today.
Would the Minister of Public Safety tell Canadians, here and now, that he rejects this group's outrageous and extreme demands?
Questions Passed as Orders for Return March 8th, 2013
With regard to salmon conservation on Vancouver Island: (a) given that a salmon conservation stamp costs an individual $6.30 with one dollar of that going to the Pacific Salmon Institute, where does the rest of the revenue from the salmon conservation stamp go; (b) how much money does the government provide for salmon enhancement on Vancouver Island on an annual basis; (c) how has this funding been allocated; and (d) who has this funding gone to over the past five fiscal years?
Northern Jobs and Growth Act March 4th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona for her question. She knows far more about these issues than I do.
In terms of the duty to consult, we run across this issue with both the federal and the provincial governments all the time in British Columbia, where duty to consult means the duty to ask questions only and not to listen to the answers. If they do listen to the answers, the duty stops there; it is not a duty to consider the impacts of those answers and to actually make accommodations that will guarantee that first nations' rights are recognized and respected in a meaningful manner and not just in a kind of drive-by consultation whereby someone shouts out the window, “What do you think?” and then continues on their merry way down the same highway.
What it really requires is talking together and working together with people to find a new path that will accommodate the best interests of all those involved in the process.
Northern Jobs and Growth Act March 4th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, we are dealing with two things here. One is the fact that it tries to put Nunavut and the Northwest Territories together. They are completely different situations, so in terms of consultation, we could have identified the issues in Nunavut much more clearly if there were a single bill and we had actually carried out a consultation process just about that.
In the Northwest Territories, the situation is much more difficult because there are people who have land claim settlements in place and people who have not yet concluded those settlements. Therefore, inside that separate bill we almost need two separate consultation processes to deal with those two very different situations.
The link I was making to the first nations in my riding is that we are going to come across these very same issues in British Columbia, where we are busy signing treaties. However, to implement those treaties and to make sure they are effective raises some of the very same questions and concerns that are raised by the bill.
Northern Jobs and Growth Act March 4th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, there is an important link between the issues the member raises and the questions of self-government for first nations. It was not first nations that developed the system whereby we end up with hungry children in first nations communities; it is the failure of Canada to recognize the right to self-government and that the right to self-government requires resources to go along with it. When we provide the recognition of the right to self-government and we provide resources, first nations communities will prosper and there will not be hungry kids in first nations communities. The member is right: decisions made at a distance, which may look good on a piece of paper drawn up by the bureaucrats here in Ottawa, do not actually work in those rural or northern communities.
Part of the bill goes a way toward recognizing that is what we need to do to solve these problems. We need to get the decision-making closest to those people who have the problems so that we get solutions that are actually effective in those communities.
Northern Jobs and Growth Act March 4th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, what I learned long ago when I lived in the north, and it almost cited so many times to become trite, was that we could trust first nations to think about sustainable development. One of my favourite chiefs in Port Alberni used to say, “If you sign a settlement with us, we're not looking for money to move to Hawaii. We're looking to build a stronger community here where we live that will last for generations and generations to come”. By devolving powers to Nunavut and recognizing first nations' rights to land and self-government, I have complete confidence that sustainability will be taken into account in the developments that take place in the future, not just economic sustainability but, as the hon. member said, the important aspect of social sustainability.
Northern Jobs and Growth Act March 4th, 2013
The hon. member can ask another question if she likes, but it indicates a problem when none of the things that were raised in the north were actually incorporated in the bill.
Northern Jobs and Growth Act March 4th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the member asked several questions. Obviously the NDP supports the development of resource industries when it is done in a sustainable fashion. That is the question we are always raising in the House of Commons, whether it is something that will benefit us down the road and if the development is bearing its full costs in terms of its impacts on the environment.
With regard to the resource developments in northern Alberta that she pointed to, she may also like to listen to some of the people who live downstream from them in the Northwest Territories. They are very concerned about the environmental impacts of dumping into the streams and rivers that flow to the north, which were previously pristine. Yes, the New Democrats support development, but it has to bear its costs. The polluters have to pay and it has to be sustainable.
In terms of consultation, I think inadvertently the member betrays something about the government. For the government, consultation is the process, not the outcome. It says, “We talked to you for 10 years, but, of course, we didn't listen, so now we'll proceed”. Consultation means considering the 50 amendments the New Democrats brought forward and actually acting on them, not just going through a process where people do not get to say what they think—