Rob Anders

[Privilege, November 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's Office never called my office.

[Privilege, November 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege. Just prior to question period the member for Markham made a statement that was not accurate. I wish him to withdraw it.

[National Defence, November 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the first words out of the minister's mouth should have been an apology to our troops.

Despite the contrary analysis of nearly every expert in the field, the defence minister likes to persist in his fiction that our forces are better equipped today than they were 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, our Sea Kings had a host of anti-missile systems in the Persian Gulf. Today they are being sent to war, stripped back to only one of those defences.

Let us end this charade now. Are our Sea King helicopters better equipped--

[National Defence, November 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it has been three years since the defence minister stood in the House and assured our troops that our rickety old Sea King helicopters were being fitted with newer communication systems, but he let our troops down again. He led them to believe that as he spoke the systems were being installed.

Three years later, they still are not here. He said he would deliver and he did not. Why did he claim something that was not true?

[Veterans Week, November 7th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to rise in the House today in honour of Canada's veterans. This is Veterans Week and as Canadian soldiers are once again shipping off to war it behooves us to honour and remember the proud tradition that they and our veterans represent. We do this because we cannot afford to ignore the very real and constant threats to our security.

This week should also serve as reminder to the government that failure to maintain our strong and proud military tradition is to fail not only our veterans but all Canadians.

I humbly suggest that the best way to honour our veterans is to ensure they are well taken care of as they took care of us and to respect their noble traditions by making the troops of today a priority.

[Supply, October 23rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I have heard some of the Liberals today stand on the other side of the House to give us their talking points as though there were almost no problems with the immigration system. I served with some of them on the citizenship and immigration committee. At that time, thankfully, they were willing to acknowledge there were problems and put out some reports, but they have not measured up in terms of reporting back mechanisms.

I will propose a scenario and ask my Liberal friend across the way a question. The government and the minister have the power to detain people. Liberal members have been talking about fingerprinting and everything else in some of their speeches, and I am sure it is on all their talking points. However if people arrive at one of our airports who have burned or destroyed their documentation, all they are asked for is their name. That is all that happens. If they give their name that is good enough.

Because the people at our airports do not want to deal with all the paperwork and problems and whatnot, they pass it on. All they do is take down the person's name and hope that at some point whoever it is will show up at an appropriate time before an appropriate body.

I would point out to everyone listening today and to my Liberal friends across the way that despite the fact the Liberal government has the power to detain it does not. This makes it easier for our people at airports who do not have the proper staff, manpower or resources because the government has not given them what they need. As a result people arriving in Canada can give a fictitious name and walk free. Is that not true?

[Supply, October 23rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, just a couple of weekends ago I was at one of our border checkpoints, one just south of Montreal. There I asked a point blank question of the people who deal with border security. They said they did not have enough sniffer dogs for eight locations on the Quebec border. They have one sniffer dog for eight locations. Also, they wanted ion scanners. When I visited just this last weekend they also told me they need vehicle lifts. They need to be able to lift up the vehicles so they can check underneath them and they need closed areas where they can take a vehicle off to the side to examine it.

I would invite the Leader of the Opposition to comment with regard to sniffer dogs, ion scanners, vehicle lifts and closed areas at our border points, things that the Liberal government and the minister across the way are not addressing.

[G-8 Summit, October 22nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the minister obviously does not know what the Calgary police service is doing.

The G-8 summit in Italy cost $225 million. The Quebec summit of the Americas cost $100 million. Amazingly, Quebec is still trying to recover money from the government's broken funding promises.

I would like to know what guarantees the government is prepared to make so the people of Calgary, Canmore and Alberta will not be left holding the bag like Quebecers were.

[G-8 Summit, October 22nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, in a short nine months Kananaskis, Alberta will be host to the G-8 summit. To date the Alberta government has received no formal commitment of financial support from the federal government. Quite obviously, given recent world events, heightened and costly security measures are needed now more than ever.

When will the government quit ignoring Alberta's demands and put funding commitments for the Kananaskis G-8 summit in writing?

[Canada—Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, October 2nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to be recorded as voting in favour of free trade.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)