Rodger Cuzner

[Economic Development, June 6th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity in the House to highlight some of the positive things that are happening in my riding of Bras d'Or, Cape Breton.

The economic foundation of Cape Breton Island has been significantly challenged by the closure of the steel and coal mining industries and the collapse of the ground fishery. Despite these challenges, a renewed sense of optimism is taking hold and the Government of Canada is playing an important role in its economic renewal.

Strategic investments have been made to assist Cape Breton communities in their efforts to adjust these changing economic times and solid progress is being made. In my hometown of Glace Bay the Cape Breton growth fund has assisted in the establishment of a major information technology initiative, the Stream International call centre. Stream has created 1,000 jobs in just 10 months. This translates into $28 million annually in salaries and wages.

In the last three years the Government of Canada has contributed to the creation of more than 3,000 jobs and there has been a decline in the unemployment rate and the employment participation rate has increased. How is that for a can-do attitude?

[An Act to amend the Criminal Code (cruelty to animals and firearms) and the Firearms Act, June 3rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the bill at third reading.

It is time for the House to act on the will of Canadians. Legislation that would update animal cruelty provisions and provide enhanced penalties for animal abusers has been before the House in one form or another since December 1, 1999. That is two and a half years during which there have been numerous opportunities for organizations from a broad spectrum of interests to come forward and make their views known. They have shared their views with the Department of Justice, members of parliament, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the media and other members of the public. There has been a full and comprehensive debate on the issue of the changes that must be made to modernize the animal cruelty provisions.

During that two and a half years the former justice minister listened carefully to the concerns of all Canadians, including industry. In fact, to be absolutely clear that criminal liability for intentional cruelty and criminal neglect had not changed, the former justice minister made several accommodations to industry when the animal cruelty provisions were reintroduced in Bill C-15 after an election was called and Bill C-17 died on the order paper. The accommodations did not change the legal tests for liability but provided further clarification about the elements of the cruelty offences.

After Bill C-15 received second reading in the House of Commons on September 26, 2001, it was referred to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights with the direction that the committee split the bill into two parts.

Bill C-15B contains the provisions regarding cruelty to animals and firearms. The committee heard from a wide variety of groups with diverse views on the issue of animal cruelty. At the committee hearings the Criminal Lawyers' Association confirmed that removal of the animal cruelty provision out of the property section would not cause accused persons to lose any available defences. The association did indicate however that if there was a desire to make this absolutely clear one of two options was possible: either make an express reference to subsection 429(2) of the criminal code which outlines defences of legal justification, excuse or colour of right; or specifically confirm application of the common law defences under subsection 8(3). Again, in the interests of accommodation to reassure critics of the bill, the government introduced a motion adopted by the committee to confirm application of subsection 8(3).

Following the suggestion of the lawyers association one would have thought opposition critics of the bill would agree that all accommodations could be made. They have been made without changing the test of legal liability. Unhappily, with the notable exception of the New Democratic Party, this does not appear to be the case. Critics among the opposition parties want more.

I take this opportunity to look at their position more closely. These critics have been clear that they are not supporting an exemption for industry. They maintain that all persons should be subject to the animal cruelty provisions. Yet, what they are asking for appears to be an exemption in anything but name.

Some members of the opposition parties maintain that the defences in subsection 429(2) of the criminal code provide them with a justification for their industry practices, even if those industry practices cause unnecessary pain, suffering or injury. They maintain that these defences effectively give industry the protection that anything they do pursuant to lawful purpose is itself lawful. This is simply not the law.

Equally inaccurate is the position maintained by some hon. members that the cruelty provisions prohibit the infliction of any pain or suffering and that it is the defences that legitimize the infliction of pain. This position completely ignores the tests for liability for cruelty that have been in the criminal code since 1953. The issue of defences does not even arise until after the crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the infliction of pain or suffering was unnecessary.

The test for unnecessary pain or suffering is clear in case law. The courts have recognized that avoidable pain is unnecessary. Pain is avoidable if there are equally accessible, reasonable, and affordable practices available to achieve the same lawful purpose.

What is interesting is that opposition critics maintain their position even though they have cited not a single case of support for their position and have been unable to identify any relevant offences under subsection 429(2) which would not be available as a common law defence subsection 8(3) of the criminal code.

I do not believe for a moment that industry wants its activities exempted from the application of the criminal code. Those members of the opposition who suggest that industry has this protection currently or who argue that somehow lawful industry practices would become unlawful after the bill is passed are misrepresenting the state of current law.

No one has been exempted from the application of the animal cruelty law. This has never been the law in Canada and the government is not proposing to change this law now.

One of the most basic notions in Canadian criminal law is that the law applies to everyone. Canadians have made it clear that they support a law which imposes at least a minimum standard of behaviour on everyone. It is time for this House to answer the expectations of Canadians and move on this legislation.

[Supply, April 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly share the concerns of my colleague from Cumberland--Colchester. The fact is that there is a movement of young people from rural Canada into the urban centres. In Bras d'Or--Cape Breton we have certainly lost our share of young people.

Where I differ with my hon. colleague is that I see merit in some of the initiatives in recent years. We have been successful in some initiatives. In the last two years we have shown great growth in the Cape Breton area. We have been able to develop 4,000 new jobs. We have leveraged $300 million in corporate private investment. The unemployment rate has dropped from around 20% to just below 15% in the industrial Cape Breton area. There have been some positive things happening.

I do not share his pessimistic view about call centres. We see young people staying in the communities now, securing employment at the call centres at around $10 an hour but with health and dental benefits. Therefore I would ask my hon. colleague, does he not think that the call centres are making a contribution to local economies?

[Book Day, April 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to draw the attention of the House to World Book and Copyright Day.

For everyone who plays a role in the creation and marketing of books, whether they are authors, publishers, distributors or readers, World Book and Copyright Day provides a special opportunity for gatherings, discussions, reflections, and above all, celebrations.

Books are at the core of our national and cultural expression, and the government is pleased to support the many activities across Canada celebrating World Book and Copyright Day. Books are creative works, communication tools, a source of pleasure and of knowledge, a collective memory and a sign of our vibrant culture.

Thanks to Canadian writers Canadian literature is flourishing, rich and recognized throughout the world. I pay tribute to them on this day. At the same time I must remind the House of the importance of copyright for all creators in Canada, which is essential for the protection of the economic and moral rights of authors.

I say congratulations to all on World Book and Copyright Day.

[Committees of the House, April 17th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

Pursuant to its order of reference dated Monday, February 18, 2002, your committee has considered Bill S-22, an act to provide for the recognition of the Canadian horse as the national horse of Canada, and agreed on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 to report it without amendment.

[National Defence, April 8th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of National Defence. The Canadian navy Sea Kings have long made their home at the Canadian forces base in Shearwater.

Can the minister tell the House if the replacement for the Sea King will continue to be based in Shearwater?

[Fisheries, March 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to enter into the debate this evening and acknowledge the work put forward by my colleague from St. John's West. He has been vigilant in bringing this message forward, as has the chairman of the fisheries and oceans committee and several others in the past, but certainly my colleague from St. John's West has been carrying the banner.

I am the rookie member on the fisheries and oceans committee. It has been six months since I was assigned to the committee. My early impressions are I am very pleased and proud to be a member of that committee. Our recent trip to Atlantic Canada reinforced that .

The committee is very capable, competent and committed to finding out the truth and researching each of the very wide range of issues that are placed in front of it. The partisan aspect does not play a huge role. Committee members are more committed to finding out what is right and advising as to what is right for those involved. It is acknowledged on the Hill as a very hardworking committee that does its share of great work.

As I said, we did the Atlantic Canada swing and had the pleasure of meeting with plant workers, plant owners, fishermen and people who play various roles throughout the industry. We spoke with groups that made presentations on a wide range of topics.

We were very fortunate that in my own constituency of Bras d'Or--Cape Breton we spoke with fishermen who currently are steaming eight hours off the shores, 130 miles out of their home harbours, to chase fish to try to harvest the resource. They are doing it in 35-foot boats because of inshore licence restrictions. They are certainly putting themselves somewhat at peril and are concerned for their safety.

My colleague from Scarborough Southwest mentioned the impact that seals have had on the fishery. It has been devastating. There are six million harp seals. Seals are being found up rivers, at the mouths of rivers and places where they have never been seen before. They are laying at bay at the mouths of rivers waiting for runs of particular species. It is like a buffet table. It is having a devastating impact on the fish stocks.

Without question the presentations which addressed the nose and tail and the overfishing were the most compelling testimony. It was one issue which galvanized the presenters. It was an issue that was not specific to a community or specific just to the industry. It has galvanized the entire province of Newfoundland and Labrador. All of Atlantic Canada is alert on the issue. It is one that certainly puts the entire fishery in jeopardy. In the presentations that came forward each presenter reinforced this.

We talked at great length about NAFO. NAFO is comprised of 17 different contracting parties. Within NAFO is the fisheries commission. It is one of the three constituent bodies of NAFO. Within the fisheries commission there is a standing committee on conservation and enforcement measures. The conservation and enforcement measures comprise seven sections: management; gear; vessel requirements; scheme of joint international inspection and surveillance schedules; project for observers; satellite tracking; and port inspections.

We heard pretty much from all of the presenters that NAFO is a body that is intended to protect the stock but it has no teeth.

Concerns have been brought to NAFO before. Concerns have been addressed. It has been identified that parties were overfishing, overharvesting, bi-catching, and high grading their product. These concerns have been brought forward but there has been no penalty. As a matter of fact in most cases they have not even identified the perpetrator.

To use an analogy for an old hockey official like yourself, Mr. Speaker, it would be like having your game and your rules and a penalty takes place. The referee calls the penalty but does not say who the penalty is going to, not even what team. The game goes on and the abuse continues. It has no teeth and that came out time and time again with all the presenters.

I would like to share some testimony that was brought forward by Mr. Gus Etchegary. Gus is a gentleman who started in the fishery in 1945 and has been in the fishery since then. I will quote his testimony:

When a foreign owner [from] any...foreign fishing ports, distant water fishermen who come three or four thousand [miles]--some of them from the Baltic states, Estonia, or Latvia, or Lithuania, they come three, four, five thousand miles to our shores to catch fish. Do you think they're concerned about conservation?

Do you think there's any connection whatever with their government? Do you think the people in their government who administer fisheries had the slightest concern about their practices 3,000 miles away? Put yourself in a Canadian troller fishing in the Baltic Sea or the Bay of Biscayne and he's there--I own the vessel and he's my skipper and this vessel cost me $15 million and that crew has to earn a living. They're going to catch whatever in hell's name they can catch. They'll high grade as much as they can possibly get away with in order to maximize the return to that vessel and to the crew.

If there was one presenter that was impassioned in his tone and spoke with a degree of urgency, it was Gus Etchegary. The points he brought forward represented what was going on in the kitchens in Newfoundland and Labrador and in eastern Canada.

There are not a lot of easy days in the office of the minister of fisheries. I commend my colleagues, even some of the opposition colleagues who stood and recognized the decision the minister made today with regard to the closure of the ports to the Faroese. It was recognized as a bold step. It was a first step. We want to continue to support the minister as he continues to move forward on this very important issue.

In summary, we certainly can appreciate the tone and the candour of the debate. The situation on the east coast is critical. The situation off the Grand Banks is critical. It is imperative that we continue to support the minister and we make sure that DFAIT and the office of the Prime Minister get involved to bring this issue to a resolution.

[Species at Risk Act, March 21st, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, stewardship is a word we have heard quite a bit throughout the debate. I will address my remarks to the series of motions regarding the stewardship approach in general. Stewardship is a word we struggle with a bit because it does not seem to portray the importance of what we mean by it.

Stewardship is more than a landowner doing the right thing. It is more than a company showing good corporate citizenship by sponsoring a wildlife centre or rehabilitating a wetland. Stewardship is how we get things done in Canada not just for species at risk but for much of what we do for wildlife. Stewardship is a local community group pulling together a conservation effort to protect an important shoreline for birds. It is a farmer who decides to let trees and brush remain along the edges of a field to encourage nesting. It is a big company that not only makes a financial contribution but sets aside thousands of hectares as a conservation easement.

This is stewardship. It is co-operation. In Canada it is how we get things done. In many ways we could say it is what species at risk protection and the bill before us are all about.

Bill C-5 is an essential piece of legislation. It would fulfil the commitment the federal government made with the provinces and territories under the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk. It sets out in the full letter of law the key components of assessment and listing, recovery planning, habitat protection and prohibition.

I will speak to the government motions that support the key component of stewardship in our strategy, the motions that would ensure co-operation was the first approach for protecting critical habitat.

Our neighbours to the south are envious of our stewardship traditions and the way we are enshrining them in our legislation. Many people point south of the border to the endangered species legislation the U.S. has had in place for 25 years. It has done much for lawyers and the legal industry. It has done less for species. The Americans wish they had our approach. Courts are choked with cases under the U.S. law.

Our commitment to stewardship has already been reinforced with the Habitat Stewardship Program. Under the program $45 million over five years has been targeted for stewardship activities. The program is entering its third year. It has fostered many new partnerships and allowed old ones to accomplish more. It has brought new partners into the stewardship fold.

For the $5 million in first year funding the program attracted non-federal funding of over $8 million. In other words, for every dollar spent by the federal government under the HSP $1.70 of non-federal resources was contributed by project partners. In the second year of the HSP $10 million for more than 150 projects has been allocated. Volunteer Canadians from all walks of life are involved in the Atlantic Beach Guardian Program to protect the habitat of the piping plover, the Gulf of St. Lawrence aster and the maritime ringlet butterfly.

We have provided for more favourable tax treatment for the contribution of ecologically sensitive lands. Over 20,000 hectares has already been donated as ecological gifts.

There is more to stewardship than the Habitat Stewardship Program and ecological gifts. There is the stewardship action plan set out in Bill C-5. We accept in principle the proposal to develop the stewardship action plan introduced in Bill C-5 by the standing committee. Work is already underway on the development of a federal, provincial and territorial Canada wide stewardship action plan. There have been meetings, discussions and much progress in the area.

However we want to avoid legislating mandatory federal government programs which have the added complication of making future resource commitments in law. We want to ensure sufficient time to develop a plan in co-operation with others including landowners, resource users, aboriginal peoples, provinces and territories. That is why the government motions would remove the one year deadline and provide the minister the authority to develop a stewardship action plan in consultation with the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council.

I will speak in favour of the government motion to remove the requirements the standing committee imposed on the minister to publish draft contribution agreements when they are complete to provide the public an opportunity to comment on them. This type of requirement serves as a disincentive to stewardship. We are all stewards in one way or another.

The federal government is a steward in its protection of species at risk and their critical habitats in Canada. Land owners, farmers and fishers are stewards, as are aboriginal peoples, conservation groups and workers in the resource sector and others. We all deserve credit for the stewardship work we do. Bill C-5 would encourage us to do more and deserves our support.

[Radio Music Awards, March 11th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of the Canadian Radio Music Awards. The awards were presented during Canadian Music Week in Toronto on March 2. Created and funded by Canada's private radio broadcasters the CRMA profiles and recognizes Canada's emerging English language music stars.

Among the awards presented it was announced that The Guess Who will be inducted into the Canadian music industry hall of fame. It has recorded several hit songs and was among the first Canadian rock groups to become famous across North America. Other winners announced on March 2 included Wave, the Ennis Sisters, Nellie Furtado and my fellow Cape Bretoner Jimmy Rankin.

Since 1970 the government has worked with broadcasters in the sound recording industry to bring Canadian voices to our airwaves. Most recently the government announced a comprehensive Canada music fund to ensure that the music industry is equipped to succeed in the new economy and that Canadians and the world have access to diverse choices in Canada music.

I ask the House to join me in congratulating this year's winners of the Canadian Radio Music Awards.

[2002 Winter Olympics, February 27th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a great pleasure to stand in the House today and congratulate the tremendous Olympic performance of our Canadian athletes, and in particular to acknowledge the contribution of Cape Breton's own Al MacInnis.

As the senior statesman of the men's hockey team, Al's on ice performance was equalled only by his poise and leadership. Al has long been recognized for his tremendous skill but more so as a consummate team player. The pride and joy of Port Hood, Cape Breton epitomizes all that is good about sport and represents the truth that in our great country, Canada, dreams can come true.

I am certain that all Canadians are very proud of the entire Olympic contingent, but let it be known that none are more proud of their own than the people of Cape Breton.