Scott Reid

[Mining Industry, November 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, there is uranium in the shield country of northern Frontenac county. Following a sharp rise in the price for this commodity, local residents are getting an unpleasant introduction to Ontario mining law.

The province has sold permits authorizing prospectors to enter any private property where the province owns the mineral rights and to dig trenches and exploratory pits. In the event there is nothing of value under the surface, the landowners will receive no compensation for any damage or inconvenience caused during exploration.

However, if the uranium deposit proves rich enough to warrant a mine, it will be the prospecting company, not the landowners, who will profit from selling the mineral rights. The land itself will be turned into an open pit mine and, in return, landowners will get essentially nothing.

Ontario's mining law dates from the nineteenth century and, frankly, change is well overdue. The Ontario legislature should award all landowners the subsurface rights to their land and end this abuse of private property rights.

[Petitions, November 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition is on the subject of the long gun registry. This is a matter that once again is before Parliament, so it makes the petition very timely.

The petitioners point out that the majority of violent gun crimes in Canada are committed with unregistered or illegal firearms and, therefore, the long gun registry does nothing to protect Canadians against this kind of crime.

The petitioners also point out that the long gun registry is 500 times its original cost, at more than $1 billion. They point out that a number of legal gun owners, including farmers, sport shooters and hunters, are in fact the people who have to pay the freight for the long gun registry. They therefore encourage Parliament to rescind the long gun registry.

[Petitions, November 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions today; two are on the same subject and one on a different subject.

The first two petitions are on the subject of the age of sexual consent, a matter that is before Parliament right now.

The large number of petitioners draw to the attention of Parliament their opposition to the age of sexual consent being set at 14. They urge Parliament to raise the age of sexual consent to 16. They point out that this would do a considerable amount to protect teenagers from sexual predators. They point out that the Canadian Police Association, a number of parliamentary governments and parliamentary committees have all advocated raising the age of consent and they, and I, feel strongly about this.

[Foreign Affairs, November 21st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are concerned with the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran. The Iranian government is blatantly disregarding its commitments and its obligations under international law as well as its own domestic legal obligations.

Canada, along with 41 co-sponsoring nations, brought forward a resolution at the UN this year to call attention to our serious concerns regarding Iran. Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs update the House on the situation regarding the UN resolution?

[Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, November 20th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, today marks the diamond anniversary of the wedding of Her Majesty the Queen to the Duke of Edinburgh.

It was 60 years ago today that Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip pledged eternal love and loyalty to each other in the presence of many of the great figures of the 20th century, and with the blessings of many others, ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to the millions of Canadians who had to wait days to see newsreels of the event.

Their marriage is the longest for any reigning king or queen in the history of our monarchy and gives us cause, as the Archbishop of Canterbury has observed, “to celebrate the relationship between monarch and people of which that marriage is a symbol”.

The royal couple's devotion to each other has been as constant as their devotion to their dominions and to the Commonwealth. I have no doubt that in time their love match will become as much the stuff of legend as that of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

On this happy day, I say God save the Queen and long may she reign with Prince Philip by her side.

[Constitution Act, 2007 (Senate tenure), November 16th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage decorum and urge all hon. members not to make, either directly or indirectly, insulting remarks toward others. That would include all members.

[Constitution Act, 2007 (Senate tenure), November 16th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I would have a few little comments to make concerning the remarks of my friend from the Bloc Québécois.

He has given an impression which suggests to me that he is mistaken about the importance of the second chamber, the upper chamber, among all the legislative assemblies. He said that here, in Canada, all the provinces had abolished their second chambers. Granted, that was the practice in Canada, but it is a very different story in the rest of the world.

In the other big federations besides Canada, such as the United States, Australia and other geographically smaller but nonetheless very important federations like Switzerland, Germany and Austria, there is a second chamber which plays a very significant role with respect to legislation. The same is true of the states, provinces or townships of federations worldwide.

In the United States, only one of the 50 states, Nebraska, has abolished its second chamber. In Australia, Queensland is the only one to have done so.

What is the practice in Canada is therefore not a universal practice. As regards chambers at the national level, there are only seven countries seriously considering abolishing their second chambers. In my opinion, that is a mistake.

In addition, the member suggested that, in Australia and the United States, introducing a second democratic chamber had weakened the strength, power and legitimacy of the states. I do not think that is the real reason behind the states' loss of power in these two federations. We are therefore not at risk here.

In the other two federations, it was the federal spending power in state jurisdiction that weakened the states' power. In Canada, our government has put in place measures dealing specifically with that problem. I just want to point out that this danger does not exist in our country.

[Petitions, November 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have been asked by members of the Ardoch Algonguin First Nation and of the Sharbot Lake First Nation in my constituency to present a petition that was presented to me on the grounds of Parliament Hill shortly before the House opened.

This petition concerns an area in my riding where a uranium mine, should it go forward, would be conducting mining activities on land where an aboriginal land settlement has not yet been achieved. All other economic development has been stopped on this land but the mining can potentially go forward.

The petitioners are understandably very concerned about this, as are a number of other private title holders in the area. They therefore have asked me to present this petition on their behalf to the House of Commons.

It is not in the prescribed form, but if there is unanimous consent, I would like to present this on their behalf.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked about making this place more democratic, so I will assume that his question refers not to the Senate but to the House of Commons. The short answer for the Senate, if he had asked me about that, in a nutshell would have been that if we cannot reform the Senate, I think the move for the abolition of the Senate would grow. Having a unicameral Parliament in a federation is not as good as having a bicameral Parliament, which is why we see them in all the other federations of the world.

With regard to this place, the danger is simply this. Ridings are getting larger and larger as the population of the country is growing, but they are getting larger in the provinces with the most rapidly growing populations, which in practice means Alberta, B.C. and Ontario, where there is a more rapid rate than elsewhere. There is an increasing discontinuity between the size of an average riding in Ontario, for example, and Saskatchewan.

I wrote a article for the National Post three or four years ago in which I pointed out that if current population trends continue, Statistics Canada predicts that 20 years from now the average riding size in Alberta will be twice the size of an average riding in Saskatchewan, for example. There is something fundamentally unfair about a system like that. We are simply trying to do what we can to rectify that situation.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the best way of responding to the question by the hon. member for Vancouver Centre is to point out a number of things.

First of all, the Prime Minister has not filled most of the vacancies in the Senate because he is hopeful that it will be possible to fill these by means of an election. Only the obstruction of the members on the opposite side can prevent that from happening. Hopefully this is a sign that the member for Vancouver Centre will be able to go ahead and support Senate elections.

Second, I point to Bert Brown, who has now been appointed to the upper House. He of course was elected by the people of Alberta. He is now Canada's second elected senator and the first individual in this Parliament to represent what hopefully will become a universal trend.

Third, let me address the question regarding Mr. Fortier. He was appointed on a very specific basis. The member may disagree with it, but the basis was that the city of Montreal deserves some representation. It is the second largest city in the country. It is the largest city in Quebec. It deserves to have some representation in the cabinet; thus the reason for appointing him. He has indicated that of course he will resign and run in the next election for a seat in the House of Commons.