Shawn Murphy

[Committees of the House, March 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following reports of the Standing Committee of Public Accounts: the sixth report on Public Accounts of Canada, 2008; and the seventh report on chapter four of the first nations child and family services program, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, of the May 2008 report of the Auditor General of Canada.

In accordance with Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to each of these reports.

[Business of Supply, March 10th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I agree with a lot of what my colleague had to say in her speech. The forestry industry has been a disaster over the last number of years. Approximately 20,000 jobs have been lost and I do not see anything being done in the House. This did not start with the recession. It started three or four years ago with the softwood lumber agreement, which was a major disappointment. It provided $1 billion to the American competition to fight us and that will probably be used for the next 10 years. I see us being shut out of that market or our capacity diminished greatly.

The member talked about the $1 billion community development trust fund. I analyzed that and I did not see any conditions or strings attached to it that indicate it would help any forestry worker or any town that was affected by the downturn in the forestry industry.

Since it looks like we will have difficulty in the American market right now, does the hon. member see any new markets that Canada should be exploring on this issue?

[International Women's Day, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of attending an International Women's Day event in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Events similar to the one I attended were held around the world to observe and celebrate the achievements of women but also, at the same time, to recognize their struggle for equality, a struggle that continues to this day.

The theme of last night's seminar was “Women in the Arts” and the evening's purpose was to celebrate the Island's female artistic leaders. It was also a reminder that, even today, women in this industry earn as much as 28% less than their male counterparts.

The discussion was lively, informative and thought-provoking as the panellists discussed the importance of the arts and cultural community in today's society, the challenges they face as artists and the challenges faced by everyone in the arts and culture community in Prince Edward Island and throughout Canada.

I would like to thank and congratulate the organizers of yesterday's events.

[Health, February 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, on December 5, 2006, every member of the House, including the Prime Minister, supported Motion No. 172. The motion directed the minister of health to convene a meeting of the provincial health ministers with the objective of developing a national strategy on the treatment and support of Canadians with autism. Unfortunately, the previous minister of health and the present Minister of Health have totally ignored this motion.

My question is for the present Minister of Health. This is a very important question and Canadians are looking for an answer. How long does the government intend to ignore Canadian families dealing with autism?

[Committees of the House, February 25th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following reports of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts: the first report, on chapter 4, Military Health Care, National Defence, of the October 2007 report of the Auditor General of Canada; the second report, on chapter 5, Keeping the Border Open and Secure, Canada Border Services Agency, of the October 2007 report of the Auditor General of Canada; the third report, on chapter 3, Inuvialuit Final Agreement, of the October 2007 report of the Auditor General of Canada; the fourth report, on chapter 5, Managing the Delivery of Legal Services to Government, Department of Justice Canada, of the May 2007 report of the Auditor General of Canada; and the fifth report, on chapter 4, Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, of the May 2007 report of the Auditor General of Canada.

In accordance with Standing Order 107, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to each of these reports.

[Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, February 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am certainly pleased to be in the House today to speak to this legislation.

Initially, I want to point out that I and the members of my party will be supporting this particular legislation. It is my view that it is good public policy and in the national interest. It certainly will be supported.

As the previous speaker indicated, it is a very short piece of legislation. I believe he mentioned there are only 13 lines and it basically extends our responsibility in the Arctic by close to 500 square kilometres, which we can see is an enormous body of land.

It is in line with international policy and with the parameters of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which this country ratified in 2003. It certainly will be supported by other countries, unless there is an absolute conflict in our continental sea bids.

We have heard in the debate that it is part of a so-called northern package or northern strategy, but as the member for Western Arctic has very eloquently described to the House, these initiatives are only talk from Ottawa. We really have not seen any action at all in the north and that is a big concern in this particular legislation. It is great, but there are no provisions for any resources, funding, plans, programs, initiatives or in what manner the government is going to do what it says it is going to do in the legislation.

It all sounds good. We all agree with it. All Canadians agree with it. Announcements have been made and re-made, some of them three or four times, but parliamentarians, Canadians and, most importantly, the people who live in the three northern territories would like to see a lot more or in some cases a little more concrete action than what has been done before. The most recent talk has been about ships, the military presence, fishing ports, and economic development but again, we have not really seen too much yet.

A sidebar on this issue goes back to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. That convention was ratified by Canada in 2003 and by 2013 Canada has to present a submission to the United Nations dealing with this whole boundary issue, which is a mapping of our entire continental shelf.

The year 2013 sounds like a long way in the future but, do not forget, there are only a few months to work on it. I hope that it is being done and we will be ready to make our submission come year 2013 because this is vitally important for Canada's sovereignty. That is a little sidebar in this debate.

Part of this package, for want of a better word, is the construction of an icebreaker. It has been named the Diefenbaker. There was a discussion in the House as to who would be in the House when the Diefenbaker was launched. We hear a lot of big announcements about ships but four months later we see a little story on page seven of one of the papers saying that they have been cancelled because of the cost or whatever reason.

There have been many announcements over the last two or three years about Coast Guard ships, icebreakers and military frigates, but I am not aware of any of them having been started or purchased. I do not have an awful lot of confidence in the Diefenbaker. I do not expect to be here, though you may be, Mr. Speaker, as you are a younger member of Parliament. I would like to see a lot more concrete action as to when this ship is going to be built and launched.

I am not from the north, but I try to follow these fisheries issues as closely as I can. There was an announcement that a deep water port was going to be built somewhere on Baffin Island and there were going to be some repairs and improvements. I will correct myself. It was not repairs and improvements but the actual construction of a port. A lot of the places like Pond Inlet do not have ports at all. The announcement was about a deep water port.

I believe there is a strong fisheries industry in the Arctic. Right now it is mainly being prosecuted by foreigners and other Canadian interests from the southern provinces, Newfoundland in particular. The catches I believe are landed in Greenland for packaging and processing for shipment to the southern markets. That all should be done on Canadian soil. I believe there is a strong argument for a deep water port. There was an announcement the officials were looking at Pangnirtung, but again that is another announcement I hope does come about. The area has tremendous potential and some of the methodologies used by the local ice fishermen are certainly very environmentally sensitive. I am hoping, as part of this northern strategy or development, that this will be looked at. Again, it is time to stop talking and let us get on and do something.

The area which is most effected by the climate change problem is the northern territory of Canada. With the visit last week of President Obama I become very cynical. The government was elected in January 2006 and going back in history we can say we have not done enough, that other countries and China are not doing enough, but that is not the point. We have an obligation to do what we can.

The government was elected over three years ago and in the first year and a half the Conservative minister of the time was saying that she would come forward with a made in Canada approach. Of course, as members know, there was really nothing done at all. There was no made in Canada approach. There is no approach. After a year and a half, that minister had to be replaced by another minister whose approach was that we are going to regulate against the biggest and largest emitters. But of course, that was not done either and nothing happened.

Last week the latest version is that we are going to commence a dialogue with our southern partner the United States of America to deal with this whole climate change issue. That is good. Americans have not done a lot, but they probably have done more than we have. The reason we have not done anything is because the government of the United States has not done anything. Excuse me, why was that not told to the House over the last three years? Why were we not informed of that fact? Here we are three or four years later and we are going to start a dialogue. We cannot fault President Obama because he has only been elected for a couple of weeks, but again the Canadian public is becoming cynical. I hope this is an area where the envelope has moved to a certain extent.

This part of Canada and the whole world really suffers because of climate change and the permafrost melting. It is something we are looking to and shaking our heads hoping that the government will do something in the not too distant future.

In conclusion, this is good legislation and good public policy. I hope it receives the support of the House. I do not think the committee will spend a lot of time on it. Again, it is pretty meaningless if it is not accompanied by real concrete action, a plan as to how these environmental issues are going to be enforced. What are the resources being designated to this effort from a northern basis? What is the strategy? What departments are responsible for this initiative? How are the prosecutors going to prosecute?

These are very important issues. I hope in the days and months ahead we can move forward on this issue and some of the other issues that people in northern Canada are watching very closely, and I should add are very disappointed.

[Canadian Junior Men's Curling Championship, February 10th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of all residents of Prince Edward Island, I would like to congratulate Brett Gallant and his teammates on winning the Canadian Junior Men's Curling Championship last Sunday in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

Brett and his teammates, third Adam Casey, second Anson Carmody and lead Jamie Danbrook, played an exceptional game, defeating northern Ontario's rink, skipped by Dylan Johnston, in a 7-6 nail-biter by scoring two in an impressive 10th end final.

Coaching the team was Brett's father, Peter Gallant, who himself has a long history in curling as an eight-time Brier participant for Prince Edward Island. The Gallant rink played hard and remained focused right up to the last rock. It proved that hard work and perseverance does pay off.

This team becomes the second Canadian Junior Men's Curling Championship title for Prince Edward Island since the championship began in 1950.

I ask the members to please join me in congratulating Brett, Jamie, Anson and Adam on their new title of Canadian Junior Men's Curling Championship and wish them every success as they represent Canada at the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships held next month in Vancouver, British Columbia.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 9th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, the budget document, as everyone in the House and certainly everyone on this side of the House realizes, is not a perfect document.

There are a lot of things in the budget that I think should have been done differently, that should be more enhanced, but there are some positive initiatives. The infrastructure moneys are welcome right across Canada, and certainly in my riding, assuming we can get the money out the door. That is an unanswered question.

Even the small amendments to EI are a welcome change. It is not a perfect document. That is why the previous speaker said it is up to us as parliamentarians to work together. When 129,000 Canadians lost their job last month, I do not think that Canadians want to be thrown into an election at this point in time. They want solutions. They want policies. They want programs. They want decisions. They want action from this House.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 9th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I know EI is a big issue in the member's riding of Cape Breton—Canso. It is a big issue my riding, but the two issues on EI are the people who cannot get it because they do not qualify because they do not have the number of hours. That is one of the biggest problems, but the second problem is the waiting period. There is two week waiting period.

However, another issue that is just as, or more important, and that is the whole administrative delay. People get laid off, for example, at the end of November and they have the two week waiting period. Then they can file their claim and then it is either four, five or six weeks. So we are dealing with a person who was laid off from work on December 1 and it is toward the end of January before they receive their first cheque. We can see the problems and difficulties that puts Canadian families in. That is a major issue that ought to be addressed by the government immediately.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, when I concluded before question period, I was speaking about the budget. I specifically confined my remarks to the whole issue of the environment and the lack of any action at all in this last budget statement from the government. I talked about what has happened over the last three years and, really, when we look at it, some would say nothing has happened and some would say very little has happened.

One of the announcements I was talking about that was very troubling was this $1.519 billion trust fund that was established a couple of years ago where the money would go to the provinces. However, as has been disclosed last week from the report of the Auditor General, there was a total breakdown in the whole link of accountability. The number one job of members of Parliament on both sides of the House is to hold the government accountable for the money it spends on behalf of the taxpayers.

However, in this case, the moneys were transferred to the provinces and there was absolutely no requirement that they spend the money on the environment, or anything else for that matter, and a lot did not. Those that did, did not spend it on incremental matters; they just substituted that money for other moneys they were planning to spend on the environment. So, we can see how troubling this is.

To put it into perspective, there is not one person in Ottawa at the Department of Finance, at the Treasury Board, or over at the Office of the Auditor General, who can confirm that one cent of this money was spent on environmental matters. Then the government made the statement that at the time it was going to lead to a 16 million tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, we know that that was just someone's wild guess. No one could confirm now that there was one tonne, 10 tonnes or one million tonnes in reduction; that is just a statement in hot air that is out there and no one can confirm it. There is no accountability mechanism at all. So, it is certainly troubling to hear this.

Again, the second program the government announced with much fanfare, and again at the time I know it was extremely bad public policy, was this tax credit for transit riders. It was announced to cost $665 million. At the time, I believe there were reports from the Department of Finance that it would lead to a 100 tonne reduction of greenhouse gases annually. The government announced, despite this report, that it would be 220,000 tonnes annually, but now it has reported that, no, all that information was incorrect, it was erroneous, and the correct figure is 30 tonnes annually.

As we can see, if we do the arithmetic, it is extremely expensive. At $665 million, it is something like $10,000 per tonne. It is hopelessly expensive. It is bad public policy. As I watched the minister answer questions last week, I think he realizes that he is dealing with a program that obviously does not work and that he has to figure out some way of getting out of it.

That brings us to today. Looking at this budget, there is one page that talks about environmental measures. It is very brief. There is some research done on carbon capture, there is an extension to the ecotrust moneys, and that it is it. There is nothing else. It is all contained in one half page.

As I said before question period, we have gone through three regimes in this House. The first environment minister said we would have a made in Canada approach. The second minister said he was going to legislate, and we have not seen that. And of course the third minister, now, is talking on the public airwaves about a North American solution.

But, again, this is after four years. After three months nothing was done, after six months nothing was done, and now we are looking at four years and we are not seeing anything at all. Again, that is very disappointing and troubling. When we compare it to what was going on in the United States, it mirrored what was going on in the United States because the administration in the United States and the administration in Canada were basically in lockstep with each other.

I do not know what the new administration in the United States is going to do. It is too early to tell. But certainly from the announcements that were made by President Obama, there seems to be very strong statements being made as to that administration's intention on the environment. There are some very power people occupying the secretary's position.

President Obama is going to be here on February 19. There are a number of issues to talk about. I assume and hope that climate change would be one of those issues, but I would like to be a fly in that room to listen to the conversation because I do not know what the Prime Minister would say when President Obama asks what we are doing. I think it would be a very short, terse conversation. We have to get ourselves in lockstep with what is going on in the United States on this whole issue.

The last election was fought on the green shift. It was attacked negatively and I will admit successfully, but as a Canadian I do not think for a minute that the government should interpret that as a licence or mandate to do absolutely nothing on the environment.

Again, I am disappointed. I am concerned. This is a major issue. I believe that people are looking for action and when I look at a vision, it is very unclear and I do not see any vision at all. Let us hope that in the days and months to come we will see more action on this initiative.