Ujjal Dosanjh

[Canadian Heritage, April 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, in my constituency of Vancouver South there is a historic landmark, Joy Kogawa House, the childhood home of renowned Canadian author Joy Kogawa. It is the home from which Ms. Kogawa and her family were removed as part of the internment of Japanese Canadians during the second world war. The existence of this house is a powerful reminder of a shameful episode in Canada's history.

The house is due to be demolished on April 30, 2006. The Save Joy Kogawa House Committee and the Land Conservancy of B.C. have mounted a campaign to save the house and turn it into a museum and writers' residence, but Canadian Heritage has denied the emergency funding request from these organizations. The Minister of Canadian Heritage will not even meet with them. I urge the minister to meet with the organizations and find a viable solution to preserve this very important historic site before it is too late.

[Ethics, April 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister claims the accountability act as the top legislative priority of his government, but his defence minister's list of former clients reads like a who's who of the defence industry.

Defence procurement represents nearly half of all government procurement. Why did the Prime Minister give that portfolio to a former defence lobbyist?

[Ethics, April 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's conflict of interest code states that ministers shall avoid even the appearance of being under an obligation to anyone who might profit from special consideration.

The Minister of National Defence was a registered lobbyist until February 2004, representing at least 28 defence firms. Why did the Prime Minister appoint that minister in violation of his own code?

[Health, November 28th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the agreement we have reached with the lawyers for the class of pre-1986 and post-1990 is substantial. That agreement says two things. Here are some steps that we need to take to get the evidence to determine the class, the size of the class, the status of the class. Then, at the end of that process there shall be compensation for that class. That is absolute advancement from the previous propositions that we had.

[Health, November 28th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is quite ironic that we were going to announce those wait times benchmarks in December. All opposition parties now want to go into an election campaign and then they ask where are the wait time benchmarks. They are coming.

For the hon. member, we shall take no lessons on health care from a party which interest is to maximize private health care. The member himself is on record saying that we should not be hung up on universality. We are going to stand up for universality in public health care in Canada.

[Health, November 28th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I want the leader of the NDP to know that for the last 10 years every year one province or the other has been penalized under the Canada Health Act, and we shall continue to do so. I want the hon. leader of the NDP to know that we have invested $41 billion in health care over the next 10 years.

I want him to know that he ran away from working with us to strengthen public health care into the lap of the Tories whose sole aim is to actually gut health care and end federal owned health care. I would ask him to be accountable to the people of Canada on that.

[Health, November 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that we have strengthened public health care. We have provided more resources. We are training more doctors. We have more residencies across the country for international medical graduates.

The fact is that it is the NDP that walked into the lap of the Tories who actually want to destroy health care. Now the leader of the NDP is doing the work of the Conservatives in trying to call an election which is unnecessary and no one wants.

[Health, November 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, we were prepared to work with the NDP on strengthening public health care. They ran to the lap of the Conservatives, the wreckers of health care, who wanted that Canada Health Act, and who want to end the federal role in health care. The NDP members need to ask the question of themselves. Where do they stand on health care? We want to strengthen it. Do they?

[Public Health Agency of Canada Act, November 16th, 2005]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-75, An Act respecting the establishment of the Public Health Agency of Canada and amending certain Acts.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Health, November 16th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for bringing this very important question to my attention. I met with members of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation earlier in the year and yesterday. They are doing very important work.

Budget 2005 provides $300 million over five years for the integrated strategy, which includes $18 million a year for the Canadian diabetes strategy. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research invested close to $6 million for type 1 diabetes research in fiscal year 2004-05 and $12 million for type 2 diabetes. That is going to go to $30 million over the next four or five years.