Wayne Easter

[Motions For Papers, October 23rd, 1996]

That a humble address be presented to His Excellency praying that he will cause to be laid before this House copies of the operating agreement between the Grain Transportation Agency Administrator, Canadian National Railways (CN) and Canadian Pacific Ltd. (CP) dated April 1, 1993, with respect to railway cars supplied for grain service by the Government of Canada.

[Racism, October 11th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism.

Yesterday there was a serious issue of racism involving 30 students at Coal Harbour District High School where a robbery is alleged to have evolved into a racially motivated brawl.

Is the secretary aware of the incident and what will she do within federal jurisdiction to redress these racial tensions?

[Hog Producers, October 9th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Canadian hog producers have been under tremendous economic pressure for several years because the U.S. government has been charging countervailing duty on all Canadian hog imports to the U.S.

What is the minister doing to protect our hog producers from the damaging results of this United States action?

[Prisons And Reformatories Act, October 1st, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I will be voting yea on this motion.

[Confederation Bridge, October 1st, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, in a ceremony in Borden-Carleton last Friday, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services announced the official name of the bridge which will soon connect Prince Edward Island with the Canadian mainland.

The fixed link will now be known as Confederation Bridge. This name recognizes the important role P.E.I. has played in Canada's rich history which has lead to Canadians calling the province the cradle of Confederation.

For all Canadians the name celebrates our rich past and our promising future, a future based on the kind of ingenuity and hard work that is making the construction of Confederation Bridge a reality.

Canadians from throughout the country participated in naming the bridge. The number of submissions as well as the quality and creativity of the suggestions demonstrate the pride that we Canadians feel not only for this incredible engineering feat but for our great country as well.

I would like to congratulate the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, the advisory committee and all Canadians who participated in the bridge naming process. Thanks to them.

[Official Languages, September 25th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon the staff of Green Gables House in Prince Edward Island National Park will be presented with a certificate of merit by the Commissioner of Official Languages on behalf of the Government of Canada.

The managers of this regional office of the Department of Canadian Heritage continue to meet the objectives of the Official Languages Act by striving at all times to maintain adequate bilingual staff. This summer the two regular and 14 seasonal employees hired were all bilingual.

Congratulations to the Prince Edward Island National Park staff for the excellent service they provide to visitors and islanders alike in both official languages.

[Irving Whale, September 23rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I also express my appreciation to the fishermen, some of whom have since passed on, and to all those who have over the past 26 years never wavered in their determination to see that the potential environmental disaster posed by the Irving Whale was removed. This was the largest salvage operation to ever take place in Canadian waters and all those involved should be proud of a job well done. Congratulations.

[Irving Whale, September 23rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of Prince Edward Islanders I want to congratulate the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans for the work they and their departments undertook in raising the Irving Whale this past summer.

Deserving special mention is Captain Bill Dancer of the Canadian Coast Guard and his operations crew for the hazardous work they performed.

I also want to thank the former Minister of the Environment, the Hon. Sheila Copps, for the efforts she put in to ensure that this project move forward.

[Broadcasting Act, September 23rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on Bill C-216.

I congratulate my colleague, the hon. member for Sarnia-Lambton for bringing forward this private member's bill. He did so in response to consumer reaction as a result of the negative billing by cable companies in January 1995.

The bill in its initial stages was widely supported and went to committee and now we have the amended version before us. It seems a lot has happened over the summer and some people are expressing concerns. My colleague for Ottawa-Vanier outlined some of those concerns and I really have to ask why.

First, let us look at some facts. In committee on May 30, 1996 the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage moved an amendment to Bill C-216. The amendment was adopted by the committee and the bill was reported back to the House as amended. The bill now includes a reference to cable companies serving 2,000 or more subscribers. This was added to address concerns from certain small time cable operators who claimed that for technical reasons they would be unable to comply with the bill as originally drafted.

The phrase "non-mandatory pay or speciality service" was added to address concerns expressed by the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier who argued that the bill as originally drafted would somehow prevent the CRTC from requiring certain special-

ity services to be carried as part of the basic service offered to all cable subscribers.

Finally, a change was made to allow for the substitution or addition of a new channel when there is no change in the price charged to the consumer.

Bill C-216 applies only to non-mandatory pay or speciality TV services. The CRTC will continue to decide if a channel is mandatory or not. This bill does not affect existing channels such as RDI, CBC, CTV, TSN or MuchMusic. Small cable companies of less than 2,000 subscribers, which are mostly in rural areas, have been exempted from this bill. This bill does not prevent cable companies from substituting one channel for another provided the price does not increase. The facts speak for themselves. This bill should be supported.

My colleague for Ottawa-Vanier talked about the side effects, the debate of lots of discussion this weekend, the side effects and the need for flexibility. An article in the Globe and Mail on the weekend talked a considerable bit about what those perceived side effects might be:

Leading the charge against the bill is André Bureau, a former chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and now president of Astral Communications Inc. of Montreal.

Mr. Bureau argues that passage of the bill would effectively kill the chances for success of any new French language speciality service.

Astral has a stake in two speciality channels that were approved this month by the CRTC.

Those comments by Mr. Bureau are not exactly coming from a non-biased observer. That individual has a special interest in terms of maintaining the power they have at the moment.

I want to outline that on that point of flexibility and concern for the speciality channels, especially in the area of language, it is not a concern that I have ruled out of hand. I have thought seriously about it over the weekend. I agree with many others that there is a need for those speciality channels. There is a need for those issues to be cabled into the livingrooms of people so that they can see, listen, debate and learn more from those kinds of channels.

After serious thought I believe that concern can be addressed in other ways. There is still room for flexibility as a result of Bill C-216. I have only thought about it for a couple of days but one such way would be by offering a package inclusive of that speciality channel that may be required by the country. A package could be offered, the package could be priced and that channel could be part of the package. That way that service could be provided.

I am suggesting that the facts speak for themselves. The concern raised by the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier in terms of flexibility is not a legitimate concern. I encourage all members of the House to protect the consumers' interests and support Bill C-216.

[Point Of Order, September 17th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, today the member for Laurier-Sainte-Marie alleged that because Prince Edward Island happens to be smaller than some of the ridings in Quebec it should not be entitled to the same rights and privileges as other provinces in this country. That clearly demonstrates an ignorance of what constitutes Canada-