Canada-United States Tax Convention Act, 1984  Moved: Motion No. 1 That Bill S-9, in Clause 3, be amended: a ) by replacing line 21, on page 1, with the following "3.(1) The Act is amended by adding, after"; and b ) by adding after line 23, on page 1, the following: "(2) The amendment to the Convention in paragraph 1 of Article 5 of Schedule IV, as set out in the schedule to this Act, shall not apply after 2000."

Spring On The Hill  Of course, spring always starts in the west where nice weather has ensured that Vancouver's daffodils are already in bloom. This has made it possible for B.C.'s most listened to radio station, CKNW-98, to provide members with close to 300 of those beautiful daffodil blooms. Yes, that is compliments of CKNW. Canadians know good weather and it is all on the west coast, which also happens to be the leader in federal political trends, good common sense and fresh starts.

Message From The Senate  I have the honour to inform the House that a message has been received from the Senate informing this House that the Senate has passed the following bill to which the concurrence of this House is desired: Bill S-15, an act to amend an act to incorporate the Bishop of the Arctic of the Church of England in Canada. This bill is deemed to have been read the first time and ordered for a second reading at the next sitting of the House.

Points Of Order  The New Democratic Party agrees with the hon. member for Gander-Grand Falls who raised the matter of Bill S-9 being a bill that will cause a great deal of expenditure from the treasury to people retroactively, in particular to people who have a great deal of wealth to start with. There is an assumption that the New Democratic Party supports Bill S-9.

Copyright Act  I find it to be a very cute clause that has the effect of preventing reimportation of Canadian textbooks. When there is a government that whispers the concerns of the three r s, reduce, reuse, recycle, this certainly flies in the face of that. I also listened to the intervention from the Bloc member, who seemed quite concerned that we would not support the bill as it is.

Criminal Code  The special committee issued its report on life and death following many months of hearings and deliberation. The Senate currently has before it Bill S-13, an act to amend the Criminal Code (the protection of health care providers), which is now the subject of second reading debate. The purpose of the bill as stated by the hon. senator who sponsored the bill is to implement the unanimous recommendations and chapters 4 and 5 of the Senate report which deal with pain and pain control and the withholding of and withdrawal of life sustaining treatment.

Criminal Code  As I said, a minority, three of the seven senators, recommended changes to section 241 of the Criminal Code as well as voluntary euthanasia for competent individuals who are physically incapable of committing assisted suicide. Recently Senator Sharon Carstairs presented a bill in the other place, Bill S-13. I commend Senator Carstairs for her leadership on this issue. Her bill would provide that no health care provider who honours the wish of a competent person for the withholding and withdrawing of life sustaining treatment would be guilty of an offence under the Criminal Code.

Questions On The Order Paper  With respect to the Council for Canadian Unity, or any agency or organization attached to or working for the council, ( a ) have there been any increases in the annual budget(s) since January 1994 and if so, on what precise date(s) did the increases occur and how, item by item, were they allocated, (b) has it undertaken or contracted out the undertaking of any public opinion poll or polls of Canadians or Quebecers and if so, what was the wording of the questions and the result of the poll(s), question by question and ( c ) what are the government's intentions with respect to the council's budget for hiring personnel or borrowing personnel from other departments on assignment for this fiscal year and the coming fiscal year, in actual numbers?

Pensions  The matter has hit the floor of the House of Commons in Britain and numerous MPs there want to see changes brought about. In July 1994, for example, Winston S. Churchill, MP, said with regard to a particular case being debated: That lady and others like her are being cheated-there is no other word for it-by the government of £53.60 per week of the pension to which she contributed.

Questions On The Order Paper  "DEPOT" DIVISION-An RCMP pistol was either lost or stolen approximately two years ago. Further details are unavailable. "DEPOT" DIVISION-A recent incident involves an RCMP S&W; 5946 pistol which was lost/stolen while in transit with a courier company. An investigation is being conducted with respect to this incident. b) According to Section 3(1)d) of the Regulations pertaining to Part III of the Criminal Code, the RCMP is exempt from the storage regulations subject to subsection 3(3) of the same Regulations.

Heritage Rivers  Speaker, I am pleased to announce the Fraser River has been proposed as the first candidate for protection under British Columbia's proposed heritage rivers program. This program will promote greater management of B.C.'s vital waterways and protection of B.C.'s finest salmon rivers. A five member board will nominate approximately 20 rivers for protection under heritage status. Among the nominees are the Adams, Babine, Blackwater, Cowichan, Skagit, Similkameen and Stikine Rivers.

Canada-United States Tax Convention Act, 1984  Even the Minister of Finance is using the term tax loophole more frequently. We ask ourselves how we got into this debt problem. I know it seems to be a jump from Bill S-9 to the debt problem. Let us recognize that Statistics Canada did us a great favour back in 1991 when it identified that 44 per cent of our accumulated federal debt was the result of tax exemptions over the years, the drainage of billions and billions of dollars through tax loopholes.

Canada-United States Tax Convention Act, 1984  Speaker, I was going to let the matter go to a vote but I was encouraged by the previous speaker to say a few words. It is clear that Bill S-9 is a result of a complex process flowing from a tax treaty signed between Canada and the United States in March 1995. The Senate quickly got on to this important matter in its judgment and decided to give it top priority over a number of other pieces of legislation.

The Budget  This budget clearly recognizes investment in science and technology as critical to our economic development, but since coming to power the Liberals have cut spending on S and T by almost $1 billion. Science and technology are fundamental to Canada's competitiveness. The Liberals may brag but this budget still leaves science and technology $100 million short of where it was when the government took office.

East Coast Music Awards  Mr. Speaker, last Thursday movers and shakers in the international music industry flocked to Moncton to take in some of Canada's most vibrant music. For four days Moncton whooped it up. Blues, pops, fiddle music, it was all there at the East Coast Music Awards. We celebrated our down home music, in both official languages.