Atlantic Groundfish Strategy  Speaker, last week the Minister of Human Resources Development defended in the House a $350,000 training program to help his employees deal with “life threatening, explosive, dangerous situations after the end of the TAGS review”. Does the minister really believe that he is dealing with terrorists or criminals? These fishers and plant workers are honest, law-abiding citizens.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  I can easily imagine a young Canadian—maybe he was from Quebec of from Manitoba, maybe he was from Vancouver or Toronto or Cape Breton —landing on Juno beach under an infernal shower of explosions. What courage one must have to advance when each step may be the last, when each cannonball, each bullet, each mine becomes an instrument of death that is always more lethal and more destructive than the previous one.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  It is exceedingly important to pursue this issue. These are not just words. If we fail to address it we will see an explosion of ethnic conflict. Between 1945 and 1985 there were roughly six UN peacekeeping missions that cost about $2.3 billion or 23% of the UN budget. Since 1985 to now the UN spends 77% of its budget on peacekeeping initiatives.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  When we close the House tonight and go home we do not expect to hear the blast of a gun. We do not expect to hear an explosion of a land mine. We live in relative peace and quiet. However, as we pass the bill, and it will be unanimous, there are people in Canada tonight who are not as easy as we are about weapons that are being concealed within our country.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  With an infrared camera it will detect heat flow disturbances in the soil associated with buried land mines. Yet another sensor is capable of detecting nitrogen, a key component of explosives. The Thomson-CSF technology involves a very sophisticated robotic system with the capability of digging up, removing and disposing of land mines. I mention this to indicate that the task of ridding the world of over 100 million land mines is a tremendously difficult but not an impossible task.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  I do so as well with considerable compassion for those, often innocent individuals, whom death has claimed or whose quality of life has been significantly reduced through the explosion of a mine. There is another important element to this too, that of de-mining and the effort expended by the international community in this regard. One fact remains, and it represents an important step.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  Of course we have to be concerned about the presence of land mines, the use of land mines and the use of different types of explosive devices. We could talk about plutonium being sent to Canada from Russia. We could talk about that whole area. It is important for us to put a diplomatic and organizational pressure on the world which we are in an excellent position to do.

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  Several weeks ago a tractor trailer overturned near Banka Luka and the trailer rolled over a land mine, causing an explosion. This was an area that had previously been de-mined and thus had been re-mined. Mines had been redeployed to this area. As Canadians, it is sometimes difficult to imagine the constant fear of living in an area that is plagued by the scourge of land mines.

Donkin Mine  Gone are the solitary miners working the coal face with pick and shovel. Gone are miners lamps from paraffin soaked rags ready to spark off explosions of the firedamp gas leaching from the stone walls around them. Today, mining is highly mechanized and heavily regulated. Canada can be proud of an industry with some of the world's safest mining conditions and progressive environmental management.

Tags  I want to ask the minister of human resources why the government persists in doing something that it knows will create a veritable explosion of legitimate and justifiable anger in so many Atlantic Canadian communities.

Tags  Speaker, talking about appropriate behaviour, I wonder if the minister could tell us why we have been able to access a document that shows that the human resources department, in collaboration with the RCMP, the PCO and Treasury Board, has hired a consultant, Stonehaven Productions, to train senior managers on how to deal with, and I quote: “life threatening, explosive, dangerous situations after the end of the TAGS program”. Why is the government conspiring against the legitimate anger of its citizens and planning to end the TAGS program while going through the sham of this review, instead of changing its mind and doing the right thing?

The Environment  There are quite a number of defence sites across the country that need cleaning up, not only of explosives and lethal devices, but also for environmental reasons. The government has a major program under way to do that. There is, of course, concern that this clean-up will involve substantial amounts of time as well as money.

The Miner Company  The Miner Company operated as an arms manufacturing plant during World War II in Shefford. In April 1996 forgotten explosive material was found at the site of the old plant. The ministers of foreign affairs, defence and the environment as well as the prime minister have all been made aware of this situation in our backyard.

Dna Identification Act  They are all similar and have one thing in common: they are serious offences. They include the use of explosives, sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, incest, murder, homicide, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, torture, rape and arson. With this very specific list of designated offences drafted by the lawmakers, police officers will know precisely when they can collect DNA samples.

Excise Tax Act  Third, the convergence between information transmitters and the producers of the content they transmit is leading to an explosion of new types of goods and services available to a an ever increasing number of consumers. Take the first challenge as an example, the removal of trade barriers and increased international competition.