Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95  Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to refer the Minister of Human Resources Development to a question that I raised in the House on February 7 concerning the issue of labour disputes at the port of Vancouver. As history has proven, free and unimpeded movement of goods and services is the cornerstone of an economy that relies on a free market.

Committees Of The House  Mr. Speaker, I think you will find unanimous consent of the House for the following motion. I move that the first report of the Special Joint Committee on Canada's Defence Policy presented to the House on Friday, February 25, 1994 be concurred in.

Questions On The Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, the following question will be answered today: No. 4. Question No. 4-

Canadian National Railways  Mr. Speaker, CN and CP must follow a very well-known process for abandoning activities in certain regions of the country. We do not intend to impose a moratorium. The hon. member is no doubt aware that the railways have already disappeared from some parts of the country, like Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

Social Programs  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I would like to correct one part of his preamble in that over 80 per cent of Canadians support the federal government's initiative to fundamentally redesign and restructure the social programs. One reason they do that is they recognize the best way to deal with the serious problem of child poverty, the serious problems families face and the high long term unemployment of older workers is to have contemporary programs that meet those needs where the funding goes toward the people who need it and not simply to those who administer it.

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member pointed out in his question, there are several outstanding issues in bilateral trade in agriculture between Canada and the United States. Those have been under discussion since last November. The work on those issues is still ongoing. They have not been resolved to date, nor have they gone away.

Indian Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I am aware of the Auditor General's report and I am aware of our response. Having come from private practice I realize that it was not made well. I am not satisfied that the response is adequate. This will be a priority on our agenda once we get over the initial stages of implementing the new government.

Indian Affairs  Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, this will be a priority of the government. As to the specific remedy, I cannot answer at this stage. In due course over the next few months I will be prepared to sit down with the hon. member and discuss it and show him what we are doing.

Beer Industry  Mr. Speaker, yes, the member opposite is quite right. The GATT found that American beer practices were discriminatory and against the interests of Canada. They are implemented mainly by states rather than the federal government. However, in both cases we have pressed hard for the Americans to resolve this issue so that the beer trade can flow-without any pun intended-easily across the border in a way that protects the interests of Canadian suppliers in accordance with the GATT panel findings.

National Unity  Mr. Speaker, of course I will work very hard to make sure the policies of the government are so good that the people of Quebec will not have any hesitation to stay in Canada. It will be very useful when I am able to report to the Americans that I have convinced members of the Reform Party to support the two officials languages of Canada.

National Unity  Mr. Speaker, it is very important to have the guts to present candidates in every province of Canada and to have one message for all Canadians, not one for one part of Canada and one for another. That is why when I was in Alberta last weekend I received a fantastic reception. I was talking about the policies of the government vis-à-vis Canada and the people received me very well indeed.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, again, as I told this House very clearly, and the Prime Minister and I myself said in New York City and the Canadian cities I visited last week: "Actions contained in the budget will reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of the GDP within three years". Also, we are presently reviewing a number of programs with the Minister responsible for Public Service Renewal.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, if I may quote from the speech I made to this House, the decisions we are making today are clearly putting us on a path leading to the government goal of reducing the deficit to 3 per cent of the GDP within three years. That is the position I stated here in this House and the Prime Minister took the very same position last week in Western Canada.

Unemployment  Mr. Speaker, I plead with the hon. Leader of the Opposition to read the budget carefully. When he says there are no measures to create employment, I just mentioned a very important one which is by reducing the premiums on unemployment insurance there is a very substantial stimulus, especially for small business.

Unemployment  Mr. Speaker, I am sure the hon. member will be very happy to know that last week we had a series of meetings with provincial ministers in education and labour. They have all agreed to become part of a major effort to reform the social security system. We agreed we would begin to tackle the very serious problems of duplication and overlap of services which do create waste.