Children's Hospital Fundraising Event  Mr. Speaker, I recently had the privilege of attending a fundraising event here in Ottawa for two very worthy causes. There is a group of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians living here who formed a volunteer committee to raise funds for the Janeway Children's Hospital in St. John's and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario here in Ottawa.

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency  Mr. Speaker, my question concerns ACOA and I guess my question will be for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. I think we are on our fourth minister of ACOA at this point. The minister wants to stop MPs from representing our constituents. I will again cite the article that suggests we here in opposition must register as lobbyists just to get a chance to talk to him.

Fisheries  Hopefully with a little more success this time, Mr. Speaker. When the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans was a member of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, he tabled a report demanding a limited fishery off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. The rural fishing communities are facing a tough summer, as I am sure he knows, and it is the time for my hon. colleague not to be, once again, a jellyfish on this issue.

Fisheries  Mr. Speaker, last week at a summit on fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador, hosted by our premier, the vast majority of stakeholders, including local plant workers and of course the leadership of the FFAW, all called for an early retirement program for our aging workforce. The Conservatives say they want to study the option more, but the studies have been done.

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency  Mr. Speaker, the reason why it took him half the time is because he is a part-time minister and the reason why it took us longer is because we did it right. At a political rally for a Conservative candidate, the minister said when he was talking about the Conservative candidate, “...I can tell you he's going to come knocking and we're going to deliver”.

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency  Mr. Speaker, a short time ago when I asked about the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Minister of Veterans Affairs pretended they were taking politics out of ACOA. However, when a Liberal member of Parliament expressed his concerns about ACOA, the minister told him, right here in the House, “I'll look at the projects coming out of his riding, but his ability to influence me...is going to be severely diminished”.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I can only assume that is probably the sixth commitment that the Conservative Party would like to bring, and that is to move toward some greater goal of cultural enhancement, which we have yet to see from the government as to the vision which it wants to put out there.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to go back to what I said earlier about the price people have to pay to express their culture across this country. This is merely a small price to bring to the world what it is we have. When Bryan Adams was a struggling artist I am sure he would have said that he was completely in favour of all the Canadian content rules.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the honour to stand here today to talk about culture and Canadian content. I want to pick up on the question that was asked earlier by the hon. member for Calgary West on Canadian content rules and regulations. As a former broadcaster myself, I remember filling out many forms and going through the motions of doing the 30% Canadian content when it came to radio broadcasting.

The Budget  First, Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague on becoming minister. I served with her on the heritage committee. It was a great time and we did some good work. That being said, the current chair of the heritage committee brought up a point in committee just the other day when he talked about museums, smaller museums, especially those in rural communities.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, that program I spoke about earlier, the extra weeks at the end, was an initiative brought in by us. It was an essential first step. The other step we brought in at that time was the 14 weeks for qualification. It was another essential first step. Were we going to go further?

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my hon. colleague's comment. Let me go back to the point I made earlier. I do appreciate the fact that there is to be a tax credit to help workers. However, the situation in my riding is grave to the point where the job itself is essential. The government has gone this far, and now it should try to go that much further.

The Budget  My hon. colleague just said they are smart kids. With all due respect to the minister across the way, they are smart kids, and to take them from us simply out of necessity and forget what they are coming from is a shame. As well, the licence buyback was not addressed in this budget, which is what disappointed me most.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I watched with interest the exchange that took place. I propose that we take the temperature down just a little so I can talk about my wonderful riding. As this is my first speech in this Parliament, I would like to thank the voters of Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor for giving me this honour once again.

The Budget  See, I told you we could bring the temperature down, Mr. Speaker. How about that? I want to start by talking about the dynamics of the riding. I also want to talk about rural Canada and in particular, rural Newfoundland and Labrador. My riding has over 200 communities, an incredibly large number of communities.