Message from the Senate  Madam Speaker, I find the parliamentary secretary's comments quite amazing. First, he makes a statement that religious freedoms are very important to Canada and yet refuses to engage in a situation that we have happening in the provinces. Yes, these are provincial civil matters b

Message from the Senate  Madam Speaker, on December 3 I raised a question on an issue that has arisen in Manitoba. It has also happened in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The province of Manitoba informed all marriage commissioners that they had to perform same sex marriages and that if they refused,

Civil Marriage Act  Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank the leader of my party for his strong leadership here in Parliament and for giving me the opportunity to represent my constituents in a free vote on this bill. I have worked hard to come to a decision on how to vote on this issue of how to gov

Health  Mr. Speaker, Ashern, Manitoba is being forced by the shoddy mismanagement of the government to depend on two semi-retired doctors to provide it with all its medical services. This should be done by five doctors according to the local health authority. These doctors want to retire

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, I want to express the importance of the cattle industry and the other equally important ruminant industries that were worth over $7 billion before the border closed. The entire agricultural sector has always contributed a great deal to Canada's prosperity. I want to

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I know time is short but I would like to thank you for allowing my colleague a little flexibility in the time which permitted her to speak to all the important points. I hope you will grant me the same flexibility in the future. I want to recognize my colleague for

Canadian Livestock Industry  Mr. Speaker, although money has flowed to producers, I think we all can agree that the loss to the industry is over $7 billion. The amount of money that has been derived from government sources by no means even compensates a part of the loss. Most guys are so far in the red that

Canadian Livestock Industry  Mr. Speaker, I can assure my hon. colleague that I have actually been touring the ranches at Quilchena, Nicola and Douglas Lake and have really enjoyed the time that I had in the valley and seeing how those operations function, which is quite a bit different from the way we do bu

Canadian Livestock Industry  Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time this evening with my colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound. I want to thank my colleague, the member for Battlefords—Lloydminster, for allowing us to have this debate and for bringing this motion forward. I also want to recognize the Minis

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, the border remains closed to live cattle and ruminants for an indeterminate amount of time, making increased slaughter capacity essential. The industry's losses are well over $7 billion. This government thinks that its token relief is sufficient. Farm families are st

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, due to his past experience, this minister has been banking on the border reopening. The agriculture minister has not delivered any of his promises. He talks about billions in farm aid, yet producers are going broke. Much needed CAIS money is not reaching the farm ga

The Budget  Madam Speaker, I want to take exception to some of the comments made by the hon. member in his speech on the budget. He said, “everybody likes the budget”, but he failed to mention that the Canadian Federation of Agriculture is very disappointed with the budget. The Canadian Catt

Correctional Service Canada  Mr. Speaker, recent media reports state that Stoney Mountain Penitentiary just ranked third out of 54 federal prisons for weapon seizures. Corrections officers confiscated nearly 1,200 weapons across Canada during 2004. Corrections officers put their lives at risk every day but

Government Appointments  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said it was no longer going to be a matter of asking who one knows in the PMO and that he would put an end to cronyism. He soon appointed John Harvard as Lieutenant Governor to make way for his star candidate Glen Murray who failed to win. However

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, the agriculture minister is back from his BSE mission to the U.S. but it appears he came back with half the deal he went there with. The U.S. said that it would open the border to live animals and boneless meat from mature animals on March 7. Now it is only opening