Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's mention of the many maritimers who are involved as peacekeepers. I met some of them in the SFOR mission. There are organizations in the maritimes and some individuals in my riding who have been adamant and constant in their support of

Apec  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has warned APEC of irrelevancy if it does not expand its scope to include human rights and environmental issues. Canada's EDC is backing the Three Gorges project with $172 million worth of Canadian taxpayers money, when the World Bank

Export Development Corporation  Mr. Speaker, last week I informed the House that the president of EDC, Export Development Corporation, Ian Gillespie, told the foreign affairs committee that EDC is reluctant to sign the code of ethics championed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. How can Canadian corporations

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  Mr. Chairman, the amendment is very complex and has far-reaching impacts on this type of negotiation. The standing committee of foreign affairs is the appropriate forum for discussion of the amendment. We would not support the amendment today. However we do see the potential for

Anti-Personnel Mines Convention Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, my comments will be brief today but extraordinarily meaningful. I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Compton—Stanstead. These are challenging times for a middle power. In a post cold war environment there has been a sharp decline in the role of the nat

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, section 110 of the U.S. Immigration Reform Act was before Congress for 13 months, passing in September 1996. When I asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to table a list of official representations made by our ambassador in Washington, I was told it would be a very

Trevor Andrew  Mr. Speaker, Trevor Andrew of Falmouth, Nova Scotia, in my riding of Kings Hants, recently captured first place and a $50,000 U.S. cheque in a snowboarding competition in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Andrew, who started skiing at age 9 and is now 18, has risen quickly in one of the wo

Committees Of The House  Madam Speaker, I spent one and a half weeks with the finance committee in October, travelling across Canada and listening to the concerns of ordinary Canadians. We visited the cities of Regina, Montreal, Halifax and Charlottetown when I was with the committee. Being new to this p

Committees Of The House  Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. His depth of knowledge on economic issues is obviously only exceeded by his height. The fact is that economic policy takes years to have meaningful impacts. I cannot explain an international phenomenon. For instance, the U

Committees Of The House  Madam Speaker, in our platform we actually called for national testing as one way of ensuring that Canadian children across this great country received the same educational opportunities. Young Canadians going to school in Port-aux-Basques should be provided with the same level o

Committees Of The House  Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. member on his provocative discussion about the importance of education and his position and opinion relative to the potential of the federal role in terms of leadership in some areas of education. The member is quite right that Nova Scotia was a c

Income Tax Amendments Act, 1997  Mr. Speaker, the issue we are now facing as a country is the fiscal dividend, the potential of a surplus. The PC Party takes great pride in this moment that our country has reached. The structural changes which were made in the Canadian economy by the Conservative government in t

Income Tax Amendments Act, 1997  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for what I assume must have been his maiden speech because he certainly went on for a long time and said very little. We talk about debt to GDP ratio, but if we were to talk about substance to rhetoric ratios, he would certainly

Income Tax Amendments Act, 1997  Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary in his duties should take some time to read a little of what the international economists are saying about the Canadian economy. It is not simply what The Economist said a few months ago. They quote selectively from what some publications

Income Tax Amendments Act, 1997  Mr. Speaker, the issue of transfers to the provinces and the transition to tax points was addressed in our recent platform. The fact that decisions should be made at the provincial level and that the provinces should have the ability to chart their own course on some of these iss