The clerk of petitions reported that he had examined the following petition and found that it did not comply with the requirements of paragraphs 4 and 7 of standing order 68 and therefore should not be received: Petition of Duncan A. Campbell, and 6,695 others; demanding that the government institute immediate control of the mechanism of foreign exchanges; also a stay of proceedings for the foreclosure of mortgages and collection by forced sale.-Miss Macphail.
Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister) moved:
That the name of Mr. Heenan be substituted for that of Mr. Dubuc on the select standing committee on railways, canals and telegraph lines.
Motion agreed to.
Hon. HUGH GUTHRIE (Minister of Justice) moved that the house-go into committee at the next sitting to consider the following resolution: That it is expedient to amend the Penitentiary Act to provide that the governor in council may appoint a superintendent of penitentiaries; and may appoint such inspectors, wardens, deputy wardens and other administrative or executive officers as may be required, with such salaries as are approved by the governor in council; and that the superintendent, upon the recommendation of the warden, may appoint such guards, trade instructors and other subordinate officers and employees as are necessary, with such salaries as are approved by the governor in council; and to make further provisions in respect to gratuities paid to officers on retirement and the widows or dependents of officers who die in the service. He said: His Excellency the Governor General, having been made acquainted with the subject matter of this resolution, recommends it to the favourable consideration of the house. Motion agreed to.
On the orders of the day:
Mr. HENRI BOURASSA (Labelle):
May I call the attention of the Minister of Railways (Mr. Manion) to what seems to be a concerted direction given to employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway. I have received within the last few days five or six letters in which it is intimated that a further cut of ten per cent is going to be made by the company in wages, of which I know nothing; but besides, that the matter is to be dealt with by a committee of the house. I was rather surprised at the contents of those letters, but as the statement is contained in every one of them I presume some kind of intimation must have been given to these employees. Perhaps the minister could enlighten the house?
Hon. R. J. MANION (Minister of Railways) :
The hon. member for Labelle was
good enough to tell me he was going to ask this question. Perhaps it is as well to point out now as at any other time that there seems to be in this letter which he gave me, and in the other letters to which he draws attention, an entire misunderstanding of the whole question of wages on the railways. I have read in the press and been told informally by railway men that the managements of the two railways have proposed to the men a further decrease in the scale of wages. However it is obvious that this house could not appoint a committee to deal with the matter, because it is not directly within the power of the house, or the government to interfere with it in any way. It is a matter entirely between the managements of
Relief Act, 1933-Mr. Brown
the two railway companies and the men's unions. So that I am not able to offer any other suggestion to my hon. friend except that he might explain to his correspondents that neither the house nor the government has any power to interfere in the matter.
On the orders of the day:
Hoit. IAN MACKENZIE (Vancouver Centre):
I would like to ask the Minister
of Marine (Mr. Duranleau) if it is the intention of the government to introduce legislation to implement any of or all of the recommendations in the Gibb report?
Hon. ALFRED DURANLEAU (Minister of Marine):
We have at the present time
under study a bill concerning the management of the national harbours of Canada.
The house resumed from Thursday, March 2nd, consideration of the motion of the Minister of Labour that Mr. Speaker do now leave the chair for the house to resolve itself into committee of the whole on the following resolution: Resolved, that it is expedient to introduce a measure to continue in force the provisions of the Relief Act, 1932, until the 31st of March, 1934.
Mr. J. L. BROWN (Lisgar):
Mr. Speaker,
I am not going to delay the house by any long speech on this subject. We have already had a great many speeches dealing with the stress of unemployment in its various aspects and the question of relief for those in need, but I want to call the attention of the Minister of Labour (Mr. Gordon) to a specific case w'hich I think, ip view of the action of the government, or at least the failure to take such action as was requested of them, calls for special consideration. I had occasion when we were meeting here in the fall to call the attention of the government to this matter, and to-day I wish to take the opportunity of calling it to their attention again. In the southern part of Manitoba, part of which lies in my constituency, the grasshopper plague has prevailed for twro years. In one particular section the field and garden crops as well as the potato crop were destroyed by grasshoppers. Last fall when I brought the matter to the attention of the house, I stated that I had received word from some people in my constituency apprising me of the situation, telling me that potatoes were available across the line in the state of North Dakota at the price of ten cents a bushel, and asking me to
take the matter up with the government. I did so, I communicated with the Prime Minister, with the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of National Revenue. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture referred me to the Minister of National Revenue, who in course of time gave me an answer. His answer was a refusal to admit the potatoes free of duty. In his letter he asked me this question, which shows the attitude of mind of the minister towards these matters. The question was: Do you think
ten cents a bushel is a fair market value? Well he did not need to ask me that, everyone knows that potatoes cannot be raised for ten cents a bushel, Nevertheless the fact remains that on the Dakota side of the boundary, where they grow large areas of potatoes, for which usually they have a good market, potatoes could be got at that price, because they were unable to sell them elsewhere. I communicated the decision of the minister to my people at home, but they came back at me with further letters and telegrams. By this time it was possible for them to get the potatoes for nothing; that is, they could have them for the digging. Again I approached the Minister of National Revenue (Mr. Ryckman) and the answer I got was that there were better ways to take care of the situation than by creating sectional tariffs.
I want to know what are those better ways; if the government has a better way of relieving those people I should like to know what it is. It was bad enough when they could not get potatoes for table use, but now the time is coming when they will need them for seed purposes. I think in view of the answer given me by the minister I have a right to ask of the government what that better way is. How do they propose to supply the needs of those people?