Mr. Frank Howard (Skeena):

I should like to direct a question to the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources. I would have done so yesterday but time ran out. Yesterday there were some questions asked about a Supreme Court decision relating to a case involving an Indian person and his hunting rights. I should like to ask the minister what progress is being made or what is happening with regard to the committee on hunting and fishing rights of Indian people which was announced last year by the then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. When can we expect that this committee will conclude its study and make a report?

Hon. Arthur Laing (Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources):

Because I asked that the other questions on this subject be taken as notice, I would add this one to them if the hon. member would agree.

Mr. Raymond Langlois (Meganiic):

Mr. Speaker, I wish to direct a question to the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

Is it the government's intention to soon close the Veterans Hospital now located in Quebec City?

Hon. Roger Teillet (Minister of Veterans Affairs):

Mr. Speaker, I would first say, in reply to this question, that we have no intention of closing this hospital. Discussions are taking place between representatives of Laval University and of the Department of Veterans Affairs, but I can assure the hon. member that this hospital will not be closed.

Mr. Gilles Gregoire (Lapointe):

Mr. Speaker, I should like to put a supplementary question.

Could the minister tell us whether the hospital will remain under the jurisdiction of the Department of Veterans Affairs or whether its administration will come under some other agency?

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Inquiries of the Ministry Mr. Teillel: The discussions between university representatives and our own have to do with administration of the hospital, but we can give the assurance that the hospital will not be closed down.

Mr. L. M. Brand (Saskatoon):

I have a question for the Secretary of State, perhaps not as important as some which have been asked this morning but very important indeed to many of my constituents. Has a decision been reached as yet on the building of a C.B.C. television station in the city of Saskatoon?

Hon. Judy V. LaMarsh (Secretary of State):

I shall take the question as notice, Mr. Speaker, and inform the house after I have received the information from the C.B.C.

Hon. E. J. Benson (Minister of National Revenue):

I should like to reply to a question asked by the hon. member for Marquette concerning the importation of worsted fabrics from mainland China. In answer to his question I may say that I have not had any direct representations or official representations from the China National Textile Import and Export Corporation, and I can assure the hon. member that the customs administration is adhering to the procedures provided for in clause II of memorandum I of the long term wheat agreement between the Canadian Wheat Board and the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export Corporation. Under this memorandum, provision is made in clause II that goods of a class or kind made in Canada shall be valued for duty purposes on the same basis as similar Japanese goods or their equivalent. Of course this is being done with appropriate adjustments for quality.

Following the signing of the wheat agreement the then Minister of Trade and Commerce, in his announcement of October 28, indicated that the Chinese State Trading Corporation had agreed to limit their annual exports to Canada of sensitive items. He

DEBATES January 27, 1966

indicated also that within the over-all limitation, individual quota limitations were to be determined subsequently by agreement between the two parties, and it is my understanding that the two parties will be planning to come together in the near future.

Mr. Maurice Allard (Sherbrooke):

A supplementary question, Mr. Speaker. In view of the fact that the situation is deteriorating daily with regard to the textile industry as a whole and Sherbrooke mills in particular, and since a high proportion of our imports from communist China consists of textiles, would the minister and the government make representations to the Chinese authorities requesting that they diversify to a greater extent their exports to Canada?

Mr. Speaker:

I suggest that the member for Sherbrooke put his question on the order paper.