Hon. Bob Kaplan (York Centre):

Mr. Speaker, the Government claims to be very proud of its record in dealing with the plight of victims of crime, yet it is obvious that there is still a long way to go. A case brought to my attention by the Sexual Assault Support Centre in Ottawa reveals a real scandal. A woman, who is the victim of an assault charge being tried in Vancouver, has been offered her plane fare to go to Vancouver to testify in the case, but she has been refused assistance to bring her two and a half-year old child with her. How can she go to Vancouver to testify in this case if she cannot bring her child with her?

If justice requires that she be there and the provincial Government, with the assistance of a federal cost-sharing program, is prepared to bring the woman to testify, to see that justice is done in that case, it is only fair that her child should also be brought out with money from the same coffer. I condemn the Government for not having brought in a program large enough in order to prevent scandals like this from taking place.

Mr. Nic Leblanc (Longueuil):

Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about free trade for a year and a very large majority of companies in Longueuil, such as Pratt & Whitney, Heroux, Desmarais et Freres and many others, the Chamber of

Commerce of the South Shore of Montreal, the Premier of Quebec, Mr. Bourassa, and the Leader of the Opposition of Quebec, Mr. Parizeau, have all spoken in favour of free trade. Why, Mr. Speaker? Because these people believe in our ability and our know-how, unlike the Liberals and the NDP who still believe that Quebecers are drawers of water. No, Mr. Speaker, Quebecers can do it! They are strong and they want to continue to develop with the 75 million people around them. The potential is there and we will have it with the Progressive Conservative Party.

Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg-Birds Hill):

Mr. Speaker, considerable concern has been expressed about the continued participation of Canadian naval vessels in the shelling of the Hawaiian island of Kaho'olawe as part of the annual RIM-PAC naval exercise.

Kaho'olawe is of immense historical, cultural, archaeological and religious importance to the Hawaiian people. The island has been placed on the U.S. Registry of Historic Sites. Despite this fact, the Government continues to allow Canadian naval vessels to shell Kaho'olawe in defiance of local and international pressure to stop, and despite the decision by other friendly countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Japan to cease shelling Kaho'olawe.

Now the City and County Council of Honolulu have raised the stakes by passing a resolution which states that continued Canadian shelling of Kaho'olawe could adversely affect efforts by a Canadian company, Lavelin Corporation of Montreal, to secure a $ 1 billion contract to build the Honolulu rapid transit system. Such an outcome could have a serious impact on Canada's efforts to carve a niche for itself in the global rapid transit market.

Mr. Speaker, if the Government is not prepared to do what is morally right, I hope it will at least do what is financially smart. I call on the Government to end Canadian participation immediately in the shelling of Kaho'olawe.

Mr. Marcel R. Tremblay (Quebec-Est):

Mr. Speaker, among the constant, fundamental challenges that Canada must meet, one of the most urgent and complex is regional economic development. This challenge can only be met with a new synergistic relationship between all levels of government and the private sector.

In this regard, I would like to point out the important initiative that the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie du Quebec metropolitain just took by setting up a venture capital corporation to support entrepreneurship and underwriting $50,000 to $500,000 of shares for the initial stage of business development.

Since our Government has just concluded agreements worth several hundreds of millions of dollars to stimulate regional economic development, we must be glad about the recent initiative of the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie du Quebec metropolitain and hope that it spreads to other regions.