Mr. David Dingwall (Cape Breton-East Richmond):

Madam Speaker, my supplementary is also for the Prime Minister.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week we listened attentively to the Deputy Prime Minister actually brag about his economic policy and how some day, some magical day in the future it will be much better.

If the Prime Minister is so confident, so reassured and so certain of his economic policy, why does he not put them to the real test and ask the Canadian people to make a judgment on this tired, old, incompetent government? Will the Prime Minister do that, go to the Governor General?

Right Hon. Brian Mulroney (Prime Minister):

Madam Speaker, if he is talking about somebody being tired, I feel as young as a spring flower. I feel young and frisky, certainly compared to some people I know.

I have already told my hon. friend that the NDP and the Conservatives are ready to have an election any time, but we cannot have one until the leader of the Liberal Party fulfils his obligations and tells Canada where he stands on the GST. This is the important thing. Where does he stand on free trade?

I will conclude simply. I hate to do this on a Friday, but the last time I heard the member for Winnipeg say: "Call an election and give us a chance" was in 1988.

Mr. Steven W. Langdon (Essex-Windsor):

Madam Speaker, I have a question for the Prime Minister.

Yesterday the Minister of Finance claimed the Conference Board of Canada saw great job gains from the present government's policies. This month the Conference Board testified to the finance committee that its forecasts on present government policies showed 9.3 per cent still jobless four years from now. The Conference Board said it is "a pretty bleak picture".

Why is the government supporting economic policies that have these bleak results for jobs? Will it not look seriously and in a non-partisan way at the NDP jobs plan which would mean only 7.5 per cent unemployed in four years' time, lower taxes for 80 per cent of Canadians and a lower deficit?

Hon. John McDermid (Minister of State (Finance and Privatization)):

Madam Speaker, I find it interesting where the hon. member gets his figures and facts from.

The Conference Board, in its report, said that in five years' time 1,651,000 new jobs would be created. That is over a five-year period. I have read the NDP-

Mr. Harb:

Propaganda.

Mr. McDermid:

My Liberal friend says propaganda. Actually Grimm could not write a better fairy tale than this, I will tell you that. It is unbelievable.

February 19, 1993

In any event, under the NDP's make-work projects and the plans that it has brought forward, it is forecasting just 1,600,000 jobs which is less than what the Conference Board said.

If the Conference Board says that will bring our unemployment rate down to 9 per cent and the NDP are saying the unemployment rate will come to 7.5 per cent and you are relying on the Conference Board's figures, then you had better adjust this report that was released yesterday because obviously it is wrong.

Mr. Steven W. Langdon (Essex-Windsor):

Madam Speaker, the minister is comparing different things. What he should do is look at the unemployment rate projected just this month, as I say, by the Conference Board in its presentations to the finance committee of the House of Commons in which it predicted, and I quote exactly from it: "in four years' time the unemployment rate in this country will be 9.3 per cent". This is direct from Mr. Frank, the chief economist to the Conference Board.

The projection that the New Democratic Party has in its jobs plan is 7.5 per cent, significantly lower.

Why is the government prepared to accept this kind of bleak picture for jobs in this country? Why is it not prepared to give up its Count Dracula school of economics and get with it in the 1990s?

Hon. John McDermid (Minister of State (Finance and Privatization)):

Madam Speaker, first of all I must say to the hon. member that we will go to the four year period if he wants. He is saying that the NDP will have the unemployment rate down to 7.5 per cent in four years if we follow religiously its economic plan. The Conference Board, which he quotes, says it will be around 9.3 per cent in four years time. The Conference Board in that same report says that under the current economic policies of the government, in four years time 1,375,000 new jobs will be created. Under the NDP plan there will be 25,000 jobs less.

The hon. member had better sit down and take another look at this report which, by the way, is so badly flawed that it is really hardly worth reading. I would suggest-

Madam Deputy Speaker:

We will continue.

Oral Questions

Mrs. Ethel Blondin-Andrew (Western Arctic):

Madam Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

The community of Shamattawa in northern Manitoba has been plagued by a high degree of violence related to gasoline sniffing. In this case it has an incidence of 80 per cent gasoline sniffing. Alcohol and drug abuse are major problems. Children are suffering because they do not have adequate heating and safe drinking water due to a lack of electrical service.

A cost-sharing project between Manitoba Hydro and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development was to have financed the desperately needed hydro land line to Shamattawa.

Why has the Minister reneged on his part of the bargain and why has he withdrawn his support and commitment to this project?

Mr. Ross Reid (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development):

Madam Speaker, I cannot comment specifically on the case of the project that my hon. friend raises, but I commit to her that I will provide her with a proper response.

The member raises another point that I think is very important and this is the question of the very serious issue across this country, but particularly in Manitoba, that is being faced by aboriginal children and families.

Since August of last year the department of Indian affairs has worked with a number of groups to deal with specific problems. Since September of last year the province of Manitoba with the department of Indian affairs and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has set up a task force to look at all Indian child and family agencies in that province. I think that working partnership with all of the parties is going to be important to all of the aboriginal peoples in Manitoba and I hope the results can be an example to the rest of us across the country.

Mrs. Ethel Blondin-Andrew (Western Arctic):

Madam Speaker, my supplementary is for the same minister. Having said that they have set up a task force does not address the issue that the Minister of Indian Affairs and

Oral Questions

Northern Development is being pressured to cut $40 million from his budget by the Minister of Finance.

Having said that, how can the department begin to assume that it can assist First Nations when it is proposing to cut the aboriginal economic development program funding by 28.8 per cent, which constitutes a $20 million cut and which in turn will cost the already economically depressed and job-starved communities 8,700 jobs?

Mr. Ross Reid (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development):

Madam Speaker, I think my friend is referring at least partly to an article in yesterday's Winnipeg Free Press. Suffice it to say that even the Winnipeg Free Press sometimes has to deal in speculation. Not until the estimates are down are we going to be fully aware of what is rumour and what is fact.

I think it is important to recognize that the people of Canada through the Government of Canada have made a strong commitment to aboriginal people, not the least of which is a financial commitment to aboriginal people, not only in DIAND, health and welfare, CMHC, environment for the green plan, but in a number of other departments to ensure that the partnership the aboriginal people want to build to guarantee their participation in their future is reinforced in everything that this government does.

Mr. Don Boudria (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell):

Madam Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister will know of the existence of a product known as the Serial Killer board game, the object of which is to play the killing of children as a form of entertainment.

I want to ask the Prime Minister if he is willing to do everything in his power and to give his own personal commitment to do whatever it takes to stop the importation into Canada of the offensive product known as the Serial Killer board game.

Hon. Pierre H. Cadieux (Minister of State (Fitness and Amateur Sport) and Minister of State (Youth) and Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of

Commons): Madam Speaker, we are aware of that particular issue. I want to thank my hon. colleague for providing us with a copy of the petition and also this press release on the issue.

I am informed that the Minister of Justice has already given instructions to his department to look into the situation immediately and to make recommendations on how to resolve that particular issue.

Mr. Don Boudria (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell):

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the minister for answering my question. The Prime Minister will be interested to know that I have here today a petition with 14,222 signatures. This petition was signed largely thanks to one of my constituents, Lena Cleroux, who is here in Ottawa today.

I would like to ask the Prime Minister for his personal commitment that he will use the provisions of the Customs Act to prohibit immediately the importation of a game which, I think he will agree, is extremely repugnant to Canadians.

Hon. Pierre H. Cadieux (Minister of State (Fitness and Amateur Sport) and Minister of State (Youth) and Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons):

Madam Speaker, I am told that the Minister of National Revenue has used this method. However, we must check the situation again with the Department of Justice to make sure that we can intervene in other ways as well and that all possible steps are taken to deal with this situation.

Mr. Len Taylor (The Battlefords-Meadow Lake):

Madam Speaker, in response to the government's December 2 restraints imposed by the Minister of Finance, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development seems to be unilaterally attempting to apply the bulk of the budget cutbacks to the aboriginal economic development program.

The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has written to the Prime Minister and has analysed the effects of a proposed 28 per cent cut saying that the impact would devastate the emerging First Nations'

February 19, 1993

economies, create bankruptcies in the Indian commercial and industrial field and result in the countless loss of existing and future communities and membership.

Is the government prepared to exempt the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's economic development work from the over-all cutbacks that have been imposed to ensure that the commitments that have been made will be honoured and the bands' efforts toward self-determination and economic selfsufficiency are enhanced?