Mr. Joe McGuire (Egmont):

Madam Speaker, on September 17, 1991 a former colleague in the House of Commons and a fellow Prince Edward Islander, Premier Catherine Callbeck, introduced a private member's motion calling on the federal government to honour the contributions made to Canada by our late former Prime Ministers. This was to be done by placing a commemorative marker near their burial sites.

Yesterday in an historic event hosted by the Speaker of the House of Commons and attended by the Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister the right hon. member for Vancouver Quadra, and members of the families of our past Prime Ministers 14 commemorative plaques were unveiled.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Catherine on the success of her initiative to honour our past leaders. I also want to congratulate her on her successful quest for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island. This made Catherine the second woman to hold the office of premier of a province in Canada.

I look forward to March 29 when the voters of Prince Edward Island will make her the first woman to be elected premier in the history of Canada.

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Mr. Scott Thorkelson (Edmonton -Strathcona):

Madam Speaker, there is overcapacity in our airline transportation system. Canadian Airlines recently announced a reduction in capacity and Air Canada effectively refused to respond.

Air Canada continues along its self-destructive path. It refuses to recognize that it made a colossal blunder by pushing its monopolistic made-in-Canada solution. This strategy will be recognized as an error in judgment of historic proportions. Its management team, which is bound by a paradigm of bureaucratic inertia, has failed to respond to competitive pressures by reducing capacity and cutting costs. Instead, Air Canada tries to side-step the issue by driving toward a monopoly.

I call on both major airlines to face reality, reduce capacity and restore order to Canada's transportation system.

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Mrs. Gabrielle Bertrand (Brome -Missisquoi):

Madam Speaker, all Canadians take tremendous pride in the outstanding achievements of our figure skaters. It was not luck but a combination of hard work, perseverance and a very legitimate desire to win for their country.

Emotions ran high as we watched remarkable performances by Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko. Today, our hearts will go out again, this time to Josee Chouinard and Karen Preston, as they too go for the gold.

To all these outstanding athletes we offer our warm congratulations on reaching the top of their discipline and being the best in the world. Their determination, strength of character and courage are an inspiration to Canada's youth. Truly, they are the best ambassadors Canada could have.

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Mr. Howard McCurdy (Windsor-St. Clair):

Madam Speaker, today's report from Statistics Canada shows that since free trade youth unemployment has soared from 11 per cent to almost 18 per cent. This is so despite a 14 per cent increase in the number who have given up hope and have left the work force altogether.

March 12, 1993

Worse still, the figures show that the employment losses were all in full-time employment. People who should be working as professionals, business people, engineers or workers in plants are instead working as temps, bicycle couriers and waiters. Why? It is because this government, in failing to adapt to a change in the economy, has failed to create enough new value-added employment and has done its utmost to slam the doors to our universities, colleges and other training opportunities.

The figures are numerical proof of what Vancouver writer, Douglas Coupland, calls the McJob phenomenon. Young people are being knocked off the career ladder and forced into a succession of low-paid, deadend service jobs. But then, perhaps McJobs are all we can expect from free trade and Tory McGovernment.

Mr. Francis G. LeBlanc (Cape Breton Highlands - Canso):

Madam Speaker, I am rising to register my opposition to the absurd and blatantly political proposal by this government to close some 45 regional immigration offices across Canada and set up a mail-in centre for work permits, visitor visas, student visas and family applications in Vegreville, Alberta, right in the Minister of Finance's own riding.

One of the offices slated for the chopping block is the Canada Immigration Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia. This centre in Sydney not only processes student, worker and tourist visa extensions, as well as family class applications, but also provides valuable support and monitoring of business and entrepreneurial immigrants to Cape Breton. These prospective immigrants from countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland provide investment and badly needed jobs in Cape Breton.

Closing down the Sydney immigration office, as this government seems set to do, will only hurt our efforts to bring badly needed jobs to eastern Nova Scotia. I urge the Minister of Employment and Immigration-

Madam Deputy Speaker:

I am afraid the member's time has expired.

Mr. Bill Domm (Peterborough):

Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity to speak today on a subject of growing concern among many Canadians. That is the question of how we can best deal with crimes committed by young people.

I will be presenting petitions today from 9,000 of my constituents who wish to see Parliament reduce the maximum age from 18 for those youths who commit crimes. I applaud their initiative and support the intent of their petitions.

I am particularly supportive of the private member's bill of the hon. member for Calgary Southwest. Bill C-354 would see the maximum age of young offenders reduced from 18 to 15. As well, it provides for young offenders who have been twice convicted on indictable offences to be tried in adult court.

I believe that legislation such as the bill standing in the name of my colleague and seat-mate from Calgary Southwest is a step in the right direction-

Madam Deputy Speaker:

I am sorry, the member's time has expired.

Mr. Mac Harb (Ottawa Centre):

Madam Speaker, Canada's domination at the World Figure Skating Championships continued last night as Elvis Stojko followed Kurt Browning's gold medal with an inspiring silver medal skate.

Heading into the final program, Elvis was well back in fifth spot. However, he showed incredible determination and desire and skated the performance of his life under incredible pressure. Landing eight consecutive triples, he scored the highest marks of the evening for difficulty.

To go from fifth spot to second is an incredible feat, and given the high level of competition that he faced many would say that such an accomplishment was miraculous. The ability to fight back under difficult circumstances, combined with his sportsmanship, embodies the true quality of Canada and Canadians. His performance is something we can all take pride in.

March 12, 1993

I am sure that I speak for everybody in the House of Commons and across Canada when I say congratulations, Elvis, for a job very well done.

Hear, hear.

Mr. Blaine A. Thacker (Lethbridge):

Madam Speaker,

I rise to alert Canadians, and especially Canadians in southern Alberta, to a very dangerous plank in the Reform Party platform.

The Reform Party promises to balance the budget in three years. That sounds good but it is very dangerous. If $34 billion of purchasing power were to be withdrawn in three years from Canada, we would be plunged into a very deep depression. In fact land values would drop by some 75 per cent. Tens of thousands of retail stores would close. Seniors' pensions, student loans and many other programs would virtually disappear.

For southern Alberta the Lethbridge Research Station, the Animal Diseases Research Institute, Waterton National Park, the Lethbridge Airport and Lethbridge as a regional suboffice for many civil servants would be drastically cut back.

In summary I warn Canadians, especially southern Albertans, about this very dangerous policy.

Mr. John Brewin (Victoria):

Madam Speaker, the House congratulates Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, the whole figure-skating team, and recently the World Cup wins by Kate Pace and Myriam Bedard.

Unfortunately the government has not matched the performance of our athletes. The government is inflicting very deep cuts on sport and active living funding, jeopardizing programs, off-loading more on to the provinces, schools, municipalities and the volunteer community.

It is blatantly disregarding recommendations of the progressive Best task force report and is fundamentally undermining the opportunity of Canadians to pursue excellence in sport.

Oral Questions

This week the government devastated the active living community in an outrageous fashion when it shepherded 50 staff of the active living organizations into the Congress Centre and fired 21 of them. It reneged on its promise to give them-