Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I would like to raise for the first time in question period an issue that is of some concern nationally to the Prime Minister, which is the strange case of Dr. Porter.

Can it be explained how Arthur Porter ended up with top secret security clearance, as chair of the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, and as a member of Privy Council? Were normal background checks suspended? Importantly, is he still a member of Privy Council?

Vic Toews: Mr. Speaker, Arthur Porter submitted his resignation from his position as chair of the Security and Intelligence Review Committee. We accepted this resignation. The allegations Mr. Porter is facing do not have anything to do with his former responsibilities.

The post Questions: Public Safety appeared first on Elizabeth May.

We no longer have people on board in the last car, the caboose, which used to be required under regulation, to monitor safety. I believe that the spill at Wabamun Lake, which the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona knows about very well, occurred largely due to the cutbacks of key safety positions of personnel on board freight.

It needs to be reliable and safe. We are having far too many derailments.

Olivia Chow: Mr. Speaker, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has made a series of recommendations, some of which are on staffing. Others are on the need for advanced technology to be installed in rail cars. For example, voice recording in the locomotive cab has not been done yet, even though the recommendation is eight years old.

There has been a recommendation for a positive train control system that would provide an automatic braking system. If the conductor happened to miss a light, a track or a red light stop sign, the train would stop automatically based on GPS technology. Unfortunately, that recommendation is again being ignored by the minister. The United States made it mandatory that all trains have automatic braking devices for safety, but we do not have such legislation in Canada.

Therefore, both staffing and technologies should be in place to keep train services safe.

The post Fair Rail Freight Service Act (Bill C-52) appeared first on Elizabeth May.

1. the said bill may be read twice or thrice in one sitting;
2. not more than two hours shall be allotted for the consideration of the second reading stage of the said bill, following the adoption of this Order;
3. when the bill has been read a second time, it shall be referred to a Committee of the Whole;
4. not more than one hour shall be allotted for the consideration of the Committee of the Whole stage of the said bill;
5. not more than one half hour shall be allotted for the consideration of the third reading stage of the said bill, provided that no Member shall speak for more than ten minutes at a time during the said stage and that no period for questions and comments be permitted following each Member’s speech;
6. at the expiry of the times provided for in this Order, any proceedings before the House or the Committee of the Whole shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and, in turn, every question necessary for the disposal of the stage, then under consideration, of the said bill shall be put and disposed of forthwith and successively, without further debate or amendment, and no division shall be deferred;
7. when the Speaker has, for the purposes of this Order, interrupted any proceeding for the purpose of putting forthwith the question on any business then before the House, the bells to call in the Members shall ring for not more than thirty minutes;
8. the House shall not adjourn except pursuant to a motion proposed by a Minister of the Crown;
9. no motion to adjourn the debate at any stage of the said bill may be proposed except by a Minister of the Crown; and
10. during the consideration of the said bill in the Committee of the Whole, no motions that the Committee rise or that the Committee report progress may be proposed except by a Minister of the Crown.

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, in the context of this debate, my largest underlying concern is that we are undermining collective bargaining rights. However, when I focus on pilots, what comes to mind is the great hero “Sully” Sullenberger who landed a plane on the frozen Hudson River. One of the things that came to light in his interview after that great feat of heroism was his concern that pilots were not being paid enough, that the competition in the U.S. was allowing pilots to fly passengers when earning under $20,000 a year and that the cutthroat nature of the industry meant that passenger safety was at risk.

If the government is going to intervene, would it not be nice if just once it intervened on the side of increasing wages instead of undercutting the workers in favour of management? If that were to happen, then maybe there would be an incentive for management to come to a fair term and deal with its workers.

In this case, does the hon. member for Cape Breton—Canso think we might be undermining safety?

Rodger Cuzner: Mr. Speaker, when my friend and colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands made reference to landing a plane on a frozen body of water, I thought for sure she was speaking of J.A.D. McCurdy on Baddeck Bay .

Her point is absolutely valid and real. With the actions undertaken by the government, we certainly have not see anything that would lend itself to increasing safety within the operational guidelines of Air Canada. Rather, it has been, “What can we do to help our big corporate friends and certainly help along the management at Air Canada?” Whether intended or not, that is what has happened in this case.

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The committee met again on December 8^th with one witness who gave further testimony to the tune of psychological profiles of addicted inmates, lack of adequate facilities and relationships between guards and inmates. The witness was asked to remain after the first hour to give further testimony. This meeting went in camera for 12 minutes at 12:20pm.

The post Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) appeared first on Elizabeth May.

They are looking for a national public safety officer compensation benefit, for access to vaccines and anti-virals in the case of a flu pandemic and for changes to national building codes to make it safer for them when they do their job.

Will government members commit that we can get this done for our firefighters?

Hon. Vic Toews: Mr. Speaker, we work very closely with the firefighters on a number of issues and we continue to look forward to working with them.

I might point out the specific example that our government brought in with respect to hazardous materials and the moneys we paid in that respect to help train the trainers. We also brought forward the tax credit for volunteer firefighters, which the opposition parties voted against, which was very unfortunate.

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