Budget, budget, missile defense

Except for the introduction of Bill C-36 discussed below, the last few days of Parliament before the Spring break were relatively uneventful. Here are my notes from them.

Tuesday, 13 May: Discussion of Bill C-28 (budget implementation) and Bill C-17 (terrorism). Some interesting privacy issues from the NDP on C-17, but the Bill is so far through the legislative process now that there isn't much left to do about it. Discussion of Bill C-36: Ms. Carole-Marie Allard (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Lib.) gave a cheerleading speech for it, Mr. Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley, Canadian Alliance) complained about how much it will cost, and Ms. Christiane Gagnon (Québec, BQ) objected to amalgamating the national Library and Archives because they each have important missions that might be overlooked by a combined agency; also, she claimed, it's a threat to Quebec sovereignty. She also objected to the inclusion of copyright provisions in the Bill, but didn't really explain why. Ms. Wendy Lill (Dartmouth, NDP) expressed general support for the goals of the Bill, but complained about the lack of funding for implementation. Then Mr. Gerald Keddy (South Shore, PC) and Mr. Larry Bagnell (Yukon, Lib.) gave general cheerleading speeches. In Question Period, Mr. Kevin Sorenson (Crowfoot, Canadian Alliance) demanded mandatory infectious disease testing for prison inmates. I really don't understand why he would want that. Maybe it's the only thing he can think of that would even look like an attempt to solve the infectious disease problem, other than needle exchange, which he of course isn't allowed to advocate because he's an Alliance member. Then they had several recorded divisions, and more budget discussion with the presentation of the estimates on health.

Thursday, 15 May: BQ allotted day on "United States Missile Defence Plan". Introduction of Bill C-37 (Canadian Forces Superannuation amendments), Bill C-436 (sponsorship of immigrants), and Bill C-437 (employment insurance for leaving employment to be a caregiver). In the discussion on the main topic, the BQ and NDP were against participating in US missile defence, the Liberals sat on the fence, and the Alliance and PCs were in favour of participating. Not really any surprises there.

Friday, 16 May: More Bill C-28, with a few mentions in Question Period of missile defense and other interesting issues.

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Budget, budget, missile defense

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