This Government has back out of all it obligations! Why would this be any different! I glad the oppositions are keeping them in line.

1. Kyoto cancelled - Clean air declined by all oppositions! Oil industry 50 years exemption ha!

2. National day care program Cancelled which was supported by every province and the opposition. Now we have a cheap allowance voter pay off!

3. Accountability Act broke $2 million in illegal contributions

Hypocrites this is the wrong Government in power!



Majority vote demands Harper honour $5-billion Kelowna Accord on native issues
Wed Mar 21, 8:21 PM



By Bruce Cheadle


OTTAWA (CP) - Parliament has voted to resurrect a $5.1-billion program for First Nations health, education and housing but the minority Conservative government will ignore the measure.


A private member's bill requiring the Canadian government to "fulfil its obligations under the Kelowna Accord," easily passed in the House of Commons by a 176-126 vote on Wednesday.


"Parliament has spoken, the House of Commons has spoken," said former prime minister Paul Martin, who initiated the bill.


Liberal, Bloc Quebecois and New Democrat MPs supported the measure en masse. Conservatives were uniformly opposed to the bill.


"It will now be going to the Senate and Kelowna is very, very much alive," Martin said moments after the vote.


"I hope that it will become the law of the land. Governments expect the people to obey the law. Well, I've got news for this government: the people expect them to obey the law of the land."


But private member's bills cannot compel the government of the day to spend money, and the Conservatives insist they are charting their own course.


The vote came two days after the Tories tabled a federal budget that dedicated few new resources to Canada's First Nations.


But Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice says that in 2007-08, Ottawa will spend more than $10 billion on programs and services for natives - about $1 billion more, he said, than was in the last Liberal budget of 2005.


"That's an awful lot of money and it's money that I think both aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people want to see results with respect to," Prentice said outside the House.


As for the Kelowna agreement itself, Prentice dismissed it as "a document that didn't exist as an accord."


The accord was signed by federal, provincial and native leaders in Kelowna, B.C., just before the election call in December 2005 that brought Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives to power.


The five-year deal had been hammered out over 18 months of negotiations and included federal-provincial agreements on the provision of education, housing and health services, along with benchmarks for tracking progress.


Even at the time of the signing, however, some of the difficult details on sorting out health-care delivery had yet to be resolved.


While all parties agree the sorry plight of many native Canadians - particularly on isolated northern reserves - is a national embarrassment, there is no consensus on how to tackle their long-standing problems.


Martin, who counted the Kelowna agreement as the crowning achievement of his short, two-year stint as prime minister, has called the accord "a historic opportunity" that should not be squandered.


"I just do not know how this government can turn its back on the youngest and fastest growing segment of our population, First Nations, the Metis nation and the Inuit," Martin said Wednesday evening.

Brian Mulroney, the former Conservative prime minister, also expressed support for the accord in a CBC program on the weekend.

"We've existed for 140 years and we have this shameful situation . . . and why?" Mulroney said on the program The Next Great Prime Minister. "Very simple: we stole their land."

Mulroney said he "absolutely" supports the Kelowna agreement.

   

"National day care program Cancelled which was supported by every province and the opposition. Now we have a cheap allowance voter pay off!"

And what do you say to the man who uses that money wisely and has a stay at home mom who uses it to buy the kids clothes or puts it into their university funding?

Let the bad parents blow it on booze it's not like we can force them to take their kids to daycare.

Give the person a chance and assume it will be for the good.

   

Kyoto hasn't been canceled but it should be.
Neither one of the daycare programs should be instituted in my opinion, and the accountability act hasn't been broken. From what I understand any legislation brought forward by the opposition that would force the government to spend money cannot be enforced.

   

Just one question.

Why cancel Kyoto it does not seem to be doing any harm and by all means it seemed a good system if we were serious about it to address the issue of the environment.

Of course reducing the use of plastic and other non degradable trash would be good too.

   

[ From what I understand any legislation brought forward by the opposition that would force the government to spend money cannot be enforced.[/quote]

This appears to be true, BUT what about what the majority want and especially when they are the minority government.

If Harper has something to offer then put it on the table, if not, then why not?

I'd guess he has far more to lose in this situation than gain. We'll see come election time. He's making Dion look better and better every day.

   

That's kind of the opposite of what the polls are saying but you're entitled to your opinion.

   

Once again, Kyoto hasn't been cancelled. But it also appears to be unrealistic. The levels that Canada is expected to be at would be hard to attain. Also it appears to me that these credits that Canada can buy in order to release more CO2 is basically allowing us to pollute as long as we pay for it. How does that help the environment?