Debates of June 8th, 2010

Randy Kamp Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC

Mr. Speaker, what is good economics is reducing taxes by $200 billion. All of those reductions have been opposed by the NDP.

The member thinks that Canadians would drive across the border to get away from paying an additional $25 airport security fee. I do not know where he got that information from. I doubt that would be true.

The basic principle is that we believe in security. I do not know if the member is saying he does not believe in that. If he does believe in security, someone has to pay for it. We either have it or we do not have it and somebody has to pay for it. We think the user should pay for it. It could be taken out of general revenue and the tax increases that the NDP would put in place. I guess that would be one way to pay for it. We think it is fair and just for the user to pay for it and that is why that measure is in the budget implementation bill.

Colin Carrie Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his excellent speech and also for his teamwork. As Canada moves forward to face this economic challenge, we have been working together with other levels of government. We have been working together with people in the private sector. I know the member has a lot of experience in his own community of working together.

I wonder if he could comment on why it is so important that the opposition parties get over these political games they are playing, why it is so important that the bill gets passed, why it is so important that this economic action plan continues for the people in his community. Perhaps he could also comment on why this is so successful that Canada is actually leading the world out of these difficult economic times.

Randy Kamp Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC

Mr. Speaker, my colleague highlights the fact we are at a very opportune time in Canada. We finally have a coherent foreign policy that takes a place on issues on the world stage. More than that, we are now financially and economically well positioned to lead the world in many ways. In fact many are taking lessons from our financial sector and the changes in Bill C-9 add to that some more. There are many things in this legislation that will help us continue to advance ourselves in the world.

On the point the member made about working together, one thing I have learned the longer I do this job at the local level is that it really is a team game. We cannot do it alone. We need to work together with the provincial governments and the municipal governments, the private sector, the non-profit sector, the NGOs and so on to provide the kind of good government Canadians need and deserve.

Dennis Bevington Western Arctic, NT

Mr. Speaker, one of the aspects of this budget bill that we really have a lot of trouble with is the change in the environmental assessment process. By moving environmental assessment of oil projects and gas projects over to the National Energy Board, it takes away the right of individual groups to apply for intervenor funding. The National Energy Board may or may not provide intervenor funding on projects. This reduces the opportunity for citizens to speak up about projects that may impact on their environment or the environment around them

How can the member support this kind of change?

Randy Kamp Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC

Nothing in this legislation, Mr. Speaker, would prohibit individuals from speaking up on these projects.

To the bigger point that the member raised about a different approach to environmental assessment, this is about streamlining. If the member believes that just because something takes longer it is better, I think the opposite is true. My experience with fisheries and oceans, for example, would lead me to believe that the best way is to streamline as much as possible, especially on the low impact projects, so that we have the resources and the expertise and so on to be able to take a look in a better and more productive way at the projects that are at higher risk. That is the approach we are taking with this legislation.

We want to improve timeliness. We do not want to duplicate things that are done by the provincial government. That really makes no sense and all we would do is drag on the process with poor results.

Massimo Pacetti Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC

Mr. Speaker, once again, I am pleased to speak to the budget bill today.

Since my last intervention on the budget bill in which I only spoke on the first group of amendments, I would like to make a few comments on the second group of amendments that were defeated yesterday in the House that I did not get a chance to comment on.

I, for one, find it completely unacceptable that this bill seeks to give the government unilateral authority to sell off part or all of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to any national, foreign, private or public entity. “Anything goes, no restrictions, let us give it all away and get rid of all traces of government”. That seems to be the philosophy of the government.

The bill would remove parliamentary oversight from any prospective sales of AECL. We have Parliament for a reason: to oversee the government. Canadians elected a minority Parliament for the specific purpose that they do not want the government to be unaccountable on issues like this.

If it makes sense to sell off AECL, let us have it in a separate piece of legislation, not the budget bill, and have the proper committee study the issue. One never knows; one might be surprised. Stakeholders and other individuals who are knowledgeable on this issue may actually provide the government with some positive suggestions.

AECL is currently a government-controlled entity for a precise reason, which is for Canada to maintain its ability to control its domestic atomic energy. As it stands now, Canadians decide what type of atomic research will be done, especially in the area of nuclear medicine.

Canadians determine what to do with discoveries vital to our national interest and the government wants to give up that control to the highest bidder, but in a trend we are seeing all too often, since the government cannot seem to stop spending money we do not have, it is desperately grasping at straws trying to sell everything and anything.

Again, the parts of this bill that relate to AECL would basically give carte blanche to the government to throw away this vital resource. By removing parliamentary oversight, the bill does not guarantee that existing reactors will be refurbished once sold and it does not guarantee that existing or potential new jobs will remain in Canada.

Ten thousand Canadian jobs are currently linked to AECL directly or indirectly. The fate of AECL should not be decided by the government behind closed doors. It is the same trend that is continuously re-occurring with the government, where it is trying to sneak in a divisive piece of legislation through the back door with no public input, no parliamentary oversight, and all decisions being made under a shroud of secrecy to advance, of course, the Conservatives' secret or hidden agenda.

During a debate, we share ideas, and I understand that some issues are complex and can be emotional. But this government is making a habit out of constantly introducing divisive bills.

Because of its inflexible right-wing ideology, it does not want to bring forward its ideas in separate pieces of legislation.

Another divisive item in this bill that should be handled in separate legislation is the formal legalization of the entities known as remailers who handle letters bound for foreign destinations. Several courts have ruled against the practice of remailing, so a change is definitely required.

During finance committee hearings on this bill, we heard compelling arguments for and against private remailers from all three sides, being labour, private business and Canada Post. My issue with this part of the bill is again that it should be in a separate piece of legislation so that the appropriate committee can study the issue. One never knows what good suggestions may come about as a result.

The way this issue is being presented is meant to divide Canadians. In this case, the government is pitting rural Canadians against urban Canadians. During committee hearings, we heard that Canada Post is losing revenues to international companies because international mail that is normally sorted in Canada is now starting to be printed and mailed from international sites.

Canada Post has stated that the revenues lost from remailers are an insignificant portion of their overall business, but what we hear from the government is that 42 rural post offices and 55,000 rural roadside mailboxes have been shut down since 2006 due to these lost revenues. There is a conflict in testimony.

The government has and will continue to cut rural postal services based on its justification that revenues from remailers have been lost. If Canada Post has stated that these lost revenues are insignificant, I would like to know why they would necessitate the closure of rural postal service sites. The only place to get to the bottom of these conflicting assessments is for the proper committee to study the merits of this proposed change.

Sneaking legislation through the back door only serves to make rural Canadians assume that their services have been cut in lieu of urban services. This is just another example of the government trying to ram through legislation without public input, parliamentary oversight, and all decisions being again made under a shroud of secrecy to advance the Conservatives' hidden agenda.

To really know what is going on though we need to look at the numbers. This is after all the budget bill and the thing about numbers is they do not lie. The budget will cost Canadians over $238 billion this year alone and add over $25 billion to our national debt. That is providing this finance minister can add. It is $238 billion and counting. That is a lot of money and Canadians have a right to know how it is being spent.

Based on the government's performance over the past few years I have no confidence that this will be money well spent.

Here are some examples of where money should not have been spent. First, although the government announced a freeze on departmental spending in this year's estimates, the Prime Minister's own department, the Privy Council Office, obtained a $13 million boost in spending for support and advice to the PMO. That 22% increase was in advance of the freeze. The Privy Council Office already saw its budget increase by $31 million in 2005-06 and 2008-09.

Public opinion research spending has gone up by $5 million. The increase in the size of the cabinet has cost taxpayers over $4 million. Spending on advertisements for the economic action plan skyrocketed, surpassing $100 million. An increase in communication consulting services in the Prime Minister's office has cost nearly $2 million. Excessive spending on ten percenters reached well over $10 million.

These six examples show that the Conservatives spend money for themselves and not for the benefit of the community or of Canadians. These costs add up to over $130 million.

The government has become so undisciplined and wasteful that it has become reaching into the pockets of Canadian taxpayers to fund its own agrandissement and propaganda. Is this accountability? Is this prudence? Is this good governance? I think not.

Instead of spending $10 million to send junk mail across the country perhaps that money could have been used for research in multiple sclerosis and its potential causes, as my Liberal colleagues asked the government to do in an open letter on May 6, 2010.

Instead of spending $4 million to compensate Conservative members with useless Cabinet appointments, it could invest this money in increasing Internet access in rural or northern communities.

Instead of spending $5 million on public polling to help the Conservative government's political operations, perhaps the Prime Minister could have saved that money by simply letting Canadians interact with him instead of making them ask him scripted questions.

Instead of spending an extra $31 million so that the Privy Council Office can devote more time and energy to protecting the Prime Minister's image, perhaps that money could have been spent developing green technology that would make Canada's economy cleaner and more competitive today.

Instead of spending almost $2 million on communication support services to help the Prime Minister's Office spin facts to suit its purposes, perhaps that money could have been spent to keep a rural post office open.

Instead of spending over $100 million to post billboards and screen commercials to help the government take credit for economic stimulus spending, which after all is our money, your money, Mr. Speaker, and Canadians' money, perhaps that money could have been used to get more shovels in the ground and more people back to work as it was intended.

Given the amount of waste the government has been guilty of to date, it comes as no surprise that the budget will add approximately over $100 billion to our national debt over the next five years.

We have gone down this road before and Canadians know it is a painful one. Between 1984 and 1993 the Conservative government spent Canada into near bankruptcy. We were being compared to third world nations.

As they say, history has a way of repeating itself and here we are again, with a Conservative government that has put us in a situation that has caused Canadians to lose their jobs, lose their services, and today has caused household debt to rise.

Just recently, it was reported by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada that after four years of the Prime Minister's Conservative government Canadian household debt has skyrocketed to a record $1.41 trillion. That is $41,740 per person. That is $41,740 for you, Mr. Speaker, $41,740 for me. It is two and a half times greater than in 1989.

The government has managed to squander our finances and squeeze Canadians to the point that the former Mulroney government looks prudent by comparison.

The economy is the cornerstone of any country, and that is why, when the Liberal Party of Canada came back into power in 1993, it worked to make the Canadian economy strong and dynamic once it was back on track thanks to years of good management. As well, the Liberal Party made many difficult decisions that allowed it to balance the budget and create surpluses. We cannot forget that the coffers were empty after Brian Mulroney's Conservatives left.

Thanks to consecutive budget surpluses, the Liberal government was able to reduce taxes, finance our social programs such as health care, education, research and development, and pay down the national debt.

In addition, as I mentioned in my earlier speech, during second reading we cannot forget that just before being defeated, Paul Martin's Liberal government had reached an agreement with the provinces to give them child care services similar to the Quebec system, that it had negotiated the Kelowna accord with Canada's first nations, that it had reached an agreement to extend the implementation of the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012, and that it had convinced the UN to adopt the Canadian concept of “responsibility to protect” during international crises.

Those are some of the great things that the current Conservative government has done away with.

Since 2008, 410,000 Canadian jobs have disappeared and few of those jobs have been recovered. Most of the jobs that have been created are temporary, low skilled, low pay, part-time jobs. This is not a foundation on which we can build a prosperous country. In the meantime, the government is bragging about needing fiscal restraint, but it is on record as being the highest spending government in Canadian history.

In fact, since 2006, it took the Conservative government only one year to spend the largest surplus ever accumulated in the history of Canada.

It has created an enormous deficit on top of having the dubious distinction of the being the biggest spending government in the history of Canada year after year.

According to this budget's projections, the Conservatives plan to spend close to $250 billion in 2014-15. That is $20 billion more than what they intend to spend this year. How they plan on paying down the deficit in this budget cycle is beyond me. That is why I find it hypocritical that the government constantly claims that we cannot afford to make investments now in areas that would position Canada to emerge from this recession ready to compete on the world stage.

Investing now in green technologies, our labour force, our companies and our students will pay off down the road and keep Canada strong.

The Conservative government has ignored making investments of this nature and has instead spent and spent because a photo op means more to the government than sound policies. It seems that members on the other side of the aisle are constantly spending Canadians' money and posing with ceremonial cheques but no one is seeing tangible results that will strengthen our economy.

Since there is no national child care system, no agreement with first nations, no money for research, no money for innovation, no money for the environment and no money for education, what happened to that money and what did they spend it on? In hospitals, sick people are still waiting. Seniors are still waiting for their pensions to increase and universities are still waiting for help from the Conservative government.

Meanwhile, veterans are not being helped with post-traumatic stress disorder. Immigrants are not being helped in order to integrate into our society and succeed in their new lives.

There is no plan in this budget to deal with the strain on our health care system. There is no plan to deal with the challenges of having an aging population. Pensions are not being protected.

These are the most vital topics in Canada right now and the government has proposed nothing to deal with these major issues.

In order to promote saving, we in the Liberal Party are asking the Prime Minister's government to consider our three proposals for reforming pensions: establish a supplementary Canada pension plan to help Canadians save more; give employees with stranded pensions following corporate bankruptcies the option of growing their pensions through the assets of the Canada pension plan; and protect vulnerable Canadians on long-term disability by giving them status as preferred creditors in cases of bankruptcy.

In order to allow Canadians to invest more in a national pension system they can count on, the Conservative government should work with the provinces, retired people, unions and the private sector to establish and implement a supplementary Canada pension plan.

To give Canadians an easy way to save even more for their retirement, a supplementary Canada pension plan seems like an easy solution and should be considered a reform of the income security system, and of old age security and the guaranteed income supplement in particular. This reform would guarantee the pension capital and would ensure that retired people are not left out when companies go bankrupt or in certain economic situations, thus protecting them from future recessions.

The government must encourage citizens to save because we know that one-third of Canadians have no retirement savings other than the Quebec pension plan or the Canada pension plan, old age security and the guaranteed income supplement. As for the other two-thirds, they do not have enough savings to maintain their standard of living.

The Canada pension plan covers 93% of workers, but that alone is not enough because more than half of Canadian families do not contribute to an employer-sponsored pension plan. Almost $500 billion in RRSP room remains unused and, according to Statistics Canada, the $32.4 billion in contributions to RRSPs in 2006 represented only 7% of the maximum eligible contribution. The premiers of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan threatened to create their own plan if the federal government did not establish a supplementary Canada pension plan.

Once again, the Liberals are asking the government to work with the provinces, seniors, unions and the private sector to establish a supplementary Canada pension plan, which would be one possible solution to the low rate of retirement savings.

Based on the points I have outlined, it is clear that this budget neglects many areas of importance to Canadians. The sheer number of key issues ignored by the Conservatives in this budget is shocking, considering the size of the bill.

What is even worse is that, while the Conservative government unfairly raises Canadians' taxes, it is also spending hard-earned money on frivolous projects and reducing services that Canadians expect to receive to get by in daily life.

This government is a disgrace. It is irresponsible and unpardonable. For these reasons I must vote against this budget.

The Deputy Speaker Andrew Scheer

Order, please. The hon. member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel.

Massimo Pacetti Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC

Mr. Speaker, I was in agreement with the member all the way until he came to the end and talked about the Liberals. I am glad he is about ready to join the Liberals but, until he reaches that point, my understanding is that at committee the Liberals did vote against the propositions and we did vote against them yesterday. Unfortunately, the numbers were not there.

If we continue to work together perhaps we will be able to make future changes to AECL. I understand the member, as a member of the natural resources committee, can bring forward a motion and have the bill changed.

Ed Fast Abbotsford, BC

Mr. Speaker, the member had a long, rambling speech and part of that speech seemed to compare our government's approach, our economic action plan, to the failed approach of previous governments that perhaps ran up debt loads that were unacceptable to Canadians.

It was interesting that when we introduced our economic action plan the Liberal leader initially suggested that there should be more debt incurred rather than less debt. Then, in midstream, the Liberals changed their minds and are now decrying the fact that the economic action plan provided a significant stimulus to our economy. What is even more important is that those economic stimuli we introduced into the economy have made a huge difference. They have made us the leader in the world in terms of economic growth, our banking system and all of the economic fundamentals that are driving our economy right now.

Since July of last year, our government has been able to create 310,000 new jobs as a result of putting our economy on a solid footing, unlike many other economies around the world.

How is it that the member can compare the performance of previous governments to the performance of our government which has done such a remarkable job of turning our economy around and being the leader in the world?

Massimo Pacetti Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC

Mr. Speaker, I will take part of the member's question as a personal insult in the fact that he said that I was rambling on. Just the fact that someone speaks two different languages does not mean that he has to take it personally. He can at least listen to what is being said before he criticizes it.

In actual fact, my speech had all the facts that the member was asking about and was completely contradictory. He said that this country was proud of its banking sector. However, the only reason we are proud of our banking sector is because the Liberals decided to maintain regulation and the strong banking sector that we have. Had it been up to the Conservatives, they would have de-regulated the banking sector years ago and today we would probably be in a worse situation.

We entered a rough economic time with our house in order and the government has been able to totally blow that--

The Deputy Speaker Andrew Scheer

Questions and comments, the hon. member for York South—Weston.

Alan Tonks York South—Weston, ON

Mr. Speaker, as the House knows, my colleague is an accountant and, as an accountant, he has given a very exhaustive, comprehensive overview of the budget. He also is an accountant as opposed to being somewhat of an accountant and he would know the difference between expenditures and revenues. He has also indicated that there are some storm clouds on the horizon with a budget of $238 billion, with household debt on the increase, with the ability to finance the debt being somewhat called into question and the signs that we will need to make exhaustive cuts.

He mentioned the privatization of AECL and talked about green technologies and so on. As an accountant, what would he advise the government as it appears we are entering into a period of economic uncertainty once again? What would he advise in terms of dealing with the deficit reduction strategy, part of which is not mentioned in this budget at all? There is no mention with respect to how to manage debt that will incur as a result of this type of expenditure.

Massimo Pacetti Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is a good member of Parliament, not because he is sitting next to me but because he is from the proper party and he understands the issue. He understands that when it comes to the government and the role that it plays, it is important to lay not only the foundation but to maintain that foundation so Canadians can benefit from it, and not to play around with people's income and advertise by spending taxpayer money fruitlessly.

In response to my colleague's question, the foundation is the basis of what the government should be doing in order to solidify whether there is a future recession on the horizon, because if it is not today, it will be tomorrow or a few years down the road. As a nation, we should solidify our base and ensure that we run balanced budgets, and the government is irresponsible when it comes to that.