Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Gatineau for sharing his time with me.
I rise today on the subject of the expenditure cuts announced by the Conservative government last September 25 because it is important for the people listening to us to have the benefit of some factual, critical information about these $1 billion in cuts over two years.
I also had the pleasure of introducing a motion on behalf of the Bloc Québécois before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates to allow the committee members to study these cuts, discover their real objectives and question witnesses—including the president of Treasury Board and senior officials from various departments and federal agencies.
On September 25, 2006, the finance minister and the president of Treasury Board announced, first, that their government would eliminate a large number of programs, second, that it would reduce government expenditures by a tiny bit, and third, that it would put the $13 billion in surpluses toward paying down the debt.
These three parts of the Conservative plan must be kept in mind in order to understand the ideological approach of this minority Conservative government. I will therefore focus on these three parts, one at a time.
Let us speak, first, about debt reduction. My hon. colleague just said it, but I want to say it again: the federal debt is at its lowest level in 24 years. The Conservative government has chosen to put the $13 billion surplus toward paying down the debt. To do this, it has deliberately chosen to penalize an important segment of the public, the most vulnerable people, and it has even announced in advance that it will continue doing so as long as it is in power.
This government is no more interested than the previous one in the legitimate and necessary redistribution of wealth around communities. Some of these surpluses could have been well used, among other things, to assist the regions, the unemployed and our older workers who are experiencing on all sides a major crisis in the forest industry. These surpluses could have been used to deal at least partially with the fiscal imbalance. But no, this is not one of the Conservative government’s priorities. The real needs of people are simply not a priority for it.
The second part of the Conservative plan has to do with what I will call “internal” cuts. These are minimal cuts to the government's operating expenses. I say “minimal” because they represent only a quarter of the total cuts of $1 billion. Cuts to the machinery of government represent only a quarter of the total. Once again, the Conservative government has deliberately chosen not to significantly reduce government operating expenses. Instead, it has chosen to slash spending that affects the public. Seen another way, this spending represents investments in people. The government would even have us believe that these internal cuts are due in part to efficiency gains. These gains are so efficient that, for Health Canada, $28 million has been targeted—I do not know whether it is by the finance department or the Treasury Board—yet Health Canada does not even know the details. This is a great way of doing things. What is more, the government has the audacity to present the decision to cut unspent funds as inconsequential, without showing any concern about the negative effects of not using this money.
Let us look at a few examples: at Natural Resources Canada, the government is cutting the mountain pine beetle initiative, which essentially helps companies in British Columbia that are hard hit by the softwood lumber crisis; at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the government is cutting funds for the salmon ranching industry, which benefit New Brunswick; at the Economic Development Agency of Canada, the government is cutting uncommitted funds earmarked for the social economy, which will cost Quebec $5 million, because this money will not be invested in the social economy; for the rest of Canada, the government is cutting $34 million.
How can the government explain the fact that it could not spend $25 million for the textile and garment industry which needs it so badly, $50 million for the Northwest Territories, $20 million for the Fisheries and Oceans Canada programs I mentioned earlier, or $14 million for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, when we know that we are threatened by potato blight, bird flu and mad cow disease?
Those are only a few examples, but I think they speak volumes. We are entitled to wonder about these cuts, in the form of cancellation of the funds that should be been used, that should have made a genuine contribution to focussed, useful assistance objectives. The government has chosen to end that funding in order to meet its objective of a mathematically calculated cut of $1 billion over two years. This is irresponsible.
The third point relates to the cancelled programs. The real reductions, the real cuts, are being made in programs and initiatives that affect the most vulnerable people, as I said earlier. Once again, because of the short time available to me, I will name only a few of the programs affected.
At the Canada Revenue Agency, the elimination of advisory committees amounts to $1.4 million. Heritage Canada has been handed a 50% cut because of a reduction in assistance to museums, amounting to $4.6 million. Cancellation of the court challenges program amounts to $5.6 million. For the justice system, with the cancellation of another legal program, the Law Commission of Canada, the government is saving $4 million. At Human Resources and Social Development Canada, there will be a $13 million reduction in grants and contributions to the social development partnerships program. Learning and literacy programs are being cut by $17.7 million. At Industry, we have a reduction in support program funding, including Technology Partnerships Canada, in the amount of $42 million. At Health Canada, $10 million earmarked for smoking cessation programs for the First Nations and Inuit people is being cut.
Although this is not an exhaustive list—that was my point—it is enough to show how the Conservative government’s cuts are affecting services to vulnerable people and businesses. In addition, by attacking programs that allow minorities to make their voices heard, or that provide the most disadvantaged people with ways of defending their interests, the Conservative government is making ideological choices—what am I saying?—is imposing its ideology and is doing a serious disservice to a segment of the public that it should be helping and supporting.
I urge everyone with access to the Internet to visit the Department of Finance site to see with their own eyes—because it really is almost unbelievable, to read for and by themselves just how sympathetic this government is when it describes the programs I have just listed as wasteful, when it explains that it has cut the fat, when it congratulates itself for saving $15 million in lawyers’ fees because it made an agreement—as we well know—that left $1 billion behind for the United States, and thus deprived our forestry companies of $1 billion. And for this it congratulates itself.
I will conclude by pointing out that the federal government has more money than it needs to look after everything under its jurisdiction, with a $13 billion surplus and a $7 billion increase in its operating expenses over the last 10 years. It also has all the resources it needs to solve the fiscal imbalance.
