Madam Speaker, I am pleased to finally have an opportunity to speak to the social programs review. I have waited with great anticipation for this day since January 18 when His Excellency, the Governor General, in the speech from the throne announced that the government would initiate an action plan for major reform of the social programs in Canada. Two weeks later, on January 31, the Minister of Human Resources Development asked all members of this House to work with the government to develop an action plan for renewal of our social safety net.
After all that we expected an action plan. Nine months of gestation and the elephant has given birth to a mouse. Now that we are here we have no action plan but a discussion paper full of maybes.
The minister says he will consult with Canadians. In phase one the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development held consultations with interest groups, private citizens in person and through the media of teleconferencing. Now the committee is scheduled to embark on five weeks of face to face consultation.
I had hoped that this would give us an opportunity to hear from Canadians who do not represent the special interest groups and whose inherent bias and sole mandate is to perpetuate their own existence. The Government of Canada, the taxpayers of Canada, is paying $4 million in intervener funding to interest groups to prepare their presentations and no doubt we will hear from some of the same interest groups that we subsidized to testify in phase one.
The government has made it virtually impossible for ordinary Canadians to prepare submissions because the deadline is November 7. The real information, the technical papers, will not even be available until late in October. Perhaps the minister thinks that this is some kind of a Hallowe'en treat or maybe a trick.
After many delays and much fanfare and many leaks, we are left with a watered down series of questions that offers little direction and no plan of action at all. It has been said that the minister hopes to generate intelligent, informed discussion at every dinner table in the nation. The premise is right on. We are hoping that this reform would actually place all the social programs on the table for discussion. We felt certain that the minister would want to give Canadians an opportunity to examine and challenge the principles on which existing social programs are based so that informed discussions can take place and decisions can be made.
To facilitate this discussion did the minister even give Canadians the information they need to initiate informed discussion? I do not think so. Is he trying to fool the people? He thinks that perhaps if he fills them full of mumbo-jumbo, the type that we heard here today in Question Period from him, eventually people will leave the table and say "I've had enough, let government fix this mess". He does not want Canadians, it appears, to know the real truth about social programs.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, or something like that, but Canadians do not really know what their future holds and they want to know. They need to know so that they can plan for their future and their retirement years. After they have paid their taxes will they have any money left? Very likely they will not. They had better not count on the Canada pension plan or old age assistance to sustain them in their declining years because there will not be enough money to go around. Today every dollar that is paid into the Canada pension plan is paid out the other end to a current beneficiary.
Canadians want to know what their future holds and we believe they have every right to know. Forewarned is forearmed. The Reform party wants to ensure that Canadians are fully informed so that they can make conscientious decisions about their futures.
The Liberals set their target for deficit reduction at 3 per cent of GDP.
If it is really serious about making this a reality the government is left with few options: either a meaningful reduction in spending or an increase in taxes or a combination of the two. We do not have that information. It does not show up anywhere in this paper. We think that is one of the first question Canadians will want answered.
If young people want a payout from CPP the premiums that they are paying in will have to double, triple or perhaps quadruple before they reach retirement years. It will not take that long. By the year 2010, about the time the baby boomers are set to retire, government revenues will be totally consumed by interest on the debt and by social program spending.
We know government has other financial commitments that will have to be met as well. What will happen to the pension the baby boomers thought they could rely on in the so-called golden years? The gold in those years will be tarnished and there will not even be any coppers traded for the necessities of life. I believe that the best way to help Canadians and their families prepare for their future and to fight poverty is to reduce the tax burden.
In pre-World War II days when government entered into the foray of income support, I am sure that no one ever dreamed it would go this far into debt, this far into fostering a dependency on government to provide for our well-being. For too long people have believed that grants are gifts from the government. Actually everyone knows we have to pay the taxes in first.
This government and its predecessors have given with one hand while increasing taxation and taking with the other. Canadians want to know what this government's agenda is. Is it to protect those who cannot help themselves or is it income redistribution? In this country we punish people for being successful and we seem to reward those who are not.
Some will say that sounds pretty radical. Wait until you hear this quote: "We are not interested in paying able-bodied people merely because they were not able to find work. We propose social aid for those people who are unable to work because they are crippled, aged or mentally ill". Does that sound like a radical statement? This is a quote from Tommy T.C. Douglas, former CCF Premier of Saskatchewan, talking about social assistance programs in his province. From that time to now we have arrived at the place where we think we have to subsidize everybody.
Those who have tinkered with the expansion of our social programs over the last quarter century have lost track of the target. In trying to help everybody the government has incurred a massive debt that today has reached a whopping $533 billion. This amounts to $18,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. If we want to do anything about child poverty, I suggest we do something about that $18,000 tax bill.
Past enlightened governments have allowed this country to fall off the rails and now it is time to get it back on track. The role of government in providing help must be redefined. If we continue with the status quo we will not be able to help those who are truly in need. It is imperative that we reinstate the balance between public support and private responsibility. We have allowed people to become reliant on government and now the government is broke.
This document does not leave me with the impression that this government is looking beyond the next election. There are Canadians who truly need help. To ensure that they will be cared for the government must immediately eliminate handouts to corporations and interest groups and reform the members of Parliament pension plan.
After all, how can we expect Canadians to embrace social program reform if the government is not prepared to reform its own pension plan? The Reform Party MPs have opted out of the pension scheme but I notice that none of the other parties has followed our lead.
As I said earlier, the minister asked this House to work with the government to develop an action plan for the renewal of the safety net. From what we have seen of the green paper, this no action plan, he needs help.
I want to assure members that we will help wherever possible to bring about real social reforms. In that vein I will be glad to share with the members of the government what the Reform Party believes. We believe that social programs should be financially sustainable.
We believe that social programs should be targeted to those who are most in need. Social program delivery should be decentralized and the family should be strengthened as the primary caregiver in society.
The Reform Party is committed to real social program reform and we believe that if the government follows these principles, Canadians can have a plan for the future.
