Lost his last election, in 2004, with 34% of the vote.
Petitions May 6th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by 28 people from my riding. Based on biblical teaching they point out the prohibition against homosexuality. It is their humble request and prayer that no initiative to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include the term sexual orientation be considered or allowed by this honourable House.
Independent Order Of Foresters April 25th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to one of the oldest and largest fraternal organizations in the world. One hundred and twenty years ago, on April 26, 1876, the first Canadian Court of the Independent Order of Foresters was instituted in London, Ontario.
Through Court No. 1, London served as Canadian headquarters of the IOF until 1888. Since that time the IOF in Canada has expanded to nearly 500 family oriented courts. There are more than one million members in Canada, the United States and Britain.
An outgrowth of the Friendly Societies that originated hundreds of years ago to help one another in times of distress, Forestry continues these noble traditions in the community.
London's Court No. 1 has logged thousands of volunteer hours in numerous charitable endeavours. Its members are to be saluted on this memorable occasion.
Taiwan March 26th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the people of Taiwan who have just voted in that country's first truly democratic election. President Lee Teng-hui received over 54 per cent of the votes last Saturday despite the implied warnings made against him by China. For the Taiwanese people this was the first democratic presidential election ever held on the island.
Several weeks ago China began conducting military exercises along the coast of the island of Taiwan in an attempt to influence the outcome of this historic vote. Taiwan has demonstrated great courage and has shown it will not be intimidated by China's military manoeuvres.
Canadians and all others who believe in democracy must support the Taiwanese people as they move forward.
The Budget March 7th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I would like to address my comments, not so much to the details of my Reform colleague's speech as I thought he put a good argument forward, but more or less to the main message, that we need to cut faster, cut deeper and get to a balanced budget quicker.
Reform Party members do a good job in identifying the costs of carrying a heavy deficit and a heavy debt. Unfortunately I do not think they do a bit in terms of identifying the costs of the cuts themselves.
They use Alberta as an example of a government that has done a good job in getting its finances in order. They have failed to point out that in Alberta, for example, the rise of children coming into care with the Children's Aid Society has risen by 21 per cent since Premier Klein started to cut provincial spending. Why is that? Poor people. Their abuse rates did not go up but people simply could not afford to keep their children. Is that the Canada we want to live in?
In my province of Ontario, Michael Harris has cut welfare payments on the theory that it would encourage people to find work. When I checked with municipal officials after the welfare cuts, they were telling me that all it has done is force people to choose between feeding their children and paying their rent. Now they are being forced to move and live on the streets.
Petitions March 1st, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I have a second petition signed by over 300 people.
The petitioners are requesting that Parliament amend the Criminal Code and all other relevant statutes of Canada to establish lifetime sentences without eligibility of parole for dangerous offenders, particularly sex offenders against children.
Petitions March 1st, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I also have a petition asking the federal government not to increase the federal excise tax on gasoline in the next federal budget. It is signed by 57 constituents in my riding.
Jessica Lynn Perkins March 1st, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the riding of Elgin-Norfolk has a distinctive history. It is the birthplace of Thomas Edison, of Mitch Hepburn a former premier of Ontario, and the world renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith.
The city of St. Thomas in my riding has distinguished itself once again by producing another Canadian first. On the morning of January 1, 1996 at one second after midnight, Canada's first baby was born at St. Thomas-Elgin Hospital. Jessica Lynn Perkins is the daughter of Charlene Winkworth and Randall Perkins. Her twin sister Christina was born one minute later. These two girls join a brother and a sister. Jessica shares her record with a baby born in the city of Laval, Quebec.
I congratulate Jessica's parents and welcome her and Christina to a great community.
Finance December 14th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of those who were not listening when I was interrupted by question period, let me briefly summarize what I had said in the first half of my speech.
The first point I made was that the deficit needs to be addressed aggressively. We need to go to a balanced budget and then to a surplus budget as quickly as possible.
However, there are pressing and very urgent social problems within our country, the primary one being child poverty. I would like to encourage the Minister of Finance to put in February's budget approximately $500 million for a child poverty program through the tax system, called a working income supplement which would put approximately $1,000 a year in the hands of the poorest working families with children. I am sure this money would be well spent.
The question then arises, if we believe in cutting the deficit, balancing the budget and in spending more money on child
poverty, where does the money come from? I would suggest that one area is the defence department.
Let me say before I get to my main point that I do not disagree with defence spending per se, only some parts of defence spending. We need to look at the defence budget and decide that we cannot have a military that tries to be all things to all people.
For example, we should get out of the submarine business. Recently, members may have read in the newspapers that Canada's three submarines, which represent our fleet, were in Halifax for maintenance. I do not know if any of us felt any less secure knowing the submarines were in Halifax. I do not know if any of us will feel less secure tomorrow if we got out of the submarine business.
Certainly we do not need to buy old British submarines for Canadian defence. We do not need the subs to hunt subs. Since the cold war ended there has been a shortage of submarines to hunt as the Russians are mothballing their subs.
We do not need subs to patrol our coastal waters. Our existing frigates and destroyers, brand new coastal patrol vessels, underwater sensor sites, radio intelligence sites and non-military assets such as the coast guard and fishery patrol vessels are more than capable of doing the job.
We do not need the subs to monitor UN embargoes. The frigates and destroyers can do that already and they can do it more effectively.
We do not need subs to patrol Arctic waters. The sub DND wants to buy cannot operate under the ice.
Cutting defence spending is only one example of where money can be found to not only address the deficit but also address child poverty. Another example is the whole issue of tax expenditures.
The finance department and the Minister of Finance need to understand that a tax expenditure is just like an expenditure in any other area. For example, the money we spend on subsidizing RRSPs or RPPs, which are retirement savings plans, through the tax system unduly benefit the well to do. They do little to improve the life of the middle class and lower economic classes. In short, they are a benefit primarily for the rich.
I want to make a very modest proposal. We should lower the limits for RRSPs and RPPs to $10,500 from a current level of $13,500, a level that is set to rise to $15,500. This very modest proposal would not affect anyone making less than $70,000 a year annually and, by the department's calculations, would raise approximately $550 million for the national treasury. This is exactly the amount of money that I suggest the government spend on a child poverty program.
At this time of Christmas I want to ask Parliament, the Minister of Finance, the government and all Canadians to look at our country and recognize that we have many assets to build on. I am optimistic for our future. I recognize that not all Canadians are participating in the economic recovery and the ones who are most vulnerable are children and children going hungry. Notwithstanding that we have other urgent and pressing concerns like balancing the budget, we should address the needs of those children in this year's budget.
Finance December 14th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to join the take note budget debate and offer my views to the Minister of Finance.
When talking about the budget the first issue we have to deal with is the debt and the deficit. We have to come to some sort of understanding on how big a problem it is. Once we come to grips with how big a problem it is, then we can say how much cost we are willing to bear to get it under control.
My own view is to move aggressively as reasonably possible to a budget surplus. I use the word surplus as opposed to a balanced budget. A balanced budget does not solve the problem of too much debt. A surplus would allow for the lowering of that debt. In the lowering of that debt there would be a number of factors that would compound positively for the Canadian economy.
There would be a lessening of interest rates as money lenders would see less of a risk in lending money to Canadians. They would lower the cost of the money that they lend. There would be less of a currency risk which would again compound to lower interest rates. Consumer confidence would go up; investor confidence would go up.
All of those factors would provide some possibility of tax relief which again would be good news for the economy. All of those factors combined would increase economic growth, increase jobs, increase opportunity and would be good for the Canadian economy overall.
However, the goal to eliminate the deficit must not be our sole purpose. We must acknowledge the linkages within the economy. To simply slash government spending would from a macroeconomic point of view lessen aggregate demand and risk putting the economy into recession.
Furthermore, we need to acknowledge there are pressing needs within Canadian society. The issue then becomes: Can the government maintain or even improve social spending or social programs while reducing overall spending? The answer is yes it can by making adjustments or deeper cuts in other areas. By establishing priorities we can consider new initiatives to meet urgent needs.
Let me bring the attention of the House to what I believe should be this country's number one social priority for the upcoming budget, the issue of child poverty. There has been a steady and alarming increase in child poverty in Canada over the last decade and a half. According to the Canadian Institute of Child Health the poverty rate for children rose 60 per cent between 1981 and 1991. The most recent Statistics Canada figures indicate that 1.4 million children in Canada under the age of 18 now live in poor homes. Poverty among single mothers remains stable and tragically high at 56 per cent.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund, among the OECD nations Canada has one of the worst records on child poverty, second only to the United States. Given the UN has also rated Canada as the top country in the world in overall quality of life, our failure to deal with child poverty is all the more glaring. To those who might insist we cannot afford it at this time, we have to ask why our OECD partners faced with similar fiscal challenges have been able to do a better job for their nation's children. I believe it is a matter of setting priorities.
I would also like to point out that in solving the child poverty problem we also address a number of other problems. We would improve the country's productivity. We would spend less money related to crime and crime prevention. We would lower our health care costs. All of these factors combine to make a better country.
The solution in part can be found through an income supplement program. I am recommending to the Minister of Finance that he put in his budget a $500 million program called the working income supplement. I will not bore this House with the details of the proposal but would point out that it was described most adequately in a supplement to the green paper in a paper called "Income Security for Children".
One might ask: "If this fellow believes in cutting the debt and cutting the deficit but he wants to invoke a new social program, where does he think we are going to get the money from?" I would like to talk for a moment about the defence budget because I think the defence budget needs to be cut, it needs to be cut not only to free up money for debt and deficit reduction but also for social programs such as child poverty.
Canada's current military budget is approximately $11.4 billion. Peacekeeping accounts for only 5.5 per cent of this budget. Canada currently has the 12th largest military spending in the world. We are the sixth largest spender among NATO's 16 members. Military spending has been declining significantly around the world for several years. However, Canadian military spending has been an exception to this pattern.
By 1994 world military spending was 29.6 per cent lower in real dollars than it was in 1985. Military spending by countries that are not members of NATO was a whole 42.5 per cent lower. However, Canadian military spending remained 3 per cent higher in real dollar terms than it was in 1985. As a result Canadian military spending rose by 46.2 per cent relative to world military spending. I ask my colleagues to check the facts which I believe they will find accurate.
The pattern is even more striking if we look back to 1980. Although it grew substantially during the early part of the 1980s, by 1994 world military spending was 16.5 per cent lower in real dollars than it was in 1980. However, Canadian military spending was 36.2 per cent higher. As a result Canadian military spending rose by 63 per cent relative to world military spending.
The Canadian government has begun to make real cuts in military spending since 1994. I acknowledge those cuts and I applaud them. The reductions, begun in 1994, are expected to total about 19 per cent-
Committees Of The House December 14th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs.
Pursuant to the order of reference of Monday, October 23, 1995, your committee has considered Bill C-106, an act respecting the Law Commission of Canada, and your committee has agreed to report it with amendments.