Garth Turner

[Taxation, November 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister did the right thing this week by realizing that retired couples should be able to split their income for tax purposes.

Can he tell us if he agrees that working families should also benefit from income splitting, especially when one spouse stays at home and looks after the kids who could then make RRSP contributions and look after their future? Does he agree with that?

[Citizenship and Immigration, October 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, last summer a family in my riding stood helplessly on a dock in Beirut watching as Lebanese citizens, waving Canadian passports, were evacuated while they stayed stranded. We now know Canada spent some $63 million evacuating 15,000 Lebanese Canadians, half of whom promptly returned to their homeland. My constituents know the way they were treated was not fair.

Could the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration please tell the House how exactly we will prevent this from happening again and if we have made any attempts to review our outmoded dual citizenship laws, which the Liberals did nothing about for 13 years?

[Committees of the House, October 25th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I will cast my vote in favour of the amendment.

[Committees of the House, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to record a negative vote on the part of the independent party of Halton.

[Taxation, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

More than two million retired Canadians are currently paying an unjustified amount of tax. Why? Because one spouse stayed at home with the kids while the other went out to work. As a result, pension income is now taxed in the hands of one person at a higher rate.

The minister knows this is unfair and that MPs from all parties want these people to have pension splitting.

Will he give a commitment today to seriously consider this in the coming budget? If not, please tell us why.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, June 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member's comments regarding child care and have a question for him.

In my riding, the federal and provincial governments were to put a program together under the Liberal plan, offering $23.1 million, which in the region of Halton would create 600 child care spaces. That would leave 34,400 children in Halton without any new child care money and 15,000 families with no child care money at all. How can that possibly be a better plan than the current plan, which will give $1,200 per year to every single one of those 15,000 parents in my riding? I ask the member to please explain.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, May 18th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I found the remarks of the hon. member from Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel very interesting. I share a position with the hon. member on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. I really thought he had a better grasp of the budget than he apparently does, which is somewhat distressing.

Nonetheless, I would like to ask the hon. member if he has actually read the budget. When he makes comments about the marginal tax rate for the lowest tax bracket individuals being raised by a point, I think he conveniently ignores the fact that we are adjusting the bottom tax rate. The effective rate for the taxation year 2006 will be 15.25% as opposed to 15%, not that much of a change. At the same time, the personal basic exemption is going up for all Canadians and, in addition to that, we are adding in a Canada employment credit of $500 this year, moving to $1,000 next year.

Just in the area of personal taxation alone, does the hon. member not agree that the overall tax burden for taxpayers in all categories actually goes down? That of course is quite apart from the other cuts in this budget, such as the GST. Has the hon. member read the budget or is he simply speaking partisan words that would somehow, unfortunately, mislead the House?

[The Budget, May 9th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member opposite will know that tax savings are proportionate as a percentage of income. The government has removed 655,000 low income Canadians from the tax rolls of this country in the budget. I think that is a very significant achievement. Many families of lower income will cheer the budget of doing exactly that, of removing them from the tax rolls. The government is also reducing the GST burden by a full point on the necessities of life.

Since the GST or any sales tax by its nature is regressive and penalizes those with lower incomes, as opposed to those with higher incomes, that is a very positive measure for Canadians in lower income tax brackets. The budget actually does contain a great deal of good news for all income tax brackets. I know the member is concerned with lower income Canadians and they benefit as well.

[The Budget, May 9th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the comments from my colleague across the way. I might first say to the hon. member that I did not criticize the hon. member whom I replaced in my riding personally and I have no malice against him whatsoever.

My observations were simple observations. During the 13 years the Liberals represented the people of Halton, there was never a public meeting. There was never an opportunity for a constituent to come to an open and free forum, express opinions to the member, and the member then giving a commitment to bring those opinions back. It is just a simple exercise in direct democracy and I think what the people of Halton were looking for was an opportunity to have a direct input into the system.

I also took issue with the member who preceded me using government funds, House of Commons dollars, to send householders and ten percenters around the riding with giant, red Liberal logos on them. That is a tremendous abuse of public funds. The people in my riding have told me that it was high time they had a member who would deal with their issues other than in a partisan way. That is exactly what I am trying to do.

Second, in answer to his question, the students of Halton, certainly the ones I have talked to, are happy that they are getting something. They are happy they are getting a textbook credit. They are happy that the bursary scholarship money will be free of taxation. These are real issues and real benefits to these people as opposed to promises the Liberals made and never delivered upon.

Not a single benefit for students that was contained in the last Liberal budget was ever implemented and not a single one of those dollars that the member opposite is bragging about ever went into the pocket of a student in my riding. It is just another one of the hollow promises we have heard Liberals make for a long time and those hollow promises are being replaced with true dollars in the pockets of my constituents who need them.

[The Budget, May 9th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, since many MPs wish to speak during this debate, I will be splitting my time this afternoon with the hon. member for Souris--Moose Mountain.

As members may know, I am in this House again after an absence of some 13 years. I have certainly been asked on more than one occasion why I went through the pain of an election process to get back here again. One reason is this budget.

Canadians need tax relief, honest government and more hope and opportunity, and they need to believe we have a gang in power now who cares about the survival of the middle class in our country. That is exactly what this budget says and for that reason, I support it.

This is a remarkable first step for this government and it definitely deserves the full confidence of the House. However, there are a few other reasons why I chose to come back here and why I bothered to fight to return to the House of Commons. I would like to take a couple of minutes to share some of the reasons why I am here, and maybe explain a few things about this budget as well.

The first reason I am here, which relates strongly to this budget, is to represent the people of my riding. That may sound trite and obvious, but it is rather revolutionary.

In the election campaign against the Liberals, who had been in power in my riding for the last 13 years, I was able to point out easily that no Liberal MP in my riding ever held an open and public meeting to actually ask the people of Halton what they wanted. No member of Parliament ever stood and said, “We ought to find out what the people of this riding actually want in a federal budget” and then took that to Ottawa.

In the election I made a commitment not to say anything in the House that I would not say back in my riding and I made a commitment to hold public meetings regularly with individuals and bring their voice to this place. I promised I would never send them a piece of mail with a party logo on it or use taxpayer money to tell them how to think. I told them I would work for the people and my first job would be here to represent my neighbours. That is what I am doing and that is why I am on my feet today in support of my tax-slashing colleague, the Minister of Finance.

In this new era of leadership, when politicians enjoy a popularity rating of 14%, just a little ahead of used car salesmen, it is important for all of us to make sure we are here in this place to give people their voice and to listen to it. In understanding this simple truth, a truth so simple and profound that I believe it was lost in my riding for a long time, I also came to understand something about myself.

It has now been 18 years since I was first elected to this place, 13 of them since I last sat as a member of the House. Today I am extremely pleased to be a member of Parliament. It is a badge of honour, an achievement. Of the people who sent me here, I ask for no more. I am completely challenged and fulfilled in being a member of Parliament, but I have found, coming back here, that there is intense pressure for one to represent one's party instead of the people who sent them here.

The question often arises, how do we change this? Not easily. I do believe members of Parliament need to be more independent, more powerful, with more free votes in the House and less party discipline. We need committees of MPs with more clout and the ability to do actual work in this place. They need direct input into key government initiatives, such as a budget.

The Minister of Finance welcomed my submission. I did poll people and found 11,000 Canadians who had something to say about the budget. I told the Minister of Finance, clearly, some of the things that I wanted him to hear. He listened, and I congratulate him for that.

I believe successful politicians have to stay close to their voters. They know what their voters want. They need to communicate it. I happen to believe that the biggest, most influential and probably the most underrepresented group of voters in the country, and certainly the dominant group in my riding, is the middle class. It is this group to which the budget speaks the loudest.

During the campaign I consulted this group. I came up with a pledge to them. I wrote brochures and policy statements for them. I took time to understand the pressures on their individual lives and I addressed it. These people, I know it by the nation's standards, are well off. They are solidly middle class. They are not the ones the government is busy sending cheques to, no energy rebate cheques, and no GST tax credits.

They are the worker bees of our society, the ones who are always employed, always taxpayers, always spending. Middle class people are the backbone of my riding. They make up the bulk of the population. They are responsible for the economy, as well as funding the government which redistributes their taxes to others.

However, there is a continuous erosion of family conditions right now, brought on by governments who pride themselves in caring for the rest of society at the expense of the middle class. These folks need help and attention. They deserve it.

The middle class in Canada now is actually under attack. I have pledged myself to work every day that I am in Ottawa to represent these people, to help them, to speak for them, and to fight for them. That is a major reason why I am supporting a federal budget that puts billions of dollars back in the hands of these middle class families who populate my riding in Halton.

The budget includes a GST cut, a personal income tax reduction, a universal child care benefit, more money for seniors, farmers, students, apprentices, and for the small businesses that create most of the jobs in my riding. These are the things I can go back and present to middle class voters as significant achievements and a great start down a path to tax fairness.

As I have said, I gave the Minister of Finance a prebudget report, including the thoughts of thousands of Canadians and he listened. Then his own department went online and also asked Canadians from coast to coast to coast to contribute and they did. That was a first. The minister said to Canadians, “I care what you say. I'm going to read your e-mails”, and I congratulate the minister. I think he is the first one who has ever done that.

We all have a lot to gain from that process. Voters get to be heard. Politicians get to communicate free of any special interest group filter. Governments stay in touch and we all build a better country together communicating.

I support the budget because it will improve the lives of the people who sent me here, middle class Canadians. It cuts their taxes. It assists their families. It eases household finances. It gives them new hope for the future.

I hope that all members support the budget, or at least have something constructive to say about it. I will be voting for the budget, to keep faith with the people who sent me here and be consistent with what I said I would do for them, and I do it with pride. I am honoured to be here.

Mr. Speaker, this is a beautiful seat that I occupy next to your knee. I may not be in the camera angles. I may not be in a position of influence. I may not even have the ear of the Prime Minister, but it just does not matter.

I think just being an MP is Ottawa talk. Every MP in this place matters, since we are here representing millions of Canadians. There is no bad seat in the House of Commons. There is none of us more powerful than the rest of us, since all the people in this country are equal and they all do truly want the same thing. They want this place to work and so do I, and passing this budget is a tremendous start.