John Solomon

[Supply, March 22nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I see the chair of the Liberal transport committee has refused to allow me to present the New Democratic Party's position on the motion. That is unfortunate because we have always tried to co-operate with the Liberal Party but I guess we will have an opportunity to get even down the road.

The motion before us is very important. I understand why the Liberals are unhappy about the motion. In my view and that of millions of Canadians, they have been negligent in terms of a national transportation system. They have been negligent in everybody's books not only in highway construction, rail transportation, air transportation and marine transportation, but in many other areas as well. They have been negligent because they have allowed the system to collapse. We are the only country of the 28 countries in the OECD that does not have a national highways program.

Before continuing, I again ask for unanimous consent to finish my 10 minute speech before the bells ring.

[Supply, March 22nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, before I commence my remarks, I ask members for unanimous consent to delay the bells for the vote until I finish my 10 minute speech.

[Gasoline Pricing, March 22nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the government's three quarter of a million dollar gas price study does nothing for people coping with high energy prices. This is buck passing at its worst. All it does is transfer hard earned cash from consumers to consultants.

By the time the conference board reports, soaring energy costs will eat up every penny of the farm aid package, all future tax cuts, and many more truckers will have gone bankrupt.

Crude prices are dropping but consumers have not seen any relief at the pumps. I ask the Prime Minister if this is all we can expect from his government. Where is his action plan to protect Canadian consumers from soaring energy costs?

[The Budget, February 29th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, on February 16 I asked the Liberal government what action plan it had put together to defend our economy from the OPEC cartel and Canadians from the impact of record energy prices.

With the cost of home heating fuel doubling, just heating a house this winter will eat up all of the minuscule tax breaks Canadians received from the Liberals yesterday. Record gas prices, record diesel fuel prices and the energy component of our economy is very, very serious in terms of pricing.

When I asked my question, the U.S. energy secretary and the U.S. president had just announced a series of measures designed to help Americans, especially in the northeastern states, to deal with the sudden run-up in costs of these essential energy commodities.

The U.S. president said that he was deeply disturbed by the trouble this was causing Americans and that his administration was monitoring the situation on a daily basis. With his energy secretary he announced 17 different measures, including assistance for low income earners to pay their heating bills, loan assistance for truckers and so on. Moreover, the energy secretary held a summit with oil companies, state government officials and affected stakeholders in Boston on the very day I raised the issue in the House.

The contrast between the U.S. administration and the Canadian Liberal government on this matter should be the cause of grave embarrassment to the government and to the Minister of Industry. Instead of concern, we got partisan scorn. Instead of caring, we got buck passing. Instead of an answer, we got hogwash.

First, the industry minister said “If it is so important, why do provinces like Saskatchewan not do something?” Not to defend the provinces, but their fuel taxes do not go up when gas prices go up or when diesel prices go up or when home heating fuel goes up, but federal taxes like the GST and the BST do go up.

If the minister really advocates the provinces regulating energy prices, he should say so. Otherwise he is just passing the buck again.

Next the minister suggested that the government had in fact already been discussing this issue with the provinces and territories. I checked. The council of energy ministers has not had the issue of gasoline prices on its agenda since the summer of 1998. It was not on that agenda because the federal government put it there; it was there at the request of the Yukon NDP energy minister in 1998.

Also, the ministers responsible for consumer affairs agreed to fund a study on competition in gasoline pricing, but the minister picked the same consultant who wrote a previous study for the big oil companies, and now everyone else is boycotting. Who is going to read the study? Is it going to be credible? Not likely. It will be taken seriously by no one except the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Natural Resources, who are so cozy with the oil patch they never even noticed how badly consumers are hurting from these price hikes.

In my question I expressed concern about the potential impact of rising energy prices on the inflation rate, a concern echoed by many commentators, including, on that very day, the governor of the Bank of Canada.

It is true that the data for January which was released the following week showed the overall or headline inflation rate down from 2.6% to 2.4%, but energy costs rose by an annual rate of 28.5% during that month. Those costs remain a source of concern in our economy, which relies so heavily on energy, which is the underpinning of our economy.

Because of these concerns and because Canadian consumers are hurting, I asked what the government's plan was to defend Canadians from this crisis. To its shame it had none. It was barely aware of the problem. It had no intention of showing leadership and finding a solution. It just passed the buck and hoped the problem would go away.

I wonder if the parliamentary secretary today can tell us whether his government has finally seen the light. Can he tell Canadians what action plan has been put together to defend our economy, to defend Canadian consumers, business people and farmers from the OPEC cartel?

[The Budget, February 29th, 2000]

Madam Speaker, I would like to point out the facts exactly as the member has asked me to do.

The Liberal government has taken $30 billion out of health care since 1994 and this year it is putting $1 billion back in. For every 30 bucks it has cut, it is putting one dollar back. And the Liberals call that reinstating funding for health care. That is appreciated. I guess $1 billion is better than no billions but the government has cut $30 billion in terms of the total losses to health care in the last five years.

Saskatchewan receives a little over $1 billion in all the various transfer payments. The question I would ask the member is how many billions does the government take out in terms of income taxes, licences, GST and other fees for the federal treasury? I can say it is a heck of a lot more than $1 billion. It is billions more than $1 billion. We are sharing that with the rest of the country. We are happy to do that and we are getting some of it back but not all of it, so let us call a spade a spade.

There is a debt in the country. Every single Canadian, whether born this minute or 79 years old, is paying $1,400 a year in interest on the Liberal-Conservative-Reform debt. A family of four is paying $5,600 for the Liberal-Conservative-Reform debt and the Liberals are giving a $250 a year tax cut. Are they crazy? I think they are. It is ridiculous.

We have to look at the budget. I give the Liberals credit. They are masters at doing and saying things to make people feel good. There may not be any kind of substance to their actions but they can do their spinning and promoting. They have 155 MPs and hundreds of millions of dollars as we found out during the last month, to do those sorts of things, to make people feel good about things that they are supposed to be doing, might be doing or may want people to believe they are doing. On every occasion it is a feel good approach. There is never any substance to address the hard core issues facing Canadians.

The final point the member raised was with respect to agriculture. Yes, they have paid $2 billion with provincial shares into agriculture in the last two or three years. Saskatchewan out of $2 billion may have received about $400 million or $500 million. The vast majority went to Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

My final response to the member's question is that the government has done a good job for farmers in Ontario. I see my colleagues from the rural Liberal caucus in Ontario. They have done a good job getting money for their farmers but they have failed to address the western agricultural issues and that is where we are falling down in western Canada. They should provide more money to farmers, whether they are in Ontario, Quebec, or western Canada. The government needs to address the huge issue of the restructuring of agriculture in western Canada as soon as possible.

[The Budget, February 29th, 2000]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg North Centre and I will take 10 minutes to make my remarks regarding the budget.

When I look at the budget I try to measure and gauge it with respect to where it sits in terms of the priorities of my constituents. As a matter of fact I undertook to poll my constituents and I did so in January. I sent them all letters and asked them to priorize where they would put the surplus for this fiscal year. I want to share with the members of the House exactly what my constituents told me and asked me to tell the government with respect to priorities, which my party and I did.

There is one thing almost everyone in my constituency agrees on: the restoration of federal health care funding. Eighty-three per cent of them indicated that they wanted health and education transfers restored and for the government to make up for the losses.

The Liberals talk about restoring to 1993 levels. They have taken $600 million out of health care funding in my province of Saskatchewan in the last five years and have restored it by $18 million this year. We are short $582 million, yet they are saying that it is as big as it was in 1993. They neglected to tell Canadians that since 1993 the population of Canada has increased by about one or two million people. I am not sure of the exact number, but over one million people, to be safe, and they have cut back in terms of health care.

The number one issue in terms of measuring the budget with my constituents' priorities is that it fails the test of what they believe is the highest priority of our national government with respect to this important social program.

As the number two priority my constituents also wanted to see money for a long term farm aid program until such time as the international subsidy war was dealt with at the WTO. I look in the budget and what do I see? There is not one dime for agriculture in terms of a long term program. We see a short term, inadequate amount of $180 million. We in Saskatchewan are grateful for that, but meanwhile the treasuries of France, Spain, Great Britain, Germany and the United States of America keep subsidizing their farmers to the full extent. Thereby western grain farmers are at a disadvantage being at the lower end of an uneven playing field. They are finding it very difficult to compete as a result of the prices being driven down.

The third most important item to my constituents was a personal income tax cut. Sixty-eight per cent believe they should have a GST cut of one point or a modest decrease in their personal income tax. The budget addressed the personal income tax cut. I think that will be a very positive step in the long haul. One out of three is not bad, although my constituents wanted something a little more substantial in terms of the GST.

Fourth, 66% of my constituents polled believe that we should have some kind of additional significant program to the tune of over $2 billion to address child poverty. We see in the budget a modest attempt to do so, but neither my constituents nor I think it goes far enough. There is a big gap in terms of differences in our priorities.

Most important, we sent out thousands of questionnaires and had almost 1,000 returns, which was not bad for a mail-back. Not one constituent indicated that we should further subsidize the NHL. Yet the Liberal government in the first week in January announced a big subsidy program for NHL hockey players. I wonder what its priorities are. I see the Minister of Industry is in the House. I can understand the pressure applied to him from the local hockey team and the local supporters, but surely there must have been some sense in the budget of the priorities of Canadians before this was undertaken.

I do not want to talk only about my constituents' priorities and how they differ from those of the government. I want to try to measure the budget from a fair perspective. How do we measure whether or not a budget is fair? I confer with my constituents, which I have done, and in their view they do not believe this is a fair budget with respect to western Canada.

The real test of whether the budget is fair is whether it is providing some progress for Canada. The true test of progress is not in our country. It is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much but whether we as a government, we as a country, provide enough for those who have too little. Under this test the budget does not pass. It does not provide substantial support in terms of tax cuts, child poverty programs or health care financing to help those who have too little, but it will provide huge tax cuts for the very wealthy.

In this current fiscal year the Liberals gave millionaire hockey players a $16,000 tax cut. They gave Canadians zero in this fiscal year. The next fiscal year which is the budget we are speaking on, they are going to give the hockey players another $9,000 or $10,000 on top the $16,000.

The millionaire hockey players in this country will now have a two year tax break of about $26,000. What do we get as average Canadians? What do average Saskatchewan residents get? They may get $250 a year, 20 bucks a month. That will not not buy a daily cup of coffee.

In my view health care has been put on the wait list. Education has been put on the wait list. We have letters from the Saskatchewan school trustees saying that this is an inadequate budget.

The president of SSTA, Gary Shaddock, in expressing his disappointment to the Minister of Finance said, “This was supposed to be the children's budget. Several things outlined in the budget are positive for families but the budget did not do enough to address the national children's agenda and provide a strategy of how Canadians will support their children in the future”. For somebody from the SSTA who is a very responsible parent, a very responsible citizen of this country, to say this about the budget in a non-political fashion in my view condemns this budget even further than what we have already outlined.

Agriculture is on the wait list. We have tax cuts in terms of personal income tax cuts. There is some progress there, but in this calendar year it is basically the wait list for Canadians with small and average size incomes.

We have seen no action in this budget on defending our economy with respect to energy prices. I have stood in the House a number of times since the House resumed in February to ask the government what action plan it has to defend our economy and to defend Canadian consumers from international price gouging by the refiners and other vertically integrated oil companies. There is nothing in this budget.

Regarding highways, in Saskatchewan this government takes out about $180 million a year in excise taxes. What was put back in this budget for highways? Not $180 million, not even $100 million, not even $5 million. Not one cent in this budget has gone to highways in Saskatchewan after the government has taken away the transportation subsidies. The roads in our province have declined and deteriorated in an accelerated fashion and there is not one dime.

It is getting to the point where we need a government with some kind of conscience. We need a government that believes in having a balance to the economic powers that run our economy. The fact is the very wealthy corporations and the very wealthy families run the country's economy. It is the government's obligation, duty and responsibility to be the balance to those powers that run the economy. One of my constituents said, “Leave the rich alone in this budget and help out the rest of the country”.

I believe very strongly that this government has failed in its test. It has wait-listed seniors. There is no substantial support for seniors in their very severe challenges with respect to inflation. It has wait-listed education and health care. It has wait-listed tax cuts. It has wait-listed agriculture. It has wait-listed an energy plan to defend our economy. It has wait-listed any kind of national highway program.

My view and the NDP's view is that the government has failed with the most incredibly poor budget we have ever seen in this country. It does not help people. It helps the very rich and the very wealthy families and corporations. As a result, I can assure every one of my constituents who have written to me that I will stand in the House and I will vote against the budget. I think it is the wrong budget for Canadians and for western Canada in particular.

[Canadian National Soccer Team, February 28th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I am thrilled to join with all Canadians in congratulating the Canadian National Soccer Team, captained by Jason DeVos in its stunning 2-nil Gold Cup victory yesterday over 24th ranked Colombia. Ranked 85th in the world prior to this tournament, Canada's team played brilliantly in the final game.

As a former soccer coach and father of an aspiring soccer player, I congratulate the coaches, the volunteers, the organizers and fans whose hard work and commitment have helped to bring this great honour to Canada. This victory will give a huge lift to the whole soccer movement in the country. In FIFA President Sepp Blatter's own words, “They got to this Gold Cup on merit”.

I especially recognize the contribution of coach Holger Osieck, top tournament scorer Carlo Corazzin, and most valuable player Craig Forrest on this marvellous victory. It was excellent coaching and superb playing by the entire team. We are all very proud of this great accomplishment.

[Division No. 752, February 28th, 2000]

Where do the Liberals stand on this? Where does the Reform Party stand on this?

[Canadian Soccer, February 25th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the Canadian soccer team for making the finals in the Gold Cup.

After a stunning goal in the 68th minute of play, Canada beat Trinidad and Tobago 1 to 0 last night and will play Colombia on Sunday for the Championship of the Americas.

As a former soccer coach and the proud father of a soccer enthusiast, Matthew, I am particularly proud of Canada's soccer achievements.

A lot of expensive equipment, like hockey sticks, is not needed to play soccer. Players need a pair of shorts, good running shoes, energy, a quick mind and the desire to make some good plays. That is why soccer is the most universal sport in the world.

It encourages a common bond between players from Canada and other countries from all parts of every continent in the world.

Canada was ranked 85th in the world but beat 10th ranked Mexico. Our team is now in the finals for the Confederation Cup against Colombia on Sunday. This is truly an accomplishment.

Our congratulations to the coaches, players and all the volunteers who made this victory possible. They have made us all proud.

[Senate, February 24th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate your remarks. The Speaker is always correct in his observations and I respect that. If I have offended anyone, I apologize.

I will continue my remarks by saying that the Senate can never be reformed. The Reform Party members have said that the Senate costs us $60 million and that they want to reform it. They want an elected Senate which will cost Canadians $120 million or more every year to operate. If we put this question to a referendum and asked Canadians if the Senate should be abolished, my sense is that they, in a unanimous way—probably around 80% to 90%—would support the abolition if the alternative, as the Reform has said, will cost twice as much money.

I put the case forward that if we abolish the Senate we would encourage Canadians to petition us in the House of Commons to strike yet one more level of government that would cost all this money. I bet there would not be a lot of people signing a petition to do that.

The reason I say that is because we are already overgoverned in this country. We have municipal governments, urban hamlets, towns and villages, rural municipalities, counties, school boards, hospital boards, provincial governments, the federal House of Commons and the Senate. We have more governments than people want to pay for. They are asking us to downsize the number of politicians not to increase the number of politicians.

What we should be doing instead is undertaking a referendum on the abolition of the Senate. We should be downsizing the number of politicians we have in the House of Commons and eliminate the Senate. We should argue and put the case forward for more democracy for the members of parliament who are elected to represent constituents in this very important Chamber.

We should, for example, have a forced representation system to empower Canadians to elect as many individuals as they see fit. Whether they vote for the NDP, the Bloc, the Reform Party, the Liberal or the Conservative Party, their vote would count. Therefore, on a percentage basis, if the Conservative Party got 20% of the votes it would get 20% of the seats in the House of Commons. The same would go for the NDP, the Bloc, the Reform Party and the Liberal Party. This means that Canadians would have a vote that counted as opposed to the vote they now have where, in many ridings, they cast a ballot for candidates in political parties that do not get elected.

We should also move to more free votes in the House of Commons. This would empower members of parliament. Committees would be a little more worthwhile and a little more important if we gave members of parliament a little more authority in committees. If we made committees more democratic they could actually look at reviewing the thousands of appointments made by the Liberal government every week and month. They could make sure that appointments were reasonable and fair and that the people who were appointed were fairly competent, as opposed to the many cases where they are not.

The final check and balance we need once the Senate is gone is to have less power in the Prime Minister's office. Let us share the power with some of the cabinet members and some of the members of parliament like they do in other countries through the proportional representation system.

I want to tell a story that I think is very important. If we were to have two elected bodies at the federal level, including an elected Senate that the Reform Party is always pushing for to spend more money on government and politics, the result would be gridlock.

I had the honour and the occasion to meet Bob Dole's campaign manager. Bob Dole ran for president of the United States four years ago. His campaign manager told me that he admires the Canadian democratic process because in the House of Commons the government is accountable every day to the opposition which is elected by other Canadians. He said that what they have in the states is total gridlock. He told me that he was withdrawing from the political process because all they have are very wealthy individuals getting elected to congress and the senate, who are looked after in terms of their priorities and their time by the 12,000 registered lobbyists in Washington. He said that only the wealthy had access to their politicians. They are not accountable every day as we are in this House. We may not like the answers we get in question period, we may not like the things the government says from time to time, but the importance is that we have a democratic process in this country that with the House of Commons alone, if it was empowered in terms of more Canadians becoming involved, empowered because we would have more individual influence on committees, on free votes and so on, we have a very democratic process here.

I maintain that another elected Senate would be a gridlock. It would be counterproductive, costly and I do not think Canadians really want it.

With respect to my colleague from Sarnia—Lambton who does support the abolition of the Senate, as I and all other members of the NDP do, I am not sure we will able to support the motion, although individually some might. However, I really believe that spending extra money on the Senate at this time is throwing good money after bad. We should try to husband our resources like they are our resources, as opposed to the ministers' and the Prime Minister's money.

We should husband the resources that are given to us by the taxpayers and make sure they are spent efficiently and more wisely than we actually are spending them right now.