Doug Peters

[Competition Act, April 25th, 1997]

moved that Bill C-67, an act to amend the Competition Act and another act in consequence, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

[Goods And Services Tax, April 24th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question should be addressed to the premier of the province he has indicated. It is not the policies of the Government of Canada he has complained about but the policies of the province of New Brunswick. If he has problems with the provincial politics I suggest he bring those up in provincial parliaments.

[Goods And Services Tax, April 24th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, we are treating the Quebec government exactly the same way under those regulations as we are treating every other province. If the Quebec government had lost funds on the harmonization of the GST and the QST we would have compensated it. It did not lose funds.

As I said yesterday in the House, the Quebec government accounts show clearly that the numbers went from $5.1 billion to $5.4 billion to around $6 billion. That represents an increase every year since harmonization. It has not cost Quebec any funds at all. The Quebec accounts show that.

[Auditor General, April 24th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, let me remind the hon. member that this government is not spending today and paying for it tomorrow. It is setting up a reserve fund and that innovation fund is going to be paid out over the next little while. We have made that commitment and acknowledged that at the time we made it.

This government has not followed the example of the previous governments where we found out some years later that we had a deficit of $42 billion instead of $32 billion. We are not making commitments and then paying for them later. We are making commitments now and we are recognizing those commitments.

The auditor general has stated specifically that our books were in good order for last year.

I would ask the member about this building which he is sitting in. When was it expensed? It was expensed in the budgets of 1917 and 1918 when it was built and we have used it for the last 80 years. We are doing the same thing with the innovation fund. We are setting it up. We have made that commitment. It is there and it will be used over the next few years.

[Auditor General, April 24th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I remind the hon. member that he should read the auditor general's statements. Take a look at them.

The auditor general gave us a clean opinion on his audit statement of the government accounts.

[Auditor General, April 24th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the government has nothing to hide from the auditor general. The auditor general looked over our books and he gave us a clear statement that they were in good shape. The hon. member should be well aware that there was no reservation by the auditor general on the accounts.

[Seniors Benefit, April 23rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is quite right. This is a concern. It is completely wrong, however, to describe senior couples as being disadvantaged under the seniors benefit as compared to single seniors. The base benefit for couples will be twice as great as for singles at the same income level.

Since the GIS has always been targeted to income levels, it is equally appropriate to combine the incomes of higher income couples to determine their levels of benefits. In addition, we use the family income in many instances for targeted benefits and that is what we will do in this case.

[Liberal Government, April 23rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, talk about a party running on empty, I wonder how many times the record shows that same question being asked by the Reform Party.

Let us take a look at the Reform Party's taxpayer budget. What does it state in this taxpayer budget? It says it is going to do this and that but it will cause a little higher unemployment. If we want higher unemployment, we should go to the Reform Party.

We are going to run on our record, and our record in deficit reduction is second to no government in the country. The Globe and Mail quoted a major Japanese newspaper on Japan's adopting Canada's system: ``Canada's method, consisting of the adoption of clear deficit targets and bold cuts that don't spare any of the so-called sacred cows, could very well serve as a model for Japan''.

[Liberal Government, April 23rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I suggest the hon. member look at the labour market statistics which are published each month. I suggest he look at the labour market statistics for October 1993: 11.2 per cent unemployment. That was at the time of the last election. Presently it is down almost 2 per cent to 9.3 per cent. That is a record.

Today the IMF has come out with a new statement. The IMF says that this year and next year Canada will have the highest growth of the G7 countries, 3.4 per cent, which will bring the unemployment rate down even more.

Of course that is not enough. Of course our unemployment rate is too high. We are working on it and are bringing down. That is the Liberal system.

[Goods And Services Tax, April 23rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, when the federal government does the calculation, assuming a full harmonization of the GST and the QST in 1990, using data supplied by Quebec, it still arrives at the conclusion that Quebec simply does not qualify for the adjustment.