Jim Flaherty

[The Budget, April 27th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to fiscal restraint, which I must say is a term that is likely foreign--

[The Budget, April 27th, 2006]

Certainly, Mr. Speaker, we will commit to fiscal restraint, not a 15% increase in spending, which we suffered under the hands of members opposite in the past year. When it comes to managing taxpayers' money, we do not belong to the David Dingwall entitlement society, resulting in a payment of $417,780 of taxpayers' money when that minister was responsible for saying, what was it, “voluntary” or “involuntary”. I forget which it was, but I am sure the former minister can remember.

[Federal Accountability Act, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be taking part in the debate about the Federal Accountability Act.

On January 23, Canadians from coast to coast voted for a new Conservative government. They did this for several reasons. They wanted change because they were tired of scandals, mismanagement of their hard-earned tax dollars and of government not delivering on its promises. They voted for a new government which would replace a culture of entitlement with one of accountability.

I cannot help noting the release a week or so ago of the report by the arbitrator, retired Justice Adams, about Mr. Dingwall's case. The government of the day said in this place that his leaving his post at the Mint was voluntary. The independent arbitrator, the retired justice, said in his report that it was clearly involuntary.

It is the notion of being entitled to one's entitlements that Canadians want changed. They want a government that will now put the interests of the country ahead of the interests of a privileged few. This is an exciting chapter in our country's history. Canada's Conservative government is turning over a new leaf. We trust in the Canadian people and our goal is that Canadians will once again trust in their federal government.

Our government has promised to deliver on five key priorities: reducing the GST from 7% to 6% and then to 5% over the course of our mandate, and I look forward to delivering the budget on Tuesday in this place; cracking down on gun, gang and drug crime; giving parents a choice in child care with the $1,200 allowance, and by providing tax credits to employers who cover the full cost of creating child care spaces; working with the provinces and territories to establish a patient wait times guarantee in health care; and restoring trust and accountability to government with this bill, the federal accountability act.

Accountability is the foundation on which Canada's system of responsible government rests. An accountable government assures Parliament and Canadians that their government is using public resources efficiently, effectively and honestly. It also promotes ethical practices, since actions undertaken by the government must be motivated by the public interest and carried out in accordance with legislation and policy.

Accountability means that those who manage public resources must be prepared to report openly on results achieved. A high degree of transparency makes government more accountable and is vital to the effective and meaningful participation of citizens and organizations in developing sound public policy.

Canadians expect politicians and public servants to adhere to the highest ethical standards.

Recent political scandals, notably those concerning government sponsorship and advertising activities, have contributed to a further erosion of Canadians' trust and confidence in their government. They have brought issues of accountability, transparency and integrity to the forefront of public discussion and debate.

On November 4, 2005 when he first introduced the federal accountability act to Canadians as leader of the official opposition, the Prime Minister gave his word that if elected, our first priority would be to clean up government by introducing and passing the act. The Prime Minister committed that this act would be the first piece of legislation presented to the Parliament of Canada, which it is.

On April 11 the President of the Treasury Board did just that. He tabled Canada's first federal accountability act, the toughest anti-corruption legislation in Canadian history.

With this act the government is creating a new culture of accountability that will forever change the way business is done in Ottawa. We are holding government to a new standard never contemplated before. We will restore the principle that government should serve the public interest of all Canadians, not the personal interest of its members, nor the political interests of the party in power.

We will also restore Canadians' faith in our public institutions by making them more accountable and effective. The federal accountability act will enable Canadians to once again have faith in the integrity of the political process. With this legislation, our government will tighten the laws around political financing and lobbying.

We will ensure government is more accountable by eliminating the undue influence of big money donors, banning large personal and corporate donations to political parties, toughening the rules surrounding government lobbying, providing real protection to whistleblowers, ensuring government contracting is proper, fair and open, improving access to information, making the federal government more transparent and accountable by increasing the power of independent officers of Parliament, such as the Auditor General, and ensuring truth in budgeting.

Every day, Canadians in my riding of Whitby—Oshawa and across this country leave their homes and their families to go to work and earn a living. They work hard and they work long so that they can provide not only for themselves, but also for the people they love and who depend on them. The government is obligated to treat the tax dollars from hard-working Canadians with respect, to manage their money prudently and to give its citizens the opportunity to see where it is being invested.

The money that the government spends and manages does not belong to the government, but to Canadian taxpayers, who work hard to earn that money.

Most of my hon. colleagues are likely aware that under the previous government, federal spending jumped by almost 15% in one year. That is more than six times the rate of inflation. As the Prime Minister concluded, that kind of spending is simply unsustainable. We must do a better job of controlling government spending and making every dollar count.

We must also do a better job of budgeting and forecasting. Canadians deserve to know the true state of their economy and to live within a budget which is based on accurate, open and honest figures. We must put an end once and for all to the previous government's habit of getting it wrong. Governments cannot be held to account if Parliament and Canadians do not know the real state of public finances.

For example, in the spring of 2004, the Liberal government told Canadians that the 2003-04 surplus would be only $1.9 billion. It was in fact $9.1 billion. As the Prime Minister likes to say, it was a case of fiscal dyslexia. In the 2005 budget, the Liberal government estimated the 2005-06 surplus to be $4 billion. In the economic update only nine months later, the estimate had ballooned to $13.4 billion.

The International Monetary Fund has pointed out that the Liberal government consistently underestimated its budget surpluses for the past 10 years and suggested that Canada is the only country that shows such consistent errors. The IMF stated that Canada's federal government was the only one among the group of 11 countries studied, including all of our sister and brother countries in the G-7, that both underestimated revenues and overestimated spending every year since 1995. This cannot continue.

That is why with the federal accountability act we will expand the mandate and resources of the non-partisan Library of Parliament by establishing within it the first ever position of parliamentary budget officer. The officer will have the mandate to provide analysis to the Senate and the House of Commons concerning the state of the nation's finances and trends in the national economy, to undertake economic and fiscal research for the Standing Committee on Finance, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance on the request of these committees, and estimate the cost of proposals currently or prospectively under consideration in either House when asked to do so by a member, a committee of the Senate or House of Commons, or a committee of both Houses. As well, instead of providing fiscal forecast updates once each fall, our government will provide them quarterly.

These measures will increase transparency in the government's fiscal planning framework and enable Parliament to better hold government to account. Our purpose, our commitment in all of this, is to make government more accountable, disciplined and effective. I look forward to the budget speech on Tuesday when I hope I can assist in moving forward that agenda of accountability, discipline and effective government.

[Post-Secondary Education, April 26th, 2006]

The Liberals published reports and they published papers. They had all kinds of ideas and there was all kinds of verbiage. They had lots of issues surrounded, but they did not take the steps to get the job done.

We will get going on getting the job done on Tuesday.

[Post-Secondary Education, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, if these issues were so important to the members opposite in the Liberal Party, what were they doing for 13 years?

We have a lot to do, and the initiatives--

[The Economy, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity to speak to some members of other parties in consultation and preparation for the budget. Certainly, the issues he raises, concerning competitiveness and productivity and the Economic Union in Canada, are important to all Canadians.

I thank him for the work he has done on those subjects over the years, and I invite him to wait for Tuesday to see the initiatives in the budget.

[The Economy, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, there was indeed reference to the competitiveness of the Canadian Economic Union in the Speech from the Throne and there will be more references on Tuesday next when the budget is delivered.

I would ask the member to kindly be patient and wait until next Tuesday to see the initiatives in the budget.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member opposite that no moneys have been spent. The moneys will be referred to in the budget on May 2 and I invite the member to await that.

In terms of what is important to Canadians who voted for change, they want lower taxes. We are committed to providing all Canadians with lower taxes, unlike the member opposite and the other members of the save the GST club who want to keep taxes high for Canadians.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the budget will announce what disposition is being made of whatever surplus there is next Tuesday. There are conditions, as the Prime Minister has indicated, to any funding that there might be under Bill C-48, including necessary levels of surplus and the allocation of those funds. That will have to wait until May 2.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, what we will not see in the budget in 2006 are the kinds of flip-flops we saw last year where a corporate tax was supposed to be reduced, for example, in budget 2005 and then a deal was made to change that.

We take positions on issues. We do not surround and embrace issues. Our positions will not be contradictory like the positions in the save the GST club opposite.