Paul Martin

[Government Expenditures, January 27th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the reference I made yesterday to savagery was to not only the motion made in this House but to the program put forward by members of the Reform Party during the election. They put forward a series of recommendations concerning old age pensions which they said would affect families above $54,000 but in fact affected families below $35,000, going down.

It is certainly not the case that we are reluctant to cut spending. We are very desirous of cutting spending and in fact we intend to do so. But it is precisely because we are not prepared to ignore the cause and the plight of laid-off workers that we are not going to cut spending the way the Reform Party would want us to do.

[The Deficit, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, first of all this government has definite deficit reduction targets. Second, the banks did not say that. Third, what the banks said is that they were waiting to see what was going to happen in the United States. Fourth, the differential between the bank rate and the prime rate today is not by historical standards out of line. Fifth, the fact is that as a result of what this government has done the Bank of Canada is now leading the trend down, not the federal banks.

[The Deficit, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I will answer the question.

We are going to hit our target through a combination of growth, cutting unnecessary spending and building more equity into the tax system. I can tell you that we are not and no one is going to hit that kind of a target with the kind of savagery the member has advocated.

[Income Tax, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, some of my colleagues have suggested that we look at the relative incomes of the Queen and the Governor General.

I take the member's question as a representation and I assure him that the next time I see the Governor General, which I suspect may not be for a long time, I will bring this up.

[Income Tax, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the salary of the Governor General is set taking into account the fact that he does not pay income tax. There is no net loss to fisc.

I would tell the hon. member that I have not discussed this with the Governor General. I have not seen him since I was sworn in and I did not think that the time was particularly propitious at that moment.

[Tax Shelters, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, since these conferences started, we have been talking about dealing with these tax loopholes. I do

not know where he is coming from- No, I know exactly where he is coming from. We have said very clearly that we intend to make the tax system more equitable than it is now, by eliminating tax loopholes.

[Tax Shelters, January 26th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member may be referring to yesterday's conference. Canadians made it very clear to us that they wanted to examine the whole tax base and loophole issue and that they wanted jobs, as we said in our red book.

[Finance, January 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there is some merit in the suggestion and I am sure that we on this side of the House will look at it.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, that in line with the philosophy of the openness of Parliament and giving Parliament every chance what we really want to do is to make sure that the committees of Parliament have a very good shot, a far better shot than they ever had before, at looking at the estimates of the government.

[Finance, January 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that the concept, the philosophy behind the question is one that we on this side of the House, and I would think anybody interested in responsible administration, would share.

It is for that reason that when we took power, what we did in terms of the government's numbers, the deficit estimates at that time, was to follow the recommendations of the public accounts committee and the Auditor General which had not been followed by the previous government and come out with a set of numbers based on generally accepted accounting principles.

[Tax Shelters, January 24th, 1994]

I am sure that you, Mr. Speaker, listened.

I will present my budget when I present it. It will certainly contain measures that were recommended during the meetings in question. That is why we hold these meetings.