Committees Of The House  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to debate the prebudget motion with respect to the report of the Standing Committee on Finance. I have had experience with the committee since I sit on it as an associate member and I have attended many of its hearings. I appeared before it in my former capacity as a taxpayer advocate.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, Bernice Lee runs a dry cleaning and mending shop in Edmonton while her husband Philip works on the side to help raise their four children. Despite working from six in the morning until well into the night six days a week, she tells me that she is barely able to hang on.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, had we been in power, the budget would have been balanced two years ago and tax relief would have been delivered by now. Government revenue has gone up by $26 billion. The minister may call that a tax cut but I call it a tax hike. People like Bernice Lee are struggling today and still have not seen any tax relief.

Kyoto  Mr. Speaker, Canadians cannot believe what they are hearing from the prime minister today. Virtually every major economic think tank in the country projected serious economic costs to all Canadians if we sign on to legally binding emissions limits in the Kyoto deal. Could the prime minister, instead of avoiding the question again, tell the House whether or not his government has projected the possible economic ramifications of the Kyoto deal?

Kyoto  Mr. Speaker, partisan rhetoric like that may have been fine four weeks ago, but right now our delegation is in Kyoto making decisions that will affect the economic livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Canadian families. The government has a responsibility to tell us what the consequences will be.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the comment made by the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. His comment regarding pluralism really strikes at the heart of this matter. There is a fashionable idea among secular small l liberals, and I do not mean to include the hon. member in that category.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, first of all with respect to Professor Bayefsky's position as quoted in the majority report, I disagree with her. Referring to the other two covenants which I referenced, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that education shall be free and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says that primary education shall be compulsory and available, free to all.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, yes I can enlarge on it. The point is that religious syncretism which is implied by the new non-denominational courses in religion under the proposed new term is contrary to the basic values that many families hold. The values they hold are to look at the world from a particular religious perspective rooted in tradition in many cases going back 2,000 years.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise in debate on the resolution to amend term 17. I sat as an associate member on the joint special parliamentary committee dealing with this term. I would first like to recognize that it is an extraordinarily difficult issue requiring the wisdom of Solomon to determine how to vote on this matter.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member from Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte seems to keep referring to members of the Reform Party. Maybe he will understand that this is a free vote where members of different parties are taking different positions. To try to take cheap partisan shots and to draw inferences about what party is supporting what position is totally inappropriate.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for North Vancouver. He is probably the most tenacious and articulate advocate of direct democracy in this place. I share much of his commitment to direct democracy. I share the view, to paraphrase William F. Buckley Junior, that I would rather be governed by the first thousand people listed in the St.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. member for his remarks and particularly for congratulating other members from other parts of the country in taking this matter seriously. This is a matter which affects the Canadian constitution and I think that all legislators, rightfully, should be concerned about it, whether they are for it or against it.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. At the outset of this debate earlier this morning, the hon. Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, whose motion this is, was permitted I think three or four interventions against a member for the Bloc while other members of the opposition were standing up to interject in the same questions and comments period.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, I have a comment and a question. The comment is that the hon. member remarked on how education is a matter of provincial jurisdiction. I think he threw some question on the fact of whether some of us should even be debating this given that it is such a matter of provincial jurisdiction.

Amendment To The Constitution Of Canada (Newfoundland)  Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. lady for her very principled remarks as well as those of the hon. member for St. John's East who I gather is the only elected politician from Newfoundland either here or in the provincial legislature who has taken a position of principle and courage by posing this proposed amendment.