Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm almost speechless when I look at this particular clause of what is an omnibus bill. The government has thrown in some good stuff and some bad stuff--and some appalling stuff when we look at part 18 on the Canada Elections Act.
Now, we heard in testimony yesterday from officials that, grosso modo, we are talking about subsidies going to taxpayers of about $86 million for all of the other aspects of the Income Tax Act that already exist, so that's $86 million that is already going to all political parties to support democratic participation in the election process.
We've also heard from other sources that the Senate is about a $300-million bill, and of course, as we know, there has been much controversy about the subsidies through the Senate that are used to subsidize.... Not in our case, Mr. Chair, because New Democrats have never accepted to sit in the Senate; we believe it's an archaic institution. But the Conservatives and the Liberals--particularly the Conservatives--have brought the level of taxpayer subsidy through the Senate to new heights, where senators are directly involved in partisan politics, in supporting Conservative candidates and in supporting Conservative positions.
So we have all of this money that is going to various political parties, and mostly the government--$300 million, $86 million--and what the government is choosing to do is to attack the one component that allows individual Canadians to cast their vote knowing that in some way their vote is going to have an impact on supporting the political party of their choice. That's the one that the government is moving to eliminate, to phase out, to clamp down on.
Why? Because it's the only one where there's a level playing field.
In the Senate, they're certainly not cutting back on expenses. They're certainly not saying to senators, “Don't get involved in the political process”. No, they're spending that $300 million and allowing that money to be spent for partisan purposes. They're certainly not attacking any of the other aspects of the Income Tax Act, because obviously that helps the Conservative Party as much as any other party. This particular component allows individual Canadians to step forward and to cast their vote as they choose for the party of their choice, and it allows for that to have some meaning in public financing.
Mr. Chair, to understand what the government is doing here, we can just reflect on what we see happening in other jurisdictions where money makes the big difference, where money buys political office. Here we have a situation where they are now phasing out what is the most democratic component of what was brought in.
I've had a lot of disagreements with the former Liberal government. This is one aspect of what the Liberal government did that was very positive and very democratic and levelled the playing field.