House of Commons Hansard #38 of the 35th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was paramount.
Yvan Loubier Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Mr. Speaker, these developments are very disturbing, and I would ask the Prime Minister to be a little less flippant in his answers, because this particular issue is fundamental. We are not talking about submissions by witnesses but about his own members who came out in favour of applying the GST to health care and medication.
I will direct my question again to the Prime Minister. Does he or does he not support applying a new GST to health care and medication? That is what people want to know.
Jean Chrétien LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows perfectly well that all taxes collected by the government go into the government's consolidated fund and that this money is used to pay for all the government's programs.
Perhaps some people will suggest that we should compartmentalize expenditures and revenues, but that is pure speculation. The government intends to go on collecting taxes and taking these taxes to maintain health care programs. Furthermore, our party has made a clear commitment to maintaining a free and universal health care system for all Canadians.
Jim Silye Reform Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.
Yesterday the Prime Minister stated that the business community reacted positively to the recent budget. I believe he is overstating the case. The fact is that the business community gave qualified acceptance based on the finance minister's promise of a second round of spending cuts. The Prime Minister has publicly contradicted the finance minister, saying that all the cuts for the next three years are in this budget.
What assurances can the Prime Minister give business people that promises made by the finance minister will be kept by this government?
Doug Peters LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, the budget was quite clear in its representations as to what budget cuts would be made. Those budget cuts will reach our goal of a deficit of 3 per cent of GDP in the third year of our mandate. That was a clear and unequivocal statement in the budget and that remains. It was well received by the business community despite what the member says.
Jim Silye Reform Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, the government's failure to seriously address Canada's deficit and debt problem directly contributed and contributes to the increases in interest rates and a drop in the dollar.
On behalf of business people and Canadians who want real jobs, when will the Prime Minister recognize the real problem, the high cost of financing the national debt? When will the government begin to lower its spending so that we can lower taxes and really help the economy?
Doug Peters LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, the last employment statistics indicated that jobs went up in this country in every region.
It is this government's budget that has contributed to that strength in employment. It is this government's budget that is going to contribute to the strength of this country's economy in the future.
Francine Lalonde Bloc Mercier, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Last Saturday, along with more than 1,200 people representing labour, community and citizens groups as well as the assembly of bishops, I attended the forum on social solidarity in Quebec. These people have joined forces to counter rising poverty in Quebec and cuts to social programs.
Will the government admit the obvious and will it recognize that cutting programs at a time when people are in dire straits is not the way to curb the deficit?
Lloyd Axworthy LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification
To begin with Mr. Speaker, the opinions expressed by the demonstration last week express the concerns we all have about ending poverty in this country. We as a government are very committed to that goal.
It is for that reason we have undertaken a major review and reconstruction of most of our programs. In so doing we can enable those who are presently long term unemployed, who have been out of the workforce for a long time and who do not receive proper training, to have the resources dedicated to their ability to get back into the workplace.
The Prime Minister has said many times that the best solution to poverty is a job. We are very much dedicated to reorganizing and reallocating the resources of this government along with the co-operation of the provinces to tackle this very serious problem and to give some real hope to those people who were demonstrating last weekend.
Francine Lalonde Bloc Mercier, QC
Mr. Speaker, in spite of his magnanimous remarks, will the minister not concede that what unemployed workers need is a real employment strategy, not sermons, but jobs? Will he not admit that he needs to implement an employment strategy instead of a deficit reduction policy which calls for cuts to social programs?
Lloyd Axworthy LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification
Mr. Speaker, I am fully aware of the responsibility to help create employment.
The budget presented by the Minister of Finance took a number of initiatives: Stimulating growth in the areas of high technology and small business by developing a whole new strategy for giving access to capital. Funding a major infrastructure program that will kick-start the economy. Funding a number of initiatives to deal with the unemployment problems of young people. Initiating reductions in payroll taxes so that we give further incentives to small business.
I attended the job summit held during the last two days where the seven most powerful industrial countries were looking at this problem of the 35 million people who are unemployed. The prescriptions that came out of that meeting were to stimulate
growth in our industries, to reduce payroll costs and to invest in people. Those are exactly the things this government has done.
Ray Speaker ReformLethbridge
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister sits here today and tells us that he is not going to do anything with the budget. The minister of state sits here and says that everything is okay and everything is great in Canada.
It is time we recognized there are signals not only from this government that are harming the marketplace, but there are signals from the marketplace that the Prime Minister and the ministers of this government should take into consideration, and they should do it today.
I wonder if the Prime Minister recognizes, and this is one of the signals that he should recognize, that interest rate spreads on 10-year Canada-U.S. bonds have increased since the budget came down and continue to increase. This government must act.
The EconomyOral Questions Period
The Speaker
Order. Would the hon. member please put his question.
Ray Speaker ReformLethbridge
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister recognize those signals from the marketplace and if he does, what is he going to do about them in terms of rearranging, changing and adjusting the fiscal plan of this government?
Doug Peters LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. member for his reading of the marketplace and how interested he is in interest rate spreads. I have studied them quite considerably over the years and would tell him that interest rate spreads at the present time are not much different from what they have been. Indeed, the short term rates are very much lower than they have been in the recent past. Our budget is a dead-on plan.
We look forward to seeing that budget and the Canadian economy prosper considerably in the year to come.
Ray Speaker ReformLethbridge
Mr. Speaker, does the government recognize there are other signals out there?
Long term rates are on the increase, 1 per cent above what was projected in the budget. We have a drop in the dollar value. There are foreign investors that have lost confidence in investing and have taken their money out of this country.
What is the Prime Minister prepared to do under those conditions to adjust the budget to meet the needs of the signals in the marketplace?
Doug Peters LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, I suggest that the hon. member look at the budget a little more carefully.
The interest rate assumptions in the budget for long term rates are, as he states, a little bit low but short term rates are where the changes take place. Long term bond rate changes affect maybe a seventh of the total over any year.
I would say that our budget is dead on in that. With the interest rate assumptions that we have made in the budget and if the interest rates continue where they are right now, we will come in at a lower cost of interest than we had in our budget.
Jean-Marc Jacob Bloc Charlesbourg, QC
Mr. Speaker, we heard this morning, in relation to the inquiry into the murder of a young Somali and the actions of certain Canadian peacekeepers in Somalia, that the military police is considering charging several other members of the Second Commando of the Airborne Regiment in Petawawa.
My question is for the Minister of National Defence. Can the minister confirm that the military police is indeed about to lay charges against several other members, including senior officers?
David Collenette LiberalMinister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Speaker, I am glad the hon. member has raised this question. We will be going through a difficult period in the next few months. It will be totally impossible for me, as minister of defence, to make any comment surrounding the courts martial that are now under way as a result of alleged actions by members of our forces a year or so ago in Somalia.
I know it will be difficult for the House, but I hope members will understand that I cannot, as the minister, do or say anything that may impede the cause of justice.
Jean-Marc Jacob Bloc Charlesbourg, QC
Mr. Speaker, it would nonetheless be interesting to hear what the minister thinks of this. On a different note, how can the minister explain that senior officers tolerated that a squadron called the "Rebels Squadron" displayed for several months on the base, in Petawawa, the white supremacists' flag? How could they do that with complete impunity?
David Collenette LiberalMinister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Speaker, again for the same reasons I will not be able to comment on the chain of command or anything to do with the Canadian Airborne Regiment, anything that could be construed as interference in the judicial proceedings.
Rose-Marie Ur Liberal Lambton—Middlesex, ON
Mr. Speaker, the government's budget plan states that a single registration number for businesses dealing with the government will be available in May 1994, eliminating current government duplication and overlap and reducing costs for businesses in their dealings with government.
My question is directed to the Minister of National Revenue. How does the government plan to fulfil its promise to introduce the single business registration number by May 1994 and how will this number reduce costs?
David Anderson LiberalMinister of National Revenue
I thank the hon. member for her question, Mr. Speaker. It will be possible to introduce this program in May of this year on a pilot basis in eight cities across the country. In January of next year we will introduce it Canada-wide. Over the succeeding two years businesses will have the opportunity right across the country of opting into the single business number.
It will make a substantial difference, although it is a relatively straightforward and simple change, to the cost of compliance with National Revenue's requirements with respect to a number of taxes. It will thus increase the efficiency of the system and reduce the paperwork for businesses across the country.
I thank the hon. member for her interest in the matter.
Chuck Strahl Reform Fraser Valley East, BC
Mr. Speaker, I direct my question to the Minister of Health.
Would the minister tell us briefly what safeguards are in place to ensure that political patronage is not a factor in the awarding of advertising contracts within her department?
Diane Marleau LiberalMinister of Health
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I want to reassure him that patronage is not something we wish to use, either within my department or anywhere within government, when it comes to awarding any kind of contract.
Chuck Strahl Reform Fraser Valley East, BC
Mr. Speaker, perhaps the minister would table later in the House of Commons the actual guidelines within her department.
It has been reported that the minister's department awarded McKim Advertising from Winnipeg a contract with a potential value of $184 million just two weeks after Drew Cringan, a former Liberal aide and long time campaign manager, purchased the company.
Was the minister aware of these facts when she approved that contract?