Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise on this motion that has been brought forward by the member for Saskatoon-Clark's Crossing.
In his motion he suggests that while the reform of the tax system needs to go ahead, it needs also to be harmonized and integrated with the reform of the Canadian system of social security.
If we look at what is involved in reforming a tax system and what is involved in reforming a social security system we can see some very complicated and very difficult, long and tedious hard work to do.
For instance, if we look at the GST, a very small portion of the taxation system that is now being reviewed with a view to changing it and making it better, we see that hours and hours of study need to go into it, consultation, hearing from the people affected by it.
It would seem even this small area within the taxation system that needs to be reviewed takes a lot of work. We can imagine the effort it is going to take to completely review the entire tax system.
At the same time, with the social safety net review the Minister of Human Resource Development has begun an unprecedented consultation across this nation with provinces, with citizens across this country to find out what they are thinking about these issues, what the problems are, what the needs of Canadians are.
In this motion it is suggested that these two massive reviews be brought together. I see a lot of danger in this. This proposition in my view would delay reform in an interminable fashion, years to complete this type of integrated review.
I am not saying that there is not overlap in specific areas between the taxation system and the social safety net system. For instance, we have the child tax benefit, child care expense deduction, the personal pension income credit, the age credit, the disability tax credit, the medical expense tax credit and there are certain other tax measures for people who have disabilities within the taxation system which assist with the social safety net.
Where there are these links, they can be dealt with on their own. There does not have to be a complete linking of these reviews. What is so dangerous about this is that we can see that our present welfare system and much of our social safety net system are designed and have created dependencies across this country.
Welfare and a lot of the housing and things like that, all the things that have gone together to compose the social safety net, have become a prison from which people cannot escape.
I have gone around my riding a number of times before the election and after the election. When I talk to people who are on social assistance there is no doubt that they want to work. What is the biggest inhibitor to going to work? It is the dependency and the rules created and put in force dealing with welfare that keep people from being able to earn money, that keep people from using their initiative and drive to make better lives for themselves and their families, that keep people from having the dignity that comes with having a job and putting bread on the table.
What worries me is that if these two major reforms are brought together the pace of reform is going to slow down to nothing. Then perhaps that is what the hon. member who is proposing the motion wants. Perhaps he wishes to keep a system in place that is going to prevent people from getting away from the dependencies that have been created by this very system.
That cannot happen in this nation. It cannot happen in my riding. There are too many people who have been asking for years for the opportunity to get out of the system that presently holds them captive. We cannot take a chance that this type of reform will be derailed, that it will be stalled.
We want to see a simplified tax system. We want to see an equitable tax system. We want to see the deficit go down. The Liberal Party has stated that it wishes to see the debt go down to 3 per cent of the GDP within the first three years, but we want to see people go back to work. We have undertaken a number of initiatives to achieve that, whether it is our infrastructure program, whether it is a number of the small business initiatives, or whether it is other initiatives designed to get people back to work.
I do not think we should delay what we are going to do any longer. I think the motion is designed to do exactly that, not to allow another generation to go forth before getting rid of a system that creates dependency. The people need to be free to succeed and the Government of Canada is committed to making that happen.