Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to address some of the recommendations that were made in the report from the finance committee as a result of the prebudget hearings.
I want to come at this from the point of view of regular, average, every day people who may not know a lot about economics but know a lot about what kind of country they want to live in.
It is my view that the real reason for governments, constitutions, laws and all the institutions is for the people. What that says to me is that these institutions and the economy and all of those types of things need to be in alignment with the values of the people. Therefore, when we go about designing these institutions, budgets or laws, we need to know what the values of the people are.
It is a failing of these committees when we travel around that we do not always get input from regular people who express where they are coming from on these things.
It is not just the finance committee but all committees. It is a peculiar problem governments have: the ability to really hear what people are saying. It is something we have to work harder on. Certainly my party will try to help in doing that.
All members go out once in a while to sit in the coffee shops and talk to people about what life is like in the real world. There are some fundamental values that people believe in. I know in my riding they believe in certain values. I would hazard to say that it is probably true for most MPs.
One of the values people really believe in is equal treatment. For instance they believe that under the taxation system people should be treated equally and people should be equal before the law. They oppose anything that seems to grant special privilege to anybody.
That certainly applies to politicians when it comes to their pensions. The hon. member who just spoke was one of the MPs who gave up his pension. I appreciate that. I think that MPs have to lead by example because people do not want to see MPs or people in government getting treatment that is not available to everybody. They believe in equal treatment and they want to see that as one of the principles that finds its way into all institutions.
People believe in the merit principle. They feel that if you work hard and produce more, then you should be rewarded. Value should be recognized in all the things we do. People feel very strongly about this. People are tired of getting beaten up for working harder and producing more.
When we have the heavy a tax load we have in this country, sometimes people feel that way. This is why people are escaping into the underground economy or leaving the country with their talents and going to other countries where the taxes they pay are not so high. In some cases companies go to tax havens around the world to avoid taxes. The merit principle is a value that needs to find its way into all the legislation that comes out of the finance department.
I also think people believe in prudence. People who are successful in their own lives have to be prudent. They have to spend less than they take in. That is something that the government should be working toward doing. I know the hon. member across the way has said that it is working toward doing that but I would argue it has to go much faster still.
People feel very exposed as a result of how slowly the government is going toward its zero deficit target. It has not even announced when it will get there. It will be sometime in the next millennium I guess. Of course between then and now there will be an election. There could be another referendum. There could be a peso crisis. There could be a recession. There could be kinds of things that affect those targets.
If the deficit is not dealt with right away people are left exposed. Canadians' values are opposed to that. They want to have a government that lives within its means, that is prudent and ensures that any decisions made are dealt with by the current generation, that a large debt is not passed on to the next generation. That is something the average person is very much opposed to.
There is probably a lot more to discuss on values. People in this country are compassionate and they are compassionate in a particular way. They really believe that people who cannot look after themselves need to be looked after. That does not mean that a social program for everybody. It means that a social program for those people who cannot look after themselves. That is a small minority, not everybody. We do not need to have universal social programs.
I do not think anybody today would deny that universal social programs have not only helped create some of the social problems in this country where through some of the programs people are actually paid to remain idle. I would also argue that they have really and truly added to the debt problem.
There was a time when people thought that money grew on trees. Programs were expanded-