Mr. Speaker, a major portion of Reform's so-called taxpayers' budget has to do with its radical proposals for a $15 billion cut in social security spending. This is an ill thought out proposal which we heard before from Reform during the social security reform process.
The reform of Canada's social programs is a necessary, valuable and timely exercise. Its impact will be better programs and services that deliver the best results. Its impact will be actions that meet our highest priorities. With those outcomes in the balance, it is a process that deserves thought, care and creativity.
To date, and I include today's debate in this comment, it is not a process to which the Reform Party has added much beyond shopworn clichés and one track slogans. That unfortunate reality was exemplified by the Reform members' contribution, if I can use that term, to the recent report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development. Much of the thinking, or lack thereof, that went into the Reform position also characterizes their interventions today.
Reform Party members appear to have a problem with social programs: they cost money. In their vision of Canada, families take care of their own and charities take care of the rest. This is just like the 1930s.
There is only one big problem for them in that vision: Canadians do not buy it. Canadians understand the value of social programs. They understand many of the flaws in the status quo and they want changes. However, they do not accept a social vision based on a déjà vu as the answer to every problem.
Today's Reform Party budget has a principle of equality of contribution which states that the burden of reduction must fall least heavily on the most vulnerable members of our society. Yet Reform's proposals would have completely the opposite effect.
Instead of helping those most in need, Reform Party members would cut seniors pensions by $3 billion. How would this help the most vulnerable in our society? They would eliminate all regional differentiation and all non-UI components. How would this help the poorest regions of the country, workers who need training or women who want maternity leave? They would cut aboriginal programs by 24 per cent. How would this help one of the poorest groups and arguably the neediest group of Canadians? They would cut equalization payments by $3 billion, or 35 per cent. How would this help the poorest regions of the country or Canadians who really need help?
These proposals would burden the most vulnerable members of our society, not help them. In the same vein, Reform's minority report was a sad collection of opinions desperately masquerading as fact. It showed the utter lack of depth in Reform members' thinking. It displayed a complete lack of attention to many of the important issues shaping our economy today, issues clearly outlined in the green paper released last fall.
Canadians deserve better and this government is determined to provide that. In my remarks I want to talk about the vision behind the government's perspectives on social security reform. I want to look at questions that face Canada and its social programs, questions for which the government has offered real proposals. I will then compare that to the silence or simplistic if not outright contradictory opinions of the Reform opposition.
Was the Reform minority report weak? This House may not simply take my word for it. Take the word of the hon. member for Calgary North. She was quoted in the Ottawa Citizen on February 8 that aspects of her party's report ``were not thought through very well before they were rushed into print''.
Canadians expect much more from their members of Parliament. I could not agree more and I can see no evidence of improvement in the position taken in today's debate. On an issue of this significance do Canadians not have the right to expect thoughtful analysis and vision? The government has done its part. Why have my hon. friends on the opposite side not done theirs?
Indeed, this government is committed to doing even more. Social security reform remains an integral component of the government agenda, rebuilding the system so that it meets the priorities of today and of tomorrow.
These are important issues and will meet the objectives set down in the green paper. What were they? It was to help Canadians get jobs and keep them. It was to help the most vulnerable in our society with the focus on child poverty. It was to do that in an affordable manner.
The report of the committee is one important contribution to determining how those changes will take place but of course it is not the only one. That takes me to the first point I want to raise in analysing the Reform's minority report.
The first issue the Reform Party raised was that of consultation. Reading Reform's comments one might think that this report was the beginning and the end of the consultation process, that some ideologically high bound government had decided to set up a sham process that would freeze Canadians out.
I ask these questions: Would this be the same government that has already received more than 40,000 social security reform workbooks from Canadians? Would this be the same government that has helped more than 200 members of Parliament hold town hall meetings on social security reform, drawing more than 20,000 people? Would this be the same government that has communicated with 7,000 people via Internet, 35,000 via a 1-800 number, as well as receiving 3,000 letters addressed to the minister directly?
This government is consulting. Reform Party members may not have liked to have heard from legitimate groups with valid perspectives as it travelled across Canada. They may have wished to have heard from more individuals, but you simply cannot make the leap from that complaint to the implication that there has been no opportunity for Canadians to offer comments. Far from it. This government has undertaken the most wide ranging consultation on any issue ever.
More than 100,000 Canadians have had their say in one way or another during the past year on this issue. Most Canadians do not accept the extremist views displayed by the Reform Party. They do not buy what Reform is peddling on social programs.
Canadians have made it clear that they want to see change, not destruction, and they are right. They believe governments must invest in people, address child poverty and support those individuals with low incomes. They are right. They believe we can do a better and more efficient job, and they are right. They want governments to work together and Canadians are right again. That is what the consultation process told us. That is what we, as a Liberal government, are prepared to do for the people of Canada.
The second issue the minority report raises is a complaint about the alleged lack of scope in this exercise. From the point of view of the Reform Party, all social programs are alike; they are all drains on the public purse and should be treated as such. Of course, this is not surprising.
The Reform symphony still only knows one tune, well over a year after its arrival in this House: the deficit is the only thing that matters. Of course the deficit matters. The government has been extremely clear on this issue. Our programs must be affordable. But the deficit is one consideration in designing a new social safety net. It is not the sole rationale for action or the sole test of options.
Reform's commitment to take $15 billion from social programs leaves so many unanswered questions. Time does not permit me to even start listing just a few of them. I am content to let Canadians ask Reform members instead. That is the Reform idea of scope.
For the government, the scope of this exercise is those programs and spending that relate to working, learning and security. The emphasis is on those programs that help people who are, could be, or will be in the labour market.
Health care does not fit this and it is undergoing its own study. The needs of seniors do not fit this and they will be discussed elsewhere. Canadians understand this. They understand that we want social programs that help people prepare for real jobs.
The so-called logic of the Reform Party would have included our defence and foreign policy reviews in this exercise. After all, does the deficit not matter in each of those too? No, the scope of this exercise is logical, intelligent and consistent.
That brings me to Reform's third issue of division in the committee's report and the green paper. Most of the Reform's position in both the minority report and today's debate is based on allegations regarding the government's vision of social programs and a mish-mash of ideas that Reform members trumpet as their own vision.
We can look and look through their comments and find a lot about the "how" of Reform's approach to slashing programs. What we will not see is any "why". Oh, there are claims about principles such as self-reliance and decentralization. But nowhere do we read a consistent, logical analysis of the social and economic issues facing Canadian families.
Nowhere do we find a thought through perspective on what social programs can do to help people and our economy. All we see is a series of other people's ideas and notes about programs that countries such as Chile and Singapore are trying. However, where is the social and economic vision to link them? There is not one.
What vision there might be lies between the lines. For example, Reform members continue to critique our work to expand the number of good quality child care spaces in Canada. In fact, not long ago they found one. It was an unpublished study which they claim shows that the product of child care will be a generation of depressed, stressed criminals. We are dealing here with people who read one report which has very little relationship to reality.
Given the real world, parents who must work to meet their family needs, how can they say those things? How can they ignore the mass of evidence that good child care can actually help kids, especially those from backgrounds which are far less privileged than those of the average Reformer?
Forcing women out of the workforce by drying up good quality child care is not my idea of a sound social or economic policy. However, stands such as that make the Reform vision for Canada obvious.
Now Reform members may say that is not fair, so let me ask my hon. friends to spell out the issues that face Canadians. What would be the most important priorities for social programs to address? How do we balance the competing demands for action, all of which have at least some legitimacy?
I ask this because I realize that in the world inhabited by the Reform Party there is only one issue, the deficit. There are no other challenges. Government should set aside all other priorities and just hack and hack until the debt is eliminated. That is the beginning and the end of their vision on any subject.
Obviously the deficit is a priority of the government. The need to bring expenses and revenues into line is essential. We are taking action to reach that goal, as we promised Canadians. However, Canadians expect governments to achieve many goals with intelligence, co-ordination and a sense of priority. The deficit is an important one, indeed a critical one, but it is not the only one.
Families, workplaces and the entire society have changed dramatically in the decades since many of the social programs were first envisioned. Unemployment insurance, social assistance and training programs were designed in days which were very different from today. Today workplaces are full of people who juggle home and family responsibilities, often as single parents. They take part time courses to develop new skills. They face uncertain career paths. Above all, they are required to be more flexible in every facet of their lives than ever before. They recognize their responsibilities but they also need some help.
Social programs can be improved to help people. We can identify the priorities for the limited funds that are available. That is the art of governing. It is what citizens have a right to expect from their government.
The proposals that the government has discussed with the provinces, business, labour, social action groups and all Canadians reflect that vision. All are rooted in the jobs and growth agenda which the Prime Minister set out in his speech in Quebec City at the Chamber of Commerce last September. As he noted, our social and economic priorities are linked closely together. We cannot meet the needs of Canadians without a strong economy. No strong economy is based on a society polarized into haves and have nots. We know social programs that respond to the most important needs can build our economy, even if the Reform Party does not want to believe it.
Let me discuss one aspect of our changing economy, learning. We are in a world in which skilled needs are changing faster than we can identify. We have a world in which people are challenged by new technologies and opportunities. The government's vision of social programs will realize the potential of these changes and help Canadians to harness them.
Compare that to the vision of the Reform Party.
I would ask my hon. friends where is their perspective on the training issues facing older workers? Where is their perspective on helping young people get real job skills that employers need in high technology fields? Where is the analysis of how to make life long learning work in an economy where people will change jobs and employers more often than ever before?
Any talk of a new economy is utterly absent in the comments of the Reform Party. The government believes in working with employers and workers to address the needs of their industries. Our work with sectoral councils has identified needs and initiated action plans.
What would Reformers do in the real world of these needs? Would they let the growth sectors of our economy wither? Would they claim that some magic tax cut will let them solve all of their problems? The government has done better.
For example, we have begun to address both the needs of industries and the employment problems facing young people through innovative partnerships. The government has entered into agreements with employers, workers and educators in fields such as horticulture, tourism and automotive repair under our youth internship program. We are working with them to develop the training that young people need to fill the skilled jobs that are available. We are working with them to create a climate that will attract even more job opportunities to our country.
Compare that to the do-nothing attitude of the Reform Party. We are working with provinces and territories to explore new and better ways of meeting the needs of people through our strategic initiatives program.
This example of federal-provincial co-operation is alive and well with many provinces. We are working with them on a pilot project called Integrated Training Centres for Youth. This is to help our young people.
I would like to conclude by saying that social security reform is a chance to recognize the real needs out there. The status quo does not meet them. It is a chance to cut today's suit to fit today's cloth and no one wants the tattered rags being flogged by the Reform Party.