Mr. Speaker, we have been down this road before about property rights in this House. I might add it is the topic of conversation among many people in this country. It is not surprising that many real estate people are very adamant about property rights. I had a meeting with the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and this was indeed an issue it wanted addressed in the House of Commons.
Motion No. 205 is merely asking that we provide a greater measurement of protection for individual property rights by amending the Canadian Bill of Rights. I have a difficult time understanding why there would be even any reluctance on this issue from this government.
I want to indicate some of the basic fundamental principles on property rights of the Reform Party. Reform principle No. 10 enshrined in the constitution of the Reform Party states:
We believe that the creation of wealth and productive jobs for Canadians is best achieved through the operations of a responsible, broadly-based, free enterprise economy in which private property, freedom of contract and the operations of free markets are encouraged and respected.
What does the Reform policy actually encompass? The Reform Party supports amending the charter of rights to recognize that in Canada there existed and shall continue to exist the right of every person to the ownership, use and enjoyment of property both, real and personal, and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of law. Furthermore, it should recognize that in Canada no person shall be deprived directly or indirectly by any law of Parliament or a provincial legislature of the ownership, use and enjoyment of property unless that law provides for just and timely compensation. That is exactly what my colleague just said so articulately.
Last June the Reform assembly passed the following resolution:
Resolved that the Reform Party go on record as being opposed to legislation that may be enacted by any of the three levels of government which would seek to diminish or deprive individuals of their property without adequate compensation, whether it be real property, intellectual property, or the opportunities associated therewith.
What are property rights? Property rights are the cornerstone of human freedom. Property rights mean freedom from arbitrary interference in one's life by government. Property rights depend on the notion that you own yourself and your labour and neither the government nor the community exercising its power through government may take your property except under three very limiting conditions. The taking of your property must be for public use; the taking of your property must be through due legal process of law; the taking of your property must be with just and timely compensation.
I have been involved in the appropriation of property for a school board which needed property for the purchasing and building of more schools. The process involved even from a local basis should really be enshrined in the bill of rights. It should be very common to all Canadians rather than a province by province or a local district by district implementing their own rules and their own laws.
Property rights guarantee your right not to be deprived of your property either by taking away ownership or by restricting your use, enjoyment or ability to transfer ownership to another person until or unless the three conditions outlined above are met.
Property rights also guarantee your right not to be deprived of the value of your own labour by being compelled to work under conditions not of your choosing or by being forbidden to work under conditions that are of your own choosing.
We have to go back to the issue of where did property rights come from. This is not just an issue that started in Canada. We can go back to Britain or to many countries. I would like to give some quotes. The following quote goes as far back as 1790 and is by Edmund Burke in Reflections on the Revolution in France :
The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice.
In 1937 Walter Lippmann said in the The Good Society : ``The only dependable foundation of personal liberty is the personal economic security of private property''.
These kinds of issues are not something that we have created here today; these have been talked about for years and years. It is like many other issues in the House of Commons; one has to stand here and wonder why it is such an issue. Why is this not just accepted by this government? Rather than it being made a political issue, why does it not just say that it makes common sense, that it is for the good of all people so let us do it? What is the hesitancy?
In 1756 Benjamin Franklin said: "Mine is better than ours". What a great quote. That is truly reflective of property rights.
We have to ask why these property rights need to be strengthened. It is one of our most important rights. If we did not have a written Constitution, the protection of property rights under common law which dates from time immemorial would suffice. However, since we do have a written Constitution that does
entrench certain rights, these rights merely protected by common law or federal statute are regulated to a subordinate status.
Every person's natural and fundamental right to property should be protected as our paramount right. If circumstances do not allow us to entrench property rights in the Constitution, then we should take the next best step and strengthen this right in federal law using the legislative mechanisms and constitutional powers available to the federal government.
One has to ask: What if? Why? How? I will say it again: This government has an obligation to act rationally and responsibly on all issues. Because this happens to be a motion brought up by my colleague on this side of the House does not mean that the government has to oppose it. It means that the government should listen to the motion, ask if it makes sense and proceed from there.
There are times in this House of Commons when politics have to be laid aside. There is nothing wrong with entrenching property rights in this House of Commons in the bill of rights and the charter of rights.