Mr. Speaker, we are talking about Bill C-10, an affront to Canadians. It is a very short bill. It is only about one page long but it has a very long tail on it.
I was reading in the Edmonton Journal a few days ago that this weekend there will be a comet coming into our view. We will be able to see something very small in the universe with a very long tail. I thought it quite appropriate that it would show up this weekend since here we are talking about a very short bill with a very long tail. We will be paying for this for years, decades and so on. We will pass it on to our grandchildren.
Clause 2(1) states the Minister of Finance may raise money by way of loan or by the issue and sale of securities of Canada in such amounts not exceeding $18.7 billion. That is $18.7 billion the Minister of Finance will hang around the necks of Canadians in the next 12 months. If that falls under his realm of good government I do not know why I am standing here and I do not know why he is standing there trying to tell Canadians this is good for us. It is not.
Eighteen billion, seven hundred million dollars of new borrowing dumped on the backs of the hundreds of billions of dollars that we already owe is an affront and has to stop. That is why the Reform Party members said let us get the job done and let us get it done now.
One of the previous speakers talked about the reallocation of resources and how good this was. The Minister of Finance is reallocating resources because he is cutting programs to the poor, he is cutting programs to the needy, he is cutting programs to families and he is transferring that money to the rich bankers and the wealthy people from around the world who now enjoy the greatest, richest and largest transfer program in the history of Canada.
According to the Minister of Finance's projections when he took office in 1993 it was consuming $38 billion of Canadians' hard earned taxes paid. By the time he goes back to the people in 1997-98 that program will have grown to $49 billion, the largest and most expensive statutory program in the history of the country. It benefits no one but the rich at the expense of the poor.
That is why the Reform Party is very concerned about the deficit. That is why the Reform Party said the deficit has to be eliminated. The growth of this program has to be stopped now. We in the Reform Party are concerned that we have money available to help those who need it, not those who want to take it from us.
That is the fundamental difference between Reform and those people on the other side who say let us ease this thing down gently so nobody gets their nose out of joint. That is not what it is about. It is about ensuring we can afford what is needed.
I hope the Minister of Finance and the people who support him on that side of the House realize the clock is ticking and the longer it ticks, the greater the chances he will run off the rails and the job will never get done. I could go on at considerable length.
I am also very disappointed that the Minister of Finance stands in the House and tells us about how he is meeting his targets, how wonderful the Liberal government is, how we should have confidence in the government and in what it is doing. Let us look at what it is doing.
Did anyone see the reference to Nav Canada in the Globe and Mail today? Nav Canada is this new not for profit monopoly the government is creating to run our air navigation services. I have a little problem with the monopoly but let us leave that aside for the moment.
The government is going to force Nav Canada to go out into the money markets to borrow $3 billion to buy these assets to pay for some kind of $1.5 billion profit the government is going to make as it sells these assets and turfs them over to this new not for profit monopoly called Nav Canada. The government is going to end up with a $3 billion windfall from the sale of assets that belong to the people of Canada paid for with taxpayers' money.
Did the Minister of Finance tell us: "Oh by the way, while I meet my deficit projections it is because of the windfall profits that I forced them to go out, borrow the money and give it to me"? Did he tell us that? No.
What about the fact that he has changed the rules in the collection of UI premiums to force people with large incomes to pay all the premiums in the first few months rather than spreading it out over 12 months? This forces them to pay sooner which means the government gets its money in this year instead of next year, and generates a $500 million windfall. Did he tell us that? No.
Did he tell us that when he got rid of the $2 bill and introduced a $2 coin which falls apart that through this whole concept called seigniorage the government is going to get a windfall profit of $500 million this year? Did he tell us that? No.
Did he tell us that while he is not increasing income taxes at all and has not for quite some time that people who are 69 and 70 years of age can no longer get a tax deduction for contributing to their RRSPs? They are now going to start paying taxes on the annuity as they start withdrawing from their RRSPs because he has changed the rules which force them to do that. No, he did not tell us.
Did he tell us that he is going to change the rules in child support to collect another $240 million out of the pockets of the people who in many cases need every penny they can to provide for the kids because there are two homes involved? In doing so a whole new business for the lawyers is going to be created so that money goes into the pockets of the lawyers rather than to feed the kids. Did he tell us that? No. It goes on and on.
He has forced small business proprietorships to go through endless hoops and expensive accounting bills in order for him to suck the money out of their pockets by changing their fiscal year end from whatever it was to December 31. He can collect his money faster and they have to scrape it out of somewhere, he does not care where, so that he can get a windfall bonus by squeezing it out of the people who are trying to create jobs. And he boasts about not increasing taxes.
He extended the surtax on banks so he will collect another $40 billion next year even though that was supposed to pay the way and he tells us he did not increase taxes. Smoke and mirrors, deception at every turn. The Canadian people are being led down the garden path.
The government talks about waste and the Minister of Finance talks about it explicitly twice in the budget speech. He was going to wring waste out of the system in order to ensure the taxpayers' money is well spent.
I read an article in the Globe and Mail today about Nav Canada. We have about 6,000 civil servants who are going to ``lose their jobs'' with the government. The following morning they will have a new job, which is the old job, working for a new employer which is this not for profit monopoly set up by the government. This new job, which is exactly the same as the old job, and they did not notice except the name on the paycheque is different.
These civil servants are going to share in a $200 million bonus. They get their severance pay because they are being laid off from their government job and they will be transferred in an off balance sheet situation.
The government can collect its $3 billion windfall profit. It is going to cost the taxpayers, people who are looking for jobs, people who are trying to keep their jobs and people who are not sure they are going to have a job next year, $200 million in severance pay for people who are not even going to be out of work one single day. It goes on and on. It is a shame and it is disgraceful.
I have one final point. I rather hate to bring this up but I do have to raise child care and child support. The government is now going to legislate child care and child support. I really appreciate the heartfelt sincerity of the member from Mississauga. Why for example in Alberta, does a parent with three children, who makes $38,000 going to have to pay $750? Parents in every province will have to pay over $700, yet in the province of Quebec and only in the province Quebec it drops below $700 all the way down to $640. Why the exception for that province?
There are many other things I would like to get on the record but my time is up.