Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-31 introduced by the Minister of Finance. This bill makes me somewhat uncomfortable in light of our basic duty, namely debating issues in the public interest and trying to meet as adequately as possible the real needs and basic concerns of those who elected us, without being gagged as is now the case.
In a way, I feel bad about having to speak to such a pernicious and insidious bill. I deplore our having to debate such a bill, which results from a long and laborious plot orchestrated by the hon. member for LaSalle-Émard and supported by the Right Hon. Prime Minister and member for Saint-Maurice, who both represent Quebec ridings.
I must tell you, however, that the support I received from those around me and from many of my constituents have made this a memorable moment in my life as a member of Parliament: acting as the spokesman for an entire community for whom the minister is nothing more than some sort of abstract entity.
When a family man, who turns out to be one of the many victims of the axe wielded by this federal Liberal government, comes to my office to ask for my help in finding work, I feel proud of what I am doing now in condemning this insidious bill as vigorously as possible.
The hon. minister has probably never experienced a situation like that of the family man I just mentioned, at least not personally. Yet, his bill directly affects hundreds of thousands of people who are not necessarily among the disadvantaged or the poor, far from it. This bill, a hodgepodge of tax provisions contained in the last budget, concretely affects the middle class commonly and bluntly described as overtaxed.
While government members applauded the minister's cosmetic budget on March 6, we warned the people against the negative, hidden impact of that statement, whose only purpose was to win votes. Well, here we are. We must now discuss the absurdity and emptiness left behind by the March 6 budget.
The bill in question stems from the same logic that has dictated the government's actions ever since October 1993, and it was acting in good faith-I repeat, in good faith. In fact, the government is enacting a whole series of legislative measures that are so underhanded that it is actually pulling a fast one on the public.
Watching the minister struggle with the media these past few days, I came to the realization, with some astonishment, that all the government is trying to do is to lull the public, deliberately playing with abstract concepts, to make almost everyone lose interest in the process. Who are the big losers in all this? All politicians. Such strategies, understandably, shatter the public's confidence in its politicians.
I have been repeatedly calling the House's attention to a recent opinion poll in which, out of a sample of approximately 40 professions, people were asked which professionals they felt they could trust the most, the least and not at all. You will be surprised to hear that barely four per cent of Canadians trusted their politicians. Although, when we see the Prime Minister, during oral question period, arguing high and low that he did not say that the government would abolish the GST he had condemned so strongly and taking his red book out-which is against the rules-to read a little excerpt that comes in real handy to get him out of this mess, it is understandable that the percentage is not any higher.
It is a good thing that modern technology enables us to produce videos of the 1993 election campaign, in which the Prime Minister and member for Saint-Maurice, in Quebec, can be heard saying, in his very colourful words: "We hate the GST and we will kill it. We will scrap it". This is a strange way to scrap it. Today, he is proposing to hide it, through harmonization, at Canadian taxpayers' expense. We will have to pay the tidy sum of $1 billion to try to hide the mistake he made during the 1993 election campaign and the Liberals' mandate in the opposition, when their friends filibustered in the other place.
Now in power, these same politicians are gagging us. The two young Quebec scholars who recently joined the Liberal team must not be too proud to see the government act against their principles of justice and respect for the people. This is tantamount to saying "we love you", but not showing it. And it is because of prime ministers and members like these that barely four per cent of the population trusts politicians. Our sholarly friends were better off in
their universities; indeed, the confidence rate in universities is significantly higher.
I am not trying to criticize the government's goals to reduce the deficit and to improve the state of public finances, quite the contrary; these are very noble and praiseworthy objectives.
However, I strongly condemn the method used by the government to reach its goals. I am merely trying to show this House the true colours of this government formed by the Liberal Party, the party of forgotten promises, the party that has become a master at promising changes without ever doing anything.
As you know, these blunders cannot be attributed to the government's good faith. I often use the expression "good faith", because the Minister of Finance seemingly made an honest mistake. An honest mistake, can you believe it?
Abolishing the GST was the Liberals' favourite theme during the October 1993 election campaign. Today, in all good faith, they decide to keep this tax and to hide it, as is the case with the taxes on gasoline, tobacco and alcohol products. I challenge members opposite to tell me that, when they last filled their tank, bought a pack of cigarettes, or got a bottle of alcohol or a case of beer, they inquired about the amount of money they were paying in federal or provincial taxes.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure that even you did not check that. Yet, it would be a good thing to do.
This government, and more specifically the Minister of Finance, will hide the GST in at least three provinces. This takes some nerve. While they sat in opposition, the Liberals were opposed to hiding that tax because, they said, the government would gradually increase it. Yet, these same Liberals will turn the GST into a hidden tax.
This really contradicts what the Liberal Party said in its red book. But this does not seem to affect the logic of the members opposite. Even individual promises are not being fulfilled. Indeed, as we are speaking, the Prime Minister should normally be in the process of replacing the Deputy Prime Minister, since she had pledged to resign. She made that promise. Remember, you were there. If such is the governing authority in our political system, let me tell you that I prefer, by far, my status as a member of the opposition to being associated with and sitting behind this Prime Minister and this Deputy Prime Minister.
Government members should show more judgment when developing their election promises instead of having to eat humble pie, as the finance minister did, in shouldering the full weight of the Liberal pipe dream when he admitted several times that he had made an honest mistake.
Ultimately, knowing what the Liberal Party is capable of, we could very well have accepted the notion of harmonization of the GST and PST, had it not been for these concepts of compensation. Unfortunately, the government only succeeded in jeopardizing once again the fairness and the balance in this country's tax system. When Quebec harmonized its sales tax with the GST in 1991 under the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, it did not demand compensation.
Five years later, Liberals have the gall to pick the pockets of all consumers and voters to the tune of $1 billion for three provinces, to get them to come on board and get out of a mess they got themselves into, in the first place.
I figure that we, in Quebec, will fork out close to $250 million that will be paid to these three Maritime provinces led by Liberal friends, including Brian Tobin, a former member of the rat pack who sat in opposition with our Prime Minister and who went on to become the premier of Newfoundland. Quebecers will pay $250 million to these Liberal friends literally to buy off these provinces, namely Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. It seems that the net result of this operation will have to be figured in votes and not in terms of economic recovery. A provincial election is expected in Prince Edward Island very shortly and then it will only be a matter of days or months before a fourth province joins the process.
In the end, the Minister of Finance will have bought the support of four provinces for only $1.2 billion. That is $1.2 billion of your money, Mr. Speaker, and the money of the new minister, who is considered an intellectual in Quebec, by the way, as well as my money and the money of all the people who have elected us to represent them in this House. The worst thing of all is that the Prime Minister is heartily approving the poor performance of his government since the beginning of the 35th Parliament.
This is what the Liberal government of Canada stated: "This government has consistently acted on the principle that the state and the people need to be able to see structural change coming and to adjust to them". Right now, Canadians are trying to adjust to the broken promises of the Liberals. Many arguments are used to try to relate all this to current events, but that usually puts the government on the spot. It is obviously some kind of strategy.
Now for justice and fairness. This great principle does not seem to have been included in the honour code of the Liberal Party currently in power, at least not as far as the distribution of adjustment assistance is concerned. As an example, a reminder, here is one of the many erroneous, if I may so express myself in this House, statements that were made: "We have provided resources to ease the adjustment in response to the elimination of the Crow rate, $1 billion". You are signalling me that my time is almost up, Mr. Speaker, but I would like to tell members what a number of my constituents said to me last week about the finance minister. A group of citizens pointed out that the most influential
shareholder in Canada Steamship Lines, our very own finance minister, registers several of his ships in the Bahamas. Dominique Joly, Hélène, Josée and Vincent told me that the finance minister registered a number of his ships in the Bahamas, apparently to save on taxes. As they told me: "If that is a good finance minister, then Heaven help us". They also told me that he often bought his ships and had them refitted in Asia, because it seems that it costs less there.
This is a fine sort of government. When the Minister of Finance goes all the way to Asia to buy things, when we have, right here, factories that can build very good ships, ships that Canadians would be proud to build. In fact, there is a great factory in Saint John that could build the ships needed by the finance minister.
In closing, I wonder if the Liberal MPs are proud of their government. I can tell you that the day after that party turfed out one of its members, with my name bearing as you know such a close resemblance to that of the Prime Minister, I received seven calls in the space of an hour and a half-Patrick Saint-Jacques can confirm this-from citizens in the Ottawa area who were telephoning my office here, in the belief that it was the Prime Minister's office, to speak out against the way the member from the Toronto area was treated.