Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to address Bill C-214, introduced by the Reform member for Yorkton—Melville.
The bill was drafted following the hon. member's experiment with taxpayers from his riding in western Canada. Again, we can see that the Reform Party has a hard time understanding how our democratic institutions work. That right-wing party comes up with a regional idea it sees as innovative and, above all, realistic.
Let us take a look at the title of Bill C-214:
An act to allow taxpayers to inform government of their views on levels and priorities for the expenditure of tax revenues—
The title is a long sentence which could summarize our whole democratic system. The way some Reformers behave in this House, one gets the impression they want to reform everything.
“An act to allow taxpayers to inform government of their views”. The fact is that every three or four years, depending on the Prime Minister's mood, Canadians are asked to support or reject the government's achievements, through a general election. They are also asked to choose among the programs of the various political parties that clearly indicate how they intend to use taxpayers' money.
The intentions of Bloc Quebecois members are clear. We want to give back to Quebec the taxes paid by Quebeckers. We are convinced that the federal system no longer meets Quebec's real needs. In the last election, Quebeckers understood Reform's message and decided not to elect any member of that party, a party which is openly opposed to bilingualism and which flatly rejects every one of Quebec's demands.
For the Reform members, that consultation was not adequate. When taxpayers prepare their income tax return, they want them now to fill out a form describing how they want their money to be spent.
Imagine that tomorrow morning Revenue Canada has to review 18 million ideas on how Ottawa should spend the money. Who will determine the priorities? Would Revenue Canada's unionized workers be willing to screen these millions of ideas? No, with the cuts and the constant remodelling that most departments have experienced, the work of these government employees is now based on very precise duties and they have neither the time nor the training required to perform the new duties that the Reform Party would require of them.
The Reform Party could force them to do this work by implementing a series of orders or special laws. This is probably what would happen when you consider how that party treats the postal workers. They really have difficulty understanding how collective agreements are negotiated. The Reform philosophy, which leans strongly to the extreme right, is once again leading them to opt for the hard line by calling for a special law and by completely disregarding the claims of Canada Post employees.
Imagine if after difficult negotiations with Canada, the Reform Party had to hire personnel to try and compile these millions of ideas.
I would like to see the leader of the official opposition, who is constantly calling for cuts, cuts and more cuts, rise in this House and attempt to justify these additional expenses, and especially to explain why the decision making process has bogged down. Of course no one is surprised by the way the Reform leader changes his mind, especially when we see that his official arrival at majestic Stornoway cost taxpayers over a quarter of a million dollars.
The member for Yorkton—Melville thinks that he has made a great discovery with this method of consulting taxpayers in his riding. This type of consultation is part of a member's job to maintain a close relationship with the grassroots, and we do not need to fill out a Revenue Canada form to do this work.
Furthermore, Reform members have to recognize that there are other means of finding out what the public thinks about the policy decisions we want to implement. They only have to consult their supporters in the community and, from time to time, to study the polls or read the opinions of political and economic commentators.
At any rate, in Quebec, the public knows what the real face of the Reform Party is. They remember how the Reform Party insulted Quebec's political leaders during the last electoral campaign, the anti-Quebec advertising. We all know that this party from the right has absolutely no idea of what the issues are in Quebec.
I would like to remind the Reform member who sponsored this bill that there is a whole other series of activities here in the Parliament of Canada by which politicians, groups and individuals can make known their points of view: oral question period, parliamentary committees, statements by members, speeches, press releases and even press conferences.
I really have trouble understanding how the logistics of this bill could be defended.
I nonetheless took the time to examine the result of this local operation in the riding of Yorkton—Melville. Here are the priorities expressed by the 500 taxpayers who went along with their MP's request. But before I give you the results, I will briefly review the purpose of this bill, an act to allow taxpayers to inform government of their views on levels and priorities for the expenditure of tax revenues. The French leaves something to be desired, but what it boils down to is “Where would you like to see the money you give Revenue Canada spent?”
The answers were as follows: 93% are against their money being used for bilingualism; 81.2% are against multiculturalism; and 78.4% are against native peoples.
This is the upshot of the 500 forms completed perhaps by the 500 members in good standing of the Reform Party. The constituents indicate their preference for justice and the RCMP, and jails, with welfare 21st on the list. In other words, they would rather send the least well off in society to jail than provide them with social and community support. Here again, we recognize the philosophy of the Reform Party.
My conclusion will look at the results of this operation, a phoney consultation, a tool for disinformation in the hands of a right wing party from western Canada trying to get the public to swallow Reform Party ideas that will not work in the 1990s.
The political party to which I belong, however, would be tempted to try this approach, given the negative sentiments expressed about Quebec and about social democracy. This kind of consultation would certainly help the sovereignist cause.
However, we will be voting against this bill, which has no serious foundation and which is pure Reform party politics.