Madam Speaker, if we were discussing the issue of user fees I am quite sure it would be a different debate, but as we are discussing a private member's bill to ensure parliamentary scrutiny of user fees I want to rise in support of the bill.
The user fee act will require scrutiny by the appropriate standing committee of the House of Commons before any user fee may be set or increased. The regulating authority must submit a proposal to the committee before any fee is established or increased.
The report of the committee is subject to the concurrence of the House. If the committee does not report within 150 days, the House may pass a resolution approving, denying or amending the proposed fee or change. The regulating authority is bound by the decision of the House.
The enactment also requires public accounts and other government reports on revenue that identify sources of revenue to identify the amount of revenue from user fees.
The legislation of my colleague from Medicine Hat is designed as a response to the auditor general's comments that parliament needs to scrutinize user fees. There does not exist a government-wide summary of the fees being charged, the revenues raised and the authorities under which they were established. There is a lack of scrutiny.
User fees are more and more present for services which the government provides. Not only are they becoming more abundant but they are becoming higher.
It is easy to show a surplus when services are cut. It is easy to show a surplus when we operate government as pay for service. The government has cut and slashed so much the budgets of departments that they now turn to user fees to make up for the loss. In 1996 the federal bureaucrats picked up $3.8 billion in user fees for government services, 7% more than in 1995.
User fees have been able to explode without scrutiny. People are affected by these user fees that are imposed on them. They are hitting us from every angle. Ottawa has cut its deficit on the backs of the provinces and the provinces are doing the same on the backs of municipalities, hospitals and school boards. With no government to download onto and under pressure from citizens to hold the line on taxes, local politicians have increasingly turned to user fees. Local governments now raise more than $9 billion a year in user fees and hospitals another $3 billion, double what they were pulling in a decade ago.
As a trustee with my school district, I was aware over the years that students had to buy some supplies, wood for carpentry and material for sewing, gym shorts, a calculator, a French verb book. As the years went by the list got longer and longer. Finally there was a public outcry because there were just so many items the students had to purchase on their own. Such is the case with the Government of Canada.
This legislation would be a start. Members in this Parliament would have a chance to represent their constituents' concerns over the government's user fees. They would have a chance to have public debate on user fee increases. We would have a chance to decide if it was fair for Canadians to pay for the government's cuts to departmental budgets. This is why I will be supporting this bill.