Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-205 presented by the member for Medicine Hat.
I have heard people say that the member for Medicine Hat should be knighted for his service to the people of Canada performed through this bill. There are others who say he should be ignited. I do not know which it should be but I do appreciate that he has brought this bill forward. It is a very serious topic.
In the time that I have to speak on this bill, I will deal with the user fees and the problems they cause to farmers and those in the agricultural industry. I will focus on that area, although many of my comments could be applied to any other business or industry.
I will begin by referring to the 1993 auditor general's report, which the hon. member for Medicine Hat referred to briefly. It should have been a starting point for the government as it delved into the user fee fiasco it is in now. Second, I will deal with the principles that should guide changes to user fees. Third, I am going to talk about the general concerns that farmers and agribusiness have expressed regarding user fees. And if I have time, I will refer to what particular farm organizations and agriculture processors have said about what user fees are doing to them.
The hon. member for Medicine Hat explained his bill and the impact it would have on the whole issue of user fees. User fees as they have been used by the federal government and other levels of government have become a new way of taxing people. We had something like 36 tax increases by the government in the last Parliament plus the budget promise for a 73% increase in the Canada pension plan premium. And already in this Parliament the same government has made tax increases and sometime this week or next, because closure has been invoked, we will be debating and passing Bill C-2, the increase in Canada pension plan premiums of 73%.
Farmers who manage their businesses are faced with these very real tax increases and the increase in Canada pension plan premiums. Since most farmers own their own businesses and are self-employed, they would face an increase over five years amounting to $3,200 a year. They have that increase as well as the whole barrage of user fees that affect them both directly and indirectly. I will talk about some of these fees.
Starting with the auditor general's report, the hon. member for Medicine Hat talked a bit about the report. In the 1993 report the auditor general called for the scrutiny of Parliament on user fees. That is exactly what the hon. member for Medicine Hat is calling for in his private member's bill.
The auditor general stated: “We are concerned that Parliament cannot readily scrutinize the user fees established by contracts and other non-regulatory means”. The auditor general said that he was concerned Parliament generally does not have a chance to scrutinize new fees. He went on to say that Parliament really cannot scrutinize user fees established by contracts and other non-regulatory means: “There does not exist a government wide summary of fees being charged and revenues raised by the authorities under which they are established”.
He also said that the use of contracts on a broad scale to establish fees needs to include careful consideration of such issues as: how they would affect the parties and that parties be consulted; how Parliament would be given the opportunity to review fees established by contracts; and how users would be assured they are being charged the same price for identical services being used.
The auditor general said that Parliament should scrutinize the fees. He went on to explain that there are many increases in user fees that really are not defined as such. Therefore they are not even guided by the rules as they exist to guide the establishment and the use of user fees, including contracts. The auditor general specifically picked on contracts because we are talking about a sizeable number of dollars being put in place without being passed through Parliament, without the scrutiny of something like a parliamentary committee. The auditor general was not pleased with what had happened to that point and nothing has been done since to improve the situation.
I will talk about what the principles to guide user fees should be. Much of my material comes from what the Canadian Dehydrators Association says the principles for the implementation of user fees should be.
First, the fee must be based on the actual cost of providing the service. They are not necessarily set that way now. Some fees are much higher than the cost of the service being provided.
Second, these services must be provided cost effectively. That is a key point Reform has focused on over the past few years we have been here. We said that in many cases we believe the services are not being provided in a cost effective way and we have to make sure that they are.
Third, administrative costs must be low and the documentation requirements must be there in the operation of the business.
Fourth, there must be no cross-subsidization of services across commodities or regions. This is an important point. We have seen too much of this kind of thing in the past. We have seen too many cases where the costs in one area are being borne for costs that actually should be borne by another sector, another industry or another part of the country. Cross-subsidization should not be occurring.
Fifth, wherever possible the fees should be directly applied to prevent fee inflation to indirect application through a service provider.
Sixth, there must be a system in place for tracking the overall incidence of fees and its effect on industry with a process for consultation.
Some general concerns have been expressed by farmers and others in the agriculture industry. There are seven or eight of them. I do not know if I will get through them all, but I will see how I do. Some of these concerns have been expressed to me by many different groups. I could go through the list which includes the Ontario Corn Producers and the Canadian Meat Council. Many concerns are expressed about the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the Marine Services Act.
Someone who is not familiar with what goes on in agriculture might ask how on earth can the fees charged under the Marine Services Act affect farmers. Farmers move products and the agriculture industry moves products through ports and the fees are borne by farmers.
There is the Crop Protection Institute. There are letters from many individuals and representatives of farm groups, of industry groups, and so on. They expressed the common concerns that I would like to put on record here, but I understand from your signal I will not be allowed to, Madam Speaker.
One concern I do want to express is that we cannot look at user fees in isolation. We have to look at them and their cumulative effect on industry. We can look at a whole series of user fees that do impact on any industry in the agricultural sector. There is no agency in government that looks at these total accumulation of fees and the impact on the industry. There is no government agency that looks at the comparison of fees in the other countries Canada competes with.
These are my concerns. I see that my time is up. I look forward to the hon. member for Medicine Hat doing his wrap up on the bill. I am sure he will comment on some points made by the members across the floor.