Mr. Speaker, just before I get into the text of my remarks, I have to respond to what the hon. member from across the way was saying.
The Liberal Party, if anything, is extremely acrobatic. It is interesting to watch the flip-flops, pirouettes and the changes of course and direction that this party takes whenever it considers it politically expedient to do so.
I was in the construction business during the 1970s and I was faced with the increasing FST remunerations that we had to make. These were hidden taxes at the time. The finance ministers in those days, Mr. MacEachen I remember and Mr. Chrétien who was a finance minister back in the 1970s, loved this tax because it was a way for them to increase their revenues without getting Canadians upset. It was an invisible tax for most Canadians but it was certainly visible to me, as I was in the construction industry and had to pay federal sales tax on many of the goods that we were purchasing and incorporating into our work when we were building construction projects.
Now we hear that the Liberal Party supports the idea that taxes should be visible. Frankly, I find that unacceptable. I just do not believe that these people are serious when they talk about being straight with Canadians.
That gets me into the text of my remarks which has to do with broken promises and the broken promise we are debating today. The Liberal government did not promise to harmonize the GST. It did not promise to incorporate it with another tax. It said it was going to kill, scrap and abolish the GST.
After the Liberals made that promise and were elected, they said that they did not promise to kill, scrap and abolish the GST. They held that line for a long period of time. They have finally come around, after the Prime Minister's disastrous town hall meeting last fall, and said: "We are apologizing but not for breaking a promise. We are apologizing because Canadians are confused about what we have said and if we have contributed to that confusion we are sorry". That is typical of this government.
It is typical of this government to engage in obfuscation, mirage and sleight of hand. It is typical of this government to say: "Now you see it and now you don't". That is what has happened since the election campaign in 1993 and the reality of the spring of 1997.
Let us just go through a few examples. The Liberals like to manufacture facts about the health care system and their spending on it. They paint themselves as defenders of the Canadian health care system. They wrap themselves in the red cross every time they can and say: "We are concerned about health care for Canadians and we want to make sure that universal health care of a high standard is delivered to every Canadian from coast to coast".
In reality the government has cut $3 billion a year out of health care spending. It has cut $7 billion in health care spending since being elected. It does not want to be held accountable for that so it points fingers at everybody else. It says: "these are the bad guys over here, they're going to cut your health care, they're going to cut
your social programs and so on". This government has done far more cutting than any of the other political parties in this country even suggested.
This is not a Reform promise. It is not a promise that the Reform Party would make. The Liberals promised they were going to maintain stable funding for the CBC. Once elected they gutted the CBC's budget. They ignore the best interests of taxpayers in favour of political expediency every time. Let me give a few examples.
The EH-101 helicopter was cancelled. A decision had been made to purchase helicopters. A contract was entered into before this government was elected. But this government in its infinite wisdom said: "This is not a good deal for Canada and we are going to scrap it". It cancelled the agreement to buy helicopters.
First of all, what was the cost of cancellation? It is not known for sure but the figures seem to be coming in at around $500 million. Not a single helicopter has been bought but the Canadian taxpayers are out $500 million. We do not have one helicopter to show for it.
The Sea King helicopters are falling out of the skies. They are unsafe to fly. There is not enough of them to do the job. I do not have search and rescue capacity in my riding of Skeena because there are not enough helicopters that fly to go around. That is the reality of this government.
Now the government admits it has to do something so it is looking at some kind of a replacement for the Sea King helicopters. It is now talking about providing a helicopter that is substantially smaller than the EH-101. There is conjecture that whatever helicopter is picked it is not going to be able to do the job. That is the reality of this government.
The Pearson airport cancellation, whether one agreed with the deal or not, whether it was thought to be a good deal or not, was a deal that was done and above board. I do not think any of the inquiries that have been set up to look into this deal has ever shown any impropriety on the part of the government or the people who were contracting to do the deal. It was a political decision and the Liberal Party was unhappy with the political decision, probably because they did not make it and it was not their friends who substantially benefited from it. It was a political deal but it was above board.
The Liberals were elected and they said no they were going to cancel this deal. Arbitrarily they are going to abrogate a signed agreement. Can you imagine the arrogance of this government? Can you imagine the arrogance of the people who made that decision? On top of that, to protect themselves and insulate themselves from any political repercussions, they tried to pass legislation through the House that stated they could not be sued for their actions. Can you imagine the arrogance of that?
If they really felt that they have made a good decision on behalf of the Canadian taxpayers you would think they would be more than willing to go to court to defend themselves, that the people who felt they were wronged in this action had a cause of action and wanted to sue the government. They knew immediately when they cancelled the deal they were going to get sued. They knew they were wrong. They knew they had violated a contract. What do they do? They tried to pass legislation. Thankfully that legislation was not passed and now they are going to have to face the music. Unfortunately the Canadian taxpayers are going to end up footing the bill. It is one more example of "now you see it, now you don't". It is one more example of no political accountability for the decisions that are made. It is one more example of putting politics ahead of the best interests of the Canadian people.
Let me give another example, the Somalia inquiry. This government has done its level best, along with senior officials in the military, to pin the rap of the Somalia disaster on the lower echelons in the army. They have done their level best to evade and avoid any responsibility for either the events that occurred in Somalia or for the mishandling and covering up of the events that happened subsequent to it.
Now the Minister of National Defence has given the inquiry its marching orders. He has told the commission to cut the inquiry short and to report to the House in time for an election. When did we start looking at proper public policy in the best interests of this country based on the timing of the next election? Frankly, I find that unacceptable. It is appalling.
The government promised jobs, jobs, jobs. The Prime Minister partly delivered. Every Liberal of note from coast to coast got a job in the last three and a half years. However, what about the 1.5 million Canadians who are unemployed? What about the people who are out there pounding the streets, looking for work? What will happen to the people who have given up, who do not believe they will be able to find work? The Prime Minister just brushes them off and says: "Tough luck. Some people win and some people lose".
Canadians are counting the days until they can hold this government accountable for all of this and much more.