Debates of Feb. 6th, 1997

Questions On The Order Paper

[Paul Zed, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker]

I wish to inform the House that because of the ministerial statement, Government Orders will be extended by 11 minutes.

The House resumed from February 5, 1997, consideration of Bill C-70, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act, the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, the Income Tax Act, the Debt Servicing and Reduction Account Act and related Acts, as reported (with amendments) from the committee, and of motions in Group No. 2.

Excise Tax Act

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

moved:

Motion No. 68

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 209.

Motion No. 69

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 210.

Motion No. 70

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 211.

Motion No. 71

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 212.

Motion No. 72

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 213.

Motion No. 73

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 214.

Motion No. 74

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 215.

Motion No. 75

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 216.

Motion No. 76

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 217.

Motion No. 77

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 218.

Motion No. 78

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 219.

Motion No. 79

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 220.

Motion No. 80

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 221.

Motion No. 81

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 222.

Motion No. 82

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 223.

Motion No. 83

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 224.

Motion No. 84

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 225.

Motion No. 85

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 226.

Motion No. 86

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 227.

Mr. Speaker, could we ask the pages, as we did yesterday, to sit while the motions are being read? You, Mr. Speaker, are used to standing up.

[The Deputy Speaker]

This is an excellent idea. I thank the hon. member.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

moved:

Motion No. 87

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 228.

Motion No. 88

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 229.

Motion No. 89

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 230.

Motion No. 90

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 231.

Motion No. 91

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 232.

Motion No. 92

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 233.

Motion No. 93

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 234.

Motion No. 94

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 235.

Motion No. 95

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 236.

Motion No. 96

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 237.

Motion No. 97

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 238.

Motion No. 98

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 239.

Motion No. 99

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 240.

Motion No. 100

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 241.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, for the Minister of Finance]

moved:

Motion No. 101

That Bill C-70, in Clause 241, be amended by a ) replacing, in the English version, lines 12 to 14 on page 284 with the following:

"province means a ) October 23, 1996 in the case of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Newfoundland; and b ) February 10, 1997 in the case of the Nova Scotia offshore area or the Newfoundland offshore area.'' b ) replacing, in the French version, lines 14 and 15 on page 284 with the following:

"se, du Nouveau-Brunswick, Terre-Neuve, de la zone extracôtière de la Nouvelle-Écosse et de la zone extracôtière de Terre-Neuve." c ) replacing, in the French version, lines 16 to 19 on page 284 with the following:

"«date de mise en oeuvre anticipée» a ) Le 1er février 1997 dans le cas de la Nouvelle-Écosse, du Nouveau-Brunswick et de Terre-Neuve; b ) le 10 février 1997 dans le cas de la zone extracôtière de la Nouvelle-Écosse et de la zone extracôtière de Terre-Neuve.'' d ) replacing, in the English version, lines 17 and 18 on page 284 with the following:

"Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, the Nova Scotia offshore area or the Newfoundland offshore area." e ) replacing, in the French version, lines 20 to 22 on page 284 with the following:

"«date de publication» a ) Le 23 octobre 1996 dans le cas de la Nouvelle-Écosse, du Nouveau-Brunswick et de Terre-Neuve; b ) le 10 février 1997 dans le cas de la zone extracôtière de la Nouvelle-Écosse et de la zone extracôtière de Terre-Neuve.'' f ) replacing, in the English version, lines 20 to 22 on page 284 with the following:

"participating province means a ) February 1, 1997 in the case of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Newfoundland; and b ) February 10, 1997 in the case of the Nova Scotia offshore area or the Newfoundland offshore area.''

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

moved:

Motion No. 102

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 242.

Motion No. 103

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 243.

Motion No. 104

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 244.

Motion No. 105

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 245.

Motion No. 106

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 246.

Motion No. 107

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 247.

Motion No. 108

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 248.

Motion No. 109

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 249.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Yesterday we indicated that we hoped to wring a concession out of the government that if it would not move time allocation we would agree to go along with the request not to read this entire set of amendments into the record. The government did not give us that assurance which is unfortunate because it has moved time allocation dozens of times in this House.

Having said that, we feel it is not fair to the Speaker or to the people of the country who are waiting to hear the debate on this bill. If members on the other side and in the Bloc would go along with it, we would be happy to give our concurrence to allow the Speaker to dispense with the reading of the amendments.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Quebecois supports the proposal made by the Reform Party member.

[Barry Campbell, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as much as we are enjoying the very fine job you are doing in reading these amendments, it is putting a strain on you. I regret that as a result of the wishes of the other parties opposite, that is what we had to do last night and this morning, riveting television though it may be. I am sure we would also be pleased to begin the debate on this group.

May I ask my hon. colleagues opposite, does this mean we would proceed to debating the motions in this group at this time? To clarify, my understanding is that we would take all the motions in this group as having been read and proceed to the debate.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the proposal made by the Reform Party member is quite clear. The government was asked, as regards the GST, an issue which is not at all to its credit, not to invoke closure on Bill C-70 either today or later.

Mr. Speaker, we have nothing against you. We like you, but as long as the government does not guarantee that it will not gag us, each motion will have to be read.

Liberal members across the floor must stop displaying this holier-than-thou attitude. After all, they are the ones to blame for the many times closure was imposed on us over the last three and a half years. This is their way of doing things and it is totally undemocratic.

[The Deputy Speaker]

I might ask, colleagues, is it also implied in what has been said that we are going to have the questions deemed to be put or not deemed to be put on the motions in this particular group?

[Barry Campbell, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify it. I am afraid the hon. member opposite has now changed what I understood the member of the third party to have suggested. He suggested that in light of the inconvenience of your having to read through all of these amendments, we could take them as having been read. I am saying on behalf of the government that we would be agreeable with that and that is all I am saying.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Is there unanimous consent to deem all the motions in this group to have been read?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Then we must carry on.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

moved:

Motion No. 110

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 250.

Motion No. 111

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 251.

Motion No. 112

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 252.

Motion No. 113

That Bill C-70 be amended by deleting Clause 253.

Mr. Speaker, since we are keen to get on with the very important debate that we must and are permitted to have in this House regarding the GST scandal and this government, we will go along with the government's arguments. We agree that these motions are deemed to have been read so that we can debate the motions in Group No. 2 dealing with the malfunctioning of this government and the political agreement with the maritimes to harmonize the GST, which is costing us $1 billion.

Canadians and Quebecers are entitled to have the full picture on this government's bad management and its unacceptable squandering of taxpayers' money.

[The Speaker]

Is there unanimous consent to deem the motions in this group to have been read and begin debate?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Barry Campbell, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I wonder if in this renewed spirit of co-operation I might also ask that all votes could be deemed to have been taken as recorded divisions and put over instead of done individually.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, could my hon. colleague on the government side repeat his proposal? I did not quite catch it.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Perhaps the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance could repeat what he just said. His colleague did not catch everything he said.