Mr. Speaker, I will begin my speech now and finish it after Oral Question Period.
I am pleased to address Bill C-43, an act to establish the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. Let me say from the outset that I am opposed to the creation of this new federal agency, primarily because of the attitude and actions of this government.
We cannot take a chance and support a bill which only seeks to centralize the collection of taxes in Canada, reduce the number of jobs at the Department of National Revenue and, more importantly, create an agency that will, yet again, interfere with the Quebec department of revenue.
This bill shows that the Liberal government is finding it increasingly difficult to fulfil its responsibilities as administrator and manager of the state. The government is, once again, about to abdicate its responsibilities.
The new agency could make it possible for the minister to avoid fulfilling his duty, which is to protect taxpayers against any abuse of power. We are all familiar with the Liberals' habit of creating independent agencies and then avoid answering questions by using the excuse that we must respect the agency's independence and autonomy, and that the government does not want to interfere.
My riding of Lotbinière is among the Quebec ridings where sheep farmers are at odds with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which is following some obscure directives to systematically destroy sheep that may be infected with scrapie. That agency is directly accountable to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. For the past two weeks, the Bloc Quebecois has been asking the minister to take action and put a stop to this carnage which imperils the sheep industry in Quebec.
But the minister does not answer our questions. He too hides behind the agency to shirk his responsibilities. Meanwhile, the problem persists and our sheep farmers live in fear that an inspector or a veterinarian from the agency will call to inform them of the tragic news that some or all of their sheep will have to be destroyed.
This is an agency which definitely lacks transparency and which refuses to provide information to Quebec elected officials who are desperately trying to save an industry that was thriving before the carnage began, in January 1997, and that has now lost 11,000 sheep.
We have before our eyes an example which shows that the Liberal approach is not working. Yet, our questions are simple. How many sheep were identified as being infected with scrapie? Where are these infected animals? How does the agency diagnose the disease? What are the criteria used to determine whether or not the sheep must be destroyed? What is the agency's budget for research? What stage has the agency reached in its work? We have no idea. What is currently going on in Quebec is unacceptable.
Do you think that after going through this experience we will support Bill C-43? No, especially not with a Minister of Finance who does not even care about the real purpose of the employment insurance fund. I would rather not think about having an independent agency collecting our taxes.
The Minister of Finance ignores accounting principles. He ignores the repeated warnings of the auditor general, and he cannot even submit realistic estimates to the public.
There is a 60% difference between the forecasts and the actual figures. Do you know any business that would keep such an incompetent accountant? There is only the Prime Minister, the new dictator of the Canadian economy, who called on the police to use force against peaceful students who simply wanted to protest against an international situation.
This government is again trying to show its good will by proposing the creation of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. However, we see what is behind this legislation: an anti-labour manoeuvre. In other words, 20% of the employees of Revenue Canada will no longer be covered by the public service act. The new agency will therefore have full latitude in two years' time to raise and lower salaries and hire and fire employees.
In any case, the federal Liberals are increasingly revealing their lack of social conscience and their lack of compassion.
I return to the example of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, who remains insensitive to the suffering of lamb producers in Quebec. The Minister of Finance, whose behaviour is unspeakable, wants to legalize his misappropriation of funds from the employment insurance fund, which belongs to workers and to employers. In the private sector, this sort of misappropriation would mean a trip to court.
This government is prepared to do anything to satisfy its need to centralize. The Liberals consider simplification synonymous with duplication and harmonization to them means meddling. The problem is that Quebec can guess what lies behind this new agency. Ontario is on the lookout as well, and with this new threat of centralization, is even considering setting up its own agency.
We agree with the principle of a single collector, but in Quebec, it should be the Quebec department of revenue that collects all federal taxes, as it does the GST.
Let us have another look at the officials who would be affected by the creation of this agency. A while ago, the President of Treasury Board said the following about the agency: “Creation of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is an essential component of the government's commitment to modernize the federal public service”.
There is mention of 40,000 public servants, or 20% of the whole public service, who will from now on be at the mercy of the agency's board, made up of good little Liberals prepared to follow the Prime Minister's orders.
And what about the executives of this new agency? Who will they be? They will be better paid than the senior executives of the present Department of National Revenue. Who will foot the bill for this? The support staff, the record processing clerks, in short all the grassroots employees of the department.
In this connection, I would like to explain how the Revenue Canada employee union sees the Minister of Revenue's plan. The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is a federal creation, inspired by top taxation people in Ottawa, who want to create a sort of monstrous octopus, the tentacles of which will reach not only as far as the provincial governments, but right up to the municipal and local ones.
Their intent is to administer everything, from provincial sales taxes to gasoline and alcohol taxes. Are we going to take that risk with a Liberal government, a voracious and centralist government that respects nothing? No. And whom is this agency going to be answerable to? What power will the elected representatives in this House have for getting any explanations about its administration, its results, and its mistakes as well?
As we know, in its present structure, Revenue Canada provides Parliament and the taxpaying public with the necessary accounting, via the Department of National Revenue. The government cannot sidestep embarrassing questions like the family trust scandal and the little perks the Minister of Finance is giving to his ships.
We fear that the new agency will be subject to a less stringent parliamentary scrutiny than the one currently imposed on the Department of Revenue. I can see it already. The minister will rise and answer a question about the agency as follows: “Mr. Speaker, we have asked for an inquiry into this independent agency and as soon as we have any information, we will communicate it to the House”. In other words, while the inquiry is going on, we will find a way to get our party out of this embarrassing situation.
Last week, opposition parties called for explanations of the Prime Minister's conduct in what is now known as the Peppergate affair. The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the solicitor general all sought refuge behind the RCMP commission of inquiry. Imagine an embarrassing question about the operations of the agency. The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of National Revenue have already got their script ready.
The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister give the impression of having spent the summer preparing a series of 30-second cassettes devoid of information. Something is not right.
It will not be long before the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and other ministers will be lip-synching to a soundtrack of 150 applauding MPs, all bowing before their great leader. One thing is certain: I hope these cassettes will not be sold to the public, because the distributor—