Madam Speaker, I will do my best not to go over eight and a half minutes.
Allow me to backtrack a little, because my speech was interrupted for oral questions, and say it is my pleasure to rise in this House today to speak on Bill C-43, to establish the Canada customs and revenue agency.
I was telling the House that I oppose this bill, mainly on account of the actions and behaviour of this government. We have no intention of taking any chances by passing a bill whose sole purpose is to centralize the collection of taxes across the country, to downsize Revenue Canada and, above all, to establish an agency that will clash with the Quebec Ministry of Revenue.
This agency, which, in my opinion, is a real governmental tax collection monster, will have powers vested in it that will give it access to all sorts of information on our private lives. What will this agency do with this huge amount of personal information concentrated in its hands? I would rather not think about it.
The agency is a relative of Big Brother, the computer that could run and rule the world.
At any rate, this new bill is doomed to fail. The rationale for establishing the Canada customs and revenue agency is to have a single agency in charge of collecting all the money and to convince the provinces to get on board.
The minister had not even signed a single agreement when he introduced Bill C-43. That shows how ridiculous this whole idea is. Quebec and Ontario categorically refused to consider using the agency. The initial support from several western provinces has all but died down in the past few weeks, and even Prince Edward Island has expressed concerns about the establishment of this new agency. Who are the ones who will pay the way for this agency? The users, but at what cost?
Initially, the federal agency will attempt to demonstrate the savings its establishment will bring about, but before long it will be raising the charges to satisfy the greediness of the Liberals.
As far as the millennium bug is concerned, will all the changes which are being announced at this time and which Revenue Canada employees will have to face make it any easier for them to prepare for this transition in informatics, which is already demanding much energy? What stage has Revenue Canada reached in its preparations for the year 2000? No one knows.
I would now like to focus the House's attention on some of the clauses of Bill C-43, clauses 6 and 8 to be specific.
The agency is placed under the responsibility of the Minister of National Revenue, yet clause 8 stipulates:
8.(1) The Minister may authorize the Commissioner or any other person employed or engaged by the Agency—to exercise or perform on the Minister's behalf any power, duty or function of the Minister under any act of Parliament—
In other words, the agency could fall into the hands of a super-bureaucrat, possibly a good Liberal, who is neither elected nor accountable.
Now I would like to summarize the reasons why I am proposing that Bill C-43 be withdrawn: the centralizing obsession of the Liberal government; the danger this agency represents for the Quebec Department of Revenue; the anti-union attitude of the government in this bill as it affects Revenue employees; the intrusion on the privacy of our fellow citizens.
I need not remind the House of the performance of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in its current handling of the scrapie crisis with Quebec sheep, where there is such an administrative muddle that the minister and the agency cannot even figure out where they are at. Do you think we are going to give this government another chance to create an agency? No.
I am saying no to the Liberals' plans, I am saying no to this bill and I am calling for its immediate withdrawal, in accordance with the amendment moved this morning.