Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-43 establishing the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.
As the labour critic for the Bloc Quebecois I feel concerned by this bill. As the member for Manicouagan just mentioned, 20% of the public service of Canada will disappear, that is 40,000 employees. This agency will be a quasi-private business, and it will be independent from the whole government administration. In our view this goes against public interest and it will also change the working conditions that prevail in the federal public service.
I will also remind the House that this bill, slipped by us in June, at the end of the last session, is very insidious, particularly in an historical perspective. While I am not a constitutional law specialist, I know that this bill really goes against the spirit of the Constitution of Canada and of the Canadian confederation, two words that are no longer used because, over the decades, Canada has miraculously evolved from a confederation to a federation of provinces.
The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs is a perfect example of this. Again last night, we saw him on television mixing up issues and concepts. It is as if two and two no longer make four. It is difficult to know where this country is going and this is just the beginning.
People should know that the authority to collect income tax was the exclusive prerogative of the provinces in the spirit of the 1867 Canadian confederation. Now the federal government, as it did before during economic crises or wars, is assuming the right to tax Canadians directly, going against the spirit of Confederation. This we can never stress enough, particularly on the eve of a debate as important as that on the Canadian social union.
In this spirit we must be grateful and perhaps do like previous governments, such as the Duplessis government in 1954, which invoked the Constitution and its spirit when levying direct taxation. We must thank him for having done so because we can now rationally think and dream of making Quebec sovereign.
If the Quebec government had not assumed this right to direct taxation, if it were still at the mercy of the federal government, historically, where would Quebec be? Where would the distinct society be? Where would our distinct character be? It is because of direct taxation that Quebec can, in conformity with the spirit of the Canadian Constitution—keep its dreams alive and reach its full development.
There is the historical aspect I just mentioned. As a member of parliament, something else worries me in this bill. The bill uses wording found in a speech by the President of the Treasury Board and talks of modernizing the public service. That was the term used when unemployment insurance was reformed. The unemployment insurance reform gave birth to employment insurance. As the months have gone by, we have come to see what came out of that. Previously, about 80% of those paying unemployment insurance were eligible for benefits. Now, after modernization, 42% of those paying employment insurance can become claimants.
Buzz words like “modernizing the public service” scare me. They indicate that the government has some very neo-liberal projects or intents. They are very anti-union and anti-labour. They encourage a weakening of the middle class and of unions, widening the gap between the rich and the poor in our society. They are the reason for statistics like the ones published today indicating that child poverty is growing in this country, in spite of the commitments the government made.
These results did not appear as if by magic. They are the outcome of decisions made secretly without any of us being really made aware that they have been made.
Another aspect one must remember in this bill is it will reduce once again the role of Parliament. Parliaments are more and more weakened, not only in Canada, but in all the western world, because elected representatives can no longer ask for accountability and the executive longer has any accountability.
These past years, especially in the transportation area, very important decisions have resulted in the fact that Parliament can no longer ask for accountability in the management of public assets. I am thinking of Nav Canada and air traffic controllers, who used to be part of the department of transport. When faced with certain decisions elected representatives used to be able to ask questions and question the government. This is no longer possible. This is a private agency.
I am thinking of Air Canada, where I met with union representatives last week. The union is very worried about the experiment under way at the Ottawa airport, where automated tellers will replace some Air Canada employees. They will directly serve clients, eventually causing massive layoffs. Parliament has no authority to ask for accountability because Air Canada has been privatized. Likewise with the CN, where they made massive layoffs but we were unable to talk about it here because it is a private agency.
And I did not mention the Canadian food inspection agency that was established a few months ago. Elected representatives could question the government on its management, but they cannot anymore, because it is a private agency.
Take the ADM, Mirabel-Dorval. The government hid behind this organization and said it could do nothing. It gave a mandate to ADM and experts, who did what they could.
As parliamentarians, whom can we hold accountable? How is public interest served in all this? What is left for taxpayers who pay their taxes and see decisions being made which have an impact on their daily lives? Parliamentarians, who are asked questions—whom else can people ask but their elected representatives?—will have to give up sooner or later because they will not have the authority to hold accountable those who should be.
The government is losing control. This is very serious. This is very neo-liberal. This is very undemocratic. Disappointingly, this is done with the approval of senior officials, who instead of having the best interests of the public at heart only have theirs. Here is what is written in a clause on the loyalty directors will have to have for the agency.
Subclause 42.(1) states, and I quote:
Every director of the Agency, exercising their powers and performing their duties and functions, must
a) act honestly and in good faith, with a view to the best interests of the Agency—
Where is the public interest when the bill refers to the best interests of the agency, an agency that is partly privatized and that will soon be fully privatized? The clause reads “must act... with a view to the best interests of the agency”. It is immoral to write such things. When one is paid by the state, one should act in the public interest. It is our first responsibility. We act on behalf of the state, not even on behalf of the government.
Members know how things work. A government that puts things like that in its legislation is not even trying to hide its intent, and this must be condemned. I cannot understand that the Canadian elites have not done so.
For Quebec, this is a great lesson, in view of what we will all be called on to ponder. This is a unitary Canada, a centralized Canada, in which the provinces will become regional governments and in which Ottawa will control everything. This may be good for Canada—it is their problem—but it is obvious that Quebec must get out of this crazy situation as soon as possible, otherwise Quebeckers will become increasingly diminished and enslaved in that Canadian federation.