Mr. Speaker, I found it interesting to listen to the members who spoke on Bill C-43, especially the government members. It is quite clear they are avoiding telling the truth.
I am a former member of the Public Service Alliance. I worked for Parks Canada, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Human Resources Development. I am well aware of the gimmicks the government uses to get rid of a large number of public servants.
It was announced 45,000 to 55,000 jobs were going to be cut across the country. Services will go with the jobs. The government has found a way to eliminate 40,000 jobs. It has decided to establish a new agency. By so doing it will also break the unions. I suggest it is going to have a very difficult time getting rid of these 40,000 employees because Revenue Canada unionized workers are very well organized.
And they are not pleased. I met with their union representatives. They do not want this agency. They are tired of the insecurity. The purpose of the agency is once again to create insecurity among workers, who do not know whether or not they will have a job two to three years down the road.
The member opposite talked earlier about ASD, alternate service delivery, and he painted a very rosy picture. But what ASD is all about is clearly cutting salaries, benefits, and eventually laying off people. This is not complicated. We already saw this with Parks Canada, which is going to become an agency; workers are worried because they do not know where they will be two years from now, whether or not they will have a job, and what kind of salary they will get.
Park visitors can see they are worried because the new policy is to make a profit at any cost. The same will happen with the Canada customs and revenue agency. They say they will be collecting provincial and municipal taxes, and that it will be more efficient that way. But the hon. member did not tell us how many jobs will be cut.
Back home, in Bouctouche, the employment centre has been closed. In the Department of Human Resources Development alone, 5,000 jobs have been cut. Because of that, some employment centres and their services have disappeared. People have to travel to Richibucto, Shediac, or Moncton. Many do not go there, because a large number of them cannot afford it. So they have to do without those services.
That is what happens with those agencies and the decisions the Liberal government makes. They never stop slashing and cutting. And then they brag about their job creation record. However, they should not forget to tell us new jobs are part time jobs, low wage jobs without benefits, that make families even poorer.
Recently, the UN stated the same thing we have been saying for years. The Liberal government tells us these findings are based on the statistics for 1995. In that case, we would not like to see the statistics for 1998, because they are even worse. Canadians will not buy the argument that the statistics the UN analysed are for 1995.
How many people qualify for EI benefits today, compared to 1995? How many more children live in poverty, compared to 1995? I would be ashamed to say these are the figures for 1995. They would be better off say they are the figures for 1998. One wonders sometimes who is advising those members.
I am here today to say that we know the truth. We know that people are living in poverty. We organised a nice dinner for children who will not have any Christmas, as was already mentioned in the House. Why? Because these children are poor. We have to help them, we have to share our wealth. It is too bad that there are not more members on the government side who feel like sharing their wealth. But they only feel for banks and millionaires.
When the government talks about cutting taxes, it does not mean that poor people will pay less. No, no. Millionaires will benefit and the gap between rich and poor will grow even larger.
And then the Minister of Finance gets up and brags about doing this and that. Yet, this same government refuses to come to New Brunswick and look at the situation it created with its cuts and its new rules, regulations and legislation. The Minister of Human Resources Development fears New Brunswick more than the devil fears holy water, as we say in our neck of the woods. He does not even come close to New Brunswick, because he does not want to face what he has created. The Prime Minister who, at one time, was elected in my riding no longer has the courage to come and visit us.
The day will come when they have to face the music, because, as members know, chickens always come home to roost. If the government will not answer questions here, it will have to answer them some day.
Let us talk about the 40,000 employees who feel insecure today. Let us talk about the centralization of authority. Let us talk about the jobs we are going to lose. We do not hear anything on that score. Those who do lose their jobs, what will they find? Part time jobs, insecure jobs, jobs that will leave them even poorer than they were? This is the mandate of the Liberal governement.
We talk about taxes, we even hear members of the Progressive Conservative Party say that we ought to lower taxes. But who introduced the GST? Earlier, a Liberal member said that the opposition was there to criticize. Yet, I remember the Liberal Party promised to abolish the GST.
What happened in New Brunswick? We got a 15% tax on everything. We got a tax increase on electricity, heating and children's clothing. We do not need an agency to collect these taxes because it is already being done in New Brunswick. If they use this as an excuse, it will not wash, because taxes are already being collected. We already pay a 15% tax. It is true that we got rid of the GST, but what we got in return is even worse. Frank McKenna was very happy to have done it. I think he got a little bonus at the time.
When an agency is set up, we have to look at the facts. This is just another way to reduce job security. It is just another way to cut jobs and again, it is always the same people who are caught in the middle, those who work all year around, the middle income earners, who end up getting poorer and poorer. Some things never change.
It is no different when we talk about lowering taxes. The EI premiums were reduced by 15 cents for every $100. I found that so ridiculous. Opposition parties felt the premiums should have been reduced even further. Today, the Reform Party told the House that employees could have saved about $300 a year. Yes, but how much money was taken from our communities because people no longer get their employment insurance cheque? Is this so hard to understand?
I am not an economist or a mathematician, but the government took $20 billion from the New Brunswick economy because it made the system too complicated for people to receive employment insurance benefits. Is this not cutting into the economy? Is this not causing problems? Is this not causing problems for our small and medium size businesses?
There is no longer any money in circulation. Thousands of people received employment insurance cheques and put all that money into their community. The money of the unemployed was not going into RRSPs; they need it to live on.
Some members of parliament are saying that premiums have not been reduced enough. So now, there will be other reasons to cut benefits once again. The government will say that its surplus is not sufficient and will make cuts once again on the back of the little slave who needs his meagre cheque.
Who benefited from the 15 cent reduction on each $100 of insurable income? It is the large companies that have thousands of employees. It is not the small company that has four or five employees, or only one, or the self-employed who does not pay any premiums at all. This does not help the small employer.
Sometimes I wonder how people can go to bed at night and sleep, when we think about the billions of dollars that were taken from the economy. Almost one billion dollars was taken from the New Brunswick economy alone. The finance minister always harps on the $1.7 billion he has given back to poor families.
The government has made nearly one billion dollars worth of cuts in New Brunswick alone, and it brags about giving back $1,7 billion for the whole country. I know my maths. Believe me, it has taken away a lot more than it has given back. There is no doubt about that.
Members should look at what is going on in the hospitals. They should come and see the waiting lists in New Brunswick. I am beginning to think that the situation is not the same in all the provinces. When I go to the doctor here, in Ottawa, I am out of the clinic within 45 minutes. And I want the people who are listening to know that these are not special clinics for MPs. In and out in 45 minutes.
Try to get the same kind of service in New Brunswick. It is just impossible. We do not have the same level of service. We cannot see a doctor in less than 45 minutes in New Brunswick. I am beginning to wonder if we really do have the same level of service. Maybe there are more complaints coming from Atlantic Canada, but the fact is we have been neglected. And it is still going on. The more Liberal governments we have in Atlantic Canada, the worse it is for these provinces.
There is also the issue of pay equity. The Department of National Revenue has 40,000 employees. How many of them have been denied pay equity?
The United Nations said it. A woman from the Philippines said she would never see the day when she would criticize Canada.
We are supposed to be a model country. We were, but we no longer are, with the number of calls we receive in our offices from people who are in utterly hopeless situations. There is Albert County; the Minister of Human Resources Development refuses to recognize that some people have to drive one hour to the employment centre in Moncton to try to find a job, in vain. To qualify for employment insurance, they need the same number of hours as someone living in Moncton.
This is unacceptable. The minister is denying these people the right to qualify for employment insurance; he is denying them months of EI benefits. Why? Because he has the authority and can do what he wants. The fact that people are destitute is of no concern to him.
And now we have our infamous toll highway. Some people will have to pay $14 to go to their doctor or the hospital. How many people are going to go without care because they cannot afford the $14? The government will say they can travel on the other road, the unsafe one. It is indeed because the alternate route is not safe that this highway had to be built. However, if you are poor, if you cannot afford it, take a chance. Take the other road. This is unconscionable in a country that is supposed to be the best in the world. If I recall, we came in 10th not long ago.
The same applies to post-secondary education.
It is exactly the same thing with Bill C-43. The government says it is a good thing. We have heard that one before. Everything is good. It is good for a very small group of millionaires. Everything is good for them.
When the finance minister goes out for dinner, he does not go to the food bank. He goes out with his banker pals. They pat him on the shoulder, telling him “Keep up the good work. We are doing fine”.
Food drives are being organized because Christmas is around the corner and people have nothing to eat. Children will have no Christmas presents. Members have the nerve to criticize while I am talking. They should repeat what they are saying to the people who line up at the food banks every day to eat. This is the fastest growing industry in Canada.
They are critical because they refuse to see there is a problem in this country. That way, they can go to bed and sleep at night. They are denying reality, but reality will catch up with them one day. It is breathing down their necks.
I will conclude by saying that Bill C-43 is another attempt to destroy security, break unions and get rid of good salaries. Canadians have to realize that service are also on the way out. Once the employees are gone, so is the service.
