Madam Speaker, if I had closed my eyes for a moment I would have sworn that was an NDP member of Parliament talking about education, health care and workers. My God, something is happening to the Reform Party.
I rise in opposition to Bill C-28. I find it rather amusing when my Reform colleagues talk about people making $15,000 a year and how difficult that would be. Yes, I agree. It is very difficult for any worker who is looking after children and making $15,000 a year to get by.
I also remind the House and all those who are listening that under the Reform agenda every worker in the country would probably make $15,000 or $20,000 a year. With its anti-union and anti-worker bias everybody would be making that. The Reform Party loves this global competition we are in.
Ever since free trade, the NAFTA and now that the MAI, which I call NAFTA on steroids, have come into effect all that has happened is that Canadian working standards have dropped and dropped. They tell us that Mexican and third world standards are supposed to rise, which we know is simply false.
I would like to talk about the taxation problems of a couple in my riding, Mr. and Mrs. Fleming, who live in Grand Lake, Nova Scotia. She has a plastic hip, plastic ankles and plastic knuckles. She is severely arthritic and requires oxygen cylinders to survive on a daily basis. She and her husband wanted to look after themselves in their own home.
The government has suggested that because of her needs she should be in a rehabilitation centre. That would cost the average Nova Scotian or Canadian taxpayer anywhere from $150 to $250 a day. All they are asking for from the government and from Revenue Canada is to be able to write off the equipment she requires so they can stay at home and look after themselves. I find it disturbing that the government, through our correspondence with Revenue Canada, will not even answer our letters or respond in kind to that type of situation.
The government is saying that it will spend thousands and thousands of dollars to look after them but these people want to stay at home and look after themselves, which would only cost a couple of thousand dollars. I find it absurd that the government would try to pass the comprehensive bill before us without thinking about the effect it will have on people.
Not once have I heard the Reform Party today speak about the GST or the HST. It would be a real pleasure if a Reformer stood in the House, especially for Atlantic Canadians, to say “If the government really wanted to do something about tax relief it would reduce the GST on essential home heating oils, electricity, children's clothing and reading materials”. That would mean broad tax relief for every Canadian, especially those in Atlantic Canada, and not just for the very wealthy.
The Liberals talked about the RESP educational funds. I should remind them that people need a job that pays well before they can save any money to put away for their children's future. I should remind them of what happened today in Goose Bay, Labrador. The defence minister stood in the House today to talk about how great the military is. I agree with him that we have one of the finest military organizations in the world. Unfortunately a lot of the civilian people who work in the military are being asked to make major sacrifices in their pay and benefits. Some of them will go from $13 an hour to $6.50 an hour. They will certainly not have enough money left in their pockets to get RESPs to look after their children's future education.
I have a question for Liberals and the Reformers especially. They talked about more money for charities and bigger tax deductions. My question is quite simple. Who is responsible for the welfare of those less fortunate in society?
I am speaking of the disabled, the infirm, people with no jobs, students and so on. Should it be government that looks after the welfare of those people, or should it be the responsibility of charities? I will let the House ponder that question for a while.
I also have a letter that a constituent in Nova Scotia wrote which shows the complexity of the tax system. If it is this complex how can we even trust the government to come up with something that is new? It brings to my attention an article on page 2 of Revenue Canada's winter 1997 GST-HST News, No. 27, entitled “Tax Status on Salads'.
Each year the tangle of absurdity of Revenue Canada seems to get worse and worse, but this surely is a masterpiece even by its sorry standards. Let me offer a portion. Food containing ingredients, whether mixed or not, such as chopped, shredded, diced, sliced or pureed vegetables, meat, fish, eggs or other food when supplied with a dressing and/or seasonings, whether or not the dressing is mixed with other ingredients, is considered to be a salad for the purposes of determining its GST-HST status. A combination of one ingredient and a dressing of seasonings which is sold or represented as a salad is also considered to be a salad. All supplies of salads, except those that are canned or vacuum sealed, are taxable at 7%, 15% in the participating provinces. Generally if there is no dressing or seasoning applied to the ingredients and no dressing or seasoning is packaged separately with the ingredients, the package is not considered to be a salad and is zero rated.
How many hours were spent trying to figure that one out? If this were not happening in my own country I would be mildly entertained. Sadly it is sand in the gears of commerce and enterprise.
I could not agree more that the bill the government is presenting is so complicated that even highly trained tax experts are having difficulty trying to get through it all. I ask members of the Liberal Party to send the bill back, to rethink their options and to simplify it so that ordinary Canadians and even many politicians here today could understand the complexities of the bill.