Mr. Speaker, this budget is very interesting in terms of the response that it has had in my constituency. The members of my constituency have seen through this budget very clearly. They have seen the flimflam that is involved with it.
First, they are asking a very simple question, one of many. For example, the finance minister is very proud to have eliminated the deficit retirement surcharge for most Canadians. We note that the finance minister has also eliminated the deficit. Under what pretext does he continue to collect the deficit retirement surcharge from any taxpayers? This is part of the flimflam.
Second, they are also aware of the fact, and this is according to a news release from the Government of Canada dated March 9 on supplementary estimates, that what Canadians may know is that obviously there are estimates made as to what revenue and expenditures we are going to have.
After the fact, there have to be adjustments to reflect reality. They are also very well aware of this fact. The government document calls for decreases in the expenditures, a decrease of $4.5 billion in public debt charges from $46 billion printed in the 1997-98 main estimates to $41.5 billion reflected in the supplementary estimates.
I do not understand how this government can possibly take the credit for the fact that world interest rates have declined. As a result of the world interest rates declining, it has had a windfall of $4.5 billion. That is part of its saving.
The document also talks about a decrease of $1.4 billion in forecast employment insurance payments resulting from improvements in labour market conditions. This government is still taking $5 billion to $6 billion out of the pockets of Canada's workers and Canada's employers in the form of a tax for employment. In fact, if there was a decrease of $1.4 billion in the forecast for employment insurance payments, surely there should have been a decrease in the premium.
It is unconscionable that this government continues the practice started by the Conservatives of including in general revenue the so-called insurance rates under Employment Canada.
I am the heritage critic and I would like to deal specifically with the heritage department.
Again in the supplementary estimates, we see that all of a sudden they have had to ask for and have achieved an increase of $59.9 million just for department expenses. That is over a one year period. The department itself will now be spending $1.1 billion on itself.
The National Capital Commission is looking for and has received an increase of $1.6 million. The National Capital Commission is now budgeted to spend $72.7 million, up $1.6 million. The National Film Board, an increase of $2.4 million, now up to a rate of $61.4 million.
This kind of spending we know about because it has ended up in supplementary estimates. It must drive most Canadian taxpayers wild.
Why in the world must we have constant increases in spending while at the same time there is a meagre, tiny turnback of tax revenue for Canadians? Canadians want to know why we must have these increases.
Let us look at one specific area of Canadian heritage, that of sports. It is interesting to note the comments made by Ms. Lori Johnstone, the chair of Athletes Canada, to the committee a couple of weeks ago. She was commenting on the Nagano Winter Olympics which were held at that time. She said:
It's very exciting. There's a lot of interest and emotion. At the send-off in Calgary, (the heritage minister) thanked the athletes for letting us share the dream. These athletes are representing our nation and we are sharing in their successes and their failures, their disappointments, their joy and also their controversies.
She went on to say about the athletes:
In terms of sacrifices, the cost question was asked earlier, the cost of pursuing the dream and roughly, athletes at an elite level can incur as much as $10,000 per year of their national—dream. When you combine that with the income that most amateur national team athletes make, which tends to be under $15,000, it's quite a powerful statement of the willingness to make sacrifices to pursue the dream.
As a matter of faith it strikes me that the heritage minister, and indeed the whole government, should respect the fact that we have some of the world's finest athletes in Canada. They go to world events to compete for us. Not only do they make themselves, their parents, their sponsors and their coaches proud but they make us as Canadians proud. And what do they get?
I quote from an article published today in the Globe and Mail in Toronto entitled “Canadian athletes want shirts to pin medals on”:
Six months from the opening of the 16th Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Canada's team is outfitted with 400 airline tickets—and perhaps 400 fig leaves.
The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada is about $1.5 million short of its budget of $3 million to take a full team to the Games and the team hasn't a stitch to wear.
“Clothing is what we need, big time,” says Margie Schnell, the chef de mission for the Canadian team. The games will be held Sept. 10-20 in Malaysia.
“It will cost about $6,000 per athlete to outfit and send the team. Air Canada and Malaysian Airlines are looking after most of the travel, but we still don't have clothes”.
This compares with the question I asked in the House on Monday. I asked where the Minister responsible for Francophonie got the idea that she could arbitrarily, off the top of her head, determine that she was going to offer free airline tickets to foreign athletes to come to Ottawa-Hull for the Francophonie games in the year 2001.
At the time she made that commitment she new the Ottawa-Hull games were budgeted by the federal government for an expenditure of $12 million. She also found out that it was likely Ottawa-Hull would not get the games, that Lebanon would get the games with the backing of France. The reason she thought Lebanon would get the games was that it was offering to pay half the airfare for the athletes to go to Lebanon.
What did our minister do? This comes right back to the starting point of my speech. Where did these extra expenditures come from? How did they happen?
Off the top of her head she suddenly said “Why don't we give free airfare to all the foreign athletes so they can come to Canada?” We are talking about 42 countries and probably 2,000 athletes. We do not know how many millions of dollars it would cost to get them here. Meanwhile back at the ranch our Canadian athletes do not even have uniforms to pin their medals on. It is absolutely ludicrous.
Furthermore, in a report to parliament from the International Assembly of Parliamentarians of French Language on February 17 I noted that some prize winners at the earlier games, that is at the Francophonie games, have still not even claimed their prizes.
I would like to know the priority of the government. Is the priority of the government to get foreign athletes to come to Canada? Indeed, should the priority of the government not be our athletes? They are contributing money from their own pockets. They are contributing their time, effort and sweat to represent us as Canadians. The priority of the government should be to properly look after our athletes.
I cite this as one example of a thousand stories I could tell to illustrate how the government is completely out of control. The government has no idea where it is going. All it knows is that it has a blank cheque. Guess what? That cheque was signed by Canadian taxpayers and the government is spending it.