Mr. Speaker, I am rising to speak against Bill C-29, an act to establish the Canadian parks agency and to amend other acts as a consequence.
The Liberals would have Canadians believe that the purpose of this legislation is to improve Parks Canada. In fact, the Liberal background papers for Bill C-29 speak of organizational simplicity, administrative efficiency, human resources flexibility and improved financial procedures. Quoting them, they use words such as business-like manner.
Their language flows pretty in its terms, in its fancy window dressing which hides the real reason why Bill C-29 is coming into effect. The real reasons are financial and fiscal and that is why the bill is in the House today.
Canadians will be outraged when they finally realize that the details of this proposal will be understood in the near future. Words like program review are hidden. These are the reasons given for cutbacks resulting from our financial situation in the country.
But the Liberals are quick to state that Bill C-29 has nothing to do with privatization. No, the Liberals know a lot better than that. It will create a lot of trouble. Whisper privatization in anybody's ear, especially dealing with national parks, and there will be a major outrage. The repercussions will take several years to recover from.
Canadians voiced their opposition loud and clear when the Liberals originally tried to take this approach. Our parks are a sacred sanctuary. Our parks are a part of our national identity. Our parks help us define what it means to be Canadian. They are very special and distinct places in our country that reflect the ecological, cultural and geographical integrity for the generations to come.
Our parks are a legacy, a legacy which began in Banff in the mid-1880s and which continues to this day. Bill C-7, the Sagenuay-St. Lawrence marine park, was the latest legacy which was introduced and recently passed in this House. The New Democrats supported it wholeheartedly. From Banff to the St. Lawrence these parks are alive into the next millennium; a century of noble effort and honourable intentions to be laid waste for short term plans and misguided Liberal fiscal policy.
The reason this bill is being introduced is for financial deficits and cutbacks. It is to control the financial roller coaster that nobody seems to be in control of.
The finance minister stated several weeks ago that we have reached a balanced approach. But we never know where this roller coaster is going to go. We are putting our parks in jeopardy by continuing to look at a cherished institution for the sake of expediency, financial accountability, transferability and transparency.
During the deficit battle, like many other programs, departments and services, Parks Canada was attacked. It lost hundreds of millions of dollars, it lost jobs, services were reduced and user fees were increased. If we continue to operate it in business-like manner pretty soon it will be like a hockey game. How many people can afford an NHL hockey ticket today? Who will be able to afford to a part of this legacy for all Canadians, to go to a national park, to experience the beauty of Banff and Jasper, of the polar bears, the marine parks, the heritage sites? User fees will skyrocket. There will be contracting out, pay per person, private companies, loss of dedicated staff and plenty of complaints.
Canadians are angry that our national legacies are not being protected. Canadians are angry that our heritage is disappearing bit by bit, service by service, program by program. The New Democratic Party shares these concerns and is fighting for the very principles that this government and other parties are willing to squander for the sake of business-like practices. Principles are being squandered when it comes to the dollar. The legacy of national parks needs to protected. It cannot be measured by dollar value.
Bill C-29 does not seem to be the answer. If this nation has met the deficit challenge, why are we considering packaging Bill C-29, gift wrapping it for an organizational corporation like Walt Disney to purchase? Why should we consider something like that? The mentality for the last few years has been to axe policies and chop programs. That has to stop. Let us stop it at the national parks. Close the gate, as the Reform leader did at Stornoway, create a gate and stop it.
We should not continue the dismantling of federal responsibilities, especially not our parks and our historical sites. I call on my colleagues to stop an enabling legislation that will impact 38 national parks and 786 historical sites. These are important symbols of our identity. We must think long and hard before we embark on this path.
We will have a Canadian parks agency, a crown agency, reporting to the minister. Why is this necessary? Can we not fix the current problems identified by the recent round of consultations? Can we not fix it by having the employees labour, the service industries and the communities around the national parks addressing these issues with the existing structure? What is stopping us from implementing these changes and keeping Parks Canada intact?
Canadians have witnessed the spins and angles which the Liberals have used to damage our country. The Liberals did not say anything about scrapping the GST, did they? They did not mention anything about the BST in Atlantic Canada and how it would reduce cost and impact Atlantic Canadians. No, they did not mention anything like that. Again they are not mentioning that the agency is not for privatization.
Bill C-29 will save the parks and the heritage sites. That is what they are saying.
When I received my brief from department officials, I immediately felt something was wrong. It just could not be right. The bottom line was to be financially accountable and to make things affordable. However, if they make things affordable and business-like, it will be at the cost of employment services and program services. Services will be eliminated and there will be user fee hikes. That is the mentality of business-like corporations.
The Disney corporation is more than happy to raise their costs to give us a much shinier project or a much shinier concept with a futuristic approach. If they get their hands on this, like they did on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the commercial rights will be owned by a foreign corporation. That is exactly what is happening.
Canadian parks are not being privatized, but they are on the road to being commercialized. A Reform member yesterday agreed wholeheartedly that it was the right way to go, to do it in a business-like manner. He said that if he was the minister of Canadian heritage he would do it that way. I think he was dreaming. It is a right wing, capitalist approach.
Let us keep the national parks as a Canadian entity. Let us keep them for all our children. Let Canadians continue to operate them in the generations to come.
The outcry, which is a whisper right now, can be compared to what happened with our national railways. They are now operating on American soil, on American rail lines. The Canadian dream of uniting our nation has been abandoned.
We had the experience with NavCan. It was packaged by the government to be sold to a private organization. Is that where our parks are going?
As well, a fine patronage plum will be created. Under Bill C-29 a new CEO position will be created. That person will oversee the agency responsible for our parks and heritage sites. The CEO will have exclusive hiring and firing powers. The CEO will be able to dispose of and acquire crown lands and assets, following the rules of course, and we know the kind of track record the Liberals have on following rules.
The CEO will also have the power to negotiate employee contracts. The contracts which exist for Canada Parks employees will be negotiated over the next two years. We do not know what kind of contract they will have. We do not know—