Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity again to stand today to support the official opposition's proposed amendment.
I bring the amendment to everyone's attention again by reading it because I think it is quite appropriate in the way this debate has been shaped and in the way the Minister of Finance has structured his budget in an effort to hide the truth and in effect impact negatively on the taxpayer who actually funds this hidden contingency fund that the minister has so carefully deferred to the future.
This is the proposed amendment by the official opposition:
this House declines to give second reading to Bill C-36, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 24, 1998, since the principle of the bill, while charging the consolidated revenue fund to establish and fund the Canada millennium scholarship foundation, fails to guarantee that appropriate and objective accounting standards will be followed as advocated by the auditor general.
There is no question that the auditor general has warned this government time and time again about its actions. Even when it comes to some of the chief proposals, it seems like his warnings continually fall on deaf ears. This is not a very good example for the people in this country who are footing the bill and paying hard earned tax dollars to see it squandered by the Liberal government in such ways that are inappropriate and despicable for the most part.
It is another example of government manipulating the system in a cynical attempt to fool the taxpayer into thinking the government is being productive. In this case we are talking about the $2.5 billion that would have gone to debt reduction and tax relief. We owe tax relief to the taxpayer. This is what should have happened with the $2.5 billion.
What is the government doing? It is just playing a shell game with the books and are becoming experts at it. It should be held accountable for it. Instead of translating a surplus into lower taxes for Canadians, the government is pretending that the surplus does not exist. Instead of reducing the massive national debt standing at close to $600 billion, the government buries its head in the sand and pretends that there is no problem and tells taxpayers there is no problem.
This is not the first time this government has tried to pull a fast one with the books. As the previous speaker pointed out, last year the government was criticized for allocating the cost of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation of $800 million a year before the foundation was created. It was all deferred.
In 1996 the government gave a $1 billion payout to the Atlantic provinces as an incentive to harmonize the GST in that region. Once again, this happened a year in advance of the payout.
I was looking through other portions of that act and at the proposed changes by the government to Bill C-36. It sure likes to defer things to the future. I think the small business community, the engine of our economy, should be paying particular attention to something in the bill which deals with employment insurance and premium holidays.
In the years 1999 and 2000, employers who hire young people between the ages of 18 and 24 will pay no EI premiums on their wages. If EI premiums remain stable this will save employers up to $3.78 per $100 in earnings, a measure that will cost about $100 billion.
What is this? They are deferring it to the year 1999, another deferred promise that will not take effect until the next year. It gives the view that the Liberals are doing a great big favour to employers by bringing this change into the act. What is so great about it? Right now there is about a $13.5 billion surplus in the EI account. By March of next year that will have grown to $19.6 billion. Whose money is that sitting there? It is the taxpayers' money.
If the government were truly interested in helping employers, in pushing this economy along even more, it would give that tax relief directly to the employers, it would place it back into the hands of the employers and employees by an across the board EI reduction in premiums. Then it would benefit someone. Right now who is it benefiting? It is sitting in an account. It is the taxpayers' dollars. All could be part of a relief plan or a benefit to the employer in expanding his business. Anything is better than being in the hands of this government or a bureaucrat.
The auditor general has complained about each of these cases. What is the government's response to the auditor general's complaints? It had the gall to threaten him. The deputy finance minister fired off a letter to the auditor general telling him to mind his own business. If that is not a shameful act, I do know what us. The auditor general is hired to do a job and what happens? The government threatens him for doing it. In reply to the auditor general the government said that it could change the rules if it liked.
The auditor general pointed out that if the government gets away with this it will open the door to future governments simply allocating expenditures from year to year regardless of when the expenses occur. In other words, Liberal habits have become almost institutionalized. Taxpayers spend an awful lot of their hard earned money on the federal government. They deserve to be able to look at the books knowing that the government is being above board in return. There is something unethical about it.
We all know the real reason for the finance minister to continue the Liberal tradition of bending the accounting rules. He wants to be able to keep a tight control on the fiscal reins so that he can better position himself to become the Liberal leader. I guess that is the ultimate agenda. He wants to become the leader. After all, what better way of winning support than giving taxpayers a tax break just before a leadership bid. Is that the plan of the finance minister and the Liberal government? There are personal agendas here. I do not think they are acceptable to most Canadians.
I would like to give the finance minister a bit of strategic advice for free. If he did the responsible thing now, pay down the debt and deliver tax relief today, he would find that his popularity would increase immediately. Probably his chances for leadership would be better. Everyone would rally behind him in much more substantive way and with good reason. Is that not good advice? The members across the way do not agree with that. They want to see more of the same. Best of all, his popularity would be earned legitimately. Imagine that, a Liberal finance minister who became popular by being straightforward and honest with Canadians about their tax dollars.
In this case I urge all members of this House to seize the opportunity to show Canadians transparency, honesty and integrity in this government, support the official opposition's amendment and bring transparency to the government's bookkeeping.