Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleagues for allowing me to split the time with my colleague for Medicine Hat.
I begin by condemning this government for allowing itself to trample on democracy and democratic deliberation by invoking closure and time allocation on Bill C-36. This evening we will be gathered in this place to vote on a bill that is not just any normal bill. It is not some kind of housekeeping amendment. It is not some kind of technical legislation. This is legislation that authorizes the expenditure of billions and billions of dollars earned not by the government, not by the members opposite, but by Canadians.
We are authorizing the government in this bill this evening to use the coercive power of the state to take away the fruits of those people's labours. If there is one founding principle of liberal democracy, it is the principle of no taxation without representation. That is what they said when the entire concept of liberal democracy came about in the late 18th century.
But this government has a different idea of what liberal democracy is. Now that it is Liberal democracy, they think democracy means the government will authorize, without adequate debate, without proper procedure of deliberation in parliament, the taking and spending of billions and billions of dollars from taxpayers who now come home with less than they did 15 years ago because of the tax burden imposed by this and previous governments.
Do not take my word for it or our word for it when we inveigh against the undemocratic invocation of closure 41 times since this government took power. I ask my colleagues opposite to reference what their caucus colleague said when they were in opposition. They were principled when they were in opposition. They spoke out against the invocation of closure and time allocation.
My hon. colleague quoted from certain statements made by the current government House leader when he was in opposition and by the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands. The member for Kingston and the Islands said in debate in this place on February 19, 1993: “I suggest that the government's approach to legislating through closure is frankly a disgrace. It cuts back the time that the House is available to sit and then it applies closure to cut off the debate”. He called it a disgrace. He was right then and we are right now by using the same word. He also said on April 23, 1993: “This is not the way to run a parliament. This is an abuse of the process of the House”. That was a Liberal then, a Liberal today.
The current minister of external affairs said in 1993 that the government's invocation of closure displays the utter disdain with which the government treats the Canadian people. I stand here and echo the words of the minister of external affairs six years ago. It does demonstrate a disdain for the Canadian people.
On Monday night of this week we voted on dozens of amendments that had been rushed through the report stage of debate in this place, serious, substantive amendments that elected representatives of taxpayers had spent time constructing to try to hold the government more accountable and to make the operation of government more efficient. Only one member of each party had an opportunity to speak on dozens of amendments. They were not allowed to address each amendment but just groupings of those amendments. That is not the democratic process properly conceived or executed.
Not only is the government invoking closure undemocratically, it is invoking closure on a bill which gets a failing grade from the auditor general of this parliament. I am not talking about a member of the opposition or about some columnist or critic. I am talking about the man charged by all members and all parties of this place to monitor the books of the government to ensure they comply with generally accepted public sector accounting principles. The auditor general, a man of integrity, has said the section of Bill C-36 authorizing the creation of the millennium scholarship fund does not comply with but rather contravenes the most basic principles of public accounting.
Some will say who cares about how you account for the numbers, which year you put it in, where it appears in the public accounts. Some people will say it is a technical argument, that the opposition does not have anything else to talk about.
There is a very important principle here. Parliament is an institution which goes back hundreds of years in history and essentially is an institution which was created as part of an effort by the commoners to have a real check and balance on the executive power, the power of the crown, to expend public funds without public scrutiny. Our job is to ensure that the bills we authorize are conducted with proper accounting principles, with full transparency so the public can see and know how its money is being spent with confidence. The auditor general has said we cannot have confidence in how Bill C-36 and the budget of this year construe the millennium scholarship fund.
“I believe believe that the accounting change for the millennium scholarship fund will open the door for governments to influence reported results by simply announcing intentions in their budgets and then deciding what to include in the deficit or surplus after the end of the year once preliminary numbers are known”. What he was saying was that by authorizing the expenditure now and booking it in the current fiscal year 1998-99 but not expending it until the fiscal year 2000, we are playing a shell game with the public finances. That too is a disgrace.
Without even getting to the substance of the bill, which is bad enough, the government is closing down debate to rush through a bill the auditor general will not permit. I dare say that if the previous government, the Mulroney government, had made a similar effort the Liberal Party and all Canadians would have risen up in contempt.
My hon. colleague from Medicine Hat discussed at some length the provisions of the bill as they relate to payroll taxes, so I will not reiterate his eloquent remarks. However, let me focus on another part of this bill and the budget which it implements.
The debt projected for the current fiscal year by this enormously fiscally responsible government is $583.2 billion. The finance minister talks a great deal about how we are going into debt reduction. However, when I look at the budget I see that in the next fiscal year, 1999-2000, the debt is $583.2 billion. Then I look in his budget at fiscal year 2000 and guess what? He has brought the debt all the way down to $583.2 billion.
It is amazing that this man of fiscal rectitude, this champion of debt reduction has scheduled in the fourth fiscal year through his projections that the debt will come plummeting down to $583.2 billion. What does that mean? It means we will continue to spend $45 billion a year in debt interest costs, money that comes from taxpayers that does not finance one single worthy social program or contribute to education, training or infrastructure investment. The $45 billion which this budget and this bill authorize for the current fiscal year does the following.
Madam Speaker, I believe you will find consent for the following motion:
That for the remainder of this session motions pursuant to Standing Orders 57 and 78(3) shall not be receivable by the Chair.