Mr. Speaker, you can count on this being a very pleasant speech because I want to talk about Bill S-16, an act to implement an agreement between Canada and the republics of Vietnam, Croatia and Chile.
From my perspective Reform has always supported measures that might in any way lower the tax burden of Canadians. I am sure support will be found for the bill.
However, I do have, as my colleague has just talked very briefly about, some concern about how Bill S-16 came before us. I stood in the House a number of times on points of privilege and points of order. The privilege I spoke about is the privilege that is being denied members of the House to look at such bills first, have first reading, second reading, have them go to committee, perhaps have the committee go across the country if it is that important to discuss with people, have the bills go to third reading and then off to the Senate for its review.
I am really at a loss once again why we find Bill S-16, yet another bill, coming from the Senate first into the House. The problem I have is I guess we have to look at what makes the House of Commons effective first of all. I think what makes the House of Commons effective is open debate on any issue, dialogue across and the accountability, of course. If we stand up and vote for or against a particular bill in the House and the public does not like it there is accountability. There is accountability at the polls. If we look for feedback from our people it is democratic and bills get the right filtration they need throughout the country.
On the other hand, I guess one could look at what would hamper that in the House. What would hamper that is a debate after the fact, a bill going to the Senate first through unelected, unaccountable individuals, and then coming to the House seeking some form of rubber stamp after it has already been discussed by the Senate. I guess we would be hampered if the individuals who bring these sorts of bills to the House from the Senate were not elected, which they are not, and were not accountable to people in this country, which they are not, given that they are patronage appointments. I do not understand for a moment why a government time after time in the House purports to have some form of democratic process going on when bills are coming into the House from the Senate and are not debated first in the House of Commons. There is something wrong with that undying philosophy that my friends and buddies have a better process for making legislation than individually elected members of parliament.
My colleague from Calgary Southeast talked about the implications of Senate patronage appointments on the current elections in Alberta. Just what does this government hope to gain by flying in the face of Senate elections in Alberta and appointing someone to the Senate from Alberta? What does it hope to achieve by that?
I will tell members what it is going to achieve. It is going to probably achieve no seats in the next election, but then it does not have many seats in Alberta anyway. I guess the arrogance of it all is starting to show. Maybe that's it.
When is this going to stop in this House? When is this government going to come to the realization that the House of Commons was built as an institution that legislates the affairs of Canadians. When is it going to understand that the buddies, the hacks, all those friends who have been appointed to the Senate are really not accountable for these issues, they really should not be initiating bills and sending them to the House? They really should not be looking after the clean-up of issues the government does not want to initiate in this House in the first place.
This issue of the Senate is not going to go away. I can assure members of that. It really does not matter to me what the content of the bill is coming from the House of Commons. The fact is all those bills should be initiated in this House first.
To the government it may seem that the other place, the Senate, is accountable, it can do all the work there and save the government some time. But that is not in the eyes of Canadians what this is about. If we are going to legislate then we must be accountable for our actions. We cannot toss it off to this group over on the other side that is unaccountable.
If the Liberals think for a minute that this is not going to be a major issue until such time as they initiate change to the Senate, they are kidding themselves. I think the arrogance of it all is bad enough but the overconfidence is going to get this government. This is by no means a small issue across this country. This happens to be a very large issue where I come from.
Canadians want a Senate that is accountable, that is elected, that is effective and they are going to get it. If they cannot get it through the other side they will get it through another party and another government.
Let us stop talking about Bill S-16 being so important that we have to get it through the Senate first. If it is so darn important then put it through the House first. My colleague is absolutely correct about the government's agenda. Here we are with young people looking for jobs, a dollar that is lower than it has ever been historically, taxes that are far too high, debt that is far too much and what do we have in front of us? Bill S-16 from the Senate. There is a minister here. Go back and tell the cabinet that Bill S-16 from the Senate does not address the issues of getting our kids back to work.
Now for my amendment. I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “that” and substituting the following therefor:
Bill S-16, an act to implement an agreement between Canada and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, an agreement between Canada and the Republic of Croatia and a convention between Canada and the Republic of Chile, for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income, be not now read a second time, but that the order for the second reading be discharged and a message sent to the Senate to acquaint their honours that this House will no longer accept legislation introduced by the Senate until the Senate agrees to lift the ban on senators' attendance records.