Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure today to address our response to the throne speech. Personally, my response to this has been a bit of a defining moment, trying to make up my mind whether to run again and maybe take over from this motley crew on the other side or whether to forget it and go home.
I thought perhaps I should try to understand what would be in the throne speech. I made a little list for myself to see if certain things would be addressed. I even made a list about aboriginal issues for the previous minister on the other side. I am glad she is here because I have a few things to say about that.
Some of the issues in the throne speech that I wanted to see addressed more specifically, along with a lot of people throughout the country, were issues like child pornography. What will the government do about that? It has messed it up and left it to the courts. Let us see it in the throne speech. That was one of my top issues on the list because I think that is very important.
Will prison reform be in the throne speech? Will that long overdue issue be addressed?
Will the age of sexual consent be addressed? Both the Liberals and the other crew down there had a lot to do with that a few years ago and in fact reduced the age of sexual consent from 16 to 14. Will it be changed back to 16?
Will the growing issue of aboriginal affairs be addressed, in particular on the east and west coasts, but in many other parts of the country as well? One member said it was, but I will get into that debate in a moment.
Will the real issue of taxes, a real commitment on taxes, with timelines, be addressed? Taxes were mentioned but the timelines were not, the legislation was not and the details of the legislation were not.
In most cases anything that was even generally addressed in the throne speech would have to be turned into legislation. Most of us know that it is probably less than two years before the next election. As House leader I can say that turning these general commitments into legislation before the next election is not going to happen. So much for commitment.
What about the old Young Offenders Act, now called the Youth Criminal Justice Act? The Liberals changed the name but will they make commitments on when it will be changed and what will be changed in it? I believe this is now the fourth, count them, throne speech in which the government has mentioned those changes, yet we see no changes.
What about the airline industry issues? I asked myself whether that would be included. It is certainly a concern for many people.
There are the problems in the immigration and refugee department. They are long outstanding difficulties. I have spoken many times in the House about what some of the problems are with the numerous appeals and on and on it goes. Will they be addressed?
How about the issue of the Senate? Will we ever see a reformed Senate? The Liberals may have wanted to mention something like that in the throne speech. How about things like free votes? How about some substantive details about how we are going to fix the unity issues?
The defining moment came for me when I read the document which was really a rhetorical PR piece. We know that essentially it will take legislation and the courage of all of us in the House to change things. I can say that legislation will not be forthcoming, at least not to the point where it receives royal assent. They may play with it but it is not going to happen.
The other issue I want to talk about is drugs. About seven months ago the Liberal government came out with a national drug strategy document. I looked through the document and thought here we go again, lots of rhetoric lacking substance. I did some checking. The other guys down there, Joe what's his name and the other fellas, the Conservatives, brought out a national drug strategy in the eighties. I compared their national drug strategy with the national drug strategy of the Liberals. Lo and behold, I sincerely believe both were written by the same person. Hardly anything changed; it was virtually the same document.
I took the Liberals' document to many places across the country, from downtown east side Vancouver to small cities across the country, Nova Scotia included. I asked them to look at this national drug strategy and to tell me how it affected them. They told me that it was a waste of their time and mine, that the strategy was no good and not effective at the street level.
Unfortunately a few comments were made in the throne speech. I think it was primarily because the Reform Party has been nagging the government on this for some time. I do not believe the government has a strategic plan in mind to combat drugs, organized crime and all the other things that go with it, nor do I think it has the will or the desire to do it.
I come from an area which has 15,000 addicted people, many who are young teens. I come from an area outside Vancouver where the downtown east side has around 6,000 addicts. This is just one area in our country. Go to Toronto, Ottawa or small towns. Go to Sydney or Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. All of those places have serious problems with drug addiction, yet when I read the throne speech, there are platitudes. There is no commitment.
I talked to some ministers who said that they gave $5 million to British Columbia after the opposition parties nagged them. They threw out $5 million over a period of two years. This is petty cash. The Liberals do not say that the drug issue is a health issue. They say it is an issue and they will fix it by throwing some money at it.
I happen to work with quite a few people who have family members who are addicted to drugs and I can say what their opinion is of a government with no plan. They have long past given up the idea of being upset about it. They have long past given up the idea of thinking this is the place to resolve problems. They are now hunkered down waiting for someone to help them, not a government, some one or two people in this place.
I look at a blueprint, a model, a plan called a throne speech and I can see that we have a government with status quo in mind. Don't worry, be happy, things are working right. We will get into the spotlight. We will tell all that it is working great. Patch it a bit, fix it up.
These things I mentioned are not working. There is no commitment from the government. Where there is no commitment from a government, the government should remove itself or the people looking for the commitment will do the removing for it. I expect a lot of people will be running in the next election, not because they want to get into politics but because there is no plan in the nation, no commitment, no strategy.
We want something done about drugs. We want something done about child pornography, prisons, the age of sexual consent, aboriginal problems, taxes, crime, young offenders, the airline industry, the immigration and refugee system, the Senate, free votes. If we get around to trying to fix that, we will find that perhaps unity will be somewhat resolved. But that takes courage and I am not sure the government has it.