Mr. Speaker, one cannot believe one's eyes when reading the Reform amendment before us today which urges the House to reject the budget. The members for Calgary Southeast and Medicine Hat are recommending in their amendment a rejection of an increase of $11.5 billion in health care over the next five years.
The leader of the Reform Party, with his amendment, further recommends rejection of the following: Canadian opportunities strategy, $1.8 billion; Canada Foundation for Innovation, $200 million; and National Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the National Research Council, $176 million.
The Reform Party with its amendment today also recommends the rejection of $96 million toward the establishment of small communities. It rejects $75 million toward Canada prenatal nutrition programs; $150 million toward technology partnerships; $50 million to expand rural and community health; $795 million for the youth employment fund and the Canada jobs fund; and $42 million for improving management and control of toxic substances. It also rejects some tax relief, some $1.5 billion this year; $2.8 billion next year; and $3.4 billion in the year 2001-02. This is what the Reform Party is advocating today with its amendment on which we will vote shortly.
Having outlined the sham of the Reform Party position with respect to what it would like Canadians to be denied by its amendment, which does not take into account the positive aspects of the budget, one must also say a word of caution on the fanatic belief of the Reform Party in lowering taxes.
When taxes are lowered services are lowered. When taxes are lowered there is a longer wait for services. When taxes are lowered there are poorer services. When taxes are lowered good programs for youth, seniors, underprivileged, housing, et cetera, are cancelled. When taxes are lowered university tuition costs are increased. When taxes are lowered the waiting list for child care is increased. When taxes are lowered laws cannot be properly enforced. Water and air quality, to give an example, suffer as a consequence, and human health does too.
It is foolish to believe that lowering taxes leads to better standards of living. Actually the reverse is the reality and Canada, with its level of taxation, is considered by foreigners the country in which they want to live and visit as shown by our immigration statistics.
A few months ago the national Liberal caucus committee on sustainable development, chaired by the hon. member for Anjou—Rivière-des-Prairies, recognized the significant relationship between human health and a healthy environment and produced a document in which it says that human health is directly affected by the state of our environment.
The document concluded by quoting the Ontario Medical Association in a press release dated May 13, 1997, in which it said that air pollution was a public health crisis, drawing attention to the fact that it called for stringent action on smog causing emissions and other matters.
In the budget we find that the elements related to health could lead to the paving of the way for the next budget, namely a budget that could possibly take place in February of next year and could be devoted to the environment and sustainable development. When we start dealing with health we inevitably find our way to the roots of good health and proper public health and, therefore, to the basic elements of the way in which we approach the environment.
Having established the possibility of a future budget on the environment it is desirable to provide some input to the government on the question of expanding the concept of environmental protection to embrace the broader idea of sustainable development.
It would be desirable that a budget on the environment and sustainable development would examine the present capacity of the federal government to enforce its own laws and to launch at the same time programs that would permit an improvement in the performance of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, Transport Canada and the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food in the name of public interest.
It would be a budget that would look at Canada's international commitments related to environmental protection and sustainable development. It would look at our implementation of agenda 21 as stemming from Rio, our commitments under the Basel convention, our commitments through the Kyoto agreement on climate change, and determine which are the fiscal and taxation measures that are facilitating our move toward the reduction of climate endangering emissions and the removal of tax incentives that stand in the way.
It would be a budget that would look at the sustainability of our natural resources particularly in the fishery and forests. It would look to our ability to compete through the function of energy efficiency because through a higher energy efficiency than the one we have achieved so far we could also be more competitive.
The next budget of the Government of Canada, if it devotes and focuses its attention on the environment and sustainable development, would be one that would put into practice the document that was published in 1995 under the heading “Turning Talk Into Action”. In that document the Government of Canada expresses the firm belief that our economic health depends on our environmental health. It is believed that the federal government can help shape a better future for all Canadians, a future characterized by sustainable development.
In that same document, which was signed by 21 cabinet ministers and by the Prime Minister, the following statement was made:
This is why we want to play a leadership role in turning sustainable development thinking into action. This is why we are now taking the next step of establishing a framework in which environmental and economic signals point the same way.
We have to achieve that plateau of pointing in the same way. A framework which integrates sustainable development into the workings of the federal government is one this document espouses right across the board. It concludes by saying that the Government of Canada is committed to getting government right by making government greener. “This is our commitment to Canadians”, the document concludes.
I welcome the opportunity of presenting this intervention and expressly hope that the next budget will be on environmental protection and sustainable development.