Mr. Speaker, it gives me tremendous pleasure to rise in the House on behalf of my most hon. colleague from Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys who has introduced this motion.
I should say for the benefit of all those listening that when this member, with close to 20 years of parliamentary experience, brings forward a motion, we can guarantee that it is a good one and well thought out. With minimum debate we should support it because he is such a great member. In fact, this member is so highly respected in the House that I expect to see a statue of him when he retires so I can come by and remember him every day.
We are discussing Motion No. 360 which would make employer provided transit passes an income tax exempt benefit. This is probably one of those motions in the history of the House of Commons where it is a win win win situation for absolutely everyone.
Millions of Canadian children every day go to school on a bus and return home on a bus. However, when these kids get older, what do we teach them? To drive a car. They forget about transit services and the fact that they have been riding a bus for the last 10 or 12 years. Now they are going to drive a car. It is absolutely insane that they stop using the bus once they finish their schooling.
By the year 2000, 80% of the Canadian population will live in urban areas with access to public transportation. Our trade minister said this in Ottawa in 1997. By increasing public transit use, all transit users will benefit: lower income families, women, students and the elderly. By increasing transit revenues and service, all taxpayers benefit from health care savings, infrastructure cost savings, and so on. Very few tax policies impact so favourably on so many people.
The other day in Nova Scotia the gas companies, in their relentless attack of greed on the people of Nova Scotia, raised the price of gasoline by 6 cents a litre. It is absolutely abominable that these corporations can get away with that.
I always say that the best way to get back at these corporations is to use the transit services. More people would love to ride the buses, but unfortunately in many areas, as my hon. colleague from the Reform Party has pointed out, there is no access to transit services.
Many employers would love to give this benefit to their employees. One of the reasons they would love to do that is that it makes a happier employee. They do not have to worry about getting into their car in the morning. They do not have to worry about finding a parking space. The employees would save a tremendous amount of wear and tear on their vehicles.
We would also, as a community of communities, save a tremendous amount and actually get to fulfill a promise now and then. This government could actually fulfill a promise, many of which it has broken. It could meet its commitments to the Kyoto agreement. It would be an absolutely wonderful thing for our environment.
When building new infrastructure in cities we would not have to build massive parking lots, which are always ugly. I do not think I have ever seen an attractive parking lot. I have been through a good part of this country and I have not seen one yet.
We have been getting a lot of occurrences of road rage. In areas like Vancouver, for example, every hour is rush hour. As my colleague from the Reform Party said, from here to the airport, 95% of the vehicles have just one driver. They then put in an exit sign to Red Hill Road or whatever it is and there are huge lineups. I have even missed a plane because of it. It is insane. There should be rapid massive transit in this country, especially in areas like this, but of a more frequent nature. That would benefit all of us.
It would also be a drastic decrease in our dependence on fossil fuels. We would not have to destroy the planet. Maybe we could actually leave something for our great-grandchildren. They would know that we did not have to burn every fossil fuel just so we could make it easy for ourselves to get from point A to point B. It would also bring a lot more safety to our streets.
Unfortunately, in Halifax, for example, there is an increase in incidents of people being hit at crosswalks. I noticed it here when walking from the hotel to Parliament Hill. A lot of people just narrowly miss getting hit because people in their vehicles are in a rush to get somewhere. I watch people get off the buses and they are happy and generally more easygoing because life has been good. They sat down and read a book or spoke to their colleagues in the morning. They are much happier employees. I believe most employers would honour this type of motion.
I should put in a plug now for all the transit workers in this country who wholeheartedly agree with the member for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys that this is an excellent motion. It would create employment in the transit field. It would create employment for their long term security. It would also help out our elderly, those who are disadvantaged and many of our students who cannot afford to get from one area to another, who could then spend the money they have on more important things like their books or tuition. Maybe they could even go and have a glass of beer now and then. Who knows what students do these days? We would have to ask the pages.
If this motion is passed this House will have shown a terrific responsibility toward the future of this country and toward all citizens by showing leadership, the leadership that the member for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys has just displayed by bringing forward this motion.
I am very happy to hear that our colleagues in the Reform Party will be supporting it. I understand that our colleagues from across the House may be supporting this motion as well.