Mr. Speaker, it is still good to get move to the east coast now and talk about New Brunswick.
I would like to share with the House a few comments on some of the trips I have made to New Brunswick and how people in the east end of the country are feeling just as frustrated with the Liberal government as they are in the west. Maybe the Liberals can get a little task force together to look into the alienation of Atlantic Canadians as well, because I am sure they would get some news from that.
It is spring. You and I, Mr. Speaker, have just come back here from Edmonton. The snow has gone there and we have fresh clean air. It is wonderful that spring has hit Canada. It would be terrific if spring and some fresh air were to move through the House of Commons. It would be just super. It is certainly time for spring in Ottawa.
We have to look at a new country. The next spring that this country sees will be in the new millennium. It would be terrific to do some spring house cleaning as well and see a new government in Ottawa so that we could bring about some real changes, serious changes that would make Canadians from coast to coast feel proud to be Canadian again. I was speaking with someone last week who does not feel proud to be Canadian any more. That hurts all of our hearts, regardless of what side of the House we are on.
I wanted to ask the people of New Brunswick for some of their feedback. I am a westerner. Although I spend time in Atlantic Canada from time to time, I do not understand everything about it and never pretended to. I thought the best way would be to go to source and talk to New Brunswickers.
I sent out a form to several people asking them to distribute it around New Brunswick. I put two comments on the form asking for responses:
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Here's how one Liberal policy in Ottawa has severely affected me and my fellow New Brunswickers.
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Here's how I would fix that Liberal policy.
People had an opportunity to send in real comments and say this is how Liberal policy has affected them in New Brunswick as a New Brunswicker. I have had several responses from people. It is amazing the feedback that came from them. I suggest the Liberals should listen to this also because they will find some incredible parallels to the task force on western alienation.
Number one was no surprise, taxes. People were concerned about taxes. They say taxes are grossly unfair, discriminatory and too high. That is no surprise, no matter what corner of the country they live in.
The Liberals promise job and wealth creation and they keep New Brunswick back from its potential. What a sad story it is to see people from across the country faxing MPs to say that taxes keep New Brunswick back from its potential. That is the saddest thing to me.
What federal taxes do New Brunswickers want reformed? Their biggest concern was about extending the tax deduction to single income families. We know this has been prevalent in the news lately, but we have seen a lot of people come forward like Kimberly Oliver who said:
I feel single income families are unfairly taxed. A stay at home parent cannot get a part time job because they lose it all at tax time at year end.
Here we are in mid-April. Everybody is working away on their taxes and they know the price that they are paying in the high taxation of the government. She continued:
Stay at home parents are ignored and put down for their services and unfairly taxed.
Here's how I would fix that Liberal policy.
A tax break for single income families and allow a dependant to earn more before penalties.
What a smart, practical idea that is. Somebody else, Innis McCready, wrote:
Taxes were too high for the average home owner and wage earner. As a parent, and now a grandparent, I am saddened to see young New Brunswick mothers (some of my relatives, friends and neighbours) being forced to leave to others the care of their preschool aged children to work outside the home in order to make ends meet, all because of the careless indifference of this government and its discriminatory tax laws.
How would this person change it? He said he would cut taxes to low income families and cut business taxes. What a great idea it would be to cut taxes; not just the way the federal finance minister talks about cutting taxes because he picks and chooses little areas here and there, but complete tax breaks across the country.
Lower payroll taxes. We have gone around and around in the House about that as well. The government might just bubble forth here and tell us how it has dropped the EI rate, but it forgets to tell us the part about raising CPP taxes so much. That must have been just an oversight. I am sure it was an accident on its part.
Allan MacMillan and Bernie Conway from New Brunswick have said we need to establish a flat tax. Bernie Conway wrote that he was:
—a second year law student at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. I will be entering the workforce in the year 2000. The amount of money that I will be paying in taxes is very disconcerting. I have invested both time and money into my education in hopes to make a better life for myself, my family and Canada. Yet the governing party in Ottawa (and its predecessors) have seen fit to saddle me (and all Canadians) with a tax system that will make this very difficult.
These letters from frustrated people go on and on. They want to work. They want to pay taxes but not high discriminatory taxes so they are burdened to death.
Lower taxes on retired people and pensioners. I go back to the CPP issue again. Our plan is to rescue the Canadian pension plan from bankruptcy through guaranteeing full benefits to Canadian seniors and creating super individually vested RRSPs that will allow Canadians to secure their own retirement without being taxed to death, perhaps before their natural time.
Revenue Canada must treat custodial and non-custodial parents fairly. I have comments from people who say there is no justice in the tax system when it comes to child maintenance and access.
The HST should be dropped from second hand sales. We do not have to live with the HST in western Canada. Maybe the Liberal task force has not come up with that yet. On second hand sales Susan Baxter from St. George, New Brunswick, wrote:
We are overtaxed! We just bought a second hand camper trailer. We had to pay sales tax on this item even though it was used (15% tax). There's no limit to the taxing.
The potential is that after several sales and resales of this old camper trailer the government gets HST. Somebody sells it again and the government gets HST. That is scandalous.
The second issue that people were concerned about was health care and education funding. Eric Banks from Second Falls, New Brunswick, wrote:
The health care and education are in real trouble because of federal government cuts. Nurses are leaving our country for jobs that are not here...The education department has been cut year after year. They call it amalgamation.
What a nice word. I also heard the words partnerships and networking. They sound so glossy, but basically it is a knife in the back. The Liberals are cutting them but if they dress it up with a fancy name and it will be oh so painless. That is scandalous and the government should be ashamed of itself, especially when it announced in its budget all the wonderful billions of dollars going back into health care. It cut $20 billion and put $11.5 billion in. Then it tries to tell me, an English major, that this is good math. Even I can figure out that it does not make much sense.
The third major issue that New Brunswickers talked about was gun registration. The present plan will not work. We have raised the issue that the wonderful firearm centre that is doing such tremendous work is sending out firearm acquisition certificates with somebody else's picture on it. As good looking as you may be, Mr. Speaker, I am sure you would not want your picture on someone else's FAC. It would not be a good thing. Nor would your twin. I know he would be equally scandalized.
The fourth issue is about protecting the east coast fishery. What a devastation. We talked about the seal hunt today and how many cod seals are eating. Again, Eric Banks from Second Falls wrote:
The fisheries of the east coast is in a terrible mess and most of that problem is due to policies that destroy small fishing villages.
What he would do to fix that policy? He wrote:
The traditional fisherman should have a real say in laws and standards that affect their lives.
Would it not be a novel idea to have people in those industries being able to advise government?
The fifth issue is EI reform for seasonal workers. Many people in New Brunswick are seasonal workers. I have information from people there who said there was a problem with EI, and specifically the intensity rule, for people to be able to say that they work seasonally. Some of these industries are seasonal. There is no other way to cut it. They have seasonal employment.
In conclusion let me wrap up by saying that people in New Brunswick, the same as people in Alberta, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and all across the country, are saying “All right already, we are being taxed to death. Lay off. We do not mind paying taxes but just back off and quit asking us for more and more and more”.