Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-78. I understand this will be my one and only time to speak to it.
We have heard other adjectives to describe the bill, but my favourite is that the legislation came from the south end of a northbound cow. It does absolutely no good for the Canadian people. It does absolutely no good for the regard of parliament.
This is another example of the Liberal government having absolutely no consideration and no respect for the hallowed place we call the House of Commons. All four political parties in opposition represent people in constituencies from coast to coast to coast. Government members disregard us, so that means they disregard our constituents as well and the people in their ridings.
It is a disgrace to listen to them table over 200 pages of legislation which takes a Philadelphia lawyer to figure out and then ram it through. We find out through discussions that when all is said and done not even the auditor general will be able to review the aspects of the bill.
It is an absolute disgrace that current members of the plan who are working pay 7.5% of their salary into the plan. After the $30 billion have been ripped away from their wallets, they will end up paying 8.9%. In essence it is another tax upon Canadians, especially workers in the federal public service.
I read something very interesting yesterday in the National Post . I love this. The government can find more ways to spend money and waste tax dollars than any other government in the history of the House of Commons. The article stated:
Government wants to know what creates unhappy workers. For the first time the federal government is going to survey all its employees across Canada to find out what makes them so frustrated and unhappy on the job.
The government is to spend $1 million to do that. If it wished, it could give me $100,000, which I would spend in my riding much more effectively than it can, and put the other $900,000 toward the debt, reducing taxes or into social programs. I could tell the government for free why people are so unhappy and so angry at the federal government.
First there is the pay equity concern. It totally ignored pay equity. It broke its promise on pay equity. On the table 2 negotiations there was another broken promise by the federal government. It absolutely forced the lowest paid workers in the federal public service back to work against their wishes without even consultation in terms of consideration for fair collective bargaining.
We could talk about our military personnel who are in Kosovo right now working in our peacekeeping efforts, over 60,000 men and women and their families. There is an absolute disregard for their future in terms of their pensions. It will take this money and spend it willy-nilly.
Our RCMP officers are under attack all the time in the press and sometimes by citizens because of some misgivings of a few of them. The RCMP does a fantastic job. To treat its members this way when it comes to their retirement and taking their money away to be spent in other areas is an absolute disgrace.
I could talk about many aspects of the federal public service. I cannot shout it loud enough. It is a disgrace what the federal government is doing. It has total disregard for its workers and retirees who amount to about 1.8 million people.
I find appalling as a new MP that this kind of effort goes on and on and on. The government has done it in many other aspects. There have been over 50 time allocation motions brought forth by the government since 1993. Now it has brought forth a piece of legislation that is 200 pages thick and has cut off debate after four hours. It never took the government four hours to write up this legislation.
My hon. colleague from Winnipeg Centre brought forth recommendations and amendments to the bill. Everyone in the House should heed his warning. If he says they are right then they are absolutely bang on. There is not a more honourable member of the House than our labour critic from Winnipeg Centre. That was a free paid public advertisement for my colleague from Winnipeg Centre.
We can go into the various details and aspects of the bill, but I want to ask the government one question. Why when all is said and done will the government not allow the auditor general to review the legislation in upcoming years? Why is it hiding it? Why is it ramming the bill through so fast?
There have been many speculations on that side that the war in Kosovo is a perfect opportunity to present the legislation. It will not make the press. It will not make the news. It can be kept quiet and hushed. As its own internal reports say, if the government wants to do something bad it should do it fast, do it dirty, do it quick and get it over with; forget consensus from the Canadian people and forget even consulting with them. It will not even allow elected parliamentarians to speak to it.
If that is not the case, why does the government not hold committee hearings across the country to get a fair view of what the people are saying? It will not do that because it is afraid to face the public.
I have said to many of my constituents that the government plans to spend the money some three to six months prior to the next federal election. We will see the Minister of Finance and other cabinet ministers going across the country from coast to coast to coast and asking, for example, what Winnipeg Centre needs. Does it need a new road? Does Halifax need a new building? Do they need this or that? Do they need tax cuts? They will have over $50 billion between the EI surplus and the pension surplus to spend at their will.
Liberals keep saying that it is Canadian taxpayers money. However, no one was fooled when they came down with the recent health care budget of $11.5 billion over five years, after taking away $21 billion. This was money that was taken away from employees and employers through the EI fund. That is where the money came from. It was not new money. Maybe next year it will be a green budget. It could be a tax reduction budget. However, I can assure members the money will be taken away from federal public servants and retirees. That is where the money will come from. It is nothing new.
It is the oldest shell game in the book. It robs Peter to pay Paul. There is nothing new about it. It is the oldest form of government. It forms on fascism and dictatorship.
I have always said that it appears at times we live in a capitulated democracy. As long as Liberal backbenchers do what the cabinet says, they can do whatever they want. I would be ashamed to be a Liberal backbencher. They are like sheep or grazing cattle. They sit back and do whatever cabinet tells them.
I would like to be a fly on the wall when federal public servants call their offices to hear what their explanation is, what they tell these people. We know what we would tell them. We would offer our support and tell them that the government should not take this money.
The government should scrap Bill C-78, just ignore it and leave the money where it is. It should reinvest in public servants, pensioners and widowers. It should improve the benefits. It should give better dental care, health care and eye wear. It should improve pension benefits. That is what the money was there for. It was not meant for the government to take and spend at its pleasure, similar to what it has done with the EI fund.
I could talk all day on this subject. Any time we get to bash the government on something that is right we should take the opportunity to do it, but it is rare that all four political parties on the opposition side agree on something. We have agreed on hepatitis C and on various aspects of EI. Now we totally agree on this one.
If the government wants to lose the next election, this is exactly how it should go about doing it. It takes the money from taxpayers and whenever the election is held it tries to buy votes with their own money. Canadian electors are too smart for that. They will see through this smoke and mirrors in a heartbeat. They will know right away. If the federal government wants to try to win the next election, it should start backtracking on legislation like this and start listening to the opposition.
It is deplorable that the treasury board minister who holds the key to the vault says that it is the taxpayers money and no way in hell are the unions to get that money. I echo the words of my colleague for Winnipeg Centre. It is not union money. The unions are saying that it should go to all federal public servants who have retired and all those who are currently working. That is where the money belongs, not to the treasury board minister. It is a disgrace that he would try to belittle the effort of the union.
Although this is the only time I will speak to the bill publicly in the House, we will be raising the alarm bells loud and clear in our ridings.