Mr. Speaker, I am sorry for all the kerfuffle I have caused. I thought it was an effective way to get a message across and especially to give everyone an opportunity to reflect.
It was never my intention to treat this House as a circus or a place of ridicule. I have too much respect for the people here to do that.
Let us turn now to Bill C-78. I would like to provide a bit of background. The President of the Treasury Board created an advisory committee on the Public Service Superannuation Act to look at pensions within the public service.
This committee carried on consultations for four years. It comprised members of the government, public servants and representatives of employee and pensioner associations. Everyone contributed effectively to this committee. The President of the Treasury Board recognized the committee's effectiveness. We will recall that the president said in February 1998, “that the government had accepted a certain number of the committee's recommendations”. These words speak reams.
Why then, a few years later, did this government make an about face? It totally changed its position. It did so simply because the President of the Treasury Board sat down at the table in cabinet, and the finance minister, also called the ships minister, saw an opportunity to get hold of some money so he could boast about his government's good management.
The minister finds it tempting to take from a fund of nearly $30.2 billion the government does not contribute to anymore. This fund is made up of the public service, RCMP and Canadian forces pension funds, which have built up a surplus of $30 billion.
This legislation will allow the government, and particularly the Minister of Finance, to take this $30 billion and say “Look how good I am. I have achieved a zero deficit. Look how great it is”. The government has made a habit of doing that. Remember the siphoning of money from the employment insurance fund. Remember the transfer cuts imposed on the provinces by the Minister of Finance and this government.
Remember that, in the health sector alone, the government has cut over $20 billion in the transfers to the provinces. Now, a few years later, it is boasting and saying “We will reinvest $11.5 billion of your money, the money that we siphoned off. But we will be the ones investing your money”. The government siphoned off $20 billion and is now reinvesting $11 billion.
This is outrageous because, without telling anyone, this government decided to change the formula that determines equalization payments. The new formula will use a per capita basis, which, again, will create problems for the Quebec government.
Under the new formula, Quebec will get less than 8% of these $11.5 billion, while Ontario's share will be very close to 47%. Talk about fairness.
Let us now take a look at what Bill C-78 does.
In Bill C-78, the government has had another brilliant idea, which is to form a sort of management committee to administer the $30 billion surplus in the fund. The committee will be appointed by the President of the Treasury Board, and the unions and retired employees will have no say. This committee will be packed with friends of the government, those who contribute to its campaign fund, and those to whom it owes favours.
This is oddly reminiscent of the other agencies this government has had the bad habit of establishing, such as ADM, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, the Canadian Wheat Board, and Nav Canada, among others. When there is a problem with these agencies and we ask a question in the House, what do the members opposite say? They say that they have created an agency that is responsible for its actions and that the directors are old enough to manage the taxpayers' money. This money is being managed by people who are not accountable. It is a disgrace.
In conclusion, I would like to remind the House that, this morning, we have witnessed something very sad, as we do here all too frequently. Once again, I am bitterly disappointed at what is happening to democracy in this country.