Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to participate in the debate on Bill C-78 and to follow the words of my esteemed colleague, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, who has served this House and the Canadian public for some 28 years. I consider it a privilege to work with someone with that experience, who has made an incredible contribution not only for his own constituents but for Canadians everywhere.
I noticed, despite these 28 years of service, that my NDP colleague for Regina—Qu'Appelle used the word theft. That word was not singled out as being unparliamentary, but I understand it could be borderline and it is not an appropriate word to use. However, I think that word, if we were able to say it out loud in this place, would best characterize what we are dealing with when it comes to Bill C-78.
This reminds me of an issue I dealt with as a member of the legislative assembly of Manitoba in 1988 when we were dealing with serious and drastic cutbacks to our child care system engineered by the then Conservative government. I had been working with many groups trying to deal with and stop these cutbacks. My son, who is 10 years old today, was about 2 at the time and, having heard all of this talk from me about government cutbacks, proceeded to announce to the world that the Conservative government had come to his daycare and stolen all the money. Out of the mouths of babes come words of truth and wisdom. I think that is exactly what we are dealing with today. I wish I could say those words that would best epitomize just what Bill C-78 means.
I want to address a couple of points today along the lines of the remarks of my colleague for Regina—Qu'Appelle. The first has to do with the arbitrary, undemocratic way in which the government is handling this piece of legislation and the way it has approached just about every piece of legislation in this entire parliamentary session.
In all the times I have spoken in the House, and there have been a good number in the last couple of years, on just about every occasion I and my colleagues have been forced to deal with the issue of closure. Whenever a bill is presented to this House, debate starts to take off and the public starts to get interested, what does the government do? The government brings down the heavy instrument of closure, time allocation. I know my colleague from the Reform Party touched on this in her question about what has changed in our democracy and what has gone wrong. I think the trend is clear and worrisome.
I understand from some reports that closure was a very rarely used tool. Between Confederation and 1956 it was only used half a dozen times.
Let us compare that to how many times the government has brought in closure in the last two years. If my count is up to date, time allocation has been brought in 12 to 14 times in the space of two years. This is an incredible development, an incredible attack on our rights in the Chamber and on the whole notion of democracy. Is it any wonder Canadians are cynical and skeptical about politicians and about our democratic institutions when this kind of process is allowed to take place?
Some of those sentiments are best described in a letter that was sent to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record by David Crow, a retired airline pilot:
This is nothing more than autocracy masquerading as democracy.
Canadians now live in what can only be described as a benign dictatorship where policy decisions concerning their future are made behind closed doors. Amid the pomp and tradition of parliament lies a system which has become fractious, insensitive, remote and elitist. The antiquated system no longer has the support of most Canadians.
I would hope we would hear those words and understand and appreciate that if we are to renew people's faith in democracy, in parliament and in participatory democracy, surely we have to address what is happening in the Chamber and the shocking way in which the government has been so arbitrary and dictatorial.
Members of the House will remember the kind of anger the present House leader of the Liberal government displayed when the Conservatives brought in closure in their time in government. He went on a rampage about this tactic and actually said “Shame on those Tories across the way”.
Today the situation is much more serious. We say to the House leader and to all other members of the Liberal government, shame on them for bringing in closure so many times whenever there is an important issue before the House and whenever we need to hear from Canadians and value their input in order to put before the public the very best possible legislation. It is with regret that once more we are dealing with that issue and we will continue to speak out on it.
The next point I want to make is on the problems we have with the legislation on a substantive basis. I do not need to repeat all the arguments we have heard from the NDP on this issue time and time again. We are absolutely opposed to the bill which grabs $30 billion in pension surplus to be used at the discretion of the government, whether that be in general revenue or any other expenditure it chooses. We have registered time and time again our concern with that arbitrary move on the part of the government and with its failure to reach some sort of agreement with all the different organizations involved.
It has been said time and time again how important it is to honour and respect the contribution senior citizens have given to the country. The bill does the opposite. As my colleague from Regina said, it is holding pensioners in contempt by not recognizing their contribution and working out an arrangement to ensure the surplus is put to the best possible use.
Many have commented on how it is so ironic that the bill is before the House at the same time as the government is participating in this year's UN's international year of the older person, a year intended to mark the contributions of our senior citizens, to recognize their achievements and to create intergenerational respect and support.
Is it not ironic that we are dealing with a bill which does the opposite? At the same time we are trying to celebrate the international year of older persons which has been called “Canada: A Society for All Ages”. That is the height of hypocrisy which must be clearly noted in debate.
Some of my colleagues asked whether in looking for a reasonable approach to pension surplus the actual level of poverty among some of our senior citizens was considered and in particular the fact that older women were among the poorest of all poor. It was pointed out in earlier debate that a woman who served in the civil service for 20 years ended up with about $9,600 a year in retirement funds. The reallocation of this surplus toward people such as these women, the poorest of the poor in the country, would have made a big difference.
I have much more I would like to say, but I urge all members of the House to oppose Bill C-78 which takes $30 billion out of the pension funds.
As my hon. colleague from Regina did, I urge members on the Liberal side to reconsider their opposition to the bill on the basis that it is supporting a recognition of rights for people regardless of sexual orientation. We certainly support that provision but seriously and strongly oppose Bill C-78.