Mr. Speaker, I am pleased once again to speak on the amendments proposed to Bill C-66, this time on Group No. 3.
I would first of all like to speak in support of some of the motions presented by the member for Bras d'Or—Cape Breton and the member for Kelowna. I will then have some general comments.
It has been proposed in Motions Nos. 25, 27, 28 and 29 by the member for Bras d'Or—Cape Breton that the board of directors of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation remains as it is currently structured rather than change it as has been proposed in the bill. These are amendments with which I wholeheartedly agree. Section 25 of Bill C-66 would alter the structure of the CMHC board, a structure that was put in place and has remained unchanged since December 18, 1945.
Subsection 6(1) of the CMHC Act states: “The board of directors shall consist of the chairman, the president, a vice-president who shall be designated by the governor in council, and seven other members, two of whom shall be selected from the Public Service of Canada and five of whom shall be selected from outside the Public Service of Canada”.
In other words the board of CMHC as it currently exists consists of five highly qualified housing professionals from CMHC and the public service, and five people who are appointed by the Liberal cabinet who may or may not be qualified or even have any knowledge of the housing industry. Although it concerns me that nowhere in the act does it stipulate the qualifications these Liberal appointees must have in order to sit on that board, at least the legislation strikes a balance between housing professionals and the Liberal appointees.
What the government is suggesting we do with Bill C-66 is to throw out the structure of the board that has worked so well for the last 54 years and appoint three more Liberals to the board. If we allow this bill to pass unamended, the Liberals will remove the vice-president of CMHC and two public servants from the board and replace them with three Liberal patronage appointees. Presently the board has a good balance among its 10 members, being one-half housing professionals and one-half political appointees.
There are two problems with the changes to the board as proposed in the bill. First, the balance will be upset in favour of the government. Second, there is no way to guarantee that the politically appointed Liberals will have any qualifications whatsoever to be able to make important decisions affecting Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
I would not want to speak disparagingly about the Liberals, but the government has developed a reputation, deservedly so, of appointing Liberals to government boards, qualified or otherwise. Aside from the distasteful nature of this change that could put three more Liberals on the CMHC board, it could also threaten the independence that CMHC enjoys as a crown corporation. Just think, now CMHC management has to answer to a board that at least has some balance between five highly qualified professionals and five Liberals. But under the new board, CMHC management will be under the direction of a board comprised of a majority of Liberal appointees.
I had an opportunity to question the minister responsible for CMHC on this bill. When I asked him what necessitated this change, he had no answer. When I asked him what problem existed with the present board that required this solution, he could not offer an explanation.
The Liberals want to have a board composed of eight patronage appointees and two housing professionals. This is entirely unacceptable to our party, as are the accompanying changes in clauses 26, 27 and 28. I am also pleased to support the amendment by the member for Kelowna that would delete clause 30.
At present, CMHC cannot unilaterally raise the capital limit of the corporation without coming back to the House of Commons and getting the approval of the members of the House. The bill proposes that this change can be made by cabinet without the input of Canadians or their elected representatives. This should stay as it is.
Just a note on Motion No. 30 that was moved by the member for Kelowna. Clause 29 of the bill broadens the mandate of CMHC to allow it to establish branches and appoint agents outside Canada to better serve customers. This is particularly important when it comes to fulfilling the corporation's mandate to promote Canadian housing products and services outside Canada. I believe this proposed change in the bill would be of benefit to the Canadian housing industry and I must therefore oppose this amendment.
There is another point I want to talk about. I heard the parliamentary secretary on the government side when she said that this bill was not about homelessness. I am part of a task force organized by the PC Party of Canada. I travel across the country, not that I like to do it. Mr. Speaker, you know I do not like to travel, I do not like to fly. Hon. members cannot imagine the Canadians we meet on a daily basis while we travel who do not have a roof over their heads.
What disturbs me is that this bill will take $197 million out of the corporation and hand it over to the government, whereas that money should be used for social housing. The budget that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has right now should be increased substantially to deal with the problem of homelessness in this country. It is not being increased. It is being downgraded and $197 million will be given to the government so that it can waste it somewhere else. That is what the government has been doing since 1993, wasting taxpayers' money. It is a real shame.
The other week a Reform Party member asked a question of the new minister responsible for homelessness, who was supposedly appointed by the Prime Minister about a month ago. In her answer she told the member that she was not the minister responsible for homelessness. Last week in New Brunswick in a meeting she claimed that she was the new minister responsible for homelessness. Can she make up her mind? We have a minister who does not have a mandate, who does not know her mandate, who does not know she is minister and who all of a sudden knows that she is minister, yet people out there are hurting.
We need a better housing policy. We need to help those people. We need to put more money into different programs. I am not saying that the existing programs are all that bad. RRAP is a program which helps senior citizens and disabled people stay in their houses. It is a good program. We need to put more emphasis on and more money into that program so that we can help those people stay in their houses.
We have to find some money somewhere to put into social housing so that we can help people who do not have homes. In New Brunswick in my riding of Tobique—Mactaquac I know some really nice people with young children who literally live, eat and sleep in their car. Is that a house? It is not a house to me.
What is the government doing about it? The Liberals are half asleep over there right now. It is time to get to work. We were elected as members of parliament to represent our people and it is time we did the job. Put the partisan politics aside. Let us all work together because this is not a problem we have, it is a crisis.