Debates of May 7th, 1999

Employment

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think it is enough to look at one month or another month. One has to look at the underlying trend. The underlying trend since 1993 has been unmistakably in the direction of much lower unemployment and strong job creation.

We will continue the efforts that have produced a million and a half jobs since we took office. This will continue.

[Chuck Strahl, Reform, Fraser Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the unemployment rate is up, the taxes are up and the brain drain is up. Meanwhile the standard of living is down and confidence is down. In fact everything is going down.

Why will the government not make what is up down and what is down up, cut the taxes and get some Canadians back to work now?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, one thing for sure is going down and that is the credibility of the Reform Party.

When it tries to ignore the reality of strong job creation since 1993 its credibility is totally shot. We certainly want to continue creating more jobs, but we have to recognize that one of the factors involved is that more people are entering the labour force because of their optimism about future job prospects.

[Chuck Strahl, Reform, Fraser Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, they are not in the job force because they were just laid off. That is the fact. No matter which way the Prime Minister looks at it, unemployment is up.

Canada's jobless rate is now twice as high as that of our American counterparts. If high taxes do not drive our talent south of the border, the unemployment rate will probably encourage it.

Canadians do not want to hear hollow talk. They want to know where they can get a job, and they want to get it here in Canada. One of the ways the government could help fix this is to reduce taxation levels to the rate of our American counterparts.

Why will it not do something to help unemployed Canadians? Reduce our taxes now. Let us get some Canadians back to work.

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, no wonder the credibility of the Reform Party is down. It refuses to recognize that we are bringing taxes down for all Canadians with $16.5 billion in tax reductions over the next three years. This will add to the successful efforts the government has been making in co-operation with the private sector to create more jobs for all Canadians.

Taxation

[Gerry Ritz, Reform, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Mr. Speaker, even after all the flowery rhetoric the reality is that when taxes are up unemployment rises, when taxes are up health care waiting lists get longer, and when taxes are up secondary education is an unattainable dream for most people today.

These are the realities. Is this what the government is bragging about: pay more, get less?

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the labour rate there is no question the hon. member across the way has to recognize that the 15,300 new jobs created this last month is good news.

Only the Reform Party would believe that job creation is bad news. When we look at the impact of the unemployment rate, the participation rate has come up.

Why do people come back into the marketplace? It is because they have confidence that they can find a job. That is why Canadians are re-entering the labour force.

I hope the hon. member across the way would recognize that fact and use that information in his next question.

[Gerry Ritz, Reform, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is those jobs were created in Ontario and Alberta, two provinces which have recognized that a lower tax rate increases jobs. It has proved itself.

It seems that whenever the government identifies a problem it gets worse. It collects extra taxes for a child poverty strategy, and more kids and their parents are living in poverty. It creates a youth employment strategy, and unemployment youth numbers increase.

Does the government not realize if it takes less in taxes ordinary Canadians will do a better job looking after themselves?

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I am so very thankful the hon. member pointed to Alberta as an example. I would like to quote from a CP wire story:

I've questioned really the wisdom of the dramatic and drastic tax cuts in light of deficit financing. It's not how we would have gone about it. In fact, it's not the way we did go about it...We were able to eliminate the deficit first, take it one step at a time, start a debt repayment program and then look at taxation.

It is the Alberta guru. It is what the Reform Party stands for. It is what it aspires to be. It is Alberta Premier Ralph Klein. He said take a step at a time.

Federal Programs

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Human Resources Development is about to announce consultations regarding the creation of a new program for children.

Quebec immediately expressed reservations about what appears to be a new intrusion into its areas of jurisdiction.

Will the Deputy Prime Minister pledge to either transfer the tax points or, in light of the provisions included in the social union framework agreement, give Quebec the right to opt out, with full financial compensation, of any new program that might be created following the government's consultations?

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, today is a great day for all Canadian children. The minister and his provincial counterparts are announcing the first two papers on the national children's agenda. One is a vision document and one is a discussion paper.

This shows the beginning of the social union where the provinces and the federal government have come together. The discussion paper will now begin to engage all Canadians in fleshing out the plan and developing which programs will happen in which provinces.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, aside from the nice rhetoric of the parliamentary secretary, we know that the social union framework agreement allows the establishment of Canada-wide programs with the agreement of six provinces accounting for as little as 15% of the population of Canada.

Since Quebec already has its own infrastructure for daycare and child care, will the Deputy Prime Minister immediately promise that no new program will be imposed on Quebec, and that no duplication will be created by the policy that the federal government wants to implement?

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, no new program will be imposed on any province. That is the strength of the social union and the national children's agenda as part of that social union.

The whole thing about this new arrangement is the flexibility with which each province will design what it is they want to do for their own children. Quebec has participated in the past in these kinds of things.

For example, the national children's benefit, which was the first step, gave Quebec the money to invest in its family policy including its $5 a day, day care policy.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a human resources sub-committee established to investigate children's needs and to evaluate what is being done in other provinces is now working on a policy paper for the government.

How is it that the Minister of Human Resources Development today announced a series of initiatives for poor children, including support for day care centres and early childhood development, when the committee has not yet completed its consultations and has issued no guidelines?

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised at my counterpart asking this question. Is she suggesting that she is against the development of new programming for children in Canada? That is very surprising to me.

The ongoing discussions in the subcommittee to which she refers are again part of the fleshing out of a menu of programs that will be chosen by various provinces according to their own needs, just the way members of the Bloc Quebecois want to see in most programming Quebec participates in.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after wreaking havoc in social programs by cutting $33 billion in provincial transfer payments for health care, education and income security, how dare the Minister of Human Resources Development, who has no expertise, stick his nose into areas of provincial jurisdiction, unless it is for political visibility?

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the premise of the hon. member's question. It is entirely the opposite.

The federal government will not be interfering in Quebec's choices about what it does in the way of family and children's programming. The purpose of the national children's agenda is to allow that flexibility so that Quebec can design its own programs and deliver them to its own people.

Kosovo

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, even as the G-8 agreement gets us closer to a peace settlement in Kosovo and as the list of people calling for a peaceful resolution continues to grow, NATO shows no sign of letting up on its strategy of expanded air strikes and escalating aggression.

My question is for the foreign affairs minister. Why will the Canadian government not seize on this opportunity to lead the way for a suspension of the bombing in the Balkans to give peace a chance?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, in the meeting we held yesterday I think we gave peace a very good chance.

Frankly I would say to the hon. member that the regrettable decision taken by her party to change its position does not contribute to that initiative. In fact it weakens the initiative by taking away the necessary pressure which needs to be maintained on the Belgrade regime to ensure that it will come to the table.

We have put down an offer that I think represents Canadian principles, which is to go to the United Nations and get a settlement that we can all be satisfied with.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the New Democratic Party has consistently pressured the government to find a peaceful resolution. Even the Prime Minister has said that the timing of the stopping of the bombing is something that can be negotiated.

That time is now. Every day that the government hesitates is a day marked by more bombs, more destruction and more deaths. Will the Canadian government call on NATO to suspend the bombing immediately?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we have not been hesitating whatsoever. I have just spent the last nine days in a round of negotiations with a number of countries.

We were able to culminate an agreement yesterday at a G-8 meeting. A series of initiatives will go forward to the security council of the United Nations which includes a series of conditions that will end the repression and the violence that are taking place in Kosovo and that will provide the basis for a just and fair agreement.

I would say to hon. members of the New Democratic Party that I very much regret that they broke the Canadian consensus and decided to turn away from a very successful formula which was necessary.

Agriculture

[Rick Borotsik, Progressive Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of agriculture has said time and time again that the AIDA program is open and accessible to all farmers.

An AIDA office was just opened in Winnipeg and I would like to visit it. Farmers would like to visit the office, but unfortunately they will not give us their address. They say that it is not open to the public. I wonder if this is the user friendly attitude which this minister talks about in the AIDA program.

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, the user friendly attitude is that there have been over 21,000 calls to the 800 number. There is a bank of people to give information to those who call in. Certainly that is a more efficient way to have it happen rather than somebody walking into an office with a handful of papers and books and saying “will you help me fill out your forms?”

The information is available. We have had dozens of information meetings, not only with primary producers but with accountants and accounting firms, and will continue to do so.

[Rick Borotsik, Progressive Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I suspect with 21,000 calls the minister would like to make the access face to face as opposed to just over the impersonal telephone call.

I have a guest in the gallery who is the general manager of a very large credit union in small town Manitoba. I ask the guest if in fact this program—

[The Deputy Speaker]

We will move on to the next question.