House of Commons Hansard #132 of the 36th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was money.
Bernard Patry Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34 I have the honour to table in the House in both official languages two reports of the Canadian section of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie, as well as the related financial report.
The first report has to do with the meeting of the executive which was held at Yaoundé, Cameroon on July 4, 2000, and the second with the 26th ordinary session held July 6 through 8, 2000 also at Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Paul Devillers Liberal Simcoe North, ON
Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present in both official languages the ninth report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Pursuant to order of reference of Tuesday, November 30, 1999 a subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights was established to conduct a study on organized crime to analyze the options available to parliament to combat the activities of criminal groups and the committee has agreed to report it with recommendations.
I will take this opportunity to congratulate all the hon. members who were on the subcommittee and most particularly the House of Commons staff, the interpreters and our researchers. They worked long and hard to help in the preparation of this report.
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-511, an act to amend the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal Act (Book of Remembrance for peacekeepers).
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to introduce this bill, seconded by my very capable colleague from Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik, a champion of peace locally, nationally and internationally.
This bill amends the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal Act and provides for the minister's establishment of a book of remembrance for Canadians who have lost their life in international peacekeeping missions.
(Motion deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Lorne Nystrom NDP Qu'Appelle, SK
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-512, an act to amend the Canada pension plan, the Government Annuities Act and the Old Age Security Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts.
Madam Speaker, I have introduced a bill which I hope all members of the House can support. It basically would amend all statutes in Canada that make reference to old age and would change the words “old age” to “seniors”. For example, it would change the old age pension to the seniors income security act.
A gentleman dropped by my office a few months ago. He was a very young, healthy senior who felt the reference to old age on his pension cheque was derogatory. For that reason I have introduced this bill today to change the words “old age” to “seniors” in respect for this country's seniors and the soon to be seniors as well.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Ted White Reform North Vancouver, BC
Madam Speaker, I am presenting a petition today signed by 83 people from North Vancouver, including Mr. Jones of Epps Avenue. The petitioners point out that whereas 80% of Canadians practise personal and corporate religious faiths that recognize the power and universal sovereignty of a supreme being, they pray and request that parliament reject all calls to remove references to a sovereign God from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the national anthem, as it may divide Canadians forever.
Guy St-Julien Liberal Abitibi, QC
Madam Speaker, I have the honour and privilege of presenting a great Canadian petition in the House of Commons on behalf of the Pèlerins de Saint-Michel, in attendance today and tomorrow.
The 26,129 signatories to a petition of over 1,100 pages, in addition to 22,500 petitioners last year, call on parliament to ask the government, in the spirit of Jubilee 2000, to take steps to eliminate the national debt, the primary cause of taxes and people's great poverty, to stop borrowing from financial institutions and to create the money necessary for the country as the Canadian Constitution entitles it to do and requires it to do.
Rick Borotsik Progressive Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to present to the House.
One of them goes back to an issue which is close and dear to my heart, that of agriculture. This petition has 53 pages and this is not the first petition I have presented. It suggests that the government has certainly fallen short of the necessary support requirements for agriculture particularly in western Canada but in Canada as a whole.
The petitioners suggest that the agriculture minister who does not have sufficient influence in the department should be replaced. That is the essence of the petition. I believe that will happen probably within the next 36 days.
Rick Borotsik Progressive Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
The second petition, Madam Speaker, is presented with respect to the nuclear proliferation in the world. The petitioners request that parliament support the immediate initiation and conclusion by the year 2000 of an international convention which will set out a binding timetable for the abolition of nuclear armaments.
Lou Sekora Liberal Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Madam Speaker, I would like to present two petitions signed by many people in British Columbia, including my riding.
The first petition calls upon parliament to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to raise the age of consent for sexual activity between a young person and an adult from 14 to 16.
Lou Sekora Liberal Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
The second petition, Madam Speaker, requests that parliament stop the expansion of private health care in Canada.
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
Madam Speaker, the office of the auditor general has already recognized its moral obligation in the spirit of the pay equity legislation. It already supports the provision of retroactive payment for pay equity to its own affected employees, mainly women. Therefore the petitioners pray that parliament empower and ask treasury board to release funds allowing the office of the auditor general to meet its obligation in a manner consistent with settlements made to affected groups under treasury board.
Michel Guimond Bloc Beauport—Montmorency—Orléans, QC
Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to table in this House a petition signed by the citizens of my riding of Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans and the greater Quebec City area.
They call on parliament to ask the Chinese government to stop its persecution of the practitioners of Falun Gong and to remove the prohibition against the practice of Falun Gong.
Bill Graham Liberal Toronto Centre—Rosedale, ON
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I request unanimous consent for the House to return to presenting reports from interparliamentary delegations.
PetitionsRoutine Proceedings
The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)
Is there unanimous consent?
Bill Graham Liberal Toronto Centre—Rosedale, ON
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House in both official languages the report of the Canadian delegation of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association, OSCE, to the ninth annual session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe parliamentary assembly which was held in Bucharest, Romania in July of this year.
Derek Lee LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Madam Speaker, I move that all questions be allowed to stand.
Questions On The Order PaperRoutine Proceedings
The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)
Is that agreed?
The House resumed from October 18 consideration of the motion, of the amendment and of the amendment to the amendment.
Jean Dubé Progressive Conservative Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. When the debate ended yesterday, I believe the NDP leader still had five minutes left for questions and comments.
Economic PolicyGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)
The hon. member is absolutely right.
Lorne Nystrom NDP Qu'Appelle, SK
Madam Speaker, the startling thing in the budget yesterday was the $100 billion tax cut. It sounded like a budget of the Canadian Alliance in putting that much money into tax cuts, in particular because the tax cuts are greater for wealthy people, for millionaires, for people with all kinds of cash and for people who make all kinds of capital gains.
I believe the government had choices. It made a choice to reward its wealthy friends. It made a choice for big corporate tax cuts. It made a choice to help those who have the most money in Canada rather than put money into health care, education and the environment. That is how I see last night's mini-budget. I would like to know whether the member for Halifax West sees it in a similar vein.
Alexa McDonough NDP Halifax, NS
Madam Speaker, sometimes when mini-budgets or economic statements are being debated they seem a bit abstract. They may seem as though they are about big figures which are hard for people to identify with. Let me tell the House what choices of the government are reflected in the budget statement.
For a single mom living on an income of $15,000, the tax cuts announced by the government will amount to $350 a year, probably enough to pay for a prescription drug for a couple of months because the government has not put in place the promised pharmacare program.
For the bank president or the big corporate director on an income of $750,000 with stock options of say $23 million, the choice that the government has made represents a tax saving of literally millions of dollars.
It is important for people to realize that a budget is about choices and those are the choices that the government has made. The Liberals went to the electorate and told them they would do something about child poverty. What they have done is pump up the incomes of the wealthiest Canadians.
The Liberal government went to the public and said it would introduce a universal child care program, it would do something about home care and would do something about pharmacare. Not one cent in the mini-budget introduced yesterday advances those commitments. What have they done instead? The Liberals have said that tax cuts a la reform alliance are the only thing that matters.
When did a tax cut ensure safe drinking water for working families? When did a tax cut repair an education system that is tattered because of the federal downsizing and downloading of financial responsibilities? When did a tax cut hire nurses who are desperately needed throughout the health care system?
Canadians can see the choices. Canadians can see that this is a government absolutely firmly in the clutches of the corporate elite who last night slurped champagne and pigged out on caviar, not in celebration of the leader of the reform alliance, but because it considers itself to have won the battle to ensure that the finance minister and the federal Liberal government are squarely in the clutches and in the corner of the corporate elite of this country.
Roy H. Bailey Reform Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Madam Speaker, naturally when an MP reads or hears a budget, their attention is drawn to how it affects their own constituency.
Despite what the member of the New Democratic Party has said, one of the things which really disturbed me, representing a province where the number one industry is falling and falling very quickly, representing a province that has lost 6,200 of its main producers in the last year, September to September, representing a province that will lose that many more and the rural area of the last best west is becoming desolate, not one word was mentioned in this budget to support an industry that stretches across the entire western Canadian area.
As a matter of fact, the government has only paid out 42% of the total amount of money allocated by the government to assist in a small way to keep some bread and butter on the table of these people. As a parliamentary measure, I understand that we may be seeing AIDA come to Saskatchewan and maybe we can get a few more cheques out. In a briefing with a radio station last night, I said that would not buy one vote.
Yes, I am pleased to see tax cuts and I am pleased to see that the government has listened to us with regard to tax reduction. All one needs to do is take a look at my province with the worst health system in Canada, the worst road system in Canada, absolutely the poorest drug plan in Canada and part of that, not all, is the fault of the NDP. It could be fixed by their potentially new leader.
He said to get rid of all the health boards and start delivery. That is the problem with NDP philosophy. The problem with NDP philosophy is part of the problem why Saskatchewan has no highways, no health care under an NDP government and the absolute poorest rating in Canada. For them to talk about this budget is inappropriate.
My last comment, the western grain industry will never forget the government for the lack of attention that it has paid to it. The government will reap the results come November 27.