Debates of March 31st, 2000

The Budget

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, in the most recent budget, the government changed the capital gains tax laws. Instead of including 75% of the capital gains in our taxable income, it has now been reduced to some 66%. That will cost the federal government about $445 million a year and benefit mainly the wealthy people in this country.

An example of that is John Roth and Jean Monty, the CEOs of Nortel and Bell Canada.

Mr. Monty has 440,000 stock options he can cash in. Mr. Roth has 2,990,000 stock options he can cash in. If they were to cash these in they could potentially have additional tax gains of about $14 million next year over last year, thanks to this change and thanks to the government.

What this government is doing now is giving millions to millionaires instead of investing this money in health care, which is exactly where it should be going.

Ford Motor Company Of Canada

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in the House to pay tribute to the Ford Motor Company of Canada with headquarters in my riding of Oakville.

I want to commend Ford on a recent announcement. Ford is offering its employees a computer, a printer and Internet usage at home for a small fee. This provides a tremendous opportunity for employees to familiarize themselves with the tools of technology and e-business as these tools become increasingly important in the workplace.

We are witnessing fundamental changes in our society and economy. Ford is demonstrating how progressive companies are in ensuring that employees and the members of their families become comfortable with this technology right at home.

Canada is on the leading edge of a technological revolution that is shaping the world. Now, more than ever, companies will flourish through investments in their employees. I am pleased to see Ford's recognition of this fact.

Awards

[Inky Mark, Reform, Dauphin—Swan River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, fresh off the glamorous Oscars comes another glamorous award: the Teddies.

Recently the Canadian Taxpayers Federation presented the heritage minister, Sheila Copps, with a lifetime achievement award.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I ask the hon. member not to use the name of our members.

[Inky Mark, Reform, Dauphin—Swan River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, recently the Canadian Taxpayers Federation presented the heritage minister with a lifetime achievement award for her many acts of wasteful spending.

The minister is up for best supporting actress for her recent role in the CINAR film credit scandal, where taxpayers appear to be footing the bill for tax fraud. That follows up her award winning performance to fund a soft porn movie called Bubbles Galore .

Speaking of acting, let us look at the heritage funded Call Girl Art Show at Canada's embassy in Paris. It cost taxpayers more than $43,000 for an 11 week run, paying actresses to pose as call girls and to talk about—

[The Speaker]

Order, please. On oral questions, the hon. Leader of the Opposition.

Employment

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, today the Prime Minister is down at a Liberal convention in Cape Breton playing the old Liberal game of handouts. He is promising millions of dollars of public money to an American company to lure it to set up shop in Cape Breton.

Cape Bretoners are still reeling from Devco. That is the last failed job creation scheme and now the Liberals are unleashing another on those people down there. Is this really about jobs for Cape Bretoners or is it about reviving Liberal fortunes in that part of the country?

[George Baker, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is getting her information from the media, from the press gallery. That is the reports this morning.

I am not about to criticize the press gallery. I have been here long enough to know that the press, like the proverbial customer, is always right. If in fact the press is right, it means a thousand jobs from the United States to the economically depressed area of Cape Breton. What wonderful news for Canadians today.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the minister can try to sell it as wonderful news, but in fact his own government has no real idea how many actual jobs will be created.

In fact, I would like to quote from the industry minister. These are his very concerns. This does not come from the press. This is a direct quote. He said “When I first became responsible for ACOA we talked about the credibility of these job forecasts. They have proven to be lacking in credibility”. That was the actual industry minister whose umbrella it is to oversee ACOA.

If the actual minister does not even trust those numbers, why should Cape Bretoners?

[George Baker, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, if the newspaper clippings are correct this morning, if the news media are correct this morning, the federal involvement would be about 12 cents on every dollar for wages. If the jobs are not created in that five years then no money will be spent.

What a marvellous formula to attract American companies to economically depressed Cape Breton Island.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the minister knows that when the ACOA program was created in 1988 virtually everyone who was here on the Liberal side of the House voted against it because they had concerns about how much actual job creation it would give.

The Liberal government is manipulating Canadians. The minister can stand and blame the press, blame the opposition, blame anyone he likes, but he knows that Cape Bretoners are reeling right now.

The government is on record as saying that these programs do not actually create long term jobs. Cape Bretoners deserve better than this. I am sure the minister would agree with me that these Liberal PR exercises are pretty hollow. Why do the Liberals continue to betray Cape Bretoners and Canadians so that they can just benefit politically?

[George Baker, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, if that party across the way, whatever its name is, were ever to gain power it would cancel all the ACOA grants and loans. It would cancel western diversification funds. It would cut $3 billion from our senior citizens.

Canadians need not worry. That party will never come to power, and that is according to its own past leader. It is not a government in waiting. It is just a party debating with itself.

[Diane Ablonczy, Reform, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

It is interesting, Mr. Speaker, that when the government has no good answers it just misrepresents the opposition.

[The Speaker]

I ask the hon. member to stay away from the word misrepresents.

[Diane Ablonczy, Reform, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been caught in the act of accepting U.S. military waste and are now trying to wiggle out of it with some belated tough talk.

Something else they have done behind the scenes is to give $1.25 million in job grants to a U.S. company—they seem to like U.S. companies—to build a waste disposal site in Canada, even though there were already existing Canadian companies doing the very same thing.

Why are Liberal job creation boondoggles more important than fair competition, or even protecting our environment?

[George Baker, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, I can only hope that the newspapers are correct today in what they are reporting, but according to the newspapers the amount of money that is being lent depends upon the jobs being created.

After five years, if the jobs are not there then the money is not there. There is another party as well contributing to this according to the newspapers: $7 million from a provincial government. What political party? The same party the hon. member wishes to unite with.

[Diane Ablonczy, Reform, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, that had absolutely nothing to do with the question I asked. It is an important question about the environment, about fair competition and about giving Canadian money to American companies to compete with our own operations.

Perhaps the environment minister would like to stand on his feet and tell Canadians why our money is going into operations that are unnecessary and jeopardizing our environment against the promises that he made to Canadians.

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

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is referring to a company called Trans Cycle Industries, an environmental firm that operates a facility in Kirkland Lake.

This facility dismantles and recycles electrical transformers. It has received funding from us to help it at the beginning. There have been $1.25 million allocated to this company. It opened in Kirkland Lake which had an unemployment rate of 13.3% and created 35 long term sustainable jobs.

Human Resources Development

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. With Globax and Techni-Paint, the rules were followed. The scandal is with Placeteco. This is where the Prime Minister's friends are. And it is with Placeteco that the HDRC and Treasury Board rules were not followed.

We know that no jobs were created at Placeteco; jobs were lost. So no creations, just losses.

If the minister is serious, what is her hold up in telling us just how many jobs were created at Placeteco?

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

Mr. Speaker, the two companies being mentioned were built because of the one company it started with. Our contract is with one company and now we look at the project as a whole, not just one company vis-à-vis another.

When the project was approved there were 64 people working at Placeteco, 49 at Techni-Paint and 6 at Aérospatiale Globax. At various times there were as many as 135 people working at Placeteco. Now there are 170 people in total working—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Rimouski—Mitis.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, really, the parliamentary secretary's doublespeak does not alter the basic problem.

She is saying that Globax had two branches: Techni-Paint and Placeteco. Placeteco was sold. It is no longer part of Globax or of Techni-Paint. She must stop telling us what appears on her documents. She must tell us the truth.

If she has invoices, let her table them in the House. We want to know where the $1 million went. We have had it with the answers she has been giving us.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure Canadians that our focus has always been to help unemployed Canadians find work.

In this case we have invoices and documentation from the companies on supplies and salary costs that support the payments we made consistent with the terms and conditions of the TJF program.

[An hon. member]

That is not true. No jobs were created. Stop lying.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.