Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise today to speak to Bill C-25, the Income Tax Amendments Act, 1999.
Yesterday I attended the Business Council on National Issues' annual CEO summit in Toronto. At that summit there was an immense amount of discussion surrounding some of the issues facing not just the business community but all Canadians in the complex and hypercompetitive, globally integrated economy that we are entrenched in today.
I heard a lot of very serious and legitimate concerns about the future of our country. I was dismayed by a sense of disconnection between the people in that room, who were working hard to create greater levels of opportunity for Canadians and greater levels of prosperity for Canada, and the people here in parliament and the House of Commons.
Yesterday morning the Minister of Industry spoke to the group assembled. His speech contained some very positive messages with respect to the future competitiveness of Canada. However, in the question and answers after, he clearly disappointed those assembled by demonstrating that he lacked the vision and the leadership to provide the types of initiatives that Canada needs at this juncture to forge forward as a globally competitive country.
The minister was asked a question by Izzy Asper, the CEO of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and head of the Global Television Network, concerning the Canadian tax system. I will quote Mr. Asper.
The Canadian tax system that we're living under was last reformed 32 years ago. It is obsolete and the world it was designed to deal with no longer exists.
The (system) is a nightmare of complexity, a sea of uncertainty...The tax system is now anti-business, anti-private sector and anti-entrepreneurial.
In short, Mr. Asper was saying that our tax system is anti-growth. I would argue that is clearly not to the benefit of any Canadians, whether in the business community or outside of it.
In his response to that very serious question, the Minister of Industry said that a fundamental reform of the tax system would require an enormous amount of consensus among the taxpayers. He effectively said that it was impossible to reform the tax system because it would require a consensus.
In his statement, I think he was speaking to a larger truth, that is, to the lack of vision on the government's side in terms of these very important issues and the incrementalist, poll-driven style of this government relative to many issues, in particular, economic issues. In its tinkering, in its short term focus on next week's polls, it is ignoring the interests of Canadians well into the next century.
We heard from a number of individuals who were participating in the conference yesterday. A gentleman by the name of Tom Axworthy spoke to the group assembled. As an experienced former professor at Harvard, he indicated that in the last several years he has seen the percentage of expatriate Canadian students studying at Harvard, who returned to Canada, significantly reduced, to the extent that now virtually none of the Harvard graduates from Canada are actually returning to Canada. They are staying in the U.S.
These are very troubling and not simply anecdotal experiences. These are signs of a greater truth. The Conference Board of Canada's report on brain drain indicated that the number of Canadians leaving Canada to go to the U.S. seeking greater levels of opportunity and growth for themselves and their families has grown from 16,000 per year to over 100,000 in the last year. These types of statistics are very troubling for Canada.
We also heard yesterday from the U.S. economist Lester Thurow who, a number of years ago when the Liberals were in opposition, spoke to a Liberal policy gathering. In referring to the current Prime Minister he said that the Prime Minister's “one problem at a time” and “Canada is number one” rhetoric reflected his personal and political convictions that setting national targets, exhorting citizens to make special efforts, using his office as a bully pulpit in outlining serious challenges for citizens to consider, are all potentially fatal political traps.
While we are listed by the UN as the greatest country in the world to live, and all Canadians are quite proud of that, and while the Prime Minister pontificates about how we are the greatest country in the world, he is using that as a reason for not pursuing economically visionary policies. Whenever a politician or a government pursues policies that are visionary or forward-thinking there is risk. Clearly the previous government paid a significant price for pursuing policies that were visionary and politically dangerous.
Free trade, which is lauded now by almost all parties in the House, and certainly by the opposition Liberals who fought vociferously against it prior to 1988, was a very controversial issue in the 1988 election. In fact over half of Canadians voted against free trade. The majority of Canadians voted for parties that were opposed to free trade.
That step went far beyond the Minister of Industry's statement about tinkering and consensus. That step was one of vision and of leadership. Making the types of structural changes to the Canadian economy, which have enabled Canadians, toward the end of the 1990s and now as we have entered the 21st century, to be in a position where we can potentially take advantage of the opportunities and face the challenges of the new economy.
Similarly, the GST, against which the Liberals successfully fought in the 1993 election, is now embraced by the Liberals. In fact, the Prime Minister on foreign travels claims to have invented or implemented the GST.
The difficulty with the Minister of Industry's statement yesterday, that no steps can be taken without the consensus of Canadians, indicates that this government is so focused on following the polls that it is failing to lead Canadians. Canadians deserve better government than that. I would argue that on the GST there was a consensus. Unfortunately, it was not a consensus that was positive for my party in 1993.