Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-25 and comment on the exchange that took place between my colleague from Medicine Hat and the parliamentary secretary regarding the $58 billion which the Liberal government is talking about as being tax cuts.
As my colleague from Medicine Hat indicated, there really are no tax cuts. We simply have to ask Canadians if they see more money in their pockets. It is a simple question. All members should go to their ridings and ask this question of their constituents: Have you seen the so-called tax cuts that the Liberal government has brought down in this budget; the $58 billion which it is touting? They will not find Canadians who say that they have received any tax cuts. Where are these tax cuts? I do not know where these tax cuts are. Canadians do not see them.
The claim by the government that there is $58 billion in tax cuts is all accounting and bookkeeping which the government has brought forward so it can spin it to the country that there are tax cuts.
I would like to address two areas. One deals with what Canadians are facing. The other deals with the impact of the government's fiscal policy on international trade.
I have received constituent complaint after constituent complaint, complaints of the draconian measures that Revenue Canada takes when going after people who cannot afford to pay, unfairly squeezing money out of them, putting them into more misery.
The government says that Revenue Canada has a system of fairness and that people can complain. I can tell the House that is not happening. What is happening is that Canadians are calling their members of parliament. Any member of parliament would tell us that Canadians are complaining about the draconian measures which the bureaucrats are taking at Revenue Canada.
I received a call this morning which concerns me. A constituent of mine is having problems with Revenue Canada. This case was given to the Minister of National Revenue six months ago and we have not had a reply. My constituent phoned the agent who seized an aircraft from U.S. Customs. What did this bureaucrat tell my constituent? He said “You went to your member of parliament. You complained to the minister. I am sorry, but we are going to take our sweet time in dealing with this”. Is that how we deal with Canadians?
I have another case dealing with immigration bureaucrats, from whom I have written proof that they say to members of parliament “Sorry, we will not respond to your inquiries”. I would like to tell these bureaucrats that members of parliament have been elected by Canadians. We are the voice of Canadians on the street. It is their democratic right to come to us for help. It is our right to ask the government and the bureaucrats questions and it is our right to expect a response.
Is that happening? No, it is not happening. What is happening now is that we are seeing the bureaucrats taking over, making decisions and then telling members of parliament that they cannot respond to them. This is becoming a trend which is quite disturbing.
With respect to the tax cuts which the government is talking about, time after time calls have come into my office asking where are these tax cuts. Where is this tax relief?
A constituent came into my office. He had been granted a CPP disability pension. Under the CPP disability plan he was eligible for a claim because he was recognized as having health problems. He is disabled. When he filled out his income tax forms and included the disability credit, lo and behold, Revenue Canada said “No, you are not disabled. This disability claim is disallowed”.
How can one arm of the government give him a cheque, saying that he is disabled, when another arm of the government, Revenue Canada, is actually telling him that he cannot claim the disability credit and, therefore, will have to pay tax? Then Revenue Canada charges interest on it, and this poor man just cannot afford to pay. He is on disability from CPP. How does this work? I do not know.
The government says that it is compassionate and is giving a tax credit. Students and single parents have come to me who cannot pay. Do members know what is killing them? It is the so-called interest and penalties, even if it is Revenue Canada's fault. That is the problem.
At times Revenue Canada will not tell the constituent what it is doing. It just goes ahead and assesses without giving due notice. That is why my colleague from Calgary Southeast is presenting a taxpayer bill of rights. That is the best legislation that could be brought down to give Canadians at least a voice against the draconian measures taken by the bureaucrats of Revenue Canada.
What can be done about a system which charges penalties and interest and says that we have to pay it? People are already facing problems and having difficulty paying in the first place. These are not people who are trying to cheat. They are not denying their incomes. It is not that. They are not making much income but the problem they are facing is that Revenue Canada without informing them is taking draconian measures.
They come to our offices and at times we are successful, but why does it have to take us to do it? Why cannot the government do it? This is a concern which I thought was appropriate to bring out when we are talking about Bill C-25.
I am the international trade critic and I would like to talk about the government's fiscal policy on international trade. Many times I have heard the Minister for International Trade mention very proudly that 43% of our GDP or one out of three jobs is tied to international trade. He says this proudly. As a matter of fact he said it today.
I refer to book entitled “Africa Trade Strategy 2000”. That is fine and I accept it. We are proud of what is going on. However, I have a question to ask of him. Why has there been no trade mission to Africa? The Minister for International Trade rightly said that when Canadian companies are interested we will have a trade mission to Africa. The essence of the point is: when Canadian companies or businesses are interested in doing it.
The Minister for International Trade and all the trade officials that work for the Department of International Trade around the world are promoting trade. Trade means jobs for Canada. We all know that. They are promoting trade to the best of their ability, signing deals, creating corridors and opening windows of opportunity for Canadian companies. That is great.
The problem is that it is for Canadian companies. With the high taxation that the government's fiscal policy has created and the refusal of the Prime Minister to recognize that, will Canadian companies at the end of the day be able to take advantage of the international windows of opportunity? Absolutely not. As the minister said, he may go out there and find there are no companies.
A problem is also originating out of this, which is evident even from EDC's list of clients. We have a serious problem henceforth with calling for EDC's privatization. We are getting concentrically narrower and narrower and narrower with only a few Canadian companies out of the whole Canadian economy. I can name a couple of them, Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin. These are the companies that are taking advantage of it. The Canadian economy is growing. There are companies all over the country that would like to do international trade. We need to expand to get them to take advantage of international trade.
We cannot restrict it to companies that are benefiting from grants and that have connections with the government. We have to open it up. That can only happen if there is sound fiscal policy by the government. Lowering taxes is the peak criterion. Time after time every business leader says that productivity has curtailed and taxes are too high. At the end of the day the government refuses to listen. The Prime Minister says that if they do not like it they can leave the country.
About a week ago I saw an article in the paper indicating that 500 Newfoundlanders were going to Ireland to work. Companies from Ireland came to Newfoundland and asked people to work for them. What does that tell us? It tells us that in Ireland the economy must be booming. There is a shortage of people so they come to Newfoundland, and rightly so. Let them come to Newfoundland. If Newfoundlanders can find work in Ireland, great.
We can look at the massive change that has taken place in Ireland because of lower taxes. Ireland looked at its business environment and said that its economy had to be productive. It did that. Today its companies are coming to Canada looking for workers.
Our government refuses to do that. The Minister for International Trade and everybody else including me will proudly say that we are trying to promote international trade. That is good for Canada. International trade provides jobs. When we try to sell business opportunities in the international market to Canadian companies they say cannot do it. They cannot expand because people are leaving the country. They do not have the workforce and taxes are very high.
As I was saying, it is critically important that we have a sound fiscal policy. That will create an environment where business can flourish, which in turn means jobs for Canadians, which in turn means prosperity for Canadians. If we do not do it, the prosperity of Canadians will go down and down. It is a question we need to be worried about because Canada has the potential. We are touted as the best country in the world. If we do not stop this now, we will start slipping.
I think we already are slipping, when we look at our partners that compete with us on the international trade scene. We have started to lose ground to them rapidly. If everybody else is recognizing the problems of productivity and high taxation and are addressing those issues, when will our government address them?
In solution 17 that my party proposed we are asking for the general corporate tax rate to be reduced from 28% to 21%. We are asking for the payroll tax, the EI premium, to be reduced to $2. We are asking that the small business tax rate be reduced from 12% to 10%.
We do not have to be rocket scientists to know what all this means. It will mean more money in the hands of businesses and of Canadians. More money in their hands means more consumer spending, which means companies become productive, the business environment has the strength to grow and we will be looking at a robust economy. If we fail to do that it will not happen.
The international trade agreements we are signing are opening the doors for other countries to come here as it is opening the doors for us to go first. If we are not going to go, they are going to come here. When they come here there are jobs for Canadians, but we would be weakening Canadian companies. We want them to be strong and to take advantage of the ongoing globalization era around the world.
It is a question of priorities. Yesterday the Ontario government introduced a budget which targeted the business sector and a reduction of taxes as its number one priority. It is the largest province and it is doing well. I was at the dinner and I can say there was a great sense of optimism in that province. In my home province there is also a great sense of optimism. Those two provinces are optimistic. The question we might ask is why. The answer is simple. Their economies are becoming robust, not because of the federal government but because of the provincial governments which have taken the lead in reducing taxes.
The federal government is refusing to recognize the results. It is refusing to recognize the evidence that is out there. There is evidence of those provinces reducing taxes. The European Union started reducing taxes. If we are not careful, even with the NAFTA trade we are doing with our neighbour to the south we can start losing ground. Nothing will stop them. They will be going down to Mexico.
We hope that by bringing it to light the government will recognize it and do something about it. At this time I would like to move an amendment to the amendment.
That the amendment be amended by adding the words “by the Official Opposition”.