Mr. Speaker, I pleased to speak to Bill C-211. My colleague from the Bloc has put forward a pretty interesting proposal. However, when we look at the forest worker separated from a lot of others in the same categories, I have some concerns.
I look at the proposal that a low paid seasonal worker is asking to reclaim some of his expenses through the income tax source. The other interesting part is that he would be able to claim his vehicle or the costs of his travel back and forth, including the cost of the interest on his loan to purchase his vehicle. I wonder if we are just talking about cars and trucks here. As the hon. member knows, some people travel by Sea-Doo. Maybe they should be able to claim them also.
Unfortunately a dual economy is developing. There are areas that are flourishing. Employment rates are extremely high mainly around our urban centres and people are doing very well. In many of the rural regions people are trying to eke out a living. Forestry workers, fishery workers and construction workers are some of those groups.
Because of the way the present government has operated and because of the CHST cutbacks over the last number of years, most of the provinces have put the meagre income they have into health care more than anything else. In most provinces, except for the two or three more affluent ones, there is a lack of construction work. Many construction workers who worked on our highways, municipal projects and water and sewer projects now have to travel all over the place to get enough hours of work just to qualify for EI benefits during the long hard winters.
The hon. member who presented the bill has an issue. He is on to something but he needs to broaden the base considerably.
There has been a lot of discussion tonight on the methods of taxing people. Alliance members talked about their proposals, the flat tax. Let me tell them that many seasonal workers certainly would not benefit from the flat tax. They would just be flattened a little bit more by the flat tax.
Some might say that the government's proposals are going to be generous. Let me say to them that again, the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. We are seeing this more and more. When I use the word poorer, I am not talking about poor in the sense of resources, but poor simply because they have been downtrodden by the Liberal government over the last 10 years to the point where they cannot gain from the development of the great resources they have.
There is no greater example than my own province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We are an extremely rich province with a tremendous amount to offer, but because of the policies of the government, we are not gaining at all from the development of our resources. We see some employment in the urban centres, but the employment levels in the rural centres are going down.
We see among our fishery workers what the hon. member sees among his forestry workers. In order to gain meagre employment, they have to travel miles and miles. Before, many of our communities had large fish plants where the local fishermen came into their own wharf. People in the area worked in the processing plant and did very well.
Because of the depletion of our resources and in particular the mismanagement by the government, there is absolutely no scientific research involved in order to dictate how we should handle our resource. We see the decimation of the fishery. Fewer people are fishing.
Fisher persons themselves have to travel further and further to get to the wharf that they use and to the place where they now must store their boat. Many of them have to go from the smaller boats to the bigger boats to travel further afield to catch the meagre resource. Fish plant workers who work practically next door travel in excess of 100 miles a day in order to get enough work to qualify for EI benefits.
I have a lot of sympathy for what the hon. member is saying. Construction workers day in and day out travel over 100 miles to get to a place where they have a few weeks of work.
When we look at changing the tax structure, instead of looking at across the board cuts that the members opposite say will benefit everybody, perhaps we should look at adjustments within the system that will benefit those who really need the tax breaks.
When the federal government cuts taxes by 5%, 10% or whatever, it brags about it. Everybody gets a break. But for the people in Newfoundland who pay 69% of the federal rate in their personal income taxes, it does not mean a thing. It means that the provincial government is taking in fewer dollars. It means absolutely nothing in the sense of attracting investment because the playing field is not level. Again, the rich benefit more. They can offer more incentives to people to invest. The poorer provinces such as the Atlantic provinces in particular cannot compete with the more lucrative ones because they cannot offer the same tax incentives.
Across the board cuts and made in Ottawa solutions might be looked upon as being equal, but they are certainly not fair for many regions. Not only are rich, poor and some in between regions developing, the same thing is happening in sectors within our provinces.
People in the rural areas of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in particular are finding it more and more difficult to find employment. The expense of going to their job and the expense of being involved in the workforce are getting so great that people need some kind of a break.
I support in principle what the hon. member is proposing. I hope we will use this as a catalyst to help other sectors, not just the forestry workers. Their case might be unique in certain areas of Quebec, but the fishery workers in Newfoundland are just as unique. The construction workers in Atlantic Canada and Quebec are just as unique. Perhaps it is time that we looked at developing tax policies that benefit those who need help.
Members opposite brag about the $12 billion, $14 billion or $15 billion surplus. They should be on their knees thanking the Tories for their initiatives. Back in the early nineties when they brought in free trade, the members opposite said no, that it would destroy the country. What happened after the election? The Liberals went along with free trade and today they see the benefits. Every night they should give thanks that Prime Minister Mulroney had the fortitude to do what the Liberals did not have the fortitude to do.
The other great income generator is the GST. Once again those hon. members said that we could not have this terrible tax. What happened? They had the terrible tax. We can go back to the government of the hon. leader of our party which was defeated when it increased the gas tax. When the members opposite came into power, they doubled it right off the bat.
The Liberals can brag about the surplus for two other reasons. It is not only because of good Tory policies but they have also shafted the people on health care and have held back billions of dollars that should be going to the sick and the poor. People are suffering because of seasonal employment. The government has cut their legs out from under them with the EI benefits. This has helped fill the government coffers and it is nothing to brag about.
Maybe it is time for the government to change its mind and support the hon. member's bill and help the people who really need the help.