Madam Speaker, my question is in further pursuit of an answer to a question I had asked in February with regard to the home heating rebate for individuals in British Columbia. I wanted to know why the rebate was administered in such a way that those people who should have received the rebate did not and those who should not have received it did.
More than anything, I want to let my constituents speak tonight to the parliamentary secretary and to the government on this particular issue. I have received a number of letters and rather than fill in my own words, I will use the words of my constituents.
One constituent who wrote me on this particular topic said the following:
I am writing to you to express the outrage I feel about the natural gas rebate to some of the citizens of Canada. To hear that rebate cheques have been issued to children, prisoners and to people that do not even use natural gas makes me angry. When issuing the rebates the government should only have issued them to those that have actually paid for natural gas.
What a novel idea. The constituent goes on to say:
The lack of planning and thought that went into this program is beyond my comprehension and leaves me with little faith in those that we elect to wisely spend our hard earned monies. I am writing this e-mail to you in the hope that you will be able to convey my concerns and outrage to the members of Parliament. They need to know that ordinary working Canadian is really fed up with this type of nonsense and waste! Some common sense should prevail.
I agree with my constituent.
Another constituent wrote:
I'm angry and I want the government to know about it.
I'm sick and tired of hearing that this, that and the other thing has gone up in price every time I turn around. I haven't had a decent increase in wages for years. I'm trying to support myself and have never relied on the government for help in any way—never applied for welfare or Unemployment Insurance benefits. I have been a monetary supporter of the system since my teens and I am now 52. I am an honest, hard working person—period.
In summary, I don't think the way eligibility for the rebate was decided upon was fair—but who am I—just one small person in a country of many.
Two more people wrote to me and said:
This letter is to let you know that we are Canadians who are terribly upset at the recklessness of the Canadian Government at sending out the heating rebates to only a certain class of people.
They go on to say that they are very upset.
Another person wrote and said:
I am outraged at the way the Liberal government spent millions of dollars, supposedly to help people offset the high cost of heating their homes with natural gas. Issuing these cheques to GST recipients who are incarcerated, children, people who heat their homes with alternative fuels and don't use natural gas at all is stupidity at its worst. Because my net income is (around 32,000) I'm not entitled to a GST rebate but I have to heat my home the same as everyone else. I have stopped using my natural gas fireplace and keep the thermostat set at 15 degrees and wear lots of clothes because I can't afford the high cost of heating my house. It just infuriates me to think that not only am I paying to keep violent offenders in jail but that you gave them more spending money while I sit here in the cold struggling to make ends meet.
I have many more letters from constituents commenting on this rebate and wanting to know how the program was administered. It may have started as a good idea but it was administered in such a way that caused great concern to many people in my riding and across the country. We would like to have an answer from the government.