Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Gander--Grand Falls.
It is an honour to stand today in the House to respond to the Speech from the Throne on behalf of the good people of Dauphin--Swan River.
Important issues are missing in the government's agenda. There is nothing for agriculture, there are no plans for rural Canada and there is no increase in funding for additional health care providers. Many of the promises we see in the speech have been mentioned in previous sessions of Parliament and only about 25% of those have been acted on by the government. No doubt this really was a useless exercise. We really did not need the Speech from the Throne. Over the last day we debated on the government's motion to bring back old legislation which died on the order paper.
The Liberals could have done several things with the throne speech. They could have promoted a responsible financial plan, an active international agenda or a collaborative approach to social programs and democratic reform. Instead, they chose to propose a long list of legacy spending in the absence of a budget. Canadians need planned direction, not spending sprees, from any of their governments.
I will take the time to quickly and briefly go through different sections of the throne speech. The first section deals with plans for and funding to health care. We all know that health care is first and foremost in the minds of all Canadians. As former government speakers indicated, we are at the point where only 14¢ out of every $1 comes from the federal government. When the plan was first put together it was 50¢. An increase in transfers to health is long overdue.
We must not forget the current disastrous condition of health care. This began in 1994 with the $24 billion cutback which forced the provincial governments to centralize and reduce their spending. Unfortunately, as we all know, technology is costly and is always on the rise. As we all age, a greater demand is put on health services.
The hon. member for St. John's West indicated to me this morning that in a province like Newfoundland, which has a population drain, it is even harder on the health care system because the number of taxpayers are not there to help pay for the system. Special attention certainly needs to be paid to that.
In terms of investment in cities and infrastructure, we know that over the last 50 years, from the first infrastructure program, which was the brainchild of FCM, that bridges and water and sewage systems are falling apart. It is unfortunate that governments, this one as well as past governments, have not paid more attention to infrastructure upgrades.
Today, with the experience of Walkerton, we know that potable water is very important. It is part of our health. In fact I have been lobbying the minister responsible for western diversification. Currently the situation with the prairie provinces is that most of the provincial-federal agreements have lapsed. Therefore they need to sit down at the table and renew these agreements so that more money for infrastructure development can be put in place.
Rural Canadians, certainly in my riding, are waiting for federal funding or tripartite funding to assist in potable water development. The community of Gilbert Plains in my riding is waiting to hear from the federal government. Unfortunately, if the money is not there, the work will not get done.
In the area of new money for early childhood programs and welfare reform, it is time this government and future governments started looking at the whole issue of free tuition for post-secondary education. Other progressive nations in the world are doing that. We all promote education in the House because we know it is necessary. It is how people change their status and improve their livelihood. We talk about that for the aboriginal community continuously and we all support that. I think that is the direction in which we need to head.
The speech talks about renewing environmental commitments and creating 10 national parks. Most Canadians would agree with that but the problem is that there are not enough funds to look after the parks we have today. In fact, the people living within national parks are fed up with the taxation increase. The ironic thing is that instead of looking after the urban sites, the recreational sites within national parks, the tax money is being used to look after the parks.
Another contentious issue is the whole issue of park wardens. It is ridiculous that the heritage minister, through Mr. Lee, the parks agency administrator, has absolutely refused to be rational when it comes to park wardens retaining their status as peace officers and being able to use handguns. The judgment from the labour board was in the park wardens' favour. It is so ridiculous that over the past year the park wardens have lost their status as enforcement officers. Do members know that a park warden cannot even stop a poacher on the highway or do anything about the poaching? The park warden has to contact the RCMP and literally wait until the RCMP arrive. It may take hours to do something about illegal activity in national parks.
Basically the park wardens have no role left other than that of being public paper pushers in their offices. It is very unfortunate and unreasonable. Park wardens are a part of the enforcement system in this country and they need to be treated with respect.
Ethics guidelines for public servants are long overdue. Perhaps we need to add ethics guidelines for governments. What will we do about broken government promises? We hear that concern from Canadians from coast to coast to coast. There is no recourse. Politicians can promise all they wish. Maybe it is time for them to be accountable for what they say. I think it is probably long overdue and most Canadians would agree with that.
In the time I have left I want to talk about what the throne speech says on page 14. It says:
Respectful of our history, confident in our future, let each of us do our part.
I want to mention two historical situations that this government and past governments have neglected and which need to be dealt with.
The first one is about the internment of Canadians of Ukrainian descent. We all know that during the first world war over 5,000 Ukrainians were interned in concentration camps and in 24 work camps throughout the country. The government must deal with this long overdue problem. These people were Canadians.
Past governments have resolved the issue of the Japanese internment. I think it is time the government acknowledged that the internment of Ukrainians actually happened in Canada, in this free, democratic and open country, during the war years only because they came from another country and perhaps looked or spoke like the enemy. Certainly that is a danger we encounter today with the war on terrorism and with people who have come to this country from the Middle East.
We also have the issue of Canadians of Chinese descent, of which I am one. The whole issue of the head tax must be dealt with. It was unjust and unfair, that whole idea of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. The government needs to acknowledge this problem. If that is what is written in black and white in the throne speech then the government has to be accountable and carry out its promise.
It is time for the Liberal government to walk the talk. As we all know, actions speak loudest. We are looking for action from the government.