Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. angry young man from Elk Island for his intervention. We all have effective ways of dealing with anger and I would be willing to sit down with him for counselling any time.
The member is an extremely effective member of the House of Commons finance committee. He shares with me a concern that the committee process is becoming less and less functional as we see the executive branch of the government and the Prime Minister's Office exercise control. I would add the cabinet as well but I do not think even the cabinet has much to say about how things are going on that side of the House any more. I think the Prime Minister's Office increasingly is exercising control over members of parliament on that side. It is also trying to exercise control over committees which by their nature are more effective and functional when they operate in a more co-operative non-partisan way.
I was very disappointed that the concerns about the air security tax which were raised by every single witness who appeared before the committee were ignored. They were not really ignored by the committee. There were Liberal members of parliament, including the member for HIllsborough, who expressed concerns.
In fact the hon. member for Hillsborough had said at committee that he was not going to vote for the air security tax without amending it. He supported an opposition motion to reduce the air security tax by 50%. Of course the chairperson recognized that if a vote occurred at that particular moment, the air security tax would have been reduced by 50% by the committee. As such she recessed the committee briefly and miraculously 30 minutes later when the committee reconvened the member for Hillsborough was not there. He had disappeared. I moved at the committee that we send him a get well card.
The member came back about 20 minutes later looking like he had just lost his puppy, with a florid face after having been taken into the whip's torture chamber. He expressed that he had changed his mind, that he saw the ways of the government on this one now. He said that he had received reassurances from the Minister of Finance that this issue would be revisited in the fall and the minister would reduce the tax if it was taking in more revenue than what was required.
I did not just fall off a turnip truck. The Minister of Finance committed to scrap the GST and did not. The Minister of Finance has benefited from building a surplus on the backs of workers and small businesses with the EI fund. Are we supposed to take him seriously when he says he is going to reduce the air security tax if it takes in too much revenue? The Minister of Finance is a taxaholic. We do not expect the government or the Minister of Finance to make good on that commitment.
It is unfortunate that we are seeing an increased level of control of committees by the Liberal whip as an extension of the Prime Minister's Office and the dysfunctionality which is inherent in that. Committees need to work effectively for parliament to work effectively.
I know the hon. member for Elk Island and I will continue to go to those meetings and do our best to make the committee functional and effective but it sure does get frustrating sometimes. I know some of the Liberal members opposite are just as frustrated with it as we are.