Madam Speaker, I want to say a few words on the bill before the House today as well. Bill C-47 is basically a technical bill that applies to duties regarding wine, spirits and tobacco products.
It is a bill we support. It is not a bill of great significance in terms of a lot of change. We support the amendments from the finance committee regarding microbreweries. My friend from the Bloc Quebecois just mentioned the problems of microbreweries and I agree with him wholeheartedly as well.
While we are talking about this important tax bill I want to say that we need a debate about a fair taxation policy that would be fair and just for the ordinary citizens of Canada. It has been a while since we have had that kind of debate. The last time we talked about taxation was during the 2000 election campaign when the Liberal Party made a commitment to a $100 billion tax cut over five years. We had that debate during the campaign but there has been very little in parliament itself in terms of a debate about a taxation policy that might be of benefit to Canadians.
When I think of the bill before us and our taxation system we must look at two or three different changes. I remember talking to people in my riding on the weekend in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. People were talking about three priorities: the need for more investment in the public health care system, the need for greater investment in public education, and the need for an investment to deal with the farm crisis that is extremely dire now right across the prairies and indeed right across the country.
Not many people realize this but according to statistics, 2001 was the driest year in the history of the province of Saskatchewan. The 1930s were very dry years. In particular 1936 and 1937 were extremely dry years. They were the years of the great drought and the great depression across the prairies. However last year was the driest year in recorded history.
These are the priorities of the government. We must talk about a taxation system that is fair enough to meet the public's agenda and priorities and do what is best for the common good. In addition to this we have concerns about the lack of infrastructure in the big cities including rural Canada, the national highways policy, environmental cleanup and ensuring that we have a safe water supply.
These are all issues that require a great deal of public investment, which in the last number of years has been curtailed radically by the federal government. We have to talk about a taxation system that is both fair and provides enough money to ensure we have public investment for the good of all Canadians.
When we look at these we think of the projections the Minister of Finance has made time and time again. Every year he has made projections and underestimated the revenue available to the Government of Canada. We now have surpluses that go strictly into the national debt.
Last year, at the end of the year, the federal government had a surplus of $17 billion. That was applied to the national debt automatically, except for the $101 million the Prime Minister decided to spend on Challenger airplanes on the last day of the fiscal year. The money went entirely to the national debt.
I am suggesting we give ourselves as parliamentarians some flexibility to decide where we spend these unexpected, non-anticipated surpluses that are not budgeted for. In Saskatchewan, and in some other provinces, we have a fiscal stabilization fund. It is a fund that governments pay into during good times and draw money out of in difficult times to balance the budget, to meet public expenditures, public expectations, and to meet a crisis like the farm crisis and so on.
If we were to have a fiscal stabilization fund that the $17 billion would have gone into instead of being applied automatically to the national debt, this parliament could have had a debate as to what to do with the $17 billion surplus. We may have decided to spend it in four or five different ways. Perhaps some of that surplus would have been spent on paying down the national debt.
I am sure in all likelihood the majority of that surplus would have gone into investment, public health care, public education, environmental cleanup, infrastructure, housing and the farm crisis, and other issues that are facing Canadians. After all every parliamentarian that goes back to his or her riding gets people lobbying on behalf of those very important causes. However, today, because we do not have a fiscal stabilization fund, parliament is not just handcuffed it is absolutely impotent in terms of deciding where to spend this unexpected, non-anticipated service.
I appeal to the House that we look at ways and means that will allow parliament to make the decision over the expenditure of taxpayers' money after debate in the House of Commons instead of allowing all of that money to go to the national debt by default. That is what has happened and it will happen again.
Two months ago, the Minister of Finance projected in his budget a $1.5 billion surplus for the fiscal year 2001-2002.
More recent projections by the finance department put the surplus at somewhere between $7 billion and $10 billion. Many members, including Bloc Quebecois members, have said in the House that, if a bill is not passed, all of the surplus will be used to pay down the national debt.
We are not against paying down debts. In fact, the debt to GDP ratio in Canada was much too high in the mid-1990s when the debt represented 70% of our GDP. We were the second highest indebted country in the G-7 next to Italy. Now the debt to GDP ratio is down to about 50%. That is considerable progress. We are roughly in the middle now of the G-7 nations.
Instead of automatically applying all of that money year after year of unexpected surpluses to the national debt, let us set up a mechanism in the House where we can have a debate in parliament to decide where that money will go. This is not a partisan issue as I look across at my friends on the Liberal side of the House.
What role does parliament have that is more important than scrutinizing taxpayers' money and deciding what is best to do with taxpayers' money? There are three things we can do with taxation revenue: first, is to pay down the national debt, second, is to reduce taxes in the case of a surplus, and lastly, is to put more money in terms of public expenditures on issues of concern like health and education.
What has suffered in the last few years since the 1995 budget of the Minister of Finance? Less and less money has been proportionately going toward investment into programs for people.
I have seen many frustrated Liberal backbenchers over the last few months who have expressed a concern, because of the rules of parliament, that the government is now being run by the Prime Minister's Office, a few bureaucrats across the way in the Langevin Block, and the Minister of Finance and some of his people without any input from the ordinary member of parliament. They are so right when they say that.
This is something that parties in the House should unite on and ensure we have a mechanism in parliament such as a fiscal stabilization fund. When we have that unexpected surplus the money would go into the fund and parliament would have a debate as to how the money is to be spent.
Is it a radical idea to call for a public democratic debate and call for transparency in terms of how we spend taxpayers' money? That is my plea in this debate, that we in parliament have a debate over where that surplus would be going for this fiscal year. We should have had a debate over where the surplus went in the last fiscal year when $17 billion was applied to the national debt. These are some of the things that should be done.
During the minute I have left to conclude, I would like to talk about the report the auditor general made public three or four weeks ago.
The auditor general stated in her report that we have $7.1 billion now invested in six or seven different foundations and none of them are subject to an audit by the auditor general. Once again this is an issue of accountability and transparency over how the public's money is spent. The auditor general must have the right to audit all these foundations. I hope the House will agree with me and help me make these representations to the Minister of Finance and others.