Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have this chance to speak to a very important piece of legislation. Bill C-24 is about one of the fundamental defining features of this country. It is a matter of serious debate for all of us in the House.
One would think based on the parliamentary secretary's presentation that this is just a technical matter, that Parliament is just a rubber stamp and let us get on with the job. Certainly that is the way in which the bill has been handled all the way through the various steps of legislative scrutiny in the House of Commons. It is being presented to us today as a done deal, something the provinces have agreed to and therefore Parliament must simply give its blessing and let us get on with it. That approach would be doing a great disservice to Canadians if we did not elucidate for them the serious flaws with respect to this whole process, and the serious mistakes made by the federal government throughout this process of resolving the equalization formula.
This is not a matter of simply dotting the i 's and crossing the t 's; this is a matter that goes to the very heart of what this country is all about. If we make a mistake at this level and we do not address the root causes of unease and concern that are bubbling away below the surface, then we are asking for trouble. We are asking for serious threats to the very fabric of this nation and to the constitutional solidity of our country.
Today is a most interesting day for us to be debating third reading of Bill C-24, for having Parliament finalize debate on this legislation. Today is the day that our Prime Minister will be officially signing the side arrangements made with the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia. Those deals run in the billions of dollars and were negotiated after the government bungled the entire process around equalization. Interestingly enough, we are here today to finalize Bill C-24 on such an occasion. This draws to everyone's attention just how flawed the process has been and just how wrong-headed our Prime Minister has been throughout this entire sorry saga in the history of Canada.
I want to quote from a CP article which appeared in March 2004 in a Winnipeg newspaper and probably in other newspapers across Canada:
Ottawa's equalization transfers--and its practice of special deals for some jurisdictions--could divide the provinces, says Manitoba's finance minister. “[It] could be perceived as a divide-and-conquer tactic”, Greg Selinger said in an interview. “If you keep doing specific, one-off side deals, even though each of them may have merit, you're really avoiding the overall issue”.
That says it all. That is exactly the kind of dilemma and the problems we are faced with today because of the lack of leadership by the government of the day. Here we are trying to finalize an equalization arrangement that will try to satisfy all provinces while the federal government at this very minute is signing side deals with a couple of provinces because it could not fix the problem at the very outset and deal with it appropriately.
Exactly what was prophesied is happening. Other provinces are asking where their side deals are. Saskatchewan has every right to ask, “How do we get in on this side arrangement dealing with natural resources?” New Brunswick is clamouring at the door. Ontario is questioning the whole process, and rightfully the province of Quebec has said that the whole process stinks and is tantamount to very serious divisions across the country, as if we do not have enough divisions already, as if we do not have enough wounds to heal and enough issues to deal with to ensure that the country is working together on a solid footing in the interests of all of its citizens.
It is a day of irony. We would be remiss in this debate if we did not point to the root of the problem and try to convince the government to use this opportunity in our history in terms of a minority Parliament, with such willingness to cooperate on all sides of the House, to reassess the damage that has been done and to commit itself to a much more positive and productive response to this situation.
As my colleague from the Bloc has done, I would also like to emphasize the importance of equalization. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the equalization process in terms of maintaining the Canadian identity. This is fundamental to who we are. It is part of our philosophy that says from each of us according to our ability to each of us according to our need. It is a philosophy that has permeated many aspects of parliamentary life and federal-provincial decision making over the years. It is at the heart of medicare and our national health care system, which is very much in danger today. There is a great threat to the loss of that fundamental program.
The principle is still maintained and Canadians still remain attached to those fundamental values of cooperation and community, of caring and sharing. That is the essence of who we are as Canadians and it is why the equalization process is so important.
There are many different reasons that equalization is important. I want to make reference to the Constitution and remind everyone of what we agreed to with the changes to our Constitution and the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1982. It states:
Parliament and the government of Canada are committed to the principle of making equalization payments to ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation.
Equalization is intended to secure horizontal fiscal equity to ensure that between provinces there is the capacity to generate broadly comparable revenues per capita without recourse to significantly higher than average levels of taxation. That is the fundamental principle of equalization. We need to remind ourselves of all those who fought so hard to get this principle enshrined in the Constitution, and in the way of doing business between federal, provincial and territorial governments.
A very important paper written by Errol Black and Jim Silver was prepared for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. I recommend it to all members as a very important contribution to the debate. The paper and its authors point out the following developments in our history pertaining to equalization.
First, they remind us that two decades ago the Parliamentary Task Force on Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements reported that equalization was:
--variously described by witnesses before the Task Force as the 'glue that holds Confederation together' and 'a pillar of Confederation'.
The paper goes on to point out that in 2002 the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance stated:
We are united in our belief that this is an important, in fact a defining national program.
Furthermore the paper shows us that a recent academic study of the equalization program found:
The concept of equalization, enshrined in the Constitution Act 1982, enjoys almost unanimous support among Canadian politicians and academics.
Finally, the paper notes that the Economic Council of Canada reported that it considered the sharing of costs and benefits embodied in Canada's system of equalization payments to be one of the major foundations of Canadian nationhood.
This is the case whether we are talking about equalization in terms of nation building, or whether we are supporting equalization because it means citizens from one end of the country to the other are able to participate equally knowing that wherever they live, whatever they make, whatever their circumstances they are treated as equal citizens and are entitled to those resources to help them contribute fully and equally in society today, or whether we are talking about the social justice issues at hand. This reminds us that equalization should also be justified on moral grounds as a question of decency and social justice. That comes from constitutional authority David Milne who has been an outspoken expert in this area.
I could go on with all kinds of references to noted academics and experts in this field who point to the seriousness of the issues we are debating. They remind us of the responsibility we have as parliamentarians to do our utmost to make equalization work. Does Bill C-24 make sure that equalization is on a solid footing and that it works in terms of those broad principles and values that we hold so near and dear?
We have heard enough today to know that there are serious problems with this issue. The government has actually bungled the whole issue of federal-provincial relations vis-à-vis equalization.
The situation is hardly better than it was before the government sat down and forced a deal on the provinces. All the government has done is put off many problems that have to be dealt with at some point. By way of this legislation I guess we will get a chance in five years.
Goodness knows what could happen in five years' time. We may see more side deals struck between the Prime Minister and other provinces. All the more power to any province that can do that because it seems to be the only way that works with the government. The provinces have to fight for every little bit of turf because the federal government only works on the basis of the squeaky wheel.
The Prime Minister seems to bend every time there is a bit of pressure, as opposed to sticking firm to certain principles. His flip-flopping and dithering are becoming well known features of the Canadian political landscape. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the debate on equalization.
When we were debating this matter at committee and some of us were proposing amendments to the bill, it was suggested to us that this matter had been signed by the provinces, that it had been dealt with and that we had no business making any changes. We were told that the matter was over and done with.
It is fair to remind Canadians that in fact the provinces were dragged kicking and screaming into signing this particular arrangement.