Debates of Oct. 19th, 2006

Suspension of Sitting

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

I will declare the sitting of the House suspended in light of the fire alarm.

(The sitting of the House was suspended at 10:52 a.m.)

(The House resumed at 10:59 a.m.)

Speaker's Ruling

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Mississauga South raised a question of privilege. I note that the other day the member for Nepean—Carleton made a statement that included some kind of apology to the hon. member for Mississauga South. The hon. member for Mississauga South accepted the apology. He said:

I listened to the member carefully. I will take his points to heart and I accept his apology. Thank you.

The Chair really considered the matter closed at that point. He has now raised additional issues that arose out of the apology. It really is a dispute as to the statement that the hon. member for Nepean—Carleton made in the course of that apology.

I know that the hon. member for Mississauga South is offended. He has clearly indicated what he believes to be the correct statement of facts on the record and has cited various facts about his points of order and so on that he has raised in the House in this Parliament and in the previous Parliament. In my view that completes the matter.

I do not believe that a misstatement of what other members have done necessarily constitutes a breach of privilege. I am sure the hon. member felt insulted by what was said. He has made that clear. He has corrected the record and I believe that the matter can then end at that point.

I do not believe it is necessary for the Chair to intervene further to deal with the question of privilege on those issues which really in my view are disagreements as to the facts.

It is a substantial disagreement. I grant the hon. member that. However, he has set the record straight and hearing nothing further on this matter from the hon. member for Nepean—Carleton, I am going to suggest that the matter now has been resolved. I do not believe that there has been a breach of the hon. member for Mississauga South's privileges that the Chair could rule on at this time. I think that matter is now closed.

Opposition Motion—Economic and Fiscal Position

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

moved:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government inherited the best economic and fiscal position of any incoming federal government and has not demonstrated the need, value or wisdom of its announced expenditure cuts which unfairly disadvantage the most vulnerable groups in Canadian society.

Mr. Speaker, I am saddened to have to ask the government how it can be so meanspirited and so blindly ideological that it chooses to cut funding for programs that help the most vulnerable in society. Why does it feel that helping young people to find jobs is not a priority, that volunteering is not worthy of government support, that adult literacy is not important?

I attended a press conference recently where the Minister of Finance and President of the Treasury Board announced that their government was putting an end to programs like these. As the Minister of Finance announced a $13.2 billion surplus and gloated about the strength of the Canadian economy, he turned to the President of the Treasury Board, who moments later explained that our country would no longer support literacy programs or our museums across the country. The sight would have been comical had it not been so distressing.

The image of those two former Mike Harris cabinet ministers, standing side by side, grinning like two bullies watching each other's back, is a perfect snapshot of the government. The cuts it has made and the way it has announced them let all Canadians see that this is a petty government, a government driven by ideology rather than a good sense of the country, a government that lacks the sense of fairness that so many of our citizens hold dear and a government, as well, that is blind to economics.

In short, these meanspirited cuts have shown us all exactly what the government is all about, and it accepts no counter views. Anything that does not fit into its ideological point of view is quite simply discarded with vitriolic politic rhetoric. I am sure that after yesterday the member for Halton will agree.

The government did not need to punish a member of its own caucus for simply confirming to Canadians what these cuts plainly show. They show that the government is out of touch with the majority of Canadians and, as polls show, it is alienating more and more Canadians week by week. The government needs to be reminded that it had the support of a minority of Canadians in the last federal election. That support is sinking even lower because of the callous way it approaches nearly every issue.

I will back up this general argument now by talking about a few of the cuts in more detail.

As one who spent most of my career in education, the worst move of the lot was the decision to slash $17.7 million from national literacy programs. For a government that is starting to talk a lot about productivity, after having tabled one of the least productivity oriented budgets in recent memory, this is truly a horrible decision, not only socially meanspirited but economically stupid as well.

As a relatively small country in a world of emerging giants like India and China, it is obvious that Canada cannot compete on the basis of low wages, nor would we want to. We can only compete on the strength of educated, smart, innovative people. That does not mean just high-end smarts with world-class Ph.D.s, it begins with basic literacy skills for all Canadians.

Sadly, statistics show that there are roughly nine million Canadians who share some degree of difficulty with literacy. Of course, a $17.7 million, 30% cut to our literacy programs is meanspirited. Given the central role of education and training in today's economy, it is also economically foolish.

The Movement for Canadian Literacy has said:

The cuts will decimate the infrastructure built co-operatively by all levels of government and the literacy community and will set us back years.

That is the definition of a meanspirited cut.

What about the museums assistance program? In their campaign, the Conservatives promised to fund our museums and the Prime Minister himself wrote to the Canadian Museums Association and stated that:

The Conservative Party of Canada is in favour of stable and long-term funding for the museums of Canada.

Had the ink even dried before the Prime Minister decided to renege on his promise? That is but one example of dozens of drastic, meanspirited and spiteful cuts.

Let us now turn to the decision to eliminate the court challenges program. The Canadian Bar Association asked that funding for this program be restored as it is vital to the protection of the constitutional rights of Canadians, not all of whom may necessarily have deep pockets. The current government seems to be interested only in those with deep pockets. Why would a progressive government try to make it more difficult for its own citizens to challenge laws that curtail their individual freedoms? That is quite simply meanspirited.

And what about funding for Status of Women Canada? Yesterday was Persons Day, on which we pay tribute to the five courageous women who won the right for women to be recognized as persons by Canadian law in 1929. It is almost inconceivable that some of the women with us today were not considered persons in their youth by their own government.

Our society has made tremendous progress towards the socio-economic equality of men and women. However, there remains work to be done. Just look around you and you will see that, despite the efforts of all parties to increase the number of women in Parliament, we are far short of the target.

I believe that the adjective “meanspirited” applies to a situation where drastic cuts are made to the funding of an organization that continues to fight for the equality of men and women.

As a result of these cuts, Canadians from coast to coast are getting a strong picture of just how ideological the government can be. Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier, Danny Williams, has been trying to distance himself from the federal Conservative government by reminding his voters that he is a progressive Conservative premier and that he would never even dream of cutting literacy programs.

There does not seem to have been any consultation process by the government. It simply took aim at programs that did not sit with its ideological beliefs and cut them, without even consulting the people who deliver the programs or the Canadians who use them.

I keep hearing from those in the tourism industry. They were not even consulted about the elimination of the GST visitor rebate program. The government did not bother to ask those people if they found the program useful in attracting tourists to Canada. Now, after the fact, we are hearing from groups, like the Hotel Associations of Canada, that are saying the resulting loss in tourism will cost the government more than three times the tax revenue that it will save by eliminating the program. It is hardly smart economics or good economics to attack the tourism industry when it is suffering extremely difficult times for other reasons, such as the high value of the Canadian dollar and possible difficulties at the border.

Yet the government has the audacity to call moves like this smart. I think it is high time that the government stopped treating Canadians as though we were stupid. These cuts are not smart. They are blunt, economically unsound and ideologically driven.

The only gauge by which one could conceivably call them smart is that maybe they are good for the Conservative Party. For instance, the government has eliminated the court challenges program at exactly the same time as it has tabled several bills that some experts believe to be unconstitutional. Maybe it was just trying to head off legal challenges. This is just another example of the government doing what is right for the Conservative Party, not what is right for Canadians.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. The Conservatives have admitted that they had a $23 billion hole in their election platform that would need to be paid for by future spending cuts. In fact, budget 2006 has called for far more cuts than the ones recently announced. The 2007-08 column of the budget's ledgers calls for an additional $2.4 billion in cuts.

The Liberal government was not opposed at all to the principle of reallocation. In fact, we reallocated $11 billion over five years, substantially more than has been so far achieved by the government. However, we went to great lengths to ensure that our cuts did not hurt the vulnerable. We examined all possible actions through a regional lens to ensure that the cuts did not disproportionately hit the regions of the country rather than the national capital region. We also examined them through a gender lens and gender based analysis to ensure that our cuts did not disproportionately hurt women. Also, perhaps most fundamentally, we examined them through a fairness lens to ensure that those savings that we made did not unduly impact the most vulnerable in society.

It seems that the Conservatives also used these lenses, but they inverted them. They used a gender lens, but they focused their cuts in areas that were particularly damaging to women. They used a fairness lens, but rather than exempting the most vulnerable, they focused their cuts on the most vulnerable in Canadian society.

When the Conservatives come to identify the additional cuts that they will need, according to their budget and certainly according to their election platform, I certainly hope they will remember the lessons from this fall, that they will apply a gender lens, not to hurt women but to help women and that they will apply a fairness lens, not to punish the most vulnerable but to spare the most vulnerable.

I do not have great expectations in that regard, but I hope the Conservative minority government has learned a lesson from this round of cuts. I believe Canadians expect their government to govern on behalf of all Canadians and not just on behalf of the narrow interests and the narrow base of the Conservative Party.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I believe if you seek the consent of the House you would find that the usual discussions have taken place among all parties and that there is consent for the following motion. I move:

That at the conclusion of today's debate on the opposition motion in the name of the Member from Markham—Unionville, all questions necessary to dispose of the motion be deemed put, a recorded division deemed requested and deferred to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 24.

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

Does the member have unanimous consent to put the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

Shall the motion carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

(Motion agreed to)

[Michael Chong, Conservative, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I think the member for Markham—Unionville was inaccurate in his assessment of what we have done here. The fact is that we have found $1 billion in savings.

In the last campaign, Canadians clearly indicated to our party that they were sick and tired of seeing the waste and mismanagement in recent years. We committed to Canadians in the last election that we would do things differently in Ottawa so we have found $1 billion in savings.

I would like to put this into perspective. We found $1 billion in savings out of the $200 billion a year that is spent by the Government of Canada, which is the equivalent of a household that expends $20,000 a year finding $100 a year in savings. It is entirely reasonable and entirely appropriate. It is what Canadians do day to day in the management of their budgets and they expect the Government of Canada to do the same.

Furthermore, we have increased spending in this budget by $5 billion. Some of the $1 billion in savings we have found will go, in part, to this new spending on, for example, our new child care benefit that is providing $1,200 a year for each child under the age of six.

With respect to some of the programs that the member mentioned, let us put this all into perspective. We found $2.3 million in savings out of the museums program out of the approximately $250 million spent by this government on museums a year, or about 1% of the budget. We are focusing the remaining money on supporting the country's museums and cultural heritage.

In addition, we have increased funding for the Canada Council for the Arts from $150 million this year to $170 million. We are putting this in place after years of the previous government freezing funding for arts and culture in this country. We are very proud of our achievement.

How is the member opposite able to stand in this House and tell this House that this government should not deliver and expect results for programs, should not expect those programs to be delivered efficiently and should not be ensuring that the priorities that Canadians have asked us to focus on are delivered as we campaigned on?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. minister misses the point entirely. As I said very clearly in my speech, we are in favour of saving money and we are in favour of reallocating from low to high priorities. He is talking about $1 billion. Our expenditure committee found $11 billion to reallocate, 11 times more than what he is talking about. That is not the point.

The point is not whether it is a good thing for government to save money and to reallocate to higher priorities. The point is the things the government cuts and the ideological, mean-spirited nature of those cuts. I do not object to government savings. We did more than it did but we did not apply a reverse fairness lens to specifically target the cuts on the least privilege or target cuts on women. We did the reverse.

It is not the principle of reallocation that we object to. It is the mean-spirited nature of those cuts which are ideologically focused on the most vulnerable in society.

The second point is that when the museum people came to the finance committee they told us that they were devastated by the cuts. The literacy people had a $17.7 million, or 30%, cut and they have $40 million left. That is criminal. There are 8 million or 9 million people in Canada who have literacy problems. We are competing in a knowledge economy globally and the government cuts 30% of the funding to literacy. That is just unconscionable.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP was the first to condemn these ruthless cuts by the Tory government. However, I must comment on the revisionist history that we heard from the member for Markham—Unionville because his government was the most right wing government in the history of Canada. The cutting, hacking and slashing of every social program by which we define ourselves was not only ruthless and mean-spirited, it bordered on being cruel.

I represent the poorest riding in Canada. I am not proud of that but I can say that the Liberals' ruthless cutbacks hurt people in tangible and measurable ways in my riding. I will give one example and ask the member if he can remember, if he can shake up his memory a little bit.

Of the $100 billion in tax cuts that the Liberals gave largely to their friends, $30 billion came from the EI fund surplus through their cuts and $30 billion came from grabbing the entire surplus of the public service pension plan, which was Marcel Massé's gift to the public service pension plan. They took the entire $30 billion surplus without negotiating whatsoever. How is that for being cruel? How is that for a gender lens? Most of those pensioners, who earn on average $9,000 a year, are women living in poverty on their public service pension plan. The other $30 billion came from program cuts.

I remember that era very well. The member for Markham—Unionville was not here for all of it, but, believe me, we had the most right wing finance minister in the history of Canada making the most ruthless, cruel, gender imbalance cuts that created poverty that this country has ever seen.

Will the member concede that he has been sent here to read a speech that is full of baloney, frankly, and will he concede that his government was responsible for the sum total of misery in ridings like mine that the country will never forget?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member talks utter nonsense. The problem with the NDP members is that they know nothing about the economy, balancing budgets and fiscal responsibility, which is one reason they never have been nor will they ever be the government.

The fact is that when the Liberal government assumed power in 1993 it inherited a $42 billion deficit. Had we inherited power from an NDP government it probably would have been an $82 billion deficit. Of course the NDP never was and never will be the government.

Yes, the government of the day, to correct the huge deficit left by the Tory government and which was leading us, according to the Wall Street Journal, into third world status, had to take serious measures, and that was the hallmark of a responsible government. However, once we balanced the books we invested in people and, in the more recent times, in the expenditure review committee. I can tell the House, because I was directly involved, that we did apply a gender lens, a fairness lens and a regional lens. The NDP would not understand this but this was responsible government reallocating taxpayer money from the lower priorities to the higher priorities in a manner that did not hurt the most vulnerable in Canadian society.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the hypocrisy on that side of the House is sometimes breathtaking. All of us in this Parliament need to ensure that minority groups, women and visible minorities are included in a good and inclusive society. The hypocrisy from the party opposite is nothing short of breathtaking.

The Liberal Party has virtually all the seats in the city of Toronto. Out of the 23 seats, they have 20. When I look at the benches opposite I count one visible minority out of the 20 seats they have in the city of Toronto. The Liberals only talk a good game about the inclusion of visible minorities, of minority groups and the like.

Would the hon. member for Markham—Unionville, the august patrician member, comment on his party's actions with respect to the inclusion of minority groups in his party?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is absolute nonsense. The hon. member must be desperate to find something to say. The fact is that in my speech I talked about facts, the fact of a 30% cut in literacy, the fact of cuts to young people seeking jobs and the facts regarding the Status of Women.

I come from the 905 area of the GTA and we have a good, solid representation of visible minorities. We have nothing to apologize for to the Conservative Party.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for the opportunity to discuss our government's decision to keep its promise to do exactly after the election what we promised to do during the election.

We promised that we would bring in roughly 29 different tax reductions: reducing income tax; a new Canadian employment tax credit that is worth $155 for every person who works; tax credits to help parents with the cost of putting their kids in sports so we can encourage families to keep their children active, healthy and out of trouble; a tax credit worth $80 per student to help students buy textbooks; tax credits to help entrepreneurs buy tools for their daily work; and of course, a reduction in the GST to help every single taxpayer in Canada, regardless of their income.

These were the promises we made. In order to finance these promises, we committed that we would find $1 billion worth of savings within the fiscal framework of Canada, and that is exactly what we have done. Again we have kept our word. We found $1 billion in savings that will put money back into higher priority initiatives, allowing us to go forward and finance our agenda of tax relief for Canadian families. Let me talk for a few moments about the savings that we have discovered.

We are spending $40 million less on politicians. By merely reducing the size of cabinet, we have reduced the costs that are associated with having ministers. Under the previous government, the former prime minister wanted to be all things to all people. He owed a lot of favours to Liberal insiders and Liberal caucus members who had helped him engage in a civil war against his own party and overthrow the previous prime minister. He spent enormous sums just filling his cabinet with friends. When we took office under the leadership of the current Prime Minister, this Prime Minister was determined not to reward friends, but instead to get the costs down and ensure that our cabinet would be focused and frugal.

Recently the expenses for our cabinet ministers came out. We had loud criticism for those expenses from the Liberal Party, particularly from the member for Wascana. What was his criticism? He could not believe we were spending so little on hospitality, on late night cocktail parties, on steak dinners, and on schmoozy lobbyist events. He said it was impossible that we could be that frugal and that responsible. He offered no proof whatsoever that that was the case. He was dumbfounded at how frugal and responsible this Conservative government had become. We are spending $40 million less on politicians.

We have eliminated a program that the Liberals employed where they would pay Liberal lawyers to sue the government and advance Liberal causes. I heard the Liberal finance critic across the way complaining. He said that the Conservative government has introduced laws that might present some constitutional problems. What laws is he speaking about? Let us get beyond the mumbo-jumbo over there and let us talk about the facts.

That member is talking about our tough on crime initiatives. such as our initiative to put three time violent offenders and sexual offenders in jail forever unless they can prove they are no longer a danger to society. That member believes these kinds of laws need to be challenged in the courts using taxpayers' money. Our mandatory jail time initiative ensures that criminals who commit serious crimes will serve their time in jail, not in their homes. That member believes we should pay lawyers to challenge these laws and eliminate these tough on crime measures.

That member does not have the presence of mind to state clearly that that is what he is talking about because he does not want his constituents to know how soft on crime he is. His entire party has spent the last 13 years coddling criminals and now when we are getting tough on crime, the Liberals are angry because we will no longer pay lawyers to sue the government for cracking down on crime. Instead, we will redirect those dollars toward higher priority initiatives. So, yes, we have eliminated the court challenges program and we have ended funding for the Law Commission, because we believe that the focus on our justice system should be on getting on tough on criminals instead of financing lawyers to sue the government.

You will be learning more about these exciting proposals, Mr. Speaker, when the member for Tobique—Mactaquac rises, as we are splitting the time on this, something else to look forward to.

Let me talk about the $13 billion that we paid off against the debt. The member across the way complained that we have put money against the debt. According to Don Drummond with TD Bank Financial Group, paying down $13 billion of the national debt of the Government of Canada will save the Government of Canada $660 million every year. Those are dollars we would otherwise have to pay in interest on that debt to bankers, many of them from other countries.

We can use that $660 million to reduce taxes, to invest in health care, in a tougher justice system, in a whole series of other priorities. That is $660 million which the Liberal government would not have been able to capture and save because the Liberals would have engaged in March madness, which is to say, when entering the final stages of the fiscal year, governments past have had a tradition of blowing everything in the account, emptying the cupboards to buy electoral support or reward friends.

Instead of that approach, we decided to take the full surplus and put it entirely against Canada's national debt. As a young person who cares deeply about the next generation, I am thankful that we have made that down payment on the enormous $480 billion mortgage that the next generation is going to inherit. I am very proud of that responsible decision to invest in the future of Canada's fiscal health.

I am going to talk for a few moments about some of the other dynamic manoeuvres that we undertook to save taxpayers' money. For example, when we are talking about the Status of Women program, we did not cut any of the programs associated with that department, but by merely merging offices, we were able to save over $4 million. Not one job was lost but we saved that money through intelligent reallocation and intelligent management.

Let me talk about foreign offices that are used for diplomatic reasons. We were able to find $4 million there just by managing them better.

We cut $4 million from a marijuana program that the Liberal Party was promoting and boy, they were angry about that. Ever since we cut that program I have noticed they have not been as mellow over there. That was an intelligent move to save taxpayers' money.

In total, again we saved $1 billion because of our intelligent economizing of people's tax dollars.

The Liberals are angry over there. They said before they supported saving money, but now they are furious because they have learned that it is their friends who have been cut off from the trough. At the end of the day they are making lots of big spending promises but let us be honest with the Canadian people, if the Liberals get in again and they resume their big spending, they will have to pay for it by raising the GST, taking away the $100 a month to support young families, raising taxes, eliminating the 29 different tax cuts that we brought in for Canadians. That is the real agenda of the Liberal Party.

I wonder if one of the Liberal Party's members, all of whom are here today, will be willing to stand and defend their agenda to raise taxes and take away the choice in child care allowance. Will any of them stand on their feet and defend that plan that they intend to foist on Canadians if they were ever, unfortunately, given the chance to do so? Will any of them stand and do that?

Fortunately, that will not occur because this government has the support of the Canadian people. This Prime Minister is on the right track. We continue to stand up for Canadians and we are proud of the future we are building for this country.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, first I want to remind the member that the program the Conservatives have released has nothing to do with child care or choices in child care. If the spaces do not exist, the women of this country have no choices.

I would also like to ask the member if he is aware of the statistics. Fraser Mustard's presentation at the Brookings Institution this spring showed that almost 50% of Canadians are in literacy levels one and two of five, which level is totally dangerous in terms of the future economy of this country, and that 70% of young offenders actually have learning disabilities or some problems with literacy.

I ask the member, how on earth can the Conservative government defend the literacy cuts? Literacy programs are so crucial, not as social programs, but as economic solutions for this country.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I note that the member once again attacked our initiatives to give $100 per month to every family with a child under the age of six, which again reveals the Liberal agenda to remove that program altogether. I think there should be an open warning given to families that are receiving that money and spending it wisely, not on beer and popcorn as the member might suggest, that if the Liberal Party were ever to recapture power in this country, the first thing that would happen is that those young families would lose that $100 a month.

I spoke with a young mother who has four children. Imagine what that program means to her. She said that her family would not be able to make its mortgage payments any more if the Liberal Party came into power and took away that choice in child care allowance.

On the question of literacy, I am very proud that we as a government are spending $28 million for the enhanced language training initiative that helps Canada and Ontario immigrants. I am happy that the government is spending $2.6 billion for aboriginal elementary and secondary education programs which help with literacy. The government is spending $1.5 million, for example, for the adult education skills development program in P.E.I.

This is a list of examples of how the government is investing in literacy. We are doing it intelligently. We are not going to waste Canadian tax dollars the way the previous government did.

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Mr. Speaker, when we listen to the member we would think that what the government has done is not make serious and significant cuts in some very important areas in this country.

I want to remind the member that the government has cut $25 million over three years from a training centre infrastructure fund. It has cut $30 million from the national literacy secretariat, something that is absolutely essential if we are going to help particularly older workers make the transition from job to job. The government has cut $25 million from the workplace skills strategy and $3.5 billion over six years for labour market partnership agreements with all the provinces and territories. This is only a short list of the cuts that the government has made.

My question for the member is in terms of his comments concerning the court challenges program. Was not some of the reason for cutting that program, as Linda McQuaig laid out in the Toronto Star, a bit of vindictiveness?

When the Prime Minister was head of the National Citizens Coalition, it was taken to court by Democracy Watch. The National Citizens Coalition wanted to spend literally millions and millions of dollars fighting government and fighting government programs. The coalition lost because Democracy Watch was funded by the court challenges program. That program has been cut so that no one can again challenge the Conservative government when it makes decisions that are not in keeping with the best interests of the people of this country.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is no question that the court challenges program did spend a lot of taxpayers' money on lawyers. We are not going to go down that road any more.

This party believes in funding Canadians directly. That is the basis of our child care program which puts money in the pockets of real parents instead of advocates, lobbyists and insiders.

The member for Sault Ste. Marie has teamed up with the Liberals on the issue of crime. Both the NDP and the Liberals are extremely soft on crime. They are out of touch with Canadians. Both of them are also soft on spending. Let me read a quote:

I think you'll see an indication in this throne speech that the spenders in the Liberal government are revving up their engines again. Nothing starts a feeding frenzy--

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

Order. I am sorry but the time has expired.

The hon. member for Tobique--Mactaquac.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to the motion raised by the member for Markham—Unionville. I am also pleased that my colleague, the member for Nepean—Carleton, is sharing his time with me today.

Part of retaining a strong economic and fiscal position is an ongoing commitment to managing program spending and ensuring that programs are reviewed every year to ensure that Canadian taxpayers are getting value for their money.

Our position comes down to two essential elements.

Inefficiencies are bad and redirecting money from inefficiencies is good.

I am not surprised that this proposal was made by my opposition colleague, the hon. member for Markham—Unionville.

The choices they made during their mandate resulted in exaggerated increases in government spending that our economy cannot sustain over the long term unless, of course, the members opposite want to raise taxes.

In fact, this year we have seen program spending actually decline for the first time in nine years. I want to emphasize that Conservatives said we would save $1 billion a year by cutting wasteful and ineffective programs, and we did just that.

As stated by John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in the September 29 Ottawa Citizen, “The majority of Canadians will applaud the government's plan to pay down of the federal debt and a $1-billion spending cut to some awful programs--”. I underline awful programs.

Don Drummond, in an editorial on September 27 when talking about accusations that the cuts were political, stated that “This is utter silliness...It's true that taxes could have been lowered instead of paying down the debt, but the real culprit keeping the tax burden high has been rapid program spending growth”.

We have eliminated ineffective programs, those that failed to deliver value for money and saved funds that were going unused. We have reduced the debt by $13.2 billion, thanks to solid economic growth, curbing the traditional last quarter spending spree, and through a review of ineffective programs.

What is so beneficial to taxpayers and the economy from paying down that level of debt is the annual interest savings of $660 million. That saving is in perpetuity for Canadians, meaning that every year from this time forward Canadians will be freed from paying interest charges that actually provide no program value.

As stated by Mr. Drummond when referring to the debt repayment saving $660 million, “And that goes on forever. So you're freeing up $660 million for tax cuts or other priorities”.

The previous government wanted to be all things to all people. The Liberals never could say no, not even to very bad ideas, such as the sponsorship scandal, the gun registry, and the annual megaconvention they hold every March.

We have been able to reduce debt, cut taxes, and say yes to more resources for child care and safer streets, all because we have been able to say no to special interests and programs that do not work.

Canadians expect the government to invest their money in successful programs that meet their needs. They know that over the past few years, Ottawa spent too much money on too many unnecessary things—expenses that were completely unjustifiable.

In budget 2006 we promised that we would review our programs to ensure every taxpayer dollar was well spent. To me this is another case of a promise made and a promise kept. By getting a more modern approach to managing our budgets versus the dated approach used by the last government, we are going to spend more money efficiently on safer streets, cleaner air and secure borders.

As the House knows, our review established a goal to secure $1 billion in savings. When we look at this, it is heartening to know that $379 million of the savings will come from programs of unused funds that already achieved their objectives or had a lower than expected take up. For example, we are saving $5.6 million because it did not cost as much to move the Canadian Tourism Commission to Vancouver as estimated. Also, an additional $265 million was found from efficiencies just by streamlining programs.

Therefore, of the $1 billion in savings, two-thirds come from what we would call low hanging fruit or what I would call easy pickings. I would say that the previous government obviously did not do a very good job of executing their expenditure review over the last few years if we could find $650 million that quickly and easily.

Next, we found programs that were not meeting the priorities of Canadians. For example, we will save $4 million, as the parliamentary secretary said, through the elimination of funding for research of medical marijuana. Our government has made commitments to health research and I share the view that the federal government does not need to tell professional researchers what to study.

Through a combination of these program savings and tighter management, we are trimming fat and refocusing spending on the priorities. Our government is keeping its promise to families and taxpayers by reigning in spending and reducing the national debt.

Asking public servants to do more with less is not the right approach.

Rather, we must ensure that their efforts are focused on necessary programs that produce results.

Once again, in last spring's budget, we promised to invest in programs that better address Canadians' priorities. This program keeps that promise.

What is lost in all the noise in the House over the last couple of weeks is that in this year's budget we committed to spending an additional $5 billion per year on programs to deliver priorities to Canadians and $1 billion of that new spending is coming from savings derived from existing programs.

The government is investing $1.5 billion over two years in regional economic development and $3.7 billion over the same time period for the universal child care benefit. Many rural families in my riding of Tobique—Mactaquac, who will never have the opportunity to take advantage of regulated day care opportunities, are pleased with our government initiative to help families, including agriculture and forestry families.

There are also small business tax cuts which impact many women who are small business owners. We are committing $81 million over the next two years for a literacy program and over $300 million for immigration settlement, which affects people in my riding and the Multicultural Association of Carleton County. There is $63 million for sector counsel programs that support workplace, skills and literacy programs in key economic sectors and $73 million over two years for workplace skills initiatives. These are all examples of the government's commitment to the development of people and skills.

To keep moving forward, we must review programs continuously and make smart spending choices. This means that all programs, both current and new, will systematically undergo the same rigorous evaluation process.

This will ensure that the government approves funds that are actually needed to achieve major results in a way that is effective and provides value for money on behalf of Canadians.

Obviously, with the $650 million of low hanging fruit being left on the tree by the previous government, I can only conclude that it was good at spending and not so good at managing spending, sort of like the farmer who could not run the hen over the manure pile.

I will close with a couple of points. Our cabinet undertook a review that we promised in the last budget and we have delivered on what we said. Managing spending and debt must become a key competency of any government. I would say that Kevin Dancey of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants had it right when he said:

Debt and interest charges are a tax on future generations and with aging demographics we need to set the benchmark higher in reducing the national debt-to-GDP ratio. We are pleased to see Ministers Baird and Flaherty take action.

Second, and very comforting testimony for me--

[The Deputy Speaker, NDP, Bill Blaikie]

Order, please. The hon. member should know that we cannot refer to members of the House by their names and we cannot do it indirectly by quoting other people who are referring to them by name either.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

I apologize, Mr. Speaker, the hon. Minister of Finance and the President of the Treasury Board.

Second, and a very comforting testimony for me, is an article in the Times and Transcript by Campbell Morrison where he observes that the, “Federal government won't play in provinces' pen. The decision of what to cut largely reflects a government that is retrenching into the strictly federal role as delineated by the original separation of powers that the Fathers of Confederation drew up in 1867”.

I have made it halfway through a book by Patrick Boyer entitled Just Trust Us: The Erosion of Accountability in Canada where he states that successive governments have clouded the lines between federal and provincial responsibility. He adds that with respect to program spending, lack of responsibility and accountability has led to billions of dollars of money being spent without any measure as to whether it had been successful.

That stops now and it stops with the government. In short, there was a need for this action. We are creating value for Canadians and there is wisdom in what has been done.