Debates of April 4th, 2006

The House proceeded to the consideration of the speech delivered by Her Excellency the Governor General at the opening of the session.

Address in Reply

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be dividing my time with one of my colleagues.

I would like to begin by thanking the Governor General for graciously reading the Speech from the Throne. Her delivery was superb.

I would also like to take a moment to congratulate you, Mr. Speaker, on your re-election to the House. I have no doubt that you will continue as the fair and impartial Speaker that parliamentarians and Canadians alike have come to know and respect.

I would like to officially thank the citizens of my constituency, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, particularly the farmers, Franco-Ontarians, seniors, young people and families, and everyone who placed their trust in me.

I am very honoured that they have placed their trust in me and in our government. It is a great honour and privilege to stand here as their MP and to represent them in the House.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Prime Minister for having asked me to move the motion on the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne.

I am honoured to address the House today in reply to the Speech from the Throne, which confirms our government's commitment to get Canada back on track by putting the needs of ordinary Canadians first.

Our government will be a government that delivers real results for all Canadians, be they families with young children, seniors who have worked hard to build this country, or young people just starting out. Simply put, the government will work for all Canadians, and ours will be a government of focused priorities. The priorities we will move on in the months ahead are the priorities of Canadians.

For example, introducing the federal accountability act will give Canadians the government they deserve, a government based on openness and accountability. Once adopted, this legislation will forever change how the federal government functions.

It will eliminate undue influence by banning businesses, unions and other organizations from donating to political parties and candidates.

It will prevent insiders from using their connections to lobby the government by prohibiting ministers, ministerial staff and senior political staff from lobbying for five years.

It will clean up the way federal grants, contributions and contracts are awarded by giving the Auditor General the power to conduct a complete review.

We are also going to deliver long overdue tax relief for all Canadians by cutting the GST from 7% to 6%, and eventually to 5%. Never will this government make the mistake of seeing taxpayers' money as its own. Canadians work hard to provide for themselves and for their families, and they deserve a break on their taxes so they can keep more of their hard-earned money.

We will also make Canadian streets safer by tackling crime and targeting those who create chaos in our communities.

This includes drug dealers, gangsters who endanger people's lives with illegal weapons, and sexual predators who attack our children.

We will ensure that those who commit serious crimes are severely punished.

This government is also going to move ahead with its promise to provide a helping hand to all Canadian families with young children, as opposed to the current discriminatory system that funds only one form of day care, ignoring the needs of many parents. As the father of five children, I am well aware that there is no one size fits all solution to child care, and so too does this government. Our choice in child care allowance will provide Canadian parents with the flexibility they need to make the child care choices that best fit their unique circumstances and needs.

Our plan will also create 125,000 new day care spaces over the next five years, which will be to the benefit of many Canadian families.

In short, under our plan, no Canadian family will be overlooked.

Our government will work to ensure that Canadian families receive the timely medical care they need.

Average Canadians have no choice but to rely on the public health care system, a system that is widely appreciated throughout the country and that must be protected and improved.

For many years, Canadians have agreed that every person, regardless of his or her financial situation, should have access to medically necessary services. This government could not agree more.

What we will not accept, however, is Canadians suffering, and in some cases dying, because timely treatment is not available. That is why this government will work with the provinces and territories to develop a patient wait times guarantee, to ensure that Canadians get the timely treatment they deserve.

Once in place, this guarantee will ensure that people who cannot receive timely treatment nearby can obtain it elsewhere at the government's expense.

In the months ahead, these will be our priorities: open accountable government, tax relief, cracking down on crime, choice on child care, and a better public health care system. These are our priorities because these are the priorities of Canadians.

Before I conclude, I would like to discuss an issue that is of particular interest to me: our Canadian Forces. I am honoured to have been able to serve our great country by devoting 20 years of my life to the military and to defending Canada. Our men and women in uniform are the finest in the world. Their dedication, professionalism and courage make them a source of great pride for Canadians across the country. Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to be part of a government that is committed to doing what is right for these brave men and women.

Our government will turn the tide of neglect. We will ensure our military has the personnel necessary to defend Canadian sovereignty and to carry out our peacekeeping responsibilities around the world. We will provide soldiers with the equipment they need to carry out their duties. We will restore Canada's influence on the international stage. Finally, we will ensure that veterans, those whose sacrifices are responsible for the Canada we know today, are treated with the respect they deserve by introducing a veterans bill of rights. This government will stand up for our military men and women because they bravely stand up for Canada each and every day.

Let me conclude by saying that I am very excited about the months ahead, for our government is committed to delivering positive change on the issues that matter most to Canadians.

This is why I am so pleased to be working with my colleagues in government and with members of the other parties to build a better Canada.

I am therefore delighted to move that the following address be presented to Her Excellency the Governor General of Canada.

Mr. Speaker, I move:

To the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Military Merit, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada:

May it please Your Excellency:

We, Her Majesty's most loyal and dutiful subjects, the House of Commons of Canada in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Excellency for the gracious speech which Your Excellency has addressed to both Houses of Parliament.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament the Liberal government passed a budget that reduced income taxes from 16% to 15% on the first tax bracket and also increased the personal exemption by $500. The savings to the average Canadian family making $60,000 with two children was about $400.

My question for the member is this. The government has now proposed to reduce the GST by one percentage point--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Mississauga South has the floor.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what the government did not explain to Canadians, was what a 1% cut in the GST would mean to this average family. That family would have to purchase $40,000 of taxable goods to get the same tax savings, which it will have to cut to pay for this unholy GST cut.

Does the member agree that a family making $60,000 could not spend $40,000 and does he understand and admit that companies may not even pass that savings on to those consumers?

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on being the first to ask a question within this 39th Parliament.

As I mentioned in my speech, this is a very exciting time. We are at the beginning of a new session with a new government, and we are all here to work together to ensure that the priorities of Canadians are addressed. We as a government want to work with MPs from other parties. We also need to recognize, however, that on January 23 Canadians voted for change. They voted for a change in government, for a change in the manner in which the government conducts itself and for a change in policies.

Each of us here knows that Canadians have voted for change and so we cannot have it both ways. We cannot on the one hand acknowledge that Canadians want change, but on the other not want anything to change. This is what we see in that question. There are parties that do not want change. They want their policies advanced as if there had been no election. Our government's priorities were presented to Canadians during this past election and Canadians voted in favour of the government and of these priorities.

In response to the member's question specifically, under the previous government the GST burden on ordinary, hard-working Canadians doubled from $15.9 billion to $31.8 billion. Canadians want some of their hard earned money back.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

We could perhaps go on to the next question. The hon. member for Windsor West has the floor.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the member's maiden speech, as well as his 20 years of service in the armed forces of Canada. It is a very commendable attribute that should be recognized.

I would like to talk about the federal accountability act that has been proposed by the government. I have two specific questions to ask.

The first question is about freedom of information and whether he will agree with specific legislation that opens that up to all Canadians.

The second question is about banning floor-crossing in the chamber and whether he will support the NDP bill to stop it, a practice of which Canadians have grown very tired.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the member's question on ATI, a standing committee will be investigating access to information and will be looking at the legislation that surrounds it. We want Canadians to have more access to an open and accountable government.

With respect to floor crossing, we are going to move ahead in this Parliament. We will be working together as MPs from different parties and will be examining that issue when it arises. Until that time, I defer that question.

[Rick Casson, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today in the House to second the motion for an Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.

Before I get started, I would like to thank the Prime Minister for this honour.

I would also like to thank Her Excellency the Governor General for her eloquent delivery earlier today of a very important speech, important because this document will guide the government's actions in the coming weeks and months.

For months now we have been clear on our priorities.

We will clean up government and make it more open and accountable by changing the way the system works.

We will reduce taxes by cutting the GST. The Liberals think the tax is unholy. We do not.

We will strengthen Canadian communities by cracking down on violent crime, gangs, drugs and illegal guns.

Rather than playing favourites, as happens on the current federally funded day care system, we will ensure every family with young children is a winner by providing them with the financial assistance they need to buy the child care that best suits their requirements.

Finally, we will address the serious problem of wait times for medical treatments by introducing a patient wait time guarantee.

As members know, I represent the riding of Lethbridge in sunny southern Alberta. This riding runs north, including my home town of Picture Butte, west to the world famous Waterton Lakes National Park, south to the U.S. border and east past Coutts and on to the beautiful Sweet Grass Hills.

While my riding does have a large number of urban dwellers who live in the city of Lethbridge, a lot of my constituents are rural residents, living in small communities and on farms and ranches, constituents who for many years have complained, and quite rightly, that the federal government was not listening to them or taking their concerns seriously.

That is why I am standing in this House today, to tell my constituents and all small town and rural Canadians that from this point on their concerns will get a fair hearing, as was demonstrated in today's throne speech that addresses many issues about which they are concerned.

As someone who farms and who has spent their life in rural Canada, I know the challenges faced by those who make their living off the land. So, too, does this government. Rural Canadians are an honest, hard-working lot. They love their country and are proud of the unique communities in which they live. They work hard, they save money, they believe in strong families and they live by the rules, and so does this government.

This government is fully committed to changing the way business is conducted in Ottawa and cleaning up the mess left after years of corruption.

Rural Canadians live by the rules and they expect politicians in Ottawa to do the same. We agree with them, which is why we will be bringing in the new federal accountability act which would give Canadians, rural and city dwellers alike, the clean, open and accountable government they want and deserve.

It is also a fact that many rural Canadians find it a challenge to put food on the table and to pay the bills. They want the money they do earn to go as far as possible, which means they do not want to see it taxed away by some free-spending government. That is why I am delighted to see the commitment to drop the GST from 7% to 6% and eventually to 5%. This measure should go a long way toward lowering the high cost of raising a family and running a farm or a ranch.

Crime and violence are not restricted to big cities. Therefore, it is natural that my constituents want Ottawa to crack down on crime. The throne speech makes it clear that this is exactly what the government will do. We will do it by helping to put more law enforcement officers to work policing our communities, by untying the hands of police and justice officials so they can do their jobs and by ensuring that individuals who do serious crime do serious time.

Rural Canadians consider the family to be the bedrock of society and want to see it strengthened, which is what we intend to do by fostering greater choice in child care. This is critically important in rural communities where almost no one lives next door to some federally funded day care. It is important that parents in these communities get the help they need to find the child care that makes sense to them and fits into their daily lives. That is why the Speech from the Throne proposes paying $1,200 per year to parents with a child under the age of six. This money can be used to pay for any type of child care they like such as public or private day care, a neighbour or a relative. It is whatever works best for them.

Finally, rural Canadians, like all Canadians, are worried about how long it takes to get vitally important medical treatment. They see people waiting and suffering, often for months, for necessary treatment or surgery. They cannot figure out why it takes so long when shorter wait times are what the taxes they pay should be providing to all Canadians. We intend to address this by working with the provinces to negotiate patient wait time guarantees, similar to the ones developed by the province of Quebec. Under this program, those patients who cannot get necessary treatment within a reasonable period of time will be able to go to a private clinic or a publicly funded clinic in another jurisdiction, with the cost being entirely covered by the government insurance plan.

We have a series of long overdue changes that will make a big difference in the lives of all Canadians, including those living in rural or small town Canada. These changes will be especially welcome in the west, where many of us have felt alienated and ignored by governments that in the past took no notice of our needs or desires, a state of affairs that led to the popular slogan “The West Wants In”, which is why I ran for election in 1977: to bring a western voice to Ottawa.

We finally have a government that is listening to western concerns, which means that now the west is in.

It is for this reason that I am pleased to support and second the motion proposed by my colleague from Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, and I congratulate him on his first speech. It is not an easy time to do that, but he did a marvellous job.

We have gone through the process today of the throne speech and all the things that surround that so we can do one thing: we can get started on the important task of standing up for Canadians wherever they live.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, what is absent from this throne speech is a vision for the advancement of francophone and Canadian arts and culture,as well as for a bilingual society.

My question for the member is this: is the government therefore telling Canadians and the House that it does not intend to comply with the Official Languages Act or the action plan for official languages, more specifically the commitment to put in place positive measures to promote French and English as minority languages, in Canada and in Quebec respectively?

[Rick Casson, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, as we have noted many times in the last month and today, this speech focuses on the five priorities of the government. It does not say that these are the only issues that will be dealt with.

The issue the member raises is an important one. We have been on record over the years as to what our position is on that. We have a strong cabinet. We have a strong minister in charge of heritage and culture who has indicated that she wants to promote that throughout Canada. The French language is one of the founding languages of this great country, and bilingualism is something this party supports. I believe we will continue to do that in the days to come.

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my two Conservative colleagues for this reply to the Speech from the Throne.

The manufacturing sector throughout Canada—and especially in Quebec—currently faces intense competition. It is experiencing productivity problems, with respect to emerging countries in particular. Over the past two years there have been massive layoffs, especially of workers 55 and older. The Speech from the Throne does not indicate any concern about this within the new Conservative government.

My questions are for my colleague. Am I to understand that the Conservative government is not concerned with increasing competition and providing the tools to allow companies—in the manufacturing sector in particular—to cope with these emerging countries? Have the Conservatives changed their minds about employment insurance reform and helping older workers? These two items were not included in the Speech from the Throne.

[Rick Casson, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, productivity in Canada is a concern to everyone and has been for quite some time. We, as a party in the past in opposition, have questioned the government constantly on what it would do about productivity, the high taxes that employees and employers face and the negative aspect of people bringing in investment from outside Canada. We addressed it in our campaign.

I again refer to the throne speech which outlines the five priorities that we will deal with between now and the summer break and we want to get those through. On the issue of productivity, the ability for employers to offer proper jobs and for those 55 and over, I think there is a place in Canada for all people who want to work productively.

We brought through measures such as tax breaks for businesses. We brought through a measure for improving access to apprenticeship positions. We proposed these things in our campaign and we will continue to work toward them.

We have the basis here in Canada. We have a great nation with all the natural resources and human resources we need. All we need is a government that is focused on bringing that competition full turn and making us a mover and shaker in the world, and I believe we are on the verge of that happening.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate you on your election as Speaker. I would also like to congratulate the member who made his inaugural speech and the member who was re-elected.

I note that both of those members made a big point of talking about the first order of business of a new government, the accountability act. I want them to know that in Vancouver on Sunday hundreds of people walked for democracy because they believe in accountability, accountability that, first and foremost, needs to come from their member of Parliament, the member for Vancouver--Kingsway.

I would like the member to answer to the contradiction of a member crossing the floor and betraying his voters when the government says that it believes in accountability for all members of Parliament. How can that be allowed to happen?

[Rick Casson, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I can remember when the present leader of the New Democratic Party made an open offer to anybody in the House to walk across the floor and join that party. For that party to stand now and make such a huge issue of this is absolutely wrong.

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, you can hear the enthusiasm with which the Liberal Party supports my role in moving adjournment of this debate. In accordance with the usual tradition and customs, and seconded by the hon. member for Westmount--Ville-Marie, I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

(On motion of Mr. Graham the debate was adjourned)

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, I move:

That the House do now adjourn.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 5.09 p.m.)