House of Commons Hansard #11 of the 40th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was coalition.

Topics

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON

Mr. Speaker, this will be great. I hope you heard what he said: “It was the Liberals who took us to court”. Is this the work-together, lovemaking group that will run Canada?

Phone calls and messages are coming to my offices from people who are not frustrated, but angry. We have just talked about the situation and what has happened. A separatist government that wants to break up Canada will have the power of veto on every piece of legislation that comes forward. Legislation will be driven by the socialists, who will have the handle on the economy of our country. They will be led by the leader of the Liberal Party, who quite honestly is wanted by nobody, including the Liberal Party.

I do not understand it. The Canadian people do not understand it, and they are angry.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:30 a.m.

NDP

Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB

Mr. Speaker, we hear the member talk a lot about Canadians as though they were some big amorphous group. The reality is that Canadians represent a diverse range of groups, groups that are not represented in this fiscal update, and they are the reason we need to look at alternatives in terms of governing this country.

I would ask the member to tell us what this fiscal update is doing for women. We are seeing the rollback of rights. We are seeing the rollback of workers' rights that also affect women. What is it doing for workers across Canada who have lost their jobs in the forestry industry, such as those in my riding?

What is it doing for young people? Where is the significant funding in terms of research and development? It is there that we need to support our young people, instead of talking about just throwing them into jail. Where is the funding we need for aboriginal people, Canada's first peoples, who are entirely neglected in this fiscal update?

Where is the priority of the government to represent Canadians all across this country?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON

Mr. Speaker, my earlier comments that I do not think the people on the other side realize the difference between an economic update and a budget have just been reinforced.

However, I do want to talk about diversity. I have a riding that is about as diverse as it can get. What have we done for women, for families and for small businesses? In fact, we have 200,000-plus employment. That is not a negative; we have not lost 200,000. We have a net 200,000 jobs in Canada. We are the envy of the world, where net jobs are being lost. In the United States it is half a million to a million jobs.

The member opposite is new, but in response to our budgets in the past, her party voted against every stimulus for women, every stimulus for families, and every stimulus for businesses and small businesses. They all stood up and voted against our seniors, our military and our families.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Garry Breitkreuz Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the comments made by Liberal, Bloc and NDP members as they tried to defend the coalition they have formed. We are in a period of global economic uncertainty, and now is not the time for some huge new deficits as proposed by these opposition parties.

We are in very difficult times, but I have had calls from my constituency in rural Saskatchewan, and people are gravely concerned about what is going to happen if this coalition is able to illegitimately seize power and the purse strings of this country. They feel that rural Canada will be hung out to dry. The things that we have accomplished, the things that have been established, and the infrastructure that we are putting in place will now be at risk, and these people are very concerned.

I would like the member to comment as to how he sees these people who are not representative of rural Canada actually doing something that would be helpful to the west.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON

Mr. Speaker, it needs to be reinforced that the point we need to be concerned about is that without a doubt this coalition appears to be set up to divide Canada. It is a coalition centralized around the GTA and Montreal.

Our rural communities in Canada, particularly mine in Saskatchewan and those in other parts of the country, will be devastated by the results of this coalition. Parts of the country outside those large urban areas are not going to be--

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Brampton West.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

December 2nd, 2008 / 11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking some people.

I thank my wife Susan and my two young boys, Drew and James, who are six and four, for allowing me to be here and to try to do some good on behalf of the residents of Brampton West and for all Canadians.

I also thank and give special recognition to my parents. My father is an immigrant from Poland. He came here in his mid-20s with nothing in his pocket and without knowing the language. He worked in a factory during the day and attended school at night. My mother’s family came to Canada as refugees after the war. It was a very proud day when they saw their first-born sworn in as a member of Parliament, and I want to recognize them for their contributions.

I thank the residents of Brampton West. It was a difficult election. For those of you who do not know, we had a nomination meeting one week into the election campaign. We were 10 days behind. The Conservative candidate had been knocking on doors since April 2007, yet the residents of Brampton West still trusted me and elected me. I am very appreciative to them for that and I thank them.

Why am I here? Like many of the members, I am here and should be here to try to do some good. In this period of time, that really means trying to cooperate as much as possible. At events during my first few days here, I spoke to some of my Conservative colleagues on the other side. Some of those colleagues are here. I essentially said that we need to try to cooperate. We are here in an economic crisis. We need to try to work together and get through this for the benefit of Canadians.

There is good news and bad news in that regard. The good news is that we have received some cooperation from the NDP and the Bloc. The bad news is that we have received none from the Conservatives.

Let us look at what happened with the Conservatives. Rather than try to put forward any stimulus package whatsoever to attempt to help the economy, as has been occurring in all G20 countries, the Conservatives gave us political ideology, period. I am going to go into some of those details, but you have all heard them. It takes something special to see the opposition parties giving each other standing ovations in the face of a document such as the Conservatives’ economic update. It is unbelievable. The Conservatives attacked democracy, unions and women. There was absolutely no stimulus for the economy. Why? We still do not know. It was certainly not for the benefit of Canadians.

We need to review where we were before dealing with the economic update and what needs to be done now. We need to review where we were before the economic crisis, because Canadians need to always remember where this de facto Reform Party government put them before the economic crisis took place. It was essentially fiscal mismanagement. It took just three years, which is a very short period of time.

Everybody remembers the good old Liberal days when we had a great economy, lots of jobs and budget surpluses. It was a wonderful period of time. Heckling does not change the fact that the Conservatives have put us into a fiscal nightmare. In just three years, they increased federal spending by $40 billion. They squandered a $13 billion surplus. It would sound good to have that surplus now, would it not? Do they not wish they had it? Canadians certainly do.

The Conservatives entirely eliminated the $3 billion contingency reserve fund for rainy days. Well, we have a rainy day. There is no money, at least not without going into serious deficit, which is where the Conservatives have put us. They also had a misguided tax policy, despite the fact that virtually all non-right-wing economists were saying not to do it and that all these various changes were misguided. They did it anyway, and we are left in this economic mess.

Look at all these pre-crisis indicators. These are objective statistics, not party positions.

In 2007, before the crisis, exports fell by 1.4% and are projected to fall further again this year.

The Bank of Canada and private sector forecasts are continually downgrading Canada's economic growth and are projecting it to keep falling.

Statistics Canada objectively indicated that Canada has gone from the best economy in the G7 to the worst. That was before this crisis. We had already slipped behind the U.S. economy before this crisis in terms of productivity. It had nothing to do with this crisis. This is what the Conservatives did.

A Statistics Canada survey of the labour force shows that the Canadian economy lost 55,000 jobs just in July. That is approaching 300,000 jobs since the Prime Minister became leader of the country. Let us think about that. That happened before this crisis.

The Conservatives were so desperate to pretend this was not true that during the election campaign, to make it look as though things were rosy, they actually said that approximately 12,000 jobs had been created in September. However, they refused to tell everyone that those 12,000 jobs were all directly related to the election campaign, an election they had called after breaking their own law about not having an election, and an election which cost $300 million. I congratulate them for creating 12,000 jobs in September, all because of their broken promise, and on spending $300 million. Those jobs are now gone.

Inflation rose to 3.1% before the crisis.

A June 2000 report released by the Conference Board of Canada showed that Canada's economic standing was slipping in the world. That too was before the crisis. Again, before the crisis, in the international rankings, Canada's economic standing fell to 11th among the 17 most advanced economies, 15th in terms of productivity performance, and 13th in terms of innovation.

The Conservative government implemented ineffective tax cuts before the crisis.

On spending, the Conservatives like to criticize and pretend that it is the Liberals who spend. I remind members that the Liberals are the ones who balanced the budget. When the Liberal Party was in power, Canada had economic growth. Tory times are tough times.

In 2005-06 federal expenses were $175.2 billion. The Conservatives increased that to $218.3 billion, a 24.6% increase from when they took office. What is there to show for it? A great economy? Of course not.

And now for some objective information, Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, provided a report on November 20, 2008. This refers to before the crisis. He clearly indicated that Conservative fiscal policy decisions are largely to blame for what is occurring. He said, “The weak fiscal performance to date is largely attributable to previous”--having nothing to do with this crisis--“policy decisions as opposed to weakened economic conditions, since nominal GDP is higher than expected in budget 2008”. According to this objective person, all of these problems and the deficit are the result of Conservative policies not having anything to do with this crisis. In short, it is a made in Canada deficit, full stop.

We all need to remember that during the recent election campaign the Prime Minister promised he would never run a deficit. According to the tapes of the English language debate, he said never, no matter what. He said on CTV on October 12, 2008, “We are not running a deficit. We have planned a realistic scenario. We have got conservative budget estimates. We are not going into deficit”. He did not say that he was lacking information. Those comments were not accurate.

We are now in a circumstance where Canada's not so new Conservative government is creating Canada's absolutely brand new deficit and recession.

The Conservatives caused this mess. They will try to blame it on the worldwide economic crisis but we have to look at all these statistics, and Canadians will have to always remember that we got here first because of the Conservatives. It had nothing to do with the worldwide crisis. The fact that the Conservatives put us in this mess first limits their ability to fix the crisis, which is why they are not providing quick stimulus. We need to wonder when Mr. Page might fear for his job, just as Linda Keene did when she crossed them. But, maybe that will not happen now.

Our offices are being flooded by pleas for help from Canadians. They want us to do something now. I have picked one letter, which is from Noel Dimech, a resident in my riding. He is an employee of John Logan Chevrolet. He talked about the automotive sector. Everybody has to remember that there are 600,000 direct jobs in Canada which are dependent upon the automotive sector, and then there are all the spinoffs that can be imagined from direct jobs. He said:

I need to stress that inaction is not an option. The automotive industry represents 1 in 7 jobs in this country - a higher per cent than in the U.S. The choice is between supporting the auto sector with repayable loans so it can lead Canada out of this recession or denying support which could result in a severe depression impacting hundreds of thousands of jobs and communities in this country.

I say to Noel and to Canadians in general that help is coming. It is really only days away now, as soon as the government is defeated.

In comparison, let us look around the world in terms of what is happening. Everybody talks about stimulus packages. The G20 agreed upon it. The Prime Minister, when he was at the conference, said he would do it. That was the right thing for him to say, but he did not follow through in the economic update.

These are the very statistics as to the commitments that have been made around the world: the United States, $1,859 billion; China, $726 billion; the U.K., $518 billion; Japan, $341 billion; Germany, $264 billion; and France, $93 billion. These are all economic stimulus packages to assist in this worldwide crisis. Canada in the economic statement was at minus $4.3 billion. It is not exactly the best stimulus package when we are cutting.

What was needed is common sense. In the update we needed two things. We needed a package to stimulate the economy in a significant amount and fast. We should look at the lessons learned from the Depression. Economists who studied it essentially said that the mistakes made were the raising of protectionist barriers, the increasing of taxes to keep balanced budgets, and there was no stimulus for the economy and if there was, it was not done in significant amounts. What we need is a significant stimulus package and we need it fast. We have not seen anything from the government on that. The second thing that was needed in the update was an assistance package for the workers who are about to lose or have already lost their jobs, to make sure that they do not suffer through this. Reducing the EI wait times is one example. We have heard nothing from the government about how it would help people. What we did hear is how it would not allow unions to strike, how it would attack pay equity, how it would attack democracy and that is it.

If we were to wait for the budget, then what? Should companies continue to go bankrupt and out of business? Is that what we are waiting for? Do we want to make it even worse and then the government will do something? We need to do it now.

Six hundred thousand Canadians work in the auto sector. What are we waiting for, one of the big three to go bankrupt and then we will do something? Seriously, if that is what the government members want, they should go on the record and say that.

Let us look at this economic update. What can we call it? Meanspirited? Yes. Irresponsible? Absolutely. What did it do? It cut spending. It has the fiction of no deficit through asset sales which have not been booked, which if they do take place at all, it will be in a coarse seller's market. Is the government going to get top dollar these days for all the assets it wants to sell? Of course not. It is the worst time to sell these assets and they are not even on the books.

In essence, what we have in Canada for the next few days is the last bastion of right-wing Conservative ideology for economic policy, frankly, in the western world. We have a de facto Reform Party government for a few more days.

Rather than party politics, let us look at the comments of objective people.

Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns stated, “The fiscal update...will suck $6 billion out of the economy next year”. That is not a stimulus package. He said, “Under the current circumstances, it's unusual, to say the least, given that almost every other major country in the world is moving to stimulate the economy.”

Let us turn to Steve Murphy, an economist at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. His detailed forecast was actually central to the government's forecasts in terms of these numbers. His actual quote in terms of the numbers that the government used to put in its fiscal update is as follows, and remember that he is somebody the Conservatives relied upon. He said, in referring to this de facto Reform Party government, “My cynicism has reached new heights. What else can I say?”

Don Martin said, “There's a thin line between a government putting on its best face to stare down a gloomy situation and practising fiscal delusion. With the fiscal update, [the] Finance Minister...crossed the line”.

We have this mess. The government's solution is to pretend it is going to sell assets, to continue with the fiction of a balanced budget, and to cut money from the economy, to offer no stimulus and to attack the vulnerable. Well, the government's days are numbered.

There is a $3 billion building Canada fund for infrastructure. Why is it not being used? The government says to wait until the budget in January. What about infrastructure? Why can something not be done about that now? Most municipalities have various projects on the books. All they need is to hear that yes, the government is paying, and they will start. That is immediate economic stimulus. What are the Conservatives waiting for? They do not need to study that. Everybody has known about the infrastructure deficit for a long time. That infrastructure work could be happening right now. There is no need to wait until the end of January.

As for employment insurance, the government could help people who have become unemployed through no fault of their own by eliminating the two-week waiting time. This would also stimulate the economy. The government should do that. There is nothing in the update for the forestry and auto sectors.

Essentially, we have a mess that was created by the Conservative government before this economic crisis occurred. We have an economic crisis that has come on top of that and the government is not in a position to do anything about it because it had already overspent and mismanaged the economy. It is not prepared to do it because of its own ideology. That is it; enough of that.

An article in the Toronto Star stated:

Unfortunately, addressing the global economic crisis seems to have been the last thing on the Conservatives' mind. Yesterday's statement contained some symbolic cuts in the perks and expenses of ministers and mandarins, and limits to the pay of MPs and public servants....

But there were no significant new stimulative measures to counter the economic slowdown. We are told that these will come later in the annual budget, two months or more from now.

Members are taunting across the aisle and saying to wait, but--

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

11:55 a.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order. The hon. member's time has expired for his speech. We will move on to questions and comments.

The hon. member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Conservative

Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

Mr. Speaker, after over a decade of darkness under the Liberal government, the military was rusted out and hollowed out. Upon winning government, the Conservatives set immediately to work getting our soldiers the proper equipment to carry out the missions they are tasked with. The socialists and separatists in the coalition of greed do not think Canada needs a military. What life-protecting equipment purchases would be cancelled first?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for the question that she read from the chief of staff for the Prime Minister. What we should all remember is that this is a historic period of time. We will all read about this in the history books. We have the political parties representing 70% of Canadians saying enough to this de facto reform party government. Enough. We will help Canadians through this crisis. They will get the stimulus that they need. Just wait.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Liberal

Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL

Mr. Speaker, the members opposite just do not get it. They were elected to a minority government and they are not providing Canadians with what they want from a minority government. The members opposite, during their speeches, talked about their plan for the auto sector. Their plan is for it to go bankrupt and they said that is a good idea. I would like to know from the member, if one of the auto companies were to go bankrupt, as recommended by the members opposite, how would it impact his riding?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I must say as a Canadian I was appalled to hear members on the other side when they actually said, yes, it was good for someone to go bankrupt. I frankly could not believe that. It just shows the irresponsible nature of the government. The people of Brampton West and Canadians in general deserve much better than to hear from the soon to be opposition ranks that companies should go bankrupt in Canada.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Calgary East Alberta

Conservative

Deepak Obhrai ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Speaker, I know the member is a new member here and I want to welcome him.

However, I hear fantastic rhetoric from the members saying that they are about to form the government. We can see them gloating on the other side in the unholy alliance they have made with the separatists. This from a party of Mackenzie King and Trudeau who fought for this country. These people are now sitting with that separatist party just because they want to be in power. Talk about shame.

We have just come from an election. That party received 28% and now its members sit there and think it is their right, the Liberals' entitlement, to do anything they want, and that it is their right to run the country. That is wrong.

Talking about stimulus, I will be making a speech on this, but I want to ask this new member this. Does he not feel ashamed that he is sitting with the separatists to run this country for which his predecessors fought for? Does he not feel ashamed that he lied to Canadians?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin with another quote--

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

Order. I would ask hon. members who are witnessing this debate today to listen carefully to the questions and the answers. The hon. member for Brampton West has the floor.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

Noon

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin with another quote from Chantal Hébert:

The fiscal update and the attending measures brought forward by [the] federal finance minister yesterday are a triumph of cutthroat politics over meaningful policy...the Conservatives are as eager to take steps to insulate themselves from the political damage of the economic crisis [which they caused] as they are reluctant to sketch out ways to insulate Canadians from its impact.

I want to address my friend's question. These are historic times. I listened to Mr. Duceppe and Mr. Duceppe spoke on behalf of Quebeckers and Canadians--

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

The hon. member should refrain from referencing members by name.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:05 p.m.

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, he spoke on behalf of Quebeckers and Canadians, and said as much.

We should think about the serious, economic mess that has been caused by this de facto reform party government that has led to this side having to stand up and say that 70% of Canadians represented by this side have had enough.

My hon. colleague across the way talked about who will assist whom. A couple of years ago the Prime Minister suggested something like this with no reason, just a power grab. This time there is an economic crisis.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:05 p.m.

Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont Alberta

Conservative

Mike Lake ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, yesterday during the three amigos' press conference, this question was asked:

My question is for [the leader of the NDP] and [the leader of the Liberal Party]. Today the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States said that the recession there began in December 2007, a year ago. StatsCan figures have come out today showing the Canadian economy still growing, showing we have not had a net job loss and our banks are still solvent. How do the three of you justify the moral authority to take down a government based on its economic record?

That was the question asked of the three amigos. I would note that the member's leader basically said to the leader of the New Democratic Party, if I remember correctly, “You take this”, because he did not have an answer himself.

I am curious. Maybe the new member might want to answer that question on behalf of his leader.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:05 p.m.

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, first, what my hon. friends need to remember is this. In a parliamentary democracy, the Prime Minister and the government, that team, have to command the confidence of the House of Commons. Any one of us, in theory, could be that person.

If the Prime Minister at present does not have the confidence of the House of Commons, which he obviously does not, he should do the honourable thing and resign, and not drag this out for a week while we could be putting forward a stimulus package to help the Canadian economy and to stop the bankruptcy of industries that the Conservatives say are okay.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:05 p.m.

Liberal

John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON

Mr. Speaker, the economic record of the government is to drive the economy from a $13 billion surplus to a $6 billion deficit. It is quite a record.

I want to ask the hon. member a question about the infrastructure stimulation, which was proposed by the Liberal Party at least a year ago, possibly more, and the commitment on our part was to take anything beyond the $3 billion contingency fund and apply it to infrastructure. It was applauded literally across the country as an appropriate stimulus package, and had it been applied to this year's budget, ending March 2008, we would have had $7 billion in the economy, as we speak, already stimulating infrastructure.

For his troubles, the Leader of the Opposition was ridiculed from coast to coast to coast and literally millions of dollars were spent by the Conservative government to basically destroy the reputation of the leader of the Liberal Party.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:05 p.m.

Liberal

Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON

Mr. Speaker, the $7 billion infrastructure package that we had proposed during the election campaign was essentially applauded by various mayors in municipalities across the country. My own mayor, quite a wonderful mayor, Mayor Susan Fennell, thought it was a great idea. Hazel McCallion thought it was a great idea. The mayor of Toronto, Mr. Miller, thought it was a great idea. We would already have $7 billion stimulating the economy if that plan had been put in place, in addition to moneys beyond the $3 billion contingency reserve that the Conservatives eliminated, which of course we do need now for a rainy but they eliminated it in an irresponsible fiscal measure. I would let my friend know and let Canadians know that very soon help is on the way.

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12:10 p.m.

Calgary East Alberta

Conservative

Deepak Obhrai ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Speaker, it is once more a pleasure to rise in the House and talk about what is happening in Canada. This is a historical week. Political games have reached such a height that Canadians are just shaking their heads, wondering what in the hell is going on here, wondering whether those guys over there have lost their senses.

The unholy alliance made by those three parties is just unbelievable. Just look at the economic records they are trying to bring forward. One of the parties wanted the carbon tax. Only two months ago, it went out there and said it was going to raise the GST. The leader of one party said that another party's economic platform was a disaster for Canada. So what happened? Only two months ago it was saying this to the Canadian public when its members were on the campaign trail. Did that party lie to the Canadian public? Did it mislead the Canadian public?

If the members of this unholy alliance really think they have a plan, they should go to the Canadian public to get their approval and see if the Canadian public will accept this unholy alliance sitting there. They should be doing that, not making backroom deals to which Canadians are saying no.

As they continue along this path, the Canadian public will speak out because, at the end of the day, it is the Canadian public who has been taken to the cleaners by this unholy alliance of the three parties. It is unbelievable what they have been saying.

Yesterday, on television screens across Canada, we saw the leader of this party, who will be resigning in May; we saw the leader of a separatist party who got up and said this is a great day for the separatist movement in Canada; and we saw the leader of a party, who at the end of the day would never have been in government if he were running on his own, cooking up deals to come in here with an economic policy that, according to one of the other leader's, was a disaster for Canada.

Now, let us talk about what is happening in Canada.

There is a global recession. This government has acted even before there was talk of stimulus packages. We cut the GST. We cut business taxes, which the opposition did not agree with, to stimulate the economy, and it is ongoing. The Prime Minister went to the G20. He was told Canada was sound financially. We are working on that.

When the Prime Minister of Canada came back from the G20, he held a conference with the premiers and told them what he was doing and the premiers agreed.

As a matter of fact, the Minister of Industry is talking now with the Liberal government in Toronto to work with the auto industry. Individuals are speaking about bringing forward a stimulus package. We want to know what the auto industry is doing today. The auto industry presented its plans in the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. asked the auto industry to present a recovery plan, which it has done today. The same thing should apply here in Canada. There should be a recovery plan. We cannot act unilaterally. This is an integrated economy. What the U.S. will do, we will help. The Minister of Industry went to the U.S. to see how we could save those jobs. We all understand that. But at the end of the day, the big three have to come forward and say what are they going to do with the money they are going to receive, what their plan is to come out of this thing. That is a responsible way to run this country.

In the fiscal statement, the Minister of Finance talked about helping seniors. What have we done for seniors? That was in the economic plan. We came up with income splitting. There has been a tremendous amount of activity by this government.

The issue is that this government was addressing these issues before. This unholy alliance wants to do it now. Those members want to come up with a stimulus package. Where were they during the election campaign?

A stimulus package from members of a separatist party whose only interest is to break up the country?

The Liberals want to make a deal with those guys so their leader can go down in the history books as the only leader who got defeated but who became the prime minister. Even though they only received 26% of the popular vote, they want to stand and say that they have the right to rule and their leader has the right to be the prime minister of this country.

What happened to the voice of the people of Canada? If the opposition parties really want to form this unholy coalition, they should go to the voters. If they have the guts, they should go to the voters, not cook up backroom deals and talk nonsense that there is no stimulus. We created a stimulus package that will be permanent.

I want to tell Canadians that this unholy alliance will raise business taxes and raise the GST. Maybe the Leader of the Opposition will even get his carbon tax put back on, which all Canadians rejected.

Have those members thought about this? As far as the Liberal members are concerned, they were left out in the cold and now they are slowly realizing what is going on. The winner in this will be the separatist party. It is unbelievable. I have been here for 10 years and I have seen the separatists fight. They were going down but now they will be the biggest winners, thanks to the Liberal Party. The Bloc would never have formed the government and will never form the government but it is now coming through the back door. We should ask the Canadian people about that.

He ran a campaign as an NDP candidate. What did the NDP get? It did not get in. It was shunned. It is shrinking and yet it wants to form a government of the unholy alliance with the separatist party. What are the opposition members talking about? Canadians will teach them a lesson because they lied to Canadians during the last election.

Do the opposition members have an economic plan? Let them go to Canadians with their carbon tax. They should not try to bring something through the back door to Canadians. They should not try to bring the carbon tax to Canadians. They should not bring that economic stimulus that will be a disaster for this country. If Canadians had wanted that unholy alliance, they would have elected them and given them more seats.

I am sorry that I am a little agitated about this whole thing but this is unprecedented. It is a coup and it is undemocratic. They do not have any moral authority. They are only playing with the procedure in this House to try to grab power. They should be ashamed of themselves. They do not represent their own parties. They represent the people of Canada. They were elected here by the people of Canada and right now they have displayed the most unholy game with the people of Canada. They can be in power if they want but it will be short-term. History already shows that. When the people of Canada are lied to, they will come back. They will not listen to the games the opposition has been playing behind the scenes.

During the last 10 years, the leader of the Liberal Party was on intergovernmental affairs. He brought forward the clarity bill and fought those guys sitting over there to bring it in. Those guys are no friends to them. The only agenda they have is to break up this country. Since when did they become friends? Do the Liberals not realize that the Bloc members have only one agenda and that is to break up the country and yet they will be sitting over there until 2011? That is unbelievable.

The Liberals will need to run and seek cover because at the end of the day the people of Canada, the provincial governments and everybody will speak when they hear what has come from this unholy alliance. This is the scariest thing that has ever happened in Canada.

I go around the world teaching democracy and other things and there are military coups in other countries. However, on a procedural basis, the opposition parties did not listen to the voices of the people of Canada and that will come back to haunt them.

I wish them good luck but we and the people of Canada will speak.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

12:20 p.m.

Liberal

John Cannis Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, the member talked about a coup and said that we should be ashamed because this was unprecedented. He referred many times to an unholy alliance. Given what he said, I have a simple question for him.

On September 9, 2004, his leader, the present Prime Minister, along with the other two parties, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, said, “We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.

That was a letter sent to the then governor general, Adrienne Clarkson. Why was that not considered a coup? That member should be ashamed of himself, not us.