Debates of March 15th, 2010

Opposition Motion--Government Spending

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I believe that my colleague shares our view that parliamentary mailings are important; they are part of members' privileges. I do not share his opinion on the fact that all members can send mailings to all other ridings. The Bloc's position is clear on that.

I would like to know whether the member supports cancelling the practice, used so heavily by his party, of placing ten percenters in envelopes. Every mailing placed in an envelope costs 40¢ more than a mass mailing. I would like to know if his party will support the Bloc's proposal, which will eliminate these ten percenters in future.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this is precisely why this issue needs to be not just debated but resolved and worked out. The member raises a particular issue about whether we should allow ten percenters to go in individual envelopes. We do that on occasion because they are addressed to individual people in particular ridings. That is a very important element and I believe it is our prerogative to do it. Other parties have chosen to send mass mailings that go on a postal walk. If they see that as effective and they are not abusive, that is fine.

However, to address them to individual residents or voters in a particular area or in a number of areas related to a particular issue, which is what my mailings would be, I do not see anything wrong with that. To me, the issue is how it is being abused, whether it is over the top in the amount of mailings or, more important, the content. These mailings have become very personally abusive, which is what we need to stop.

However. to throw the whole program out would limit members' ability to communicate with Canadians across this country, which would be very unfortunate.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the opposition day motion. I will be splitting my time with the brilliant member for Ajax—Pickering.

I am very happy to see this motion come before the House as it addresses some needs that Parliament has not addressed for a number of years.

First, it does go to government restraint. We are at a difficult time. We are $56 billion in deficit. However, even when we are not in deficit, government should not be spending money wastefully. I think anybody would agree with that. In a difficult time like this, with a Conservative deficit of $56 billion, wasteful spending is even more inappropriate than ever before.

I will preface my comments, as a Nova Scotian, speaking about what has happened in Nova Scotia over the past month or so. The auditor general of Nova Scotia did an investigation into spending by members of the Legislative Assembly, an audit of MLAs' expenses.

What was uncovered was egregious spending that nobody could justify. Generators were installed in the houses of MLAs. Multiple computers, laptops and printers were purchased. Big screen TVs were purchased, just what every politician wants in their office when a constituent comes in to talk about their day-to-day problems, just trying to raise their family. Other things that were bought were espresso makers, GPS units, briefcases, digital cameras, camcorders and duplicate expenses, payments, et cetera. The premier indicated that his bar fees were being paid by the government.

People are angry, rightfully, about this abuse of taxpayer money. There have already been resignations and there may be more to come. The people of Nova Scotia feel no differently from the rest of the people in Canada, which is that politicians, their governments and parliamentarians should spend money that is theirs the same way they would spend their own. People do not accept that it is okay for government to waste money. Drastic changes have resulted.

There is no doubt that our system in Ottawa is a better system but there is a lesson to all of us: treat the people's money as if it were our own.

The message, however, has not reached the government and it has not reached all members of this House. A $13 million increase for the Prime Minister's own departments, spending on research and management consultants that nobody could defend. To avoid tendering contracts, money is let just under the legal limit of $25,000 without a tender, and it seems to happen all the time. There is outrageous spending on advertising of government initiatives. Over $100 million were spent to advertise Canada's economic action plan.

We have an enlarged cabinet. Ministers who underperform do not get moved out of cabinet. They get moved to lesser responsibilities, more in keeping with their capabilities, I suppose, but they stay in cabinet with all of the perks that go with being in cabinet.

There are a lot of examples of how the government has not been spending money wisely but I want to speak specifically to the issue of ten percenters. If there is a rotten, perverted, scandalous, ridiculously bloated, wasteful symbol of how low politics in Canada has fallen, it is ten percenters which allow members of Parliament to send virtually unlimited mailings of the most partisan nature across Canada.

As we heard from the member for Scarborough—Guildwood, perhaps the preeminent expert in this House on the history of Parliament and its procedures, there probably was an noble purpose for ten percenters. Originally, I think the idea was that members could send them to people in their constituency. As MPs we are supposed to, it is incumbent upon us to communicate with our constituents.

We are allowed to do four householders a year and most of us do all four. Those are legitimate and reasonable. When I do householders, I do not put the Liberal message all over it. , I represent all of the people in my constituency. I would challenge anybody to look at the householders I have sent out or, on occasion, the ten percenters that I sent out in my own constituency. They deal with things like the Boys and Girls Club, a local theatre group called Eastern Front Theatre, the Public Good Society, Circle of Care furniture banks and things like that. To me that is a legitimate and reasonable purpose of ten percenters.

However, in the last number of years things have changed and I understand. People say that as an MP we have a responsibility to communicate around the country, but these have become absolutely and completely political. It has gotten totally out of hand. The mailings today are largely controlled out of various leaders' officers or party offices and the messages are negative and brutally partisan. MPs often do not even know what is going out under their own names.

It is very costly, as the Taxpayers Federation singled them out last week for special attention. All parties do it. It is true, though, that the government has raised it to a high art form, or perhaps a low art form.

We heard today the members from Mount Royal and Sackville—Eastern Shore indicating how these mailings had been abused and turned into virtual hate mail, sent out at government expense, carrying a partisan message, peppering the country with vicious propaganda.

At the same time, parties are building up their mailing lists for their own political purposes. Parties all do it. I do not condone anybody using ten percenters. I do not like the fact that Liberals use ten percenters. I like the fact that we do it less than anybody else on a per capita basis.

People in my riding ask me all the time why they are getting mail from the leader of the New Democratic Party the time. Some say that their wives communicate more with the leader of the New Democratic party than they do with them. They ask me who is paying for the mail, who is paying for the stuff that goes into their mailboxes, which they do not want. People do not like it and they are at the point of saying enough is enough.

If we took all of the offensive spending of the MLAs in Nova Scotia, which has rightly enraged Nova Scotians, it would be a tiny fraction of the cost just of the ten percenters. The cost in printing is estimated at $10 million. The cost in postage is more than twice that, $30 million. What could we do with $30 million?

In the Speech from the Throne last week, we heard about how the government would enhance the universal child care benefit for single-parent families. The next day in the budget we found out the total cost of that program, when it is fully implemented, would be $5 million a year. There are $5 million a year for Canadians most in need and $30 million so this garbage can be sent across the country that spreads lies and hate about other parties and individuals. If there is a juxtaposition to politics today that shows how rotten this has become, it is that. There are $5 million for those who need help and $30 million for ten percenters.

At the same time, the Canadian Council on Learning, CCSD and KAIROS were cut. The value of that cut was $7 million over five years from an organization that focuses on justice and peace. Yet there are $30 million dollars a year to sustain this ridiculous policy of sending out ten percenters that every member of the House knows in his or her heart has become completely out of hand and is a total waste of money. We could save tens of millions of dollars every year just by saying enough is enough.

I heard the members of the New Democratic Party say that they did legitimate mailings and as MPs they had to communicate with other people on specific issues. The NDP member for Vancouver East spoke sincerely about the need to deal with stakeholders.

There is not a member of Parliament in the House whose stakeholder is 10% of somebody else's riding. We have mailing lists. We already have free mailing. We have bulk mailing. We have the frank. In my case, if I want to send information to people in child care or people who deal with poverty, I do not send it to 10% of the people who live in Sackville—Eastern Shore or in Cape Breton—Canso. These are political mailings.

I have one from a New Democratic member, who I will not mention. It ticks off to send back information, “I would like to receive the NDP's email newsletter”. This is for political purposes. This is taxpayers subsidizing politicians to send this stuff out.

If we want to improve Parliament and politics in Canada and have members work together the way they should, the way it was designed to be, it does not help when we come in here on Monday when the Friday before we received calls from people in our association telling us that they received hate mail about us.

It is time to stop the abuse, to save the money, to put $30 million to a better purpose and improve the atmosphere in Parliament. Let us get rid of the ten percenters. Let us do the right thing once and for all.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the hon. member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, but in his own statement he says that we all do it. Over the last number of months, there have been over six or seven Liberal ten percenters in my riding, but that is not why I am standing.

With health care, unemployment, the economy, the environment, productivity, the long list of all the issues that we could properly debate in the House, on a day when the Liberals have an opportunity to put forward any suggestions they may have, any concept they would like to discuss about the country, they pick the ten percenter program. Are they not embarrassed that they are wasting our taxpayer dollars today on this item?

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's comments, but he is talking about wasting money. That is what we are talking about. It is not just the ten percenters. We could also fix a lot of the other party's problems, in terms of wasteful spending on contracts, on travel and on everything else that is done.

However, I do not think Canadians would this was a good use of taxpayer money if they knew about this and knew the cost. I do not think people in my riding or in Burlington would say this was good use of money if they knew what was being spent. If he had a town hall meeting in his riding asked if we should we send this crap out to the people of Canada on their ticket, on their dime, I do not think they would say this was a good use of taxpayer money. If he wants to save taxpayer money, start today. Stand up and vote tomorrow night for this motion.

[Jim Maloway, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated before, I get probably as many of these as anybody else in the House and mine are always from one party. The only party that sends me anything is the Conservative Party. There are piles of these things. I do not let it bother me. I keep winning, and I intend to keep winning, in spite of them. I do not think a lot of people read these things after a while.

Interestingly enough, one a month ago I received one and it was not from the Conservatives at all. It was from the leader of the Liberal Party. Maybe it was an accidental mailing. Maybe it was meant for Saint Boniface and accidently put into my riding.

This morning the member for Winnipeg South Centre brought up this issue. I have to admit she gets more of this than anybody else in Manitoba. The Conservatives have been chasing her now for several elections. Guess what? She is still here. She beats them.

These things can work against members. If they do negative advertising against a member on a consistent and constant basis, it will work against them. The member for Winnipeg South Centre is proof positive that she wins in spite of all the negative advertising.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague from the NDP proves my very point. Canadians do not like these things and they do not react well to them. However, we cannot say that because people still vote for somebody who is targeted that this is a good use of money. That is a ridiculous use of money.

If anybody wants to see if these are political, find out where the parties send the mailings. I do not think they come into my riding from the Conservative Party, which will not win in Dartmouth—Cole Harbour for some time to come. I do get them from the NDP. I am sure all parties target these to the areas that they want to win. That is partisan political abuse of public money and it has to stop sometime, and it will stop. This may not pass today or tomorrow, but it will stop, just like in Nova Scotia. As soon as the light was shone on some of this stuff, it stopped. It will stop eventually here because it is the wrong thing to do.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, following up on the out-of-riding ten percenters, they also include a request for feedback about which leader they think is on the right track. They also ask them to send their email address and then all of a sudden this becomes a political instrument. I think the problem I have and many other people have with this is Parliament money is being used by political parties for partisan use.

Would the member care to comment on that?

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, there is no question about that. I received an email on Friday about this very issue. The woman stated that she had received a flyer, she hated it and it was wrong. She wanted to know who was paying for it, but she assumed the public was. She was right. She said that at the very least it should be paid for by political parties.

It should not be funded from the budget of Parliament. It is totally and completely political. The information is quite often wrong, and we heard that from the member for Mount Royal, but, at the very least, it should not be used to subsidize political operations. That is what happens with these flyers.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be given the opportunity to rise on this matter.

We all acknowledge that Canada now is in a very difficult situation financially. The Conservatives have run up a $56 billion deficit, the largest deficit in Canada's history, after inheriting a surplus of almost $13 billion. The Parliamentary Budget Officer tells us that the deficit is structural, that without major changes it will not be addressed. Canadians are rightfully asking what the plan is to get us out of this mess.

The only real item that has been brought forward so far was by the Treasury Board President, who stated that he would be eliminating some 250 plus positions. The problem is that most of those positions are already vacant. The total savings of that move, even if the positions were filled, would only be about $1.5 million. The government, with much fanfare, held a press conference and announced the elimination of these positions as proof of its austerity, of its dedication to eliminating waste.

Yet we heard just moments ago a Conservative member attack a debate about the tens of millions of dollars being wasted through these partisan mailings, but it is not just these mailings. I will come back to some of the other things that are being done and why this issue is so important in terms of establishing the right precedent going forward.

A lot of difficult choices will have to be made as the government comes to grips with the mess it has created with this deficit. They will not be easy choices.

One of the easiest things to do would be to take the low hanging fruit. I would suggest that the more than $10 million that are spent a year, some $30 million if we extrapolate the postal costs for ten percenters, has to end. In fact, at its awards last week, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation stated that number one on the list of the most egregious abuses in government spending was ten percenters.

We are hitting a quagmire in this debate. Members are saying that because one member sends them, everyone should send them, so therefore we should just continue. At some point, somebody has to say enough. At some point, we have to acknowledge that this practice is wrong. We have to collectively agree to give it up. The notion that one party should continue to send them but another party will not, on principle, is ridiculous. That would put one party at a tremendous electoral disadvantage. We all collectively have to disengage from this.

A list was prepared last week of the top 20 users of the ten percenter program, 19 were Conservatives and one New Democrat. Individuals in all parties are using them, but let us take a step back and end it.

We talk about restrictions that are placed on these programs, but even the existing restrictions are not followed.

As a case in point, ten percenters were sent into my riding, which clearly violated the rules in place for these mailings. We sent this to the legal staff of the House of Commons, which said that this was campaign literature and it “contravened the bylaws of the Board of Internal Economy”. That was July 17, 2008. No action was taken whatsoever. These mailings have gone out many times. This abuse continues. All the rules are continually and flagrantly violated.

Some members have essentially been accused of supporting pedophiles through the use of these messages. Some have been accused of being anti-Semitic. The ten percenters are being used for highly partisan purposes and, in some cases, as one member alluded to, bordering on hate mail.

Who is paying for this? The taxpayers of Canada. They are expected to pick up the bill. I have talked to constituents who have stacks of these ten percenters. Some constituents save them just because they are outraged and find them so ridiculous. When they look at that giant stack of nonsense, they get enraged because times are tough. They believe we all have to chip in to fight this deficit, to get around the corner in difficult times, yet they see this kind of egregious waste.

They get upset when they open the flyers and are asked essentially to select their voting preferences. They are asked which party leader they like, so the parties can then turn around and use the responses to phone for campaign donations and to get signs posted.

That is without question what some parties are doing with this information. It is an abuse, pure and simple. If we allow this to stand and take the time to just say this is okay, then it opens the door to continued use of taxpayer dollars as if they were part of a campaign war chest.

When we see what is being spent on advertising for the economic stimulus plan, this money is staggering. If we turn on any major event, whether the Olympics, the Oscars or the Super Bowl, there are those ads. In a time of supposed austerity, that naked partisan spending is on full display. In fact if we take a look at it, the government is spending more to promote itself than all beer companies combined. Are we going to allow these precedents to take hold and become established as part of the process of this place?

It was only in 2005 that spending on ten percenters was half of what it is today. Where do members think the trajectory of this is going? What does it say of this place? What does it do to the tone and tenor of debate?

If there is any question whether or not there is additional spending this touches on as well, let us take a look at some of the other egregious increases in spending in a number of different areas that absolutely need to be trimmed.

Under the Conservatives, spending on transport and communications has risen by $820 million, or 32%, since 2005. By comparison, over the last four years of a Liberal government, the increase was 2.3%.

Spending on management consultants went up $355 million over that same period, an increase of 165%.

Although the government announced a freeze on departmental spending in this year's estimates, the Prime Minister's own department, the Privy Council Office, is getting a $13 million boost in spending for support and advice to the PMO. That is a 22% increase in advance of the freeze. The Privy Council Office has already seen its budget increased by $31 million since 2005. Public opinion research has gone up by $5 million. The increase in the size of the cabinet of the Conservative Party has cost taxpayers $3.9 million. Communication services in the Prime Minister's office have increased by $1.7 million.

There is a decision we have to make, and that is, what are taxpayers responsible for paying? What are we, as political entities and parties, responsible for? When those lines start getting erased, when parties start using taxpayers' moneys for such overtly and blatant partisan purposes, we all suffer. We have to take a moment to stand and say this is going to be over.

For my colleagues in the NDP who are struggling with this issue, whom I have heard say they recognize there is abuse, there is every opportunity to continue using their franking privileges. There is every opportunity to continue disseminating a message, but any rules that have been placed on these have been violated. Any time we have tried to control them, it has ended up in abuse and waste. The time has come for us to end this practice, to rein it in and to draw a firm line between what should be paid by parties and what should be paid by taxpayers.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the member's feigned indignation before this House today reeks of hypocrisy. I have in my hands a ten percenter. On it I see a statement that Parliament was locked out. In a picture I see the Liberal Party of Canada logo. I see a statement that reads, “Subscribe me to the Liberal Party e-newsletter”.

Therefore, I would like to ask the hon. member if, in his feigned indignation, which I am sure I will get more of in his answer, he will tell the House the number of people the Liberal Party has signed up through its ten percenter program.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I made a point and it is unfortunate that the member will not listen. I ask and implore him to listen. My point is that all parties are doing this. In fact the notion that one party should not do it while other parties get a huge electoral advantage by doing it is absurd. We are saying, let us end it, let us end it together, let us end this practice.

If the member is suggesting that his party should spend millions and millions of taxpayer dollars promoting its electoral advantage and that other parties should just sit on their hands and do nothing, it is absurd and makes no sense. So if he agrees this is a waste, as I am certain his constituents do, and that it must stop, then let us just stop it. Tomorrow night, vote to end this wasteful practice.

[Jim Maloway, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the member should recognize that the NDP amendment was basically introduced to deal with what he was concerned about. The issue is that we can eliminate the offensive negative ads, because that is what people are complaining about here. I do not think anyone in the House objects to valid information being disseminated to people who are not in incumbent constituencies. It is the offensive nature of some of these publications that is bothering people. So why can we simply not make a rule that says that the content has to be approved? We have had such rules in Manitoba for a number of years. We mail out stuff all the time there and we have to get the content approved, and we do not send out material that basically consists of attack ads against other parties.

I would ask the member once again, why could he not live with our amendment, which would ban negative attacks on another member or their political party?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is twofold: We cannot really have a strong reason to mail a ten percenter to another member's riding. As a critic for public safety and national security and vice-chair of that committee, I can absolutely have a legitimate and strong reason to mail constituents in other communities on those issues. I have a franking privilege to do it; I do not need the ten percenter.

The second point I made in my speech is who polices this practice? We already have rules today. They are broken every single day. Examples are sent to the Board of Internal Economy and nothing is done, to the point where the Law Clerk of the House of Commons called it “campaign literature”, saying it had an electoral intent and objective and that it contravened the bylaws of the Board of Internal Economy. Nothing was done. So we have rules that are being ignored. They are going to continue to be ignored even with new rules in place.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member for Ajax—Pickering who made a very clear distinction. He talked about bringing the debt down and cutting expenses. The way I see it, the Conservatives and the NDP are not seeing it from that perspective. We can save millions of dollars by cutting this wasteful spending of the Conservatives. The hon. member mentioned the 21st member on this list. When I looked at the list, out of 35 members, 34 of them were Conservatives. It is that party that is misusing this privilege. Maybe we should bring it to a stop.

Is that the way the member feels?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think we going to have to ask that tough choices be made. Why not start with the ones that should be easiest, that is, instead of expending literally hundreds of millions of dollars on outside consultants from PR firms, for television commercials for self-promotion, for 10 percenter ads in a time when austerity is demanded, why not cut these expenditures first? I say this because it is totally unacceptable to look in the eyes of the people we are going to demand cuts from and say they have to trim their spending yet accept this kind of wasteful spending.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Scarborough—Guildwood, International Cooperation; the hon. member for Don Valley West, Citizenship and Immigration.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share my time with the member for North Vancouver.

The motion today is ironic, coming from the party opposite. The Liberals talk about fiscal management, and yet we know that of all the parties the party opposite is known for the sponsorship scandal, the $1 billion long gun registry boondoggle, the HRDC boondoggle, and cutting $25 billion in transfer payments to the provinces in the mid-nineties while spending billions on pet projects that did not prove to be of any value to Canadians.

Let us believe for a moment that the Liberal Party is actually being genuine in its concern about government waste. That has not been proven in the past, but let us just take it for granted for a moment. Once the Liberals accepted this, I suspect that the members opposite woke up this morning and thought that fiscal management was a good idea. That is exactly what my party is doing; we are taking the lead in fiscal management. We need only to see the Conservative track record.

Just a couple of days ago, the party opposite allowed the budget for this year to pass. In their hearts the Liberals know it was a budget that was good for Canadians. We laid out in the budget a three-point plan to return to balanced budgets.

First, we will wind down the temporary measures in the economic action plan. Members will recall that these measures were taken to stimulate the economy during a global recession to mitigate the harm the global recession would cause Canadians. The government stepped up to help people when they needed help. Our economic action plan will ensure that Canada exits the world recession stronger than it entered. That is really a great sign of government management through very difficult times. The first thing is to wind down those temporary measures as the world economy rebounds.

Second, the actions of the government will ensure that it lives within its means. Anyone who runs a household understands that sometimes it is necessary to incur debt, but it cannot be done in perpetuity. That is why we will ensure that the government lives within its means, and only the Conservative government can do that. We know how the Liberal Party has dealt with that in the past, as I have already mentioned.

Finally, we will be conducting a comprehensive review of the administration and overhead costs. As part of these measures, the departmental operating budget will be frozen at 2010-11 levels. We are leading by example. The salaries of the Prime Minister, ministers and ministers offices are to be frozen first. The hope is that members of the House will have the courage to follow our lead because, of course, it will be up to the other members of Parliament to follow the lead of the Prime Minister and cabinet.

I would ask a pre-emptive question of the members opposite: Will they follow the government's lead in this regard?

I want to take a moment to talk about the strategic review process. This process is conducted by ministers and it goes through Treasury Board. I am a member of Treasury Board, so I have a particular interest in how and why this is done and the good that it is doing. These reviews ensure that government programs are achieving the results that Canadians expect. It is a thorough process. All programs have to demonstrate, first, that they are effective and efficient; second, that they are in line with the federal government's roles; and third, that they meet the changing priorities and needs of Canadians.

In the 2009 round of reviews we reallocated up to $287 million to budget priorities and the total savings from the rounds of the strategic reviews since 2007 will be about $1.3 billion by 2012-13.

For the 2010 round we will be reviewing departmental spending even more aggressively to ensure programs are producing the results they should for Canadians and ensuring that they are being effective at the lowest cost. There will be some $33 billion that will be reviewed this year and we expect to save $1.7 billion.

We are also going to be looking at grants and contributions to ensure that spending is achieving the results for Canadians.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, we are proceeding with a reduction of 245 governor in council positions to ensure better governance for federal organizations. Further to these cost containment measures, we are launching a comprehensive review of our administrative functions to streamline the delivery of services across the entire government.

These measures demonstrate our government's commitment to restoring fiscal balance while at the same time delivering programs and services that meet Canadians' needs, to ensure that Canadians are safe and secure, and to foster a strong economy.

It is very clear that this government is showing the leadership that Canadians expect during difficult times. We are helping Canadians weather the storm, reducing the cost of government, and positioning the economy for growth in the years ahead.

I would like to reflect on how this government is approaching the times ahead differently than the previous government. The previous government cut $25 billion from the transfer payments to the provinces that caused unbelievable pain and hardship among the citizenry throughout the country.

This government is not going to do that. This government is taking a different approach. It is going to ensure that the government lives within its means. I think Canadians also appreciate the fact that this government has led Canada through stormy waters. Land is in sight, safety is near. However, the recession is not over in many parts of the world and we have to stay strong and diligent.

On the issue of the ten percenters, I do not know what the party opposite has against freedom of speech. I do not know what the party opposite has against the rights of Canadians for a public discourse.

Canadians have the good sense to know what information they can find valuable. They do not need the Liberal Party of Canada to censor what they see. Canadians can judge for themselves what is relevant to their lives, to tell what information is valuable to them, and also it is an opportunity to see what other parties stand for.

Everyone has equal privileges to these ten percenters. It is a way of ensuring that Canadians are informed. It improves public discourse and it is a way to improve our democracy.

We live in the best country in the world and the best time in human history to be alive. The Conservative Party is the party that will ensure that Canada remains glorious and free.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the member about the general case of moneys. Governments have no moneys of their own. It is all taxpayers' money.

As the member indicated, we have some challenges ahead. All responsible parliaments and governments must look at everything they do and spend their money on to determine whether or not they would pass the sniff test by the public whose money it is and whether or not that money is being used for the priorities of the day, which is dealing with the economic challenges and certainly jobs for Canadians.

This motion seems to say we have some opportunities to save dollars and to rededicate them to important priorities. Will the member not support that?

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is important that we invest in democracy. It is important that we invest in freedom of ideas. It is important that Canadians receive the information they need to make the best decisions possible at the ballot box.

That is what the ten percenter program does. Sometimes they are hard-hitting, from all parties. However, it is up to Canadians to decide what the results of those messages should be. To censor or somehow cut off Canadians, not to invest in democracy, not to invest in freedom of speech, is just un-Canadian.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his comments. One thing that troubles me, though, is he speaks broadly about investing in democracy. It is really a stretch of the imagination to suggest that the millions upon millions of dollars that the government wasted advertising its action plan can be described as investing in democracy. It is sheer promotion of the Conservative Party. The giving out of cheques with the big Conservative logo on them, is that investing in democracy?

I say investing in democracy is spending some of the taxpayers' money to actually give people a voice in what our renewable energy future will be, about what our climate future will be for Canada.

I say investing in democracy is giving to all those communities out there that applied for funding under these various programs and were denied because the government chose instead to divert millions of dollars to promoting its party. That is not investing in democracy.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

Mr. Speaker, on the ads describing the economic action plan, I think Canadians found them very helpful.

The NDP government in Manitoba runs very similar ads about its programs and budget priorities. So for an NDP member to stand up and criticize that type of advertising, perhaps she should reflect and talk to her provincial colleagues who do very similar things to enlighten Canadians and to provide information to Canadians.

On the issue of ten percenters, it is an investment in democracy. Frankly, I disagree with many of the statements this member has made on the environment and some of the solutions that she has brought forth, but by golly she has the right, as every member has the right, to bring out these messages, to tell Canadians, not just in her riding but across Canada, what they propose to do to solve these challenges. All members have that right. In that way we enter a public discourse directly with Canadians.

That is democracy. That is worth investing in and the ten percenter program helps in that public discourse. It is essential to our democracy. I urge all members to support the ten percenter program.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to correct the minister. When it comes to spending, if we look at the Privy Council Office, the spending has gone up and general spending has gone up by 25% under the Conservative government. This money that we are spending on these ten percenters can be used for the betterment of those Canadians, the one or two million Canadians, who are out of work.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify. Public discourse is essential for democracy and the ten percenters are part of that discourse. In regard to priorities, the ten percenter program allows Canadians to see what each party is doing and allows them to ultimately make a decision based on that. They have chosen the Conservative Party. Maybe that is why the Liberals do not like the ten percenters so much.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to rise today to speak to the Liberal opposition motion moved by Malpeque's million-dollar man.

I found it ironic that it was the Liberal Party that moved this motion. After all, the Liberal Party was in charge for 13 long years in this country and it owned the podium when it came to wasting taxpayers' dollars. From the $2 billion spent on the long gun registry, to the billion-dollar boondoggle at Human Resources, to the millions of taxpayers' dollars stolen, the fake Groupaction contracts, and the brown envelopes left at Frank's Restaurant by senior members of the Liberal Party during the sponsorship scandal, the Liberal Party is the top dog when it comes to government waste. And, yes, it was Malpeque's million-dollar man, the same Liberal member who moved this motion today, who was part of that government that wasted and, yes, stole taxpayers' dollars. How can he get up in this House today and have the sheer chutzpah to move this motion? I do not know.

However, let me move specifically to address the issue of what we call ten percenters. As members are aware, a significant portion of today's motion deals with the issue of ten percenters.

As we know, part of being an effective member of Parliament is to communicate with Canadians from across the country on issues of the day. Whether it is the great action by our government, with Canada's economic action plan, where we are leading the way for Canadians on jobs and economic growth, or the leadership our government is showing on the world stage or, yes, informing Canadians about the past statements of the current leader of the Liberal Party, ten percenters are a valuable tool to communicate with our constituents and with Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

All of these mailouts are available to all parties in the House of Commons, and it is worth noting that all political parties, including Liberals, Bloc Québécois and New Democrats, employ this practice.

I would note that virtually every single piece the three opposition parties send out is negative, while we Conservatives send out many positive pieces, alerting Canadians to the great work our Conservative government and our MPs are doing for them.

In this weekend's Globe and Mail, and many times in the past, the Liberal Party has accused Conservatives of encouraging a culture of incivility on Parliament Hill.

When it comes to ten percenters, it is a little rich for the Liberals to be making accusations of incivility. First of all, virtually every single ten percenter they send out is a negative piece or an attack piece. Some of the material they have sent out has been totally shameful. Let me cite some examples.

There is the ten percenter sent out by the member for Ajax—Pickering, attempting to scare my constituents in North Vancouver. The only graphic on its cover is a handgun being aimed right at the face of the viewer. It is reminiscent of the scare campaign launched by his former colleague, Paul Martin, in the 2004 election campaign, which also featured a handgun being fired at the viewer.

Next, there are the scandalous ten percenters sent by the member for St. Paul's, trying to scare Canadians about the H1N1 virus and to politicize the issue.

Let me remind members that this is the same Liberal Party that tried to fundraise on the back of the H1N1 issue when its party president, Alfred Apps, said that the H1N1 virus could be just like Hurricane Katrina for the Prime Minister. We all know that this was just pure politicization of a very serious issue by the Liberals, and of course it never came to be.

Even worse, the member for St. Paul's sent this ten percenter into a number of first nation communities. These communities were busy at the time, ensuring that they dealt with H1N1 properly. They did not need to be needlessly alarmed by the member for St. Paul's and the Liberal Party.

Let me describe it to the House. The cover featured body bags and the title “Not the kind of H1N1 help they wanted”. On the inside there was a photo of a sick first nation child, with the phrase “no vaccines, just body bags”. That was shameful. Do not just quote me on this. Ron Evans, the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, in the Toronto Star of October 28, 2009, said, “From the beginning I have said the crisis has been about people, not politics. (Our children were) used as props in political theatre”.

Evans held up a black and white photocopy of a pamphlet distributed by the Liberal Party of Canada with the headline, “No vaccines, just body bags”. Evans said that he was offended by the pamphlet, which included photos of the body bags and a crying child, because it was politicizing an issue he thought should be non-partisan.

That is the kind of politics that the Liberal Party engages in, but it gets worse. There is the infamous ten percenter sent into a riding in New Brunswick that has a high percentage of Canadian Forces members in it. It was sent by the member for Vancouver Centre who obviously had enough spare time on her hands after chasing down the burning crosses on the lawns of Prince George, British Columbia, to send this into other ridings. It is a picture of our flag on a military-style backpack that says, “We used to wear it abroad with pride”.

Can members just imagine a husband or wife of a Canadian soldier fighting in Afghanistan, someone who is proudly representing our country overseas with the flag on his or her shoulder or backpack, and how proud we are of our soldiers' service to our nation and to the cause of peace, and then we open our mailboxes and are slapped in the face by the callous remarks of the member for Vancouver Centre suggesting that a husband or wife serving overseas does not wear the flag with pride anymore? It is outrageous and the member for Vancouver Centre should apologize.

I could go on. There are dozens of examples of this type of behaviour by the Liberals. It is not just the Liberals though. The NDP and the Bloc Québécois also use the ten percenter program to attack Conservatives across the country. It is also important to note that the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois have consistently used their party logos on their ten percenters. Until recently, the Liberals even used a photo of a former Liberal prime minister as a bogus return stamp.

Let us compare that with ten percenters put out by our party. Members will be hard-pressed to find a Conservative Party logo on them and every one of them is factual. Members of the Liberal Party and the other opposition parties might not like those facts but they are facts and it is our duty as members of Parliament to point those facts out to Canadians.

By alerting and listening to Canadians on the important issues of the day, it is our party's belief that we can better understand and implement their concerns. We want to continue the dialogue with Canadians and ten percenters allow us to do that, both in our home constituencies and across this great country.

We must make no mistake. Ten percenters are a tool for dialogue. When we send out these flyers, we express our opinions on the issues of the day and ask Canadians to write back with theirs, and that they do. Canadians have opinions and they are pleased to be given the opportunity to express them. For example, many of my constituents have many unparliamentary things to say about the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore.

This exchange of ideas between elected representatives and the people they represent is the essence of democracy. To put this simply, we do not support this attempt by the Liberals to shut down this important tool to communicate directly with Canadians.