Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to speak on Bill C-38, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget. If the bill were simply to implement certain provisions of the budget, it would not have become such a big problem. The problem is not just here in the House—as we saw last week and again today. The problem can be felt across the country.
I have heard a multitude of comments from the people I have the honour of representing in the House. They are extremely concerned by the government's approach of introducing a catch-all bill into which they are stuffing all kinds of things. People are well aware, for example, of the importance of the oversight body at the intelligence agency. The elimination of this inspection office concerns them tremendously. That has nothing to do with the budget.
I want to mention a number of points. First, I want to talk about the public service. There has been talk that the budget will eliminate 19,200 jobs. That is not quite accurate. They have forgotten to mention that, in the previous two budgets, there is already a loss that could go as high as 6,000 other jobs. There is no mention of fixed-term appointments that expire at the end of March, for example, and that have not been renewed. Thousands of jobs were not renewed when they expired.
The real number, according to most experts, is more than 30,000 jobs. I think the government is deliberately trying to provide inaccurate information.
Nonetheless, the method for coming up with these lay-offs is quite extraordinary. The government chose to give the employees a letter, in which they may learn that their position is affected, even if that does not necessarily mean they will lose their job.
The problem is that these letters are being given to two to three times as many people as positions being eliminated. There is a general sense of uncertainty being created among all public service employees. This distress is completely unacceptable. The government is creating a divisiveness that will cause public servants' productivity to plummet. Then there is the matter of the unnecessary fear and anxiety being created at the individual level. In my opinion, this approach never should have been adopted and this should never have happened.
I heard that there are some people who have been told that their positions are affected, but they still do not know what the outcome will be. This is truly an odd way to go about this, especially now that some public servants are being told not to talk about this situation publicly. I am talking about the public servants at Parks Canada or in the science sector. I find it very troubling that public servants are being told that the government no longer trusts them and that they are not entitled to speak, when the role of a public servant is to tell the employer the truth. “Speaking truth to power” is a value that is absolutely ingrained in our public service. I think it is being undermined by these initiatives that are denying people the right to speak. When it comes to the public service, the budget is not exactly promising.
This goes beyond these issues. If a person has the right to speak because he is not a public servant and has a job at an environmental agency, for example, then he is suddenly declared a dangerous radical. If the government cannot stop people from talking then it attacks their funding, either by eliminating it or asking Revenue Canada to review the agencies' documents. Even funding that comes from individuals abroad gets questioned. This does not give a very good impression.
On another point, I also wanted to talk about seniors.
OAS is moving from 65 to 67 for people who qualify. Most have spoken about it. There is no justification whatsoever for this. If there were justification on the economic front, then perhaps. However, the government has refused to share its studies and information to demonstrate effectively against the views of the Parliamentary Budget Officer and Chief Actuary, who have said that there is no justification. Yet, we are asked to vote for it, which is something I just cannot do.
On foreign aid, I will read a comment that I received from a constituent. She states:
I am writing to you as my member of Parliament because I am so upset that our government is reducing our foreign aid budget. Astoundingly, they are doing it on the backs of the poor.
We should be proud that in the recent past we have helped those in the developing world by investing in the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria and have successfully treated four million tuberculosis sufferers and saved half a million lives. We are on the brink of finally realizing an AIDS-free generation and eradicating diseases like TB and malaria? So why jeopardize the achievement of these life-saving goals?!!
Yes, the federal government is facing some tough economic challenges but cutting back on foreign aid and pushing the world's most vulnerable further into poverty is not the way to balance the budget.
Why don't we do what the UK has done? What it has done in terms of foreign aid is incredibly generous and humane. Even though the country is facing the worst austerity measures since the second world war it will increase foreign aid spending by 40% and is committed to meeting the 0.7% target set by the OECD by 2015.
Why doesn't Canada follow in the UK footsteps? The UK has similar economic problems but it is not fighting the problems on the backs of the poor!! Where is Canada's generosity and humanity?!
I strongly urge you to keep the issue of the cuts to foreign aid on the front burner in the House of Commons. Why don't you make a statement or raise a question in the House of Commons about the cuts to foreign [aid] and express some of my views? I would appreciate that very much.
Thank you for the work you are doing in a very difficult environment.
Yours sincerely,
Judith Barbara Woollcombe
I thought I would express her views by just quoting her letter, which I think is rather compelling.
I do not have a lot of time, so I will quickly talk about libraries.
Here is the information that I received: 23 of the 49 librarians at Library and Archives Canada, or 46%, will be laid off. We are no longer talking about 10%. Almost half of the librarians will be laid off. That will have a huge impact on the accessibility of documents and research at Library and Archives Canada, since archivists are also being cut.
A program that was key for most small libraries across the country is also being eliminated. In particular, I would like to mention the University of Ottawa's Centre for Research on French Canadian Culture, which has relied on and been actively using this program since 1989. This program benefits not only the research centre, but also francophone communities across the country. The issues that it deals with are important to the country and to the French linguistic minority.
We were told that this community would not be affected by the budget, but we are already seeing an example that shows that such is not the case.
The last point, which is of the greatest concern, has to do with community access centres. They were created in 2000 to make sure that there was not a growing gap in the population. Only 81% of people are connected to the Internet in metropolitan areas. As a result, 19% of people in cities are not connected to the Internet. Outside those areas, the percentage is 71%. In Ottawa, 19% of people are not connected to the Internet. It is important to understand that people making less than $30,000 a year are the least likely to be connected to the Internet. In fact, 54% of people who have an income of less than $30,000 are not connected to the Internet compared to 97% of people who have an income of $87,000 and over.
So who is being penalized? Once again, it is the poor. For $70,000, 16 centres were operating in Ottawa with 17 volunteers. Only one coordinator and five students were working there. The 17 volunteers were putting in over 500 or 600 hours. A total of 52,000 people are using the service every year. For $70,000, the government is going to deprive 52,000 people of Internet access, when it has been demonstrated that the poorest members of society are the ones who are not connected to the Internet. That is the common thread in this budget.
When it comes to old age security, it is the poorest who will be penalized. When it comes to Internet access, it is the poorest who will be penalized. When it comes to foreign aid, it is the poorest who will be penalized. This budget truly makes me very sad.