Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of today's motion that immediate steps be taken toward abolishing the Senate, tabled by the hon. member for Toronto—Danforth.
One of the debates in this country involving the Senate that I followed as a young journalist covering former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells in the 1990s was the debate over whether the upper chamber should be reformed into a triple-E model, as in elected, equal and effective, a triple-E Senate.
Today, there is no debate that the upper chamber has become a triple-U Senate, as in unaccountable, unelected and unapologetic.
We should abolish it. There is no alternative. The Senate is too far gone to save. It has become a gated country club, a political pasture and a golden handshake for friends of the Conservative and Liberal parties for fundraisers, for partisans and for failed politicians. The senators do the bidding of the parties they represent. They are unelected. They are unaccountable to the people. They are unapologetic for the embarrassment they have become.
Yes, the Senate is an embarrassment, an embarrassment to Canadians from one end of this country to the other. It is an embarrassment to real Canadian politicians like the elected members of Parliament in the House today.
I have no excuses for the Mike Duffys of this country who take months to figure out exactly where they live. What a joke and an embarrassment.
To quote Michael Bliss, a professor and historian at the University of Toronto:
This is a classic case of Canadians discovering that senators have no clothes.... They've turned themselves into our daily comic relief segment of politics.
I was a journalist in my previous life. I have no defence for Mike Duffy or Pamela Wallin. Wallin is supposed to represent Saskatchewan, but her primary residence is in Toronto and she holds an Ontario health insurance card. I personally find the Duffy and Wallin cases particularly appalling. Journalists should know better, when we spend our working lives holding politicians to account. It is bred into us. We instinctively know where the line is that must not be crossed, and it has most definitely been crossed.
Then there is Senator Patrick Brazeau. If it was not bad enough that he is facing allegations of abuse of his housing allowance, there have also been sexual assault complaints lodged against him.
The embarrassment has become constant. The embarrassment is daily.
The scandal over senatorial housing allowances has led the Senate to seek legal advice that says that as long as senators sign a declaration of qualification form that says they reside where they reside, then it is okay. The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay stood in the House yesterday and equated that declaration to a pinkie swear.
In my own province of Newfoundland and Labrador, there is Senator Fabian Manning. He was a member of Parliament. He lost his seat. He was appointed to the Senate. Then he was cherry-picked for the 2011 federal election to run again for the Conservatives in the federal riding of Avalon. Manning lost again. Then he was appointed to the Senate again. We have a senator who was rejected by the people, not once but twice, speaking on behalf of the Conservative government all over my riding of St. John's South—Mount Pearl. Is Senator Manning supposed to be Newfoundland and Labrador's voice? He is not. We are supposed to represent Newfoundland and Labrador in Ottawa. We are not supposed to be representatives of Ottawa in Newfoundland and Labrador. That is not the way it is supposed to work.
Senators are held to one level of account; Canadians are held to another level of account. For example, EI claimants have investigators knocking down their doors, while senators hide behind their doors; that is, if their doors can be found.
The budget of the Canadian Senate is $92.5 million a year. Most Canadians cannot even fathom that much money. Let me bring this home. Senator Wallin's $350,000 in travel expenses would cover old age security for 57 seniors a year. Mike Duffy is eligible to collect another $1.3 million in salary before his mandatory retirement at the age of 75. Patrick Brazeau will bring in another $7 million in salary before he turns 75.
These are basically jobs for life. Well, they are not really jobs for life, but salaries for life. The average number of work days in 2011 and 2012 for a Canadian senator was 56 days, with an annual salary, as has been said before, of $132,000 a year plus living expenses, for a job, I am sorry, for a salary, that they will continue to receive until they are 75.
They do not have to run for election. They are not accountable to anyone. They do not have to apologize to anyone when they fleece the taxpayer. The Senate absolutely should be abolished.
Senators vote according to the interests of the parties they represent, as I mentioned earlier, rather than the regions they are supposed to represent. However, the Senate was created as a chamber of sober second thought. It was created to offset the representation by population in the House of Commons. Again, it was envisioned that senators would vote according to the region they represented, to offset representation by population.
Small provinces, such as Newfoundland and Labrador, have seven seats in the House of Commons. Small provinces like Prince Edward Island have five seats in the House of Commons. Altogether, the Atlantic provinces have 32 seats. Then, we have provinces like Quebec that has 75 seats, and Ontario with 106 seats. The bigger provinces with the larger populations obviously have more seats in the House of Commons, and those totals are destined to increase. The number of seats in the House of Commons will rise by 30 in the 2015 general election. Quebec, Ontario, B.C. and Alberta will all see their number of seats increase. Meanwhile, provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador and the three maritime provinces will not see any increase. Our representation will be watered down.
The point that I am getting to is that while I agree with the abolition of the Senate 100%, there is a bigger debate taking shape in this country over the need for democratic reform. Let me cut to the chase.
How does a smaller province like Newfoundland and Labrador, with a population of 514,000 people, half the population of Ottawa, ensure we have an equal seat at the confederation table with larger provinces like Ontario and Quebec that have more representation because they have larger populations? How do we ensure that the interests of Newfoundland and Labrador are heard and acted upon?
This week, in my province, we have news that three more groundfish plants will be shut down, throwing 300 rural Newfoundlanders out of work. It has been more than 20 years after the northern cod moratorium, and there is still no recovery plan in place. Ottawa's handling of the fisheries has been a disgrace and an affront to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
Again, how do we ensure that smaller provinces have an equal seat at the confederation table? From Newfoundland and Labrador's perspective, and from the perspective of smaller provinces across the country, that is the debate that must happen. That is a debate that is destined to happen.
The Senate absolutely must be abolished, but the question must also be asked on how we offset representation by population so that smaller provinces have an equal footing, for the good of our culture, our identity, and for the good of future generations, and so that small provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador are not made to feel like lesser provinces?
Yes, abolish the Senate and the abomination it has become. However, we must then get to the real work of democratic reform.