Rahim Jaffer

[Government Contracts, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, here are a few facts about the Prime Minister and Earnscliffe.

In the 1990s he rigged the finance department contracting procedure to benefit Earnscliffe. When he was fired from--

[Government Contracts, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is quite proud of his relationship with the Ottawa lobbyist firm Earnscliffe. They made him Prime Minister and he repays them with taxpayer funded contracts.

Earnscliffe was just given $160,000 to advise the health department on reforming health care. Earnscliffe, however, is also contracted to do business with private firms promoting privatization of health care.

Why does the Prime Minister think that awarding contracts to his friends at Earnscliffe will promote the public interest when they are clearly working against the public good?

[Canada Post, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if there is a geneology study being done as well.

The Ouellet clan was not hired because Canada needed a few good letter carriers. They were hired because Liberals had a few good desk jobs. It is nepotism run wild.

Mr. Ouellet has defended his decision to redirect millions to Liberal ad firms and now he defends the practice of hiring his family.

The Prime Minister has promised to root out corruption. Will he start here by putting an end to this blatant nepotism?

[Canada Post, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, we now have more facts as to how far the Liberal regime of corruption extends into the federal bureaucracy.

Let us take the Prime Minister's former cabinet colleague and Canada Post boss, André Ouellet. His brother-in-law was hired in 1996, a nephew in 1997, a niece in 1998, a son-in-law in 1998, a niece in 2000 and another niece in the year 2000.

Were members of the Ouellet clan the best people for the job or the best Liberals for the job?

[National Security, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has failed to address the problem of our customs agents getting access to this information. They clearly do not get that information at the borders.

Lost and stolen passports are a major security concern. Under the current process it takes an average of 70 days to exchange information between the passport office and the RCMP. If the Mounties cannot read the handwriting on the forms, they send the paperwork back to DFAIT. In this day and age, they are still using an outdated paper system.

How can we trust the government to protect Canadians when it has left this ridiculous system in place for so long?

[National Security, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General confirmed today what the Conservative Party has been saying for years. At our points of entry, terrorist watch lists do not include the 25,000 passports lost or stolen every year, nor the 162,000 Canada-wide arrest warrants from the CPIC database.

Our customs agents are the front line of defence, keeping terrorists and criminals out of Canada. It has been three years since 9/11 and the Liberals have not addressed this problem.

When will our border agents get this critical information so that they can do their jobs?

[The Budget, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the question of resources is always a significant issue for post-secondary education. We are trying to stimulate research and development. We have done some things right.

When we consider the whole package of the tax structure that many people face, especially when we look at the R and D tax credits that are in place and we look at the atmosphere on the other side when it comes to taxes, there are still a lot of challenges to be faced. People are not taking advantage of the tax credits just on the R and D.

When it comes to the investment that my hon. colleague mentioned, this is something we have to address and something on which we have to be more vigilant. I was surprised that the hon. member opposite did not understand when I said that even though education is a provincial responsibility, there should be some leadership on that side of the House. I guess that is something she is not familiar with.

[The Budget, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the numbers coming from members on that side of the House have always been skewed. The government said that the package it introduced was $100 billion, but in the end the amount was about less than half of that when we consider where the other increases came from.

We have seen hidden increases when it comes to service fees and other things such as the fuel tax and the air tax. The government has tried to reduce them in this budget. There should not be a security tax when we look at the way the government manages money. We can look at the CPP increase. The government has reduced EI by a marginal amount but when we consider the increases in CPP, they clearly offset any meaningful tax reduction that the government has attempted.

I would like to challenge the hon. member on her figures when it comes to the actual tax reduction the government has given Canadians. It has been half of the number the Liberals talked about. They are never honest with Canadians with regard to their numbers. We would like to see some honesty and transparency in those numbers so Canadians could at least debate them.

[The Budget, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised that the member is so interested in facts having heard her comments from time to time. I remember in the last election the things she said that were just outrageous when it came to facts.

I would like to address the member's remarks about finding my comments strange. Common sense is strange to members sitting on that side of the House, especially when we have talked so clearly about policy. They do not seem to understand common sense so it does not surprise me that she found my comments strange.

Let me address the one issue she spoke about with regard to tax relief. She does not seem to understand--

[The Budget, March 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy taking part in debates in the House and sharing the thoughts and views of people in Edmonton--Strathcona. I know a lot of people back home are very disappointed in the government, especially in light of the fact that we had opportunities with the current budget, and I will address a few of these issues, given the fact that we had a larger surplus in the budget than we probably saw, especially a larger surplus than the finance minister let on about in the fall.

There was a host of things that could have been done for the priorities of Canadians. The government talked about debt relief. More effort could have been made on that. We feel this is important and we are glad the government has finally followed the advice of our party on reducing the debt. However, there is absolutely no mention of tax relief, and I will come back to that. We would have liked to have seen the government balance a few issues when it came to the priorities this time around, but it failed Canadians.

I find one thing really ironic, and I want to take this from my colleague from New Brunswick. He spoke specifically about the abuse by the government of taxpayer dollars and how things had gone awry over there because of a lack of accountability and transparency and proper procedures for oversight. It is incredible that in this day and age we have these sorts of problems in a government that seems to be so out of touch with how it should operate the finances of the country.

What I find most ironic in the budget is the way the government has tried to position itself in light of all these problems. It has tried to position itself as a government that is prudent, that is respectful of taxpayer dollars and that now is trying to deal with the debt. It is really tough to take the government seriously when we evaluate its track record over the course of the last 10 to 11 years.

My colleague from New Brunswick mentioned some of the things we have seen. I remember the big problems. We saw the HRDC boondoggle with over $1 billion being wasted. As well we saw a surplus in EI. The government could return some of the money to the workers and employers. We estimate that surplus is now over $43 billion, which the government refuses to recognize. It could have moved on that. Quite frankly, that is another theft from the taxpayers. Finally, as my colleague mentioned, we have the gun registry, which is now approaching $2 billion, and still there is no real value from any of these programs and no real results for Canadians to see whether they are getting value for money.

It comes down to the fact that the government has no respect for those programs or the deliverance of services to Canadians. That is why I find it so ironic. In light of the Liberals trying to position themselves as being prudent, how can they even claim that, especially with their track record under the leadership over there?

On the straight numbers, the government claims this theme of trying to be prudent, but obviously it is far from it. Let us just look at the budget and the amount of growth in spending over the course of its term. Since the 1996-97 budget, budgets have gone up by over $41 billion, or over 40% in the last eight years, which is just an incredible growth of government. There is no prudence in that.

In this budget alone, I think the program spending jumps over 7% to close to $10 billion. Over the next two years we will see program spending increase by over $13 billion. The government talked about prudence, but more could have been done instead of increasing spending. In some programs the government still has not tightened its belt, areas such as corporate welfare. The government should not be in the business of dealing with handouts to these groups, but it continues to do so, and it has refused to tighten its budget in the areas where it could.

I mentioned areas where money could be given back. There is still a host of other areas where we could have seen reductions or at least a return of some of that money back to the stakeholders, Canadians, who deserve that money, who are hard-working and hate to see their money squandered by the government.

A host of issues is important to people in Edmonton—Strathcona and important to Canadians. I want to focus in on three issues which I know are very important, and I hear about them on a regular basis in Edmonton—Strathcona.

The first is education. We have a number of post-secondary institutions in Edmonton, and the University of Alberta is located in my riding. Obviously, health care is the top issue for many Canadians. Finally, I want to chat about a missed opportunity, and that is the issue of tax relief. We have seen absolutely nothing, especially in light of the surplus. The government could have done a lot more.

On education, there are some good measures, and we are not opposed to saying that. When the government does something that is on the right track, we will admit it. While the government increases money available for students under the Canada student loan program, it does not address their debt. That is one of the biggest problems students face in this day and age. Tuition costs are rising across the country. Rather than continuing to add to that debt, the government should be trying to reduce it. Raising the loan limits is a good thing so students can access money, but if it cannot counter that by ensuring they have either opportunities or some flexibility in the loan program once they graduate, they will be stuck paying a huge amount of interest. Many students are forced to default on their loans. That is not acceptable. The government could have done a lot more when it came to addressing the issue of flexibility, not just the issue of debt.

One solution we have put forward, one on which I am open to feedback and debate, is the idea of the income contingent loan program. We would take the money in the current millennium scholarship fund, which unfortunately only helps about 6% of students. Obviously it has done some good for the students it has helped, but consider how many students are in need of money. When a program that large is only helping 6%, that money could be taken and applied to interest relief for more students. This would allow some flexibility in the student loan program, which would help a larger number of students. That is one proposal we have for education, one that would speak specifically to that debt issue, which has not been addressed in the budget.

Another issue we spoke about was the idea of how to co-ordinate. I know there is a difference of opinion in our party on this, and I have been encouraging the government to take some leadership on it. The government still does not have anyone in charge of education. Think about the differences in education and approaches to it across the country. I will continue to debate this in our party, but we need to address it. We need to have someone in charge to deal with the provinces in a proactive way.

We understand there is the issue of differences of power and that education is a provincial responsibility. However, there is no reason why we could not have someone co-ordinating efforts from the federal government, working with the provincial education ministers, to address issues on differential tuition and how to get some standardization across the country. Students should be allowed to move from one side of the country to get an education, plus it would give them the experience of living in a different part of the country.

These things are important and the federal government should demonstrate some leadership on this. Yet we have not seen any form of leadership when it comes to education. Because of that, funding, especially the transfers for education, has suffered under the government. We have seen health and education budgets slashed over the last 10 years by the Liberals. Even with the increases in each budget since then, we still are not up to the levels of what is acceptable for many post-secondary institutions.

On the issue of health, I know Canadians expected a lot more. Once again, when I talk about the issue of surplus, maybe I will tie in the issue of tax relief, because I know my time is limited.

In the last budget the government allocated a one time spending shot of just over $5 billion. In this budget it hid that. It did not take it out of the mix. We had a surplus in the area of about $7 billion, and it obviously was not reported properly. Imagine the increase we could have had in the area of spending for health care? Even the provincial premiers have been saying that they are very disappointed there is no new money.

We have seen some effort on debt relief, but Canadians deserve to keep more of their money in their pockets. We have seen how that side of the House has treated treat taxpayer money.

I trust Canadians to keep their money and do better good with it than the government will ever do. That is something I wish the government had addressed in the budget, but of course it failed Canadians.