Bob Mills

[Petitions, March 1st, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions today, one signed by 260 people. This is part of a 64,000 person petition.

The petitioners are calling for changes to the Young Offenders Act and want an act serious enough to deter young people from committing crimes. They feel the Young Offenders Act is not meeting the objectives set forth in a satisfactory manner.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, the answer to that question is $500 million, but there is a lot more to it than that. There are a lot more areas.

There is that 12.5 per cent to corporations which is going to be off loaded on to people. There are all of the changes when the money is transferred to the provinces to allow them less money, to allow them to increase their delivery of services.

We talk about long term. I am from Alberta and we had a premier in that province, Mr. Getty, who gave a budget very much like this. It was a feel good, be happy, do not ruffle anybody's feathers, try and keep everyone kind of balanced budget.

As far as consultation with the people, I would like to say that in terms of this consultation, the number of town hall meetings and so on that come about in that consultation I would gladly compare with anything that the hon. member does.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, what we have done is really listened to the people. People are saying that they are sick and tired of government from the top down. They are saying give them programs that will let them take care of themselves at the local level.

If the hon. member had read the taxpayers' budget he would see that is exactly what it does. It puts in place things like RPSPs which allow people to take care of themselves, not depend on bureaucracy to do it and not depend on government which over 35 years has failed them; failed to guarantee the social programs and failed to provide them with services. That is what the people are saying.

The threat is that $600 billion and that $50 billion in interest payment. That is the threat to all the social programs and it is going to hit everyone where we presented a budget which was going to be fair and equal to all and would have provided a solution. It will be too late by the time these people wake up.

[The Budget, February 28th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I rise today to give a speech that I sincerely hoped I would not have to give. In the fall the Minister of Finance promised he was going to get serious about the debt and deficit in his budget and that he realized Canadians would not accept any higher taxes.

The minister went on to conduct a much touted prebudgetary consultation process. The minister claimed again and again that he would listen to Canadians. The hopes and wishes of the Canadian public have been betrayed. It is absolutely unacceptable.

I want to talk about the tax grab of the government. Since I was elected, one of the most ironclad wishes of my constituents and the Canadian public has been that the government put a halt to increased taxes. Canadians are already taxed to death. They are bled dry by the government.

Although the government knew all about the terrible situation it is once again sticking its fingers into the wallets of Canadians and picking them clean. Only this time, since the part of Canadians' wallets that holds the bills is empty thanks to the government, the tax man is rifling through the part that holds the change, plucking the last few loonies away from the beleaguered public.

We have a tax on gas, a tax on utilities in Alberta and taxes on corporations which get passed on to the public. This is not closing loopholes. This is not taxing the rich. These are taxes on everyone who uses a light bulb, heats their home, drives a car, farmers and consumers in general.

This is totally unacceptable. The government has been told time and again it does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Last year the government spent its way to a record setting deficit. We have now racked up a debt of over $550 billion, costing the taxpayer close to $80,000 a minute in interest charges.

This is unbelievable and this is what we are leaving future generations. That is the compassion we have heard some of the members talking about. There should be some compassion shown for the future. The government seems to think that overspending by 24-odd billion dollars by 1997-98 is the greatest achievement ever accomplished. Where the government gets its priorities is totally beyond me.

What did the government not understand about the message of the Canadian public which was no new taxes and fix the deficit?

Even the Liberal Party's own personal cheering squad, the Toronto Star and many others, had come up with front page headlines like ``Get a grip on deficit with cuts, MPs told, but don't try raising taxes, constituents say''.

The government was given this message over and over again but it did not listen. I do not doubt the government has a million and one justifications for increasing taxes and I am sure the spin doctors figure they can manipulate the Canadian public into believing these taxes are in the best interests of everyone, but they are wrong.

We really feel that removing the deficit and putting in place a reformed tax system and a long term plan for the reduction of the debt will be the only way to save the programs that Canadians value.

In 1984 our debt was $190 billion. We had a fellow come along who said he was going to fix it. By 1988 he said that he was going to fix it again and then we were up to $370 billion. In 1993 we were told that there was such a terrible government and it had

built up $489 billion by election day. We were again told that it was going to be fixed.

By 1997 at the next election we will have over $600 billion. All this and the government thinks that a $32 billion deficit next year is a great achievement. I am sorry, I do not think that is good enough.

In the past the government has always figured that it could formulate policy and then bring it down from on high. The government thought it knew what was best for Canadians and imposed this on the public.

The last government was particularly good at this trick but we know what happened to it. As much as the government does not want to hear this piece of news, the days when Ottawa told Canadians what to do and how to live are over. It is time for the Canadian grassroots to tell the politicians in Ottawa what to do, and they better do it.

For months now the government has made its problem even worse because it told Canadians it was listening. The public was optimistic that a new day had dawned but now it knows. Now Canadians realize that the government was going to do whatever it wanted regardless of what it heard in the prebudgetary consultations.

It is politics as usual in Ottawa. The government pretends to listen to make itself look good and assures Canadians it has turned a new leaf but the illusion never lasts. This budget is the splash of cold water to the face of the public it needed to realize where the government really stands.

Tax and grab is the name of the game and wishes of the public do not matter. Shame on you, Mr. Finance Minister. You sit on your gold plated pension while future Canadians are sacrificed. Not only is it a huge shame that the government has chosen to raise taxes, but when I ask myself if it is at least taking care of the debt and deficit properly, my answer is no.

Our federal debt is around $550 billion and it is going up by $10 billion every few months. The interest on this debt is huge and is going up by $80,000 a minute. Every time the interest rates go up by 1 per cent the deficit rises by almost $2 billion. By the time the next election is held our yearly interest payments will be over $50 billion. This is what will really threaten our social safety net and nothing else.

The international money managers are happy today because they have just been guaranteed an ever increasing source of cash. Let me put it another way. Even if there were no more interest charges on this debt ever and a single Canadian put $10,000 per year into paying off the debt they would reduce it to zero by the year 55000000 A.D.

Faced with this debt problem, what is the government's answer? What resolute action is it going to take to save our country from economic peril? It has promised to reduce its overspending to roughly $25 billion per year beyond what we can afford by the time the next election is called.

This will mean that Canadians will only have another $100 billion dollars added to the national debt, bringing it over the $600 billion mark. Wow, what commitment and responsible action. With those kinds of fiscal skills, maybe the cabinet ministers of this government should act as financial consultants when they are looking for new jobs after the next election. I am sure financial wizards like themselves should have no problem finding a job. Maybe the savings and loan companies in the U.S. are looking for senior executives.

In all seriousness, it boggles my mind how the government can think that it has done enough. For months now Canadians have told the government that they are willing to bite the bullet in order to address the deficit problem, but the government continues to believe that it can do things as usual; it can have its cake and eat it too. It can spend the country into the ground with big government in one breath and pretend to fight the deficit in the next.

I am sorry, but it just will not do any more. Canadians are unwilling to play the old Ottawa game. They want real change, real reform, real spending cuts and no more taxes. The message is simple but the government is not listening. The actions needed are obvious but the government is afraid to act.

Over the coming year Canada will slip further and further into debt, the dollar will struggle and upward pressures on interest rates will be the norm. As interest rates rise our growth will slow and unemployed Canadians will continue to be frustrated in their efforts to find jobs. In the past the government has been fond of blaming such problems on the previous government. That time is now over. The government has made its bed and now it is time to lie in it. The people of Canada are smart. They know the bill of goods that has been sold to them and they will not forget.

The smoke and mirrors approach of Ottawa will not sell to the provinces or to the people of Canada. Enough is enough. Start from the top. Reduce MP pensions. Reduce the number of MPs. Reform and reduce the Senate. Cut upper and middle management and stop offloading cuts on the lower end of the pyramid.

We have reached a turning point in this government, a downward turn, a turn for the worse, and the Reform party will not stand idly by. Reformers have got the message, no more tax, fix the deficit. Now is the time for us to confront the government and force it to listen. We will tell it over and over, as many times as it takes, to try to get the message through that we have a serious problem and we must address it.

[Petitions, February 28th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition today signed by 30 people, 21 from my constituency.

Although the petitioners and I do not have the same beliefs, I present to Parliament today on their behalf a petition that calls upon Parliament to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

I believe in complete equality with no special status to any group.

[Petitions, February 27th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is signed by 4,888 people from my riding.

The petitioners say that the control of law-abiding citizens and responsible gun owners is more than enough to ensure public safety, and the current and proposed laws criminalizing certain firearm activities are not necessary.

The petitioners humbly pray and request that Parliament support laws that will severely punish all violent criminals who use weapons in the commission of a crime, that Parliament support new Criminal Code firearms control provisions which recognize and protect the right of law-abiding citizens to own and use recreational firearms.

Finally, they request that Parliament support legislation that will repeal and modify existing gun control laws which have not improved public safety or have not proven to be cost effective.

[Petitions, February 27th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions today.

The first one is signed by over 2,500 people. The citizens express concern that they are overburdened with taxation due to high government spending and that the federal government is considering tax increases in the next federal budget.

Therefore the petitioners humbly pray and request that Parliament reduce government spending instead of increasing taxes.

[Firearms Act, February 27th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the member has raised a couple of interesting points that I would like to address very briefly.

First, there are two groups of aboriginal people in my constituency and I work very closely with them. My most recent meeting with the chief was on Thursday night. I object to the innuendo that we are not working with these people and that we do not treat them as equals. I take exception to that.

In terms of consultations, I do have a letter from the minister in response to my request to come to my riding for further consultation. Thousands of people would have attended. Of course I was turned down because the consultations are over.

Also you mention in your speech about rights-

[Supply, February 21st, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, certainly there were a number of questions there.

I guess the first one is that the socialist utopia that we often hear mentioned by the other parties is just not reality any more. Therefore what we have done is attempted in our budget to empower senior citizens, students and our native people so that they can start taking care of themselves more and more.

Our program of an RPSP goes a long way in that area of taking care of people. What we have to do is target those people who need it most. That is the most important aspect.

We should mention as well that these cuts must be fair across the board. Most farmers in the west, as was mentioned by the member, are prepared to say: "Get government out of my face. Let me handle my own business. I am quite prepared to do that". He mentioned those cuts; we have been advocating them for years. They are nothing new. They are asking just to get government out of their lives.

Basically we want to put money in the hands of people. There will not be people lying on the streets who cannot take care of themselves; they will be taken care of. That is the whole nature of the program.

The member is welcome to review the document and discuss it at length with me or any member of our party. We would be glad to do that.

[Supply, February 21st, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, copies are available at Room 200 West Block for anyone who would like one. This morning we released this budget, which charts a course that would eliminate the deficit in three years with no tax increases. No other opposition party in history has achieved this and we are very proud of our accomplishment. We have worked hard as critics and as members of this party to make that happen.

I am sure that the government's spin doctors and certain members of the media will see this as a great opportunity to cast our party in a negative light. They will read through our 60-page budget searching for that one sentence which they think will make us look bad.

It will not work because Canadians are smart enough to know how hard the Reform Party is working to provide an alternative vision for this country, smart enough to appreciate that we are being honest with them about the size of our economic problem and smart enough to ignore the mischief of political spin doctors who think they can manipulate people with the stroke of a pen.

The days of old line party manipulation are gone. The people of Canada are now in charge. They have shown it through the referendum, they have shown it through the last election.

The targets we have set in our taxpayers' budget are real and achievable. They are tough but they are fair. They are explicit and come with explanations as to why we are making the suggestions. I urge all Canadians to get a copy of the budget or the summary and read it for themselves. The Reform Party is willing to accept the judgment of the people of Canada, not the spin doctors.

We want our alternate budget compared with the Minister of Finance's budget next week. I believe that Canadians will agree that the government's target of 3 per cent of GNP is just not good enough. When Canadians read through our document they will notice there is a wide array of expenditure reductions. I would like to talk about the ones that affect my area, foreign affairs.

Over the past year the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has conducted a comprehensive review and made a number of suggestions for possible cuts. Although we were not successful in convincing the committee that there should be these cuts, I might summarize the three areas where we suggested them: in bilateral government to government aid; in international grants and non-mandatory contributions; dropping memberships in a number of non-essential international organizations.

We belong to hundreds of organizations. Some of them are not even functional any more. We want the minister and Prime Minister to stop using this aid package as a slush fund every time they take an international trip. We also believe that there should be a substantial cut to the operating expenditures for foreign affairs in CIDA. In total the Reform Party is proposing a cut of $1.3 billion to our international commitments over the next three years. We are proposing not only cuts but a much greater emphasis on accountability, transparency and efficiency in delivering the service.

While these cuts are steep, we believe they reflect the priorities of the grassroots of Canadians. We believe they could be implemented in a way that would preserve those programs to the greatest of their value.

In conclusion, the people of Canada are sending a clear message to cut the deficit to zero in three years and not to raise taxes. The government will either do its job and listen or it will travel the road the Tories took, the road to nowhere. This is the government's last chance. For Canada's sake I hope it will choose the right road.