Mr. Speaker, would you be so kind as to call Starred Questions Nos. 1, 2, 5, 32 and 33. I ask that the answers to Questions Nos. 1, 2, 5, 32 and 33 be printed in Hansard as if read.
Lost his last election, in 2006, with 33% of the vote.
Starred Questions March 22nd, 2004
Mr. Speaker, would you be so kind as to call Starred Questions Nos. 1, 2, 5, 32 and 33. I ask that the answers to Questions Nos. 1, 2, 5, 32 and 33 be printed in Hansard as if read.
Questions Passed as Orders for Returns March 22nd, 2004
Mr. Speaker, if Questions Nos. 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 18, 19, 21, 25, 28, 29 and 31 could be made orders for return, these returns would be tabled immediately.
Questions on the Order Paper March 22nd, 2004
Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 7, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24, 26, 34, 35, 41 and 44.
Government Response to Petitions March 22nd, 2004
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to 240 petitions.
Questions on the Order Paper February 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Points of Order February 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On February 5 a private member's bill, Bill C-472, was introduced in the name of the member for Winnipeg Centre. At that time you invited comments to be made.
Bill C-472 is entitled an act to amend the Income Tax Act with regard to the deductibility of fines. It proposes to amend the Income Tax Act by removing provisions for the deductibility of fines or penalties imposed by law. I suggest that this private member's bill should be dropped from the Order Paper for the following reason.
The 2000 edition of Marleau and Montpetit House of Commons Procedure and Practice on page 898 speaks to a private member's bill of this nature on this point. It states:
With respect to the raising of revenue, a private Member cannot introduce bills which impose taxes. The power to initiate taxation rests solely with the government and any legislation which seeks an increase in taxation must be preceded by a Ways and Means motion. Only a Minister can bring in a Ways and Means motion.
This is laid out in Standing Order 83.
Bill C-472 was not preceded by a ways and means motion.
On the same page, Marleau and Montpetit cites the following exceptions:
--private Members' bills which reduce taxes, reduce the incidence of a tax, or impose or increase an exemption from taxation are acceptable.
If Bill C-472 is passed, it purports to remove deductions from the Income Tax Act thereby decreasing or eliminating an exemption from taxation. This would increase revenue to the consolidated fund. Therefore it does not fall under the exceptions outlined by Marleau and Montpetit.
I would point out that on April 10, 1997, a very similar private member's bill, Bill C-324, calling for the removal of a tax deduction, was before the House. Upon a point of order raised at that time, the then acting Speaker read the following quote from page 821 of Erskine May's 20th edition:
Matters which are covered by the term 'charges upon the people' may be briefly summarized as... (2) the repeal or reduction of existing alleviations of taxation such as exemptions or drawbacks.
Before Bill C-324 at that time was summarily dropped from the Order Paper, the Speaker again at line 9581 of that day's Hansard stated:
--where there are such changes [to the Income Tax Act] it would appear that ways and means proceedings are necessary and the full scope, that is a resolution, would have to be introduced first, followed by the bill.
I would say that Bill C-472 crosses the bounds set for private member's bills and should be ruled out of order and dropped from the Order Paper.
Motions for Papers February 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all Notices of Motions for the Production of Papers be allowed to stand.
Questions on the Order Paper February 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, the member has already acknowledged that questions would have died with prorogation. If he has filed another question, he knows there are 45 days to respond from this side. If indeed he is correct in terms of his discussion with someone, somewhere, then it will indeed come within the 45 day period and it will not be a problem.
Questions on the Order Paper February 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Oil Industry February 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, many Canadians believe that our commercial oil industry was born in Alberta.
Next Saturday at the Oil Museum of Canada in the village of Oil Springs, the site of Canada's first commercial oil well, author Patricia McGee will launch her new book entitled, The Story of Fairbank Oil, a chronicle of the Ontario birth of Canadian and world production of crude oil.
The oil business was born in Lambton County in southwestern Ontario in the 1850s. The technology and manpower of that time were exported to a country then called Persia where Lambton County residents opened these oil fields.
Ms. McGee's book traces the story of the Fairbank family which for 124 consecutive years has sold Lambton County crude to Imperial Oil, a company also founded in Lambton County.
One hundred and thirty-nine years after its founding, the Van Tuyl and Fairbank hardware store in Petrolia is poised to become a national historic site, a fitting recognition of the importance of the Fairbank family in the world oil--