Carol Skelton

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, I wish to congratulate you on your appointment.

Never in my lifetime did I ever think that I would rise in the House of Commons and discuss government corruption. We all knew the Liberals wasted plenty of money, but corruption in the tens of millions of dollars is mind-boggling, even after having a week to think about it.

Today I read that Jack Layton and the NDP want to jump into bed with these Liberals. Jack Layton wants to fly his own flag of convenience and form a minority government with the Liberals. I cannot believe the NDP will try to sell its new party look in Canada, especially in my riding of Saskatoon--Rosetown--Biggar. My constituents do not support the idea of an NDP-Liberal government. They will not support the waste and they will not support the corruption.

Madam Speaker, I will be dividing my time with my colleague from Surrey Central.

The Conservative Party of Canada stands alone in the House of Commons in calling for real reform of government. We stand alone in demanding that answers come before an election call. We stand alone in defending the responsible spending of taxpayers' dollars. We stand alone as the NDP and Liberals crowd around the trough.

My constituents have had enough. They want justice, they want answers, and they want them now. The reckless disregard for hard earned tax dollars by the NDP and Liberals has my constituents tarring us all with the same brush. One voter said “With all the corruption we see in the government hierarchy its hard to believe or trust any politicians”.

Richard P. of Saskatoon wrote:

For the first time in my life, I won't be voting in this spring's federal election. I have given up on the political system in this country. Enough is enough. Have a nice day. This is a waste of taxpayers' dollars.

Lynn B. of Saskatoon wrote:

I don't believe we have an MP from any party who is openly and aggressively looking to the interests of the citizens of this province or any other.

Albert G. of Saskatoon wrote:

It blows my mind how some of these bigwigs can blow so much money and not be responsible.

Finally, Eron M. in her comments wrote:

Sorry, but politicians have difficulty with honesty and morality. They may believe they are honest, but they are only as honest as the other politicians. That is less than half as honest as the average working stiff.

These comments made me angry. The Prime Minister and the Liberals with their unethical and corrupt behaviour are giving us all a bad name. I work hard for my constituents. I work hard for their respect. I just wish the Liberals would too.

The amount of money that has been wasted is disgusting. It could have gone a long way if it had been spent responsibly.

It could have bought 100 MRI machines across Canada and eliminated every waiting list. It could have hired 2,500 nurses to care for our sick and frail citizens as well as nurses to deliver babies and treat our children.

For those people who cannot afford a car, they must be furious when they think of the 12,500 economy cars that could have been bought with this money.

How about buying the weekly groceries for 2.5 million families? They could have eaten for one week on what this corrupt government wasted on this scandal alone. Imagine the cost of all the scandals together.

For those people who were hoping to see gas taxes going to their cities, they would be interested in knowing that almost 8.5 million tanks of gas could have been bought for the money laundered by the Liberals.

The money wasted by the Liberal scandal alone is equivalent to the taxes paid by almost 12,000 hardworking Canadians. That is the most disgusting example. Taxes from 12,000 average working Canadians were taken and squandered.

That is almost half of my riding population. Given that not all of them are employed or are of working age, I feel confident in saying that the government wasted every single tax dollar it collected, or as one constituent said, stole, from the residents of my riding. Some 12,000 hard-working Canadians have been stiffed by this corrupt government. I bet they cannot wait to let the Liberals know what they think of them in the next election. My constituents are demanding overall accountability and an end to government waste. I will do what I can to ensure that.

Henry M. of Milden wrote:

Get rid of government waste.

Andy Z. of Saskatoon wrote:

The National Gun Registry should be scrapped. The money from the registry should go to health care.

Brent K. of Warman wrote:

Get rid of the gun registry. We need a female Prime Minister.

I thought that was a good letter. Carol M. of Perdue wrote:

I do hope you scrap the gun registry. I would also like to see the Governor General replaced, with one that would be more careful with our tax dollars.

Margaret N. of Saskatoon wrote:

This is a waste of taxpayers' money which could be used on social programs. Especially when it comes to health care.

My constituents have had enough. The Prime Minister should bring back his pan-Canadian damage control tour to a quick end, return to his job in Ottawa, and provide us with answers. I bet he will end up spending more on damage control tours than the original waste cost.

Lorne S. of Saskatoon simply wrote that government is wasting too much money and mentioned the Governor General. Maybe the Prime Minister should take the hint. Canadians do not like publicly funded self-important tours.

Along the way, Jack Layton and the NDP will be cheering him on. Like two peas in a pod, they will cross their fingers and hope that Canadians blindly vote for them and their shared flag of convenience.

Canadians do not want the big ship boy and the big city boy to handle their precious tax dollars anymore. They want an accountable, trustworthy government that respects the sweat and tears put into paying their taxes. They want a party that puts them first. They want a government that works for the people, not one that steals from the people. They want a world-class democracy, not a country sliding into the depths of corruption.

I received a call from Donna from Saskatoon last week. She is a taxpayer. She works very hard for the money she makes. She said that she was sick. She wanted to move out of Canada because she was living in a banana republic. She said that we are worse than the banana republics that we hear about everyday on the news. She told me about her son who is in the air force who waited six months to get his boots. It took six months for a young man serving in our military to get proper boots. She was disgusted. She called Canada a banana republic, and that makes me angry. It is the people across the aisle who have labelled us that.

I look forward to being a constructive part of reform in a new Conservative Government of Canada.

[Agriculture, February 12th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians know the devastating effect that BSE border bans have had on our cattle farmers. What many fail to understand is that these bans affect many more producers and types of livestock than just cattle. The current ban affects species that are not affected by BSE, like bison, sheep, goats and cervids. These farm families are desperate, too.

The government has ignored these other livestock farms as well. The government has failed to provide them with any help, direction or hope that their lives will return to normal in the foreseeable future. The government needs to focus on helping livestock producers instead of trying to cover up its corruption. The government needs to remember that farm families provide the engine for our rural economies.

If as much effort was put into solving agricultural problems as was put into the Liberal culture of corruption, Canadians would all be much further ahead.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, February 11th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member raised an excellent question. We see it right across the whole livestock industry. The cervid industry, the sheep industry and the bison industry have been brought into it, not because they have no disease but because the borders are closed to livestock.

Because western Canada does not have a lot of meat packing plants, we cannot move our livestock cross-border. We cannot go anywhere. Animals from western Canada cannot travel to eastern Canada to be slaughtered. I heard of a bison farmer who gave away 100 cows because there was nothing he could do about it. There is no place to take them and no one will take them because we do not have slaughter plants.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, February 11th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it was very interesting the other day when our senior agriculture critic asked a question about the agricultural problems and BSE. A member from the opposite side said that agriculture does not have problems, that it has lots of money. I asked him across the aisle during our mini debate that was going on how he knew. He said that he did farmers' books. I asked if they were from rural Saskatchewan and he said no, but that the weekend before a report had come out about prairie agriculture.

The last time income dropped was in 1929 in the Great Depression. It is lower. Our farm families are on the verge of complete collapse. People in Canada must realize that the free food policy that all members have in the cities will be gone.

There is a huge problem out there. We are losing farm families. There were six farm families lined up for social welfare in Saskatchewan. They are so desperate that they are going for welfare because there is no funding.

The Minister of Agriculture talks about opening borders, travelling and talking to people. I want to say through you, Mr. Speaker, to the Liberal caucus today that does not help farm families. Farm families do not have access to any money. This is right across Canada. We need help for agriculture. If we want to have a livestock industry in this country, the Liberal government must step forward immediately to help these people and try to solve this problem. Platitudes will not save agriculture in Canada.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, February 11th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to rise in the House on behalf of the citizens of Saskatoon--Rosetown--Biggar to respond to the Speech from the Throne.

As I sat down to prepare my speech for today, I was full of different title ideas. It got to be kind of a joke in the office because we looked at the Prime Minister and we thought about the titles he could have used on the front of his throne speech. He could have used, “We have made these promises before. You believed we would do it and voted for us, now we will try it again”. Or it could have been something like, “I was a senior cabinet minister for nine years but I do not want to talk about that”, or “I know I was Chrétien's right-hand man and in charge of the public purse, but let us pretend I was not”. Or should I call it what it was, “Promises, promises, promises, all guaranteed to be broken again”.

The Liberal Party is expecting the general public to ignore its culture of corruption and to re-elect the Liberals again. There is a limit to how many times Canadians will fall for the same old dirty tricks. A quick review of the nation's media shows the wheels are starting to fall off the tired, corrupt Liberal government. Canadians were hoping for a new Prime Minister who would bring in a throne speech with new ideas but were sorely disappointed to hear the same old Liberal promises, almost down to the word.

In the 1994 throne speech, the former prime minister said:

The government has made a number of commitments to the people of Canada. They will be implemented.

Already the lies began, just four paragraphs into the throne speech. The only reason the current Prime Minister can make the same promises the Liberals made a decade ago is that they broke almost all of them.

Then the former prime minister poured on the deception even more when he said:

In order to achieve this agenda, integrity and public trust in the institutions of government are essential.

My Ministers will insist upon integrity, honesty and openness on the part of those who exercise power on behalf of Canadians.

Lies and more lies.

The Auditor General has exposed the culture of corruption and deceit within the Liberal Party; the theft of public money by Liberals for Liberals. There were promises of an independent ethics counsellor. We are still waiting. There were promises to reduce the regulatory and paper burden on small business and streamline the delivery of programs, promises to eliminate the GST, promises to fix the health care system, promises to implement aboriginal self-government, promises to resolve aboriginal land claims, promises to be active and influential in the global arena. All of these have proven to be corrupt lies.

Now the latest throne speech promises to do the same. I am sure members can understand our skepticism in the Liberals' sincerity. We have heard this all before. They will not deceive the Canadian voter again.

For almost a decade the current Prime Minister willingly and eagerly defended this abysmal record. Why? Because he was an integral part of making it happen. The Prime Minister slashed health funding, slashed education funding, increased taxes, lowered our standard of living, slashed our military and peacekeeping budgets, kept the GST, failed our aboriginal people, watched homeless shelters overflow and child poverty rates increase. Why he would want to campaign on that record is beyond me.

Perhaps the part of the throne speech that disappointed me most was the lack of attention to farm families. The entire agriculture sector, farm families, BSE affected farmers, drought affected grain farmers, all of them received just two measly sentences of attention. There were just two sentences for farm families. Even Flat Mark got more attention.

The Prime Minister promised to address the concerns of western Canadians. Little did we expect that the promise would be broken before he even started. The Prime Minister promised a new standard of integrity and honesty, just like Jean Chrétien's promise. That promise went out the window too.

The Prime Minister wants us to trust him with our precious tax dollars but he cannot be honest about how much will end up in the pockets of his family and the Liberal Party. This corruption has to stop.

Perhaps it would not have looked that favourably on the Liberals had the truth come out during the leadership campaign. The Prime Minister and his sons received $161 million. The entire health care system received a mere $2 billion. Just think, $161 million for mom, dad and their three boys and $2 billion for 31 million other Canadians. Our vision of a responsible, accountable government is obviously not the same as the Prime Minister's.

What did I want to see in the throne speech?

I wanted to see our farm families made a priority. How much more do they have to suffer to get three sentences in the Prime Minister's next speech?

I wanted to see our rural communities given the tools they need to thrive. Rural folks from coast to coast have a history of survival but the government has put them to the test.

I wanted to see our health system functioning under sustainable, predictable federal funding. I wanted to end the travelling federal-provincial funding circus.

I wanted to see our inner city neighbourhoods and their low income residents rise from under the burden of overtaxation.

I wanted to see our environment protected through real action plans, not just rhetoric delivered through idling ministerial limousines.

I wanted to see pride and effectiveness returned to our military. I want to see our men and women wearing the right colour of clothing and having the right equipment for the job.

I wanted to see Canada push forward to take its rightful place on the world stage. I have had enough of playing second fiddle to our allies.

I wanted to see our aboriginal people removed from the cycle of dependence the Liberals have put them in. They are a proud people and unshackled they will succeed, especially our aboriginal women.

I wanted to see our children made a priority. I want a government that promotes education and community, not the use of marijuana. We need a young offenders act that protects children, not one that makes it easier for the bullies to rule the schoolyard.

I wanted to see a national sex offender registry. How many more victims do we need before the Liberal government pays attention?

I wanted to see a clear family policy that makes raising our next generation easier for struggling young parents.

I wanted to see all our emergency personnel get the tools and funding they need to protect us. They put their lives on the line for us every day and the least we can do is equip and fund them properly.

I wanted to see an end to corporate welfare, a marketplace where the firms with the best products and people stand a chance against Liberal donors.

I wanted to see victims' rights made a priority. Canada too often sees its victims forced to go public calling for justice. That is unacceptable.

I wanted to see tough penalties for parole violations and tough penalties for the use of firearms in the commission of an offence. We have tried the Liberal method of gun control and it has failed. We just need to ask the citizens of Toronto.

I wanted to see fixed election dates. Fixed dates would end the uncertainty and paralyzing of government that occurs every one out of four years in a glaring display of partisan political manipulation.

I wanted to see a commitment to defend the supremacy of Parliament. If the Liberal-appointed courts continue to make the laws of this land, we will ensure the irrelevancy of the House.

There was so much I was hoping to see with a change in the Prime Minister's office. Unfortunately, it appears that the only thing that has changed is the name on the door.

Canadians will likely get an opportunity to register their opinions in one of those politically timed elections this spring. I am not sure that current polls truly reflect the growing fatigue Canadians have of the Liberal Party. Canadians from coast to coast have become the victims of the Liberal government's failure to govern.

So bad have these problems become that one need only refer to them in a few words. They are softwood lumber, the BSE crisis, Sydney tar ponds, gun crime, victims' rights, Shawinigate, Quebec advertising, provincial jurisdiction, health care funding, waiting lists, education funding, military funding, homelessness, urban decay, self-government, political financing, the GST, gas taxes, airline taxes. The list goes on and on but unfortunately, time dictates that I cannot.

It has been a pleasure to voice the concerns of the millions of Canadians who were ignored by the throne speech. It has been a pleasure to provide Canadians with a real alternative to the tired, old, corrupt government.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, February 11th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for his presentation. I noted in his speech that he quoted five different departments and stated that he would be working with those departments through Western Economic Development.

I would like to ask the minister about his commitment to the synchrotron at the University of Saskatchewan and also to our agricultural college and the development of bio-diesel. I have heard from people throughout Saskatchewan, basically in western Canada, that sometimes Western Economic Development does not help the research projects as much as they need helping.

[Seniors, February 10th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, across Canada there are many cases of seniors abuse. This must stop.

Society's cowards take advantage of seniors' trusting nature, frail health and often lonely circumstances.

The government, in conjunction with its provincial counterparts, has failed to protect our elderly citizens. There must be more of an effort to root out those who abuse seniors. Too often they operate knowing their victims are too scared to speak up.

We must increase penalties for those who target the elderly. Bullies just do not hurt school children.

We must as a society send the government a message that our older generations need better protection.

Canada's seniors have built the nation we have today. We are indebted to them. Let us ensure they can live out their lives in the safe and friendly Canada they worked so hard for and put an end to seniors abuse.

[Reinstatement of Government Bills, February 9th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, seeing that it is almost 6:30 and we have a minute and a half left, could we see the clock as 6:30 and start debate tomorrow morning?

[Reinstatement of Government Bills, February 9th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar is in Saskatchewan.

[Reinstatement of Government Bills, February 9th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member was telling us about how the Governor General prorogued Parliament and now he is going on about how we have to bring back these bills so that we can have electoral reform. I have the maps of the new boundaries of my riding; they are all in place. Bringing back this bill does not have anything to do with the redistribution or anything. Basically it gives the new government and the new leader the right to go ahead and have an April 1 election. I want to hear the member's comments on that, because our boundaries are all in position right now.