Monte Solberg

[Taxation, December 3rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, just a little correction for the minister. I am sure he somehow missed this but the Reform plan would take one million low income people off the tax rolls. That $4 billion would be put back into health care. If this plan did help wealthy Canadians then the millionaire finance minister would be in favour of it.

[Excise Tax Act, December 3rd, 1996]

Madam Speaker, given the opposition of the Retail Council of Canada and many independent retailers to this deal, precisely because it is being brought into only one region, and they point out that it will mean higher costs for them and ultimately for consumers, and knowing the impact on Atlantic Canada will be especially difficult to deal with given the state of its economy, how can the member justify pushing for this deal when he knows it will hurt consumers in Atlantic Canada?

[Excise Tax Act, December 3rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-70, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act, the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, the Income Tax Act, the Debt Servicing and Reduction Account Act and related acts. Really what this has to do with is the harmonization of the GST in Atlantic Canada.

Before I speak specifically about Atlantic Canada it is important to go back and discuss the chronology of events which led us to this point.

It is accurate to say that this legislation was born of very dubious parentage. We had a promise born of a loose lipped government member and we had a father who could only be called political opportunism. How sad that this young harmonized GST had to be raised in such a dysfunctional home, or should I say house?

Since 1990 it has become very clear that the government was being very opportunistic in discussing the GST and in suggesting to Canadians that when it came to power somehow the GST would magically disappear.

Just to remind hon. members across the way what exactly their record is on this, let me refer to some quotes that came from government members over the last several years with respect to the GST to remind them how far they have gone astray from their original promise.

Let us go back to government members when they were in opposition, in the wake of the GST coming into place under the Conservative government. Let me start by quoting some members who now hold prominent positions in the cabinet of the Liberal government.

First, let us go to a quote which came from the current Liberal House leader back in the days following the GST coming into place under the Conservative government.

The current Liberal House leader said: "Not only do the Liberals oppose the GST now, that opposition will continue even if the bill is passed. We are not interested in tinkering with the GST. We do not want it at all".

Meanwhile, the current finance minister said: "I would abolish the GST". The Prime Minister said: "I want the tax dead". One of the quotes that came from the Toronto Star back then was: `The Liberals will scrap the goods and services tax if they win the next general election, the leader of the party said. He said:I am opposed to the GST. I have always been opposed to it and I will be opposed to it always'''.

We saw the climax of the quotes that came from all the various members in October 1993 on the eve of the election when the current Deputy Prime Minister, on national television-that image will be frozen forever in my mind and probably in the minds of Canadians everywhere-said: "If the GST is not abolished under a Liberal government I will resign".

We all know that Liberal MPs campaigned in many ridings on the promise to abolish the GST. I know members will say that the red book stated it would be replaced. However, I need to point out that the government did not find the courage to bring the red book out until about a month before the election. They only produced about 70,000 copies. They did not talk about their promise with respect to the GST. Instead, they allowed people to think that they were going to still do what they said they would do early on which is to get rid of the GST altogether, scrap, axe and abolish the GST. However, that is not what they did.

All of this, of course, led up to the event last spring when the government was under great pressure to fulfil the promise made by the Deputy Prime Minister on national television. First the finance minister said that perhaps they had made a mistake. However, a lot of Canadians felt that he was pressured into that position and it was not coming from his heart.

Ultimately the Deputy Prime Minister was forced to resign. She went to great lengths to make it look like she was doing the honourable thing, but we know she polled her constituents first to find out whether she still had enough credibility to win the election in Hamilton East. Then of course she announced that she had been at the bank machine and could not look anybody in the eye and felt she had to resign. Well, $500,000 later she was back in the House of Commons.

The whole incident was a black mark on the history of parliamentary promises. There have been a lot of broken promises over the years but none more blatant than that broken GST promise of this Liberal government. I do not think that the government has yet paid the full price for it.

I want to set those incidents aside for a moment and talk about some of the aspects of the bill, the harmonized GST. First I would argue that the harmonized GST is extremely divisive the way the government has brought it in.

Members will recall that the government, to get Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on side, had to go to them with an offer of $1 billion if they would come on board. It had to try and save face with $1 billion because although there was always the opportunity for any province to come on board and say that they were very interested in the new harmonized GST, there were no takers. The government was under great pressure at that point. Therefore, the only thing the government could think to do to bring governments on board was to offer up a billion dollars. It went to the Atlantic premiers and said if they came on board it had a cool $1 billion in hush money for them. That is insulting and causes great divisions in the country. It encourages dependency. It encourages the provinces to be under the thumb of the federal government. That is not acceptable as we approach the 21st century.

Some provinces are becoming very responsible. They have certainly shown more responsibility in dealing with their finances than the federal government has. They have taken leadership roles in all kinds of other areas. For the government to say it is going to pay $1 billion for those provinces to come on board if they are kind of quiet about things and just go along with it is insulting.

I want to talk about how divisive that is. I and my friends in the Reform Party, and Liberals if they are honest about it, probably have had constituents come to them and ask why are they are paying more taxes so the government can come up with $1 billion to give to three Atlantic premiers? It is very divisive.

I received a fax not too long ago from Lorne Taylor, the MLA for Medicine Hat-Cyprus in Alberta. He pointed out that the Alberta treasury had produced a document that said the effect of giving $1 billion to Atlantic Canada, except for P.E.I., was to lower the GST in those provinces to 5.5 per cent for the first two years of the deal. In speaking up for his constituents, which is the right thing to do, he asked why Alberta did not get that deal.

Ontario asked why in the world did it not get the same kind of deal. If Ontario were to harmonize, it would cost about $3 billion. The finance minister in Ontario, speaking for the people of his province, said $3 billion is what Ontario would require of this so-called adjustment money if Ontario was to come on board.

If I remember correctly, Manitoba and Saskatchewan came up with figures too. They were asking for money as well. I do not blame them. They were simply asking for what the premiers in Atlantic Canada got.

What did the government do? The government said no way, they are not getting any money, it is for those three provinces alone. It is divisive when one or three provinces are treated in a special way and the others are not treated the same way.

This has always been the way of the Liberal Party. It has made a career out of creating these types of divisions. Obviously it has served them well but it has not served the interests of Canadians as a whole. That is one very important reason why Reform is speaking against Bill C-70.

Another concern I have with this legislation is that it raises taxes. I know the government will say that all it is doing is broadening the base in Atlantic Canada and it will be a wash. It just is not so. It is not true.

This is a huge bill with many different aspects to it. It addresses all kinds of different things. One of the most pernicious aspects of the bill is the removal of the notional input tax credit. That was done back in April. I remember when it was announced. A lot of people did not know what it meant. An accounting firm in Winnipeg picked up on it right away. It said that it could amount to as much as $1 billion a year tax grab for the government.

The government had removed the input credit on used goods thereby ensuring that every time a used good changed hands the tax would cascade. In other words, if that good was bought after someone else had owned it and someone before that had owned it and someone before that had owned it, pretty soon there would be tax on tax on tax paid. There is no input credit going to the person who sold it. Pretty soon the value of that item would be inflated way out of proportion because of tax on tax on tax.

The result is that the government will reap all kinds of new revenue. Of course, a lot of the higher costs would be passed on to consumers. Potentially the government reaps a billion dollars more a year in new revenue.

It is a hidden tax grab, one that was never really debated. We raised it many times in the House. We received responses from RV and car dealers who were concerned and upset about it. To this date, the government has not given an adequate answer on how it can go ahead with it. People need to be made aware of it and that is why I am raising it right now.

That is not the only way the bill raises taxes. On April 1, when the bill comes into law, as undoubtedly it will, capital taxes will go up in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. That is one provision of the bill. It allows the provinces to implement capital taxes. That is precisely what two provinces are going to do. The provinces will be given a new lever to raise taxes.

The Nova Scotia finance minister and the Halifax Chamber of Commerce have pointed out that one of the consequences of this bill will be that property taxes in Nova Scotia are going to go up. That is another aspect of the bill that leads to higher taxes.

I want to move on to a related area. This bill will not only raise taxes it will entrench higher taxes. Something which has not been discussed enough is the fact that changes to the provincial portion of the tax are going to be quite complicated, in fact, almost impossible, if governments want to lower the tax, but much easier if they want to raise the tax.

I do not know if members realize that it will require unanimity of all the provinces, should sales taxes be harmonized across the country, to lower the provincial portion of the tax. The provinces are being asked to do what they have probably almost never done before, and that is for the 10 of them agree on one thing at one time, to lower taxes. But they only need a simple majority if they want to raise taxes.

Obviously this gives the governments of the provinces a powerful new tool to go about raising taxes if the government gets its wish and the GST is harmonized across the country.

There is an ongoing debate in the country about taxes and tax increases. However, the debate is not about how high they should be raised, it is about how low they should go. The government has put in a provision to raises taxes, not to lower them. That is ridiculous. Reform cannot support that. Canadians will be outraged when they discover that one aspect of Bill C-70, the act to implement the harmonized GST in Atlantic Canada.

It is important to point out that it is not only the Reform Party that has raised this concern. Back in 1990 when the current finance minister was running for the leadership, and a lot of people would argue that he has never quit running for it, he pointed out that he thought he would scrap the GST. Not only that, he made special reference to the fact that once a harmonized GST is in place across the country, it could not be removed. Taxes could not be lowered.

If he felt so strongly about it then, what happened between 1990 and now? When did the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus take place? What precisely influenced him to think that

now all of a sudden the provinces are going to fall into line, all 10 at once, and agree to decrease the provincial portion of the GST? It simply will not happen. It is simply not going to happen; 10 provinces agreeing to cut the tax. The finance minister was right in 1990 when he said that it is not going to happen. I think it is right today that it simply will not happen. At a time when we are having a debate about taxes in this country we should be finding ways to lower taxes, not to increase them.

I want to say another word about entrenched taxes and about why harmonization is a bad idea. One of the great benefits of not harmonizing is that it encourages a competition between different jurisdictions to keep taxes low.

We all know about competition in the marketplace but I think competition in government is just as important. That is why for instance in my native province of Alberta, where we have no sales tax, we have low income taxes, we have the great Alberta advantage and people in our province have paid a price to have that advantage. We have had to cut back on our spending so that we could afford to keep those taxes nice and low. Now that we have got to that point, we want to benefit from that advantage. We want to attract business from all over the world. In fact, we are.

The very fact that Alberta has those low tax rates is, believe it or not, a great benefit to the rest of the country not only because the rest of the country gets spin-off benefits from what happens in Alberta and Alberta sends a lot of money into equalization payments, but because it puts a pressure on the province next to it, and the province next to it, and the province next to it to get their taxes into line.

I know many people in the business community have spoken in favour of a harmonized GST. They have made the argument that it would be simpler. The paper work would not be as onerous and all that kind of thing. But that is a minor benefit compared to the benefit of having competition between different jurisdictions to keep taxes low.

I do not understand how that was missed by so many groups when they talked about harmonizing the GST. To me it just does not make any sense.

I would encourage people to look at some of the examples not only in Canada where we have Alberta with the low tax rates but in North America and around the world. When we have low tax rates, when we have competition between jurisdictions ultimately it leads to lower taxes across the board which means that people have more money in their pockets. It means that they have more opportunity and they can create their own prosperity for themselves. They are not dependent on a government.

If there is one thing we have to get rid of in this country it is this dependency mentality that governments tend to breed. They tend to

breed it and ultimately it is to the detriment of the entire country and to all of society. We have seen it over and over again, and not just limited to Liberal governments. Tory governments have done it over and over again as well. They should be ashamed especially now that they can see the fruits of their actions of the past where we have entire economies becoming dependent on government programs.

This is a very important aspect that the legislation does not address and ignores, the fact that we need some competition between different jurisdictions.

The fifth point I want to make is that this bill will mean, at least in the short run, and I think members have to acknowledge this across the way, higher costs for business in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

I am not going to ask members to take my word for it. I am going to ask them to listen to the words of the Retail Council of Canada. The Retail Council of Canada is in favour of harmonization. It is in favour of it but what it is against is the government's bringing harmonization into three provinces and leaving the rest of the country unharmonized. They are saying to themselves: "Why are we pushing ahead with tax in pricing in particular when the government knows full well that it is going to hurt business in Atlantic Canada and if it hurts business it is going to hurt the Atlantic Canada economy?" Of course there is no economy in the country that needs help more than Atlantic Canada.

Why out of a sort of perverse need to try to fulfil a wonky election promise is the government pushing ahead with this when it knows it is going to hurt Atlantic Canada?

I am not going to ask members to accept my word for it. I am going to quote from a letter written on November 29 by the Retail Council of Canada which was sent to the current finance minister. This letter is rather lengthy so I ask for members' indulgence because the points raised are very important: "Retail council provided you with early estimates of the cost attached to tax in pricing in July of this year. At about the same time, seven national retailers also prepared a paper which explained how tax in pricing harmed their operations and provided estimates of the costs they faced.

"Since then, retail council members have worked to get a clearer understanding of the cost impacts. Ten members accounting for roughly 30 per cent of Canadian retail sales have given us in confidence their detailed estimates of the impacts for their firms.

"As the attached chart shows, these companies alone will incur annual ongoing costs of almost $34 million. This is only slightly

offset by input tax credit and other savings of $6 million, leaving these firms with a continuing annual net cost of $28 million".

This is for firms that represent only 30 per cent of the retail sector in the three provinces which have recently agreed to harmonization. It continues:

"Other RCC members have indicated that they will provide similar information on their costs to you directly. Nor are these costs incurred only by national firms. The expert distribution, warehousing and logistics costs incurred by the suppliers to independent and small chain retailers will almost certainly be passed on given the relatively weak negotiating position of smaller firms.

"Second, many of their suppliers are located in provinces that are not harmonizing so they will not benefit from any ITCs"-input tax credits-"in respect to provincial taxes.

"Third, small firms that receive prepriced merchandise will incur the same reticketing costs as larger regional and national retailers. Retailers operating only in the harmonized provinces will face one time costs to reprogram their computer systems but will not face the same continuing system integration costs that come with operating in harmonized and non-harmonized provinces.

"As part of the harmonization agreement, the federal government facilitated the imposition of capital and payroll taxes. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have taken this opportunity to introduce new corporate capital taxes as of April 1, 1997, further increasing the costs attached to harmonization".

The letter goes on and on but I will not read any more in the interest of time. It is fairly clear this is a group that is arguing harmonization is a good idea. It wants harmonization but it is saying that the government should not go ahead in three provinces while it leaves the rest of the country without the harmonized tax. The group points out is will cost millions of dollars.

It will not cost the businesses millions of dollars ultimately. They will pass the costs on. So who pays for it? Consumers. Consumers pay through the nose for a broken Liberal government promise.

It would be bad enough if Canadians in general paid for that promise, but it is the people of Atlantic Canada. It is the economy that can least afford to take a tax hit of any region in the entire country. But the government did not care. It was so desperate to save the Deputy Prime Minister's skin that it went ahead and pushed through this ridiculous measure and it did not care that it cost people in Atlantic Canada jobs. It meant more money out of their pockets. It did not care for a moment.

The government does not care that it is divisive to the country. At a time when we are trying to hold the country together, the government gives Canadians one more reason to be cynical about its desire to treat everybody equally.

I must ask a question that I am dying to know the answer to. Where are the members from Atlantic Canada? Why are they not standing up for their constituents? We know there is a grassroots revolt in Atlantic Canada against the harmonized GST. Recently Greenberg Stores Ltd. announced it was closing a number of stores in New Brunswick. It was closing stores in different ridings. It was closing stores in Beauséjour, Restigouche-Chaleur, Acadie-Bathurst, Fundy-Royal, Moncton and also in Saint John. When stores close as a result of government action and 79 people in Atlantic Canada are thrown out of work, the MPs from those ridings should be on their feet. Where is the defence minister? He should be standing up for his constituents. Where is the junior minister of agriculture? Why is that minister not standing up for his constituents? What about the Conservative member for Saint John? We know that they are lock, stock and tomahawk in favour of harmonization and they are not standing up for their constituents.

That lays out how important it is for us to reform this place so that MPs have the power to stand up for their constituents. My goodness, if that had happened in my province, I would like to think that my colleagues would have jumped to their feet and said: "This is unacceptable. I do not care if it is my leader who is bringing it in. My constituents say it is wrong and I am going to stand up for them and vote against it".

Where are they? Where are the Liberal members from Atlantic Canada? There are 16,000 names on a petition against this. Where are the MPs from Atlantic Canada? Where are those Liberal MPs? Why are they not standing up for their people?

Their silence speaks eloquently of the need to reform this place. It speaks eloquently of the government's insensitivity to Atlantic Canada. It speaks volumes about its approach to treating provinces differently, as opposed to treating them equally, something the Reform Party truly stands for.

I am going to conclude my remarks by saying that our party does not believe in this approach. It is wrong. The government should have fulfilled its promise. It made a promise. It said it would get rid of the GST. Its members went door to door and promised it would be gone if they were elected. They were elected in spades; 177 seats and still the GST sits there as a permanent reminder that governments cannot be trusted. People cannot be trusted to come through with their promises when they make them on the doorsteps during an election campaign. The government should have followed through and gotten rid of the GST. That was its commitment to voters. The Deputy Prime Minister said so on national television. It was said over and over again.

I do not think the government has listened closely enough and, frankly, I do not think a lot of people have listened closely enough to the argument that there has to be competition between jurisdictions. If we do not, we are entrenching higher taxes. The finance minister said it in 1990. That is a very compelling reason to vote against a harmonized GST. We have to have competition. If we do we can all enjoy lower taxes in this country. However, under the current formula, which requires unanimity to lower the provincial portion of the GST, that will never happen, as hon. members know.

Canadians want lower taxes, not different taxes. We are having a massive debate in the House about how we are going to change taxes. When I go around to doorsteps, when I have my town hall meetings in Manyberries, Alberta or in Taber, Brooks or Medicine Hat, Suffield or Empress, or wherever, people do not say: "Boy, I wish the taxes were different". They do say: "I wish the taxes were lower. I wish I could keep more money in my pocket. The government gets its share". It gets 46 per cent of the average person's income. "Then I have to go out and provide my food, shelter and clothing for me and my family. There is not much left". There is hardly anything left, which is why we have record high levels of personal debt in this country. It is why we have record bankruptcies in this country.

Instead of debating how we are going to change taxes, why not have a debate in here about how we can lower taxes? I think Canadians have had it with the government having its own agenda which simply does not reflect at all what the agenda of Canadians is. This bill does nothing to address the overriding concern of Canadians that too much of their money is being spent and wasted in many cases by the government. They want that money left in their pockets.

In conclusion, I urge hon. members not only to listen to my arguments, I ask them to listen to the arguments of people in the provinces where this tax is being harmonized. Opposition parties are raising Cain in the various provincial legislatures saying they are against it. The Retail Council of Canada, the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and many others are pointing out that the way this tax is being introduced is going to kill jobs in Atlantic Canada. I cannot believe a government that ran on the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs is going to push through with this even though it is going to kill jobs in Atlantic Canada. This is contrary to common sense.

If Liberal MPs in Atlantic Canada will not listen, I ask all members to listen to this. Why will they not listen to the people who have made it clear that they do not want this tax? There were 16,000 names on one petition alone. There may be other petitions out there but I am only aware of one. There are 16,000 people who are opposed to the harmonized GST in Atlantic Canada.

If the Liberals will not listen to me and my colleagues in the Reform Party, then I urge them, especially the Atlantic Canadian MPs, to at least listen to their own constituents and vote against this bill and to forever forget the idea of introducing a harmonized GST across the country.

[Taxation, December 2nd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, Reformers would put $4 billion back into health care after the Jack Kevorkian of health care almost pulled the plug on it in the last several budgets.

The finance minister is a great defender of welfare. His friends at Bombardier can hardly wait to get their welfare cheque every month.

Reformers believe that the best social program is a good, long term permanent job and a strong family.

Can our millionaire finance minister explain why he is in favour of corporate welfare but is against lowering the taxes for the working poor?

[Taxation, December 2nd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, no matter how the government tries to spin it, the government's record with respect to the poor is absolutely appalling: 10 per cent unemployment, record high levels of personal debt, record bankruptcies in this country, and record high taxes that amount to a $3,000 national pay cut since the government came to power. This has transformed many middle class families into the working poor. The working poor do not have the option of registering their assets offshore to lower their taxes.

Why is our millionaire finance minister so opposed to lowering taxes for the working poor?

[Judges Act, November 28th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, that is complete nonsense. I point out, as the member acknowledges, members in his party have been disciplined and kicked off committees. They have been warned that if they do not go along with legislation they will be kicked out of the party and will not have their nomination papers signed.

I also want to point out that it has been the Reform Party that has led the way in introducing parliamentary reform by allowing our members to speak up for their constituents. Our members stand up and vote for their constituents and have done so on numerous pieces of legislation. No one sees our leader saying that our members are not allowed to do that. Absolutely not. In fact I would argue that the Reform Party, of all parties, has introduced the whole notion of parliamentary democracy and democratic change. Hopefully some day the iron fist in the Liberal Party-

[Judges Act, November 28th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I accept that the member can make comments, but I am looking for a question. As we get close to the end of the 10-minute period, I see no question coming.

[Judges Act, November 28th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-42.

My hon. colleague for Calgary North and other members have done a very good job of pointing to the injustice of this particular piece of legislation. They have pointed out that the minister when he was before the Senate said that there was no means to bring about the type of changes that he is now bringing about. I am not going to belabour that aspect of it. My colleagues have done a wonderful job of bringing all of that to light.

I would like to talk about how this government really does have misplaced priorities. Bill C-42 is a perfect example of that. In a day and an age where we have rising violent crime in this country, should we not be bringing in legislation that deals with crime in this country instead of worrying about ensuring we have a prosecutor in The Hague?

Some people across the way are saying we do not have violent crime in this country or that it is on the decline. Between 1960 and 1995 the incidence of violent crime per 100,000 people has gone from about 200 to just about 1,000. I do not care how it is looked at, that is a huge increase. During the last 35 years violent crime has gone up over 350 per cent and it is still on an upward trend. That is violent crime overall.

Youth crime is a very similar type of trend. In 1986 the incidence of violent crime per 100,000 was 400 and now it is up over 900. The hon. members can state opinions all they want but when they look at the real facts it is pretty clear. It is pretty clear to most Canadians, by the way, even if Liberal members do not believe it. I am trying to make the point that the government's priorities are very mixed up.

The justice minister seems to have a pretty funny idea of just what his job is. Since he came into power about three years ago the government has done virtually nothing to deal with the huge problem that we have with crime in this country. The justice minister brought down legislation that extends gay rights. He brought down legislation that introduced gun control. It it going to cost a lot of money.

As the hon. member for Wild Rose points out all the time, for the amount of money they are going to spend on gun control getting honest citizens to register their guns they could put another 20,000 cops on the beat out there and that would do a lot more to protect this country against crime than getting honest folks to register their guns. That is another example of how the government has its priorities mixed up.

The third example, which we are talking about today, is a case of breaking both legs to ensure we can send a prosecutor to The Hague to prosecute war crimes. We do not have any problem with doing that, but if the government would invest the same amount of energy in dealing with crime in this country, if it would spend the same amount of energy in giving prosecutors and police the necessary tools to deal with crime in this country, we would have a lot safer country.

The justice minister has had three years to bring in all kinds of legislation to deal with some of the problems we have in this country. He could have dealt with youth crime, with our extremely leaky parole system. We just had the example the other day of dangerous illegal refugees and sometimes immigrants in this country the government will not deal with.

We finally pressured the immigration minister recently to deal with the problem of a dangerous sex offender who was released back into the population of Calgary. We continued to pressure her until she finally got around to doing something.

There is no excuse for the government to focus on legislation like Bill C-42 when we have all kinds of problems in our own backyard. I am concerned about how this affects individual lives, about how it really impinges on our freedom.

Not long ago I travelled with the finance committee to Toronto. I went for a jog one morning through Etobicoke. I was struck by the number of houses with bars on the windows, on all the bottom windows. I remember running by a car and seeing a "Club" on the steering wheel. I can imagine if I went up to the doors of houses I would see signs saying this house is protected by such and such an alarm, or beware of dog. There would probably be all kinds of deadbolts and latches on doors.

Clearly Canadians have decided they cannot count on the government to protect them against crime so they have had to resort to various means to protect themselves. That is a very sorry commentary on what this government has done with respect to dealing with crime. It has gone to great lengths to introduce Bill C-42 but what has it done for the ordinary Canadian? Zippo. Nothing. It has done absolutely nothing.

Not long ago were speaking of Ontario. Not long ago the country was gripped by the Bernardo trial. The whole country tuned in because it could not believe what had happened in this country with somebody like Paul Bernardo raping and murdering young women. Perhaps the most offensive thing of all was that in light of that horrible crime this justice minister would not even consider a return to capital punishment.

This justice minister wants to get Bill C-42 through but he will not even listen to the 70 per cent of Canadians who say they would like to have a debate on capital punishment and would like to return to the days when we had capital punishment in this country.

That is standing justice on its head. The justice minister does not have a clue what justice really means. I do not think he has any idea. When people sit in their homes because they are afraid to go out at night, that does not indicate that we have justice in this country.

In my own little community when my wife sends our boys off to school only a few hundred yards away she worries like crazy until they get home after school, and why would she not? Why would she not worry after we read what we read in the newspapers these days?

Violent crime in Canada has increased by 350 per cent since the sixties. Violent youth crime in Canada has more than doubled in the last 10 years. So why would people not be worried about that? Can we blame them?

We get petitions in this place all the time. We get petitions calling for the government to do something with dangerous offenders, to tighten up the parole system and to reintroduce capital punishment. What happens with them? These are the voices of ordinary Canadians who are concerned about their lives. What happens? Nothing.

The government responds by introducing Bill C-42. It jams through legislation that has nothing to do with the agenda of ordinary Canadians.

It was not very long ago that Canadians were railing against the justice minister's weak changes to section 745 of the Criminal Code. I do not have to tell members in this place that ordinary Canadians want to see section 745 removed. They do not want weak amendments. They do not want to see Clifford Olson and Paul Bernardo come back into their lives through television. These people will be coming forward to apply for early release. Canadians think those people should spend the rest of their lives in jail or worse. Many people would like to see them face the death penalty. Quite frankly, I am one of those people. It is unbelievable how we protect people like Bernardo, Olson and others. It is crazy.

I cannot believe we are debating Bill C-42 when we should be debating legislation which will protect the lives of ordinary Canadians.

Our party has taken a different stance from that of the government. While the government is setting up cozy little deals for its friends in the judiciary, my colleague from Fraser Valley is putting together a victims bill of rights. He is concerned about ordinary Canadians who have suffered at the hands of animals who are currently sitting in these Holiday Inns which we call prisons. He has come up with all kinds of legislation which would give victims rights in the courts, so that instead of having the justice system stand up for the rights of criminals, we would have a justice system, for once in this country, which would stand up for ordinary citizens and people who have been victimized by crime.

Why not give victims some standing in the courts when their lives have been turned upside down? Why not allow victims some say when these cases come before the parole board? Why not force some of these criminals to come up with compensation? That should be a basic right for victims. They should have the right to go after the criminals to get the money back which they lost due to a crime which was committed against them or their family. That is basic common sense. That reflects the common sense of the common people.

We have two agendas in the country. We have the agenda of regular, law-abiding, ordinary Canadians who think there should be punishment for crime and that justice means that if someone injures someone or harms their property that they should pay a price for it. Then we have the government approach, which is quite different. The government agenda is radically different. It is completely disconnected from the agenda of regular people. Its agenda indicates that somehow criminals are the victims and we need to protect their rights. My goodness, they cannot vote in jail? Let us ensure that they can vote. That is the government's approach. We cannot have them eating macaroni and cheese for dinner. We have to ensure that they get fillet mignon.

My colleague from Fraser Valley West spoke last spring about the spring ball at a prison in Ontario where, believe it or not, the prisoners were being served fillet mignon. I would argue that ordinary Canadians, thanks to the high tax policies of the government, very seldom have a chance to eat fillet mignon. According to the Liberal government nothing is too good for the criminals and the murderers of this country. Let us make sure they have a golf course. As a matter of fact, ordinary Canadians would be alarmed and amazed to know that we have golf courses for the criminals in this country.

Instead of dealing with injustices, what does the government do? It brings forward Bill C-42. While the criminals are out golfing, while they are playing racquetball in Matsqui prison, Canadians are just scraping to get by, putting bars on their windows to be protected from the criminals out there.

It was not very long ago when a couple of criminals walked across the golf course in British Columbia to freedom only to go on into the United States to allegedly kill somebody. This is absolutely unbelievable.

What is the priority of the government? To bring down Bill C-42 which has nothing to do with protecting the lives of ordinary citizens.

Not very long ago a prisoner who was playing racquetball at Matsqui prison in British Columbia slipped on water that was on the floor because there was a leak in the roof. He sued the government, won and taxpayers chipped in $20,000 to this prisoner who had obviously been convicted of a crime, had done something wrong to society, but he was not being punished. He was being

rewarded. He was playing racquetball. Then he took it to the Canadian public again, and got $20,000.

Does this legislation do anything to prevent that from happening? I do not see anything about that in here. The government's agenda is completely disconnected from the Canadian agenda. I do not care what party members come from. When they go to the doors of Canadians, first of all a lot of them are afraid to come to the door because there is so much crime out there. They do not know who is at the door. But when members do get a chance to talk to them they say the government has got to do something.

In three years the justice minister has done absolutely nothing to deal with the serious issues. It has all been window dressing.

The justice minister comes across as very sincere. That is a wonderful skill for a politician. However, it takes more than words to convince Canadians that the government cares about the havoc that is being wreaked on Canadian lives. It takes more than words. What we want is action.

I do not want to just talk about some of the things the government has done wrong. I want to introduce some ideas. Perhaps this would be an idea for the government when it brings down its next legislation so that it starts to take more seriously the concerns that Canadian have. Bill C-42 certainly does not address anything that Canadians are truly concerned about.

This place would be greatly impoverished if I did not take a chance right now to quote from Reform's fresh start for Canadians so that I can point out some of the things that the government should be doing.

A Reform government would enact a victims' bill of rights which puts the rights of law-abiding Canadians ahead of criminals. What a radical idea, putting the rights of victims and citizens ahead of criminals. Too bad Bill C-42 does not do that.

The Reform Party would reform criminal justice to provide safer communities, safer streets and safer homes. We would have bars on prison windows instead of bars on the homes of ordinary citizens. What a crazy idea. Too bad the government has not thought of it yet.

We would hold a binding national referendum on the return of capital punishment. As I pointed out a minute ago, right after the Bernardo trial, a poll was taken and something like 70 per cent of Canadians said: "We want to see a return to capital punishment". I think the people deserve to have their voices heard. We are trying to allow that to happen right now. It should happen in the form of a national referendum.

We would repeal the Liberals' costly firearms registry, Bill C-68, and replace it with meaningful laws to fight the criminal misuse of firearms. I mentioned it a minute ago but it is such a good statistic I think it bears repeating. The hon. member for Wild Rose said in a speech here in Ottawa the other night that if we could replace the registry and use that money for something else it would allow us to put 20,000 police back on the beat in Canada. Can you imagine how much safer our communities would be having 20,000 more police out there?

One thing we want to do and which is mentioned in our fresh start program is reform the parole system and abolish early release for first degree murderers. What a revelation. I am sure my Liberal colleagues across the way would be amazed to hear such talk. Imagine abolishing the chance of parole for first degree murders. What a wonderful idea.

We would replace the Young Offenders Act with measures that hold young criminals accountable for their actions. There has been a dramatic increase in youth crime. The Liberals have tried it their way and it does not work. Reform's fresh start would make it happen.

Finally, we would pursue crime prevention through social policies that strengthen families and communities. That is a debate for another day, but I could speak for a long time on that issue alone.

Suffice to say that Bill C-42 has nothing to do with the agenda of ordinary Canadians. Despite the fact that the government has been in power for three years, it has failed completely to deal with issues that Canadians are truly concerned about. I would encourage people in the House and across the country who are listening to consider the Reform Party fresh start because I believe it deals with the concerns of ordinary Canadians in a way that the Liberal government policies do not and would truly make them feel safer in their homes and communities.

[Taxation, November 26th, 1996]

Unlike the finance minister, Reform recognizes the unfairness of this inflation tax. That is why we have decided to increase the basic personal exemption to $7,900. It would make up for this back door tax hike.

Will the finance minister admit in the face of all the evidence that the government has indeed raised taxes every year since it has been in power? Will he continue to push for the deindexation of income tax, a decision that will cost taxpayers hundreds of dollars a year in new taxes?

[Taxation, November 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, it is very important that we get after this tax creep. Enough of the weasel words-