Mr. Speaker, I will vote no.
(The House divided on Motion No. 2, which was agreed to on the following division:)
Lost his last election, in 2011, with 2% of the vote.
Main Estimates, 2003-04 June 12th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I will vote no.
(The House divided on Motion No. 2, which was agreed to on the following division:)
Main Estimates, 2003-04 June 12th, 2003
I will vote no, Mr. Speaker.
Main Estimates, 2003-04 June 12th, 2003
I will vote no, Mr. Speaker.
Fisheries June 12th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, two parliamentary committees have recommended that the racist regulations be scrapped and the B.C. court will soon rule on the matter.
By tabling Bill C-43, the government is undercutting Parliament, the courts and the livelihood of non-Indian fishermen. Why is the fisheries minister entrenching an Indian only, race based fishery scheme?
Fisheries June 12th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, for years the Liberals have known that the Indian only fishery regulations are discriminatory and illegal. Two parliamentary committees have recommended that the racist--
Message from the Senate June 5th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his response and, clearly, he does understand the issue. If the Constitution was written today, I am sure he is quite right. However what we are going to see is a new relationship emerge between the federal government and the municipalities. The former finance minister, and mostly likely the next Prime Minister of Canada, has said as much himself.
It is true that municipalities will have to be given more power but there is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent making taxation between governments revenue neutral.
The hon. member said that the federal government has been continually reducing employment insurance premiums. While that is true, there is still an overpayment. He said that the federal government treats the municipalities the same as any other employer, and that is the whole point of it. He also said that the workers benefit from the EI plan. They would still benefit from the plan if the municipalities could get that overpayment back from the federal government. In that way, our property taxes would not be diverted to Ottawa.
This taxation by stealth to municipalities results in millions of dollars being siphoned away to Ottawa where it is wasted on questionable schemes like the firearms registry. That money belongs in the municipal tax base.
Message from the Senate June 5th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the matter I would like to address before the House of Commons today is that of the federal government's hidden property tax. This works in several ways. I bring this issue up to follow up on a question I asked the Minister of Finance earlier this year. The item I addressed in that question was the employment insurance premium overpayment.
Employers and employees are required to pay into the employment insurance fund but the premiums that they pay exceed what the fund requires. That excess money nationwide is to the tune of $5 billion a year. That excess money is dropped into the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government.
In the case of municipalities, they are required as employers to pay out that EI overpayment. But municipalities get the money to pay their employment insurance premiums from property taxes. The property taxes are supposed to be used to provide services to the property. That excess money that is being siphoned off to the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government is in effect a federal property tax. That is not appropriate.
The Minister of Finance in answering the question when I asked it earlier this year said he did not understand what I was talking about. I think he just dodged the question. One of the things I would like in the reply is an acknowledgement of whether or not this is understood.
Clearly the former finance minister understands it because he has been making some comments publicly, as has the Minister of Transport, about the GST that municipalities have to pay. That too is a matter in which municipal property taxes are being diverted to the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government. That is not right because taxation between governments should be revenue neutral. Otherwise we get this unfair situation and the inappropriate use of property taxes.
The excise tax on fuel is another example. Municipalities of course spend a lot of money on fuel and the federal excise tax on fuel has to come from the property tax base. There are all these examples: the excessive employment insurance premiums municipalities are required to pay; the excise tax on fuel; GST on services and goods that they procure to provide services to the properties.
I am saying that municipalities should be refunded their excess EI overpayments. They should be GST exempt. They should be exempt or receive a refund for the excise fuel tax. In that way municipal property taxes will not be diverted into the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government.
I am asking the government to acknowledge that it understands what I am saying and what steps it is prepared to take to reverse this unfair situation. As I say, the former finance minister and the Minister of Transport in recent days have publicly talked about the need to leave more resources in municipalities where it is required because of the emerging importance of infrastructure renewal.
National Defence June 5th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the International Association of Fire Fighters has repeatedly asked the government to fund hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction training for emergency personnel. Recent terrorist attacks clearly show that local emergency personnel, not the military, are frontline responders.
Why is the government refusing to provide $500,000 for a training program that will improve the ability of emergency response teams to handle a disaster or terrorist attack?
Public Service May 29th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the vast majority of Canadians oppose discriminatory race based hiring schemes. However an access to information request shows that to meet a quota the RCMP pass mark for target group recruits was set 21 points lower than the non-target group, and postings for federal public service jobs routinely exclude 86% of Canadians from applying because they are the wrong skin colour.
Racism and discrimination are not Canadian values, so why is the government refusing to scrap racist hiring quotas in the federal government?
Employment Insurance May 8th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the finance minister claims to be ignorant about the upward pressure that excessive employment insurance premiums have on municipal payrolls and, by extension, property taxes.
The former finance minister and next Liberal leader wants Canadian municipalities to get federal money for infrastructure renewal. However the present minister's excessive EI premiums are robbing municipalities of property taxes that should be used locally instead of confiscated by Ottawa.
Why is the minister using excess employment insurance premiums to pick the pockets of Canadian municipalities?