Jim Gouk

[Request For Emergency Debate, November 19th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. As of just after four o'clock this afternoon Ottawa time, the people of Canada do not have a postal service in this country. That is causing major economic problems in this country.

I ask the Chair to seek the unanimous consent of this House to move to an emergency debate on this pressing national emergency after the hour of adjournment of regular business this evening.

[Division No. 17, October 28th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal vote was the same as the previous vote yet I see an empty desk on the Liberal side that was not empty when the previous vote came in.

Is that number for the Liberals correct?

[Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, October 28th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, I have some questions and I will omit any preamble so the hon. member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca will have an opportunity to answer. These are questions many people have on their minds when they look at this bill.

The first of these questions is, is there anything about this bill which will serve to help keep mining in Canada and more importantly to keep mining dollars in Canada? Second, will it cause or create employment for Canadians, Canadians of all racial origins? Third, will it lead to economic self-sufficiency for northern residents no matter what their racial origin? Fourth, will it provide environmental protection in an efficient and cost-effective manner?

[Canada Health Act, October 28th, 1997]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-267, an act to amend the Canada Health Act (conditions for contributions).

Mr. Speaker, my bill is actually a notification protocol for emergency response workers who come in contact with infectious diseases. These people put their lives on the line for us when attending accidents. If they come into contact with an infectious disease, no protocol allows them to be notified because of a concern for the patient's confidentiality.

My bill is designed to provide that protocol while still providing the confidentiality necessary. It uses the vehicle of the Canada Health Act to initiate the program. Once initiated it would not require further pressure, as it were, from the Canada Health Act.

This bill was previously introduced by the NDP in a previous Parliament as well as by myself in the last Parliament. It was supported obviously by us and by them, and by the Liberal government when it sat as the official opposition prior to 1993. I hope all members will co-operate in the swift passage of this bill as it is critical for those who are defending our needs.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act, October 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to seek advice and help from you. There are words in this House that are unparliamentary. For example if someone lies, we are not allowed to call them a liar. Having listened to the hon. member across the way, I wonder if there is some word you could provide me with that I could use that would be acceptable in this House to point out the error of his way.

[Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act, October 7th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, my comments are sparked in part by the last member who spoke and some of the other members who have spoken today, in particular those on the Liberal side.

I find it very ironic and kind of sad that they would stand and talk about Reform's plan when obviously they have never read it. They have never opened the book, or they read it and they chose to ignore it, to say things they know are not stated in the book and to ignore the things that really are there.

It is unfortunate they would prey on the fears of Canadians, those who have already retired and those approaching retirement, to try to sell a very bad plan of their own.

It has been mentioned today that it started at 5%. They were told it was a wonderful plan and that it would never go up. Now it is doubling from that early start.

I want to speak about one aspect of the plan, the impact of the raising of the payroll taxes to 9.9% on business, in particular small business.

Speaking again of false comments made by the government, its members seem to want to imply that Reform's plan is to scrap CPP and instead simply have people put their money into RRSPs.

Members who think like this are the ones who have not actually read the plan. The plan is an RRSP type system changed over from the existing Canada pension plan. It is not paid out of rich profits from a high paid job but in fact paid by the same deductions that are going into the Canada pension plan right now, money that has been squandered, money that has been spent and still results in a $600 billion liability on the part of the Canada pension plan. I just want to make sure people understand that.

I hope hon. members opposite listen to this example. I welcome heckling when I am speaking. I actually feed on it. Sometimes it gives me some good stuff to carry on with in my speech. When all their friends are away, I hope they get a chance to think of this one point personally and consider it from a non-partisan point of view.

Before I came to this place I had a small construction company that built about eight houses a year. During that time I was doing other things. My company, which was primarily myself, made a profit of about $6,500 per house.

I employed carpenters, plumbers, electricians, excavation people with their equipment, roofers, drywallers and any number of people. I bought supplies from people all over town and throughout my region. It was a good economic engine for the small community and the region I come from.

I had three people who virtually worked full time for me. If I consider the number of people who worked for me as I needed them for drywalling, roofing or some other components, it worked out to be the equivalent of about 10 full-time positions. It was as if I had 10 people full time who, if they had the particular talents, would have been able to do all the jobs. It would have created an annual income for those people.

According to the Liberal plan the wages I paid those people would be subject to this new payroll tax for the purpose of CPP. It would amount to $650 per head. What would be the impact on a small company?

As I said, I made about $6,500 a house and I had the equivalent of 10 full-time positions. As the employer my share would have been $650 times 10. The gross profit for one-eighth of my productivity as a builder would have gone to pay the increased CPP premiums.

When I had people working for me they liked to maintain some form of standard of living. They were pretty reasonable people. If I was still running my company and this increase came along, I suspect many of them would have come to me and said “We know times are tough. We know that the economy is tight. We are not looking for a raise but we certainly cannot afford a cut in pay. What we need is enough of a raise to pay the increase in our CPP premiums”.

They were hard workers. I would have been hard pressed not to have given it to them, but had I done so it would have been another $650 per employee for the equivalent of 10 full-time employees or $6,500, the gross profit from another house.

This was a viable small business and the increase in the Canada pension plan premium, a payroll tax, would have taken 25% of my gross profits from that construction company.

Government members will say that it is a government bill and they have to vote for it. I understand their dilemma. A member of the House who does not happen to belong to the Liberal Party any longer voted according to the way his conscience and his constituents directed him. Consequently he sits on this side of the House because the Liberal Party threw him out. They are not allowed to vote the way they think is in the best interests of Canadians in general or their constituents in particular.

I hope government members will raise this matter in caucus, speak to the minister and speak to the critics who deal with the Canada pension plan. If that is what would have happened to the small business I operated in Castlegar, in the interior of British Columbia, think what it will do to countless hundreds of thousands of businesses across the country.

The Liberals talk about job creation. How in God's name can jobs be created when they increase a payroll tax on people which will ultimately result in 25% of the profit from a small company going out the window? It will not work.

I hope that each of those members will say that they did not look at it from the point of view of employment. They are saying they looked at it from the point of view of rescuing the plan. There are much better ways to rescue the plan than simply throwing more money at it and in doing so destroying the economy of the country by destroying a lot of small businesses.

Instead of spouting the rhetoric thrown by the minister down to them they should read Reform's plan. It is an alternative. It is not the destruction of a pension plan. It is looking at it from the point of view that we have to ensure an income for people in their retirement and we have to make it affordable not only in terms of premiums but in job creation and sustainability. They look at it and say the 9.9% now will be the be all and end all to save the plan. It is the same thing that Liberals of days gone by said when it was brought in at 5%.

I hope my speech gives the Liberals something to think about. I appreciate the attention Liberal members have paid and I truly hope they will reconsider this in a non-partisan manner. If they do, I promise that I will not try and roast them by saying they were wrong. I will congratulate them on their re-examination and their concern for Canadians instead of just following the rhetoric of a few.

[Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act, October 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I find this very interesting. I rise to make a comment on the hon. member's speech. He called a 74% increase in payroll taxes a minor adjustment. If that is a minor adjustment, I would like to hear the hon. member's definition of a substantial increase.

I want to comment on his remark that the Reform wants to get rid of pensions for seniors. A plan comes in. Everyone is told a pension will be there for them and that there will be no increases. Now we are facing a Liberal solution: throw money at it.

We have promised in writing that seniors in our plan will be guaranteed the pension they are already receiving. They will get everything they have a right to expect from the plan. We will offer it to people earlier and get it out of the hands of a government that has totally lost control of the plan.

We are not talking about some adjustments in 1989 that have jeopardized the cashflow of the plan. We are talking about a plan that is almost $600 billion underfunded. That did not start in 1989.

Does the hon. member wish to clarify his comment that this is a minor adjustment? Does he wish to reconsider his position? He ought to know it is incorrect to say the Reform is out to take away anyone's pension.

[Petitions, October 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition from my constituents who point out that they are opposed to the potential legislation on dietary supplements that would significantly and very negatively impact on the health and well-being of thousands of Canadians, especially the elderly and the chronically ill.

[Supply, September 30th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, just a couple of comments on members who have already spoken.

The hon. member for Willowdale who spoke on behalf of the Liberal Party stated that one of the things he was proud of was Canada Council grants provided by the Liberal government. I would have liked to have asked him had the opportunity existed, and perhaps the hon. member who just spoke can comment on it, if he is really proud of the latest expenditure by the Canada Council. It is a $42,000 study, $42,000 of Canadian taxpayers' money being used to study the social origins of medieval Latin lyrical song.

I also would have liked to have asked the hon. member for Qu'Appelle when he speaks so eloquently of how proud he is of the Saskatchewan government with regard to all the things it does in particular with medicare, whether or not he is proud that it had to shut 50 hospitals and whether or not the $2 billion that is spent across the line might be better spent trying to keep some of those open.

Finally, I would like to ask this of the hon. member who just spoke. We know from past experience that the Conservative government tried to balance the budget and in fact started to bring the deficit down and suddenly it turned around and became one of the biggest deficits we ever had. Does the hon. member have any special points that he might like to offer to the Liberals so that they do not end up doing the same thing? They have followed them so many other times in the past.

[Canada Post, September 25th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, a postal strike is extremely devastating for Canadian business and non-business alike. A strike shuts down Canada's entire mail delivery system.

The minister has already interfered in the bargaining process and he has failed to notify the Canadian public of the imminence of this strike. What is he going to do to protect Canadians from the impact of this national postal strike?