Deborah Grey

[The Environment, December 11th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians woke up and asked themselves today, just what is this Kyoto deal all about. Now we know what it is about. It is a fancy photo op with some headlines.

In fact, the Kyoto deal is not even worth the recycled paper that it is printed on. The Prime Minister flip-flopped so many times about this that the provinces are refusing to implement the deal.

How can the government prove today that this Kyoto deal is not just a Rio repeat?

[Environment, December 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, what we see here is a Prime Minister who is nervous. He will resort to anything. What we have seen also about this Kyoto deal, and yesterday in the House he said a real whopper, it will cost exactly the same amount for every single country that signs this deal. Some comfort that is to Canadian families and those who work at Suncor in Fort McMurray.

Why is the finance minister letting his boss sign a deal that could lead to so many job losses in these industries?

[Environment, December 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just talked about flexibility. His government is so flexible that it changed its mind now and it has abandoned its negotiating position on the whole Kyoto deal.

Now the government says it is going to sign any deal whatever it is, and it is going to further drastically cut emissions. Workers in the steel, the oil and gas and the coal industries want to know from this Prime Minister, why is he signing a deal that could lead to such terrible job losses for real people here in Canada?

[Kyoto, December 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I would remind the prime minister that the United States is certainly at a different latitude than Canada. He may not have paid attention to that.

This government is keeping the cost of Kyoto silent to Canadians. Literally tens of thousands of jobs will be destroyed: 12,000 perhaps in the coal industry, 56,000 perhaps in the oil and gas sector. These are people. These are not just numbers or some little sector the prime minister is talking about.

Where is the study that proves these sad stories? What is with the secrecy of this government?

[Kyoto, December 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, this kind of nonsense is just absurd when the prime minister thinks that the Canadian public is going to be paying more out of its pockets.

We know that major decisions like the Kyoto deal have to go through a very detailed economic analysis before cabinet makes a decision on them.

For example, the iron and steel industries will suffer huge losses. That means thousands of families will have to move long distances and try to find new jobs.

Where is the study that talks about the cost of Kyoto? Why are the prime minister and the government keeping the bad news such a secret?

[Kyoto, December 8th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, those same representatives who had assurances in Regina found out pretty quickly, within eight days, that the federal minister changed her mind just like that.

There is a serious problem here. The provinces have done some economic impact studies on what this Kyoto deal will cost. B.C. and Alberta have backed off and the Saskatchewan delegation was so disgusted that it cancelled its plane ticket to Kyoto.

I want to ask the finance minister this question, not the man for all seasons. How can the finance minister think he can force this deal on the provinces economically, especially when he stands up in this House and brags about this new spirit of—

[Kyoto, December 8th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, talk about balance. It is only a Liberal who could cut $7.5 billion and then say they are adding $1.5 billion and it is a really good deal for the Canadian economy.

Likewise, the Minister of the Environment said in Kyoto that she might just sort of change the targets. She has hinted that she would impose even more drastic regulations on Canadian industry.

Since the finance minister surely has some idea of the economic impact costs of this Kyoto deal and what might happen if the environment minister changes again, is there an economic study? If not, why not? If so, where is it?

[The Debt, December 4th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians do not think this is very funny anymore, the huge amount of money they give to the government being used to pay off interest on the debt. They know they simply cannot be paying that in their personal lives. Every single taxpayer who makes less than $70,000 a year pays every penny of their tax in interest payments on the debt.

My question on behalf of every one of those taxpayers who earns $70,000 or less is when will the government get this deadly debt under control? It is killing us.

[The Debt, December 4th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, this government spends more on interest payments on the national debt than it does on health care, education, welfare, old age security and the army combined. That is a terrible chunk of change. Canadians are telling this government that they want to reduce the debt, they want tax relief and they want to know when they are going to get it.

The prime minister has given us a specific deadline for when he is going to cut his gas emissions. When is he going to give us a deadline for reducing Canada's deadly debt?

[Division No. 49, December 2nd, 1997]

Let me just get this straight. I had 125 people through my office. That was not the scientific poll, sweetheart. That came later over the weekend. That is the idea.