Grant Hill

[Border Security, February 4th, 2003]

Still no answers, Mr. Speaker.

Yesterday, the revenue minister brushed off concerns about U.S. border security concerns as just fearmongering. However, Michael Kergin, our ambassador to the U.S., said plainly:

We always have some challenges ahead of us and the border is, among them,...

My question is for the minister. Is the ambassador also just fearmongering?

[Political Party Financing, January 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the problem with the bill is that the Liberals want to replace voluntary contributions by taxpayers to parties that people support with contributions that are absolutely involuntary.

I ask the question again. Why should Canadian taxpayers who do not support the Liberals have to pay for their activities? Why?

[Political Party Financing, January 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, maybe the minister would like to explain to the House and to Canadians why the senior adviser to the Prime Minister the day before yesterday said to the Liberal caucus that it was one of the reasons the bill should be passed: to help pay down the $4 million debt of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Why should all taxpayers be forced to pay the debt of that party even if they do not support the Liberal Party?

[Political Party Financing, January 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not serious in the least about reforming political party financing. He just wants the taxpayers to pay his party's debts, because the Liberals are too busy collecting funds for leadership campaigns to pay off their debts.

Is the Prime Minister introducing this bill in order to get his party's debts paid?

[Question No. 51, January 27th, 2003]

As part of the Implementation plan for the Kyoto Protocol as called for in the motion adopted by the House on October 24, 2002, is the government guaranteeing its cost increase projections (i.e. 3 cents for a barrel of crude)?

[Firearms Registry, December 13th, 2002]

Let us be really clear, Mr. Speaker. We are against the gun registry and that is all we are against.

Let us go further. When firearms owners, who are trying to reach the deadline, phone the 1-800 number, there is no answer. When they try to get applications, there are no applications.

My question for the Deputy Prime Minister is this. If this gun registry is so good, then why are legitimate, law-abiding citizens having trouble doing what the government says is the law?

[Firearms Registry, December 13th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, in a language change in our policy, this is what the Canadian Alliance said:

We will especially emphasize a more stringent punishment of individuals who use a firearm or other weapon in the commission of a crime involving a threat of or actual violence.

Let me ask the Deputy Prime Minister this one more time. Why would we take $72 million out of the firearms registry and fund it through a backdoor scheme?

[Firearms Registry, December 13th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Parliament refused to give the government another $72 million for the gun registry, a gun registry that will end up costing Canadian taxpayers a billion dollars. Yet, that is no big deal for the justice minister. He says that he will to find another way to fund it through other departmental sources.

If we took $72 million out of the gun registry, why is the government funding it through a backdoor scheme?

[Goods and Services Tax, December 9th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, we have seen what happens when the government chooses secrecy over accountability: a billion dollar boondoggle in HRDC, millions of dollars lost in an advertising problem, a billion dollars with the gun registry, and now untold millions from GST fraud. With the government there are lots and lots of cheques, but very few balances.

My question is, exactly why is the government hiding GST fraud from Canadian taxpayers? Why is that?

[Goods and Services Tax, December 9th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, with the government, the bigger the surplus the more it thinks it can waste, and that is sad.

Coming back to the GST fraud artists, the government reported that fraud in 1994 and in 1995 it was absent from the public accounts. I am asking the Prime Minister to explain that to Canadians. Why the sudden change?