Nelson Riis

[Bill C-28, February 18th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The record will clearly show that the Minister of Finance introduced Bill C-28. We assume the Minister of Finance knows what is in the bill before he sponsors it. The bill provided for clear benefits that could accrue to his own company.

When the ethics commissioner appeared before the finance committee yesterday, he said that when legislation is being drafted in the Department of Finance that could benefit the Minister of Finance, he or his office is always informed ahead of time so he can check out conflict of interest possibilities.

[Bill C-28, February 17th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

Before the Deputy Prime Minister says much more about the finance committee's proceedings this morning, he should be aware that the ethics counsellor indicated to the committee that internal procedures normally used when the Minister of Finance's corporate interests are involved were not followed in this case.

Therefore my question for the Minister of Finance is the following. Recognizing that Bill C-28 has provisions that could very directly relate financially to his major holding company, does he believe it was appropriate that he introduced that legislation, that he sponsored that legislation as opposed to some other minister?

[Supply, February 5th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I also have a question for the Leader of the Official Opposition. My preamble will be somewhat shorter than the previous one.

I would like to tell the leader of the Reform Party that the quote was not from Shakespeare, it was in fact from F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The arguments that the hon. member makes are interesting. I would like to ask him a question about the GST. One of the proposals people have been suggesting is that one way to stimulate local economies, neighbourhood economies right down to the suburbs, would be to phase out the GST. With the elimination of the deficit, which was one of the arguments for the introduction of the GST, what does the Leader of the Official Opposition think about the proposal that now is the time to begin phasing down the GST?

[Petitions, February 5th, 1998]

On another matter, I have a petition signed by a number of soon to be seniors from the city of Kamloops who, since the government has now set aside the seniors benefit package, hope that before any changes are made an adequate opportunity is provided to Canadians to react to the proposals once they are presented and not simply slipped through as they were worried was going to occur.

[Petitions, February 5th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present a petition pursuant to Standing Order 36 on behalf of a large number of residents of Kamloops who are concerned they are paying too high levels of taxation, and concerned that the tax load is acting as a problem when it comes to economic development and investment.

The petitioners are asking the Government of Canada to undertake a complete overhaul of the tax system to ensure that all the tax exemptions presently in existence make sense economically.

[Petitions, February 4th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself with the previous petition.

Pursuant to Standing Order 36 it is my honour to present a petition on behalf of thousands of people from the city of Kamloops and the region around that city.

They point out that it is time the GST be reduced. The GST was introduced because the government said we had a serious deficit problem. That deficit problem has essentially been eliminated.

Therefore they call upon parliament to urge the government to bring in legislation to begin phasing out the GST.

[Banking, February 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Finance. Considering what his next job is possibly to be, he is very concerned about what Canadians are likely thinking of him these days.

I was going to suggest that the Minister of Finance will know that banking, bankers and the banking business touch the lives of virtually every Canadian in this country. Would he do the right thing, not necessarily wait for the task force to bring down a report some months from now, but provide an opportunity for the people of Canada to tell the Minister of Finance through the finance committee hearings across the country what they think of this proposed merger?

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 1997, February 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, perhaps I will try another tack with my hon. friends. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance yesterday in his presentation went on at some length about the value of the transfer of tax points, which seems to be quite contradictory to the previous speaker's question. The parliamentary secretary went on to say this was good for enabling the provinces to fund health care.

Does my hon. friend acknowledge that when you look for funding health care through a transfer of tax points it benefits have provinces, those which obviously have a much better opportunity to generate wealth through their economies, and really penalizes have not provinces?

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 1997, February 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my hon. colleague's presentation and I could not help but cast back my recollection to when the Conservatives were in government and introduced the massive transfer cuts. At that time it seemed to me that if the cuts were allowed to continue as the government had planned, we would reach a point soon where there would be actually no more transfers financially at all and there would be no opportunity for a federal government to request or expect any federal standards in health care whatsoever.

Can my hon. friend tell me if my memory is correct and that was the case and, if so, does he now stand by his previous government's decision to curtail transfers to the point where at one point in the near future there would be no financial transfer of money from Ottawa to the provinces for health care at all?

[Petitions, February 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have another petition signed by petitioners from various communities throughout Alberta and British Columbia who point out a whole variety of concerns with Canada's tax system. They have some specific recommendations which I will table. By and large the petitioners are calling for a complete examination of our tax system and are proposing a major overhaul.