Nelson Riis

[Committees Of The House, December 11th, 1997]

Norway and Denmark. No poor children are living in the country of Denmark today, not a one.

[Committees Of The House, December 11th, 1997]

My friend says “We are behind Albania”. I do not think we should compare ourselves with Albania. Of the western industrialized nations we are second from the bottom. We have been there for many years.

What is the government doing about it? Have things improved in the last year? Have things improved in the last two or three years? They have worsened over that time. Since 1989 more than half a million children have been added to the rolls of children living in poverty. This is bordering on immorality. This is simply unacceptable.

I suspect some of my friends will say that this is inevitable when we are trying to get the fundamentals in order. We hear that regularly. This is one fundamental that we do not have in order. When there are 1.4 million children living in poverty this afternoon, and the number will have grown by the time the weekend is over, that is not a country with its fundamentals in order.

I know the government will say that it has balanced the books. We will know the books have been balanced properly when all Canadians can balance their own books, and that is not the case today.

We should not rest easy because to accept this number of young people living in poverty is wrong. It is not to say that this is necessary. In some countries there are no poor children. In some western industrialized nations a poor child cannot be found. The reason a poor child cannot be found is that there are no poor parents.

[Committees Of The House, December 11th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to my hon. friend who detailed very accurately that the finance committee travelled extensively. It met with many Canadians.

After reading the report carefully I wonder whether or not the committee listened to the people with whom it met. Much of what I heard people from coast to coast to coast say is not reflected very accurately in the report. I would not say it is not reflected at all. That would be silly. I think it is called keeping the balance.

We heard that the country was not in balance, that it was out of kilter, and that the weights were a bit lopsided. For some Canadians things are going incredibly well. I know my hon. friend is very serious in her work and would agree that for many Canadians life has actually never been better.

For bankers and those holding bank stock today, man alive, this is as good as it gets. The stock market is skyrocketing. A lot of people are saying that exports are up and they have never done better. It is actually true that many Canadians will have a fantastic holiday. There will be champagne corks on Bay Street and on main streets of the country, wherever there are financial institutions.

The chartered banks are booming with historically high profits. Another set of banks are doing a booming business, the nearly 1,000 food banks across the country. We should be embarrassed this afternoon, speaking in the House of Commons and knowing that there are nearly 1,000 food banks. In fact they have serious problems because there is not enough food for hungry people.

There are 1.4 million children living in poverty. Only one industrialized nation has a worse record than Canada's and that is the United States. We are second from the bottom in terms of accepting the reality that there are poor children in this country.

[Child Poverty, December 11th, 1997]

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

As the holiday season approaches, we know that bankers in Canada, like Scrooge, have never been more joyful. Yet there are millions of Canadians for whom Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is more than a story from the 1800s. Today there are 1.4 million Canadian children living in poverty.

Will the Minister of Finance take the children of Canada out of the 1800s? Canada deserves a finance minister who gives like Santa, not behaves like Scrooge.

[Petitions, December 10th, 1997]

This is another petition, Mr. Speaker. The petitioners reside throughout British Columbia. There is a very long preamble but they basically suggest that the tax system is messed up and urge the Government of Canada through Parliament to undertake a fair tax review to ensure that the tax system is both fair and equitable.

[Petitions, December 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a pleasure to stand pursuant to Standing Order 36 to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Vavenby, Clearwater, Birch Island, Avola, Blue River, Barriere, Little Fort, Heffley Creek and Louis Creek in the great province of British Columbia.

The petitioners point out that the majority of Canadians are law-abiding citizens. They say that the majority of Canadians respect the sanctity of human life. They say that the majority of Canadians believe that physicians in Canada should be working to save lives and not to end them.

The petitioners are calling upon Parliament to ensure that the present provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada prohibiting assisted suicide be enforced vigorously and that Parliament make no change in the law which would sanction or allow the aiding or abetting of suicide, or active or passive euthanasia.

[Division No. 48, December 2nd, 1997]

Mr. Chairman, I listened to the Minister of Labour make his comments and I feel compelled to say that when it comes to collective bargaining, I think it is fair to say that collective bargaining associated with the federal government has been a complete disaster over the last few years.

The Minister of Labour should stand up and apologize to the tens of thousands of employees that he dumped on to the streets over the last little while. To suggest that somehow this settlement reflects the process of collective bargaining in this country after having such an abysmal record is almost unbelievable.

However, having said that, I have to agree with my hon. friend from the Bloc who just said that if we are going to impose a settlement, for goodness sake, why wouldn't we impose the settlement that at least the postal corporation suggested in the first place? To go beneath that again is one more step toward humiliation of the people that work for the federal government, either directly through the crown corporation or their own employees.

It reveals the contempt that the Minister of Labour has for working people in this country.

[Division No. 48, December 2nd, 1997]

Mr. Chairman, I want to say a few words on this particular amendment.

I want to acknowledge the words of my friend, the minister responsible for Canada Post. He says this is really a clarification and what we are asking for is a clarification that the fundamental purpose and the fundamental role of Canada Post is to serve Canadians by providing first class mail service, not as a cash cow to the federal government. The point is not to make money on this operation to assist the government in one way or another.

Of course we support that principle and acknowledge the work done by the members of the Bloc and by the members of the New Democratic Party working with the government and the minister, and acknowledge the fact that he saw the appropriateness of this amendment. We appreciate that co-operation in order to make this legislation more palatable to all involved.

We cannot overemphasize the fact that the post office is here to serve Canadians. It is not here to make money. If we trace the fundamental problem that our post office faces, we will find that it goes back to the Mulroney era when this principle was introduced and the mandate went out to make money through Canada Post. Ever since that mandate was initiated some of the major problems began, and I know my friend the minister would nod in approval.

I would like to think that through this important amendment to this crucial piece of legislation we will perhaps see a rethinking of some of the priorities when it comes to service and profit.

[Petitions, November 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, finally on the matter of euthanasia, the petitioners primarily under the leadership of Ursula Bond from Clearwater, British Columbia are simply asking Parliament to ensure that the present provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada prohibiting assisted suicide be enforced vigorously, and that Parliament make no change in the law that would sanction or allow the aiding or abetting of suicide or active or passive euthanasia.

[Petitions, November 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, on another matter, petitioners from Kamloops and Clearwater, British Columbia outline a large list of reasons why the present tax system needs to be changed. I will not go into the reasons because they are already clear on the public record. They are simply calling upon the Government of Canada to consider introducing major tax reform and re-examining the recommendations made, I believe it was in the sixties, by the Carter commission on tax reform.