House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 51% of the vote.
Employment Insurance May 5th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will know that we have consistently, every year since 1993, reduced the EI premiums and the UI premiums. Year after year they have been reduced, as other taxes have been reduced as well. By next year, the rate will be set in a transparent fashion intended to set a rate approximating the cost of the program.
Taxation May 5th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I will try to explain this slowly. The economy has done extremely well in the last few years, so much so that we have had the best economic performance of the G-7. When the economy grows, surprisingly, government revenues grow.
A $100 billion tax reduction is a real tax reduction. The government is getting more revenues because more Canadians are working and the economy is doing so much better.
Taxation May 5th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will know that we are still in the third year of a five year tax reduction plan, which is reducing the total tax burden by about $100 billion.
Even by the amount of spending that the Alliance Party seems to now be advocating, that is a lot of money. Canadians welcome the tax relief they have been getting.
Employment Insurance April 29th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I honestly do not know what the member is talking about. Perhaps he could inform me and I will try to answer his question.
Employment insurance April 29th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I believe that what we are trying to do is to develop a program that meets the basic needs of the unemployed, and also ties the level of premiums paid by employers and employees to the benefits paid out by the program.
That is exactly what the auditor general suggested and that is what we are doing.
Employment insurance April 29th, 2003
No, Mr. Speaker, but it is a program. Even in the budget we brought down in February, we announced that we were going to try to set the employment insurance rates so that costs are more or less equalized, which was the intention of this program.
Finance April 11th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, under Canadian law it is required that federally regulated financial institutions disclose “the nature and amount of any non-interest charges”. Provinces have similar requirements.
Under the federal system we have created the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada in order to deal with any complaints about such matters. I can assure the member that I will ask the agency to determine whether such is the situation in Canada.
Financial Institutions April 11th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, first, I have said that we will respond within the timeframe for which the committee asked, which is more rapid than the House rules provide.
Second, I do not know what his concern is about the last five years. Bill C-8 was introduced, was adopted by the House and provides a clear set of rules to deal with mergers.
We have asked the committee to provide greater clarity about one aspect of the elements required for a bank merger to be considered.
Financial Institutions April 11th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, the committee has already asked for a more rapid response than the rules of the House provide. We will endeavour to respond within the timeframe for which the committee asked.
Persons with Disabilities April 11th, 2003
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question because it gives me the opportunity to point out that in addition to the $80 million of additional support for the disability tax credit that we included in the budget, we created something for which the disabled community has been asking for a long time, which is a committee to advise both the Minister of Finance and the Minister of National Revenue on issues related to disability issues.
We again funded important programs to help members of the disabled community to have access to employment. We created a new credit for disabled children--