John Finlay

[The Budget, February 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I am sharing my time with my colleague for Hillsborough, the Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Labour.

I had a prepared speech but things have been so interesting with the last three or four speakers that I am going to leave it for a minute. I am going back to the member for Kootenay East. My colleague talked about Liberal-Tory, same old story.

I am going back, and it may be too far for the hon. gentleman, to nine years of Conservative majority governments in this place. When the Tories started in 1984 the debt was something around $200 billion. After nine years of Michael Wilson, bless his heart, struggling with the deficit, they never met their targets, never got the deficit under $38 billion in a year and they more than doubled to $500 plus billion.

That is not the story of this budget or of this government. The deficit is now less than $19 billion. That is not the same story. The deficit to GDP ratio has been cut in half. That is not the same story. There is more than one way of achieving anything. We have chosen a fairly direct way. I would suggest to the hon. member for Fraser Valley West that this budget may well buy a few votes.

When I was on the hustings in 1993 people wanted deficit control. The Canadian people are not stupid and they knew that if we continued to spend more than we earned we were going to be in a position of no return. We are going to hit the wall is the expression. A lot of people across the way do not seem to understand that. We do not hit the wall.

I want to compliment the Minister of Finance. I want to compliment the cabinet. I want to compliment all the cabinet ministers. I want to compliment all the departments because if the ministers and their departments had not taken seriously the program review and had not cut their budgets we would not be in the enviable position we find ourselves in today.

I want to compliment the members of caucus because they have contributed to the budget and to previous budgets. They have helped keep the Minister of Finance on course to reduce the deficit.

I also want to thank a few other people we never do thank and one is the public servants who have not had an increase in six years.

[Corrections And Conditional Release Act, February 17th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, following my colleague's positive words, I want to support my colleague from Scarborough Centre because this bill, although not votable, puts a positive bent on what we are talking about.

My colleague from Ottawa Centre pointed out that a lot of the initiatives of the government in the justice area are aimed at prevention and have been successful.

I would say to my colleague from Surrey-White Rock-South Langley that this is a positive bill. Her remarks seem to suggest that there is only one way to deal with transgressors in society and that is to put them in prison and throw away the key. I do not think that is really what she intends, but that is the way her remarks appear to me. It is very important that we judge not so harshly lest we be judged. My colleague's bill puts the other side to the question.

In the course of this Parliament about a dozen changes have been made through a number of bills to the Criminal Code. Most of them have dealt with increasing the penalties, making them tougher, increasing mandatory punishment for crimes of long term offenders and serious offenders. For example, although the gun bill is preventive, it increased the mandatory sentence to four years for a crime involving a gun. I have no objection to that. In fact I am working on a private member's bill that would increase the penalties for the sexual abuse of children.

However, this bill adds the other dimension. To go on from the mission statement concerning the job of the parole board which was mentioned by my colleague from Berthier-Montcalm, the purpose of federal correctional systems is to contribute to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by assisting the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens through the provision of programs in penitentiaries and in the community.

Some of those programs have been and are now very forward looking. Not only do they deal with substance abuse and anger management but also with native spirituality, elder counselling, educational upgrading and other programs appropriate to these individuals' needs. Since a preponderant percentage of the people in our prisons come from the aboriginal population, a couple of those programs need a lot more work and support, native spirituality and elder counselling.

This bill does not make it mandatory for prisoners to take part in these programs but it does hold out a carrot. It improves the chance for parole. It suggests that if inmates do not show any obvious interest in improving themselves and in living better lives when they are paroled, they will be denied it for a further period of time.

The other purpose of the bill is not to spend more money but to spend it more wisely, as my colleague said in reference to the auditor general's report in which one can read that while some programs of moderate intensity cost $2,000 per offender, other similar programs cost $7,000 per offender. This suggests there

needs to be some hard work done and the discrepancies between those kinds of costs for the same benefit need to be addressed.

A similar situation exists with programs for vocational and educational training which are much less expensive per inmate than the institutional employment programs. This means that instead of having prisoners stamp out licence plates it would be better to do it in the private sector where it can be done more cheaply. It would be better to spend the money at $7,000 a year instead of $13,000 a year to provide the same inmates with further vocational training that could be useful on parole.

I support my friend's initiative which speaks to what should be the overall aim and our reason for being. We want all our citizens to be free. We want all our citizens to be useful. We want all our citizens to contribute to society, and we have to go the extra mile to try to ensure that.

[The Deficit, February 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the fight against the deficit is being won. Who would have thought a mere three years ago that the deficit could be reduced by over $20 billion by today? This reduced deficit has meant a strengthened economy and record low interest rates.

As the Minister of Finance prepares his budget, I would urge that he stay the course. We need to eliminate the deficit as soon as is reasonably possible. Now is not the time for irresponsible Reform Party inspired tax cuts which will slow the decrease in the deficit or compromise essential programs.

Eliminating the deficit will ensure that our children and our seniors have a secure economic future.

I am proud to have supported the Minister of Finance's deficit reduction targets in the past three years and look forward to his presentation of another successful budget on February 18.

[The Late Charles Munro, February 6th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I want to offer my condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Charles Munro of Embro who passed away on January 17.

Charlie Munro was one of Oxford county's outstanding dairy farmers. He represented and fought for the farmers of Oxford and Canada as a member of local, national and international farm groups.

Charlie served as president of both the Ontario and Canadian Federations of Agriculture. From 1972 to 1974 he served as president of the International Federation of Agriculture in Paris, France. Charlie was also a recipient of the Canada Centennial Medal and was inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1994.

No matter where Charlie's service took him, he always had the people of Oxford in his thoughts and in his heart. Oxford and Canada have lost one of their best.

Au revoir mon ami. We will remember you.

[Petitions, February 6th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the last two petitions which contain 27 signatures each call upon Parliament to urge the federal government to join with provincial governments to make the national highway upgrading system position.

[Petitions, February 6th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is signed by 50 residents of my riding and requests that Parliament not increase the federal excise tax on gasoline in the next federal budget.

[Petitions, February 6th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I have four petitions to present today.

The first petition which is signed by 106 people requests that the House of Commons enact legislation to amend the existing legislation to define marriage as the voluntary union for life of one woman and one man to each other, to the exclusion of all others.

[Petitions, December 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by a number of my constituents who call on Parliament to urge the federal government to join with provincial governments to make the national highway system upgrading possible.

[Principal Pipe Organ Company, December 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize the work of a company in my riding of Oxford.

The Principal Pipe Organ Company of Woodstock was asked two years ago to dismantle the Dominion Carillon in the Peace Tower. Twenty-one of the smaller bells, the keyboard and most of the remaining components were safely stored in the basement of the Confederation Building.

The company spent five weeks bringing everything back to the tower, reinstalling and adjusting the carillon. The clock was cleaned, repaired and adjusted. The Westminster chime and hour strike mechanisms and the clock movements were replaced.

Thanks to the hard work of Principal Pipe Organ we are once again able to hear the wonderful sounds of the Dominion Carillon. On behalf of all members of this House, I would like to congratulate Principal Pipe Organ for their excellent work.

[Martin Streef, November 29th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, last May I congratulated Martin Streef from my riding for being named the Ontario region's outstanding young farmer for 1996. Today I would like to congratulate Mr. Streef for winning the Canadian championship for the best young farmer of the year at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.

Mr. Streef and his family operate Streef Produce in Princeton and at the Toronto Food Terminal. Having started from scratch while still in high school, Martin has led his company to become one of the largest potato producers in Ontario. Streef Produce currently operates five farms on 1,500 acres in Oxford and Brant counties.

Like any business, the agricultural industry is constantly in need of new blood. We can be assured that Canada's agricultural sector will stay competitive with young farmers like Martin Streef leading the way.