Mr. Speaker, members of the NDP in the House this evening will vote no on this matter.
Lost his last election, in 2000, with 42% of the vote.
Judges Act November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, members of the NDP in the House this evening will vote no on this matter.
Gun Control November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I retract what I said. Thank you for allowing me to respond very
briefly on behalf of the NDP with respect to the minister's statement on regulations tabled in the House earlier.
The government and the Minister of Justice will recall very clearly that when this legislation was introduced it was not supported by the vast majority of law enforcement agencies to which he refers. In fact the legislation that has given birth to these regulations was something that in my view and in the view of many Canadians was not a direct or a very positive response to dealing with the rising amount of crime in Canada but in fact was a feel good piece of legislation, something that the Liberals are very famous for in this country.
I want to draw a comparison. Members will recall and so will other Canadians when a great deal of smuggling of tobacco from the U.S.A. was going on, rather than deal directly with increasing resources to support our customs officers and to enforce laws which existed to stop smuggling, the Liberals passed feel good legislation which reduced the tax on tobacco to eliminate the smuggling. While that eliminated the smuggling of tobacco in Quebec and Ontario it cost the taxpayers of Canada $2 billion. The smugglers turned to smuggling firearms and other items.
The Liberals responded to the increase in the smuggling of firearms not by providing resources and money for enforcement so that smugglers could be stopped but by passing yet another piece of feel good legislation which does not solve the problem.
I say that because when the legislation which has given birth to the regulations was before the House, I spoke to many police officers, the chief of police and others in Regina and they said that they would prefer, if they had an option, to have more resources committed to enforcement.
Many of these police officers also said that the problem would not necessarily be cleared up by more money thrown at enforcement. It would help a great deal but what needed to be looked at is what the NDP has been saying all along and that is the roots of the increase in crime are unemployment and poverty. The other thing that is driving crime are the great inequities in our society.
Rather than address these inequities and try to beef up initiatives to eliminate poverty, especially child poverty, to create more jobs, to create more equality in society, the government has done the opposite. We can recall in the last few budgets cuts to health care, cuts to education, cuts to all kinds of transfer payments to provinces. We have seen as well a knee-jerk reaction with respect to these regulations, tax increases for working and middle class Canadian families, yet huge tax cuts for the very wealthy.
I remind members of Bill S-9 which provides wealthy Canadians with tax deductions for making contributions to American universities while the government cuts funding for our own universities.
With respect to these regulations, these are again feel good efforts on behalf of the government. They are not dealing with the real problems in our society.
There were a number of questions that we wanted to ask the government that it would not answer today. Why did the federal government and Minister of Justice not consult with all of the attorneys general with respect to some of the implications of the act? If the minister did consult, why did he not take some of the advice of three or four of them who are quite concerned about it?
Our view is that this bill and these regulations will not control guns but will increase the red tape and bureaucracy of law enforcement agencies. It will initiate a massive registration program that will not be effective because if it was such an effective tool, why is the government waiting three to five years to register all the guns in the country? I cannot see why these sorts of things are that pertinent at this time.
I will summarize by saying that this regulation initiative on behalf of the government is a knee jerk reaction, it is feel good legislation that does nothing to address the roots of crime in this country and that is good government.
Petitions November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, a point of order, I request the unanimous consent of the House to participate in the response to the minister's statement on behalf of the NDP.
Committees Of The House November 27th, 1996
No goddamn way.
Broadcasting Act November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I think I heard the Speaker say with permission we will have this member introduce his bill. I am not giving permission because he declined permission for me to speak on the regulations of the minister.
Gun Control November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, I would request unanimous consent to say a few words with respect to these regulations.
Gun Control November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice knows that when the bill was first introduced in the House many police officers in this country were very-
Interest Rates November 27th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.
Bank profits are soaring over last year's record profits while consumer credit card debt has soared to 20 per cent of personal debt. Some credit card holders are paying up to 25 per cent over the prime rate while interest on savings accounts is paid at 3 per cent below prime.
Last week when I asked the minister if he would consider bringing back the Usury Act to outlaw interest rate gouging by banks, oil companies and retail stores on credit card accounts, he said that he would look into it.
In view of these record bank profits and in view of record low interest rates will the government now take action to protect consumers from this outrageous interest rate rip-off and bring the credit card interest rates and interest paid on savings accounts more in line with the Canada prime rates?
Judges Act November 20th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, New Democratic Party members present this evening will vote no on this issue.
Canada Labour Code November 20th, 1996
Mr. Speaker, the New Democratic Party members present in the House today will vote no on this matter.