John Solomon

[Interim Supply, March 20th, 1996]

Yes, we agree with that motion.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

[Supply, March 20th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, New Democrat members in the House will vote yes on the motion.

[Human Resources Development Canada, March 19th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the federal income securities program branch of Human Resources Development Canada and other federal government departments in Regina have lost 50 public service positions because of a decision by the former minister of HRD, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, to take the jobs to his own riding in Winnipeg. This decision was slipped through on the minister's last day on the job of that department.

The chair of the economic committee of cabinet, the federal minister of agriculture, has remained silent as these jobs are moved from Regina.

The move makes no sense. It will cost taxpayers up to $2.6 million to pay for the move alone and it will take jobs in the valuable public service from the residents of Regina and Saskatchewan.

Seniors groups such as Seniors Action Now have expressed their concern that by sending these positions to Winnipeg seniors and the disabled in Saskatchewan will see longer delays to the processing of their applications and inquiries.

I challenge the minister of agriculture to take action on behalf of his constituents and his home province to reverse this politically motivated bad decision.

[Supply, March 18th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, in a speech on February 28 in the House of Commons the Prime Minister said that corporations in Canada "have a responsibility to eliminate the human deficit of unemployment. No true balance sheet can ignore the heavy and growing cost of chronic unemployment. It is wrong. It is wrong on a human level. It is wrong on an economic level. It is wrong on a commercial level. It is wrong on a moral level".

The question to the Minister of Finance on March 5 was to suggest that Hollinger Incorporated ignored the Prime Minister's challenge in the private sector to help create jobs. It was a slap in the face because two days after Hollinger Incorporated took ownership of the Regina Leader-Post , the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix and the Yorkton Enterprise , 182 employees were terminated. Twenty-five per cent of the staff is gone because, in the words of a Hollinger representative, these newspapers made profits but not enough profits.

The owner of Hollinger Incorporated, Mr. Conrad Black, has shown a clear lack of corporate citizenship. He is flagrantly ignoring the challenge of the Prime Minister because he does not care if he creates a human deficit, in the Prime Minister's words. He is only interested in the bottom line. However, by ignoring the human factor in his profit chasing, Mr. Black is not fooling the people of Saskatchewan or his employees; he is only fooling himself.

Putting more people out of work hurts the whole economy. It means fewer consumers with purchasing power to buy goods and services. No company lives in a glass bubble. Businesses are interdependent and when we put people out of work the whole business community feels the repercussions and in some cases the whole country suffers.

The Liberals were elected on a promise of jobs, jobs, jobs but delivered nothing but talk, talk, talk and fewer jobs. It is not only Hollinger Incorporation but many other profitable corporations that made substantial profits yet terminated jobs. They terminated employees as a reward for their efforts in making these profits.

Bell Canada made a profit of $502 million yet had 3,100 fewer jobs as a result of that. General Motors had $1.39 billion in profits yet laid off 2,500 employees. Imperial Oil had a record profit of $514 million and 452 fewer jobs. The Bank of Montreal made $986 million with 1,428 fewer employees.

What these statistics show is a lack of corporate responsibility in a country which provides them with these profits as well as various tax support from our treasury.

Should Canada continue to provide these profitable corporations that downsize tax breaks when they lack a sense of corporate responsibility to create jobs? More and more Canadians think not. More and more Canadians think corporate tax breaks should only be provided to those companies that treat their community and their employees with dignity. Canadians want tax breaks only for the corporate responsible corporations and tax breaks should only be provided to those who would support a Canadian code of corporate citizenship.

What did the Liberals do in response to these large, profitable corporations? The Liberals responded with a very small youth employment program to hire the kids of the parents who lost their jobs at minimum wage. Fire the parents and hire the kids at reduced wages. That is the Liberal approach to employment. Under the Liberals, economic development has become an oxymoron.

[Privilege, March 18th, 1996]

The New Democrats present in the House tonight will vote yes on this matter.

(The House divided on the amendment which was agreed to on the following division:)

[Supply, March 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the New Democrats in the House today, including the member for Burnaby-Kingsway, will be voting yes on this motion.

[Petitions, March 11th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition signed by many of my constituents as well as people from Spiritwood, Saskatoon and Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan and Minnedosa, Manitoba.

The petitioners believe that the Senate should be abolished. If we abolished the Senate we would save $600 million over the next 10 years. They feel that because it is an institution which is not very productive this should happen. They ask the House of Commons to provide an amendment to the Constitution of Canada in relation to certain matters that may be initiated by a resolution in the House of Commons.

[Communications, March 11th, 1996]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Hollinger corporation threatened to put small independent community based newspapers out of business. It threatened to put the smaller weekly newspapers out of business by providing free newspapers in the communities of Melville, Wynyard, Canora, Kamsack, Preeceville, Norquay and Watson.

My question is this. Since the Prime Minister has challenged business to create jobs for Canadians and since his finance minister agrees that the firing of Hollinger employees at the Saskatchewan dailies is "not behaviour that is supported by the community itself," could the Prime Minister tell the House when he will come to the aid of these small Saskatchewan businesses and communities by instructing the bureau of competition policy to initiate an investigation of the concentration of media-

[Communications, March 11th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is addressed to the Prime Minister.

Within days of firing 25 per cent of the staff of its newly acquired Saskatchewan daily newspapers, your friend, Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc.-

[The Budget, March 11th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the 1996 federal budget is the same old Liberal approach. It has ignored poor and middle class Canadians.

This budget is the same old Liberal policy that cuts social programs. Canadians will see less services and higher taxes as the provinces struggle to deal with massive social program funding cuts. Saskatchewan alone will lose $110 per capita.

It is the same old Liberal policy that gives tax breaks to the wealthy. The Liberals passed Bill S-9 which gives wealthy Cana-

dian families tax breaks on U.S. assets and tax credits for donations to American universities. Meanwhile education funding is cut and the GST remains.

It is the same old Liberal policy that keeps the unemployment rate high. It is the same old Liberal policy that ignores small business. This past year small business created 100 per cent of all net new jobs in Canada but the budget left them out in the cold.

This budget stays the Liberal course of ignoring the needs of middle class and poor Canadians, ignoring fair taxation, job creation and adequate health and education funding.