Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise and join in the debate today. Here we are one full year to the day into our mandate. That is certainly cause for reflection but that is all, for we have barely moved from the status quo of doing nothing. Little has been achieved in addressing the deficit and debt problem. As I stand here I do not see myself slashing and burning, folding up the tent and saying let's go home as my hon. colleague from Brant suggested in her earlier remarks.
The presentation I would like to make today is focused. It speaks of an ideology that all Reformers carry, that is recognizing that we as a nation have difficult choices to make. We are burdened with a federal debt that is more than $535 billion. This bone crushing yoke demands more than $40 billion a year in interest payments. If we do not make some tough decisions today we will soon be unable to deal with it at all.
This is not fearmongering nor is it self-serving as some Liberals have been wont to say. Rather it is the tough talk needed to make every Canadian realize the magnitude of the problem we face. We in the Reform Party take pride in our approach, bringing difficult issues out into the open, addressing the problem and developing solutions.
The challenges that face us today as legislators are really quite unique. We have the privilege to participate in the changing of our nation. We recognize that this great country still in its youth is growing, changing and finding its own identity. Part of finding its identity is to throw off the old mantle of programs that worked in the past when the nation was young and to establish new and stronger programs that will take us further into its next phase of maturity.
The first step is recognizing that Canada now does too much for too many people and can no longer afford to do that. In attempting to be everything to everyone we have gone bankrupt. Our challenge is to determine what we need to do, to do it well, and to encourage individuals to assume responsibility for non-essential services.
I have always focused upon priorities during debate. I believe today is no different as I look at the choices we must make as a nation and as a people. We in the Reform Party care about preserving Canada for the future for our children and their children. We envisage a country that takes care of those not able to do so in order that they may be able to contribute to the well-being of their families. We envisage a country that educates its children, ensures that they can get jobs, contributes to the well-being of Canada and thereby focuses on its future.
There is no one in the House who lacks compassion at heart, and that is contrary to the somewhat pejorative suggestions of my colleague from Brant. Coupled with that compassion does come a practicality.
There has been no better contributor to our nation's ill health than the federal deficit and debt. The Liberals would have Canadians believe that the Tories are completely responsible for the debt problem, but in reality the Tories did not have the political will to address the problems created originally by the Liberals.
Let us consider these Liberals and their accompanying huge deficits while in power: in 1981, $14 billion; in 1982, $15 billion; in 1983, $28 billion; in 1984, $32 billion; and in their last budget in fiscal 1984-85 year, a deficit of more than $38 billion.
A combination of three things needs to happen to make the finances of government more manageable. We need to spend less. We need to spend what we have better and more efficiently. We need to lead by example in government. Therefore I have decided to focus my remarks today on a particular area, that is the Department of Canadian Heritage and all its funded organizations. It is possible to find $1.6 billion in savings there.
Let us be specific. If the finance minister wants to find cuts he can begin with what was once the department of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is too costly. Canadians, especially first and second generation Canadians, do not support it. Multiculturalism funding serves only to disunite Canada by sectoring off parts of society instead of encouraging them to embrace their new nation. The responsibilities for race relations and cross-cultural understanding should be transferred to the Human Rights Institute and its accompanying appropriations should be discontinued.
The community support and participation program funnels millions of dollars into special interest groups and serves as a tool to garner votes for the government. Its funding should be discontinued. The heritage language and cultures program provides grants to special interest groups and promotes the disunity of the country. Its appropriations should be discontinued.
These arguments also apply for the community development program, the voluntary action program, the Canadian Multicultural Advisory Committee, the multiculturalism secretariat, the human rights program, the Canadian studies program and the open house Canada program.
These programs provide a service only to those who use them. These are the taxpayers who should support them, privately and independently. The minister will save some $50 million by cutting funding to these programs.
The single largest benefactor of the Department of Canadian Heritage funding is the CBC. This organization has enjoyed receiving parliamentary appropriations that have continued to grow on an annual basis. It now receives $1.1 billion a year from Canadian taxpayers. This creates an imbalance in a free market setting.
Yet the CBC continually comes back with cap in hand year after year for more money, for supplementary appropriations. It continues to say to the government and the Canadian public: "Oh dear, we just cannot fulfil our mandate without more funding".
Every year it gets an increase and every year it continues to be dissatisfied. At what level of funding will the CBC say it has enough to do its job? The CBC is the epitome of government waste. Do not tell me that it has a mandate to promote Canadian unity while it remains completely unaccountable to the Canadian public.
It is not subject to the Access to Information Act or to the Privacy Act. Further, it is exempt from sections 1 through 4 of part 10 of the Financial Administration Act, which makes the corporation also financially unaccountable to the Canadian taxpayer. These two factors give the CBC a further special status, giving it an even greater competitive edge.
We are looking at ways of cutting spending in government to make government better. The CBC should be required to do the same. The Minister of Canadian Heritage has recommended
that Canadians pay a new entertainment tax to generate revenue for the CBC. Canadians are already taxed to the hilt.
The finance minister said we do not need new taxes, we need to spend what we have more efficiently.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage has stated publicly that he favours partial privatization of the CBC. The government should order this forthwith.
While we are on the topic of efficiency, let us look at the bloated government bureaucracy in desperate need of downsizing. The Minister of Canadian Heritage is also responsible for the Public Service Commission. In light of the recent report in the Ottawa Citizen describing how seven people double dipped after receiving their severance packages, it is clear that there is much housecleaning that needs to be done.
The government should immediately adopt the auditor's recommendation and ensure that these seven people are appropriately punished for abusing the public trust. That is what this is all about, the public trust. This means in the very least recovering the amounts given in those golden handshakes with interest and the removal of those individuals from any positions they hold.
Going after these people is not going to save much money but it will send a clear and unequivocal message to the Canadian people and their public servants that the days of the abuse of public trust are gone.
Consider also as examples of government waste the following: the 13 members of the historic sites and monuments board who chalked up over $78,000 in travel expenses in 1993 and the 31 members of the National Advisory Council on the Status of Women, government appointed people, who spent more than $133,000 travelling.
The government does have a unique opportunity. There is consensus in this House that we need to cut our spending. What we now need is consensus on where to cut and how quickly to do it. I challenge the finance minister and the Minister of Canadian Heritage to take a good hard look at those programs currently funded by government and choose only those that the Canadian taxpayers will support.
It is the Canadian taxpayer after all who we are here to serve. I ask the government to support this common sense motion made today on behalf of all Canadians.
