Doug Peters

[Railway Safety Act, May 4th, 1994]

moved that Bill C-21, an act to amend the Railway Safety Act, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

[Canada Wildlife Act, May 4th, 1994]

moved that Bill C-24, an act to amend the Canada Wildlife Act and to make a consequential amendment to another act, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

[Ways And Means, May 4th, 1994]

moved that a ways and means motion to amend the Income Tax Act, the income tax application rules, the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Business Corporations Act, the Excise Tax Act, the Unemployment Insurance Act, and certain related acts laid upon the table Friday, April 29, be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to.)

[Ways And Means, April 29th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 83(1) I wish to table a notice of a ways and means motion to amend the Income Tax Act, the income tax applicable rules, the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Business Corporations Act, the Excise Tax Act, the Unemployment Insurance Act, and certain related acts.

I am also tabling a summary of the document and I ask that an order of the day be designated to debate the motion.

[The Economy, April 29th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have the question and the opportunity to confirm that those numbers are good news for Canada.

We have had a series of good news reports. Our economy has performed better than it had before and a number of forecasters have pointed this out. These are much better numbers than we had used for the projections in the budget. That should be good news to all members in the House.

[Ways And Means, April 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 83(1), I wish to table explanatory notes and a notice of a ways and means motion respecting the Excise Tax Act, and I ask that an order of the day be designated to debate the motion.

[Government Expenditures, April 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there is no stalling. We have a clear cut plan to bring the deficit down to 3 per cent of GDP. That is our interim target. We are going beyond that after. I think the hon. member knows full well this is the best way to handle our deficit.

[Government Expenditures, April 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, our budget was set out quite clearly on February 22. We set out a plan that would reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP in three years and cut billions of dollars from spending.

The member is quite wrong. We will continue to look for savings in that budget.

[The Economy, April 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think that the hon. member has looked at our budget carefully enough.

If he had read the budget carefully and looked at the very prudent forecast numbers we used, he would see that our target of 3 per cent of GDP is well within grasp and well within those budget numbers.

If he would like to know to whom we were listening, I was listening to the Royal Bank of Canada's forecast last week and the Conference Board of Canada's forecast last week. I know most of those forecasters personally.

[The Economy, April 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the forecasts mentioned are just some of the ones I would like to mention to the hon. member. The Conference Board's forecast has been revised downward but it is still well above the numbers we used in our very prudent forecast in our budget.

The Royal Bank of Canada last week came out with a brand new forecast. Those numbers show 3.5 per cent real growth this year and 4.3 per cent next year, well above the rates that were used in our budget numbers.

I remind the hon. member that there are some people out there with substantial confidence in the economy and our employment numbers in the last two months show that confidence. The rise in consumer confidence and business confidence is there as well and the private sector forecasts are still well above those used in our budget.