Doug Peters

[Railway Safety Act, March 25th, 1994]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-21, an act to amend the Railway Safety Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)

[Ways And Means, March 25th, 1994]

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

[Publishing Industry, March 17th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the government made a legal obligation some while back. It was committed by the previous government to complete the sale to Paramount. The legal obligation was there.

I might add, however, that it was made in January 1989 when the secretary of state in the cabinet of the previous government happened to be the current Leader of the Opposition.

[Supply, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a brief comment on the hon. member's answer to the last question.

It was clear that there were no offers made to purchase Ginn from these three Canadian companies. What she told us was that they may have expressed an interest in that which is very well and good but it is a long way from actually making an offer. CDIC has told us clearly that there was no offers ever received for the purchase of these companies from anybody. There were opportunities on several occasions for offers to be made but there was never an offer made.

The hon. member has said she might be interested, that might be nice. It is nice after the fact when one never has to cough up the $10.3 million, but there was never really an offer made and the hon. member has just stated that.

[The Economy, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I suggest that the hon. member look at the budget a little more carefully.

The interest rate assumptions in the budget for long term rates are, as he states, a little bit low but short term rates are where the changes take place. Long term bond rate changes affect maybe a seventh of the total over any year.

I would say that our budget is dead on in that. With the interest rate assumptions that we have made in the budget and if the interest rates continue where they are right now, we will come in at a lower cost of interest than we had in our budget.

[The Economy, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I commend the hon. member for his reading of the marketplace and how interested he is in interest rate spreads. I have studied them quite considerably over the years and would tell him that interest rate spreads at the present time are not much different from what they have been. Indeed, the short term rates are very much lower than they have been in the recent past. Our budget is a dead-on plan.

We look forward to seeing that budget and the Canadian economy prosper considerably in the year to come.

[The Economy, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the last employment statistics indicated that jobs went up in this country in every region.

It is this government's budget that has contributed to that strength in employment. It is this government's budget that is going to contribute to the strength of this country's economy in the future.

[The Economy, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the budget was quite clear in its representations as to what budget cuts would be made. Those budget cuts will reach our goal of a deficit of 3 per cent of GDP in the third year of our mandate. That was a clear and unequivocal statement in the budget and that remains. It was well received by the business community despite what the member says.

[The Economy, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian economy continues to be very strong. Of course I am not going to make

any comment on the value of the Canadian dollar, which fluctuates.

The hon. member is a little late. I spent 27 years of my life commenting on the prospective value of the Canadian dollar. He missed it by four months. I am sorry but he is four months too late.

I have been told by the Prime Minister not to comment on the value of the Canadian dollar. However I will comment on the Canadian economy. It is strong. We have had manufacturers' shipments up 7 per cent year over year. We have had business confidence improving over the last little while and consumer confidence has been improving somewhat as well.

[Publishing Industry, March 15th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there is no refusal to acknowledge who was responsible for that. It was a decision of the previous government. It was a legally binding decision that we were forced to finish up. It was left on our platter when we took over as the government.

There is no secret as to who is responsible. It is the previous government.