Madam Speaker, I am very happy to have this opportunity to talk about Bill C-38.
I have the floor for 10 minutes, which means that I can talk about all 431 pages of the bill if I spend 1.5 seconds on each page. But that would be too fastidious, and it is not my job to do that right now. It is up to the appropriate committees to dissect Bill C-38. I doubt they will finish the job before the Rio Olympic Games, but that is the government's fault for having the nerve to hand us this giant mess of a bill. Even the Conservatives do not want to debate the bill because I am sure they can imagine the interminable debates we would be happy to subject them to.
Forgive me for being sarcastic, but consider it a defence mechanism. What I am saying is the truth. When Bill C-38 was delivered to the parliamentary office of the riding of Louis-Saint-Laurent, I was reminded of certain books I have read. Indeed, Bill C-38 contains a narrative as long and convoluted as Tolstoy's War and Peace. By page 20, there are so many characters involved in the story that one has to take notes.
I will give you an example. On page 19, it talks about highway fuel consumption ratings. On page 20, we get to tax exemptions for foreign missions and international organizations. On page 21, we are introduced to a pharmacist I will call “Anastasia Prokopov”. On page 22, heart-monitoring devices make their appearance, along with a disturbing character, probably an envoy from the Czar, a priest named “Isosorbide-5-mononitrate”. It goes on like that for over 430 pages, in French and English. But it is about as accessible as a document written in Ottoman Turkish. And I have only 10 minutes to speak to you about this imperial decree.
The appropriate committees will never have a chance to get anywhere near Bill C-38. This edict amends 69 statutes relating to a myriad of subjects. I am not saying that some of these amendments are not useful and even pressing, but I think that more than 750 surprise amendments with unforeseeable consequences at least deserve to be reviewed by the experts, to be discussed in committee, to be subjected to some minimum scrutiny other than through the prism of Conservative ideology.
Imposing a gag order on a bill that is full of so many things, or perhaps I should say so full of nothing, is worthy of Vladimir Putin himself.
Speaking of Putin, I am going to tackle a few clauses in Bill C-38 that are intended to make changes that I consider to be unwarranted and hard to justify. I would like to point out that when the Conservative Party was campaigning it never mentioned 90% of what we have in this mess of a bill. The Conservatives say that the people who voted for them understand instinctively that these measures are unavoidably necessary, so there is no need to discuss them. The right wing makes haste, and if it makes haste straight into a wall, no problem. The Minister of Finance calls this an act to implement certain provisions of the budget; personally, I call it an abuse of trust, an abuse of process and an ethical abomination.
So let us talk about trust. If the government were so sure that these amendments are the right thing to do, it would not feel the need to hide them in a document this abstruse and obtuse. If you want to improve the nation and you are convinced you are doing it the right way, you do not spend 430 pages playing shell games. All of these somewhat shadowy measures are as doomed to go down in defeat as Napoleon’s Great Army was in Russia, although by halfway through this tangled tale, the army still has not made an appearance.
Even the choice of words is an insult to Canadians: jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. How do the Conservatives create jobs and economic prosperity? By reducing government accountability with impunity, by silencing the opposition, by overriding environmental protection measures, and, finally, by trampling on everyone, except for corporations. What is more, they have the audacity to hide an entire pipeline in a budget implementation bill.
Quite simply, when I was reading this bill, I thought I might even find Amelia Earhart's missing plane hidden among the pages. If you have lost your keys, just look in Bill C-38. It has everything.
Pardon my tone, but when the government shows such contempt for Canadians and Canada, the environment that surrounds us and belongs to us, and then has the nerve to say that the opposition is playing petty politics, I feel compelled to make jokes because this is a joke. For the umpteenth time, my hopes and dreams as a citizen of this country have been dashed by this government, which is driven only by money.
Bill C-38 is the grand theosophy of cash. If it truly contains measures to ensure the long-term prosperity of Canadian families—and not just of corporations—the very people for whom Canada was created and who are being asked to make all sorts of sacrifices, then would someone from the government please stand up and name those measures.
Need I remind you that elsewhere in the western world, major countries are making serious decisions and getting rid of governments that talk only about money, money that they want first and foremost for themselves, their friends and possibly for a posh retirement in Dubai?
I would like to reiterate something that is very important. Bill C-38 does contain some peripheral measures that are completely valid. The bill contains so much information that not everything can be bad, that is for sure. I am not saying that all 753 amendments are atrocious, but I have a problem with how the Conservatives have dropped this on us like a ton of bricks. They tell us to stop whining, that it is for the long-term prosperity of all Canadians. The Conservatives would try to hide constitutional amendments in a bill on the reproductive cycle of Canada geese if they thought they could.
I would rather laugh than cry about this, since we have reached a point that is so Kafkaesque with this government, which is putting in doors that open onto brick walls and long, tortuous stairways that lead nowhere. It has become very clear that to this Conservative government, long-term prosperity, growth and employment are simply code words for me, myself and I. The Conservatives are thinking only of their own political future, of the hyper-well-being of their friends in big business, and they do not give a hoot about the working class, about Canadian families or about those who see this ton of bricks falling on their heads.
Where is my generation in this budget? Nowhere. The Conservatives sold our reputation by withdrawing from Kyoto and are laughing in our faces. They are telling us that it is for the good of young people. Young people should be seen and not heard. According to the government, young people should not speak out because they do not understand. They do not understand that Canada has always been poorly managed, that the previous governments were all wrong and that they insisted on cheating and deceiving a category of Canadians whose interests are now being protected by the great Conservative government that was just biding its time and waiting for the perfect moment to rise to power as a majority government and reveal itself to us all. All this contempt for young people reminds me of a quote by James Freeman Clarke, who said that the difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks of the next election and a statesman thinks of the next generation. Clearly, the group before me is a group of politicians, not a group of statesmen.
The Conservatives are mortgaging our young people's future, government transparency and accountability, the environment, natural resources, old age security, agriculture, food safety and immigration. They are hiding immigration bills in a budget implementation bill. Is this a budget bill or the constitution of a new country? The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism has made a lot of effort to travel to cities all across Canada to talk to immigrants who had the opportunity to come to Canada and convince them that they know his party is the one that stands for economic stability and the sound management of public money. He may have even thrown in a little Trudeau-style benevolent multiculturalism. The approach that has always worked for Canada can hardly be reinvented.
Speaking of immigration, the Conservatives think that terrorists are everywhere, trying to get into Canada. They are giving the minister incredible power. They can detain and incarcerate. When the experts tell us that these measures make no sense, the government talks about how Canadians will constantly be in danger if just anyone is allowed in. They are singing two different songs: “Vote for us because we like you” and “Go back where you came from because we have it too good here”. If there is one thing that is growing and that seems to be here to stay, it is not jobs and prosperity; it is shame and contempt.
I would like the government to explain why it thinks it is a good idea to cut food inspection. A UN food safety inspector, Olivier de Schutter, is in Canada right now. Government members do not even dare to talk to him. Is that because they are too ashamed? If Mr. de Schutter had come here with a proposal for a free trade agreement with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, they would have fallen all over themselves to meet with him.
Let us be clear. The government does not care at all about young people and it cares even less about seniors, who are costing us too much money. Seriously, Canada does not need any enemies to make people laugh at us: the Conservative government is doing that well enough on its own. It is acting as though countless seniors got off a big yellow school bus last week. In addition to insulting our intelligence by trying to hide all these changes within these 430 indigestible pages, it is insulting us directly too: you are too old, you need to tighten your belt, you no longer contribute. The Conservatives should be ashamed of themselves. Meanwhile, where is all the money going? It is greasing the palms of big business, which does not need it at all. This sounds more like Hollywood.
I would like to quote the member for Chambly—Borduas who said, “With great power comes great responsibility”. However, for us, there will be no superhero and no harsh Russian winter to defeat this army of shame that is invading us. Even opposition members cannot state our opinions, since we will be muzzled. Bill C-38 only adds to this government's terrible track record. Canadians will have to wait three years to be saved by our superheroes.
