Carolyn Bennett

[Supply, September 30th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, on June 2 Canadians were consulted. The voters clearly preferred our more responsible approach and saw through the Reform Party's irresponsible tax cut promises before the budget was balanced. In every single province except Alberta, the majority of voters rejected the cuts to programs and services.

It is irresponsible for a government to artificially determine optimal government size and taxation levels and then drop the ball in order to achieve those goals.

As we know and as we have experienced in Ontario, this leaves those less able to, to go and fend for themselves. We feel this every day in Ontario: a mission of tax cuts; smaller government; survival of the fittest; no positive role for government; knee jerk, simplistic approaches; black and white with no shades of grey.

Canadians expect us to do what we said we would do. We will put the debt to GDP ratio on a permanent downward trend. We will balance the budget by 1998-99. They expect us to demonstrate vision and values. They expect us to be innovative and to find and build partnerships. They also expect us to reinvest in a stronger society. We said we would and we will.

As said in the Speech from the Throne, it is our responsibility to ensure that no Canadian is left behind as the country moves forward. We can do this without financial risk. We can do it in a balanced way set forth in the election platform.

The government has made tremendous strides while continuing to adhere to five basic principles: controlling government spending rather than increasing taxes, fairness so that no one is left behind, enhanced economic prospects and job growth, and frugality with a commitment to decrease waste in government.

The government also made a promise to shift resources from lower priorities to higher priorities knowing there is no new money until the budget is balanced.

I wish we could do this without having to listen to inaccurate Reform rhetoric and truncated history lessons that leave out the four critical years of stunningly successful fiscal management. Members of the official opposition keep talking about shell games. I dare them to go and pick up all the shells at once. They will be disappointed. There is not a tax and spend Liberal to be found.

Canadians will be consulted, but we will consult on how we deliver our promise and not whether. We have committed 50 percent of any surplus to reinvestments in building a stronger society. Canadians are counting on us, especially those less well off. The prime minister said “It is a nice problem to contemplate this surplus. It is a proud moment for Canada, not a time for partisan jealously.

The motion must be defeated and the government congratulated, not condemned, for its practical and doable election promise.

[Supply, September 30th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, it is ironic that the hon. member for Medicine Hat is asking the House to condemn the government for an election promise when that is what it was and indeed the people of Canada saw fit to elect the government on that basis.

The people of Canada have rewarded the Liberal record and have chosen to reaffirm their trust.

It was very clearly stated in the platform. We are moving toward the time when the budget will finally be balanced, the debt to GDP ratio will be declining and the government will have a fiscal surplus.

When we reach that time we will allocate every billion dollars of fiscal dividend so that one half will go to a combination of reducing taxes and reducing the national debt, and one half will address social and economic needs through program expenditures.

It was very clear to me door to door, coffee party after coffee party and all-candidate meeting after all-candidate meeting that the specifics of the plan, a 50:50 division of any future surpluses, were hugely reassuring to Canadians, particularly those of us in Ontario where the savage government cuts and an unaffordable tax cut are negatively affecting people every day.

The people of Canada have clearly demonstrated that they respected and trusted the commitments of the finance minister, continued prudent management and staying the course on restoring Canada's fiscal health. They were eloquently stated by the finance minister in the February budget and then reinforced again and again throughout the election campaign. The people of Canada have been consulted.

The people of Canada spoke loudly on June 2 and now we as a government must get on and do what we said we would do. The Liberal government has said that we would meet or exceed deficit targets, and we will. We would impose no new taxes and no new spending cuts, and we will not. We promised that we would address economic and social priorities through selected tax cuts, and we will honour that promise.

Thankfully, and with the support of Canadians, that is not all that is on our agenda, unlike the honourable opposition. We promised to create conditions favourable for private sector job creation and to invest for immediate jobs in growth, in infrastructure, trade, youth employment, labour market training, payroll tax deduction, tourism, rural Canada and small business. We have already begun on a number of these.

Canadians are counting on us to continue our investment in higher education and skills development and to proceed with our investment in technological innovation through the proposed Canada foundation for innovation which John Polanyi endorsed totally in his remarks to the Nobel laureates on Sunday night.

Canadians understood that the tough decision had to be made in the first Liberal mandate in order to get our fiscal house back in order. They understood that as long as interest payments were a significant amount in each budget, it was impossible for government to provide to the people of Canada value for their tax dollars. We could not afford the deficit and the ballooning effect on the debt.

After this Canadian miracle, as economists around the world refer to this unprecedented success, it is totally insulting and inexcusable that the member for Medicine Hat can pretend it never happened.

How can he ignore the miraculous turnaround of an economy that had been called an economic basket case? This is a great Canadian success story, the record and commitments to decrease the debt, decrease taxes and reduce unemployment. I believe this Liberal government will honour those commitments.

It is also clear that the people of Canada voted to reinvest in building a stronger society, an increased ability to look after those less fortunate. That government can and should play a positive role in the lives of Canadians. They voted for improved health care delivery, they voted for support for children's health programs, they voted to increase the child tax benefit.

They voted for new and better support for the disabled and they voted for increasing support for charitable giving. They voted and knew they were voting for 50 percent of every future surplus going back into strategic reinvestments and programs.

We know there will be a need to seek more input. I expect it and Canadians expect it. This government is no stranger to consultation. I need only point out the unprecedented work of the Minister of Finance and his department in the annual prebudget consultations. They were wide ranging and inclusive and provided Canadians the opportunity to have input into the priorities of this government.

We will continue to consult in the manner that Canadians have come to expect and appreciate from this Liberal government. We will seek input on where targeted reinvestments should be and how to divide between tax relief and debt retirement.

Some suggestions may indeed be hard to assign. For example, does a child tax credit go under the tax relief column or the children's program column? This example also serves to point out the kind of narrow anti-government argument Reform members are prepared to engage in rather than the substantive of where should government be involved in bettering the lives and prospects of our children.

The optimal size of government cannot be arbitrarily determined. We must see what partnerships are possible and then see what we can do to be the catalyst to help get the job done.

Canadian values are inherently those articulated by the Minister of Finance in his 1997 budget address. Let us never come to believe there is such a thing as a tolerable level of child poverty or that the growing gap between the rich and the poor is ever acceptable. Let us never forget the debt we owe to our seniors and that there be no stone unturned in the quest for jobs.

I believe Canadians just want us to get on and do the right thing. We are at an exciting time. Corporations are learning that social marketing is good for business. The third sector is coming on line to help better determine the gaps and duplications and become more accountable. The unions are joining in projects and partnerships that are tremendous examples of what can be done.

When the government has a vision shared by Canadians, when we are convinced that we have the right things to do, only then can we set the goals and then go about achieving them with innovation and partnerships to ensure they happen.

SchoolNet is an excellent example. We know it is imperative that all schools and Canadian school children be on line by the year 2000. By setting this goal and enlisting the co-operation of the pioneers, those wonderful retired telephone workers who have already refurbished cast-off computers from government and the private sector, today we have placed over 40,000 computers into the classrooms of Canada.

Today's motion is just another rather transparent attempt to camouflage the meanspirited, survival of the fittest Reform ideology.

We know this type of consultation being sought by the Reform Party needs to meet only with the Canadian taxpayers federation and its leader in waiting, Stephen Harper, to be told that the total surplus should be put into arbitrary tax reductions with nothing being invested into Canada and into the types of programs Canadians want and deserve.

There is no vision in the Reform Party's narrow agenda. Rhetoric about taxation levels without regard for the inclusion of the best health care system in the world is dishonest.

Canadians understand that Americans pay less tax but they also understand that 30 percent of Americans cannot afford to go to the doctor. My patients, when they go to the United States, understand too when asked to write a cheque for $10,000 for their health care insurance.

The protection of our health care system is imperative for all Canadians. Confidence in high quality health care is paramount.

On June 2 Canadians chose the balanced Liberal approach. They were offered an immediate tax cut and they declined. They were offered two tier medicine and they declined.

The hon. member in his remarks scolded the government for not taking responsibility for the debt. I suggest that the people of Canada recognized and rewarded the Liberal plan of achieving a balanced budget before considering irresponsible tax cuts that could risk increasing the deficit and the debt.

Voters preferred our more responsible approach and saw through the Reform Party's irresponsible tax cut promise before the budget was balanced. It is totally irresponsible for a government to artificially determine optimal government size and taxation levels and then, in order to achieve it, drop the ball and allow those least able to fend for themselves to try and get by.

We have seen those results in Ontario. The arbitrary welfare cuts have Harris hookers on the streets. Reckless cuts to hospitals are now being documented in the Ivy School of Business as a serious loss of quality, all to pay for their arbitrary 30 percent tax cut. They have no vision.

As John Wright from Angus Reid has said, the tax cutter bus has ended up an express bus with no destination. I believe the people of Canada expect from this government continued prudent fiscal management. I believe they expect us to do what we said we would do, to put the GDP to debt ratio on a permanent downward trend—

[University Of Toronto, September 29th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of the House the recent donation of $9.7 million to the University of Toronto chemistry department by Mrs. Edna Davenport and the estate of her late husband John Davenport.

The surprise announcement of this generous gift came at a dinner last night honouring six Nobel laureates from around the world, including our own John Polanyi of the University of Toronto.

Mrs. Davenport is originally from Owen Sound, Ontario and a graduate of the University of Toronto in 1929 and was represented at the dinner by her son Peter Davenport for the announcement.

The chair of the chemistry department at the University of Toronto, Dr. Martin Moscovits, has said that the gift will be used to build state of the art molecular science laboratories at the university's chemistry building and will ensure that the University of Toronto and Canada remain world leaders in research in chemistry.

Philanthropy of this type is rare and greatly appreciated. I hope one day it will lead to future Nobel laureates from the University of Toronto.

I know that I am joined by the University of Toronto community, members of this House and indeed all Canadians in thanking the Davenports for this spectacular act of generosity.

[Speech From The Throne, September 26th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, I think the beginning is the health information network. In Ontario, we have the beginning with ICES, a plan for keeping track of certain things.

It is really important when we start to track information that we ask what questions do we want answered and then to go and get that information. I think things like early discharge from maternity care, discharge from hospital readmission rates are probably the way to go, waiting lists.

We need to look at different kinds of problems, such as looking at pharmacare and seeing that in certain provinces when drugs are cut off the list, the patients have to be admitted to hospital in order to get that drug. That is not saving the overall budget any money.

We need to know that those kinds of things are happening. We need to know the kind of absenteeism in the women's workforce that is happening because women have to stay off work in order to go and look after their sick relatives who have been sent home from hospital too early.

I think we can get that data, but we are going to need everybody's help in finding out what questions we need to be asking in order to go and track that data.

[Speech From The Throne, September 26th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, I am aware that this is a problem across the country. I believe it is not the fault of the transfer payment cuts which I think were very necessary in order to be able to reduce the interest payments and for us to continue to do good work.

I do think, though, that the federal government has an ability to track these kinds of outcomes and be able to set some standards that all provinces can then set as true accountability for their performance.

We do not really know the readmission rate of maternity patients. We do not really know the readmission rate of people being sent home from hospital too early. We need to know those statistics so that we know where to reinvest and how to set examples for excellent quality care.

What I am most concerned with is that we have to do everything in our power to restore the confidence of Canadians in our health care system, because otherwise we end up on the slippery slope to an American system. I will do everything in my power to prevent that.

[Speech From The Throne, September 26th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, congratulations on your appointment.

As I assume my responsibilities as the member for St. Paul's, I want to thank my predecessor, Barry Campbell, for his hard work both in the riding and for his invaluable help as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. I am also honoured to have his ongoing support and guidance as I enter this exciting new chapter.

I also want to thank his staff, Michael Spowart and Esther Shron for staying with me and providing the seamless transition for the people of St. Paul's with their ongoing care and experience.

The people of St. Paul's are big picture people. They are knowledgeable, passionate and have high expectations of their member of Parliament. Mitchell Sharp, John Roberts and Barry Campbell have set a high standard that I hope to be able to live up to.

Throughout the election campaign, it was clear to me that the people of St. Paul's respected the Liberal record of fiscal responsibility. Now they solidly support the priorities of this government as set forth in the Speech from the Throne. As it says in the Speech from the Throne, this government has regained the ability to address the priorities of Canadians while living within its means.

We have been elected to continue our prudent fiscal management, but make sure that we are able to be compassionate and look after those less fortunate. The people of Canada elected a Liberal government with a real plan: first eliminate the deficit, then divide the surplus between reinvesting in programs and a combination of tax relief and debt reduction, a balanced approach.

The people of Ontario strongly rejected the tax cuts and survival of the fittest option. We are living every day with the consequences of a provincial government which has no vision nor values; a government that continues to transfer power to unelected officials and ignores public opinion and referenda; a government that does not believe that it can have a positive effect on people's lives and whose sole purpose is to cut taxes; a government that forgets that Canada is a big cold country and as John Ralston Saul has said, a country whose people agreed over 150 years ago that they would have to look after one another. The true vision and values of Canadians are Liberal values.

Throughout the throne speech one finds the word “partnerships”. It is an exciting time when government can be the catalyst that brings together the private, public and third sector to facilitate innovative programs that will have a positive effect in the lives of Canadians. Partnerships require good communication and mutual respect.

I have been surprised and overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and innovation present in our public service and their clear commitment to real partnerships. Yesterday at the Industry Canada open house I was thrilled to see Schoolnet and Strategis as realities, to see the national graduates registry actually putting young Canadians to work on the digital collections and consulting small business. It is quite clear that our young Canadians' real facility with technology will be the true leveller in our society. The CEOs of this country are really learning directly from the recent grads.

I had the opportunity to see first hand last week one of the youth initiatives at HRDC. Their award winning newspaper Canada Prospects is really talking to high school students in language they can relate to and it is working. I was privileged to represent the minister at the launch of HRDC's new program, career in a box, creating a partnership between the federal government, the packaging industry and the CEC union. Hopefully this example of partnership will provide a template for which other sectors can soon follow.

Initiatives such as getting the volunteer sector on line is another true example of partnership and a commitment to make sure that Canadians are looked after but government does not have to deliver every service. Organizations like ACTEW and Skills for Change in my riding embody the vision and values and have the expertise to help realize the potential of those highly motivated Canadians who would truly rather be working.

As a family physician, my patients and now my constituents have made me acutely aware that they are increasingly concerned that the health care they need may not be there when they need it. In Ontario the present restructuring is putting at risk the high quality care that Canadians wear as a badge of honour.

I support the establishment of the health transition fund that will help provincial governments innovate in the areas of primary care and provide more integration in the delivery of health services and innovative home care and pharmacare. By finally moving forward with health care reform we can hopefully begin to ameliorate the damage done by the closing of hospitals and old-fashioned mergers before resources have been properly placed into community care. By improving the health information system, we will finally be able to track outcomes and ensure the kind of accountability that is required in order to support what up until now has only been supported anecdotally.

Throughout North America, health institutions are sharing services, saving dollars and proving that restructuring can be done without destroying institutions like Women's College Hospital and eroding public confidence in the system. In my former role as host of Doctor On Call on WTN, I was shocked at the disparity of health care across the country. It is only with the facts that we will finally be able to address the inequities.

The tenets of the Canada Health Act presumed high quality care. Accessibility to bargain basement standards is not what was intended nor what Canadians expect. These new initiatives will ensure increased accountability and real measurements of quality such that we can restore the confidence of Canadians in their health care system. We can no longer tolerate benchmarks that are not based on quality.

In Ontario sending people home from hospital quicker and sicker is what seems to be rewarded. We know the data is flawed and we know that readmission rates are not being tracked and that the women of this country are being left to pick up the pieces when patients are sent home too sick to look after themselves. We need to measure the absenteeism of those working women and the real cost to our country. Some companies are already convinced that partnerships in home care for their employees is just plain good business.

Health care delivery may be a provincial responsibility but there is no question in my mind that all Canadians hold us, the federal government, responsible for the existence and the quality of our health care system.

For me the sustainability of the health care system is reliant upon the recognition of all the determinants of health: jobs and poverty, violence and crime prevention, the environment. The priorities set out on Tuesday of investing in children, building safer communities, creating opportunities for young Canadians, are all part of our goal of keeping Canadians healthy. It is really about decreasing the demand so that we can guarantee adequate supply.

Throughout the summer my constituents have already been reassured by the efforts of the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs to bring frankness and clarity to any debate that could put in jeopardy the future of this country. They too believe that our future as a country is too precious for us to risk losing it through misunderstanding. The issue of national unity continues to be of paramount importance to the residents of St. Paul's.

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank you and your office personally for the excellent opportunity that your office provided at the centre d'immersion at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. It helped me become a little more comfortable in our other official language. I also felt that the exposure to Madam Gervais and her staff with their frank conversations helped me to better understand the point of view that will be important to the future of a united Canada. This experience and exposure has been invaluable to me as a member of Parliament and has allowed me already to help explain to the people of St. Paul's the need for even greater understanding.

I recommend that all Canadians take any opportunity they can to visit Quebec. I hope this sort of exchange among all provinces will become a focus for some of our millennium celebrations. As we move toward the millennium I feel extremely proud to be a Canadian.

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to the Canadian Publishers Association which was entertaining a delegation of 20 Japanese publishers. I was asked to help them differentiate between Canadians and Americans. I focused on two things, both highlighted in the Speech from the Throne: our commitment to look after one another and our respect for multiculturalism.

American author John Irving who with his Canadian wife has an apartment in St. Paul's, pointed out that it is the expectation of the Canadian social system to look after the people who cannot look after themselves. There is no such expectation in the United States. That is another reason to protect our culture and to celebrate the stories of Canadians and by Canadians. We can remember that in Fifth Business Dunstan Ramsay looked after Boy Staunton. There is also the wonderful Canadian nurse who looked after the English patient. We are different.

I am so proud to be married to Peter O'Brian who with his films such as Grey Fox and My American Cousin continues to find and produce films that tell our stories.

Our respect for diversity also makes us different. I suggest that perhaps the publishing industry has demonstrated such success because of its recognition of the tremendous talent of our Canadians with roots around the world: Ondaatje, Ricci, Bissoondath, Kogawa.

As we move into this exciting new chapter, I am honoured to be part of a government that has accepted the challenge“to ensure that no Canadian is left behind as the country moves forward”.

I thank my husband and my sons for making my decision such an easy one and I thank my parents for their commitment of hard work and commitment to the customer.

Being a member of Parliament is truly the greatest privilege and responsibility. Politics and the opportunity to be part of a good government that can make a real difference in people's lives is indeed the highest calling. I promise that I will do everything in my power to continue to earn the trust the people of St. Paul's have placed in me.

[Housing, September 26th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The statements by the Ontario government about the proposed changes to the administration of co-operative and other social housing is causing extreme concern for those residents. What assurance can the minister give these residents that the future of co-operative and other social housing will remain secure?