Charlie Angus

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I am very proud as always to rise in the House representing the people of Timmins--James Bay and to rise in a place that is called the House of Commons. It is called the House of Commons because Parliament was set up to have a voice for the common people, so that the lords and the cronies and their pals could not simply lord over fundamental issues, one of them being taxation, taxation without representation. It was made up of common people who represented various regions.

People watching this back home see the New Democratic Party as being the one party in the House to speak about the issue before us, which is the Conservative government's attempt to take an unwanted tax out of the hide of senior citizens and people on fixed income.

The government does not have the guts nor the willingness to hear from senior citizens nor to hear from small business, so it brought forward a closure motion. We are not even debating the issue of the unwanted HST today. We are debating the fact that the Conservative government is shutting down debate on a bill that the public has not even seen.

Then we look at the Liberals' position. Well I could look at the Liberals, but they are all off at their Christmas eggnog parties. The Liberals say they cannot represent this issue in the House because if they do, the government might make them stay for the weekend and they are off to the beaches of Cuba.

The Liberals and the Conservatives both have one thing in common. Both parties think that by deep-sixing debate they can escape the sensor of the people of Ontario and British Columbia. This speaks to a deep malaise that exists in both the Liberal and Conservative Party. They think that the common people do not need to be heard.

I would like to quote an article in the Toronto Sun from the other day that actually spoke about this. It said :

The July 1 imposition of an unwanted Harmonized Sales Tax on millions of Canadians, which took another step forward on Parliament Hill yesterday, is a symbol of a growing malaise in Canadian politics. It's the increasing disconnection of Canada's political elite, both in the nation's capital and in the provinces, regardless of whether they are Conservatives or Liberals, from the people they are supposed to serve.

Conservative backbenchers think they are going to escape the judgment of average citizens on this issue because they are hiding behind this pathetic fig leaf, saying it is the provinces. It is not the provinces. This comes from the Mike Harris gang. This is the agenda of the finance minister. As the National Post said in early March of this year, “It was a pet project of the finance minister”.

People in Ontario will remember that gang and what the Mike Harris crew did. They were the ones who laughed when people were not able to feed their kids. They were the ones who told them to buy dented cans of tuna if they wanted to feed their families. They were the ones who demonized the poor. A woman who was nine months pregnant, who had received overpayments on her student loans, was considered such a criminal that she was put under house arrest and left to die. We heard nothing from that gang about what they were doing to the poor and to seniors. That is the Mike Harris gang.

That same gang is now in Ottawa. They are trying to pretend that the provinces are doing this, and yet in budget 2006 the finance minister said:

The Government invites all provinces that have not yet done so to engage in discussions on the harmonization of their provincial retail sales taxes with the federal GST.

On April 10, 2008, the finance minister, who was the right hand of Mike Harris, said:

--we're also calling on the remaining provinces that have not harmonized their PST with the GST to work with us to accomplish that goal of harmonization.

The National Post refers to this as being “the pet project of the finance minister”.

Just recently, members of the wonderful New Democratic government in Manitoba, who did not mind staying up late at night to debate a motion that affected their citizens, said that Manitoba was rejecting an invitation from the federal government to introduce a harmonized sales tax because, as proposed, the HST would impose more than $400 million in new sales tax costs on Manitoba families at a time of economic uncertainty.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I think people back home see through this. If we look at a bill that will override first nations treaty rights, that will squeeze seniors citizens, that will attack the poor and the marginalized, we have to look no further than the Conservative Party. This is its baby.

I find it very shocking that the Conservatives have stood in the House day after day attempting to hide behind the provincial Liberal governments in B.C. and Ontario. If they read the budget of 2006, it said specifically that the government invited all provinces to engage in discussions on the harmonization of the provincial retail sales tax.

The finance minister, on April 10, 2006, said that the government was calling on the remaining provinces that had not harmonized their PST to work with it to accomplish that goal. The National Post, on March 26, said that the harmonization had long been a pet project of the present finance minister.

It is clear, this initiative comes from the Conservative Party and it will affect citizens across Ontario and British Columbia. The government is attempting to shut down the ability of members of Parliament to represent senior citizens, condo owners, first nations and first-time homeowners who will be affected by the finance minister's pet project.

Why does the Pinocchio nose of the Conservative Party continue to grow on the HST?

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the Bloc's position on the overall issues of legislation and the harmonizing of taxes and the closure motion. I can say that the party has been very consistent on it.

What concerns me about the motion we are debating today is the fact that the House of Commons, where people are elected from every region of the country to bring forward their concerns, to carry out due diligence and to examine legislation, has been turned into some kind of rubber stamp charade show for the benefit of the Prime Minister's office and the Conservative war room.

We are being told that a major change in legislation that will affect millions of families across this country in terms of taxation has to be done quickly and painlessly for the Conservative Party and, by extension, for the pitiful state of the Liberal Party in the House, and that we as members are not to see the bill. We are supposed to simply rubber stamp it, regardless of the implications it will have.

This closure motion presents a profound threat to democracy and a complete undermining of our roles, which are to examine legislation and understand its implications for individuals, our constituents and our regions. We know where the Conservatives come from on these issues. They are rotten to the core. It is not surprising. The pitiful Liberal Party next to them has completely refused to carry out due diligence and act as any form of organized opposition.

I would like to ask the member why he thinks it is that the Liberal Party is in such a pitiful state going along as meek little brothers and sisters behind their big Conservative bully cousins.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague and I did not hear a word on the issue of closure or the fact that just a few weeks ago members of the Liberal Party were standing in the House telling the Prime Minister that his time was up.

At the end of his long soliloquy supporting the Conservative government, that member expects us to believe that 591,000 jobs, or maybe 592,000 jobs, would be miraculously created in Ontario if the tax burden were shifted onto senior citizens. We are supposed to accept that blather without being able, as politicians, to do due diligence, to hear from witnesses, to hear from senior citizens.

I have heard from senior citizens in my riding and from right across Ontario. They have spoken out consistently on this matter, but they are not getting the opportunity to speak here because they are being shut down.

I did not hear a single word about first nations people in Ontario, first nations people whose treaty rights are going to be erased at the stroke of a pen for the convenience of the Conservative Party and the greater convenience for the Liberal leader from Harvard, who simply wants this to go away.

If the member believes that this carbolic syrup is so good that it should be forced down the throats of Ontarians, why is he supporting the Conservatives in shutting down discussion that would allow witnesses to be brought forward so that they could speak to the reality of what this tax burden would--

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I listened very closely to my hon. colleague, just as I did the other day. I still have not heard whether he has answered Question No. 537. Could he go through the list again and let us know? A number of my constituents have been writing letters, emailing and phoning me about Question No. 537.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, what is most troubling for Canadians as they watch this debate today is the contempt and the smirks from members of the Conservative Party. The Conservatives are showing their complete disregard for the issue at hand. They do not want to hear the voices of senior citizens of Ontario and British Columbia. They do not want to hear from the people who are going to be most affected by this. These people are calling us and asking us to have their voices heard. The minister and other Conservative members are showing contempt for the senior citizens of Ontario.

The Conservatives say this bill is too technical. They do not want to hear from the people who are going to be affected. They are going to shut down the voices of the people who will be paying extra for their home heating fuel, who will be paying extra when they try to get their RRSP savings.

These people have a right to be heard. That is our job as members of Parliament. The Conservatives can ridicule us all they want, but we are representing our people. The minister and his gang are working with Dalton McGuinty to shut down the voices of people who are going to be paying the hardest for this regressive tax. The minister should at least be honest and say that he does not want to hear from senior citizens because he knows what they are going to say.

That is why the Conservatives are shutting down the debate. That is why we are moving to closure now.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I will try to help my colleague. I do not want to sound like I am being unfair to the Liberal Party, because it is sort of like jumping up and down on Jell-O.

Regarding his question about where the NDP stands on the HST, if we search the words “flip-flop on HST” on Google, guess what comes up? It is not the Conservative Party. Everybody knows where the Conservatives stand. They are rotten to the core. What comes up is the Liberals.

Just this past September, a visitor from Harvard University denounced the HST. What did he call the HST? I am not going to use the Prime Minister's name, but he used the Prime Minister's surname which begins with an “H” and said it was his sales tax. He said that the Liberal Party was opposed to the way the Prime Minister was going around the country forcing these tax harmonization agreements.

Now that the Liberals have had to come under the wing of the Conservatives again, they are trying to make this an issue of the right of provinces, when their own leader was flip-flopping on this.

I am trying to find where the party stands on everything. When it came to Kyoto, the Liberals voted to kill Kyoto. When it came to pay equity, they voted to kill pay equity.

Then they decided they were going to stand up and say that the Prime Minister's days were numbered because they suddenly discovered evolution and developed vertebrae. What did they do? They voted against the home renovation tax credit that they previously supported. They then voted against the extension to EI benefits.

But now when it comes to a tax that will squeeze little old ladies on their home heating fuel, now when it comes to a tax that every time we go to the gas pump we are going to pay an extra 8¢, thanks to the Liberal Party and thanks to the Prime Minister, guess what? Now they are back onside.

The problem with the Liberal Party is that it stands for nothing. On the HST issue, the Liberals have to be willing to take complete credit for the fact that people in Ontario will be paying hundreds of millions of dollars more at the gas pumps every year with the HST when they pay for their gas because of the Liberals' support.

I would like to end with a quote from Dimitri Soudas, who should now be supporting the Leader of the Opposition, but then he was attacking the Liberal leader and he was responding to the HST. He said, about the Liberal leader's then opposition to the HST:

When you're an opportunist like [the Liberal leader], you think nothing of saying one thing in public, another in private.

Here we are, being forced to rush through a bill that nobody has ever seen, that will have profound implications for citizens across Ontario and British Columbia, that will deny treaty rights to first nations people, and the member thinks that the only just thing to do as a Liberal is to get it through as fast and as quickly as possible so there is no accountability and nobody will check. First nations families, senior citizens, those on fixed incomes will all be left out in the cold for Christmas, but the Liberals will try to sneak back with the Conservatives and pretend they had nothing to do with it.

Will the member at least stand up, be accountable and say, “Yes, we as the Liberal Party completely side with the Conservatives, as we do on all great matters of principle, and support this regressive tax”?

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the issue of the government's decision to force through the HST before Christmas has profound implications for people in Ontario. It will target seniors and it will target people on fixed incomes. Yet he spoke nothing of the implementation of the bill. He spent the last 20 minutes attacking the New Democratic Party. I am glad he attacks the New Democratic Party because it is clear the New Democratic Party is the only party that is standing up to the Tories.

Look over at the Liberal benches. Those members are lying there like a deflated balloons. Was that not the party that a few weeks ago got up on its hind legs and said, “Mr. Prime Minister, your time is up. We will now be the official opposition.” Look over there. The members are lying there. We could not get enough bicycle pumps to put life back into them.

When it comes to standing up for senior citizens, when it comes to standing up for people who are getting gouged at the gas pumps, those members are walking along dejected, like the poor old slaves of Babylon being taken off into Conservative captivity.

Let us look at the record. It was the Tories, under Brian Mulroney, who brought in the GST, and Canadians kicked them out. Now they are back for the HST, and they will gouge our consumers at the gas pumps, they will gouge our seniors citizens and they will gouge our families with home heating fuel. They are going along with the ever sad Liberals in tow.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. What is very frustrating is that he has not even presented us with a bill that we can see. What we are getting is just spin from the Conservative war room. Will he bring--

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am as interested in Tory gibber as the next person, but the member misspoke and he must correct the record. The NDP members were in the House and we voted to support the home renovation tax credit just a week ago. I do not know where the member was, but I would like him to correct the record.