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Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was afghanistan.

Last in Parliament August 2019, as Conservative MP for Calgary Forest Lawn (Alberta)

Won his last election, in 2015, with 48% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Budget Implementation Act, 1999 May 6th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, a member from British Columbia is talking about my leader while I am talking about taxes. Let us talk about taxes for a change.

We have problems. We have a problem with education. Post-secondary education is a problem. Small business people are facing problems. CPP premiums have gone up. Of course the government claims it has reduced the EI. In the overall taxation problem people do not see any hope.

The auditor general has stated that the underground economy has increased. I do not agree with the underground economy. When the government provides services we have to pay for those services. Why is there an underground economy? For the simple reason that people feel they are not getting back what they have been paying to the government. That is why there is an underground economy.

Ours is a voluntary system. We are supposed to declare what we earn. In a voluntary system there must be trust, trust between the government in what it is doing and those who are paying. If that trust is broken, we will get a situation where people will say that they will not voluntarily comply with it. This is what is happening. Over the past years the trust has been broken.

The trust was broken when the Conservatives brought in the GST. The GST was supposed to be paid toward the debt but instead it went toward spending. That was the start of the breaking of the trust between the Canadian public and the Canadian government. Up until now Canadians have not regained that confidence to pay taxes voluntarily. Canadians should pay their taxes. They should not break the law.

We as parliamentarians can tell the government that it is wrong, that it has not addressed the issue of what Canadians are saying. Everybody is tired. The burden on single parents raising children is so heavy yet the government refuses to recognize that. Canadians brought this issue up and now the government has a committee to address the issue. Mothers at home have not been recognized. Again the government said it would study this issue.

The minister of state for the status of women met a lady who had taken Canada to the United Nations. That lady had the impression that this government or the minister herself looked more favourably on women who went out to work and less favourably on those who stayed at home to raise their children. I do not see the logic.

Those who want to stay home to raise their children are equally important to this society because they are raising the young. They are equally important as those who are working and who come home in the evening to raise their children. It is a choice they have made. One choice is not better than the other. They both have the same objective of raising good Canadian citizens. But our current taxation system does not address that and this budget did not address that.

Let us talk about health care. I said on Monday that a constituent had phoned me. She said that she was afraid of what was going to happen with health care. She did not see that this government had addressed this issue. Despite the fact that this government has said it is going to pour money back into health care and despite the fact that this government is going to give money to health care one time, it does not bring confidence. The government has taken more since it came into power in 1993 than what it is putting back in.

The province of Ontario is going into an election. The Progressive Conservative Party has come up with its platform for the election. One of the points in its platform is it is going to uncouple its taxation system from the federal government. What does this do? This is the second province to do that. Alberta has already given its intention to do that and now Ontario is going to do it. Why? Neither of those governments have any confidence and do not see that the federal government is doing enough to reduce taxes. They want to get those taxes.

One of the reasons the provincial government was not initially reducing taxes was the fear that if it reduced taxes the federal government would increase taxes because it was tied into the system. Now the provincial government is uncoupling so it can address the concerns of its own citizens. It is uncoupling from the federal government so that it has the freedom to do what the federal government is refusing to do.

The other factor is both Alberta and Ontario have come up with tax reductions for their citizens. Yet Alberta is in the same situation as the federal government where there is no operating deficit. Why is the federal government unable to do that? It will claim it has done something. It will claim it has taken away the 3% surtax. The surtax is for whom? It is for those who earn high incomes. They pay the 3% surtax.

However even any relief that the government has put in this budget will not kick in this year. It will kick in starting in the year 2000. And the government claims it is giving Canadians tax relief now. The Liberals say they are giving tax relief now. No. Their own documents say when they are giving tax relief. It is next year.

Budget Implementation Act, 1999 May 6th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak to Bill C-71. This is the third time that I rise to speak to this bill. I rise to speak because I feel strongly about what is happening in our country, especially in the past couple of years when we have seen taxes going up, our financial house not being in order and the burden that ordinary Canadian taxpayers are carrying.

I have been a small businessman and an accountant. In the last 10 years that I have been a businessman there is just one area where I could not control the cost which dug into my profit, and that one area was government taxation. Government fees, government taxation, UI, EI, all kinds of taxes, from the cities to the provincial governments to the federal government, have been hampering the growth of small businesses.

This started with the Conservative government. Now the Liberal government is claiming that it is working well to bring its financial house in order. That is not what I hear from Canadians who are coming into my office. That is not right. Despite the claim made by the federal government that it has been reducing taxes, that it has balanced the budget and that good times are around the corner, those who walk into my office cannot vote for that. They cannot say that good times are around the corner because their take-home pay is still going down.

Why is their take-home pay going down? Costs are going up, rents are going up and service fees are coming in. With all of these things they just cannot seem to make ends meet. How can this government stand and say that happy times are here?

Now we see a new debate going on. Businesses have finally started speaking out. They are saying that enough is enough. We hear Nortel talking about losing the brightest people in Canada. We spend money to train them and then we lose them to other countries.

We have free trade with the U.S.A. Now we have free trade with Chile. We have free trade with Israel. As we go on we will have more and more free trade, which gives Canadians the opportunity to go to other countries where there are better conditions and better take-home pay. They will do that and we will lose them.

While I am on the subject about losing our brightest, I want to talk about something that is very dear to me, the student debt. Let us talk about that for a little while.

In the past decade the average Canadian university tuition has risen by 119%. That is a substantial increase. However, transfer payments for post-secondary education have already been sliced by 18%. The government has sliced this money, part of which would have been used by the provinces for student loans. Now the Liberal government is coming up with a band-aid solution. The government has created the millennium scholarship fund which will only address 300,000 students.

Today I read a press release in which the government said that it had come to an agreement with the Government of Ontario. The Government of Ontario will be administering Canada student loans. From a cost and efficiency perspective I think that is great. It is a good initiative on the part of the federal government. However, that does not address the main issue of the high cost of tuition.

I will talk about the University of Calgary for example. This university has charged more and more for tuition fees because it does not have funds coming from the provincial government any more. The federal government has refused to meet its obligations despite the fact that it talks about the great transfer of money it is giving to the provinces to address their educational needs for the future.

We are at the dawn of the new millennium. Is it not important that we look at what our students need? Is it not important to ensure that Canada has an educational force that can challenge others and make Canada prosperous?

I am the international trade critic for my party. I have travelled around the world on behalf of Canada. I have seen how competitive Canadians are. We can rise to the challenge. What is curtailing us? High taxes are curtailing Canadians. Despite what the Liberals say, the facts speak for themselves. More and more Canadians are leaving.

On Monday I pointed to an example which I will repeat today. I visited an institution in Toronto where they are teaching high tech to students. I was told that IBM hired six students and took them to the U.S.A. We trained them and we lost them. The reason is high taxation.

In committee yesterday the Minister for International Trade sent his message out to the government. I hope the minister is listening to this. He sent a very subtle message to the government; he was afraid he might get slapped. His chain was yanked. He said there is a need to reduce the gap in taxation between the U.S. and Canada since we are losing our brightest to the United States. The minister has admitted there is a need. Of course he had to say the politically correct thing so his chain would not be yanked. The minister said that the Prime Minister and the finance minister were working toward this. When will they work toward it?

The cost of education is rising. I have repeated this many times in this House. I have two daughters attending university and I know firsthand that the cost of education is going up and up and up. And what is happening? A millennium fund, a legacy of the Prime Minister, but that legacy is not going to work.

Budget Implementation Act, 1999 May 4th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the motion by the Bloc party which says it would like to delete the component of clause 4 dealing with the provincial share of the cash contribution under the CHST from April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2004.

At the outset I would like to say that my party opposes the motion. While we are on the subject of the CHST, the Canada health and social transfer, let me dwell on the issue.

Contrary to what the government has been saying, that it is restoring funding to the CHST, it is actually restoring partial funding. In 1993 when the Liberals took power the CHST per taxpayer was $1,453. Taking this into account, today the CHST transfer after what is stated in the budget will be $1,005. There is a decrease of $448, a 31% decrease compared to the year 1993. I fail to understand how the government can say that it has restored the funding.

Perhaps many of us saw the documentary on the CBC last night on the health care crisis in our country. The nurses across the country, the front line health care workers, are saying enough is enough on the cuts. The documentary clearly pointed out what is wrong with our health care system. It all started with the federal cuts to the transfers to the provinces which resulted in the provinces cutting as well. This was when the federal government could have easily changed its spending focus and capped the health care funding, but no, it elected not to do that.

In last night's documentary the nurses were saying that they were sick and tired of cuts, of overtime, of part time jobs. The stress and the pressure were so heavy that they could not do their jobs. The nurses feel they need to create a personal bond with the patient and they cannot do that because of all the cuts.

One of the nurses pointed out that all the governments are saying that they will hire more nurses. Where will they get the nurses? It takes four years to train a nurse. Where will the trained manpower come from? Not to mention the fact that nurses are now moving south. We have heard time after time that headhunters from the U.S.A. are in our country offering incentives, bonuses and career development for them to move south.

Naturally we are facing this crisis in our health care system as a result of the government's cut in the budget. Now the Liberals will probably say they are going to throw some more dollars toward it, but it is not going to address the issue.

I got a call last night from a constituent of mine in Calgary. She said she was scared of the erosion of the health care and education systems. This woman has contributed and lived in this country for over 70 years and she is expressing fear for the future. Her exact words were “I do not know what is in store for my grandchildren”.

Canadians are scared. It arises from the fact that the government is not able to get its spending priorities in order. It has cut health care when it could have cut something else. Now it is putting money back.

There is the education system as well. Imagine the government coming out with this millennium fund. It is only going to look after 300,000 students. What about all the rest? I have two daughters in university. They are not going to be subject to anything. How are they going to be helped? Right now their debt is $20,000 and they have not even completed their degrees.

Yesterday I got another call from a constituent who is fiercely concerned about high taxes. Actually, I get calls every day in my office. Constituents walk in every day with one single theme, high taxes. They are tired of working harder and their standard of living does not seem to be rising. Their disposable income is not right.

One constituent said something very interesting. He said “Perhaps we should let Canadians have the gross amount they actually earn and then 15 days afterward they can send the taxes in that are charged to them. Only then would Canadians recognize how much money they are losing in taxes, how much money the government has been taking from them time after time”.

Yesterday we heard the Prime Minister say there is no bracket creep. That is something new we have heard. Canadians are facing higher taxes and deterioration of health care and education. Canadians are saying enough is enough.

Lately we have heard the debate on productivity. One minister is saying productivity is low due to higher taxes. The finance minister is saying that everything is hunky-dory. He was not taking anything seriously despite the fact that all evidence indicated there was something wrong with our productivity, that there was a brain drain.

The Leader of the Official Opposition talked about the brain drain last year and the finance minister would not acknowledge it. He only woke up when Nortel and the big guys said “Yes, there is something wrong. We are going to look at this whole situation”. Then he woke up. Now he has said he is going to meet with the high tech leaders to see what is wrong.

Let me say what is wrong. I was in Toronto last weekend and I visited individuals in a high tech training program. The principal told me that in that class over the last six months they had lost six students who had moved to the U.S.A. Canadian taxpayers are paying for it. Why have they moved to the U.S.A.? Because of the lower taxes. It goes back to their disposable income so they can address the needs of their children.

Then we come along and say “No, no, but we have the health care and you have got to pay for all those things”. Yes, but there is also frivolous spending by this government. There is the millennium project where the government is spending money. I do not know why we are spending money on that project.

The Minister for International Trade today in committee said that he was very proud to take young entrepreneurs to the Silicon Valley. That is great. I applaud him for that initiative, it is good. Our young entrepreneurs need that. I understand he also said “We are a good exporter. We are a good exporter of our bright young individuals”. We are good exporters after we have spent so much money on them.

Our economy has high taxes, brain drain and low productivity and the government has been refusing to acknowledge it but the government is slowly acknowledging it as the opposition parties keep hammering it. It needs to be addressed, but not with a band-aid solution, not with the government saying that it will throw a little money here and a little money there. It needs a comprehensive solution.

I hope that the finance minister when he wins his leadership bid will try to give tax relief as an election goody. The days of election goodies are over. Canadians will challenge that. They now know not to put their trust in the government any more.

Before I sit down I must say that something has to be done about Revenue Canada which is becoming more and more unreasonable in going after Canadian taxpayers.

Kosovo May 3rd, 1999

Mr. Speaker, over the past month and a half, the world has witnessed a human tragedy that few could have imagined happening at the dawn of the new millennium. A systematic ethnic cleansing has been taking place in Kosovo. It has turned children, women and the elderly into refugees overnight. Hopes and aspirations have been chattered. Why? To satisfy a dictator's political ambitions.

Today I rise as a proud Canadian, proud that my country has risen to the occasion and has offered food, security and shelter to those currently exiled to refugee camps. Tomorrow, Canada welcomes the first of the 5,000 refugees from Kosovo. These suffering people will be given safe haven in Canada while our brave soldiers fight to regain their homes.

To the refugees, I would like to extend, on behalf of the official opposition, a welcome to Canada. We pray that peace returns to their homeland so that they may return and rebuild their lives. Bienvenue au Canada.

Criminal Code May 3rd, 1999

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to participate in the debate on Bill C-374 introduced by the hon. member for Témiscamingue.

I commend the member for this most worthwhile initiative and for bringing before the House an issue with such profound consequences for our children. At the outset I would like to say that the work of the member's constituent, Mrs. Martine Ayotte, should be acknowledged. Mrs. Ayotte has collected some 26,000 signatures in her petition to parliament to have this product in question censored. Mrs. Ayotte is a responsible and courageous individual, and we commend her for her bold initiative.

The toy we are debating about today is the warrior troll. The purpose of toys is to bring enjoyment, joy and a smile to the faces of their owners. Toys are also effective tools for education and often challenge our imaginative and intellectual capabilities. They reflect society's moral and social values.

However, this warrior troll represents the direct opposite of what we are trying to foster: a caring, loving, honest and tolerant society. At a time when all parents seek the wisdom and strength to properly raise and guide their children to wholesome development and moral living, we have a corporation selling a toy that is intended to foster and promote violence. This toy attacks the foundation of law-abiding citizens who seek peace and harmony, not violence and destruction. Allow me to tell the House a little about this warrior troll.

It is my hope that I will dispel any notion this is a harmless little toy with no psychological consequences. The toy in itself is not bad. It is the instructions and the series of commands recommended by the manufacturer that are harmful. In short, these instructions call for the child to beat the warrior troll each day. One is never to feed this toy. One is supposed to keep this creation in a dark place that gives off a foul odour. Finally, the instructions recommend that the child never show this monster any love or affection. Is that what we want our children to learn?

At a time when youngsters and society in general are yearning for affection and love, we want our children to own a toy that promotes these basic, positive human traits. Shame on the inventor and the corporation that is marketing this toy.

What is truly sickening is that the instructions go on to reward this behaviour by stating that the warrior troll will gain strength and be ready for battle and defend the owner. Let us be honest about it. This toy is intentionally being marketed as a tool to teach violence, neglect and hatred. Are our children not exposed to enough of this negativity in society?

As we debate this worthy initiative I cannot help but be reminded of the tragic events in Littleton, Colorado, and Taber, Alberta. If ever this world needed proof of the destructive effects of allowing our children to view, read and emulate people of violence or violent acts then Littleton and Taber surely come to mind.

Today there are memorial services taking place in Taber, Alberta. It is heart wrenching to witness the pain and suffering arising from the tragedy which took place there. I do not wish to say more. It is very painful. At this time let me extend my deepest and sincerest condolences to members of the family of Jason Lang. We share their pain and grief.

Like thousands of parents I have a child who is about to enter high school. The events of the past few weeks have made me more than a little apprehensive about the safety of my children at school. I can only pray that our children are spared the hatred and violence that is plaguing our society. As parents and parliamentarians in Canada we have a sacred responsibility to protect our children from those people and from those products which promote hatred and violence.

I listened to the member opposite for whom I have great respect. She acknowledged that there was a social problem, but she did not say what is supposed to be done. At least we have a bill that is addressing an issue and something will be done. The member acknowledges that there is a problem but that is all she said. We know that if we do not do anything it will carry on and on.

We can make a statement today by supporting Bill C-374. Bill C-374 would prohibit the sale of this doll to anyone under the age of 18. It would also prohibit the offer for sale of this doll in a place to which persons under the age of 18 would have reasonable access. This bill would make it illegal for the doll to be accompanied by labelling calling for it to be subjected to degrading acts and mistreatment.

For the sake of our young Canadians, I call upon the House to support Bill C-374.

Trade April 22nd, 1999

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is the government had ample time to head off this potentially explosive situation.

Frontec, an Alberta firm, risks losing over $100 million worth of U.S. defence contracts over the next 60 days. This is just one example of over 1,500 companies that are affected. Will the foreign affairs minister tell Frontec's workers why he failed to act before the status was removed?

Trade April 22nd, 1999

Mr. Speaker, the government was aware for quite some time that Canada's favoured nation status as a defence partner with the U.S.A. was at risk. With over 50,000 jobs in Canada potentially affected in every region of the country and $5 billion in trade at risk, why did the foreign affairs minister wait until things collapsed before getting personally involved?

Trade April 20th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that the minister of trade was asleep at the switch when $5 billion worth of trade was at stake. Now we have the Minister of Foreign Affairs off to Washington to try to repair the damage.

How did the government allow $5 billion worth of business to slip away?

Trade April 20th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, there is a crisis brewing in our backyard and once again the government seems to be paralyzed.

The United States has stripped Canada of its favoured nation status on defence contracts. Is it not shameful that the minister of trade did not even know of this impending action which threatens thousands of Canadian jobs? Why was the minister caught off guard when $5 billion is at stake?

Cfb Calgary April 20th, 1999

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals do not have to go to Calgary to find out why westerners feel alienated. I can tell them right here.

CFB Calgary has been closed. Its land can help address the educational, social and health concerns of Calgarians. However, this land is earmarked for sale to private developers for top dollars.

Mount Royal College needs land to expand. This government has refused Mount Royal's request.

Our veterans desperately need a hospital in Calgary. These are the men and women who have defended our nation. Sadly, the land that was set aside for this hospital is in the process of being sold to private developers.

Habitat for Humanity, a charitable organization, builds low cost housing for young Canadian families. It is interested in securing some affordable land. CFB Calgary would have been an ideal location.

The Prime Minister can still intervene. Calgarians plead to him to please do so.