Gord Brown

[Foreign Affairs, December 5th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, like many Canadians, I was surprised to hear media reports that the government of Iran has told Canada's ambassador in Tehran to leave that country. Canada continues to be concerned by the Iranian government's actions on various fronts.

Can the Minister of Foreign Affairs please provide the House with some insight regarding these reports?

[Constable Douglas Scott, November 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, hundreds of police officers and thousands of citizens gathered in Brockville, Ontario, yesterday to pay tribute at a regimental funeral for slain RCMP Constable Doug Scott, who died while on duty last week. It was a sombre occasion and reminds Canadians of the danger each and every police officer faces each and every day.

Twenty year old Constable Scott, Dougie, as he was known to his family, had always wanted to be an RCMP officer. He was described by his brothers as an amazing son and brother who was always willing and able to be counted upon. He lived his life without regret. He was an inspiration to everyone and showed his brothers and his friends that dreams are possible when we work hard to achieve them.

On behalf of all Canadians, I want to acknowledge and pay tribute to the hard work, leadership and sacrifice of Constable Scott and to express our deepest condolences to his parents, Doug and Marla, and his brothers, Chad and Layne, as well as the rest of his family and his many friends and teachers, who will always remember this remarkable, determined young man.

[Business of Supply, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, we would like to see the clock as 6:03 p.m.

[Malaria, October 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, spread through the bite of an infected mosquito, malaria is the leading killer of children in Africa. A child dies every 30 seconds, 3,000 children every day. It is horrific and shocking statistic, particularly when we know that malaria could be prevented through the use of an insecticide treated bed net.

Established in 2004, Buy-a-Net Malaria Prevention Group is the first Canadian citizen driven initiative aimed at the prevention of malaria, one village at a time in Africa. Buy-a-Net is an example of effective action and leadership on the global war on malaria.

Through Buy-a-Net, Canadians have the opportunity to truly make a difference in the battle against this preventable disease.

It is with pride that I bring attention to the efforts of Canadians helping to protect children in Africa from malaria.

[Business of Supply, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to stand up and talk about the fact that the Conservative government has been spending money on Canadians' priorities, such as cleaning up our environment. I know that is something that is very important to Canadians. The government has been spending money on infrastructure, something to help rebuild our communities after many years of neglect on the infrastructure file.

I listened intently to the comments of the hon. member for Halton. I know that something that is very important to him and is very important to me is working toward having pension income splitting in our country. I know that is something that was in budget 2006. I know it was something that was important to the member for Halton, yet when he was given the opportunity to vote for something that he had spent a great deal of time working for, he voted against it. That is something I would like the hon. member for Halton to explain to me and to this House.

[United Way, October 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, United Way campaigns are currently under way. In my riding of Leeds—Grenville, volunteers headed up by executive director Judi Baril are busy working hard to raise money for this worthy cause.

I am pleased to report that members on this side of the House are helping out. Next Monday evening, October 22, members of the Blue hockey team are travelling to Kemptville, some 30 minutes south of Ottawa, to take on the Leeds--Grenville United Way All-Stars, a team that consists of municipal politicians and others from my riding.

The hockey game begins at 8 p.m. and will be followed by a reception. Tickets at $10 per person are still available for the game. I invite all members who are looking for something worthwhile to do next Monday evening to take the short drive to the north end of my riding to see the Blue team in its next victory.

[Income Trusts, June 11th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, in the life of a Parliament, especially a minority Parliament, private members, those members who are not ministers of the Crown or parliamentary secretaries, typically have only one opportunity to bring forward an issue, either through a bill or a motion, for debate. They have only one opportunity potentially to present a piece of legislation or motion that could change or suggest a change for the betterment of their constituents and indeed all Canadians.

That is why I am surprised with the selection of this motion by the member for Scarborough Centre. While I would not suggest that the income trust issue does not merit discussion, I believe we have had ample opportunity to discuss and vote on the issue through the budget implementation bill, previous ways and means motions, and at the finance committee.

Moreover, not only do I believe this extensive and exhaustive debate has run its course both inside and outside the House, I believe the conclusion is clear and indisputable. Canada's Conservative government made the right decision when it levelled the playing field between income trusts and corporations and ended the growing drain of tax leakage on both federal and provincial coffers.

As a National Post editorial from early January stated so forcefully:

The NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have said they will support the government's income-trust plan. Civil servants have implemented the necessary regulatory changes....

The issue is settled, in other words. It's time to move on. Everyone else has gotten the message. Why haven't...the Liberals?

Why indeed. Another interesting question that voters in Scarborough Centre should ask themselves is why their member of Parliament used this one direct opportunity to effect change in this Parliament to parade out the Liberal finance critic's ill-advised proposal on this largely settled issue of income trusts. The member is ignoring the issues that really matter in his riding, like safer communities, improved public transit, a cleaner environment, and the list goes on.

We, along with the overwhelming majority of the House, will defeat the Liberal income trust proposal. The proposal fails to level the playing field between income trusts and corporations, nor does it even try to address tax revenue losses experienced by the federal and provincial governments. It is a proposal that independent expert Finn Poschmann, director of research at the C.D. Howe Institute, has lambasted as politically funky stew.

We instead will support our government's tax fairness plan which, unlike the Liberal plan, will restore balance and fairness to the federal tax system by creating a level playing field between income trusts and corporations.

If the member does not agree with that principle, then perhaps he should talk to his Liberal colleague Senator Jerry Grafstein, the chair of the Senate banking, trade and commerce committee, who had publicly noted even prior to our plan “a pressing need to fix the gap between corporations and income trusts”. Noting that, he said:

The most important thing is the tax system should be neutral between two firms in the same business.

Or maybe the member should talk to Ontario's Liberal provincial government which has heralded our plan. In the words of Ontario's Liberal finance minister, Greg Sobara:

--the Government of Ontario supports the federal government's efforts to ensure fair taxation through changes to the tax treatment of income trusts. We believe that these changes will protect federal and provincial revenue from significant tax leakage.

Moreover, our tax fairness plan will also deliver over a billion dollars in new tax relief annually through a corporate income tax rate reduction, an age credit amount increase, and of course, something that I had a lot of support for, the introduction of pension income splitting. I note for the member for Scarborough Centre, who has repeatedly voted against pension income splitting, that this measure will directly benefit countless pensioners and seniors in his riding.

Canada's Conservative government is committed to tax fairness, committed to ensuring businesses and individuals each pay their fair share. Had we not acted, the tax burden would have been unfairly shifted to hard-working Canadian individuals and families. We could not stand by and watch that happen.

We could also not stand by and watch the negative ramifications that the rapidly growing rate of conversions of corporations to income trusts was having on Canada's long term productivity and economic growth. This is a concern that was shared, as revealed in an April 2007 Financial Post poll, by a strong majority of Canadian business leaders who saw the rising trust conversions as:

--an increasing threat to economic growth because income trusts, unlike normal companies, were obliged to distribute their earnings and couldn't readily reinvest.

As we have heard before, Jim Pattison, the head of one of the largest private companies in Canada noted that ours was the right decision. As he put it, fundamentally it was the right thing for the country. Why? It is simple, Pattison, like all smart entrepreneurs, knows that a successful company is created for the long term by continually reinvesting profits.

However, an income trust CEO has no such opportunity. In his own words:

In my opinion, it's important to manage for the long term...

And when the pressure is on management for distributions all the time, there's a tendency by some to not put the money into R&D or spending capital...because the pressure is on the distribution.

Jeffrey Olin, investment banking head at Desjardins Securities, echoed those sentiments when he observed that prior to our government's action, many business models were not adaptable to the income trust structure were drawn to it solely on the promise of easy tax savings. In his analysis he notes:

As a result, trusts may have less internal capital available to pursue growth initiatives or reinvestment in capital expenditures. This could be quite detrimental to the long-term interests of the entity or the economy in general

Before I conclude, I will address a charge that has made by the Liberal members and their friends and a certain well funded lobby group that our tax fairness plan has killed businesses involved in the income trust sector.

To illustrate my point, I will read verbatim what Rudy Luukko, Investment funds editor of Morningstar Canada, had to say on the matter just a few short weeks ago on May 25:

From...the harsh reaction from the trust industry and trust investors, you might have thought that Finance Minister...had driven a stake through the heart of Canadian income trusts on Halloween night.

Six months after the Oct. 31 fright night, however, a much more benign picture emerges. To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of income trusts have been greatly exaggerated.

There's no question that the trust universe took a hit, and that there are some awful individual trusts whose prices have collapsed because of their lack of business merits. But in the context of equity investing—where double-digit short-term losses are not at all unusual in the pursuit of higher long-term returns—the damage has on the whole been relatively light

In the six months ended April 30—whose Nov. 1 start date coincides with the first trading day after [Minister of Finance]'s surprise announcement—the S&P/TSX Capped Income Trust Index is down 3.6%.

Nevertheless, it was clear that income trusts had a special tax advantage that regular businesses and corporations did not and in the interests of fairness we were compelled to act.

As a respected Canadian commentator Andrew Coyne cleverly observed:

To listen to these trust-fund patriots, you’d think they were the only businesses in the country that were being taxed. Quite the opposite: before the change of policy, they were the only ones that weren’t...

So all of this squawking...is over the loss of, in effect, a subsidy.

Clearly, a policy that levels the playing field between income trusts and corporations that makes them equal, not worse, was the right thing to do. Although the decision to act was not easy, it was absolutely necessary. It was a decision for the country for future generations of Canadians, our children and our grandchildren.

[Tiananmen Square, June 4th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, today, June 4, marks the 18th anniversary of the tragedy that took place on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

On this sad anniversary, we would like to renew our sympathies for the families of those who lost their lives fighting for openness, accountability and freedom in Tiananmen Square.

While there has been some improvement in the human rights situation in China since that time, Canada remains seriously concerned about continued restrictions on civil and political rights, including freedom of expression, association and spiritual belief. The treatment of ethnic minorities, poor respect for the rule of law, the lack of transparency of legal proceedings in China and the continued detention of prisoners based on their political beliefs remain a concern for this government.

Working to achieve human rights improvements in China is among Canada's central foreign policy goals. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of International Trade both recently raised Canada's human rights concerns with their Chinese counterparts. The Canadian government will continue to call on the Chinese government to ensure that international standards of human rights are available to all Chinese citizens.

On behalf of my constituents, let it be known that Canadians from coast to coast remember the bravery and the courage of those Chinese students who stood up for the most powerful idea known to humankind: freedom.

[Award for Teaching Excellence, May 16th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, earlier this year I had the opportunity to present a Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence to David Sheridan at Thousand Islands Secondary School in Brockville.

His peers make the following comments about him: a community minded arts teacher with a flair for inspiring students to reach their true potential; and he is an innovator who has a unique ability to get students excited about learning and engaged in learning.

David Sheridan moves classroom instruction to practical reality. The work produced by him and his students can be found throughout the city of Brockville and area as they have created legacies, from statues to murals, in their own community.

Visiting Ottawa today with his family, I am proud to take this opportunity to recognize in the House David Sheridan and his many accomplishments.

[Sales Tax Amendments Act, 2006, May 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Mississauga South talked about the tourism industry. The tourism industry is the industry I happen to have grown up in. Over the years I have seen government actions in a positive way and even in a negative way.

The member talked about the GST visitor rebate program. Now, of course, the government has introduced the tour operator and convention incentive program. There were many representations made to the government.

I have had a lot of experience with that GST visitor rebate program. The member talked about accountability. The new program, from my knowledge and understanding, is far more accountable. No American tour groups or conventions have had to pay GST that did not have to pay it before. In fact, no group has had to pay GST that did not have to do so before.

In light of the fact that the new program is much more accountable, is it something the member would be happy to support?