Jason Kenney

[Taxation, May 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the government is still all over the map on taxes. Yesterday the Prime Minister told us that he has delivered a tax cut by raising CPP premiums by $10 billion and billions of dollars in bracket creep. The finance minister tells us that maybe at some point we will get real tax relief. One moment the industry minister tells us high taxes are good and the next moment he is telling us that we should cut them.

Where exactly does the government stand? Will it deliver real broad based tax relief that Canadians will see at the bottom line in the next budget?

[Taxation, May 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have to assume the Prime Minister does not do his own taxes. If he did and he filed them last week, he would see that his taxes like those of most Canadians have gone up because of the bracket creep of the government and the increased CPP premiums.

Why on the one hand does this Prime Minister deny that we need deeper tax relief, real tax relief, while the industry minister is telling us that Canada's productivity is lagging because of our job killing tax burden?

[Taxation, May 3rd, 1999]

They are a little sensitive. The industry minister first told us that taxes were helping Canadian productivity. Under pressure from the finance minister, he flipped and said that productivity was a real problem after he had said our productivity had plummeted to Mississippi levels. Now, lo and behold, he is telling us that we need to lower taxes to U.S. levels.

I am a little confused. Could the industry minister tell us whether he has flipped or flopped today?

[Taxation, May 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is a bit rich for one of the members of the millionaire's club on the Liberal front benches to start crying crocodile tears about poverty in Canada, but it is hard to keep—

[Committees Of The House, April 28th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my hon. colleague from Langley—Abbotsford for his thoughtful remarks on sport in Canada. This is an important issue to all Canadians. It really brings to mind the question of the function of committees in this parliament.

There was once a tradition in this place that committees, such as the committee on sport in Canada, were considered to be somewhat independent. They had the ability to operate with some degree of independence from the executive, from the cabinet and from the Prime Minister's office, which, as Professor Donald Savoie recently pointed out in his book on Canadian governance, really runs the entire cabinet as though it is just a focus group.

If the cabinet is merely a focus group, then the committees dominated by the government's majority are just pure optics and have little or no relevance to the actual policy making function of this parliament, as witnessed by this committee decision on sport in Canada.

I would ask my hon. colleague why he thinks it is that committees, such as the one on sport in Canada, have continued to see their importance and independence diminished and marginalized by a government that centralizes all power in the hands of the cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Does my colleague agree with the famous aphorism of Lord Acton that power tends to corrupt and that absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely?

[Taxpayers Bill Of Rights, April 21st, 1999]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-495, an act to confirm the rights of taxpayers and establish the office for taxpayer protection.

I am pleased to rise to move first reading of this bill commonly known as the taxpayers bill of rights.

For several years now the Reform Party through its democratic party process has had a policy in its blue book calling for the introduction of a taxpayers bill of rights which would protect taxpayers from summary unfair treatment by the Department of National Revenue. We now know that department will become the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency which will be even less accountable than the current department is to this parliament.

We believe it is terribly important to enshrine in a law the rights of taxpayers to due process so that they are treated as innocent until proven guilty, rather than having the reverse onus from which they currently suffer.

This bill would also create an office for taxpayer protection which could order that taxpayers be protected from unfair harassment by members of the revenue agency.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Kosovo, April 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister misses the point. The members of the team will be gathering in Washington later this week to talk about what extension, if any, we get into in the Kosovo conflict.

When that discussion happens, will Canada through its Prime Minister just sit idly by and let the other members of the team make a decision for us and our troops, or will we participate in that discussion, make a recommendation and offer a position as to whether and under what criteria ground troops would be necessary?

[Kosovo, April 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the only thing that we can seem to discern about the Prime Minister's position on the conflict in Kosovo is ground troops if necessary but necessarily ground troops.

That begs the question under what criteria would the Prime Minister believe that ground troops would be necessary. When that question comes before the NATO conference and Bill Clinton and Tony Blair provide their answers to the question, what will our Prime Minister say? When are ground troops necessary? Does he have a position?

[Taxation, April 20th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the auditor general said that the government has an approach which simply is not working and that the federal treasury is losing $12 billion a year. Again the government's solution is to hire more tax cops.

Let us look at the facts. The auditor general said that in 1994 a poll showed that 58% of Canadians would accept an offer to evade taxes when buying goods or services. In a poll taken last year that figure had grown to 73%. Fully three out of four Canadians said they would be prepared to evade.

Instead of hiring more tax cops to intimidate Canadian taxpayers, why does the government not find the real solution to the problem and provide Canadians with tax relief?

[Taxation, April 20th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the government's high tax policies are forcing normally law-abiding Canadians to look for a way out. Today the auditor general revealed that the underground economy accounts for $12 billion in lost revenues per year.

A growing number of Canadians are doing everything they can to avoid the taxman. The government's answer is more taxes and more tax collectors.

My question is for the Minister of National Revenue. Why can the government not see the real source of the problem? Why can it not see that high taxes are driving Canadians south of the border and into the black market?