Jean Chrétien

[Government Policies, February 3rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, most of the matters to which the hon. member referred, for example the inquiry, we gave some very good answers. You may not be satisfied but the people of Canada believe that the time has come on the Somalia inquiry for the Minister of National Defence to restore the confidence in the armed forces and to make sure that they can do their job properly. That is exactly what the Minister of National Defence is doing at this time.

The hon. member can talk about all these things, but I remember his party talking about the standards it wanted to use in the House of Commons. I hope the leader of the third party will read the memo about disturbances in the House of Commons and not ask questions which require answers which may make the government look bad. With the recipes that they have put forward today, if there is a group that has gone down in the last three years and three months, it is the Reform Party.

[Government Policies, February 3rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, in the last three years and three months this government has offered the Canadian people a good government, a competent government and in all circumstances we have done our best.

That is why while I was travelling with the premiers in the Pacific and later on in France, people were asking me how we managed to turn things around in Canada in a way that all these countries envy Canada today.

[Somalia Inquiry, February 3rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I are very happy to return to the House. We adore question period. I am particularly sorry to be losing the member for Roberval as my opposite. That is very distressing. I will let him ask questions until he has a replacement.

I think the Minister of National Defence has clearly explained why he did not consider it appropriate to give the commission any more time so that what must be done at national defence may be done as soon as possible.

[Taxation, December 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I wish the hon. member would turn to the page in the book about the GST and read to the House of Commons what the promise was that this party made to the people of Canada. We always said that we wanted to replace the GST with a harmonized tax. This is exactly what we are trying to do at this time. We are not progressing as fast as we would like.

The Government of Ontario at the beginning of its tenure said it wanted to have the integration of the two taxes but it has not signed yet. Some day Ontario will sign the agreement and will have the same situation as that in the maritimes.

The hon. member cannot even read back to the House of Commons what he campaigned on when he ran in the last election.

[Taxation, December 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy he has the red book. He should read the page where we stated we would integrate the GST with the provinces through harmonization. It is stated in the red book and it is exactly what this government is doing at this time. We have signed an agreement with three provinces and are about to sign a fourth one. We are progressing in replacing this tax with an integrated tax.

I gave the example of Newfoundland where the people were paying 20 per cent tax. Next year they will only be paying 15 per cent. This is a change from what existed before. This is exactly what we said we would do in the red book from which the member is reading.

[Taxation, December 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I wish they would quote the whole situation.

For example, yesterday she referred to what I said in the House about killing the GST on May 2, 1994 before we referred the problem to the committee. I said: "We are trying to change the GST to replace it with a fairer system of taxation". That is all I said. We referred the problem to the committee and the committee recommended harmonization, which was mentioned in the red book. It was recommended as being the best course to take. A month later, in December of this year, the Reform Party, on page 131 of its minority report, said: "Integration of the provincial sales tax and the GST and tax in pricing are desirable in principle and Reform has supported this policy".

In that context we said we would replace the GST with a tax that would be integrated with provincial taxes.

Look at what is happening in Newfoundland, for example. Rather than paying 20 per cent, they will be paying 15 per cent next year under harmonization. That is different from the GST. It is a different tax. It is integrated.

[Cbc Town Hall, December 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, when we came to power the first thing we did was have an infrastructure program to create jobs. That was strongly opposed by the Conservatives. As the House will recall, it was opposed by the hon. member who is the leader of the third party.

After the program was established he was the first one to come to the government for money to create jobs in Calgary. I do not blame him, but it shows that as long as there are people who want to work, this government will be working to create jobs for them.

[Cbc Town Hall, December 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, not long ago I was challenged by his seatmate. We have a debate here every week and I am in the House more than many other members of Parliament.

With regard to the preamble to his question, it is no wonder the leader of the third party is affected because the support which the people of Canada have for him is going down month after month.

[Cbc Town Hall, December 12th, 1996]

I replied to all their questions. I told them that it is not easy to run a country. When we started as a government three years ago the people were telling us that Canada was virtually a third world country in terms of its finances. But I was happy to report to the people of Canada that night that now we are considered the best of the G-7 because we took the challenge.

I do not deny that there were people there who would like to work but cannot find a job. We are working on that. It is our priority. That is why we have established programs to improve the situation. Another credit to the nation is that Canada created 672,000 new jobs in the last three years. But that is not enough. We have to keep working on that and it is exactly what we will do.

[Cbc Town Hall, December 12th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I did not say that the town hall was rigged. It is the first time that a Prime Minister has gone on a program like that for an hour in French and an hour in English. If I was afraid to face the situation, I could very easily have stayed at home. I am not afraid to talk to the Canadian people.