Jean Chrétien

[Goods And Services Tax, May 1st, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, a few minutes ago, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that she was totally satisfied the government had kept its word, as mentioned in the red book on page 20 in French and 22 in English.

We have kept our campaign promise of a new tax generating equivalent revenues. If the hon. member refuses to believe what is written, there is not much I can do about it. We campaigned on this. That is what we have been saying for weeks, and the Minister of Finance will work on a new national sales tax with the co-operation of all provincial governments.

Furthermore, an all-party committee of this House, which spent one year studying the problem, recommended the strategy used by the Minister of Finance to honour the commitment in the red book.

[Goods And Services Tax, May 1st, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, some ten times or so I have read out here in the House the Liberal Party's commitment, made at the time of the election, namely that we were going to replace the GST by a form of taxation that would be harmonized with the provinces, that would generate the same level of revenue as the GST did in the past, that there would be a single administration to implement it, that there would be only one group of auditors bothering businessmen, etc.

We have begun the process of having a national tax harmonized with the provinces. We regret not having been able to do so across the board immediately, but we have had the co-operation of four provinces so far, and are counting on the others, in order to have a single tax. According to many of the opposition members, we are the only country in the world to have two competing levels of sales tax.

[Goods And Services Tax, May 1st, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, Ms. Copps, who resigned earlier today-and I must express my admiration for her in this connection-had made a personal commitment. At her press conference, she indicated clearly that the government was respecting the commitments it had made in the red book, on page 20 in French and page 22 in English, that she herself had made an additional commitment, and that now her credibility was being criticized or questioned by the public.

In response to the incessant attacks against her, she has decided to rely on the judgment of the voters of Hamilton East, and I am convinced that, after the June 17 byelection, she will be back with the support of the people of Hamilton East.

She had made a personal commitment to which she has been faithful. For this lady, who has so well served the province of Ontario, first as an MPP and then as an opposition MP and later a minister and Deputy Prime Minister in this House, an attack on her integrity was unacceptable. She is putting her fate in the hands of the voters. They have always had enormous confidence in Ms. Copps, as do we on this side of the House.

[Government Policies, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I hope the hon. member of the fifth party will read the red book on page 22 in English and page 20 in French where we said that the answer was harmonization and simplification and we ran on that.

We have no regret in scrapping the helicopter program. In terms of job creation, if the member was aware of what has been going on since the election, 600,000 new jobs have been created in Canada, more than have been created in the same period in Germany, France and Italy together.

[Deputy Prime Minister, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, we said very clearly that the Minister of Finance and I are implementing page 22 of the red book. There is nothing to add.

We campaigned on page 22 of the red book where we said we were to replace this tax with a harmonized tax. The member should read the red book and realize that we campaigned on the promise that we are fulfilling at this time.

[Deputy Prime Minister, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, at this moment if I were a member of the Reform Party I would be very embarrassed to see the acting leader get up in this House and ask three questions after she has agreed with the member for Nanaimo-Cowichan.

One of the things that has made this a great country is that we have welcomed people from all parts of the world, people with different religions, different colours and so on. We have made one great family. I do not feel very comfortable to have a party with views like that in front of me in the House of Commons.

[Deputy Prime Minister, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, she can throw books and show good behaviour like that in the House of Commons, but I would like to know if she will ask the member for Nanaimo-Cowichan to resign because he made a most outrageous statement. We have members of Parliament-one in the Bloc and one in the NDP party-who have admitted they are homosexual. They have the right to be in this House like anybody else.

To see these people trying to teach me a lesson today on ethics when they have colleagues who discriminate against people because of colour, language, sexual orientation and sex is unacceptable. I will not be put in the corner by the bully from Alberta.

[Deputy Prime Minister, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, the acting leader of the third party should concentrate her attentions at this moment on the awful statement made by the member for Nanaimo-Cowichan. It was just about the worst statement we could hear in Canadian society.

I am the leader of a political party. In that party are members of different colour. There are the members for Nunatsiaq, for Malton, for Bruce-Grey, for Etobicoke-Lakeshore. The member for Richmond and other members of other minorities are here and I will never ask them to go to the back. I am proud of them. They will always be in the front row of the Liberal Party.

[Referendums, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I am not the one talking about these problems, it is Mr. Bouchard. If precisions are needed, it is the people of Quebec who need them at this point, because everyone wants a moratorium in order to create jobs and revitalize the economy, Montreal's in particular.

This is what Mr. Bouchard himself has called for. He called for an end to discussions on the Constitution and referendums and instead the creation of a climate favourable to investment in

Quebec. The important thing is for those opposite to state their position on Bill 101 within their own party.

[Referendums, April 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, when we have a referendum, we will ensure the rules are clear.