Jean Chrétien

[Regional Development, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the minister responsible for regional development in Quebec is the Minister of Finance. Obviously, the Minister of Finance has a very good working relationship with the Minister of Industry.

[Federal Public Service, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the President of the Treasury Board has done excellent work on this issue. For weeks now, there have been discussions with every union affected. Sixteen unions out of 17 have found these proposals reasonable. And even in the union which opposes them, we are told opinion is greatly divided. People understand very well that what the President of the Treasury Board has offered as a solution is totally reasonable and logical, given the difficult circumstances facing the government at this time.

[The Budget, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member only has to wait until Monday. I hope he will support all the cuts we will be proposing.

I would like to have his commitment right now that his party will support all the cuts we will make. It would be easy because they would turn around and say: "You should not do this or that". It is going to be a tough budget. I hope Reform Party members will be able to do in this House what they love to say outside it.

[The Budget, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, it is the first time in a long time, and I have a lot of witnesses on this side of the House, that a government has presented a budget, as we did last February, and has met every target it set.

It is very easy to make promises you know you cannot keep. When I saw the budget prepared by the Reform Party this week, somebody said that it was back to the future. It has nothing to do with the reality of today. On the old age pension program alone, the Reform Party made a mistake of $2 billion.

We will meet our target. We will be at 3 per cent of GDP next year. It is the first time a government in Canada has met its target and we will meet it. Do not worry about it.

[The Budget, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased the leader of the third party mentioned old age pensioners. His document said he wanted to cut $3 billion from that program. Reform has to realize that new people come on the payroll every year because other people reach the age of 65. The leader of the Reform Party cannot stop that.

It costs almost $1 billion more every year. If he wants to cut $3 billion from what we have today, he will have to exclude the people who come on the payroll in the next two years. He will have to pay them another $2 billion or cut another $2 billion. The hon. member made a little mistake in one day of $2 billion.

[Overlap And Duplication, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, we are making offers to the provinces right now. I was speaking with the Premier of British Columbia a few minutes ago. We were discussing the possibility of harmonizing certain existing programs.

The other provinces are co-operating in trying to eliminate duplication. What is unfortunate is that only Quebec systematically wants to maintain duplication.

[Overlap And Duplication, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out to the hon. member that, on the contrary, we gave the province the responsibility of collecting the federal sales tax, the GST. Why could the provincial government not do the same for the federal government with regard to income tax?

As regards income tax, in the case of Ontario, only one line has been added to the tax return, and there is no provincial tax inspector for Ontario taxpayers. If Quebec wants to continue to have two systems, that is fine with me. I am making them an offer to help them save money. The minister responsible for harmonizing programs in Canada is successfully reaching agreements with the provinces in many areas. The only province that is not interested in discussing the elimination of duplication is the province of Quebec.

[Transfer Payments, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, when we passed the national health legislation establishing medicare for all Canadians, it was approved by everybody. Everybody agreed.

We do not have control over its administration. It is a provincial matter. When the programs were established we said we would help the provinces for a number of years but that once the programs were well established we might withdraw. That was the policy discussed at that time.

As far as Canada's national health system is concerned, it is very important that we keep it because Canada has the best system. In fact a few minutes ago the hon. Leader of the Opposition referred to the very good health system that Canada has.

[Transfer Payments, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance must assume his responsibilities, and we intend to make substantial cuts in all public administration sectors. It is not a matter of punishing anyone. On the contrary, we want to treat everyone equally. In any case, we do not know if there will be a referendum in 1995. I hope that the Leader of the Opposition can come to an agreement with Mr. Parizeau. After the date of the referendum is announced, you will know whether or not we acted with the referendum in mind.

[Transfer Payments, February 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform the Leader of the Opposition that, when we formed the government last year, we agreed with theprovinces that we would not make cuts without giving them prior notice. Under the previous government, the minister would get up on the day of the budget and announce the cuts to come into effect the following day. We said and, furthermore we promised in the red book that this brutal approach would not be repeated.

Therefore, if the Minister of Finance must cut transfers to the provinces, we will keep our promise and give the provinces fair notice before taking action.