Jim Flaherty

[Government Assets, June 2nd, 2009]

No, Mr. Speaker. In fact, the government is conducting an asset review because it is good business management practice. Any large organization should constantly be reviewing what it owns, whether it still serves the public interest. In the situation of the Government of Canada, that is exactly what we are doing.

[Government Assets, June 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in the budget we announced an asset review which did not include Heritage Canada, which is responsible for the CBC.

[The Economy, June 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the newspaper report that the hon. member refers to is misleading. Federal government spending actually has increased. Relative to the last quarter of 2008, federal spending increased by $1.5 billion, or 2.4%, on an annualized basis.

What was different was that we had lower debt charges in the first quarter due to lower interest rates, and that had a significant dampening effect on growth, but spending on programs rose over $3.2 billion, or 6.2%, in the first quarter of 2009, relative to the last quarter of 2008.

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the landmark tax-free savings account, TFSA, is a flexible, registered account that our government introduced to help Canadians with their different savings needs over their lifetimes by allowing them to set money aside in eligible investment vehicles, and watch those savings grow tax-free.

Jon Kesselman, a research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, declared TFSA “the most significant advance in Canada's tax treatment of personal savings since the registered retirement savings plan was launched in 1957.” John Stapleton, a policy fellow with the Metcalf Foundation and St. Christopher House, and Richard Shillington, a senior associate at Informetrica Limited, jointly proclaimed it “an instrument that has the potential to provide low-income Canadians with real choices in planning for their future.”

The tax savings from the TFSA were estimated in the budget presented to the House of Commons on February 26, 2008, to be $5 million in 2008–09, $50 million in 2009–10, $190 million in 2010-11, $290 million in 2011-12, and $385 million in 2012–13. As the TFSA matures over the next 20 years, the annual tax savings will continue to grow—it is estimated that, relative to the size of today’s economy, these tax savings will grow to over $3 billion annually.

[Finance, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the provincial budget in Ontario in 2001-02 was balanced. Yes, it was. It was an excellent balanced budget.

I have to agree, again, with what is becoming my favourite paper, The Toronto Star when it looks at the opposition and it says, “The opposition should get a grip on itself. The deficit is a direct result of the global recession, nor is the new deficit projection out of line with the outlook in other countries. The deficit would still just be 3.3% of Canada's GDP. By comparison, Washington's is 13.6%. Japan's, Britain's and even Germany's finances are all higher than Canada's”.

I hope the--

[Finance, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as the International Monetary Fund noted on Friday, our government paid off about $40 billion in debt in the first three years of our mandate.

As the International Monetary Fund also pointed out, this puts this country in the best position in the G7 as we enter the recession and as we weather the storm. We have the best fiscal position of all our competitors in the G7.

[The Economy, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, since when does the member opposite take this hypocritical position? Why does he stand and criticize the government for running a deficit, as we are obliged to do in order to help unemployed people in Canada, and at the same time say that the government should spend even more money?

One does not make the playoffs that way.

[Government Assets, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, there were a lot of accusations and some information there, most of which is in error.

As we said in the budget, Canada's economic action plan, as any prudent enterprise and any prudent government would do, we will look at the assets that the government has. There will be no fire sales. Nothing would be sold at an inappropriate time, not at good value for the Canadian taxpayers.

We have started to get the work together to look at the review, which we promised in the economic action plan.

[The Economy, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this is a serious time. Unemployment is worse than anticipated. The recession is deeper and broader than was anticipated by anyone. This is a serious time and a serious subject.

We also have the auto negotiations with respect to Chrysler and with respect to General Motors. I would be interested in knowing the member's position on that. Is he against supporting the auto industry in Ontario?

[The Economy, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I pay attention to the questions from one of the leading Canadian experts in deficits, having brought Ontario through that period from 1990-95. By 1995, the people of Ontario were paying $1 million an hour in interest only on the debt accumulated during that time, creating a permanent structural deficit in the second largest government in the country.

Here is another hypocritical position of the member for Toronto Centre. He said, “if we have a deficit now, at the federal level, is that going to be the personal fault of the government. I don't think so and I don't think that's an intelligent position and no reasonable person—