Keith Martin

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 2000, April 5th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, most Canadians do not have $1,400 to donate to any charitable organization including political ones. The member should take back to his cabinet that the government should be increasing the amount of tax benefit individuals receive at the lower level because most people donate less than $200, not $1,400.

On the issue of the tax structure, our party's tax benefits and deductions are progressive. The current tax structure is a punitive tax structure. As an individual earns more, the system takes away more.

What that does to an economy was seen profoundly in the United Kingdom prior to Margaret Thatcher. Prior to Mrs. Thatcher the tax structure was similar to ours. The government member would call it progressive but in fact it was punitive. What it did was gut its economy. Mrs. Thatcher reduced taxes and managed to rejuvenate the economy.

Ireland is another example. It had a punitive tax structure such as the one that Canada has versus the more progressive one that it has today.

The government also has very sly methods of taking money away from individuals. I draw the attention of the House to one very important point. The government is giving money to our soldiers on the one hand and on the other hand it is yanking the money away with increased rents on their private married quarters and forcing them to pay for things they did not pay for before. It is giving money with one hand but taking money with two hands.

That is what the government is doing to the men and women in our military. It is disgusting. These people put their lives on the line for us and the government is shafting them. I will be raising that again with the Minister of National Defence as soon as possible. I have raised repeatedly in the past. I encourage the member to raise it and fight for it within his own caucus because this stone will not be left unturned.

[Income Tax Amendments Act, 2000, April 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure today to speak on Bill C-22. I find it intriguing, listening to the debate, the completely different psychologies of our side and that of the government.

I listened to some of the comments made about the tax structure. Our party is for a progressive tax structure, not a punitive tax structure which is what we have today.

Why do we have a system where the more one earns, the greater chunk is taken away? Our party has always fought for the ability of individuals to take care of themselves and for a fair tax structure that takes the same percentage from the amount people make as they grow older. Therefore the more one makes, the more one pays, but the more one pays is not a greater percentage of what one makes.

Also what is not as well known perhaps is that our party stands for radically and dramatically improving the health and welfare of the poorest and most impoverished people. How would we do that? Simply by raising the amount of money that people would have to make before they pay taxes. That is progressive, innovative and demonstrates ingenuity.

If the government truly wants to help those who are most in need, then it would look at our single tax rate, look at the way we have articulated it and understand very clearly that it strikes a balance between helping those who are most impoverished while enabling those who are innovators to have the tools to innovate.

There is one major complaint that I think all members in the House hear when they talk to small and medium sized businesses in their ridings. That is the government takes too much money from their pockets. They generate jobs, innovate and are the major engine of economic growth in our country.

They ask us why the government is not listening. There have been reports and committees at federal and provincial levels for years. Report after report says the same thing. Canadians want the ability to provide for themselves, to pay a fair share of tax but not a punitive share of tax. Businesses want to generate the funds to hire people, to do research and development and engage in the actions that build a strong economy which enables us to have strong social programs.

One of the mythologies that has always been connected to the right of the political spectrum is that the right does not care, the left does and that the right only cares for the rich, the left cares for the poor. This is completely nonsensical.

We have shown and demonstrated over the years that the budgets put out by the members of New Democratic Party have been abysmal and the arithmetic has not added up. Instead of helping the poorest people in our society, they would actually hurt them. What they would do is raise taxes up to such a level that the ability of the private sector to function would be constricted and restricted. This leads to brain drain, the exodus of businesses from Canada and the lack of ability for businesses to get on the cutting edge in their chosen field.

Some would say we need to raise taxes even more. If we look at the European models of Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and countries that have historically been the bastions of socialism, countries that have been looked upon from the socialist left, as being the nirvana of economic thought, they not only damaged and destroyed their social programs, they gutted the soul of their countries and severely compromised their economies. This has been proven in history.

I would encourage members of the NDP to listen very carefully and look at their history books. What they ought to do is come over to the Canadian Alliance, as should members from across the House, and listen to what we have fought for over a long period of time. Indeed, the former leader of the Reform Party was an individual who was at the forefront of this and deserves a great deal of credit for doing this.

One of the major reasons I joined the party in 1993 was out of a deep concern over the state of our social programs. I did not look at the NDP for that. I chose the Reform Party. Why? Because the Reform Party articulated constructive economic solutions to enable us to have a fairer and a lower tax rate which would give our private sector the ability to generate the funds to expand. It would also provide the moneys for our social programs.

A healthy economy and a healthy private sector means strong social programs. After all, the best social program any individual could ever have is a job. Whatever we can do to strike that balance between enabling our private sector to be strong, aggressive and competitive, as well as ensuring that we have tight, strong social programs that are targeted and fair, will create the right balance.

I believe the public who is watching and members from across party lines will understand very clearly that this is something we have striven for throughout our entire professional careers here.

We only need to look at the tax differential between ourselves and the United States to see what it has done. We heard about the brain drain. We heard about the exodus of companies. Perhaps what we have not heard about is a more subtle and perhaps more insidious problem in our society. That is what this has done to the soul of our country.

Punitive tax rates erode the deep, inherent desire that all of us have to strive to better ourselves. It destroys that edge of innovation that every country needs to be competitive in a global environment. Let us not forget that we are not only competing among ourselves, within provinces and between provinces, more important we are competing with other countries. As the barriers to trade come down, which is a good thing, we will have to find our niches and be more aggressive in how we capitalize on those.

I would also re-articulate the issue of a single tax rate, not a flat tax rate, but a single tax rate that lowers and simplifies the tax system while still allowing many of the deductions that we have enjoyed in the past.

I would also suggest, and this is a personal issue, that we lower the GST. The government has never looked at lowering it, although it promised to, or simplifying it. One of the major complaints we all hear about back home is that the GST is far too complex. The amount of money that goes into managing it chews up about one-third of all the moneys received from GST. That is not an efficient system.

Personally, I would implore the government to look at ways to simplify the GST, make it a single one time per year reporting, make it more comprehensive and lower the amount by 2%.

On the issue of payroll taxes, the EI moneys that companies pay are in many ways just another tax. The government has generated billions of surplus dollars from the EI fund that we have said time and time again must go back into the hands of the Canadian people and the companies that hire them.

EI, under the guise of being a social program, is actually a tax. Payroll taxes by and large are another form of tax. What we can do is ensure fair EI payments and restructure EI into a true insurance policy.

I will also speak about charitable donations. There is a theory that the higher the taxes, the greater the desire of individuals to donate in order to receive a tax benefit. The facts prove the opposite to be true. The United States has done some interesting studies to show that the more money people have after tax, the more they donate.

Between 1982 and 1989 the marginal top tax bracket in the United States dropped substantially. The amount of money people had in their pockets increased dramatically and there was a 29% increase in the amount of money people donated. That is a huge amount.

These days, when people have less and less money and non-governmental organizations have more and more responsibility to raise money, is it not fair and equitable that the government give them a chance to take care of themselves? Is it not fair that organizations like the Canadian Cancer Society, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Canada and others have an opportunity to raise money from the public and that the public derive the benefit from that?

We cannot take money away from non-governmental organizations while denying them the ability to raise money. The government should look at what the U.S. did in terms of enabling people to increase their donations. Again, it is about more money at the end of the day in people's pockets.

Another thing the government can do is enable NGOs and the people who donate to them to derive the same tax benefit as a person who donates to a political party. Why do people who donate to the Liberal Party or the Alliance Party receive a higher tax benefit than if they donate to the Canadian Cancer Society?

We should ensure there is equitability, that a person who donates to an NGO receives the same tax benefit as someone who donates to a political party. I encourage the government to look at that. It is quite innovative work. People in Canada who rely on non-governmental and charitable organizations would benefit enormously from such a progressive move on the part of the government.

Another thing the government can do in an age of so much new wealth is enable people in the top tax bracket to create foundations. Foundations can be an enormous generator of funds for charitable and other non-governmental organizations. Why does the government not put provisions into the tax structure that enable people to create foundations which give them control and ownership and, I would argue, efficiency in ensuring those moneys get to people in need?

Another innovative program is energy tax incentives. The United States in its budget last year put through some innovative energy tax incentives aimed particularly at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Many of those tax benefits rest on the ability of individuals to invest in other forms of non-fossil fuels and non-greenhouse gas producing energy sources that benefit both the environment and the individuals themselves.

I encourage the government to look at what the U.S. has done. Solar power, new ways of heating homes and hybrid cars that use non-fossil fuels would all provide our environment, individuals and the organizations producing them the tax incentives that would wean us away from fossil fuels.

Our demand for energy will increase substantially. We will need alternative fuel sources. Nuclear power is a clean source, but it has an obvious downside. Fossil fuels are limited. Since greenhouse gas emissions will only increase, we must look at alternative measures. We could learn from the U.S. energy tax incentives to greatly improve our environment at home.

On the education system I encourage the government to look at another proposal from our side, the income contingent loan repayment plan. Students today face increasing difficulty in finding the money to pay for their education.

I am a physician, but I could not have gone to medical school if costs had been what they are today. Tuition fees at my alma mater are now more than $12,000 per year. There is no way, given the socioeconomic conditions I grew up in, that my family could have afforded the fees. That is the situation students across the country are facing.

We are now seeing a very dangerous situation in which professional faculties are becoming the purview of the rich. A recent study looked at family incomes at various schools, and I will take the University of Western Ontario as an example. The study found that over the last four or five years the average family income went from $60,000 to more than $120,000 for students entering medical school at the University of Western Ontario. That pattern is borne out across the country and in other professional faculties like law and dentistry.

People in lower socioeconomic groups who want to enter professional faculties face an economic obstacle. Gaining access to professional faculties is no longer an issue of merit or competence. It is becoming an issue of how much money one's parents make. This is a critical issue that must be dealt with now. It is an matter of fundamental fairness for a country that prides itself on equality for all people regardless of socioeconomic condition.

The situation will only get worse. I encourage the Prime Minister to call together the ministers of education across the country to urgently look at the matter.

The shortage of professors and faculty members is also an issue now and will be one in the future. Across the country the dearth will become critical. It is so bad now that universities and post-secondary institutions have sent out a clarion call for help. We must find innovative ways to train and retain individuals who can teach and work in our post-secondary institutions. A professor cannot be trained overnight. It takes at least seven years.

I encourage the government to raise the issue at a first ministers conference as soon as possible. It will take years to deal with it, but it must be done for the sake of our youth and our economy. The economy is predicated on hiring and training good, competent individuals. If we cannot train people of excellence our economy will face a fate we do not want to contemplate.

Lastly I will address the issue of accountability. My colleagues have raised the issue time and time again. A backbench member of the Liberal government articulated a solution with which it is difficult to disagree. The individual quite intelligently raised, as have my colleagues, the fact that we do not know where our money has been spent.

We need to know the amount of money going in, where it is spent and what the output is. Whether we are talking about health care, agriculture or the environment, we need to measure this. There are ways it can be done.

Every ministry ought to be on a spreadsheet so that a deputy minister would know, if asked, where the money has gone, how it was spent and have a way of measuring the output. That is what we want and what the public wants. If we are to build an effective public service we must do that.

The government has been very clearly asked to do this by the Clerk of the Privy Council. He has asked for an urgent indepth look at our public service and how we can make it more efficient. The good people who work in our public service urgently need that as well. We must find ways of innovating and allowing members in the public service to put their incredible talents and intelligence to the best use.

I will again draw attention to something Mr. Gore did when he was vice-president. President Clinton asked Mr. Gore to rejuvenate the public sector. Mr. Gore did something I thought was quite innovative. He told public sector members they had carte blanche to do the right thing but with certain restrictions. He then gave them a card listing the restrictions.

We need to be able to unleash the power of our public service. We need to increase its efficiency and accountability. We need to streamline it so we have an efficient public service that works for the public good.

I know my time is up. I will close by saying that the bill, while it moves in the right direction, should have come out three years ago.

[Foreign Affairs, April 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I want to draw attention to another even more critical issue that is urgent because it places the lives of about one million people at risk. There is impending starvation in the south. A million people are poised to die in the next month.

Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs ask the international partners to redouble their efforts to ensure that the people in the south will gain urgent access to food? The UN world food program has said it is just about ready to put out its press releases to talk about the body count. We cannot wait. Will the minister ask our international partners to put food on the table?

[Foreign Affairs, April 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, last month I returned from the Sudan and introduced a 14 point peace plan because that country is moving away from peace, not toward it.

Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs work with our international partners and demand that the government of Sudan and the Sudan's People Liberation Army implement an immediate ceasefire and allow complete and free access to all relief shipments into the south?

[Sex Offender Registry Act, April 4th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to pass Motion No. 330 which reads:

That, in the opinion of this House, the government should introduce a comprehensive plan of action to stop the international drug trade that should undertake to: (a) reduce domestic consumption through drug rehabilitation programs based upon some of the new and effective European models; (b) prevent the use of drugs in the early stages of childhood by introducing a national Headstart program that focuses on strengthening the parent-child bond; (c) pursue a hemispheric free trade agreement that reduces tariff, non-tariff barriers and the elimination of double taxation regimes; and (d) introduce amendments to the criminal code based on the model of the American Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisation Act (RICO); and that this plan should be taken to the Summit of the Americas and the Organization of American States for further action.

[Supply, April 3rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right. People are innocent until proven guilty. In all accusations and in a court of law people have to put forth their side of the story.

The fact of the matter is the Prime Minister is not an ordinary MP. Things have taken place of a private nature but public funds were used. Maybe nothing did take place. However questions have to be answered. These questions refer to public funds being used. Many people have asked these questions, including the Prime Minister's own colleagues.

Since we are all in agreement that questions need to be answered, the member should either get his Prime Minister to answer the questions or have the public inquiry.

[Supply, April 3rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition was quite correct in saying that things ought to be dealt with internally. The problem with the issue is that the internal mechanisms in the House are inadequate to deal with this.

We tried to make the ethics counsellor an independent officer of the House and the government decided not to. This was against its red book promise. If the internal mechanisms functioned in the House, as the Leader of the Opposition wanted when he was the treasurer of Alberta, we would not be debating this today because these questions would be answered. The problem is that the internal mechanisms do not work and the questions still need to be answered.

The opposition is merely echoing the statements made by the Prime Minister's own colleagues from Oshawa, Guelph—Wellington and Vaudreuil—Soulanges who want to see an independent public inquiry into this matter.

This inquiry does not require millions of dollars. In fact, it does not require one red cent. The Prime Minister only has to put the papers on the table, answer the questions and we will move on.

[Supply, April 3rd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak on this motion. I am somewhat disappointed that it has actually come to this, that the House has not been able to deal with more constructive issues. However, we, as an opposition party, and other colleagues on this side of the House are obligated to try to get to the truth of the matter.

Contrary to what the government says, the public does want answers. Eight out of ten people want this issue to end. They want it to be over and done with so that we can get to the real issues affecting Canadians. However, eight out of ten Canadians also want there to be full disclosure of the Prime Minister's papers. They have said to the Prime Minister very clearly that they want to have answers to the questions that are there in front of him, that they want full disclosure and they want the truth, and that then they can move on.

I am sure that the Prime Minister, after 38 years of service in the House and in the winter of his political career does not want to have the stench of Shawinigate hanging around his shoulders as he leaves office. It would do a huge disservice to him and the years of service that he has put into the House and into this country for him to not answer the questions that have been posed, not only by my colleagues here in the House but also by members in his own caucus and of course by the public. The public wants to move on, but it wants answers.

The Prime Minister's tactic of relying on public fatigue, on opposition fatigue, will simply not wash. It will not end this issue. There has been ample evidence presented by my colleagues as to why he should make full disclosure.

This whole issue reflects a more disturbing trend in politics in Canada today. In fact, it reveals the unrivalled power that our Prime Minister has in our so-called democracy. Indeed, no leader of any other western democracy has the power the Prime Minister of Canada has. The president of the United States, I think the public would be interested to know, would do cartwheels down the White House lawn if he had the same powers our Prime Minister has. That must change.

In fact, this whole issue reflects the unbridled and unaccountable power that the person in that office holds today in our country. When Mr. Trudeau said that MPs were nobodies 50 feet off the Hill, he was merely reflecting the power that he himself was beginning to amass around him. Indeed, it has become more centralized as time has passed.

Many individuals in the House and, indeed, members across the way in the government have spoken quite eloquently on the unbridled and unaccountable power that the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office hold today. It is not something to be proud of. It is not something constructive for the members of the House or, more important, for the Canadian public, the reason being that it muzzles and compromises the innovation and abilities of every single person in the House, including those in cabinet.

Cabinet members unfortunately are unable to exercise their abilities and their rights to the checks and balances that have occurred. I think the public would be very interested to know that the right hand person of a minister of the crown is a deputy minister not appointed or approved by the minister but by the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office. That is an intriguing check and balance on the ability of any minister of the crown to be able to exercise foresight, responsibility and leadership in the area of their chosen field.

It also reflects a lack of responsibility and accountability to the public and a lack of respect for the public. We have, as my colleague mentioned, an ethics counsellor appointed by the Prime Minister and responsible to the Prime Minister, as opposed to having an independent person in that position. We see money spent without accountability or public scrutiny. In fact, the auditor general has repeatedly warned the House and the public of the dangers of that. Year in and year out, he has put forth constructive solutions as to how we can deal with it. Is he ever listened to? No. Are those solutions ever implemented? No, they are not.

What a tragedy for a good man, Mr. Denis Desautels, who is now leaving his position after 10 years. He has worked hard for the public good and has given direction to every member in the House as to how we can improve the use of the public purse. The tragedy that I think the public should know about is that those solutions are rarely, if ever, adhered to and implemented. How disheartening for a good team of people trying to engage in the public good.

We have seen, as my colleague mentioned, where public moneys are used—the Export Development Corporation, the Business Development Bank, crown corporations, the new fund for innovation and $1.25 billion—without accountability, without public scrutiny. We have seen contracts for CIDA that have often been disbursed not on the basis of what is useful or what would be wise but on who the friends of the government are or for political reasons.

All this is reflected in the fact that we now see fewer people engaging in the public process and fewer people voting. We saw it in our last federal election, where only three-fifths of the Canadian public actually came out to vote. Why is there this declining number? Because the public sees this institution as increasingly irrelevant to their lives and, indeed, as unable to tackle the big issues that face all of us.

We have seen ministers talk about fictional burning crosses. We have seen ministers call a member in my caucus a pig. Why? I think it is because the members on the other side are bored. They are bored, they do not have direction and they do not have vision, because the Prime Minister is predicating his actions on trying to keep the opposition fractured rather than articulating a vision to deal with the big issues that face our nation.

While Rome burns, the following is not happening. We are not seeing action to save a health care system in a critical state of disrepair. We have a medical manpower crisis where the average specialist is in his or her mid-forties to mid-fifties, including general surgeons, urologists, obstetricians and gynecologists who are all toward the end of their careers. There is a severe lack of individuals in these critical specialties. We have to act now to train those who will replace them.

We are seeing an unsustainable system of pensions in the country that will not provide for members of the Canadian public when they retire. The expectation is that there will be pensions that they will be able to live on. As we know, the people who constructed our pension scheme knew it was a Ponzi scheme and knew it would not be there to provide the moneys that would be needed for our people to retire on.

As a result we will have massive numbers of people in future generations who will not have enough money. They will be part of the elderly poor, individuals who will live from hand to mouth every single day for the remainder of their lives.

We have a dollar that is one one-hundredth of a cent away from the lowest it has ever been. Are we seeing this crisis dealt with by the government? No.

On environmental systems, we are labelled as one of the worst polluters around for an OECD nation. Our government is partially responsible for this.

We have a parliamentary system that is undemocratic.

We have an education system where the cost is so high that education is becoming the purview of only the rich and the connected. We see a dearth of professors and teachers. We have to deal with that now so our children will have people to teach them and so we will develop the excellence necessary to move the country forward in the coming years.

In our defence system, our soldiers have been given a raise, but the public may want to know that the money is being taken away from them in raises to the rents for private married quarters and in further costs imposed upon our soldiers. These people are worn out and tired and their numbers are insufficient to meet the demands the foreign affairs department places upon them. These men and women who put their lives on the line for our country are worn out and tired and many are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders.

While Rome burns, this House behaves like a group of people in a sandbox. It is the responsibility of all of us to change that. All I can say is that the Prime Minister has in his hands the ability to answer questions about Shawinigate. He and only he has the ability to put this all out on the table so that he can close this chapter in Canadian politics and move on to the big issues I have articulated.

I wish to say on behalf of all Canadians, Mr. Prime Minister, open the books, answer the questions and let us move on.

[Budget Implementation Act, 1997, April 2nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I will spell it out for the hon. member. It is called innovation. How do we innovate? I am talking about new innovative ways the government should look at in terms of enabling this particular fund to be used wisely. I am tying my comments to those of my colleague for St. Albert.

I know the hon. member has a strong desire to make sure that this fund will to be used wisely, not improperly. What we are doing is saving the government's backside. We are providing it a way to make sure that this money is spent wisely, with temperance, and usefully. At the end of the day the money is not ours, it is that of the Canadian taxpayer.

If we are going to have innovation and spend the money wisely, it must be spent by those who will be innovating. If we look into a crystal ball, we will have a enormous lack of individuals who have the ability to do the innovation. There is a crisis and it will only worsen because of lack of professors and teachers in our research institutions. Not only is there the brain drain but there is not enough money in the system right now to provide for these people. Many of them are moving to other parts of the world.

How do we rectify the problem? The following can be done. Let us get back to basics. Let us make sure our children are taught properly and that they are taught the basics of arithmetic, reading, writing and other skills, such as computer skills. We need national standards. They are important if we are to measure our functioning and ability against those in other parts of the world. We need to ensure that we invest in education so that professors can engage in the research.

We have a serious crisis in our education system today. We need to address this by working with the provincial ministers of education. If we do not have the teachers for our youth, they will not be able to utilize this fund. They will not be able to interact or be at the centre of excellence. They will not be the producers of the cutting edge research, which is required if Canada is to be on the leading edge.

The cost of education has gone up so much. For example in the field of medicine, I could not go to medical school today because the tuition fees are about $14,000 a year. The professional faculties are becoming the purview of the rich.

In my alma mater, the University of Toronto, the average family income is over $65,000 for those who are in medicine. How can someone who makes $35,000 a year send their child to medical school? They cannot do it. As time passes our professional faculties and the students who attend will merely be children of the rich and privileged. That is not what we want in Canada. We want to make sure that everyone, regardless of socio-economic status, has an equal ability and opportunity to engage in his or her chosen profession based on the merit of that individual. That is not happening.

This is a clarion call. It is a call for the government to wake up and listen, to work with its provincial counterparts to make sure that we have an education system that is affordable to all students. We have produced the income contingent loan replacement plan which would have been very useful in enabling that to happen.

In closing, we have to innovate in the House, We have to give MPs the ability and freedom to innovate. We have to revamp this bill and fund so that it is accountable to members of the public from coast to coast.

[Budget Implementation Act, 1997, April 2nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I know I only have a few minutes, but I will get right down to business. Bill C-17 is about innovation.

I would ask the government to allow innovation to start at home in this House. I have been here for seven years and never have I been in an environment where we have seen the death of innovation like this. Every member of parliament has had their rights to speak out freely destroyed and innovation has been choked off. If MPs try to be innovative, they are forced to put their ideas through an interminable series of committees where their ideas are chewed up and destroyed. At the end there is nothing more than pablum, gruel and useless stuff that does not challenge the status quo.

The press cannot speak to MPs. It is directed by parties as to who it can or cannot speak to. The individual MP cannot be innovative.

If the public wants to know why their MPs are having a very difficult time being innovative and challenging the status quo, it is because they are not allowed to. They are ostracized if they do. We should be dealing with issues like reforming health care and saving pensions. We should be putting forward new ideas to improve our environment. We should be putting forward new ways to deal with federal-provincial issues, defence issues, our role in the world, innovation that prevents conflict, innovation that enables people to get jobs and innovative ways to reform our tax structure. We should be dealing with large issues in the House. That is a pox on all of us if we do not do these things.

The bill before us is about creating a Canada fund for innovation and spending $1.25 billion. As my colleague from St. Albert mentioned very eloquently, why not allow the fund to be audited? Why not allow the auditor general to look at it? Why leave it up to the government? We know that if governments were allowed to dispense funds through such a mechanism, those funds would not be spent wisely. This has to be done in a different way.

There is a model to do that. The government wisely created the Canadian Institutes of Health Research which works well. It is a public-private partnership. It is at arm's length from the government. It has and will be audited. The institute provides public scrutiny for the disbursement of funds. It is innovative. It allows dynamism and flexibility. That is what this fund needs to be.

It not that we do not support the notion of being able to fund and give our Canadian researchers the ability to innovate, it is the manner in which this fund will be disbursed. That is the problem. It is a matter of accountability and transparency. The government is sorely lacking in foresight if it thinks the public will watch $1.25 billion of its money be given away without having an opportunity to scrutinize it.

There are other things we need to do to allow innovation. First, we must decrease the tax structure. Second, why not put into the tax structure our ability to create foundations like the United States has done? This will enable us to tap into a huge pool of funds that could be used and dispersed according to what the foundations wanted. It will provide researchers and non-governmental and charitable organizations an enormous pool for innovation.

We should allow individuals to donate to non-governmental organizations and innovative groups that do research like the Canadian Juvenile Diabetes Association or the Heart and Stroke Foundation. We should allow individuals the same tax write-off that another individual would receive if they donated to a political party. What is the difference? Why not allow a person who feels compelled to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society the ability to have the same tax write-off as somebody who donates to the Liberal Party or the Canadian Alliance? This is simply an issue of fairness and equitableness.

While the government has been removing funds from these organizations, why not allow the organizations to have the ability to provide for themselves?