Keith Martin

[Tobacco Products, March 18th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, this is absolutely unbelievable. The nicotine content of tobacco has increased 53 per cent in the last two decades. It was still taking place at the end of last year.

On the one hand we have the Minister of Health holding up a can of tobacco and saying it is really bad. On the other hand we have the minister of agriculture investing taxpayers' money into increasing the addictive potential of cigarettes. What is going on here?

The government has gutted $4 billion of transfers to health care. Yet it finds $2 million every year to research ways to increase nicotine levels in tobacco. The member has it all wrong.

Will the Prime Minister immediately stop using taxpayers' money to fund research to increase the addictive potential and power of tobacco?

[Tobacco Products, March 18th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, documents from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada show very clearly that the government is using taxpayers' money to fund research into increasing the addictive potential of cigarettes. I quote: "They want to improve the level of nicotine and focus on higher nicotine content".

My question is for the Prime Minister. As leader of the government how could the Prime Minister possibly justify using Canadian taxpayers' money to find ways in which to increase the addictive power of cigarettes?

[The Budget, March 18th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of questions that the hon. member asked me and I would like to go through a few of them because I do not have enough time to go through all of them.

The first thing I would like to say concerns the government's claiming it is the great defender of health care by putting a few hundred million dollars in. That may be well and true, but if you put a few hundred million dollars in after you have removed $7 billion in transfer payments, what kind of arithmetic is that? Take away this much and give this much. I am sure the provinces will be absolutely ecstatic to hear that.

Looking at any place in the country will show the devastation in our health care system, lengthening waiting lists and people suffering. However, I will not get into the specifics.

With respect to the health care forum, those people were selected by the government to get the result that the government wanted. When the asked members on the health care forum whether surgical waiting lists were becoming longer and longer, the response by some of the members was that is because doctors do not want to work. That is what the members of the health care forum said. They said that doctors do not want to work and that is why we have increasing waiting lists.

The Minister of Health likes to say, as my hon. friend mentioned, that the answer is not more money but better management. That is like saying we are in favour of sustainable development. It is another motherhood statement. We need specific solutions as to how we are to provide Canadians with health care when they need it. Not once in the three years that I have been here have I ever heard one constructive solution as to how we are to make sure that Canadians will get their health care when they medically need it. All we hear is better management.

I have asked the Minister of Health time and time again what is meant by better management. Not once have I ever received one single iota of an example or a constructive solution to resolve or explain that statement.

We have put forward constructive solutions. They may not be what the government wants but they are what the Canadian people want.

[The Budget, March 18th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Mission-Coquitlam.

It is interesting and sad that in a nation as great as ours with its tremendous potential in terms of resources and human capital we have managed to squander it for so much and for long. This year's budget was another opportunity to make our nation great, to put our economic house in order and to strengthen the social fabric which ensures most Canadians can live comfortably and are protected from some of the more egregious circumstances that occur south of the border. It is unfortunate that once again we have seen opportunity lost.

If the government had taken our solutions of three years ago, today we would have a balanced budget. We would be bringing down the real ogre which compromises our social programs and our employment situation, decreasing the debt. The government chose to ignore the factual practical solutions we gave it two and half years ago. Now the government is spending more money than it takes in and it compromises the very people it professes to help, the poor and those in the lowest socio-economic groups. The government compromises the very programs it claims to uphold, health care, welfare, old age security, guaranteed income supplement.

The government fails to recognize as it fails to tell the public that if you do not live within your means, if you are not fiscally responsible, you are socially irresponsible. In a nutshell, Reform's platform can be best summed up as fiscal responsibility with a social conscience, as fiscal responsibility with social responsibility.

We have been accused of trying to cut. Yes we have but we have tried to determine where moneys can be spent to preserve those programs most needed by Canadians and to eliminate those programs that are not. This is not because we wish to cut programs but because we wish to ensure that the social and economic fabric of Canada will be intact. Canadians will have an opportunity in the future to live long, prosperous and healthy lives. Unfortunately what is happening out there, away from this bubble of Parliament Hill, is very different from what the government would lead Canadians to believe.

In my other profession as a physician I see there is a great destruction taking place within the health care system. Canadians are not getting their essential health care services when needed. Instead, they are getting these services when governments say they can. The government like to trumpet out that it is the great staunch defender of the Canada Health Act. You can defend a piece of paper but it does not do a whole lot of good for somebody trying to get into an intensive care unit bed when they are having a heart attack if the money is not there. But that is what is happening throughout the country.

The government has to wake up. It is doing a huge disservice to Canadians by spinning them a series of gross misinformations about our health care system, our social programs and the economic situation in the country. Government members like to stand up and say they are balancing the budget and winning on the deficit. Winning for whom?

The government is trying to balance the budget on the backs of the only people who pay the money to run this place and every single program in this country, the hardworking, much beleaguered, overtaxed Canadian taxpayer. That is what is happening. The government has instituted 35 tax increases for Canadians. It is living off the avails of programs from before to keep the interest rates low. Actual cost cutting has been very small. It is disingenuous to say to the public that the government has not increased taxes when the reality is very far from that.

The government has also compromised some other very important programs. It has yanked out $7 billion from health care, welfare and education. This is at a time when education is going to be the underpinning of our social fabric.

Reform has put forth effective, concrete solutions. I will discuss a few of them. If the government were to institute just a fraction of them, we would begin to greatly improve the welfare of Canadians.

First, get the deficit down to zero but for heaven's sake bring forth a surplus budget so we can bring down the debt. Second, stop increasing taxes. Canadians cannot stand any more tax increases.

Third, simplify the tax system. It is unfathomable that we have a tax system that is so complicated that many Canadians simply cannot do their own tax returns.

In private companies, the true creators of jobs, small and medium size businesses, their ability to increase employment, invest in their companies and in the economic strength of the company is compromised by the egregious taxation system. It acts as a strangle hold on companies to compete. Companies have problems competing within the country but, worse, they have problems competing with companies in other parts of the world because our tax system prevents them from being competitive.

We also have a whole array of restrictive, stultifying rules and regulations which crush the living daylights out of companies and their ability to be aggressive, mobile and nimble in creating jobs and survive.

The government must work with its provincial counterparts to develop ways to streamline the systems, the rules and regulations that are completely necessary.

Everyone in the House knows that we are one of the most, if not the most, overgoverned democracies in the world. We do not need that. It is the taxpayer who is paying for it. In essence the tax system, overspending and the debt are a noose around the private sector and every Canadian, and around our social programs. We have to remove it from around the necks of Canadians and put forth good, strong economic policies that will get people back to work and strengthen the social fabric.

The government likes to trumpet employment statistics. The fact is that we have been suffering from the worst and longest unemployment record since the depression. This Liberal government and the preceding Conservative government are directly responsible.

If the Canadian people would like to see a change they should vote for the Reform Party in the next election. However, before they do they should look at our policies and compare them to those of the Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP. Compare policy to policy and idea to idea. Canadians must get involved.

It is also essential to remove other barriers to trade. The government had an opportunity to decrease the interprovincial trade barriers. Did it do it? No. It touched and nibbled around the edge. There are more barriers to trade between my province of British Columbia and Ontario than there are between any province in Canada and the United States. Does this make sense? It is absolutely absurd.

The government also has to decrease taxation levels. The GST should be scrapped as soon as possible. There is a model we can look to. In 1992 the Conservative government decreased taxes temporarily. What happened to government revenues? They went up. What did the government then do? It started to tax wildly and government revenues went down. Think and listen. There are examples which we can draw from.

In conclusion, if we are to get substantial changes and if we are to achieve our potential, then the place to change first is Parliament because it is not a democracy; it operates more a medieval fiefdom and gives democracy a very bad name.

[Parliament Of Canada Act, March 11th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak on private member's Bill C-250 which has been presented by my colleague from Kindersley-Lloydminster. It is an important bill as it reflects on this institution.

The bill ensures that Canadians have a fixed election date every four years. That is unlike the present situation in which the government can decide when an election is to take place. That is a bit like an employee deciding what are his terms of employment. Unfortunately that is a reflection of the fact that we do not live in a democratic country. We live in a system that more closely resembles a medieval fiefdom.

I do not say that lightly. The public would be interested to know that what goes on in the House of Commons bears little resemblance to democracy. This bill, which is a very good bill, ensures that the Canadian public knows when a federal election will take place. It is also an effort to take away the unfair advantage that exists for the Government of Canada. It is an effort to level the playing field and ensure that all members of the House and most important, the public, know when an election will be. The time proposed by my colleague is the third week of October every four years beginning in 1997.

This bill is merely an indication, a small but important effort, to make this House more democratic and more responsive to the needs and the demands of the Canadian public. This House is anything but a democracy.

Every four to five years members are elected from the public with the hope that they will change this country to make it a new and more powerful one. Canadians elect people who are going to represent their wishes and bring forward all the good and exciting

ideas that exist within our nation. Canadians expect those people to present those ideas to the House of Commons in the form of legislation that will address the many problems that affect our country.

Unfortunately every four years the dreams and hopes of the public for a new and stronger nation are dashed. They become nothing but a wistful dream as promises fail to materialize and expectations are dashed. This is an unfortunate situation. It reflects the fact that the problem is not with the members who are elected to the House. Regardless of their political affiliation, members come to the House to do the best they can for their constituents and for the nation. Unfortunately they come into a system, a House of Commons, that is not democratic and that prevents them from doing the best that they can for the country and for their constituents.

What they see is not a House of Commons but a house of illusions. They come to a House where power is centred in a very small number of hands: a few cabinet ministers, a few bureaucrats and a few people in the Prime Minister's office and the Prime Minister. It is a highly pyramidal structure where these people control the legislation, they dictate what happens in the country and they do it through a bastardized version of the Westminster system in England. The system we are supposed to have was modelled on the English system. Instead the system has been changed so that power is centred in those very few hands.

Unfortunately these people, through the whip structure, force the members to vote and act like a group of lemmings. That is an entirely unfortunate situation and exists not only within the voting habits of members but exists through committees, through private members' bills and through private members' motions.

We have a great opportunity to capitalize on the great expertise that exists among the members of the House and also in the expertise that exists in the Canadian public, to bring those great ideas forward, to have a vigorous, constructive and aggressive debate and come out with better solutions, better ideas that can be applied to this country's problems. That is the way a democracy should work but we do not have that at all. We have something that is highly undemocratic and operates along the lines of a medieval fiefdom.

In 1993 the Minister of Health, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and the newly appointed Deputy Chairman of Committees of the Whole published a superb document on how to democratize the House. The document was tabled when the government members were in opposition. It mentioned relaxing leadership control. It mentioned making private member's bills votable. It mentioned ensuring that members had as their primary responsibility the role to represent their constituents and that every vote in the House of Commons would not be a vote of non-confidence, that members were able to bring good ideas to the House without fear of being oppressed, without fear of being disciplined by the leadership of a party through the whip structure. They were good ideas.

What happened to them? They were tossed and shelved. When these members came to the House of Commons as members of the government, their ideas went by the wayside and have never been brought forward. It does a disservice not only to members but it does a huge disservice to the Canadian people. It erodes the very morale and fabric of the system of governance and prevents us from truly becoming the great nation that we can become.

Solutions can be put forward. They have been put forward repeatedly. Bill C-250 is one example on how to level the playing field, democratize this institution and make it more responsive to the needs of Canadians.

I would submit that if the government was truly interested in dealing with the problems of the country, if it were truly interested in capitalizing on the expertise in the House and in the Canadian public, then it would do a number of things.

First, the government would pass Bill C-250. Second, it would release members to ensure that they could vote according to what their constituents wanted and not follow along like a group of lemmings according to what the leader and a small elite group wants. Third, it could make all committees completely separate from the ministry so that committees could write legislation. Input into committees from the public would truly be heard and documents that would come out of committee would not have but a day of media attention and then be shelved along with dozens of other committee reports that say much the same thing.

Committees would have the opportunity to truly incorporate the good ideas from the public into legislation that could be brought forth into this House, modified and built into stronger bills.

Right now in committees, unfortunately and tragically, when I sit and hear earnest members of the public coming forward and giving good constructive suggestions, it breaks my heart to see them do this because I know their good suggestions are going to be incorporated into a document that is going to be shelved and forgotten.

One need not look any further than the royal commission on aboriginal affairs that cost $60 million, three years to complete and what do we hear about it? Nothing. It is tossed on a shelf.

When I was a member of the health committee, the health committee was trying to decide what to study. It ignored all the top 20 suggestions members put forward and was contemplating studying aboriginal health.

Rosemarie Kuptana, head of the Inuit Tapirisat, came in front of the committee, put forth a load of documents on the desk and said:

"If all you want to do is study us, forget it. We want action. I have a whole garage full of documents just like this of studies on us".

What did the committee on health do? It decided to study aboriginal mental health while the royal commission was taking place. This is not an isolated incident but occurs repeatedly in this House.

Unfortunately members feel coward to do anything about it because they fear the leadership. The leadership rules over them with an iron fist and tells them what to say and what to do. If they do not do that, they will be disciplined.

It makes the institution highly unresponsive to the needs, wishes and desires of our country and our people. Also, it is a huge affront to the members who sit in this House.

I will close by saying one last thing. We have a great opportunity in this nation to truly make our country strong. Before we do that, we have to make Parliament strong. If we are going to do that, we must truly make it a democracy.

[Health Care, March 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, yes, let the provinces deal with health care but do not cut the legs out from under them.

Why has the government chosen handouts over health care? Why has it chosen to give $97 million to Bombardier when patients are absorbing the $4 billion in health care cuts with their own flesh and blood and sometimes by their own lives?

Will the minister tell patients and the hospitals how the government will provide urgent health care to Canadians when they medically need it?

[Health Care, March 7th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the Reform Party is committed to publicly funded health care in Canada.

I will speak very slowly so that the Minister of Health and members on the other side will understand real life examples of my experience in the emergency department.

A young woman came in needing urgent dialysis. She could not get it because the hospital has had its funds cut. She went into cardiac arrest after three days and almost died. On an average night 8 out of 13 hospital bays are filled with patients. There is no room in the hospital and the hospital does not have any money.

Is the minister's version of better health care management to give $97 million to Bombardier or to give money to health care so that Canadians can get urgent treatment when they medically need it?

[Esquimalt Defence Research Detachment, March 6th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transport recently announced that federal cuts to British Columbia's research and development had gone too far.

What does the government do? It closes the Esquimalt defence research detachment and moves it to Halifax. This will cost the taxpayer over $5 million per year in lost contracts and $8 million in moving costs. It will decrease British Columbia's research staff to only 1.4 per cent of the national allotment, eliminate our world leading Arctic research facility and decrease our ability to capitalize on far east markets, all this in the year of the government's self-proclaimed year of Asia-Pacific. Even the defence department officials call this a blow to research.

What is the real reason for the closure? It is to coerce the people of Nova Scotia to vote Liberal in the next election.

Once again the government is shafting the people of British Columbia to save its own political hide.

[Tobacco Act, March 6th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, certainly there were quite a few questions in there. I will hit them one after another.

First, contrary to what my hon. friend said, the export tax did work. In 1992 the Conservative government of the day put forth an $8 export tax on tobacco. Within six weeks smuggling decreased 70 per cent. What did the government do in response to pressure from the tobacco companies? It put its tail between its legs and removed the tax. The tax did work.

Second, this government earmarked $64 million for education. Less than 10 per cent has actually been spent on tobacco education. Where the other $54 million went only the government knows. Most likely it went into the general revenues. What is certain is that it did not go to where it was supposed to go; again another broken promise by this government, compromising the health and welfare of Canadian children.

[Tobacco Act, March 6th, 1997]

Madam Speaker, we are very sensitive to anybody who could lose a job. That is the last thing we want to happen. However, we have to balance this situation out with what is actually occurring.

We have a group of individuals producing a substance that is the single leading cause of preventable death in this country today. The hon. member may talk about 16,000 people who are employed in the industry but let us balance this off with the fact that 45,000 Canadians die every year from tobacco related diseases. Two hundred and fifty thousand children pick up the tobacco habit every year.

The fact is the tobacco lobby is actively going and supporting this member for its own gains. It wants to invest money into this individual's coffers, not for the benefit of the individual but for the benefit of its own pockets. It has no interest whatsoever in trying to do something for the betterment of Canadian society and for the people therein.

The reality is that tobacco producers are caught in a difficult situation. Crop diversification has worked in a number of countries and I will be happy to offer the hon. member examples of where this has occurred. However, beyond that we are looking at a situation where the production of the substance is costing the Canadian taxpayer and society billions of dollars in losses to health care and to the gross national product.

I would ask the hon. member, when he contemplates this situation, to balance out the supposedly tiny gains that he has in his own riding to the collective good of Canadian society.