Leon Benoit

[National Defence, February 27th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, 10 years is how long the government has been dragging its feet on replacing the Sea King helicopters. Thanks to the Prime Minister's political stalling tactics, two people are injured, a helicopter is badly damaged, and the HMCS Iroquois has had to abandon its mission in the Persian Gulf and return to port.

Will this latest international embarrassment be enough to force the government to replace the Sea King helicopters before 2005?

[Canadian Forces, February 27th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Alliance has long taken the position that lobby groups and special interest groups should look to their own membership for funding. Yet the government is all too willing to fund lobby groups which support its political positions while it completely cuts funding to other groups, like the Conference of Defence Associations.

Why is this? Could it be because the CDA is too effective in pointing out the government's slashing of our Canadian Forces and the neglect of our military personnel? Could it be because this organization, which has over 600,000 members, too effectively points out the underfunding of our military?

Does the government really believe it is okay to fund only groups that take the same positions as it does? I do not, and I say that most Canadians do not either.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I will only bring up a couple of the issues but I am sure others will bring up other issues.

I cannot believe the nerve of the member to bring up the issue of health care funding. When his government in the 1960s signed on to health care, it promised to pay 50% of the cost of health care. Now it is down to 13%. This budget brings it up over several years to 18% rather than the 50% that was promised. He has the nerve to stand in the House and say that they are doing a good job on health care when they are funding less than half of what they promised when they signed the deal with the provinces. That is disgusting.

The other issue concerns the debt. The member made a claim earlier that his government was in fact reducing the debt. If we were to check last year's budget documents against this year's budget documents, we would see that our national debt is higher this year than it was last year.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, the member referred to the softwood lumber negotiations between Canada and the United States and some trade negotiations between Australia and the United States. He alluded to something else being involved in the Canada-U.S. relationship. I would like him to expand on that.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that for single parents raising a child to pay taxes when their incomes get to just over $20,000 is disgusting. Maybe the member opposite has forgotten or has never known what it is like to live on $20,000 a year.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I do apologize to sailors, whether they are military sailors or any others. To compare them and their spending to government spending is certainly a slag on them. I do not have any intention of doing that because government spending is totally out of control.

We have seen a gun registry estimated at $2 million. That was what the justice minister at the time said it would cost. It is a billion dollars now and it will go up to $2 billion before too many years into the future. There was GST fraud where a billion dollars was thrown away. The HRDC scandal was a billion dollars. A billion dollars here and there is real money and the member should acknowledge that.

There is wasted spending on political friends in that party. It goes on all the time and it must stop. It is out of control and in this budget alone there is more than $18 billion in new spending. The former finance minister in his previous four budgets had increases of about $7 billion a year in spending. That sounds like spending that is out of control.

I make no apology for bringing up the issue of government spending being totally out of control because it is. There is so little for our military. It seems like the government does not care about our serving men and women at all. They are asked to do way too much with way too little. The government does not care about that. It spends peanuts on the military compared to what it spends on other programs that will be eaten up by inefficient bureaucracy just like the gun registry program.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver Island North.

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak about the recent budget. I will spend most of my time talking about the military funding, what has and has not happened there, and more importantly, what that means to Canadians. Few Canadians actually think about what our military does for them here at home and abroad.

Before I do that I must comment on a few things I have heard the Prime Minister and the finance minister say regarding this budget. I cannot let them go unchallenged. I have heard from several members that they are doing such a wonderful job, that they have eliminated the deficit and are now running huge surpluses. These comments I have heard again and again.

I would like to deal with the deficit and surpluses. There are two things I would like to say regarding the deficit. First, it was not the government that eliminated the deficit, but hard working Canadian taxpayers. That is something that Liberal members should remember. It is not their own money they are spending, it is Canadian taxpayers' money. They forget that when they brag about how much extra money they are taking from the pockets of hard working Canadians so they can run these surpluses.

Second, the deficit would never have been eliminated without the pressure put on by the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance. In the 1993 election we campaigned on eliminating the deficit with our zero in three plan. What did the Liberals say? They said that we did not have to focus on that, and that if we were to eliminate the deficit in three years the economy would collapse, that it would be a catastrophe for the country.

So what happened? Because of the pressure from the Canadian Alliance and because public opinion moved that way, the government did exactly that. It eliminated the deficit in three years. Did the economy collapse because of that? It did not. In fact, it improved because of the fiscal responsibility. That never would have happened without the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance. We were the only ones supporting that position during the 1993 election. We should take a lot of credit for that happening and I certainly am more than willing to do that.

Government members brag about the surpluses. They say, “Boy, is the government not doing a great job with its finances?” Maybe that is right, if we look at it only from the point of view that this is government money. The deficit has been eliminated and of course they forget the $550 billion debt we still have. They kind of ignore that because we are running these surpluses. So if we look at the finances of the government as such, I suppose we could look at it in a fairly positive way other than this huge debt, which of course they like to forget.

The reality is that these surpluses represent extra money being taken from the citizens of the country. That is something the Liberals forget almost all the time when they are talking about this issue. This extra money that allows the government to brag about its finances is putting pressure on the finances of Canadians.

What about seniors on fixed incomes? There is not a day in our constituency office where we do not have seniors on fixed incomes phoning in saying that they only make a little bit of money but still have to pay taxes. It does not seem right. They cannot pay the power bill. They cannot make ends meet. They may be forced to move into a lifestyle that they never thought they would have to. Canadian seniors are affected by overtaxation. Single mothers and fathers trying to make ends meet on small fixed incomes are still taxed. There is still money coming into this surplus from these people.

Students are facing increased costs all the time. In the budget the government talks about a few elite students who will get funding but there is nothing there for the majority of students. University students who work four months in a year still pay taxes. I have four children in post-secondary institutions and they still pay taxes on their incomes in spite of the small amount they are making and in spite of the fact they are students. This is unacceptable. This is so the government can brag about its finances. What about the finances of Canadians, especially low income Canadians on fixed incomes?

Government members ought to remember that when they are bragging about surpluses because surpluses are overtaxation. In spite of the drunken spending spree the government has put into this budget, there are still surpluses. Both of those things indicate overtaxation, too much money coming from the pockets of people who can ill afford it.

In spite of all this overtaxation, what does the military receive in this budget? Nowhere near enough. It receives $395 million for last year to pay for extra expenses that it simply could not meet for the fiscal year that we are in now, so it is paying for past debts. There is only $1 billion for next year, in spite of the fact that we will have an operation in Afghanistan. We still have the navy involved in Operation Apollo and we could well have another air force contribution in the area of Iraq, as well as an extra naval contribution in that area. That contribution will easily cost $500 million.

Of this $1 billion added to the budget for the next fiscal year, probably $500 million will go to extra deployments and it will have to be paid for out of that budget. Then only $800 million will be added to the base budget the year after that, and we will be picking up the tab and still be involved in operations in Afghanistan and possibly Iraq. This budget will not do what has to be done for the military.

It is important that Canadians remember what our military does for us. Many Canadians never really think about that and there are many others who do not think about it often enough.

What does our military do for us? Here at home it deals with natural disasters such as the flood in Manitoba, the Saguenay, and the ice storms. We have seen many natural disasters in the past where the local responders simply could not deal with it so we had to rely on our Canadian military. It has done a marvellous job in those circumstances although it is important to note, that to get our troops and equipment to the flood in Manitoba and to the ice storms, Canada's military did not have the ability to transport them. We had to beg the Americans for their strategic air lift to get our troops and equipment to deal with these natural disasters. That has to be a concern especially when that type of strategic air lift is in very short demand now.

If we were to have a natural disaster right now, for example, another ice storm or an earthquake in the lower mainland of British Columbia, how would we deal with it? We do not have enough people or the proper means to get them to the area in a hurry.

How would we deal with acts of civil unrest, for example, another situation like Oka or another event getting out of hand? That is what the military provides for Canadians. Most experts on the subject just say it is a matter of time before Canada is hit by a terrorist attack, by a chemical or a biological attack of some kind. We will certainly rely on our military to help deal with those situations. It also plays a role in helping to prevent those situations and that is important as well.

We have seen the marvellous search and rescue off our east and west coasts in the past year, unbelievably well done by military personnel we should be proud of. Many Canadians forget that this comes from our defence budget and it is extremely important to Canadians to know that in desperate situations they can rely on search and rescue right across the country.

Our military also helps protect our sovereignty, especially in northern waters and islands which many countries dispute are not Canadian. If we do not have a proper presence there in the water, in the air, and in some cases on land, then we will lose sovereignty over some of that territory. There is little doubt about that. As the northern waters open up and become an important shipping route, there will be a lot of dispute about whose waterway it is. Having a presence will determine in the end whether these are Canadian waterways and whether it is Canadian territory.

To protect critical infrastructure is another important role our military performs here at home. Our military provides invaluable service here at home.

Overseas of course, Canadians think it is very important that Canada has some influence on other countries, instilling Canadian values in countries that simply do not believe in important values like democracy and freedoms.

We have seen that in many countries around the world in the last while. Our Canadian military plays an extremely important role by first negotiating peaceful settlements to situations which come up. It means promoting Canadian values to countries around the world and in dealing with trouble spots where a military force is needed. It is important that Canadians do not forget about that.

The budget does not do the job for the Canadian military. It has been talked about at some length. I will continue to deal with that because it is an important issue for all Canadians.

[The Budget, February 19th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, at least today the defence minister is acknowledging that $29 billion is the right figure. That is some progress, but the Canadian Alliance has called for $2 billion to be added this year to the defence budget base.

The House of Commons committee and the Senate committee have asked for substantial increases in defence spending and yet the government continues to add just a small portion of what the parliamentary committees have called for.

The government has shown that defence spending is a low priority and it is not willing to commit to what the House defence committee and the Senate committee have called for. Why?

[The Budget, February 19th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in nine years the former finance minister ripped a cumulative $29 billion in 2002 dollars from the defence budget. To fix the problem the House of Commons committee recommended putting back $5 billion per year by 2005.

We are talking about the safety of Canadian citizens and the security of our nation, yet the government committed less than 20% of what the House of Commons committee said we would need. Why?

[National Defence, February 17th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the question was why the military leaders were only informed just minutes before the decision was announced in the House. Decisions that risk the lives of Canadian troops should never be made for partisan political reasons and should be made only with the advice of military experts. When it comes to the decision to send our troops to Afghanistan, the government is treating them like a political football instead of properly consulting military leaders.

Why has the government made such an important decision to send our troops into harm's way with only minutes of notice to our top military leadership?