Michael Savage

[Remembrance Day, November 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, next week on November 11 Canadians from coast to coast to coast will pay tribute to our valiant veterans who fought and died to preserve our freedom, our rights and our democracy.

It is also important for all of us to offer our thoughts for our soldiers who continue to fight today. They are the brave men and women of the Canadian Forces, our veterans of tomorrow.

From Afghanistan to Bosnia, Haiti to the Golan Heights, Sierra Leone to Sudan, our soldiers serve with courage and distinction. Their sacrifice stands as a continuing reminder that Canada recognizes its responsibility to protect and will always stand on guard for the principles and ideals that our country and our citizens cherish.

As we prepare to mark Remembrance Day, I know all members of the House will join with me in paying tribute to those men and women who continue to wear the uniform of the Canadian Forces and to remember the huge sacrifice of those who have led the way.

We will remember them.

[Business of Supply, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of non-partisanship, I do not want to take too long. I do want to thank my colleague though because we have heard continually the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development stand in the House and say that the problem is that $25 billion were cut in the last decade.

If we go back in Hansard we will see comments like, “they have to cut deeper”. Another one is, “Here is a hint to the government. Start cutting and cut deeper”. He wanted to cut more and more in the last decade and now he says that we cut too much. The hypocrisy of the government is absolutely stunning. It is amazing that it says one thing and then comes back to say that it did not say that.

Fortunately, we had the record of Hansard back in the 1990s. Not only that, but we have the comments the Prime Minister made. The chickens are coming home to roost. What they said is on paper and they are going to hear more and more about it because it is shameful.

[Business of Supply, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, literacy is such a big problem in the country. I do not think even Canadians understand how many people have issues with literacy. We need to invest in literacy. The government made cuts last year.

The member mentioned that the national literacy secretariat was in trouble and was under the threat of closing down. In my own province, Literacy Nova Scotia, which does such great work with a whole series of chapters around Nova Scotia, says that it will need to shut down in March next year because the money has been cut off.

If we talk to the minister he says, no. He says that they are re-investing more and that they have other investments to put in. Where is it going? We cannot get that information and nobody on the ground is hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling or touching it. They certainly are not getting the money and they are pretty concerned about it.

If the government has a plan for literacy, I would like to see it because we need to ensure that Canadians have the skills they need. It starts with literacy and the government has turned its back on literacy in Canada.

[Business of Supply, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's economy is pretty good. In the last 15 years, since we fixed the last mess, Canada's economy has been on a roll. It is obviously turning out a lot of positive economic indicators but we need to get serious about productivity. That is where other OECD nations, the emerging nations of the world, are catching up and, in some cases, passing us.

One of the things the OECD nations are doing is investing in education. All the current government has done is to throw out $800 million, which is not very much for a nation like Canada with the provinces and territories we have, for post-secondary education and then give a tax deduction for books that amounts to $80.

In the province where my colleague from Sackville—Eastern Shore and I come from, the average tuition is almost $7,000 and that $80 is nothing. We believe we must invest directly in education, not tax cut our way to an education. We must invest in education and ensure those who need help the most get it. We should increase the Canada access grants, re-invest in the Millennium Scholarship Foundation and give people a hand up.

[Business of Supply, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Winnipeg South Centre, one of the great MPs in the House.

It is a pleasure to have an opportunity to speak to this motion. I want to commend my colleague from Beaches—East York, who has championed many causes in this area for a long time in the House, along with other members of our women's caucus who have produced the pink book and other documents and reports specific to issues that are generally regarded as women's issues.

I will begin with a quote by Harriett Grant from the book entitled, Our Grandmothers, Ourselves: Reflections of Canadian Women. She said:

Women accomplish many things throughout their lives, but so much of it is taken for granted and not applauded as it should be.

I think those words are very true.

When the government took office, I believe it had an agenda to cut funding to organizations and programs that sought to assist women and minority groups in this country. If we listen to the words of the Prime Minister's good friend, Tom Flanagan, and I will not repeat the entire quote as many people have spoken to this today, he indicated that the government made a nice step early on when it de-funded the court challenges program. He said that on CBC Radio. That is pretty scandalous.

When the Conservatives came into power, they cut the child care accord right away. They cut the Kelowna accord. They went on to cut the Atlantic accord. They do not seem to like accords. The Prime Minister must never drive by a Honda dealership.

Many of us could not believe it when the government announced, just months into office, billions of dollars in cuts to social programs, many of which impacted women the most. Why would anyone cut funding to these organizations? Why would the government cut funds when it is awash in cash? The reason is clear and I believe ideological. It is a relatively new and divisive approach to Canadian politics brought in by the party opposite.

I must say that there are elements of that party that are offside with the traditional Canadian values, the Canada that I believe in. The notion of equality, respect for the charter and the idea that government does in fact have a responsibility to level the playing field and equalize opportunity is foreign to many of them. Many members of the old Reform Party are still in this place and are not keen on things like the charter. They hold views that are, again, out of whack with a modern and inclusive Canada.

The Prime Minister has done a great job of muzzling the fringe elements in his party but that fringe element is rattling the cages and I suspect it is only a matter of time before they break free and show their true colours.

There was a time in this House when political parties on all sides understood the need to address inequalities and the inequalities of women in Canada, when the notion of a charter was universally accepted, and when we used to recall and respect the struggle that women have made to be included in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to stand up for their causes and even to get the vote in this country.

There was a time when all parties understood that government should and had a responsibility to play a role in the lives of Canadians, especially the most vulnerable. Those days are gone. I suspect they ended when the Reform Party swallowed the whole Progressive Conservative Party. We can thank the member for Central Nova for that.

As if we needed further proof, in Quorum today there is an article from the Toronto Star about a Conservative candidate in the riding of Toronto Centre who was dumped because he refused to be muzzled. He is quoted in the article as saying that he wanted to focus on the kinds of issues that matter in a downtown urban riding but that the powers that be in the Conservative Party did not like that. The member is gone.

When a government cuts funding to worthy groups engaged in social justice and social equality initiatives, it affects people and, far too often, women. When a government cuts funding in support of students, it affects people and, far too often, women. When a government fails to address the needs of seniors, it affects people and, far too often, women. When a government cancels child care programs and replaces them with a $100 a month rebate, it affects people and, far too often, women.

When a government guts the power of the federal government to initiate national programs that help people, it affects people and, too often, it is women. When a government spends all of its money on tax cuts and does not address the needs of the poor, students, seniors and our aboriginal communities, it affects real people and, too often, it affects women. That is in Canada.

I want to speak of an experience I had this year. As MPs, we all get to meet remarkable people. This year I met a number of remarkable people and a large number of them were women.

The most remarkable woman I met this year was a woman in Nairobi, Kenyan, named Ingrid Munro. She was a woman who, a few years ago, worked for the African housing fund and retired and thought she would live a quiet life. Fifty street beggars, all women, in the slums of Nairobi came to her and said that they needed her to help them. She asked what she could do. They did not know but they wanted to talk about it.

She instituted a micro credit organization dealing with the poorest of the poor in the slums of Nairobi, in the slums of Kibara which has somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million people, and in Mathare, with 400,000 to 500,000 people, where families of six or seven children and two parents sleep in a hut that is eight feet by ten feet. It was women who started and ran that organization.

She told the women who had nothing that they should start saving their money and once they had saved $10 or $15 she would lend them twice that amount to start a business. She told them that on a $20 loan they could start a business and when that loan was paid off they could start another business.

She dealt with some remarkable women. I, along with the member for Halifax, the member for Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley and the member for Scarborough—Guildwood, met one of these remarkable women in January of this year, a street beggar who had nothing. Beatrice had 7 children and 12 grandchildren and, in the space of two years, all her children died from HIV and HIV-related diseases. She was left with 12 grandchildren and no hope. She decided that she would need to put arsenic in the porridge the next day because the kids had no hope. Instead, she borrowed $20 U.S. and now runs four businesses in the slums of Nairobi.

When we talk about the economic power, the economic will, the resilience of women, we see what can happen in a barren place with no hope and no future and see the kind of hope that exists in those communities.

We are in one of the richest lands in the world and one of the richest nations on earth, with more money than we have ever had before. Yes, tax cuts are fine. We had an economic update of our own two years ago and we brought in the tax cuts that reappeared magically yesterday. However, we also invested in people. Just on students alone we invested billions of dollars, $2.2 billion for students most in need; $550 million to increase the Canada access grants.

The Canada that I believe in and most Canadians believe in recognize that not everyone is born with an equal opportunity to achieve success. However, as Canadians we believe we are strongest when we help the weak. We are strongest when we do something to equalize opportunity and give everybody a chance. We do not come in at a time of plenty and cut the funding to the Status of Women, gut the Canada summer jobs program, get rid of the court challenges program and get rid of a national day care plan that the member for York Centre had gone around this country and negotiated with all the provinces.

We have all had experience with the people who would have benefited from that plan. In my community, women came to me and said “this is unbelievable, we have never been involved in politics. We now want to be involved. We want to be part of this and we want to save this plan for all Canadians”. The government, however, came in and threw it out the window and instead offered $100 a month. That $100 a month, according to the Caledon Institute, actually benefits a family with $150,000 income more than it does a two income earning family of $30,000.

That is not the Canada that I believe in. I do not believe it is the Canada most Canadians believe in. Canada is a special country. We are a nation that believes in certain values and principles. I do not believe that the government represents the values of all or most Canadians. The people who are most shut out are women.

I applaud the member for Beaches—East York for bringing this motion forward today. I hope all members take part in this debate and will support the motion and stand up for Canadian women.

[Canadian Coast Guard, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the decision to move two Coast Guard vessels from Dartmouth to Conservative held ridings continues to raise eyebrows. This week David Parkes, secretary of the Canadian Coast Guard alumni raises new questions about this unfortunate decision. His concerns have been echoed by experts including existing Coast Guard employees such as the commanding officer of one of the vessels.

It is typical of the government that it tries to divide regions and pit province against province. That is not a productive approach. If there is a strong business case for moving the vessels, let us see it. Thus far we have not

In fact, the five year business plan for the Canadian Coast Guard which came out just a month before the decision was announced made no reference whatsoever to this move. Moving well over 100 employees and their families has serious repercussions for them and for the community as a whole. It is not acceptable.

A decision such as this should not be taken so lightly or politically. Consultations should have carried out most particularly with the employees who would be affected. People deserve better than to be political pawns of the government.

[Petitions, October 31st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on the anniversary of the income trust broken promise on behalf of a large number of people, most of whom are in Calgary and who remember the Prime Minister boasting about his apparent commitment to accountability when he said that the greatest fraud was a promise not kept.

They remind the Prime Minister that he promised never to tax income trusts but that he recklessly broke that promise by imposing a 31.5% punitive tax, wiping out $25 billion of hard-earned retirement savings of over two million Canadians, particularly seniors, who hope that next Halloween is better for their savings than last Halloween.

They call upon the Conservative minority government to admit that the decision to tax income trusts was based on: first, flawed methodology and incorrect assumptions; second, to apologize to those who were unfairly harmed by this broken promise; and third, to repeal the punitive 31.5% tax on income trusts.

[Post-Secondary Education, October 31st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the minister loves to talk about cuts from a decade ago. He has changed his tune a bit. In March 1995 he said in the House of the government, “When will they have the guts to do the right thing: start cutting--?”

Then on December 15, after the government brought in action to reduce the deficit, he then said, “We are going to have to cut deeper into our social programs”.

His selective memory reflects the hypocrisy of the government. The Liberal government cleaned up a Conservative mess, then it invested in students. The Conservatives inherited a Liberal surplus, and nothing for students.

Why is the government turning its back on students? Why?

[Post-Secondary Education, October 31st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the government continues to be a disaster for Canadian students. It has invested nothing in grants, offered tiny tax credits for which most students do not even qualify, dithered over the millennium scholarship, and botched the summer jobs program.

The Speech from the Throne ignored education. Students were shut out. Yesterday offered nothing for education, nothing for students. Again, a complete shutout.

We need to improve productivity. Productivity depends on education. Education means students, students need help, and they need it now.

Why does the government continue to ignore Canadian students?

[Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, October 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today to the bill that was brought forward by my colleague, my friend from Halifax West. I want to commend him. He has a particular interest in this. He has long been interested in post-secondary education and has been a champion of it. He now has one daughter who is going through it at great expense. He has more on the way, so he might have a particular interest.

The bill has to do with Canada's most needy. I do want to associate myself with some of the comments made by the previous speaker from the NDP about the process. However, I would be remiss if I did not indicate that the chair of our committee, who is a Conservative, has been a very fair minded chair and I think has run his meetings better than Canadians might have heard some other committees being run, so I commend him for that.

The biggest challenge we face domestically, I believe, is the issue of productivity. When we talk about productivity, we have to talk about human resources and human capital, as my colleague from Halifax West spoke of earlier. We have to talk about education.

Most Canadians would say that if we are talking about productivity in Canada, we should talk about education, but surprisingly, the government did not in the Speech from the Throne. I would like to just read the entire part of the Speech from the Throne that dealt with education. This is quite staggering. It says: “--families worry about the rising costs of higher education”. That is it. There is no answer and no further comment.

That is hardly startling information. Bill C-284 would be a very effective way to deal with that. It would be a very good start for helping Canadians who need help the most.

The Canada access grants, a Liberal initiative, provide financial assistance to low income persons and persons with disabilities who were traditionally shut out and very underrepresented in university, community college and all post-secondary institutions.

In supporting the bill, Amanda Aziz, from the Canadian Federation of Students, who is a very effective advocate for post-secondary education, said, “The research is clear: low-income students are under-represented in Canada’s universities”.

One would hardly think we could argue with that. All the evidence indicates that low income persons, persons with disabilities and aboriginal Canadians are those who do not get to take part in the richness of Canada because they do not have the opportunity to access education.

Canada access grants is a great program. The problem is that it only extends to one year. Of course, this piece of legislation would have extended those grants to all four years. Persistence, that being the ability of students once they are in university to stay in university, is a big issue for low income Canadians. The bill would have helped that immeasurably.

It is not that new. In 2005, in the economic update of the previous Liberal government, it was in a piece of legislation that came before the House: $550 million over five years to provide grants for post-secondary education to an additional 55,000 students from low income families. It went further, back in November 2005: $2.2 billion over five years to help make post-secondary education more affordable for low income and middle income Canadians.

There was $210 million to encourage graduate studies, $150 million specifically for Canadians to study abroad, $1 billion for a post-secondary education innovation fund, $3.5 billion for increasing workplace and employer led training, and $65 million over five years to improve labour market information available to Canadians.

This is not the first time we have had the opportunity to actually do something for Canadians who need it the most. The response of the government was to refuse a royal recommendation to the bill and to not want to do anything about it. That is a shame.

Instead, what we see from the government is tax changes, tinkering with the tax system. I would like to quote the Canadian Federation of Students again who say:

The net benefit for a student enrolled full-time for eight months is expected to be a mere $80, less than the cost of one textbook per academic year.

That is not much. George Soule, the national chairperson in 2006 of CFS, said, “Tinkering around the edges of the tax system is not going to increase access to college and university”.

That is really what we need to do in Canada. We have to find a way so that the entire nation can benefit economically, but from a social justice point of view in order to provide an opportunity for Canadians so they can maximize their human resources potential. Surely that is an admirable goal that we would all support.

If the government is not going to allow Bill C-284, in its original form, to be adopted, let me at least make a couple of recommendations tied in with that which would make sense.

Number one, the Coalition for Student Loan Fairness had an active summer. Julian Benedict was heard quite often talking about the problems. There was an article today in the Globe and Mail that talked about the allegedly heavy-handed tactics of the Canada student loan program harassing students.

The Coalition for Student Loan Fairness put out eight recommendations this summer. I think some of those recommendations are entirely reasonable. I would certainly associate myself with many of them. I think many Liberals would support a large number of these recommendations.

Student debt has unquestionably risen in the last 15 to 20 years. It is out of control for many Canadians. Even though the federal government introduced programs like the millennium scholarship, Canada access grants, learning bonds and a whole host of other initiatives for students, student debt has risen.

Now that we are in a time of surplus, a time of great wealth, we should be looking to assist students. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Canadian students are coming out of university with huge debts and facing an inability to deal with that debt and, at the same time, are trying to start their career, maybe buy their first home, get married, or even buy a car, When they already owe $25,00 to $40,000, a small mortgage without a home, it is hard to even think about investing in other things. I think the government should take a realistic look at student loans.

The other thing is the Millennium Scholarship Foundation. The problem with the millennium scholarship is the same problem that we had with Canada access grants. It is the problem we had with the Canada student summer jobs program. The problem is that it works, but it is a Liberal initiative that works.

We saw what the Conservatives did with the summer student job program. They tore it apart and then tried to put it back together piecemeal, on the fly. People were still left out. There were less students hired this summer than the year before. At a time of increasing surpluses, we do less for students. The Millennium Scholarship Foundation is an opportunity for this government to reinvest in students.

This year a group of seven student associations, some of which had not always been fans of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, did a study on this and released a paper called “Sleepwalking towards the precipice: the looming $350 million hole in Canada's financial aid system”. On page 1 of the paper, it states:

Eliminating $350 million from the Canadian financial aid system will have a disastrous impact on the accessibility and affordability of a post-secondary education in Canada.

That is the $350 million that goes to students. Some people have always said the millennium scholarship is not a needs-based program and part of it is in fact merit-based. However, on page 3 of this report, it states:

The Millennium Bursary program is the Foundation’s main grant program. 84.8 per cent of the Foundation’s grant funding goes towards the Millennium Bursaries, which helps to ensure that high-need students are able to access and continue their post-secondary studies.

High-need students receive 85% of the funding. “It's a foundation”, some people say, “That's not accountable”. On page 5 of the report, it states:

The Foundation is fiscally efficient and has lower administrative costs than government departments, ensuring that students receive the maximum benefit from federal funds.

By the way, the millennium foundation, which is based in Montreal, works with all the provinces and territories of Canada.

The Millennium Scholarship Foundation is the ideal way for the government, along with Canada access grants, to invest in the Canadians who most need assistance.

We are not a country that can afford to take that many chances. We have been a great nation. We have educated our people very well. We are now facing huge challenges. China, India and Brazil, all the emerging nations of the world, are investing in post-secondary education. Canada has done well in the OECD rankings, but we are getting warnings from it that we are not doing as well as some of the European nations in investing in our students.

The most important thing we can do to improve productivity in Canada is invest in Canadians. The most important way to invest in Canadians is to invest in equality of opportunity for all Canadians. The way to invest in equality of opportunity for all Canadians is the bill that my colleague, the member for Halifax West, brought in and to reinvest in programs like the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, so that not only economically for the nation but socially for every Canadian education becomes the priority that it should be and is not under this government