Michael Savage

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, No. 2, October 30th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the budget implementation bill. I am following the member for Markham—Unionville, who took an awful lot of good arguments, so I will try to scrape together what is left.

I think that this particular time at which we are debating this bill we have the most attractive economy in the history of Canada. We can recall headlines in the Globe and Mail not too long ago which said that Ottawa is “awash in...cash”.

That cash is the cash of the people of Canada and it is the fiscal dividend of a decade of effective financial management. It was not an easy time in Canadian history. Canadians made sacrifices. In Atlantic Canada, we saw many sacrifices. The employment insurance system was changed. In my own community of Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, the Shearwater base was closed.

There were a lot of cuts. There were reductions in the CHST, health care, social services and post-secondary education, which were necessary in order to preserve those very things. Would we even have a publicly funded health care system today if we had continued in the ways of the Conservative government that we took over from in 1993?

Since we got the economy under control, the Liberal government has reduced taxes. We reduced the deficit prudently. We balanced our priorities, much like the previous speaker said we should. We in fact did that, bringing in things like the child tax benefit, which economists have attributed with actually having had an impact in reducing childhood poverty, although there is much that we need to do.

When the economy improved, we put money into post-secondary education, health care, the child tax benefit and a host of other things. Today we have an unprecedented opportunity and I believe it has been wasted. It is an unequalled opportunity to invest in the social infrastructure that makes Canada unique, to close the gap between the rich and the poor, between those who have and those who have not. This budget does not do it. In fact, it does not even speak to the millions of Canadians who need a hand up.

The major priorities of this government do not make sense. The GST cut from 7% to 6%, and perhaps eventually to 5%, has been called the “triumph of politics over policy”. No serious unbiased economist in Canada thinks it was a sensible thing to do, particularly from a productivity point of view. It does nothing to help low income Canadians.

In fact, the government could have put the money into the child tax benefit. We hear, and the government seems to believe it, that the GST is good for lowest income Canadians because they do not benefit from personal income tax reductions, but there are other ways of helping the lowest income people in Canada. There are many others who would benefit from lower marginal income tax on the lowest rate and increasing the basic personal exemption to where it was in the economic update that we introduced last year.

Even business groups said this. My colleague from Markham—Unionville indicated his survey. He mentioned St. John's and Vancouver. I know he did it in Halifax and I know it was unanimous. I do not believe that in Halifax anybody even dissented or abstained. They all said it does not make any sense. They said that we have all these priorities in Canada, such as regional development and child care, and that there all kinds of things we could put the money into instead of wasting billions of dollars giving it to people who buy expensive cars and furniture.

And there are other priorities. We all would like to have low income tax and we would all like to have a lower GST, but the job of government is to make priorities. Surely when a government is awash in cash those who most need the help should be at the top of the list. It did not happen.

As for child care, in our finance committee travels, which my colleague mentioned, we met with dozens of groups to talk about child care. I am not sure of the exact number. It could have been 25, 35 or 40. Overwhelmingly they preferred a plan similar to the previous Liberal government plan of putting the infrastructure in place, because money on a monthly basis does nothing if one cannot find a space.

Even with the government bringing in the universal child care benefit, the $1,200 a year, it should have been done in such a way that it actually went to the people who needed help, not the way the government did it, where in many cases it actually favours people with higher incomes versus low income families who are struggling to get along.

In the budget, the cut for the GST and the child care plan are flops. They do not help Canadians who need help the most.

What is missing in the budget? I would have to say, first of all, that regional development is missing. We heard all the time from ministers of regional development agencies that they would not in fact be hurt, and then we saw the cuts of a couple of weeks ago, cuts that take the social economy initiative out of budgets like ACOA's, for example, which means $7 million to $10 million for worthy organizations. Co-ops, for example, came before us and said it was crazy and did not make any sense, and they are right.

Next let us talk about post-secondary education, which is a particular interest of mine. This has to be if not the most pressing need for Canada, then certainly one of them. How can any government in Canada have five priorities but not have one of them include education? I think it is the biggest issue facing Canada.

We have an educated population. We have done a good job of educating Canadians, including in post-secondary education, but other countries are catching up. We all know the story of the emerging economies and how they are investing. Countries in the European Union are putting money into education as well.

We need to keep up the strength on the research side, as an example, which the Liberal government invested in once we controlled the economy. We have put in some $13 billion since 1998, taking Canada from the bottom of the G-7 to the absolute top in terms of publicly funded research.

That is an amazing accomplishment. It has reversed the brain drain. That is what we heard all over the place five years ago. Now we do not hear about it. In fact, there is a reverse brain drain. Universities across Canada will tell us about accomplished scholars, researchers and graduate students coming back to Canada, choosing Canada because of our investments in the granting councils and CFI, Genome Canada and others. It is a significant contribution.

In fact, the government's own budget books indicate that the federal government contribution to post-secondary education has stayed constant over the past 10 years. We often hear that it has been gutted. In fact, the contribution has stayed constant and, although it has not been in the direct transfer, in the CHST, it has gone into research and to students in forms like the millennium scholarship, the learning bond or the Canada access grants at 25%.

However, I would argue that is the challenge of Canada because of the changing nature of the world. Although enrolments have not declined, we do know that there are three areas in which Canadians are not getting to post-secondary education, be it university, community college, apprenticeships, advanced training or catch-up training. We know there are three areas of Canadians who are not accessing it: low income Canadians, aboriginal Canadians, and persons with disabilities.

Last fall, the member for Wascana, who was the minister of finance, introduced an economic update that addressed these needs in a huge way, but budget 2006 did nothing. Tax tinkering assists those who are already in university or community college; it does not help those who are not there to get there. I believe that should be a role of the federal government, both from a social justice point of view because we want all Canadians to have equal opportunity, and also in an economic argument, in that it is good for the county.

Canada is a unique nation. It is a nation that we are all proud of. There are many things that symbolize Canada, both to Canadians and to the world: this great geography of a vast land; our cultural diversity, Canada being the first nation on earth to proclaim multiculturalism as a national policy; and our linguistic duality.

I also think Canadians take pride in the belief that we believe government has a role to play in bridging the opportunity gap between the richest and those most in need. Even some Progressive Conservative governments in the past have stated that as a goal and have done some things to try to make it better.

The budget does not even pretend to help those who need help. The government is neither progressive nor fair. The government speaks to a narrow constituency with narrow views. Canada is a wide country, of huge dimensions, huge dreams and huge visions, and Canadians reject the government's view of their land.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it is not even comparable to compare what the government of 1993 inherited to the government of today. There is no question that there was a reduction in the transfer payments, for example, for health to the provinces. If there had not been, we would not have a public health system today. We would have been bankrupt as a nation.

What the Liberal Party did saved the social infrastructure of Canada. I was not in the caucus at that point in time, but I suspect that they were saying “these are tough cuts, but we've got to do them”. I know that. I was not at that caucus table, but I was at a caucus table in Nova Scotia. My father inherited Conservative deficits as well in 1993 and he had to make changes, changes that he never thought he got into government to do, but he did what he thought was right.

While we were able to invest in the social infrastructure of Canada, we introduced things such as the child tax credit. People attribute the child tax credit to keeping child poverty below where it is. Should it be lower? We would love it to be lower. We are now in a position to make it lower. We now have money in this country to invest in kids and the government is not doing it. That is a shame.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague's question is reasonable and I appreciate that. When we hear that cuts have been made to administration, it sounds an awful lot like what we heard originally when the EnerGuide program for low income Canadians was cut, or the EnerGuide program overall. We heard that it was administration. In fact, it was not administration; it was actually going in and doing work in homes so that further work could be done. It is the same thing with the cuts that we have heard about here.

I cannot speak to the example he mentioned in Manitoba, but let me refer to a letter from someone in the Annapolis Valley who wrote to me and copied the Prime Minister. He is a director of Literacy Nova Scotia and the Valley County Learning Association and he is a learner as well. He had been in the workforce for 30 years and lost his job because the company closed its doors. He could not find work because he could not write his GED. He was devastated. He lost his job. He thought he was losing his mind. He could not find a full time job, he could not fill out a job application. He found help through the Annapolis Valley Learning Association. Now he says that the literacy programs may end, or they will have to cut back on programs to help learners. This is a travesty. These are real Canadians who are looking for a hand up, not a push down.

The government has misunderstood the generous nature of Canadians and Canadians' belief that this country helps those who need help and does not close the door on them.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I was very much enjoying the comments of our leader. I did not want to interrupt him.

I have the pleasure to speak to this motion with respect to the decision of the government to cut $2 billion, $1 billion this year, to federal programs and organizations.

Canadians are not blind to the actions of the government. They know these cuts were vindictive and were only to serve the Conservatives' narrow vision of the country. Being on the finance committee and touring western Canada last week, being in Ottawa for the last six weeks, and hearing submissions about how people in Canada actually view their country and what holds Canada together, I can say that most Canadians certainly do not share that view.

Let us review the current fiscal situation of the government. On the very day the Conservatives announced cutbacks to those who need government support the most, the government announced a $13 billion surplus.

We have a surplus, no thanks to the Conservatives. The last time they were in office, as was just indicated, they left us a $43 billion deficit and an ever increasing debt.

This year they inherited a surplus, the best economy in decades, the best fiscal situation in the G-8, and the lowest unemployment rate in decades. One would think they would at least listen to whatever remnants of progressives are left over there and show some compassion to the people of Canada.

Cuts are okay. Program review is reasonable and sensible. We have done it in the past ourselves, but we did it so that we could put resources toward the people who needed help, not take it away from them.

These cuts are wrong. They are meanspirited. The majority of them target women's groups, the poor, minority groups, the arts community and the non-profit sector. They are motivated by a narrow ideology and are targeted at programs that are at odds with the political thinking of the government.

One example is the cut to the budget for the status of women. It is no secret that certain elements of the Conservative Party have a different view of the role and status of women than most Canadians, and certainly most Canadian women. Is cutting back a women's organization, like the status of women a matter of cutting costs? I do not think so. It is really meant to send a message to women's groups that Conservatives do not support the progress and the victories that women have achieved over the past number of decades. It is a disgrace.

Women have fought so hard for their rights and equality, and let us not pretend the fight is over. As we look around this chamber we see that the fight is far from over. Yet that funding has been cut.

Next, the Conservatives axed a legal aid program that has helped minority groups and the marginalized defend their rights. The court challenges program introduced under Pierre Elliott Trudeau has proven its value in ways that are immeasurable, resulting in court decisions expanding the rights of Canadian women, the disabled, gays and lesbians, aboriginals and minority language groups. La Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse for example wrote to me last week indicating how much it will feel that loss.

Do the Conservatives take Canadians for fools in suggesting that cutting this program is a case of streamlining administrative expenses? No. It is another example of how the Conservatives distrust some of the fundamental values of Canada, values that include the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The next cut is to the Canada volunteerism initiative. It is an example of an organization that encourages citizens to participate voluntarily in organizations throughout Canada.

Non-profit volunteer organizations touch on every aspect of Canadian life: health, sport, recreation, environment and cultural sectors. Why would that be gutted? The answer is simple. The Conservatives do not believe in government. They do not believe that government should support organizations like the CVI. They believe that everyone should fend for themselves, a page copied from their Republican friends.

The next cut is to the summer career placement program. All members of the House are familiar with this program which was introduced by a Liberal government. This has employed hundreds of thousands of young Canadians. This past summer more than 45,000 Canadians found meaningful work, often in their field of study thanks to this important initiative and volunteer and community organizations benefited as well. Students were able to gain valuable experience and save money for tuition fees.

The decision to cut the program in half is indefensible. Given the health of the federal government's finances, the program should have been expanded, not gutted.

I have talked with representatives of the Canadian Federation of Students. It has yet to be given a coherent explanation as to why the federal government wants to save a measly $45 million when it has $13 billion to the good.

Again, review is good. Cuts are sometimes necessary. This review is bad.

The next cut is the $17 million from literacy. Cutting $17.7 million from a program that helps millions of Canadians while sitting on a $13 billion surplus just does not make sense.

Literacy Nova Scotia and the Dartmouth Literacy Network, organizations like these put together programs for Canadians who need help and they do it on almost no budget at all, and now literacy has been further cut. The story is the same throughout other provinces and territories. In Nova Scotia seven major projects will not be funded, including a project to support the development and coordination of family literacy through a multitude of agencies and programs. I could go on about the great work that they do.

The next cut is to support for the social economy. In our region a program that was to be delivered through ACOA in support of the social economy was shut down completely. This initiative, which was funded in the 2004 budget, would support businesses and community groups which reach out to marginalized Canadians by giving them jobs or providing other services that help people in our communities. It was abruptly cancelled. I would ask members opposite to talk to some of the cooperatives in their area and ask them what they think of those cuts.

Sadly, the list goes on. As with other cuts, there was no consultation.

Canada today is a vibrant, peaceful and just country. Canadians have worked hard to make it so. Throughout our political history successive Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments have developed policies that value individuals and our communities and recognize that government can and should play a role in our national life.

Even Progressive Conservative Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador called the cuts worrisome and distanced himself from what he referred to as the right-wing federal Conservatives.

Canadians today are seeing what the real agenda is of the government. I suspect many Canadians also wonder what life would be like if the old Progressive Conservatives were still around. The Progressive Conservative Party is dead and its replacement is neither fair nor progressive.

Mahatma Gandhi said that a nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members. Canadians, in my view, inherently believe that we are all better off when the strong help the weak, that we are all affected by the suffering and the success of each other. We do not believe that government should abdicate its responsibility to the least advantaged. These cuts will hurt Canadians who need help the most. The government should be ashamed.

[Atlantic Canada Economy, October 18th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, this is just the latest in a long line of policy reversals by the government. The Prime Minister of Canada gave his word. If that cannot be honoured, what can?

The government recently reannounced the Liberal Pacific gateway plan. It even used the same minister we did. Well Atlantic Canada is also a gateway to the world's richest markets. Atlantic Canadians know what the Prime Minister thinks of them, but are there any Atlantic Conservative MPs who will stand up for the Atlantic gateway, or are they afraid of getting the same treatment as the member for Halton?

[Equalization Program, October 18th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, in Atlantic Canada alarm bells are ringing over the government's waffling on the Atlantic accords. Back when they needed votes in Atlantic Canada, the Prime Minister said in writing that no province would lose out to the changes in equalization, but now suddenly, he is not so sure and neither is anybody else.

Will the Prime Minister stand today in the House and admit that his signature is worthless?

[HMCS Sackville, October 16th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, on October 25, HMCS Sackville, Canada's naval memorial, will be brought to Dartmouth to coincide with Eastern Front Theatre's production of Corvette Crossing, a play written by Michael Melski and directed by Hans Böggild, to run from October 25 to November 12. The play tells the story of five young officers who serve on a corvette while escorting merchant ships supplying the allied war effort during the Battle of the Atlantic.

HMCS Sackville is the lone surviving corvette and is a tangible reminder of the challenging life young Canadians from coast to coast endured in the cold North Atlantic. While the Sackville is in Dartmouth, she will be hosting a number of events, from a prayer breakfast for world peace to a number of receptions. I look forward to hosting my colleagues from the House of Commons finance committee before she crosses the harbour.

HMCS Sackville continues to be a symbol of the valiant efforts of our Canadian service people and reminds us of our debt to those who served, some of whom never returned.

I want to thank all those who worked so hard to preserve the Sackville and her legacy. We look forward to having her in Dartmouth and to Corvette Crossing.

[Government Programs, September 27th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of ACOA.

The government continues to help those who need it the least while hurting those who need help the most. Even the old Progressive Conservative Party, whose demise the minister helped arrange, had a little compassion, not much but a little, but not that bunch who are cancelling the child care agreements, cutting the GST which disproportionately benefits the wealthy and now are eliminating funds to small and medium size businesses and community groups that work in the social economy.

Would the minister as a former Progressive Conservative finally confess that even he is embarrassed by the meanspirited policies of this regressive Conservative government?

[Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, September 22nd, 2006]

First, Mr. Speaker, I think if you check the record, I am not sure if the member did apologize. He may have withdrawn his remarks. It would be nice to hear him say “I am sorry”.

That is simply not good enough, though, on behalf of the Prime Minister. What kind of message does that send about the minority Conservative government's views toward immigrants?

The government member has the honour of sitting on the justice and human rights committee. Will the Prime Minister have that member immediately removed from that committee, and take it one step further and kick him out of caucus?

[Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, September 22nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister publicly chastised Jan Wong for making racial slurs regarding immigrants in Quebec, and we agreed. Now we find out that one of his own Quebec MPs has voiced similar views and even suggested that Quebec's treatment of immigrants likely inspired the tragic shootings at Dawson College.

The Conservative caucus is harbouring a member who holds views that the Prime Minister has called absurd, prejudice, irresponsible and without foundation.

When will the Prime Minister of that minority government do the right thing and kick him out of caucus?