Paul Martin

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, this was not a meeting of Tamil tigers. This was a meeting of Tamil Canadians.

At the particular meeting a young woman stood up who had recently graduated from high school and talked about what she wanted to do in Canada, what she was going to do in university, how she wanted to be a success, how important Canada was to her, and how this was her country.

She said that she could not believe that people would condemn her because of her Tamil race, because of something that was happening somewhere else. It is too bad that the Leader of the Opposition does not see that.

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, this was a meeting of Tamils who had gathered together to celebrate the Tamil new year.

These are Canadian citizens who were gathered to celebrate their feast. I am pleased that I attended a meeting of Canadian Tamils celebrating their feast.

[Health, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I would simply provide you with a few figures. In 1999, Quebec received $2.7 billion from the federal government as part of the social transfer. In 2000, it received $600 million.

Two weeks ago the Prime Minister signed an agreement with the provinces, and Quebec will be getting an additional $5 billion.

In a 20 month period, Quebec will be receiving an additional $8.5 billion from the federal government.

[Gasoline Pricing, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, lowering the excise tax would require co-operation between the two levels of government. It must be pointed out that the provinces are taking in much more in excise taxes percentage-wise than we are. In Quebec, it is somewhere around 15 cents.

So the question is which option to go for. And that is something we are looking at.

[The Economy, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we announced that we are paying the debt down by $12 billion. That is $18 billion over three years. That is an average of $6 billion a year. That is what members of the Reform Party huffed and puffed and said they wanted. They wanted it; we delivered it. They look pretty silly.

[The Economy, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member ought to know if he looked back over the last 18 months that the Euro has lost close to 25% against the U.S. dollar. The British pound has lost close to 15%. The Australian dollar has lost close to 10% and New Zealand currency has lost substantially. In fact the only currency in the last year and a half that has gained against the U.S. dollar is the Canadian dollar.

[Fuel Taxes, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said earlier in the House and as the Prime Minister has said, we are looking at several options.

That being said, yes, we have been in contact with a number of the provinces. Officials have as well. Given the quote from Mr. Palladini by the Prime Minister, it is pretty clear that a number of provinces do not feel that cutting fuel taxes is the way to go.

[Budget Surpluses, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, our sneaky little tricks have seen us with 5% more revenue than predicted.

In Quebec, Mr. Landry's revenue has also exceeded his predictions by about 5%. Is this also due to sneaky little tricks?

[Budget Surpluses, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, seek and ye shall find, ask and it will be answered. In four years, it will be $35,000 and it is $30,000 today for the example the hon. member has just given.

[Budget Surpluses, September 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the projections will be presented in the financial statement, during the month of November, after an extensive consultation exercise with the country's top economists.