Paul Martin

[Financial Institutions Act, April 10th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member is aware, Bill C-82 is very important to the insurance industry. It contains many provisions on a variety of broad issues.

I am sure the hon. member will agree with me that any change to an industry like the insurance industry must be made with care. Third, the change proposed by the member was not a priority for the insurance industry.

That having been said, my officials are already considering and analyzing a possibility. I myself am very open to looking at it and giving it full attention.

[Budget Implementation Act, 1997, April 10th, 1997]

moved that Bill C-93, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 18, 1997, be referred forthwith to the Standing Committee on Finance.

[Social Services, April 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that as a result of government cutbacks at all levels, federal, provincial and even municipal budgets, social or voluntary agencies have had to pick up a lot of the slack. One certainly understands the pressure they are under.

In the last budget, in order to enable them to raise money, we provided a number of tax credits so that they would be able to bear a bit more of the burden.

Nonetheless, I think the member's question is very much to the point. That is why right from the very beginning when we proceeded to do the necessary clean-up of the nation's finances we approached it in as humane a way as possible. In other words, we left as much money in the hands of those government departments that were helping people. The Minister of Human Resources Development has brought in a number of programs to help poorer children, and that is what the whole new child tax benefit is all about.

I can assure the hon. member that this government will continue to put its money where the greatest impact will be felt, the most vulnerable in our society.

[Taxation, April 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, once the agreement reached today has been formally signed and ratified, Canadians will no longer be obliged to pay American income tax on their social security benefits.

Let me be very clear. Under this agreement Canadians will not be liable for U.S. social security tax payments.

I would like to thank the members of the House on this side and on that side for the support they have given.

[Taxation, April 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, this is something that is of considerable importance to a lot of Canadians. The Bloc has supported it. The Liberals have supported it. The least they can do is be happy for a lot Canadians.

[Taxation, April 9th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, this is a question that has been of considerable concern to the members from Windsor and to members in a great number of communities right across Canada.

As the House knows, we have been deep in discussion with the United States on this matter for some time now. When I was in the Philippines this past weekend for a meeting of APEC I discussed the issue again with my counterpart, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin.

I am pleased to say that the Prime Minister announced today that Canadian and United States officials have today initialled an agreement to modify the Canada-U.S. tax treaty.

Once it is formally signed and ratified, today's agreement will bring much needed tax relief to thousands of Canadian seniors and persons with disabilities. Because at modest levels of income Canadian tax rates are much lower than the withholding tax the U.S. could apply, thousands of Canadians-

[Employment Insurance, March 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member certainly has a strange way of looking at what is a premium increase or a premium decrease.

When we took office premiums were roughly $3.07 going to $3.30. We stopped that. The next year we brought premiums down to $3.00, then down to $2.90 and then down to $2.80. Those are not increases, those are decreases.

We have stated as a government that it is our intention to continue to bring those premiums down. We will do this responsibly, not in the way the leader of the Reform Party stated the other day, that there would be a massive cut.

Virtually every commentator has said that if there was a recession, the first thing a Tory government would have to do would be to hike those premiums, which was exactly what it did in 1989 and 1990. This is how the Tories put us into a terrible recession.

If members wonder why I talk about the Tories, it is because they are the kissing cousins of Reformers, on the extreme right.

[Employment Insurance, March 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, when we took office unemployment insurance premiums were scheduled to rise to $3.30. We stopped that.

Every year since then we have reduced the unemployment insurance rate. In the last budget we announced that at the end of this year it would be at $2.80. In the last three years of the Tory regime they raised the unemployment insurance premiums every year. In the first three years we have been in office, we have dropped the premiums every year.

This year there is going to be a saving to Canadian workers and companies of $1.7 billion as a result of the actions taken by the government. That demonstrates tax reductions.

[Goods And Services Tax, March 21st, 1997]

-and I quote: "Nevertheless, on the very face of them, the figures published by the Government of Quebec totally contradict what the current minister of finance in Quebec is saying. He cannot prove that the Government of Quebec lost revenues with this tax. He cannot claim reimbursement from the federal government of money he claims to have lost, since the Government of Quebec's own figures prove that it has not lost anything".

[Goods And Services Tax, March 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member is an economist, an economist of the right in his field, he should know that the figures I have just given are those of the Government of Quebec.

The hon. member is quoting ministers of finance, so perhaps I could quote the former minister of finance, André Bourbeau-