Mr. Speaker, I rise with great pleasure to enter into the debate today. I congratulate my colleague from Dartmouth, an outstanding advocate for those people with disabilities and their families. We on this side of the House, especially the New Democratic Party, said many times that if the government listened to her, the groups she represents and the many others who are likeminded, we would go a long way to once and for all entering people with disabilities into a logical, understandable debate on their concerns and requirements. People with disabilities are not asking for the moon, they are asking to be treated as equals. What could be better than inviting them and their families, or even those who know someone with a disability, to be fully recognized citizens of the country, and not get a hand out but a hand up?
One of the most offensive things the government ever did was make changes to the disability tax credit. We will go to the polls with this and let every voter in Canada know what the government has done. For example, a person who is missing his leg has to prove that he is still disabled. These people have to manoeuvre themselves 50 metres on a level surface with a device in a certain period of time. If they do it within that time, they are no longer considered disabled. That even applies to the individual who is blind, 85 years old, and needs the assistance of a walker. That does not matter to the government.
The all party committee, which dealt with the issue of people with disabilities, made some recommendations. Every member on that committee, from all sides of the House, agreed that what the government was doing was wrong. The government did not care what its own backbenchers thought; it would proceed in its own way. People with disabilities and their families have a right to be upset with this Liberal government.
The Canadian Alliance gave the NDP members heck for some of our viewpoints. Steely Dan once made an album called Pretzel Logic , and the government is twisting itself into exactly that. The government has said that the GST has to be reduced, and that is absolutely right. We as a party have been saying that from the very get-go.
We agree with the Canadian Alliance that the way the GST was brought in was atrocious. That is one of the major hindrances of the Conservative Party and the Alliance Party as well for that matter. The Conservative government of the day brought in this hated tax, and the NDP was the first party calling for a reduction of that tax to make it fair for everybody across Canada.
What is amazing is the way the Canadian Alliance twists itself over the supply management system. The Reform Party was against supply management for our farmers. Our farmers came here and members of that party said that they no longer objected to supply management. It is absolutely incredible but good to hear that party on the right suddenly soften some of its positions.
I will give the Canadian Alliance credit in some areas. When Mr. Manning was here, he raised the issue of the debt. He should be given credit for doing that because it was getting out of control. There are two things that Nova Scotia and Air Canada have in common and that is, they both have a $12 billion debt, and that needs to be addressed.
There are many problems with this budget. What the government has done to people with disabilities is simply unacceptable. That should not and cannot be tolerated by anyone in the House of Commons.
Many people in my riding have sent me letters, e-mails, faxes, and made personal presentations on this issue. My colleague from Halifax, my colleague from Dartmouth, my previous colleague from Halifax West and my other colleague, Peter Mancini, from Cape Breton, as well as Michelle Dockrill and Gordon Earle, made presentations on behalf of the people saying that what the government had done was simply wrong.
Where are we years later? The government, when two amendments were removed, threw them back in. We have to ask ourselves why, when the government's own people in its own party said not to do it. If the government will not listen to its own members of Parliament on its side of the fence, why should we be surprised that it will not listen to ordinary Canadians? That is the perplexing question in all this.
I am on the fisheries committee. We know that we produce unanimous reports. Nine members of the Liberal Party supported recommendations from the fisheries committee, and the government turned around and said that it would not listen to us.
I have another example. We have a really wonderful program called the sea lamprey program in St. Mary's River, in an area my colleague across the way represents, Sault Ste. Marie. It is a great program. We do not even fulfill our full mandate on it financially but we are participating in it. The government has turned around and is thinking of cancelling that program. For the sake of $6 million to $8 million a year, it would virtually save a $4 billion industry in the Great Lakes in recreational and commercial fishing. The program is a great success, one on which the government should be congratulated, yet it is contemplating maybe cutting the program.
We have to ask ourselves why the government would do that. It is looking at program reviews, departmentalizing all its various departments and ensuring that all tax dollars are spent accordingly and wisely. We do not disagree with that. We think that reviewing programs from time to time is a very good thing to do because we have to ensure taxpayers get the best bang for their bucks. The program in Sault Ste. Marie however is an investment, not an expenditure. Representation has been made by Liberals and other people to the government asking that the program not be cut. They have said, if anything, the dollar amount to the program has to be increased. The government says that it cannot make the commitment yet, that it has to study it some more. It does not have to be studied anymore.
I remember the member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie brought a sea lamprey example to the House of Commons a few years ago. It was fabulous. It is not the most lovely creature in the world. It needs to be seriously controlled, otherwise it will destroy the Great Lakes fishery, recreationally and commercially. That cannot happen.
Getting back to the budget, it does nothing for people in the airline industry. It does nothing for the people in the shipbuilding industry. There is very little for our men and women in the military. Especially, it still puts behind the eight ball those people with disabilities. Our seniors and our children, some of the most vulnerable in our society, are still being ignored by the government. The day I find out why is the day I will become a much better MP, because I do not understand why the Liberal government would be so hard and so harsh toward people with disabilities, our children and our seniors.
The Liberals like to brag about the child tax credit, but what they do not tell us is that they allow the provinces to claw it back. The reality is that the people are not that much better off. The child tax benefit is a good program, but it should have come with very serious stipulations that the provinces were to keep their hands off that money. The federal government gives with one hand and the provinces take away with the other hand, and that is an issue which still needs to be resolved.
If the child tax benefit is to help Canadians, then that is what it should do. The federal government should tell the provinces that in no uncertain terms are they to touch or reduce in any way the benefit to those people. It helps the people with the lowest incomes, especially women with young children. That is a good idea, but if the provinces are allowed to claw it back, it simply will not do any good.
