Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on behalf my riding, Sherbrooke, to speak to Bill C-60. The budget was brought down in March. The budget implementation bill, which is 100 or so pages long this time, followed.
We might say this is a small budget implementation bill compared to the last two, which were 400 pages each. However, if we look at the history of budget implementation bills, we realize that a 100-page bill is still quite voluminous. This approach does not allow parliamentarians to do their job properly and analyze the bill in detail.
In the Conservative government's last two budget implementation bills, there were hundreds and hundreds of pages of measures that were not necessarily related to the budget. Are the Conservatives afraid of public opinion? Is that why they rush to pass measures in a document that is so voluminous that it is hard, even for experts, to see all the details in it? That is my theory, but I think most of my opposition colleagues see it that way as well.
I am somewhat sad to speak to this bill for a number of reasons, including the fact that this budget contains a lot of bad news. It would take a long time to rhyme it all off, but I will mention a few items that affect my riding in my speech.
As the member for Sherbrooke, I am obviously here to talk about the impact that this bill could have on my riding and on the beautiful city of Sherbrooke, the capital of the Eastern Townships. Sherbrooke is a fairly large city that has a population of 160,000 and many needs. I am honoured to serve the city in this House.
I would also like to mention the correspondence that I received from the people in my riding on various subjects. I will talk about those subjects today, since they garnered the most attention from the people of Sherbrooke, even though it may have been for the wrong reasons.
In a question I asked my colleague earlier, I talked about the Treasury Board's political interference in crown corporations' negotiations. In the last budget implementation bill, we learned that the President of the Treasury Board was going to give himself the right to interfere in the business of our crown corporations, for example the CBC. This crown corporation is a fairly well-known entity in the field of journalism, and it must be as independent as possible. It is vital that the CBC, more than any other crown corporation, be independent.
The government would interfere primarily in negotiations with CBC employees, which include journalists. According to many people and even witnesses who came to comment on the budget, this is a direct attack on the CBC, as well as on other crown corporations, such as Canada Post and VIA Rail, and the list goes on.
This measure will make it possible for the Treasury Board to give guidelines to administrators of crown corporations and tell them how they should manage and pay their employees or how they should manage their day-to-day operations. Earlier, I mentioned negotiations with employees of this crown corporation, and then there is the announced $115 million in cuts to the CBC, which is another Conservative attack on our crown corporation. Unfortunately, that is $115 million less that the crown corporation has to do its job.
There is another topic that has been the subject of a lot of talk in my riding, and that is the elimination of the tax advantage that was offered by labour-sponsored funds, such as the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and the CSN—the most well-known funds in Quebec.
According to the figures, the government will save $350 million by eliminating this tax advantage. It will save $350 million, including $312 million in Quebec alone. It is no coincidence that we have been hearing from the media and other sources that this is a direct attack on Quebeckers. In Sherbrooke, there is an FTQ office just a few metres away from my office.
Labour-sponsored funds, such as the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, allow the workers who participate in the fund to invest in small and medium-sized businesses. These workers are encouraged to do so because they receive a 15% tax advantage from the federal government. This tax advantage does not exist for other savings plans, such as ordinary RRSPs, which are done through banks. Investors would choose to go through a labour-sponsored fund to make use of the tax advantage. The government now wants to make some gradual cuts. Labour-sponsored funds will no longer be able to offer that advantage. They will unfortunately have to fight even harder with the banks to compete for investors.
The direct investments made in the regions of Quebec through these funds enabled small and medium-sized businesses to start up and helped other businesses to keep jobs. This is really a shame. Many people have reacted to this, and that is why I want to condemn it. I hope that the government will pay close attention to this issue. As I said, there will be negative repercussions, particularly for Quebec, because it is the province with the most labour-sponsored funds.
Another issue that my office has received a lot of correspondence about is the merger of the Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA, with the Department of Foreign Affairs. People in Sherbrooke are very concerned about this. Like me, they wonder how Canada's economic and trade interests, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Foreign Affairs, can be reconciled with CIDA's humanitarian aid mandate. I hope that CIDA will continue to deliver that aid despite cuts to its budget. How can the two be reconciled? How can the government believe that everything will be fine, that there will be no problem when it merges the two? Many people in Sherbrooke are deeply concerned about this.
Another issue we have been getting a lot of feedback about since the budget was tabled is the higher tariffs on some commercial goods. Countries that want to export their goods to Canada will have to pay higher tariffs that will apply to hundreds of thousands of consumer goods.
As the member for Sherbrooke, it is clear to me that higher tariffs are in fact a new tax, a hidden tax. There is no need to study economics for years to realize that if the cost of exporting goods to Canada goes up, companies will raise the retail prices of the goods they export to Canada. In the end, Canadians will pay more.
Canadians, including the people of Sherbrooke, will have to pay an estimated $8 billion more because of the Conservatives' tariff increase. That is in addition to higher costs for hospital parking and the attack on credit unions, such as Desjardins, which is a pillar of the community in Sherbrooke. There is one on nearly every corner. That is yet another thing the Conservatives have taken aim at.
I will be happy to answer my colleagues' questions.
