Preston Manning

[The Environment, October 23rd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, we too have noticed that the lights are out. We have asked the environment minister nine times this week to explain the Liberal position on CO2 emissions that she will take to the Kyoto summit and still no answer.

Considering the fact that she has agreed to sign this agreement, we want to know how much her promises are going to cost Canadian taxpayers. The conference board states that it is going to cost thousands of dollars per family.

Does the minister believe that a cost of thousands of dollars per family is an acceptable cost for the Kyoto deal?

[The Environment, October 22nd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, we remember the dialogue that preceded the national energy program, so excuse us if we do not have much faith in it.

Yesterday environment said that implementing the Kyoto deal will “incur costs”. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that those costs could reach $4,000 a year for the average family. Canadians have to be told where those moneys are going to come from. Are they going to come from fuel taxes? Are they going to come from carbon taxes? Are they going to come from other taxes? Or are they going to come from all of the above?

Which Canadians are going to have to pay for the Kyoto deal and how much will they pay?

[The Environment, October 22nd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we asked the environment minister whether she will sign the Kyoto deal even if the Canadian provinces do not agree to it. She refused to answer, saying only that she would negotiate with the provinces to implement whatever deal she signs in Japan.

Yesterday Alberta's environment minister said in no uncertain terms that Alberta will not accept as binding an emissions treaty arrived at in this way.

Does the Liberal government intend to force this emissions deal down the throats of Albertans exactly in the same way it enforced the national energy program?

[The Environment, October 22nd, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the environment minister is going to Kyoto, Japan in two months to sign a massive emissions treaty. Depending on how these negotiations unfold, this emissions deal could end up affecting the life of every Canadian.

Yesterday the environment minister told the House that the Liberals have already made up their minds to sign “legally binding targets in Kyoto”.

Why has the environment minister publicly committed to signing a treaty that has yet to be negotiated? Is that not putting the cart before the horse?

[Taxation, October 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister misrepresents Reform's position day after day in this House. Why does he do it? Because he is ashamed of his own policies.

The average working family in Canada today now pays more in taxes than they do for food, for clothing and for shelter combined. The minister professes his great concern for the average and low income families. When will he demonstrate that concern by taking his tax-stained hands out of the pockets of those people?

[Taxation, October 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister professes to lie awake nights worrying about the vulnerable in our society, yet he wrings almost $2 billion a year from people who make less than $15,000 a year. These are seniors on fixed incomes, these are single parents, these are young people with their first jobs, the most vulnerable among us.

When will the minister's enlightened social conscience move him to give tax relief to these low income families?

[Taxation, October 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal finance minister can talk for hours about how to spend taxpayers' money but he gets choked up when it comes to the subject of tax relief. Yesterday under questioning he grudgingly acknowledged that he is going to reduce taxes for Canadians. I know it hurt him to say it.

My question for the finance minister is simple. When will he lower taxes? By how much will he lower taxes? For whom will he lower taxes?

[Éboulements Tragedy, October 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join with you and other members in expressing our profound sympathy for the victims of the tragic bus accident in Quebec last Monday and for their grieving families.

On behalf of my colleagues in the official opposition, I offer our deepest sympathies to the families of the people who died and wish those injured a speedy recovery. We will be thinking of the residents of Saint-Bernard de Beauce in the days and weeks to come and we will pray they find the strength and courage they need to bear their terrible losses.

Most of the victims of this terrible tragedy were older people. They were part of a generation of Quebeckers for whom religious faith was real and tangible. Many of them could therefore identify with the words of St. Paul who suffered much himself when he referred his readers to “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations”.

Our prayer for their friends and families is that this God of all comfort would be especially close now and in the days ahead.

[Taxation, October 20th, 1997]

Ordinary Canadians cannot afford to hire tax accountants and lawyers. They cannot relocate their assets in low tax countries. They cannot fly their assets under flags of convenience to escape overtaxation in this country. They cannot escape the tax man. If the minister does not provide them with tax relief there will be no tax relief.

One million families in Canada make $30,000 a year or less. Most of them pay federal income tax. When can—

[Taxation, October 20th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, it is the Reform Party's tax relief plan that takes 1.3 million people off the federal government's—