Rick Dykstra

[Goods and Services Tax, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, in 1993 the Liberal Party campaigned on the elimination of the GST, all 7% of it. It has become the infamous red book promise because it never kept it. The new Leader of the Opposition has stated that he is actually against reducing the GST.

Could the Minister of Finance please share with this House why reducing the GST is so good for all Canadians?

[Income Tax Act, December 4th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank the member for Essex for moving this private member's bill. It certainly speaks to the heart of what we need to do for seniors in his community and my community. The member for Burlington spoke so eloquently about the relationship we have with the United States, in terms of tax treaties, and what we need to do to help our seniors here in our country. So, it is much appreciated.

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the bill put forward by the member for Essex, in that the bill would exempt from taxation 50% of the U.S. social security benefits received by taxpayers here in Canada. Currently, the exemption is only 15%.

Bill C-305 would amend subsection 81(1) of the Income Tax Act. This part of the act provides that certain items shall not be included in calculating the income of a senior or a taxpayer for a taxation year. The amendment would add to this category a couple of items and, thus, exempt from income tax 35% of the aggregate of all benefits paid by the United States government as a benefit under U.S. social security legislation. The amendment also makes clear that this 35% exemption would be in addition to the 15% exemption provided by paragraph 5(a) of article XVIII of the treaty.

It is estimated that approximately 90,000 Canadians receive U.S. social security benefits, of whom approximately 53,000 earn sufficient income to be liable for tax. The bill would affect the taxation of certain pension payments and would grant an additional 35% exemption in the case of U.S. social security benefits.

The bill is really about the taxation of retirees in Canada and this is an important subject. This is such an important subject because we owe it to Canadian seniors to provide a coherent and comprehensive approach to how their income is treated. I commend the hon. member for Essex for bringing this bill forward. I know that the member shares the same strong commitment to Canadian seniors as I do. This commitment to seniors in his riding and throughout our country is certainly to be commended. We owe our seniors a great deal and when we have the opportunity to extend something as simple as tax relief, we have to do that.

We are fortunate to have a new government that is committed to tax relief. We are committed to tax relief for all Canadians, but especially for seniors and retired Canadians who currently receive a pension.

The relief would benefit nearly 2.7 million taxpayers who receive eligible pension income, providing up to $155 per pensioner. I am speaking about Canada's new government's promise to double the pension income amount to $2,000. We would also take about 85,000 of those same pensioners off the tax rolls.

Many of our seniors who would benefit from Bill C-305 live near our borders, so they, and Canadians, want safer streets. We want to protect Canadian families and communities, to secure our borders, and to increase our preparedness to address public health threats.

It is as important for seniors to feel safe and secure in their homes and their communities as much as it is for them to feel tax relief. Canada's new government has introduced a number of measures in this House to tackle crime, including mandatory sentencing and house arrest to name a few.

One very important feature of making our streets safer is the commitment made in budget 2006. The budget earmarks funds giving the RCMP the tools and people it needs to strengthen its federal policing role. Budget 2006 includes $26 million to give victims a more effective voice in the federal corrections and justice system, and to give victims greater access to services. In every riding in our country, seniors have been victims in criminal acts. This funding would help ensure that they have a voice in our justice system.

There is an organization called Grand-PARENTING AGAIN Canada which was formed for grandparents across the country who, for one reason or another, become caregivers to their grandchildren. It happens across the country, not always for great reasons but it happens.

The proposed bill, along with the universal child care supplement, will help grandparents who face the tough issue of bringing up their grandchildren. With over 23,500 seniors in my riding, any time I have the opportunity to stand and promote a bill that has their interests at heart, I will not hesitate to do so.

The issue dealt with in the bill is an important one, as are all issues that relate to the taxation of retirees. Once again, I commend the hon. member for his commitment to seniors and retired Canadians and certainly wish him every success with the bill.

I want to add one final note. If everyone recalls the movie that starred Tom Cruise called Jerry McGuire, at one point actress Renée Zellweger, responded to a long speech by Tom Cruise, said, “You had me at hello”. The member for Markham—Unionville had me at hello, except that he went on to speak against all the tax advantages that were given to seniors with respect to GST and tax credits in the budget, which disappointed me. I am glad he is supporting it, but he only needed to speak about half as long as he did. I think we all would have been happier on this side of the House.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance.

Yesterday the Minister of Finance introduced the economic and fiscal update. As part of the update, the minister introduced a tax back guarantee for all Canadians. He outlined Canada's new national goal of eliminating our total net debt by 2021.

Could the arliamentary secretary outline for the House how the tax back guarantee will benefit all Canadians in our country?

[Taxation, November 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have heard from seniors in my riding of St. Catharines and across Canada. These seniors receive pension income resulting from the years they spent contributing to Canadian society.

Canada's new government has introduced a tax fairness plan to assist all senior couples who receive pension income. This plan helps seniors in two ways.

First, it reduces taxes for low income and middle income seniors by increasing the age credit amount by $1,000, retroactive to January 1 of this year. Second, effective January 1, 2007, senior couples will be allowed to split all pension income that is currently eligible for the pension income credit.

Pension income splitting is here after a 40 year wait. Our tax fairness plan is an important step in improving the quality of life that Canadian seniors enjoy, especially after the amount of time and effort they have given to this country.

[Veterans, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today for two reasons. The first is to pay tribute to the past. My community of St. Catharines is home to many veterans of the second world war, whether they be Dutch, British, Polish or other immigrants who fought against the injustices that caused the war. Their commitment and sacrifice remind us all of our proud history of fighting for the freedoms and privileges we all enjoy today.

This ties into the second reason I rise today, which is our future. The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, CASA, is an organization made up of university students from across our country. The students are here in Ottawa today to promote their issues, but what is more important, they represent the future of our country.

I cannot think of a better way for my son, who is celebrating his 15th birthday today, to see and understand the importance of the sacrifices Canadians made for our way of life.

When we see students, especially those from Brock University, focused on making our country the best it can be, we can see that our future is indeed a very bright one.

[Criminal Code, October 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, one of the fascinating pieces of information that I picked up while researching this legislation, in terms of how it is going to move forward, how we are going to work with each other, and how we are going to understand it, was indeed that part of the NDP platform. The member's party was in fact implicit and spoke directly to reverse onus. I would simply say to the member that in that context this bill addresses some of what his party was trying to get at during the election in order to form government, that is, to implement some form of a justice strategy. This reaches out to the exact area he and his party were trying to reach in terms of reducing crime in our country.

[Criminal Code, October 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from the member opposite. I take them, certainly, at face value. In terms of weighing this whole issue of whether it actually is constitutional, there are dozens of reverse onus provisions in the Criminal Code. I will provide a few for the member: bail provision, sex offender registry applications and, also, not criminally responsible. These certainly indicate that there is clear evidence that the reverse onus clause, certainly from a constitutional perspective, is open and possible.

[Criminal Code, October 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, among the many duties of government perhaps none is more important than the protection of our citizens from crime. Not only is it our duty, it is also part of the commitment the Conservatives made to the citizens of this country. It also flows from what was learned in my community earlier this summer when the Minister of Justice participated in a round table discussion with people involved in or affected by our justice system. This bill is a crucial part of our justice package aimed directly at that goal.

Those of us who live in St. Catharines understand all too well the absolute necessity of effective dangerous offender legislation. It was 15 years ago that our city was gripped by fear, sparked by the horrific crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. The brutal murders of Kristin French, Leslie Mahaffy and Tammy Homolka have not been forgotten in St. Catharines, and I doubt that they ever will be.

Arising out of this horrific situation was the fact that Paul Bernardo was determined to be a dangerous offender and will remain in prison indefinitely. The people of St. Catharines breathed a huge sigh of relief when that decision was made. We know that some people, like Bernardo, are not capable of being rehabilitated. We know that for some criminals reoffending is not just a statistical probability, it is a certainty.

Many Canadian communities have been victimized by repeat sexual or violent offenders who have somehow slipped through the cracks of the justice system and have been allowed to repeat their crimes again and again. This cannot stand. Catch and release is a great way to spend an afternoon fishing. It is not the way to protect Canadians.

An article in last Thursday's Edmonton Journal underlines the glaring hole in our justice system that Bill C-27 is needed to fill. The article is entitled “Notorious rapist deserves prison forever, 1969 victim says”. It details a lengthy criminal record of Stephen Ewanchuk. His 1969 victim was choked, beaten and raped. He was later convicted for that rape and sentenced to three years in prison. Between that rape and the later conviction, he was again convicted in 1969 for a different rape.

In 1972 he was sentenced to 10 years for yet another rape. In 1986 he was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 15 months in prison. In 1994 he was convicted of another sexual assault and sentenced to two years. I am not done. In 2005 he was convicted of sexually assaulting an eight year old girl. There is an old saying that says once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern.

With Ewanchuk it has been six times and that is a farce and a mockery of justice. Now, after six sexual offences, it is the Crown that must prove that Stephen Ewanchuk is a dangerous offender. After six offences, this should not be a question. Under our legislation it would be Mr. Ewanchuk who would face the burden of proving that he is not a dangerous offender. Justice demands no less.

In addition to this reverse onus provision, this legislation will strengthen sections 810.1 and 810.2, high risk peace bonds, by doubling the duration to 24 months and clarifying that a broad range of conditions may be imposed in order to protect the public. It should be obvious that no one's rights are more grievously violated than the victims of violent sexual offences, but for 13 years the rights of victims were ignored. Today we are taking an important step toward rebalancing the scales of justice. Canadians want these laws in place. They know that the coddling of violent criminals must end.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a constituent named Les Hulls. He was forwarding me a message that he had sent to the member for Mount Royal. Mr. Hulls was upset that the Liberal member had criticized Bill C-27. He wrote, “If you look to the United States for the 'three strikes you're out parallel', you'll find that they've been moving away from it...”

In his email to the member for Mount Royal, Mr. Hulls also said, “Canadians want tougher laws when dealing with repeat offenders of violent and sexual crimes. I am a voter and I do not care what the Americans are doing”.

I could not put it better myself. Canadians are fed up reading stories about crimes committed by five, six and seven time violent offenders, and rightly so. Canadian streets belong to hard-working and law abiding citizens. This legislation is a big step toward winning those streets back. It is, quite simply, the right thing to do.

Of course, not everyone agrees that the legislation is the right thing to do. A Toronto defence attorney, Clayton Ruby, had this to say about our bill: “The Tories get votes from bashing criminals and Canadians simply seem stupid enough to bite on this again, and again and again.” Judging by the slipshod logic of some of the criticisms I have heard of the bill, Mr. Ruby is not the only one who thinks Canadians are stupid.

At this point I would like to discuss two criticisms. In particular, that Canadians are far too smart for them. One criticism made by a number of people, including the member for Windsor—Tecumseh, is that the reverse onus provision will be struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of the charter guarantee of the presumption of innocence.

I would note first of all that this is a peculiar position for my friend from Windsor—Tecumseh to take when one considers his party's platform from the last January election. That platform claimed that the NDP would introduce an omnibus safe communities act. It went on to list a number of measures, one of which was, “Support a reverse onus on bail for all gun related crimes”.

We believe that was a good idea, so you can understand my confusion, Mr. Speaker, upon hearing that the member for Windsor—Tecumseh, the NDP justice critic, now believes reverse onus provisions are unconstitutional.

More generally, I think anyone who claims the bill violates the principle of innocent before proven guilty is being disingenuous. Unlike Mr. Ruby I recognize that the Canadian people are anything but stupid. They cannot help but see, therefore, that the provisions of the bill apply only to those offenders who have already been proven guilty. Again, for those who have already been proven guilty for a third time no less of designated sexual or violent offences, the presumption of innocence has nothing to do with sentencing. Sentencing is the only area that the bill will affect.

I know this is clear enough for Canadian voters because a number of them have contacted me to express their strong support for the bill. I hope I have made this clear enough for my friends across the aisle.

There is a second criticism that has been levelled at the bill. I know that Canadians are too smart to buy this one as well. That criticism is that California's three strikes has not worked, so therefore our legislation will not work. The problem with this line of reasoning, of course, is that our bill barely even resembles the California law.

Under California legislation, any third felony conviction automatically results in a life sentence. Our bill however significantly improves on that legislation in two crucial aspects. First, it is not automatic. Offenders will still have the opportunity to prove to the judge why they should not be labelled dangerous offenders.

Second, and unlike California law, our legislation will only apply to violent or sexual offenders. It is true that we will not declare anyone a dangerous offender for stealing a slice of pizza, not even three slices of pizza.

According to the justice policy institute, an American think tank, approximately two-thirds of convictions under California law were for non-violent offenders. By avoiding that defect, our bill would avoid all of the associated problems while still acting as an effective deterrent against violent and sexual offenders.

Again, unlike Clayton Ruby, I do not believe that Canadians are stupid. I know that Canadians understand the points I have just made, but I hope the members opposite do as well. Our job is to protect Canadians. I stand here in my place and say that we will fulfill that duty by passing this important piece of legislation.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, No. 2, October 30th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I must rise to pay little homage to the review or the so-called poll that my good friend on the finance committee, the member for Markham—Unionville, actually held. He only held it in very specific spots of the country. He asked if those who wanted to abstain could abstain. Province after province and, quite frankly, chamber of commerce after chamber of commerce in provinces across the country supported the cut.

Why, if the cut did not work, according to the member, in 2006, would it have worked in 1993 when the Liberal Party of the day promised to get rid of the GST and not just reduce it?

[Justice, October 25th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, my constituents in St. Catharines are distressed with a justice system put in place by the former Liberal government that does not appear to give our government the tools to keep Canada from becoming a dumping ground for dangerous offenders and people who commit crimes in other countries.

Could the Minister of Public Safety give this House an update on what is being done to rectify this situation and protect all Canadians?