Scott Brison

[Finance, March 12th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the focus group's materials were very specific in detailing the tax changes the government was to put in place. I quote “Our new package will cut the capital gains inclusion rate further to 50%”.

What steps did the minister take to ensure that no participants of the focus group benefited financially from their access to this privileged information? Will he table those measures in the House?

[Finance, March 12th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the finance minister. The Department of Finance did not require any of the participants of a pre-mini budget focus group examining specific tax changes to sign confidentiality agreements.

Given the importance of budget secrecy and the potential for personal gain, why were basic measures such as confidentiality agreements not enforced and insisted on by the Minister of Finance?

[Emancipation Day, March 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure today that I rise to speak to the motion to create August 1 as emancipation day.

I commend the hon. member for Calgary East for introducing the motion. I also commend my colleague, the hon. member for Dartmouth, for her excellent discourse, particularly in her description of the very important history of black communities in Nova Scotia. I commend the hon. member for a particularly thorough and engaging discourse.

Black Nova Scotians have made very important contributions in the past and they continue to do so today. We are very proud in Nova Scotia to have the largest indigenous black population on a per capita basis of any province in Canada.

I was surprised and disappointed with the hon. member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine when she turned what should have been a non-partisan debate on a very important fundamental issue, what should have been a celebration of multiculturalism, into a partisan mudslinging match on the floor of the House of Commons. I thought that was unnecessary and it is tragic that it happened today. In this important issue there is clearly no role for partisanship. Again I commend the member for Calgary East for introducing the motion.

We should celebrate the progress that has occurred for black Canadians since the days of slavery. We should celebrate the emergence of some great Canadian black role models and black Canadians who have made such a terrific contribution to Canadian society and from whom we have all benefited. That awareness of all our histories is important, particularly as a tool through education to combat the negative impacts of racism and the lost opportunities of racism. I think again, as we pause to recognize and celebrate our individual collective histories, that it can take us a long way toward tackling the negatives of racism.

Our party has had a strong history in this regard. It was the leader of our party today who as Prime Minister in 1979 appointed the first black Canadian to cabinet, Lincoln Alexander. Later Mr. Alexander went on to become Canada's first visible minority appointed as lieutenant governor of Ontario.

We are proud in the other place to have Senator Donald Oliver, a fellow Nova Scotian and certainly a very strong contributor to the Senate. He is a great Canadian who serves the interests of all Nova Scotians and all Canadians very well. Of course we have Senator Anne Cools in the other place, and in this place we are very pleased to have members of the black community who contribute so much to the betterment of Canadian society.

l will mention a few individuals from Nova Scotia who made a particularly great contribution to our history. The hon. member for Dartmouth through her history in theatre would know the actor Walter Borden. We are also proud of novelist Fred Ward, filmmaker Sylvia Hamilton and poets Maxine Tynes and David Woods, and poet, author and filmmaker George Elliot Clark, all of whom have made significant contributions to our history and the cultural mosaic of Nova Scotia.

I should have also mentioned that Senator Oliver is from Wolfville, Nova Scotia, which is in my riding. I am also very proud of Ted Upshaw, an inspector in the RCMP who is the highest ranking black Canadian in the history of the RCMP. He is from Three Mile Plains outside Windsor in my riding.

It is important that we celebrate these great contributions. As we become more aware, particularly as young Canadians become more aware of these excellent and important contributions, it can make a lot of difference in tackling some of the misconceptions and the stereotypes which so often hurt all of us. As a society it has a negative impact from a macro perspective.

We can do an awful lot more through education by celebrating the contributions of the past and present and working toward ensuring a more unfettered access to the opportunities to shape the future of our country.

We have to consider things like equality of opportunities in terms of economic issues as well. We have to ensure that not only our governmental institutions but also businesses and individuals all strive a little harder to ensure that the barriers to access, to success and to opportunity are taken down. We have to make that commitment on an ongoing basis.

Nowhere is it easier to do that and to start setting an example than through our education systems provincially. The federal government can play a role in working with provincial governments on these types of initiatives. I tend to think those are probably the best places to start.

The motion of my friend and colleague from Calgary Centre to designate August 1 as a holiday, as emancipation day, would be a step forward. It would be beneficial in terms of helping achieve some of these goals. It is only one step.

I commend the hon. member for bringing forward the motion. I wish it had been made votable. It is unfortunate that in this place so much work and thought go into private members' business that are ultimately not provided with the level of attention I feel is important or with the level of attention that the members opposite would like to see provided to some important issues.

I regret that it was not made a votable motion. I regret that some members opposite chose the opportunity to turn this very important and positive debate into a more partisan exercise. That should not in any way, shape or form detract from the commendations for the member's initiative in bringing this forward. I wish him all the best in this initiative and offer the complete support of myself and my party for this initiative.

[Supply, March 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member spoke of a $42 billion deficit in 1993. What he failed to mention was that that deficit, as a percentage of GDP, was actually reduced by half from what the Mulroney government had inherited in 1984 from the previous Liberal government. In fact it was reduced by half as a percentage of GDP.

He also forgot to mention that program spending, which was growing every year by 15% under that previous Liberal government, was reduced to zero under the Mulroney government. He also made some other omissions.

The Economist magazine's 1998 year preview for Canada stated that the credit for the elimination of the deficit in Canada belonged to the structural reforms made by the previous government, that is, the Mulroney government, and it listed specifically free trade and GST as being those policies that were most instrumental in the elimination of the deficit.

I would like to ask him if he is aware of what his party's position was on free trade and the GST in the 1988 and 1993 elections. I am curious as to where his party stood, prior to being elected, on those two fundamental policies which his party and government has embraced and utilized.

I would certainly hope that his party was not, as some people have told me, vociferously opposed to those policies. Surely to goodness his party would not have embraced those policies so warmly in government that it opposed so vociferously in opposition. That would mean that it effectively had to swallow itself whole on this and many other issues. I would really appreciate his feedback on that.

[Supply, March 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the hon. member from Damascus on his road to conversion, first I am absolutely astounded by the member opposite who, in his good work in opposition on this side of the House, actually enabled us to attain much of this information. Now that he is on the other side of the House, muzzled effectively and perhaps wearing those rose coloured glasses given out to all successful Liberal candidates, he sees things quite differently.

It is clear that if we were to compare that hon. member's positions about military issues when he was on this side of the House to his current views, we could see that his consistency on these issues is about as constant as that of the Prime Minister on the GST, free trade, deregulation of financial services or anything.

Perhaps as part of his membership in that caucus he has passed the first test: there is no consistency and there is no commitment to the values and principles that sustain all of us as entities in the political environment.

[Supply, March 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his non-partisan and constructive intervention on this topic.

It is interesting. Here we have an opposition day motion whereby we are debating the future of the Canadian military and the government's neglect of the Canadian military, and even the government's own backbenchers do not have the gumption to stand up and talk about the issue at hand. Instead they talk about something else.

The member described my action of resigning my seat in order for my right hon. leader to have an opportunity to run in my riding as contemptuous. I suggest he address his concerns about that issue to his leader, the Prime Minister, who entered the House under similar circumstances when a member resigned his seat. I expect his leader would be surprised to learn of that member's philosophical aversion to that mechanism by which many leaders have entered the House.

Perhaps if the member were to address his concerns to his Prime Minister about those contemptuous actions taken by that Prime Minister when he first entered the House in the early nineties, he would probably ensure himself a longer period on the backbenches of that government. Perhaps he should address his concerns about demonstrating contempt for parliament to those people over there.

In fact, the people of Kings—Hants spoke quite clearly on November 27 by giving me another opportunity to continue to represent them.

[Supply, March 1st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore said this has been an exercise of the Liberal government in trying to save face.

This was not the only campaign promise or commitment that the Liberals made in 1993 in which it demonstrated very little consistency. There were the commitments to get rid of the GST and the free trade. The Liberals as members of the opposition fought vociferously the policies on GST and free trade. Now as members of the government they have embraced them.

This case was perhaps the one that the government was most concerned about because of the symbolism of the helicopter contract. The Prime Minister made a huge issue of this during the 1993 election. At that time he said he would put zero on the cheque for helicopters.

Ultimately that cancellation cost, as my colleague from Saint John said earlier, around $4.2 billion for the Canadian taxpayer. That was a face saving exercise for the government. Maybe the government had a flash of embarrassment based on all the other promises it broke after the 1993 election. Maybe it saw this as the last bastion of consistency to their red book promises. I cannot believe that the government would see fit to waste $4.2 billion of taxpayer money. That money could have gone to health care, transfers to the provinces for education, perhaps lower taxes or perhaps to strengthen our military. Would that not be a great idea?

The government has demonstrated not just contempt for the House periodically, but also contempt for the military over the last seven years. This neglect of the Canadian military is to an extent that we have never seen with regard to the quality of life in the military, pay issues, housing issues and the one we are focused on today, equipment issues.

As the member for Kings—Hants representing CFB Greenwood, this is a very important issue to me. Approximately two years ago I attended a funeral in Greenwood for three servicemen. These brave individuals perished on a mission of the Sea King helicopter. It was a moving and memorable experience. Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate their lives and to mourn the tragedy of their lives being ended so unnecessarily early. The amount of emotion at that time is indescribable.

We cannot put a price tag on that. We cannot put a price tag on the fear that our service men and women have every day when they use these helicopters and risk their lives. We cannot put a price tag on the fear that their families live under on an ongoing basis that their loved ones are in risk because of these decisions. I focused on the $4.2 billion loss to the Canadian taxpayer, but we have to recognize that the other losses have been priceless. We cannot put a price tag on those things. I should say as well that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester.

Before I came here I assumed that public policy was built around needs, around what people in our constituencies and across our country actually need, and around what our military needs. I have learned since 1997 that politics can in fact be the natural enemy of public policy. In fact, for very short term political reasons sometimes, decisions are taken that have a very deleterious impact on Canadians in the long term. I do not think there is a better example of a case where public policy was sacrificed on the alter of political expediency than the case of the cancellation of the EH-101 contract and the decisions made after that, and I will list some of those.

Of course my colleague from Saint John spoke earlier of the $800 million in cancellation fees. There are also: the Sea King maintenance and upgrade, $600 million; Canada search helicopter program, $790 million; long term service for that program, $1.7 billion; maritime helicopter project, again $2.9 billion; and the maritime helicopter project and long term service support, again, $1.7 billion. The total cost is around $8.5 billion as opposed to the actual cost for the EH-101s, which would have been $4.3 billion. Even with Liberal math, this does not make any sense.

The Liberals could argue that by delaying the decisions as they did, they had the extra time to reduce the value of the Canadian dollar, which they have worked assiduously at over a period of seven years, and they have reduced the Canadian dollar significantly. Perhaps their strategy has been to delay these types of investments as long as possible, because every year of Liberal government leads to a lower Canadian dollar. Maybe that is the stalling mechanism the Liberals are trying, but it is still not working. Even with their valiant efforts to reduce the value of the Canadian dollar and devalue our way to prosperity, they have not achieved sufficient reduction of these costs.

The fact is that in making a very political decision about a life and death issue, the Liberals have treated our Canadian military and the loved ones of our Canadian military darned shabbily. There are issues that rise above partisanship. I do not think there is a member of the House from any political party who does not value and appreciate the contribution of our military.

We can speak at great length in the House about our commitment as representatives for our military, but the cabinet opposite has not delivered in protecting the interests of all Canadians by ensuring that we have a strong military and by respecting the members of that military, whether it is on quality of life issues or in terms of adequate housing and adequate pay and benefits. Also, beyond that there are the equipment issues.

This is a government that has repeatedly turned its back on the military. This is the most egregious example of that because it smacks of partisan politics and Machiavellian manoeuvring at the expense of our brave men and women in uniform.

However, I will tell members today that as long as I am the member for Kings—Hants I will be defending the interests of our military and working to ensure that the people of Kings—Hants and all Canadians benefit from a strong, proud military, particularly the base in Greenwood in my riding, whose service people have provided and continue to provide such terrific service to Canada.

[Supply, March 1st, 2001]

Hire mercenaries.

[Tax On Tools, February 28th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I do agree with the hon. member. He is new here. If he would read a little further, he would see that we are talking about taxes and that does tie into this subject. I certainly appreciate his intervention.

The fact is that this is the kind of debate in which we in the House should be engaged in the context of a federal budget. My colleague from Acadie—Bathurst has introduced the motion in terms of a tax reform measure that would provide fairer tax treatment for tradesmen. Other colleagues have, at various times, presented motions to provide mechanics the ability to write off the cost of their tools every year. These types of tax reforms are all very important, but they form only a part of what we should be debating aggressively in the House and at the finance committee in the context of a federal budget.

We should be talking about issues such as capital gains taxes, for instance, and the fact that we still have a higher capital gains tax burden in Canada than citizens in the U.S. do This is a very critical area as it affects the new economy. We still have a tax burden in Canada on the corporate side which puts us second highest in the OECD. That is of course going to have a significant impact on growth.

My friend and colleague in the New Democratic Party may not agree with all my positions on tax policy, but he would agree that we need to have a legitimate debate. A mini budget was introduced which reflected the many levels of intellect on the opposite side of the House when it came to economic and other matters, but that mini budget was part of another parliament.

One of my hon. colleagues opposite actually shadowed my riding for the last caucus. I do not know the name of his riding and no one else in the House does either. He was the shadow member for Kings—Hants and was represented in the Liberal caucus. I want to thank him for the great job he did, because his involvement in representing the Liberal Party in my riding obviously helped me to come back to the House representing the Progressive Conservative Party for that riding. I hope he continues to do that type of great job because he is such a likeable individual.

The fact is, that mini budget, which reflected a mini vision of Canada, was introduced by the previous government. A previous group of parliamentarians approved, discussed and debated that budget. This is a new parliament. Many of the members here now were not here in the previous parliament. The question is why current parliaments and the current House of Commons are denied the opportunity to debate and discuss the fiscal direction of the country. That is what parliament is for.

We know the contempt in which members opposite hold parliament. We have seen that demonstrated time and time again, including during the debate last night on the motion of the government House leader, the former patron saint of effective opposition. He has become the patron saint of hypocrisy in terms of what he has done in denying opposition members and, in fact, members of his own caucus opportunities to effectively represent their constituents in this place.

However, the fundamental issue in not having a budget and not having an accountability for the fiscal policy of the government to parliament goes much deeper than simply having a budget that does not reflect current economic times. It strikes to the very core of parliamentary accountability and respect for the parliamentary institutions that are the cornerstones of our democracy in Canada.

We are all concerned on this side of the House. In fact many members opposite are gravely concerned although they will not express that in the House. They express their views of dissatisfaction with the current government and lack of respect paid to backbenchers behind the curtains as they impale themselves on microphones when reporters talk to them quietly looking for comments without names.

They are very brave when they are outside the House where they can make comments with the impunity of comments provided as background and without any regard or fear of repercussions from the Prime Minister's Office or Mr. Goldenberg.

The fact is that we need a significantly renewed sense of respect for parliament. There is no better way to provide that in the current context than to introduce a February budget. In the past seven years there has not been a worse February than this one to duck the issues and not even introduce a budget. I would like to be debating the hon. member's tax reform measures as part of a February budget as we should be doing.

[Tax On Tools, February 28th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise tonight to speak on Motion No. 248. The issue of fairer tax treatment for all Canadians is one in which we have been actively engaged in the House over the last several years. Fairer tax treatment for all Canadians is an issue that has been at the forefront of my personal interest as a member of the House since being elected in 1997.

The hon. member's motion specifically addresses the tax treatment of those involved in trades. It would provide relief for GST and HST on the tools required for those trades and would certainly help, but I think we have to address the issue in a macro sense and in a more holistic way. The whole issue of tax reform needs to be addressed in this place, at the finance committee and in the House.

Frankly, we should now be engaged in a budget debate. It is late February. Every February we have a budget introduced. That is the tradition. In fact, we do not have a budget this year. One of my colleagues opposite, a member of the Liberal government, has just said that we have a budget. In fact we have a mini budget, which was introduced in October and reflected a set of circumstances very different from those that exist today.

We currently are at the edge of, if not a recession, certainly an economic slowdown, which is not just a U.S. phenomenon. It is a global phenomenon. Our reliance on the U.S. market certainly means significant levels of concern in Canada. For instance, yesterday in response to a survey, 57% of Ontarians expressed the view that we will be in an economic downturn in the next year. Canadians are very concerned.

We have a recent report from the chief economic analyst of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, Don Drummond, who used to be the associate deputy minister of finance under the current Minister of Finance. In his report he said that even after the promised tax relief from recent federal budgets, our reliance on personal income taxes in Canada will mean that we are the most highly taxed jurisdiction in the G-7.

The fact is that we have not even caught up to the U.S. in terms of fairer and lower tax rates. The U.S. is preparing to leapfrog even further ahead with a $1.3 trillion tax reduction in the Bush tax plan, which is proceeding through congress now, garnering support.

The government is dreaming in technicolour. The Minister of Finance and my colleagues opposite, with due respect, are dreaming in technicolour if they believe that we are insulated against the effects of a significant economic downturn in the U.S. We have not, in the mini budget, done as much as can be done through fiscal policy to provide the level of economic stimulus that Canadians need in the—