Shelly Glover

[Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1, May 1st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to split my time with the hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.

[Questions on the Order Paper, April 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the goods and services tax, GST, applies to a very broad base with only a limited number of zero-rated items, such as basic groceries, prescription drugs, certain medical and assistive devices and exports.

Since the establishment of the GST in 1991, funeral services, coffins, headstones, or any other property relating to the funeral, burial or cremation of an individual have generally been taxable. It should be noted that some charity-provided services are exempt.

Statistics Canada’s national income and expenditure accounts contain data on spending by Canadians on various funeral products and services, including funeral and pre-burial products, cremation and interment of human remains, grave plots and cemetery maintenance. These data include expenditures on funeral services supplied by charities, which are generally GST-exempt. Based on these data, it could be expected that the cost of zero-rating those funeral products and services could be up to $90 million annually.

[Questions on the Order Paper, April 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this proposal would create a refundable tax credit equal to the amount that the individual paid during the year as membership dues to a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada Association, or to a prescribed veterans’ organization.

This proposal would effectively result in the personal income tax system providing full reimbursement for the costs of annual membership dues to veterans’ organizations. This would be unique in the personal income tax system, as all other expenses eligible for tax recognition, such as child care, union and professional dues, medical expenses and tuition fees are provided tax relief through deductions or non-refundable tax credits, none of which provide the level of reimbursement of expenses contemplated under the proposal.

It is difficult to provide an accurate estimate of the cost of the proposal since the tax data do not identify members of veterans’ organizations, which can include veteran and non-veteran members. Based on the current membership of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Army, Navy and the Air Force Veterans in Canada Association and the average annual dues collected by these organizations, the estimated cost of the proposal would be about $15 million per year. However, if all 713,000 veterans in Canada were to fully benefit from claiming $50 in annual membership dues--i.e., the current maximum amount of annual membership dues collected by a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion--the cost of the proposal could be as much as $36 million per year.

Additional factors could significantly increase this cost, and these factors are difficult to estimate. The proposal would apply to any individual who pays membership dues to a veterans’ organization, and as such, significant costs could be incurred if memberships by non-veterans--e.g., family members--were also provided tax recognition. Membership data for 2012 suggest that the majority of memberships to the Royal Canadian Legion are in the “associate” and “affiliate” categories. As well, if veterans’ organizations were to increase their annual membership dues, the cost of the proposal could be higher.

[Questions on the Order Paper, April 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the goods and services tax, GST, imposed under the Excise Tax Act applies to a very broad base with only a limited number of zero-rated items, such as basic groceries, prescription drugs, certain medical and assistive devices and exports. It is preferable to tax a broad base of goods and services since this allows for a more efficient and simpler tax and provides for a lower tax rate. In this regard, the government delivered on its commitment to reduce the GST rate by two percentage points, from 7% to 5%. Overall, the savings from this measure vary from year to year. It is estimated that it will provide $13.6 billion in tax savings to Canadians in 2013-14.

Reading materials are generally taxable under the GST. However, to encourage literacy, educational institutions, public libraries and non-profit groups whose primary purpose is the promotion of literacy are eligible for a full rebate of the GST on all printed books. The Tax Expenditures and Evaluations 2012 report estimates that $20 million was claimed under the GST book rebate in 2012.

Statistics Canada’s system of national accounts contains data on spending by Canadians on printed and electronic reading materials, including newspapers, periodicals and books. Based on these data, it can be expected that the cost of zero-rating those goods would be in the order of $280 million annually in forgone federal GST revenues.

[Questions on the Order Paper, April 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, most services provided by school authorities are exempt from the goods and services tax, the GST. Exempt treatment means that school authorities do not charge GST on the exempt services they supply, but cannot claim input tax credits to recover the GST paid on inputs used to provide their exempt services. School authorities can, however, claim rebates of the otherwise unrecoverable GST paid. This rebate was set at the time of introduction of the GST to maintain a similar tax burden for the school sector as existed under the former federal sales tax. The rebate rate for school authorities is 68%.

The Tax Expenditures and Evaluations 2012 report indicates that school authorities received an estimated $360 million in GST rebates in 2012. On that basis, increasing the GST rebate for school authorities to 100% from 68% would cost an estimated $170 million annually.

School authorities have benefited from the decision of the Government of Canada to reduce the GST rate from 7% to 5% without reducing the rebate rate for school authorities. As a result, the effective GST rate on school authorities’ taxable purchases dropped from 2.24% to 1.6%.

[Parliamentary Budget Officer Act, April 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as we all heard just moments ago, I think I touched a nerve with the leader of the official opposition, the member of Parliament for Outremont, when I suggested that this private member's bill did not have a cost to it. When I suggested that the NDP, in fact, also has a history and a record of doing these kinds of things without any regard to cost to Canadians, the official opposition leader suggested that I was not being honest about their propositions for budget 2013. The leader of the official opposition is either embarrassed by the launch the NDP did for budget 2013, or he has selective memory, for whatever reason. We would leave it to him to explain that.

However, let me read from the transcript of the official launch of the party's, that is the NDP's, new campaign around budget 2013 held at the National Press Theatre, March 18, 2013. Here is a question from a journalist:

I'm just wondering if you could kind of, you know, focus on specifics in terms of the price tag. How much does the NDP want to spend on the various aspects...? Can you kind of provide some more fiscal details in terms of how much money you'd spend?

The member who just spoke, who is the finance critic for the NDP, the member for Parkdale—High Park, responded to that question from the journalist at the news conference, saying:

I'm not going to pull out one piece and say here's the price tag because I think it's a shift in approach.

Then the question from the journalist was as follows:

But in this campaign, has the NDP..., does it lay out how much an NDP government would spend on the investments in the infrastructure or on pensions or on the small businesses?

Of course, the finance critic for the NDP said:

No, as we get closer to an election, we usually cost these things out specifically.... We're making recommendations to the government for their budget on Thursday.

Again, it speaks to the misleading comments made by the NDP opposition leader. He obviously has something to hide, because he does not cost his own private member's bill, again, because it is going to cost substantial money not only for Canadians but for a number of other organizations that bear the brunt of decisions made by government.

I appreciate this opportunity to express our concerns regarding Bill C-476, an act that would make the Parliamentary Budget Officer an officer of Parliament.

As everyone knows, accountability and transparency in Canada's public and democratic institutions are characteristic of this government. It was our government that promised to scrutinize public expenditures more closely. The first thing we did was implement one of the most comprehensive and complex pieces of legislation on accountability ever passed in this country.

Through the Federal Accountability Act and the accompanying action plan, we brought in a series of accountability reforms. Among these reforms were the designation of deputy ministers and deputy heads as accounting officers, the five-year review of the relevance and effectiveness of departmental grant and contribution programs, the new mandate for the Auditor General to follow the money to grant and contribution recipients, the law requiring departments to send results of public opinion research to Library and Archives Canada within six months, and the removal of the entitlement of political staff to priority appointments in the public service.

These reforms were followed up with others. They included new electoral finance rules and restrictions on gifts to political candidates; the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act; the new Conflict of Interest Act; tougher penalties and sanctions for people who commit fraud involving taxpayers' money; the clarification and simplification of the rules governing grants and contributions; the extension of the Access to Information Act to cover agents of Parliament, five foundations and the Canadian Wheat Board; and of course, a strengthened Lobbying Act to ensure that lobbying is done fairly and openly.

In all, our Federal Accountability Act and action plan made substantive changes to 45 federal statutes and amended over 100 others, touching virtually every part of government.

Furthermore, we took steps to ensure that Parliament and Canadians are better informed about public spending. Among other things, this meant improving financial reporting. For instance, since April 2011, the government has been preparing quarterly financial reports on spending for departments, agencies and crown corporations. In that regard, we have adopted a private sector practice, whereby publicly traded companies have been required to publish quarterly financial reports for years.

This is but one example of the government's leadership in supporting the work of parliamentarians, and there are many others. I would add that our leadership in supporting the work of Parliament is evident in the fact that the Public Accounts of Canada, one of the most important accountability documents prepared by the government, has consistently received a clean opinion by the Auditor General of Canada. As the record shows, our government is as committed as ever to providing more timely and relevant information on its many and varied activities to parliamentarians and Canadians.

Creating the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer is another way we strengthened Parliament's authority to closely examine how taxpayers' money is spent. Our government established this office in 2006 in order for it to provide Parliament with independent analyses and research on economic and budget issues and thus to increase Parliaments's ability to hold the government to account.

As we know, the first Parliamentary Budget Officer did just that. Under the Library of Parliament, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has the mandate, resources and the necessary independence from the government to do his job.

However, with Bill C-476, An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act, the hon. member opposite wants to change all of this. The bill would separate the Parliamentary Budget Officer from the Library of Parliament and make the Parliamentary Budget Officer an officer of Parliament with his or her own department.

The changes proposed in the bill would have several serious impacts. The role of the PBO would change significantly, becoming less responsive to the research and analytical needs of parliamentarians while at the same time creating confusion about the respective roles of the PBO and the Auditor General. We could expect to see some duplication of functions between the Parliamentary Budget Officer and the Library of Parliament. We would very likely see an increase in cost associated with the office.

If the bill is passed, the office would become a separate department in its own right, with its own staffing and administrative support requirements. This means that more of the PBO's funding would be diverted to bureaucracy, particularly for services such as corporate administrative support for information technology, which is currently shared with the Library of Parliament, rather than to providing services to parliamentarians.

We support a non-partisan and independent Parliamentary Budget Officer. Our commitment to this office is stronger than ever. Furthermore, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, as we know it today, is a responsible and affordable component of our accountability and transparency framework.

It has the mandate. It has the resources and the independence needed to perform its role and to hold the government to account. It is doing its job of providing independent fiscal and economic analysis, and it is serving parliamentarians and Canadians very well. We will continue to ensure that it has the independence necessary to do so. That is why we will not support the bill.

In closing, having witnessed the personal attack by the leader of the official opposition just moments ago, l must say that these accusations and allegations he throws out are, frankly, not true. They are misleading, and in my opinion, will actually damage his reputation as someone who wants to become prime minister of Canada. When he accuses other members across the way of untrue situations, he ought to look at himself in the mirror. He was, in fact, a Liberal cabinet minister. He is now leader of the federal NDP. I would ask him to perhaps take into consideration his own record, which is lengthy, of flip-flops over decades of political experience. I on this side will continue to do my job with the utmost truthfulness and dedication to my constituents.

[Parliamentary Budget Officer Act, April 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I must admit I was quite shocked at how partisan the speech was from my colleague, given the subject, but perhaps I should not have expected more than such partisan rhetoric from the opposition leader.

However, I do have a question for the opposition leader. We are talking about a private member's bill that would make the Parliamentary Budget Office its own unique office. It would be removed from the purview of the Library of Parliament.

We all know that the NDP submitted a budget without costing, which was quite interesting for Canadians to learn about. I would like to know what the cost of this private member's bill is, because there would be an increase in staffing, administration and IT costs.

I must add, as a member of the government, that we respect the parliamentary budget office's work to this end. There is a report out this morning; I look forward to reading it.

[Taxation, April 19th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that my colleague read budget 2013. It provides funding for libraries so that they can purchase digital materials for people with vision loss.

Again, we are providing funding in economic action plan 2013 so that we can provide some digital hubs for our libraries for those who suffer from vision impairment and for those who are blind.

[Aboriginal Affairs, April 19th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to first of all thank the member for Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar for her dedication to aboriginal women everywhere.

Our government has introduced legislation to protect thousands of first nations women and children. This bill will allow judges to enforce emergency protection orders for the safety of the woman and the child. Unfortunately, the member for St. Paul's' comments are consistent with the position of the Liberal Party, which voted against these protections.

Opposition leaders should be ashamed, and they should apologize for instructing their caucuses to vote against these protections.

[The Economy, April 19th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, let us take another look at the Conservative government's accomplishments.

Canada currently has the best tax environment of all G7 countries. It has the lowest tax rates for new business investment among G7 countries. We have the best job creation record in the G7, at more than 900,000 jobs. We have the best banking system in the world, the best environment for business growth and job creation as well as the best credit rating in the world.

It is too bad that they want to raise taxes and destroy all—