Stephen Harper

[Goods and Services Tax, February 11th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, it is not good enough to say “the courts”. The government and the minister should know the answer to this question.

We would not be fishing for this answer if there had not been a backroom deal between the CCRA and Treasury Board to cover up this information for years. This is disgraceful.

I will ask the minister again, can she answer the question? If she cannot answer the question on how much the government believes has been paid out in fraudulent GST rebates and not recovered, is it because she does not know the answer or she does not want to answer? Is it incompetence or is it contempt for taxpayers?

[Goods and Services Tax, February 11th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, over the last few months reports have been circulating of losses on GST fraud of up to $1 billion. The revenue minister has denied this, but case after case has been leaking out. The minister has not been exactly forthcoming with information, but instead will only give us information on actual convictions for GST fraud.

I will ask the minister a very precise question. Since 1994 how much has the government actually paid out in GST rebates which it believes were fraudulent and which it has not been able to collect?

[Goods and Services Tax, February 10th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, that is the government that shut down the GST fraud unit and stopped reporting GST losses in the public accounts in 1994.

Even though this case was flagged and even though revenue ministers and finance ministers knew about the fraud in this case, managers at the credit union said that individuals were walking out with bags full of tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.

Who does the Prime Minister hold accountable for this appalling incompetence and wasted tax dollars?

[Goods and Services Tax, February 10th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, for weeks the minister has been telling the House that GST fraud is no more than $25 million and here is a case of where it is $22 million alone.

The question is obvious. Instead of feeding us these horse feathers, when will the minister come to the House and come clean on the real size of GST fraud in the country?

[Goods and Services Tax, February 10th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, reports are airing today on the latest GST fraud scam: $22 million collected in rebates by phony lumber companies.

We now know that the Auditor General warned of this specific case in 1999 yet, instead of auditing the claim, the government sent it back into the system with approval for a refund cheque.

After months of the revenue minister bragging to the House about the government's record on GST administration, how does she justify this appalling incompetence?

[Health, February 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I would stay away from the rhetoric about money and pressure and concentrate on cooperation to get the details worked out.

The deal signed yesterday commits to establishing a health council to monitor and make annual reports. The health council will work with representatives from the provinces, the federal government, research institutions and existing organizations.

My question is for the Prime Minister. When will this council begin its work, how will the council make decisions and how will it monitor improvements to the health care system?

[Health, February 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister will admit that the federal-provincial deal is a framework at this point in which many details are left to be worked out, including primary care reform, home care services, catastrophic drug coverage, the accountability and reporting framework and, of course, participation of territorial governments.

My question for the Prime Minister is, how can the House be assured that these details will be worked out without negotiations getting bogged down in federal-provincial wrangling?

[Health, February 6th, 2003]

What Canadians really want, of course, is better access to doctors and hospital beds and shorter waiting lists.

I ask the Prime Minister, how long will Canadians have to wait to see this agreement lead to real improvement in the delivery of health care services?

[Health, February 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, last night the premiers and the Prime Minister signed a deal that is a commendable start to improving health care for Canadians.

Among the positive features are funding to restore the core of the health care system, flexibility for provinces in implementing new services and no restrictions on private health care delivery within the public system. Now of course--

[Foreign Affairs, February 5th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, we are assessing the evidence. Canadians expect the government to be able to do that on its own for the benefit of the rest of the world.

Major countries have said that Iraq is in material breach of resolutions. I do not understand why the government is unable to. What is the logic at this point of giving Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt?