Tony Martin

[Committees of the House, October 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives seem to have a propensity these days of manufacturing a crisis in order to bring in their own policies to fix that manufactured crisis. I speak of my experience in Ontario from 1995 to 2003 when Mike Harris was the premier and a number of his ministers, one in particular, Mr. Snobelen, was heard to say that if one wanted change, one manufactured a crisis and then brought in the change to respond to that manufactured crisis.

I just want to ask the hon. member for Saint Boniface whether there is a crisis in the west where grain and wheat are concerned. Will doing away with the Wheat Board somehow fix the problem or is this just another manufactured crisis?

I was here the other night speaking to this issue and members around me from Saskatchewan and western Canada suggested that I really had no place speaking about something that I lived so far away from. I told them that my concern was, as you said in your speech, first the Wheat Board, then supply management and what would be next. As you are closer to the situation, is there a crisis that this is responding to?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is very simple. We could not stomach the self-congratulation that was the very premise of that motion. That motion was a simplistic attempt at trying to bolster the fortunes of a party that the citizens of this country summarily threw out of office because it could not manage and could not be held responsible for the public funds for which it was given responsibility over some 13 years.

The member did raise a good point. Certainly the issue of literacy and the cuts to youth employment services, et cetera, that the current government has made will hurt the populace. We heard at our prebudget consultation that literacy is a human right. To read and to write and to understand what is going on is basic to a person's independence and enjoyment of life. Literacy impacts on so many areas: jobs, skills, reading prescriptions, seniors. Increasing literacy 1.5% has a 2.5% GDP return down the line.

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

Mr. Speaker, the member has raised two very important questions.

I do not think he would deny that the approach the gasoline companies seem to be taking in raising the price of gasoline is that they raise it to $1.25 a litre and then drop it back to $1.05 a litre, and we think, “Oh my God, we have ducked a bullet. Look how low the price of gas is”. He keeps forgetting that before Labour Day last year, the prices of gasoline was between 70¢ and 80¢ a litre. It is now up over 90¢ a litre in my community. Only a year ago it was hovering up around $1.25 a litre.

That is the game the companies are playing and the member has obviously bought into it. The people who live in my jurisdiction in northern Ontario have not. They understand. They know that when the prices of gasoline goes up to $1.25 a litre and then goes back down to $1.15, it is still higher than the 75¢ it was the month before. That is their trick. Somehow we have to find a way to bring the companies before us an ask them to justify this. We have to look at the patterns, look at the money they are making, the profiteering that is going on, and challenge them so that we can act as a government in the best interests of our communities and the workers and the people who want to drive an economy in this country.

In terms of forestry, certainly in northern Ontario we have seen no benefit and no effect. St. Marys Paper, the paper mill in my community, just last week filed for bankruptcy protection. I dare say that in northwestern Ontario there is not a community that has not been drastically negatively affected by the way the previous Liberal government and the current government have acted on their behalf.

We are killing an industry that should not be killed. It should be viable and vital to this country. Unless we do something about it, that is the direction we are going in.

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

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to put a few thoughts on the record because I believe, and I think everyone would agree, that one of the most important things that we have responsibility for as a federal government is laying out a budget and speaking to the priorities that we see needing to be looked at, invested in for the people of our constituencies and the country and doing that in a fiscally responsible and fair way.

Members will note and people listening to this debate will note that the budget that was brought down by the Conservatives earlier this year is not that dissimilar from the budget that was initially brought down by the Liberals of the previous Parliament. The only change in that budget came when we as New Democrats found a way to wedge ourselves into the debate and make some significant changes that reflected the priority that we would bring if we were government in this place to the budgetary process to which I will speak just briefly because I have such little time.

The things we brought to the budget at that time, which were so important to people across this province, were gas tax flowing to municipalities, foreign aid, the first affordable housing project in years and investment in post-secondary education. Those things were just the beginning of the kinds of things that I believe people want the federal government to be taking a serious look at, be willing to give leadership on and to actually invest in if this country is to move forward.

We as New Democrats, wherever we have governed, are shown now, by way of a federal government financial department release, to be of the most responsible of governments, balancing our budgets 49% of the time when we have had a chance. The Conservatives have only balanced their budgets 39% of the time, while the Liberals, lagging behind, balanced their budgets only 23% of the time.

When we talk about delivering budgets that reflect the priorities of communities, families and individuals across the province, we are not talking about breaking the bank. We are talking about being very particular in terms of where we spend our money and where we make our investments. We certainly would not be going down the road of huge, mega tax breaks to corporations and individuals in this province who really do not need them and, in the long run, as has been proven over time, do not really reinvest them in things that help communities, people and workers across this province.

As I scoured my community over the last month to hear what they would like to see in a budget certainly reflected the priorities of the New Democratic caucus and the New Democratic Party. They were concerned that the money that has begun to flow by way of the NDP budget of 1985 might not continue to flow. They want the investment in affordable housing, the investment in post-secondary education and the investment in communities through the flowing of the gas tax to continue.

They also told us that they were very concerned about the cuts announced recently by the Conservative government. They said that if that were an indication of where the government was going that they would be thinking twice and working hard to ensure the Conservatives would not be returned after the next election to be the government of this country.

In my own riding, the municipalities had real concern that the gas tax that has begun to flow would continue to flow because the municipalities have been the biggest victim of the download by federal government to provincial government to municipalities over the last 10 to 15 years as the previous Liberal government tried to balance its budget on the backs of communities and on the backs of the families who live in those communities who are now expected, through their property taxes, to pay for health care, affordable housing, public health care and a number of things that previously the senior level of government, which, as everyone knows, has most of the money, used to work with them in partnership to ensure every community had those things in place and everybody who lived in those communities were allowed to live in a dignity that reflected the richness of this country.

In my community, which is a border community, the government did not support the cut in the GST rebate to tourists who come into our country.

We are living in very difficult times now with the fear of terrorism and the agenda of the American government to put in place the western hemisphere initiative, to put gunboats on our Great Lakes, to build fences and to erect towers. All of those things send the wrong message but that is under the control of the U.S. government.

However, Canada has control over things like the GST rebate. The rebate is an enticement or a little bit of a carrot for Americans who are looking at Canada as possibly a good place to have a vacation and perhaps buy a few items. The Americans now receive a rebate on their GST but the government intends to cut that.

The Chamber of Commerce in my community, which came to one of the prebudget consultations I had in my community during the constituency week, said that its number one priority when it was looking at the budget and what the government was doing in my community, which is very tourism oriented, was to stop the cut of the GST rebate. The rebate is only one of a few things that businesses have in their arsenal to compete and do well in the tourism industry.

On behalf of my Chamber of Commerce and of all of those tourism organizations across my region I would ask the government not to cut the GST rebate and to put that rebate back in place because it is important and very helpful.

The other thing that often came up as I met with constituents and had my consultations was the fact that the government does not seem to be able to do anything about the ever increasing price of gasoline. Anyone who lives in northern, remote or rural Canada will know that transportation is essential to any economy in those areas. If people need to travel everyone knows that gasoline is one of those fundamental basics that everyone has to put out for.

If the price of gasoline continues to rise and to vacillate as it does, we have no confidence that we will continue to be able to compete in a positive way in today's economy. Energy and gasoline prices are killing industry across northern and rural Canada.

The forestry industry is one example in northern Ontario that is on the ropes. Some communities are finished because the government has not been able to get its head around and work collectively on something that will bring some common sense and reality to this issue of the burgeoning price of gasoline.

If the government is not willing to regulate, it should, at the very least, put in place some vehicle that could force those companies that deliver that product that is so essential to us to justify their increases. The NDP is not against people making a profit. We know that is what makes the economy in this country run. However, when it becomes gouging and profiteering, my party has a problem.

The other issue that was raised very clearly with me by a number of groups and individuals in my community is the cuts to literacy. The government recently announced cuts to literacy programs that are so very valuable to individuals who want to participate, to communities that want their citizens to participate and to the economy. Any good economist who has looked at the question of literacy will say that an investment in literacy produces threefold down the line. When these individuals learn to read, write and use computers they can participate in the workplace in a more positive way and become better and more productive workers which makes the company more efficient.

I do not understand what the underlying value was of the government, and in fact of the previous government, when it came to budget making. If members would look at the NDP budget of 2005 it would understand what the priority is for the New Democratic caucus here in this place today.

[Canadian Wheat Board Act, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Winnipeg Centre for allowing me these few minutes to put my thoughts on the record with regard to this draconian bill that is before us here today. I want to ask the questions that farmers, who I have been talking to over the last two or three months, are asking. Why are we doing this? Why is the government heading down this road?

I met with 250 farmers in Saskatoon this summer. They were asking the same questions. I traveled across the breadth of my riding and into Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing yesterday and talked to farmers. Each one of those farmers asked the same thing because they know that once we get rid of the Wheat Board, which does not have much impact on them, next comes supply management. They are concerned about that.

They see what government has done to them over the last two or three years. The different challenges from other jurisdictions and mad cow disease has racked their industry. They want to know what the government is going to put in the place of this most important vehicle if in fact it takes it away. They want to know if it is going to be helpful because they know that the programs that are in place now are not working for them, programs such as CAIS and this new Conservative Canadian farm families options program.

Let me read into the record something that one of my farm constituents said about the Canadian farm families options program:

This program is one of the most useless programs announced by any Government. This is another example of our taxpayers' dollars being wasted which will eventually be eaten up by administration. Announcing programs such as this one misleads the general public. What is quite upsetting is that the individuals who develop these programs are also taxpayers. Receiving these letters just reminded us once again that another program will not help the farmers of the country - the backbone of society which is quickly becoming very brittle.

This same farmer and his neighbours said to Alex Atamanenko, our agriculture critic, yesterday in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma that this program was not going to work. The only programs that work for farmers, that have been proven over time to work for farmers, are vehicles like the Wheat Board and supply management, so let us keep them.

Let us protect our farmers. Let us stand shoulder to shoulder with our farmers as they take on the countries out there that have subsidized their industry to the hilt, to a point where our farmers just cannot compete anymore.

They want the Wheat Board. They want supply management. They want the government, our government, all governments to stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they put in the work that they do every day, and the investments that they make into their farms to make a go of it. The family farm in this country is a thing of the past if we do not stand up right now and defend the vehicles that are actually working for farmers and protecting their industry.

They see governments, the previous government and this government, going to international trade discussions and entering into agreements that are selling out, little by little, the vehicles that we in Canada, the farmers in Canada in partnership with some governments, have worked so hard to put in place. These are the vehicles that farmers themselves say will protect them. In fact, these vehicles, through the very difficult BSE experience that we just had in this country, have protected a number of farms that in fact have supply management agreements in place.

The other farmers out there that are on their own are trying to make it on their own. They are trying to participate in the free market that the government wants to impose upon them and they are finding it more and more difficult. They are walking away from their farms. They are going into bankruptcy. Their kids do not want to take over their farms because there is no money to be made in farming anymore where the family farm is concerned. They are saying to me, they are saying to my colleague from Winnipeg Centre, and they are saying to our critic for agriculture, Alex Atamanenko, that they want the--

[Points of Order, October 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, during question period, the Minister of Justice referred to house arrest as a joke. I want him to know that Kimberly Rogers from Sudbury and her unborn child died while under house arrest.

I am wondering if he might want to apologize to Kimberly Rogers' family for that insensitive comment.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, there is no question that we do, particularly now as we face the onslaught of the downturn in the forestry economy, some of it manipulated and helped along by the present government and its new agreement on softwood lumber.

I would like to talk for a second about the impact of the cuts made by the Liberals. I was in the NDP government in Ontario from 1990-95. We were dealing with the worst recession since the Great Depression and, not only that, we were dealing with a federal government that suddenly decided it was going to cut, over two or three years, some $25 billion out of the transfers to the provinces. We felt that very directly. We tried to manage those cuts so we would not dump on the next level of government, the municipalities, but as for the Conservative government of 1995, what I am saying here is to watch the pattern--

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, let me respond to that question by saying what this member should know. In fact, this is the kind of misinformation or lack of information that the Conservatives put out there. Yes, in fact, we did govern in some of the most difficult economic times that this country had experienced in probably 30 or 40 years and actually, it has been said, since the Great Depression. We had to make some difficult decisions.

The member will remember the social contract and the price we paid for that in trying to manage the finances of the government of that day. We put in process programs during those five years that in fact would have played out much differently from what happened under the Conservative government, with the two ministers the member mentioned in that government who serve here now and who actually did serve in cabinet in that government.

What happened following 1995 was not that the deficit went down and the debt was paid. In fact, the deficit went up because the Conservative government of that time did exactly what the government is proposing to do here, which is to give massive tax breaks and make cuts in areas where it should not be making cuts. The Conservative government actually drove up the deficit and drove up the debt of Ontario, which is what the Conservatives will do with this country before they are finished.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I also agree and appreciate the challenge.

The two members of Parliament who serve in the capacity of the Minister of Finance and President of the Treasury Board and who served in similar capacities in the Ontario legislature are the architects of this cut program by the government. It should not surprise us that it is targeted at the most vulnerable of our citizens. The first thing those two members did when they were in the Ontario government in 1995 was to cut 21.6% out of the income of everybody in Ontario on social assistance. It was dramatic. How heartless and uncompassionate is that?

Let me read a letter from one of my constituents, a student in the literacy program for adults and a member of the board of directors of the Ontario Literacy Coalition which will feel the effect directly of these cuts to literacy. Michael Shaughnessy states:

With a $13 billion surplus, to me it is very stunning that the federal government would pick this time to cut $17.7 million from adult literacy funding right across Canada. I have seen first hand the change that comes over adult learners after being in a literacy program. It seems to build up their self-esteem, and bring out an inner fire in them which we should not allow the government to extinguish.

Results of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)published by Statistics Canada tells us that 22% of adult Canadians have serious difficulty with reading, writing and math, and another 26% do not have the literacy skills we all need to participate fully in today's information-based society. In Ontario, 1.2 million adults do not have basic literacy skills and another 1.4 million are not able to read well enough to carry out daily tasks or to find and keep a job.

I was one of the 20% who can't read or write. I could not even read the word “there”, but I do have my grade 12 diploma. For whatever reason, I was pushed along and aside and was considered un-teachable. But through a literacy program, I am now at Ontario Literacy and Basic Skills Level 5 (the top adult basic literacy level). That is why I do admire people who have the inner fire to get up the courage to enroll in a literacy program. It is like climbing the biggest peak in Canada. Unlike most people who went to high school who could dream about going into college or university, I was not even able to have this dream. Although some people may fail once they are there, I didn't even have the chance to get up to bat and try to make it...

In a caring and just society, education is not a luxury;--

It is not a low hanging fruit. It is not fat to be trimmed.

--it is a right of all Canadians. This is why I am asking all of the 42% of Canadians who have literacy problems, and all other Canadians who do not have literacy challenges to stand up and say no to the cut back, and write a letter to your MP or the Prime Minister's office and say no to the cut back.

On Tuesday, the committee heard a very compelling presentation by members of the Canadian Labour Congress who came before us and said that these cuts amounted to an attempt to silence the voices of Canadians, especially those not yet able to exercise their full citizenship because of the barriers in their way. They talked about the impact on women, on immigrant groups, on workers of colour, on the disabled, on those who lack literacy skills, on people who the previous Liberal government said it would help and even at the last minute, a deathbed confession, made promises of money for this, that and the other thing.

We could not name one thing that was not in need of money in the month or two before the last election that the Liberals did not target money toward. Did that money get spent? No, it did not, which is the reason the government is now able to say that there is in fact some low hanging fruit. There is money out there, the money that was not spent by the previous Liberal government on very important programs which it has now determined were not necessary when I and my caucus know were in fact necessary.

As well, more money on top of that is necessary if we are going to support communities, families and individuals in being the best they can be, in being all that they can be, and it is necessary if we are going to support the voluntary and non-profit groups that support those efforts in communities and support their efforts to get justice served when in fact they are told they cannot have what they need.

Today I decry these cuts. I ask all hon. members in this place, particularly the Conservative members, to do everything in their power to respond to Michael and say no to these cuts.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to follow the member for Winnipeg North and her impassioned plea for the government to stop the cuts, to get back to its senses and to think about the communities and the people who will be affected very dramatically by every penny that is taken out of their budgets by way of these decisions.

I was pleased to move a motion in the standing committee on which I serve, human resources and social development, that would actually take a look at these cuts, particularly in that ministry. At the first meeting we had this past Tuesday, the most important question we asked the group that came in to talk to us about the impact was whether they had been consulted about these cuts. Members of the group said that there was no consultation, no warning and no conversation whatsoever regarding the impact on the people they serve or whether they would be able to handle this.

We still have not been able to find or to get from the government any vehicle template that it might have used to actually make these decisions.

Not even the former Conservative minister in the Mulroney government, Perrin Beatty, co-chair of the Canadian Labour and Business Centre that must close its doors after 22 years of operation, was able to see the minister or the Prime Minister regarding the cuts to the program that they are so obviously committed to and think is a good thing.

This centre is Canada's longest standing business and labour forum, the only national ongoing forum for partnership and dialogue on labour market and skills issues. The government is cutting that program at a time when the economy is rapidly changing and we are into a global reality. It cut the program and did not want to sit down and talk to the chair of that program about its impact.

Every time we ask a question here in the House or in committee, the Conservatives stand and say that they are spending millions of dollars on this, that and the other things, but the reality is that no matter what they say on how much money they claim they are spending, they are spending less. They are spending less on programs that affect very directly the most at risk and marginalized of our communities, our families. Most of these cuts are targeted at the most vulnerable people.

The government has cut $200 million out of the voluntary sector; $55 million out of youth employment, the summer employment programs; $45 million out of Canada Mortgage and Housing; $17 million out of the adult learning and literacy program; $17 million from workplace skills; $13 from the social development partnership; and $13 million from the social economic initiative. That is just a short list of a long list of programs that have been hit dramatically and which will feel very directly every penny that they lose.

However, it should not surprise us at all that the government is making these cuts. When the budget was announced last year by Mr. Flaherty, supported by his good friend from the Ontario legislature, Mr. Baird, sitting up in the gallery was Mr. Harris who was very proud to be delivering on a program that he had very effectively rolled out in Ontario.

If anyone is wondering what these cuts are about, or where they are going, or what is coming next, all they need do is look back at the record of that government in Ontario from 1995 to 2003.