Auditor General Act  Also, other speakers have referred to the sponsorship scandal, which is in the order of $250 million. On the one hand, we have seen the mismanagement of funds from hard-working Canadian taxpayers across the country, funds that are being paid to the federal government in order to ensure that we build a better quality of life for all of us. On the other hand, we are seeing a situation in my area, for example, where homelessness has tripled.

Justice  Can the Minister of Justice explain to Canadians why he believes judges deserve pay raises so far beyond that of other hard-working Canadians?

Committees of the House  I also saw bulletin boards with pictures of picnics and celebrations of these workers and a corkboard with hundreds of pins identifying the locations of the different countries from which these hard working Canadians came from. The most visually impacting thing that I saw was the people themselves and a management team which showed deep concern for its people. I saw an owner who was gravely worried, not only for his own future but for the workers that he had come to know.

Budget Implementation Act, 2003  In other words, Liberals simply do not get it. They believe in sucking every last penny they can from the pockets of hard-working Canadians. They believe in taxing the taxes that Canadians already pay. It is the Liberal way: take as much as one can get and do not worry if it creates hardship for lower income Canadians.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Accountability is understanding that this is real money we are talking about, money from hard-working Canadians. Imagine the positive effect it would have if it were spent on real priorities. Sadly, Canadians today see their government subject to numerous investigations: the political investigations of the public accounts committee; the criminal investigations, numerous ones, of the RCMP; and the legal investigations of the Gomery inquiry.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  I am encouraged by the steps taken by the government to ensure openness and transparency in the decision making process. Hard-working Canadians deserve to know where and how their money is being spent. I want to congratulate the Prime Minister, all premiers, all ministers of health, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, the Minister of Finance and all who participated in those great discussions.

Agriculture  The government obviously needs a quick and valuable lesson in geography. Contrary to Liberal beliefs, there is life in rural Canada. There are hard-working Canadians who do live north of highway 401 in Ontario and outside the boundaries of our large cities. There is also a perception by the government that the BSE crisis is an Alberta or a western problem.

Employment Insurance  The former finance minister has said that he is running to become Prime Minister because he wants to bring integrity back to government. Well, his idea of integrity has been to balance the books on the backs of hard-working Canadians who pay inflated EI premiums. Since the current finance minister is running against his old rival, will he undo the damage of the past 10 years to hard-working Canadians and immediately slash EI premiums?

Income Tax Act  The sympathy I have is that I think there is a need for lower taxes in the country, lower taxes for a lot of Canadians, for hard working Canadian families. I also have some sympathy for her ideas that copyright and patent law need to be protected. We are in agreement with that. Intellectual property is an important part of property.

The Budget  There are two things I would like to say regarding the deficit. First, it was not the government that eliminated the deficit, but hard working Canadian taxpayers. That is something that Liberal members should remember. It is not their own money they are spending, it is Canadian taxpayers' money. They forget that when they brag about how much extra money they are taking from the pockets of hard working Canadians so they can run these surpluses.

Canada Elections Act  It is simply unnecessary paperwork and exposes, through publication, the names of donors to solicitors and fundraisers of all kinds, something they should not have to face. I repeat, the real problem is that by strong-arming hard-working Canadians into paying for political parties, the bill will over time distance an already apathetic public from engaging in the political system and our democratic framework will suffer as a consequence.

Income Tax Act  In 2002 alone, forestry exports contributed more than $32 billion to our economy and our trade surplus. Today more than 350,000 hard-working Canadians are directly employed in this sector. The core of the bill would give a special package of tax benefits to a narrow group of employees. It is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we uphold the basic principles of fairness and even-handedness in public policy matters and in taxation matters.

Supply  Given that not all of them are employed or are of working age, I feel confident in saying that the government wasted every single tax dollar it collected, or as one constituent said, stole, from the residents of my riding. Some 12,000 hard-working Canadians have been stiffed by this corrupt government. I bet they cannot wait to let the Liberals know what they think of them in the next election. My constituents are demanding overall accountability and an end to government waste.

Supply  Summing up her report, Sheila Fraser said that we needed to ask two important questions. Who authorized the payments and who benefited? We know who did not benefit: hard-working Canadians who every year, in trust, send their hard-earned taxpayer money to Ottawa for distribution to programs from which they should benefit. We know well connected Liberals assured the funnelling of taxpayer dollars to Liberal-friendly ad firms, and I would say that Canadians know the reason why.

Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act  I am optimistic that if my colleagues from all parties are free to vote their conscience on the bill, they will do the right thing and put the interests of hard-working Canadians first, ahead of the banks and other secured creditors. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)