Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, what I was trying to say was that all the economists are saying X, and only the Bloc is saying Y. That being the case, the only reason to believe the Bloc Quebecois would be if the member for Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot were the most brilliant economist in the country.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, let me say that I am new to this profession. In my previous life I was used to debating budgets and economic matters in the banking and university worlds. Generally we had debates of substance and we did not go back and forth telling each other that our statistics we

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief because the hon. member has said nothing of substance. Yes, it is $100 billion over five years. I have said myself that it is $17 billion this year. We are not hiding that. It is a fact. By the way, $17 billion is a lot of money. It is the bigges

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, as a general proposition what the government has done is appropriate. The main beneficiaries of increased air safety are indeed the users of the flights and they will benefit from the additional security. The additional charge in general is not out of line with the A

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Quebecois members seem to be getting a bit worked up. I never said that separatists were the only ones asking for tax points. It is a fact that the present government of Quebec is a separatist government. As for the measures allowing SMBs to pay six months

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Quebecois and the separatists are making two mistakes. First, they are asking for tax points in a totally illogical fashion. Second, it is not in the interests of Quebecers to have cash transfers converted into tax points. Unfortunately, it is true that the

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, with regard to the member's first question, $1.2 billion over five years is not peanuts. The Minister of National Defence expressed his satisfaction with the budget. On the second point, it is nothing new for expenditures to be financed by taxation. All of our expen

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question. Since I lived in Montreal for the better part of my life, I can say that there are serious traffic problems in that city. While the situation may not be as bad as that of Toronto, it is clear that Montreal and other major cit

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, this is an excellent report. The member opposite is getting all excited. It is a well crafted report. He totally misses the point. There are two critical chapters. Chapter II, “Seeing Through the Storm: Holding Course on the Productivity Agenda”, deals with the shor

Ways and Means  Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 83(1) I wish to table a notice of a ways and means motion respecting an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in parliament on December 10, 2001, and I ask that an order of the day be designated to debate the motion.

Ways and Means  moved that a ways and means motion to implement certain provisions of the budget, tabled in parliament on December 10, 2001, be concurred in.

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency  Mr. Speaker, the facts of the matter are clear. The error has been discovered, but we do not have all the information going back to 1972. That information is in the process of being collected. At the appropriate moment the government will have conversations with the provinces an

Budget Implementation Act, 2001  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-49, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in parliament on December 10, 2001. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Budget Implementation Act, 2001  Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity today to present Bill C-49, the Budget Implementation Act, 2001 for second reading. This bill would implement many of the measures announced in the 2001 budget. I would like to begin by giving an overview of the 2001 budget, which will set

Airline Industry  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately the hon. member across the Chamber does not understand the facts. The fact of the matter is the government has guaranteed that over the course of the five year program this will not be a revenue enhancing measure at all. Indeed, the legislation now befo