Full Text: Day's Response to Throne Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise to resume debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. First, I wish to thank Her Excellency the Governor General for the class that she displayed in delivering the Speech from the Throne and for the passion with which she fulfils her duties as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen in Canada.
We were all very touched by her recent visit to the Innu children of Sheshatsui. Her Excellency travelled there on behalf of all Canadians to show our compassion toward the children of this community in crisis.
I also want to congratulate the leaders of all the other parties for the way they campaigned. I know that harsh words were sometimes spoken and that Canadians expressed their frustration at the tone used during that period. But I also know that party leaders are dedicated and determined people and that they firmly believe in what they do.
Finally, I wish to congratulate the Prime Minister on getting a new mandate from Canadians. The official opposition has a duty to ensure that the government fulfils the responsibilities it has been given by Canadians. While we sometimes disagree with the policies or administrative measures of this government, our task is made easier in knowing that the Prime Minister cares about serving the public and loves our country. [English]
I am sure everybody in the House would agree, regardless of party, that when I say our greatest desire is to help the people of the country achieve their greatest potential that that should be our goal. We want our constituents and all Canadians to be able to meet their daily needs, to reach their personal goals and to fulfil their dreams.
We hear a lot of talk about the difference between regions in the country and the difference of goals and the difference of values. I believe there is much more that joins us than divides us.
All Canadians have hope and aspirations for their future. I think we would all agree that all Canadians want good jobs that allow them to live in comfort. They want an excellent education for their children. They want health care to be available when they need it. They want a clean environment. They want safe communities and strong families. They want freedom in the pursuit of their dreams.
These are the hopes and dreams all Canadians share regardless of regions in the country. Our task in the House is to make sure that people have the freedom and the ability to achieve those hopes and dreams.
There are two basic philosophies or approaches toward government in terms of seeing a people attain their hopes and dreams.
On one side there is a strong interventionist approach that holds that the machinery of government should be intervening significantly throughout economic and social life. In helping citizens to reap the harvest of their dreams, the government chooses the field, prepares the land, selects the seed, plants the crop, drives the plough, harvests the crop and markets the produce. The people do what the state tells them and then they receive what the state gives them and are expected to be happy with the results. This is sometimes called an entitlement approach because people receive what the government tells them they are entitled to have.
The other approach says that people themselves should plant and harvest from their own field of dreams. It is individual citizens who should choose their field, sow the seeds of their own hopes and harvest the yield of their own crop of dreams. The government's role is to ensure that all are treated fairly under laws of equality and that all have an equal opportunity to work toward the dreams and receive the rewards of their own efforts. This is sometimes called an empowerment approach because people are given the tools and resources they need to pursue their goals, their hopes and their dreams.
These two approaches are not totally incompatible. All democratic societies have a blend of intervention and also freedom, entitlement and empowerment. There are genuine entitlements; the right to support seniors in the form of pensions and the right to health care for all, which we all accept. Advocates of both models believe society must show care and compassion, especially for those who cannot care for themselves.
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One of the lessons of the last century is that the philosophy of a limited form of government and intervention, one which encourages empowerment rather than one which intervenes all the time in terms of entitlement, is the one that yields the broadest possibility of people attaining their hopes and dreams.
That is the vision of the Canadian Alliance. It is a vision of empowering Canadians. Empowering Canadians means that rather than relying on politicians and bureaucrats to shape our collective future, we must instead see that people are equipped with the tools they need to build their own futures.
In reply to the Speech from the Throne I will propose those things that we believe will explain why the positive vision of the Canadian Alliance, the official opposition, can be used in the attainment of these goals.
We can empower the Canadian economy by giving individuals, entrepreneurs and business more freedom, allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money and to fulfil their own potential. We can empower Canadian community and civil society so that Canadians working together, especially at the local level, can be assured of excellent health care, a clean environment and safe streets and communities. We can accomplish those things.
We can empower Canadian democracy providing a renewed sense of citizenship and participation in the decisions of government, starting with reforms that are necessary right here in the House. This is the people's Chamber and we believe that a more democratic Canada will be a stronger and more united Canada.
Democratic empowerment, community empowerment and economic empowerment is our vision for a stronger, better and a more united Canada. We hope that we can persuade the government that the philosophy of empowerment would result in a better country than would the fading philosophy of entitlement and massive intervention.
The Speech from the Throne shows a government that has dozens and dozens of program ideas, vague promises and trial balloons. These are all well focus tested no doubt but lacking in overall depth and understanding of the very nature of the people we serve.
It was interesting in the Senate chamber yesterday as I watched the affect of promise after promise on one of the very few young people who and who had been invited by the federal Liberals. I say young people in deference to my wife who is here and also to others.
This has absolutely no reflection on Her Excellency who delivered a marvellous speech, but as the speech progressed and as promise after promise was made and laid upon the shoulders of Canadians with the ensuing cost, the face of the young person who works in the Senate became more and more pale and beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead.
This is just my assumption as to why he was suffering. He looked like a strong young man and well intended but eventually he went down on one knee under the weight I presume of what he was hearing. I had to encourage him, as did others. I said not to worry, that we could address the situation. He was helped to his feet and taken from the room somewhat refreshed.
What we want to do is take these old, tired ideas that the federal government brings to this Chamber and refresh them with the policies of empowerment that will especially see our young people stand strong and encouraged for the future which faces them.
That is the reason why we are making these proposals today and will continue to do so. The government still believes in its heart that the answer to every problem is more and bigger government, more intervention and more dominance. The government believes that it knows best and that the people of Canada cannot be relied upon to make decisions for themselves.
We believe in the people of this country. That is the big difference between us and the government. We believe they know what is best for them. We believe the role of government is to assist people not to control them.
It was in the period of state expansion in the sixties and seventies that the philosophical ideas of the Liberal Government of Canada were formed. The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister were a part of that era of dramatic government expansion and intervention. The Minister of Finance, who was not there during those times, absorbed the whole process by osmosis.
The experience of the eighties and nineties even showed the Liberals that the tax, borrow and spend policies of the sixties and seventies would eventually take us to the brink of economic disaster. For those interested in that, the truths of classical economics were rediscovered. In plain terms, these are the same truths that most households are aware of from their own budgets. What they do not have they cannot spend. Even liberals and socialists, as we look historically around the world, have been forced to rediscover the virtues of balanced budgets and, more recently, tax reductions.
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Furthermore, politically the federal government has been forced to retreat from the position of intervention and entitlement, especially in the social field, through the use of its spending power. It had to change course, not only because the federal intrusions were exacerbating federal-provincial tensions and fanning the flames of separatism in Quebec, but also because it could no longer afford that scale of intervention in the lives of its citizens.
Economic and political reality have now forced the Liberals to retreat from the kind of massive deficit spending that they indulged in during the 1970s and 1980s. What I am concerned about is that their heart has never been in it. Their heart has never been there. As we see the possibility of surpluses, I am very concerned about a return to those old ways because that is where their hearts are, massive intervention into these types of programs.
Fundamentally, Liberals believe that there is no problem so tough, no challenge so difficult and no chasm so deep that it cannot be solved with another government program. They have never understood that a less dominant state can lead to a stronger, healthier economy and a flourishing civil society.
The Liberals have never understood that a less invasive state can be accompanied by the empowerment of individual families, citizens, community groups, businesses and local governments so that they themselves can find answers together to the challenges they face.
This government asks Canadians for blind trust while showing a lack of trust in those Canadians. The government believes in itself but we believe in the wisdom, hard work and ability of the Canadian people.
I will present the vision of the Canadian Alliance, the official opposition, and those proven policy positions which will enhance the quality of life for all Canadians. First we have to look at empowering the Canadian economy. The first step toward doing that is to make sure people are equipped with the tools they need to compete in the global economy of the future and that they are provided with the incentives that reward those efforts.
The throne speech attempted to paint a rosy picture of the Canadian economy. We heard again today that the picture may not be all that rosy. There are cracks beneath the facade of economic prosperity. We think that these cracks can be managed if the right policies are in place, but it appears as though those policies will not be in place.
The United States economy, which has been the economic engine of growth substantially for Canada and other economies for the last several years, is now reporting a possibility of zero growth.
Alan Greenspan and the U.S. federal reserve have taken sharp rate cuts, again today, to stave off the economic slowdown. Mr. Greenspan recently announced U.S. growth was near zero. Canada is bound to feel the effects of this, especially in sectors where we rely on the United States, such as the automobile industry, the high-tech industry and others where we are seeing an increased number of layoffs being reported. With the threat of a slowdown, the Canadian people need a plan that will empower them and the economy to see them through these choppy seas that lay ahead.
What are the Liberals doing to empower Canadians and equipping them to face the uncertain economic times that we are now entering? They have announced some teeny tax cuts in their teeny budget but these are grudging, half-hearted, half-step measures. Their hearts are not in it. It is not enough in the short term to address the current economic uncertainty. It is not enough to ensure that the Canadian economy will start to catch up to the United States or keep us from falling further behind. We have already paid the price for that in a declining standard of living relative to other countries. Our standard of living, as measured by real disposable income per capita, has actually declined from 70% of the U.S. average in 1990 to just over 63% in the year 2000.
The then Royal Bank's chief economist, now the member for Markham, commenting on the Canadian performance in the 1990s, used the Latin words decennium horribilis, roughly translated as being lousy Liberal politics.
In a survey of the 25 wealthiest OECD countries, Canada's growth and standard of living ranked a terrible 24th over the decade from 1988 to 1998. Do we still enjoy good living in Canada? Of course we do, but in which direction is it headed? We must be consumed with that question.
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Ireland was actually number one and has moved from having only half of Canada's per capita income to almost the same level in a mere 10 years. Think about that. Ireland has doubled its standard of living in a decade while Canada has been standing still.
The Canadian economy is growing slightly now but it is falling behind many of our trading partners. These realities must be recognized.
I have hope and optimism that these trends can be corrected but not on the plans and proposals offered to us by the government. If Canada does not catch up and overtake the productivity growth in the other countries, it will find itself continuing to fall behind.
What is worse is that the gap between the United States and Canada will grow and not shrink over the next few years. With the Bush administration in the United States it is very clear that it is going to aggressively pursue tax reductions and debt reductions.
Alan Greenspan has also given the nod of approval and stated that is a prudent way to go. The gap will only increase in terms of competition and in terms of potential reward for people deciding where they are to put their investment dollars and where they should be working themselves.
The proposals, which now seem on their way to implementation in the United States, echo the proposals of the official opposition. As a matter of fact the official opposition proposals were in place even before those of the Bush administration. It must have been reading our manual somewhere along the way.
The Canadian Alliance calls for significant tax cuts and tax and debt reductions. We want to empower Canadians by leaving them not just more of their hard earned money but with the hope for investment and opportunity in the future.
The plan, if it is fully implemented, would save Canadians $130 billion dollars over the next five years. It would reduce income tax rates to 17% for 97% of all Canadians within the first four years, and 100% of all Canadians, in a second mandate, would be enjoying a single rate of 17% on our approach.
Large personal exemptions of $10,000 per person and $3,000 per child would also help Canadians. We are asking that those be implemented as well. Let the Liberals take the credit and let the families benefit, especially lower income Canadians and families.
Our burden of income taxes as a percentage of GDP would drop from over 14%. That is the highest rate in the G7 countries, which is not something to be proud of.
The Liberals complained that our program was too large and too radical but then they turned around and implemented their own pale copy of our program.
An interesting comment that someone passed on to me comes from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. He once said that all truth passes through three stages: first, it is ridicule; second, it is opposed; and third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
That has been the Liberals' approach to the Canadian Alliance call for tax cuts and other proposals. First they say it is crazy, then they say it is dangerous and finally they do it themselves. However, while the Liberals stole some of our program, we begged them to steal more of it for the good of all Canadians.
We need these bold tax cuts to keep Canada competitive, not half measures. Not only are the government's tax cuts half measures, its plan is only half-baked. Its implementation is too slow, in fact only half fast.
The Liberal mini cuts will still leave Canada with the highest income tax to GDP ratio in the G7, even while the U.S. is dramatically lowering its tax burden. We need to give hard working Canadians, businesses and entrepreneurs the same kinds of incentives and rewards that they could be achieving elsewhere or they will be lured to those other places.
We believe that if Canadian businesses and workers are allowed to harness their own dreams and visions, the country will benefit as a whole. The most important vision for the country is that of the Canadian people themselves and not the tax and spend fantasies of the Liberal government.
That is why the official opposition believes that the Minister of Finance should table a new budget in the spring, rather than wait a full year after the election. We are disappointed that the Speech from the Throne did not commit the government to an earlier budget. It must bring one down.
Canadians must be updated on the cost of the government's election promises. Today when I asked what those costs were, there was no response. The government does not even know and yet economic times are changing.
The government must reassure markets in this time of economic uncertainty and it must take measures to help Canada be competitive with our trading partners.
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The Canadian Alliance urges the Minister of Finance to table an early budget to continue the necessary work of tax reduction, debt reduction, and seeing revenues come in to support our social programs. The key changes are lowering the marginal rates, expanding exemptions for individuals and families, reducing corporate income tax and reducing capital gains tax. These will enhance Canada's competitive position.
Increased productivity will lead to increased revenues, and this is an area where the Liberals cannot connect the dots, so that the federal government can continue to provide the quality of health care and social services that the people of Canada rely on. [Translation]
Such changes -- reducing the maximum marginal rate, providing exemptions to all taxpayers, reducing corporate tax rates and taxes on capital gains and improving Canada's competitiveness -- will ensure that we do not suffer from the more aggressive economic measures taken in the United States. Increased productivity will result in greater revenues, which will allow the federal government to continue to offer the health care and social services that Canadians need. [English]
If these steps are not taken, the Canadian dollar will continue to go down and Canadian businesses which are attractive because of the hard work of Canadians will increasingly be purchased by Americans. That will then cause a rise in the concern from the Liberals to bring in foreign investment restrictions. All of these things will lead to a wrong conclusion.
We have seen today, announced only a couple of hours ago, the purchase of a dearly beloved team, Les Canadiens. The Montreal Canadians have been purchased by an American business. The key reasons the Americans were able to purchase the team were indicated: high taxes which inhibited Canadians from buying it, a low Canadian dollar and the U.S. salaries. That is an indicator of what is happening. The Liberals continue to allow Canadian business to be underpriced and purchased by American business.
Tax cuts and debt reduction are a crucial first step to empowering the Canadian economy and perhaps the most single important contributor to our competitive position, but they are not the only answer. A strong system of education and training, good industrial and transportation infrastructure, and support for research and development are essential components for future economic growth. The Canadian Alliance recognizes that. The government, however, claims it cannot lower taxes too much because it needs the increased revenues to allow for government investments in the economy.
The government still does not get it. It does not understand that reducing taxes and debt and investing in needed economic and social infrastructure are complementary goals. By reducing taxes, reducing the debt, invigorating the economy and increasing revenues, it is with an invigorated type of fiscal position that we can support the social programs Canadians want. That is the approach that must be taken.
Too often when the government makes public investments, the investments take the form of creating new entitlement programs, such as subsidies which dispense grants and loans to favoured industries from favoured regions of the country or programs which maximize the visibility of the federal government and its bronze plaques without maximizing economic efficiency.
We welcome the throne speech commitment to doubling R and D and to strengthen universities and government labs, but the emphasis here should be investment in basic scientific research through such programs as Canada's research granting councils and the National Research Council rather than the government trying to second guess industry about which applied technologies or new products to pursue through industrial subsidies. That is not the most effective way of approaching it.
Investing in basic R and D and science is not a frill. It is essential and we recognize that. It is essential for building a better economy and a better society. As a matter of fact, to put it in terms that the government may understand, it is reported that when the great British Prime Minister Sir William Gladstone met Michael Faraday, the inventor of the electric dynamo, he asked him whether electricity would ever be of any use, to which Faraday replied ``Yes, sir. One day you will be able to tax it''.
We are trying to help the government connect the dots on economic growth. We will call on the government to increase its investment in infrastructure, in particular the rebuilding of the crumbling highway system.
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Technological infrastructure is necessary. The national fibre optic backbone network needs to be looked at. Canadians from coast to coast are also demanding a serious upgrade of the Trans-Canada Highway. The Liberals have promised that. Where are the specifics on that?
We will call on the government to increase its contribution to post-secondary education through the CHST and by encouraging greater information sharing and co-operation among colleges, universities and provinces, not by coming up with new programs that duplicate what is happening in the provinces and waste dollars that could and should be going to students.
Industrial subsidies through Technology Partnerships Canada or the Export Development Corporation must be phased out and eliminated. As John Roth of Nortel has said, Canadian business must learn to stand on its own two feet. We can help it do that with proper tax policies.
The energy and creativity of Canadian business should not be diverted into the game of seeking subsidies and grants from government. It should be assisted through low taxes, a skilled workforce, an excellent public infrastructure, and people who are empowered and equipped to take on the world. That is the path to sustainable economic growth.
We also need to look at empowering our communities and building a stronger society. Economic growth, jobs and wealth are not the only things that point to health in a society. There are many measures of social progress that cannot be built into the GDP. As well as a strong economy we must ensure a strong society.
Empowering Canadians means empowering Canadian communities and civil society. We must ensure we have quality health care that is second to none. We must ensure that our children are nurtured in strong families and educated in excellent schools. We must ensure that our seniors have dignity in their retirement years. We must ensure that our streets and communities are safe.
The Liberals too often see the balance between a strong economy and a strong society as a trade off. The two are complementary. They believe that more government taxation and regulation of the economy are necessary to provide the types of programs that lead to strong communities, but we believe a free and prosperous economy goes hand in hand with a stronger society and stronger communities.
Invasive, dominating, centralized government programs do not create a strong society. However, government can empower and equip citizens, families, charities, community groups and others at the local level who are themselves the foundation of a strong and flourishing civil society.
Let us apply the philosophy of empowerment to our communities and to programs like the national health care system. There is a lot of ongoing debate today about Canada's public medical system after years of cutbacks and neglect from the federal Liberals.
As Dr. Peter Barrett of the Canadian Medical Association stated, the serious problems facing medicare today can be labelled a health care crisis. For patients awaiting health services it is a personal crisis. He goes on to say that doctors and nurses on the frontline know it is a crisis.
The waiting lists continue and have increased dramatically under this government. Average wait times between seeing a general practitioner and receiving treatment have increased from 9.3 weeks in 1993 to 14 weeks in 1999. This has severe consequences.
Canada continues to lose doctors and nurses to the United States. Eighteen doctors leave permanently for the United States for every one doctor who comes north.
Canada rates 23 out of 29 in the OECD when it comes to doctors per capita. That is not acceptable. We are far behind many OECD countries in terms of providing access to medical technologies. Yet with all of these difficulties, the Liberal government refuses to consider genuine reforms to our system of health care.
The Canadian Alliance, the official opposition, is firmly and fully committed to a publicly insured health care system that respects the five principles of the Canada Health Act. Let us be very clear on that.
Let us also be clear that the Canadian Alliance, the official opposition, is committed to preserving, maintaining and strengthening the Canadian health care system within the letter and spirit of the Canada Health Act. Indeed we believe there should be a sixth principle added to the Canada Health Act: the principle of stable funding.
The federal government should increase funding to the provinces for this fiscal year to bring the 2001 federal contribution to medicare through the CHST back to the level of 1995, before it ripped it away from the provinces. We also need to guarantee that level of funding for the next five years. However money is not the only answer. There must be true reform to the system.
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Over the next few months we will be consulting with doctors, nurses, patients, practitioners and citizens to find new approaches to health care. We need to encourage creativity and innovation. We need to listen to what is happening and bring forward the types of reforms that will truly strengthen our system.
As we do this, we need to respect the positions that are being articulated and not mischaracterize the positions of others. We will debate them fairly and show why they are faulty. We cannot have a clear and open discussion on this issue when people resort to the type of name that knock people off the desire to have a debate.
We want to see the health care system improved and maintained under the five principles of the health care act. We believe our approach would allow Canada to develop the best system in the world. That is not the case now. It can be with the proposals that we look forward to.
The same philosophy of empowerment should be applied to other areas of the Canadian social union. Empowering Canadians means empowering our aboriginal communities.
In its throne speech the government devoted much attention, and rightly so, to the problems faced by aboriginal Canadians. With a growing younger population but continuing chronic poverty, the situation of Canada's aboriginal communities must be addressed.
I am willing to admit that the government has proposed a few positive initiatives. The promise to introduce more democratic accountability to band governments is a crucial step and one that we have been advocating for years. We will of course support that.
We will examine carefully the legislation that the government brings forward. We will consult with aboriginal Canadians and offer positive suggestions on how to ensure accountability.
Many of the government's proposals will only deepen its culture of invasiveness and shackle aboriginal Canadians to the cycle of dependency that has led to many of the problems they are dealing with. Most aboriginals see the Indian Act as archaic and destructive, yet the government continues to cling to it. Why?
Canada's aboriginal communities need to be empowered to solve their own problems and drive economic growth in their own communities while knowing that existing treaty rights will be respected. That is a key point that we must say over and over again.
It is crucial that both local bands and status Indians be able to choose to participate in the free market economy on an equal footing with other Canadians. Bands should be able to buy and sell property. Individual aboriginal families should be able to enjoy the dignity of home ownership, if that is their wish, the same as other Canadians.
The government can certainly play a role in helping aboriginal economic development get started, but programs need to be designed with autonomy and self-sustainability as the goal.
That is the approach that will work, not the one of massive intervention and invasiveness that the Liberals have pursued for too many years, even while the present Prime Minister was the minister of that particular department. We need to be doing this.
The throne speech also discussed the government's ongoing children's agenda. Nothing could be more important than our children and their healthy development.
Again we have to question whether the federal government is the best placed institution to judge children's needs or whether the answer lies in empowering and equipping Canadian families to make their own choices in their children's best interests.
That is why we favour a universal per child tax credit, so families can make their own choices rather than an interventionist, one size fits all child care program.
That is why we favour equalizing the personal and spousal exemptions, to end discrimination between one income and two income families. It is time we began treating all family decisions respectfully and equally.
We support the existing child tax credit to help lower income families with children. Indeed, it is a far better approach to getting children out of poverty than the subsidized approach of one size fits all that the Liberal government continues to invade us with.
We must also pay attention to the root causes of child poverty. We salute the throne speech's acknowledgement of both this and the effort and support that need to go to single parents who are raising children, many times in difficult circumstances.
We must acknowledge that a significant factor in predicting child poverty is the issue of fatherlessness. We must not be afraid to discuss that. We need to look at this and other family issues with compassion, not finger pointing, and look to enhancing the factors which truly strengthen family bonds.
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We also need to look carefully at our tax laws, divorce laws and social programs, which may have contributed perhaps inadvertently to weakening family bonds, and at what factors strengthen those bonds.
We applaud the commitment in the throne speech to modernize child support, custody and access laws. We hope the government will be guided by the parliamentary joint committee report on child custody and access, which had many useful recommendations including how to keep both parents involved in the welfare of their children even after a marriage or a relationship has broken down.
Government must help strengthen the position of families through increased parental choice in child care, strengthening the position of families in our tax code, and recognizing the value of families in law. These are positions of the Canadian Alliance, the official opposition.
Empowering Canadians also means empowering groups of citizens through voluntary and charitable organizations at the local level to meet their social needs. Charities, whether they are faith based groups such as Catholic Social Services or community based groups, need more financial support from the federal government but not federal invasiveness.
We need to examine new legislation to support charities to replace the arcane common law rules that govern them which have have led to perverse results in many instances such as community music groups being denied charitable status while terrorist fronts receive it. We need to take a common sense look at these.
Charitable groups of all types have done much to educate children, care for the sick, feed and clothe the poor. The contributions of all such groups should be recognized and encouraged.
Although faith based institutions make up nearly half of all registered societies in Canada, they had virtually no input into the Prime Minister's task force on the voluntary sector. That was an oversight.
We have seen the federal government, in an interesting situation, name churches as co-defendants in lawsuits against the federal government for its treatment of native children under its care. The government must look at these lawsuits which threaten the survival of entire denominations that have done and continue to do much to meet the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of Canadians.
We must acknowledge wrongdoings that have happened. We are absolutely committed to that. We must ensure that justice is done in relation to those wrongdoings. Surely that can be done without eliminating entire organizations which have had a long history of helping and strengthening our communities.
Empowering Canadians, individuals and groups is what we need to be doing. That will ensure communities are safe from the threat of crime and violence.
Over the past seven years the government has adopted the rhetoric of getting tough on crime and on the causes of crime. However too often the government has put the rights of accused criminals above the rights of victims and has ignored police and local communities. Canadians are saying it is time to change that focus.
For seven years we looked forward expectantly and heard promises to reform the Young Offenders Act. Let us get to work on this. Let us acknowledge that citizens need protection from serious, repeat offenders and that we need to apply preventive and caring approaches to young people who are at risk of becoming serious offenders.
Even in the past week the Supreme Court of Canada, while upholding the essence of Canada's law against the possession of child pornography, has read in certain exceptions to the law that three of the justices fear may cause harm to children and hamper the prosecution of these cases.
The government acted too slowly in the Sharpe matter, the B.C. decision. It failed in its responsibility to maintain the law while the case worked its way through the courts and caused many prosecutions to be abandoned.
It is now the government's responsibility, and ours with it, to ensure that these supposedly minor exceptions do not provide loopholes for those who would exploit our children and steal their innocence.
Empowering Canadians means preserving the natural environment, the environment that we depend on for our resources, our economy and the health of our communities.
We encourage responsible measures to protect the environment and work co-operatively with the provincial and municipal agencies and governments that are closest to the challenges.
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We understand that the government intends to bring forward a new endangered species bill in this session. There have been hints that the legislation may be improved to address the valid concerns of rural Canadians regarding fair compensation. The Minister of the Environment claims to have learned from the abysmal implementation of Bill C-68 how crucial and how important it is to work with rural Canadians and not try to criminalize their traditional ways of life.
We will examine the new bill with interest. We will consult with Canadians. We want to preserve the diversity of Canada's natural species and balance that with the needs of local communities in the areas most affected.
We must also empower Canadian farmers and rural Canadians in resource dependent communities. The federal government has not only ignored the voice of rural Canadians when it comes to firearms control and balancing the preservation of natural species, but it has also ignored the entire area of agriculture and natural resource management. After seven years the government has failed to help struggling farm families during the ongoing farm crisis. We meet those families every day.
AIDA help was supposed to be delivered two years ago but only 50% of that money has been distributed. Fifty per cent of claims from 1999 remains unprocessed while family farms move into bankruptcy. Farmers need immediate assistance. This promised money must go to farmers before the next spring seeding. They need the help now.
We will continue to work with farmers and the agricultural community to aggressively push the government to move toward ensuring that farmers get the help they need and that farm families are not driven from their lands.
The root causes of the farm income crisis must also be addressed. Foreign subsidies must be aggressively negotiated downward. Where is the federal government on this particular process? Red tape and bureaucracy must be cut and federal assistance programs must be redesigned so that they meet the needs of the farmers rather than support bureaucracy.
Governments need to look at farmers' input costs, which are burdened with fees and high taxes on everything they buy and with skyrocketing fuel costs. Why does the federal government refuse to lower some of its own fees and charges to the agricultural community? This must be done.
We have seen in the recent unjustified blockade of Prince Edward Island potatoes how the government has failed farmers and has failed to maintain good relationships with our largest trading partner, the United States. Not only did the government fail to negotiate a timely solution to the P.E.I. dispute, the minister of agriculture was absent at critical times during the negotiations. Even though Canadian officials demonstrated that there was no scientific merit to any blockade of those P.E.I. potatoes, the government has been unable to negotiate a solution.
Time and again the government has failed to get results in reducing international subsidies, which are now choking our farmers. Results can be obtained but we need to be tough and we need to use the leverage available to us in the negotiating process. In fact our farmers are being forced to compete against foreign subsidies that have actually risen in the last few years. Where is the federal government in terms of protecting our farmers?
The government must be more aggressive in pursuing these subsidies. For example, the collective buying power of free trading nations should and could be used to push the protectionist countries back to the bargaining table. Where is the government in terms of trying to organize that? As I visit farmers from coast to coast, too many have told me that they do not know if they can survive the winter.
Let us have no more Liberal excuses. It is time for action: reduce costs, reduce foreign subsidies and set Canadian farmers free to feed the world as we know they can do. That is what empowering Canadian agriculture means for Canadian farmers.
A similar problem confronts us in a resource based industry crucial to the livelihood of rural Canadians with the ongoing softwood lumber dispute with the United States. The government knows that on March 31 the existing softwood lumber agreement with the United States will expire. We are hearing reports that the government is not on this issue and that it is not moving rapidly to make sure our concerns are on the table.
People paid more for homes, furniture and other goods because of this flawed agreement, but provincial governments and industries still have not seen a clear strategy from the federal government on this. Where is the government?
These ongoing disputes over agriculture and lumber show how important Canada's relations really are with our strongest ally and our largest trading partner, the United States. We need to have good relations. We need to be strong negotiators but we need to have positive relations.
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The government over the past seven years seems to have taken more pleasure in tweaking the nose of our trading partner, whether by appearing to favour the Castro regime in Cuba or simplistically opposing the American position on various international treaties or most recently avoiding the discussion of a proposed continental anti-ballistic missile defence shield.
Incredibly the Minister of Foreign Affairs, at his recent meeting with the U.S. secretary of state, said Canada would approve of this defence system if it could convince the Russians and Chinese to agree first.
The House of Commons needs to be empowered in a non-partisan way to discuss foreign policy with all facts available and with input from our constituents duly on the table. Issues such as the terrorist threat from rogue nations are too important to be decided on the political whims of the Prime Minister's office. These are important issues for Canadians. They must be discussed here in the Chamber.
There is no mention in the throne speech of the need to increase support for our armed forces nor to modernize their equipment. We are losing our influence in NATO and other international organizations because we have reduced our support for our armed forces. They are not properly equipped when we send them to foreign fields and sometimes we cannot effectively bring them home from those fields. That has to change.
How seriously do we think American trade negotiators will be told to take Canadian concerns, if they know that Canada is not pulling its weight in our collective defence and may be out to embarrass the United States diplomatically at the next international meeting? These issues are tied together.
We need to take a tough position with the United States but one that signals that we recognize they are actually an ally. We must work together, tough for Canadian interests but recognize the greater diplomatic realities. Canada needs to develop a mature relationship with the United States based on trust and mutual understanding.
I hope that the partisan position of the government toward the new administration has not handicapped this relationship and therefore diminished our chances of success as we negotiate everything from farm subsidies to softwood lumber to environmental accords.
Yes, it was good to see in the Speech from the Throne an acknowledgement of freer trade with the Americas. We will support that. However, after the photo ops are over Canada must aggressively pursue getting a trade deal that meets the interests of Canadian workers, farmers, businesses and consumers.
We need to look at the possibilities of trade expansion, including the United Kingdom and our possible linkages with NAFTA. Empowering Canadians means taking a responsible approach on the world stage that puts a clear priority on the security and interests of Canadians.
Empowering Canadians above all else means empowering Canadian citizens to play a more active role in governing their country. Perhaps the area where the government has most failed to empower Canadians is in failing to empower its elected representatives, whether they are MPs elected federally who are routinely ignored by an all powerful executive branch run out of the Prime Minister's office or at other levels of government whose constitutional authority is routinely usurped by the federal government.
Respecting, not rejecting, the elected members of parliament sent to Ottawa by Canadians, and respecting the jurisdiction of provincial governments that have democratic mandates no less legitimate than those of the House, is in fact respecting and empowering Canadian people.
We know that many of the members in the last House, even on the government side, felt frustrated. They told us these things. They were unable to properly represent their constituents as legislators. Liberal MPs have regularly been forced to vote against their will and the will of their constituents on issues ranging from gun control to hepatitis C compensation to high taxes on gasoline.
In the last election it was fascinating to go into those MPs constituencies and hear them scrambling to speak on behalf of their constituents instead of the Prime Minister's office. When members of parliament are not treated with respect then the Canadian people who sent them there are not being treated with respect. Citizens feel that disrespect and that contributes to a sense of alienation.
The government mentioned parliamentary reform in the throne speech. My heart skipped a beat and hope increased when I heard about voting procedures and increased reform in the House of Commons. It said it would accomplish that by increasing resources to the parliamentary library.
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I love taking guests to the library. It is a fabulous resource and the people who work there are to be acknowledged. However, that is going to do nothing to increase the free voting that can happen in this particular assembly.
We intend to make these issues in this session and democratic reform will be one of the central issues in this parliament.
You understand, Mr. Speaker, the importance of this and the tradition of the Chamber. All members have a responsibility to foster and pursue that ideal. We in the official opposition pledge ourselves to the task.
I would say to the Prime Minister that I believe he has the right to look for a legacy. I believe that in all sincerity. I believe one day that there will be a legacy of a building that will crumble, a highway that will become potholed or a mountain top that may blow its stack.
The Prime Minister has served with distinction and he deserves a more fitting legacy. What greater legacy to leave for this century than an opening of parliamentary freedom, the freedom of his own MPs to vote. What a legacy for him to leave. Unless he changes history will record that parliament was used to rubber stamp plans drawn up in the back rooms of his office, rather than the plans that came from the living rooms of the Canadian people.
The Canadian Alliance has proposed constructive alternatives to make the House work better. We have grouped them in a package that we call ``Building Trust''. We have made 12 concrete suggestions, 12 simple steps that would free members of parliament to represent their constituents. It is a 12 step program for those who are addicted to power. It will require politicians to put their trust in the hands of a power higher than themselves and that power is the Canadian people.
We will be advancing those causes. We will also be advancing the cause and joining with the Liberals in their promise of 1993 that the office of the ethics counsellor be transformed into a truly independent ethics commissioner's office, reporting directly to parliament. We are going to support them on that. We know there is going to be great movement there.
These measures and others contained in our proposals called ``Building Trust'' will go a long way to reducing the alienation that Canadians feel.
Alienation is not just a regional phenomenon. The deepest alienation of all is between government and a disaffected Canadian people. Voter turnout in the last federal election fell to an all time low, near 61%. Almost two in every five eligible Canadian voters said none of the above. This is not something any of us can be proud of. It is something that all parties should work to address. We can do this by empowering members of parliament to truly represent their constituents. That would allow Canadians to feel empowered.
I was born in Ontario and was raised in Montreal. I lived and worked in the maritimes, British Columbia, Alberta and the Arctic. I love Canada. I see, I understand and I know that the yearning in the hearts of Canadians in these areas are similar from coast to coast. These are elements of Canadian unity.
Some people in Quebec and a few other regions say that Canada does not work and that we should give up on the federal approach. I will never give up on this country. If Canada is not working as well as it should, then it is our job to make it work, to put aside the partisan differences, to give up those corridors of power and allow Canadian citizens to be empowered to make this country everything it can be.
The Prime Minister was challenged again today on the fact that he spends more time in the United States than he does in western Canada. I am willing to take him at his word when he says he wants to see relations improve with western Canada.
There have been recent proposals in western Canada from a group of prominent citizens who have acknowledged that improvements can be made in the standard of life for Canadians. We are not talking about massive devolution of power. This is how the Prime Minister tries to avoid a discussion on balancing constitutional provisions between the provinces and the federal government.
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I hesitate to do this because I really do not want his popularity to go up, but I am willing to suggest that the Prime Minister reach out to western Canada. The next time there is an opportunity for a Senate appointment, appoint a senator from the province of Alberta. It has already elected its senators in waiting. If he does that, he could once again dare to venture into places like Calgary, Edmonton, Cochrane and Fort McMurray and he would be received happily there.
It is time we turned the page on the entitlement approach to government programs and the desire of the government to leave greater and greater levels of spending as its only legacy. It is time we turned the page. It is time to empower Canadians socially to be able to handle their local challenges. It is time to empower Canadians democratically. It is time to empower us economically.
We can do these things. Hope runs eternal. I have hope and a sense of optimism that we do not have to wait until the next election. We have already talked to some MPs from across the floor who have said they are interested in empowering Canadians. I am sure they will agree that the motions we are bringing forward will empower all Canadians. I have great optimism that can happen.
In the meantime, although the government has identified some positive initiatives that we can support, it has failed to provided us with an empowering vision for Canadians in its Speech from the Throne.
Therefore, reluctantly I move that the motion be amended by adding:
And this House regrets to inform Your Excellency that although there are a few initiatives in the Speech from the Throne worthy of support, your advisors have not provided the leadership Canadians deserve from a new government by their failure to commit to real tax relief, fair criminal justice reform, stabilizing social programs, empowering Members of Parliament to vote freely on behalf of their constituents, fighting for the family farm and failing to embark on a new era of respect and co-operation with the provinces.
We look forward to seeing Canada truly empowered and Canadians becoming everything they can be within their fields of dreams.
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