Mr. Gus Mitges (Grey-Simcoe):

Mr. Speaker, many concerned citizens in my riding of Grey-Simcoe and surrounding area have brought to my attention the Bell Canada proposal which would change the billing procedure now in force to a system whereby the customer will be charged for individually made telephone calls. It has been correctly pointed out that this would create undue hardship for seniors, the handicapped, low-income families on fixed income, and those who rely heavily on the telephone as their main source of communication.

As well, seniors and handicapped persons often have to order medicines, groceries, et cetera, by telephone, when no transportation is available. They have to consult and report to their physicians more often than others, and the cost of individual calls would be astronomical.

This would cause extra monetary worries for those who can ill afford the extra cost, and would result in a loss of community involvement to seniors and others who have continued to keep involved in church groups, service clubs and so on, by telephone.

Therefore I call upon the Government to exercise every possible influence on Bell Canada not to proceed with such a proposal which would prove very detrimental to all Canadians.

Mr. Bill Clarke (Vancouver Quadra):

Mr. Speaker, for years there have been discrepancies in the income tax treatment of musicians who are members of Canada's symphony orchestras. Some are treated as employees and are thus denied deduction of expenses and capital cost allowance, while others are considered to be self-employed and are allowed proper deductions in arriving at net income for tax purposes.

Even though the Subcommittee on the Taxation of Visual and Performing Artists and Writers was considering this very subject and has since recommended amendments to the Income Tax Act to allow deduction of expenses incurred by symphony musicians, the Minister, in the meantime, changed the treatment for Toronto Symphony members, leaving only the Vancouver Symphony members as employees denied deduction of expenses.

The Minister has received copies of the Vancouver Symphony Society telegram that was sent to the Chairman of the Subcommittee outlining the injustices and discrimination against western Canadians. I appeal to the Minister to implement the needed changes in treatment immediately, so that a measure of equity will be restored to the application of the Income Tax Act.

Mr. Alexandre Cyr (Gaspe):

Mr. Speaker, this year Canada Day will have a special significance since we are celebrating the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's first voyage to Canada and his arrival in Gaspe.

As part of the Canada Day celebrations in Gaspe, the flag raising ceremony will take place at five o'clock in the morning, at sunrise.

I invite all Canadians to celebrate Canada Day with pride and joy and to recite the Salute to the Canadian Flag at the flag raising ceremony, as we do in our schools and especially in the Scout movement. These are the words of the Salute to the Flag:

Mr. Dan Heap (Spadina):

Mr. Speaker, last Saturday a joint statement issued by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia warned that they cannot indefinitely accept the burden of existing loan repayment plans. The total foreign debt of 11 Latin American countries is estimated at $300 billion. The increase in the U.S. prime rate of half a percentage point added $4.5 billion to the Latin American debt.

[DOT] (mo)

Canada is no stranger to this fiscal strangulation of developing countries. Three of Canada's five major banks have a total of $14 billion in loans outstanding with Latin American countries. When the Canadian prime rate rose from 11.5 to 12 per cent, an additional burden of $5.8 million monthly was added to that debt.

While the International Monetary Fund, the enforcer for world capital, wants to impose austerity measures, such as withholding wage increases for an already overburdened population in Latin economies, and the American Federal Reserve Board would "cap" interest rates, postponing additional interest payments in fact, the OECD argues that only an easing of international interest rates can provide any lasting solutions.

I call upon the Minister of Finance (Mr. Lalonde) to protest to the U.S. that this deliberate impoverishment of struggling Latin economies must stop and there must be no further hikes in interest rates, that the developing nations-

Mr. Speaker:

The Hon. Member's time has expired.

Mr. David Kilgour (Edmonton-Strathcona):

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I took issue with the Prime Minister's (Mr. Trudeau) view of earlier this week that his Government has been without a serious scandal for 16 years. I mentioned many examples of the abuse of public office by Liberal Members of Parliament, Cabinet ministers, and political friends over that period.

The reality is that a Prime Minister sets the tone for conduct in this city. The reality is also that, as far as this Prime Minister is concerned, virtually anything has been tolerable. "Say anything, do anything, break any commitment, as long as it might help us cling to office" has been a major operating principle of successive Governments over 16 years.

In the 1980 election campaign, for example, the Prime Minister and his Liberal candidates campaigned on four promises: "The 18 cents a gallon gasoline tax of the Tories is too much, we will slow Government growth, we will reduce unemployment, and we will reduce interest rates." Since 1980, of

course, the Liberals have done precisely the opposite in all four areas. Government tax on gasoline has tripled, the cost of gasoline and heating oil has at least doubled, federal government spending and growth have increased geometrically, 1.5 million Canadians, including 600,000 younger ones, have been out of work for at least the last two years, interest rates are high now and moving higher, as our dollar yesterday reached an all-time low.

The one reason, Mr. Speaker, that Canadians are going to elect a Brian Mulroney Government this summer is the general feeling that we can conduct the national business both more competently and more honourably.

Mr. Stanley Hudecki (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence):

Mr. Speaker, in this day and age of advanced technology in information gathering and recording it is a regressive and backward practice to be a slave to a traditional voting procedure in this House which necessitates an individual personal response of standing and then bowing to the Chair in sequence to one's announced name.

As a medical doctor I feel that such a mode of voting, when numerous votes are scheduled on a given day, can be a type of psychological and physical torture to Members. Being confined to their seats for hours places considerable physical and emotional stress on Members, regardless of their baseline state of health. It is unwise to push Hon. Members to, or beyond, their physiological limits. These limits are marginal in those with underlying medical difficulties.

In other words, this traditional mode of voting in the House, carried out to the extreme as it was the night before last and through the early hours of the morning, can be a form of personal physical and mental assault on Members, and thus is no longer an acceptable procedure. I strongly recommend that the parliamentary committee which reviews the rules of procedure and the Standing Orders of the House should consider the introduction in the House of an electronically activated recording mechanism for voting, such as the one used by the United States House of Representatives.