Mr. Bob Speller

Yes, we have balanced the budget. The hon. member says to cut taxes. I totally agree that is one of the best approaches we should have to this problem. But there are serious problems in this country that need to be addressed, that cannot be addressed by saying we can solve them just by reducing taxes. There are investments in our future, in our children that this government needs to make. It is important that the Reform Party recognizes that.

There are many children living in poverty. There is a role not only for private business but there is a role specifically for government to be involved in solving these problems. That is why we have decided in the Speech from the Throne to establish centres of excellence, why we have expanded the aboriginal head start program.

I know the hon. member across the way mentioned the fact that we mentioned aboriginals in the Speech from the Throne eight or ten times. They are an important aspect of this country I remind the hon. member. If his party would recognize that, we might have a better way of working together in this country.

The present minister of aboriginal affairs has done an exemplary job of working together with aboriginal communities in trying to solve some of the problems. There are enormous problems on reserves in this country and the Reform Party should recognize that rather than just trying to bring aboriginal communities and aboriginal peoples down.

On quality health care, the Speech from the Throne talks about the importance of health care in our society. We have indicated that now we have brought the economy under control and we are now going to have a dividend that a lot of this dividend will be put toward health care.

Because my allotted time is ending, I will wrap up, Mr. Speaker. I believe all Canadians should take a look at the Speech from the Throne. It is important for all Canadians to call their members of Parliament to get a copy to understand where the government is going and how we plan to take this country into the next millennium.

Mr. Myron Thompson (Wild Rose, Ref.)

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be able to ask the hon. member a question or two, or three, or four.

One thing I am really getting tired of is hearing all the warm fuzzy talk. Yes it is true the deficit has come down. That is really good. But the member nor anyone else on that side of the House ever mentions for a moment that they have just added over $100 billion to the national debt. Servicing that debt is now the hugest chunk of the pie that it takes to operate the business of this land. They brag about those kinds of things. They boast and boast, yet they never mention anything about that huge black cloud called the national debt.

The member talked about the aboriginal people. He made some comments about what the throne speech said about that. In 1993 in my riding the Stony reserve had programs in place that were doing good work for a lot of the aboriginal people. In 1997 those programs are gone. There is no help at all. They have just disappeared.

The hon. member is not talking about all the things that are disappearing. He is talking about all the warm fuzzy stuff that the government is doing.

I would suggest to the hon. member that if he is going to send out the throne speech to every Canadian throughout the land it might be a good idea. It could be the magic cure for insomnia.

Mr. Bob Speller

Mr. Speaker, the electoral system never ceases to amaze me.

The hon. member talks about the deficit. I can understand the hon. member's real concern because that was their policy. Their policy was to bring it under control and these spendthrift Liberals as they call us could never do it. Well we did it. We brought it under control. We made a commitment in the red book to make sure of that and because we now have a dividend we can turn some of that toward the national debt.

At the same time I cannot see how the hon. member cannot recognize that Canadians helped to pay so that we could get this deficit under control. They should be able to reap some of the benefits now that it is under control.

Oh, oh.

Mr. Bob Speller

If the hon. member would listen he would know that I specifically said it was in the red book. If the member would like a copy, I would be glad to send him over one.

We plan to take half that dividend and put it toward the debt. It makes common sense to do it that way, and not the whole lot.

I think Canadians deserve to get a little back for all their hard work in helping us to get the deficit under control.

Mr. Antoine Dubé (Lévis, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech made by the hon. member opposite, and remember previous speeches of his. I know that, in his riding, there are tobacco producers, whose interests he tried to defend in the past.

I was critic on tobacco in the last Parliament. A promise was made just before the election campaign regarding the anti-tobacco legislation that did not find its way into the throne speech. We were told that the legislation would be amended as soon as possible with regard to international car races. The Prime Minister said so, but I have read nothing to that effect on the throne speech and, so far, the Minister of Health has not said a word about this commitment.

This is of serious concern to me, not so much for producers as for sport and cultural events. A recent study conducted in the Quebec City area shod that every dollar invested in the Quebec summer festival, for instance, generated $8 in tax revenues and so on for the federal government.

I would like to hear him on that. Will he made representations to the Minister of Health to have the legislation changed?

Mr. Bob Speller

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if the hon. member was just making a point. He might want to address that in a question during question period to the Minister of Health.

He is right that in my area I represent about 90 percent of the tobacco growers in the country. I always make sure they are represented.

I know the Reform Party has never supported tobacco growers. I know it has a hard time recognizing that tobacco growers are legitimate formers with a legitimate right to farm.

Mr. Janko Peric (Cambridge, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I speak today in support of the government's Speech from the Throne.

Let me begin by saying that it is a pleasure to be back in the House on behalf of the people of Cambridge, Kitchener, Ayr and North Dumfries.

Before I go any further I would like to thank my family, my staff, Betty, Stan, Elizabete, Debbie and Stevie in the riding office, as well as all my supporters, all the people who were involved in the election campaign on June 2, 1997.

As I have said on many occasions, in my riding I am the servant of the people. My constituents are my priority and I promise never to lose sight of that.

On June 2 the people of Canada put their faith in the hands of the Liberal government for the second time in four years. The results on election night were a strong indication that Canadians have faith in the direction the government was taking them. They were pleased that we had won the war against the deficit, that the unemployment rate had dropped by over 2 percent and that 974,000 jobs were created by September 1997.

Canadians also expressed confidence in the government's commitment to the protection of social programs on June 2. The Speech from the Throne reaffirmed the commitment of the Liberal government to issues that matter to all Canadians: jobs, health care, safe streets and national unity.

As we enter the 21st century the government will begin to reinvest the fiscal dividends that will come from the elimination of the deficit. We will do so in a responsible manner by applying one half of any budgetary surplus to the social and economic needs of Canadians and the other half to tax reduction and the national debt.

We will not act in the wasteful manner that the opposition parties would have everyone believe. After all, why would we plunge the nation back into bankruptcy after we have worked so hard to free it from the deficit burden? It makes absolutely no sense.

Among the most important initiatives announced in the Speech from the Throne were those that focused on the youth of our nation. Our youth are the future of Canada, which is why the government is committed to the national child benefit system announced this past spring.

There are centres for excellence to advance our understanding of the needs of children, the millennium scholarship endowment fund to help students secure a post-secondary education, an extension of the internship program to give youth needed work experience, enhanced funding for student summer placement, and a Canada-wide mentorship program.

Social programs have always been a priority of the government. That is why in the area of health care the Minister of Health reconfirmed in his speech of this morning that the government was committed to health care.

In other efforts to protect our social programs the government has introduced an amendment to the Canada pension plan and the new seniors benefit to ensure the sustainability of Canada's pension plan system. I applaud this initiative.

Some members may remember that in 1994 I introduced a private member's bill that proposed numerous changes to the current pension system. More needs to be done. I am pleased to see that some of my recommendations have been incorporated in amendments introduced by the Minister of Finance, in particular the establishment of an agency that would operate at arm's length from the government to manage the pension fund.

This initiative will give Canadians greater confidence in their pension system. Based on the research I have conducted in preparing my bill, it became apparent that CPP premiums would have to be increased if the pension system were to survive. That is one of the reasons the amendments before the House are calling for an increase in premiums. This is being done to ensure that our children will receive a pension under the CPP. I am confident we will be successful.

The throne speech also outlined the government's commitment to public safety. This area is a priority for me. I will continue to press the government to adopt stricter measures for the deportation of serious criminals who are not citizens of the country. I will do so by reintroducing the immigration enforcement improvement act, my private member's bill that died at committee when the House was dissolved in the spring.

Before I conclude I will touch on the issue of national unity. The government commitment to keeping the country united was quite clear in the throne speech. We must work to strengthen and unite the country by joining in the common purpose of keeping Canada one of the best places in the world in which to live.

I travelled recently to Asia and through most of Europe, and I can say this is absolutely the best country in the world. We have an excellent standard of living, a beautiful nation, warm and compassionate citizens, and a booming economy. We must do all we can to preserve that in the future.

Just recently ComDev, a company in my Cambridge riding, announced that it would be participating in a joint venture with an Ottawa company to establish a high tech research and development centre in Hull, Quebec. This new company, Spacebridge, will hire approximately 200 employees over the next four years.

In a recent CBC interview ComDev CEO, Val O'Donovan, indicated that he decided to venture into Hull when many others were leaving because “people who have good, exciting jobs are less likely to get involved with marching up and down whether it is labour, political or whatever kind of cause”.

We must not be afraid to reach out to our Quebec neighbours, and that is exactly what ComDev is doing. There is also another company from my riding that opened a plant in Quebec, Arriscraft.

I recently returned from Bosnia-Hercegovina where tensions still run deep. Its economy is in shambles. The one time beauty of the country has been destroyed. Coming home to Canada I realized yet again how truly lucky we are to live in such a wonderful nation.

I urge all Canadians to join me in doing whatever we can to preserve the best country and the best nation in the world.

Mr. Réal Ménard (Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to see you again.

I want to congratulate the member on his re-election. I am aware of his commitment to international causes. I was very aware of the congratulations he directed to the company in his riding, when it decided to do business in Hull. It gives me an opportunity to enlighten him from a slightly different perspective on his understanding of the Quebec problem.

Is the member aware and would he acknowledge that for at least 40 years there has been a succession of governments in Quebec, each more legitimate than the last, which has given rise to the process of constitutional review. Should the member take the trouble—if he ever has the time, the desire or the interest—he could no doubt come up with a list of the demands made by the various governments on language, fisheries or immigration. There are some thirty of them.

Would the hon. member be prepared to admit that, since Quebec is the only francophone province in this part of North America, for his government to consider all provinces equal would be absolutely suicidal, deadly and incompatible with the survival of Quebec?

Would he be prepared to rise in his place and say that, because Quebeckers are French speakers in North America, his government can no longer talk of homogeneity, because such talk would essentially put an end to any future for Quebec.

Mr. Janko Peric

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his comments and questions.

I am aware there are Quebeckers and Ontarians. I am aware there are anglophones and francophones in the province of Quebec. I know there are francophones in Ontario as well as in New Brunswick, and I treat them and respect them as Canadians.

I respect the French culture and language. I know that it is different from other cultures, but many other cultures make this country the best.

My cultural background is different from my colleagues, by my choice. I am contributing my culture to make this country better and stronger. I believe we can work together. We have challenges before us. We do not have problems, we have challenges. If we work together we can overcome those challenges.

Mr. Ken Epp (Elk Island, Ref.)

Mr. Speaker, I think it was probably wise to let the Bloc member go first because I was a little animated. Now I am all cooled down and I can give a nice calm response to the speech.

I am getting so sick and tired of hearing the Liberals talk about their financial success. I thought of an analogy. I happen to be a motorcyclist. I am driving along and there is a big truck stopped in the middle of the lane in front of me. I am going at 100 kilometres and hour and I am still accelerating. Instead of going at 100 kilometres an hour as I approach this truck, I begin to speed up at a slower rate. In other words, I was going 50, 60, 70, 80 and now, instead of going 90 and 100 as I come to the truck, I only go up to 85, and then 90 and 95. That is what is happening with our debt.

These Liberals do not like to talk about the debt. They only talk about the deficit because they are speeding up at a slower rate. It is annoying that they will not come clean with Canadians and say what they are really doing. I do not know how we can get them to smarten up and tell the truth to Canadians.

I want to say one more thing and then I will let the member respond.

They keep talking about spending, spending, spending. I wonder if any of them know how much surplus they need. They are bragging about bringing the deficit down from $40 billion to $20 billion, $17 billion, $15 billion, $10 billion or whatever it is. We need a surplus of $51 billion a year for 25 years to pay off the debt. That is how big the surplus has to be and these goons are talking about—

The hon. member for Cambridge, a brief response, please.

Mr. Janko Peric

Mr. Speaker, I will use an analogy also.

The difference between the Liberal philosophy and the commitment we made during the last election campaign and the Reform and other parties is this. They want to cut, cut, cut so fast that they would bleed the country to death.

The left side wants to spend, but we do not have it.

We made a commitment in the election campaign and we will keep that commitment. It has been approved by Canadians.

Ms. Wendy Lill (Dartmouth, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre.

It is a great honour and privilege for me to be here speaking to members today about the people of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia whom I am here to represent.

As I am sure is the case with everyone present, there were burning issues which compelled me to run for office and to take my place here. I will try to spell out some of those issues.

Before becoming a member of Parliament I made my living as an Atlantic playwright and film writer. I will become a cultural worker again when the time comes for me to leave here. Until that time I will use whatever communication skills I have to fight for the interests of the people of Dartmouth as their member of Parliament.

Dartmouth is a community of 70,000-plus souls on the Atlantic coast, which is now part of a larger amalgamated region including Halifax, Bedford, Sackville and surrounding regions. It is a community proud of its maritime traditions, its military contributions, its rich culture, its deep harbour and its 21 lakes.

The M'kmaq were the first people to come to its shores. My riding is also home to some of the oldest African-Canadian communities in Canada.

It is a community filled with hard working, straight ahead people who are proud of their contributions to Canadian society.

In the last four years the people of Dartmouth have been beaten up by the heavy handed cuts to the civil service in this country. Massive increases in unemployment, and they have been massive in Atlantic Canada, have left thousands of families affected.

No less an authority than the former premier of Nova Scotia in his speech to the Empire Club last winter said that 16 percent of all federal spending cuts had fallen on Nova Scotia, a province with about 3 percent of the country's population.

Marine biologists, scientists, librarians, teachers, health care workers, radio and film producers, thousands and thousands of important community strengthening jobs have disappeared in the interests of balancing the budget.

Every home I visited during the federal campaign has somehow been hurt by the cuts to the public sector. Is this progress? The workers of Dartmouth, and they are hard workers, have been rocked by another grim reality.

Thousands of civilians military workers have been affected by the government's policies to shove anything that moves into the private sector. Somehow the private sector is by definition more effective and more efficient.

Through a process called ASD, alternate service delivery, every function which now exists in the civilian military workforce is earmarked for privatization. Thousands of good paying, important community strengthening jobs again are being put on the chopping block and then put out to tender to the lowest bidder.

Presto, the jobs are reincarnated only with lower wages, no security and twice the workload. Since my election, dozens of civilian workers have approached me and asked that I fight for their rights for a decent salary, for job security in the face of privatization.

I am not sure whether Canadians are aware that the military of this country has made a decision to privatize all its functions. I do not know whether they know the same thing is happening in the national parks, their hospitals, their health care system.

Is this what Canadians want? Have we really thought about these things carefully? I do not believe so. Everywhere I look in my community I see people much poorer and more insecure than they were five years ago.

I see struggling families dealing with unemployment or waiting for the axe to fall. Is it not time that we started to talk about the sad state of work in this country?

In the Speech from the Throne we talked about the surplus which now exists in the treasury but we did not hear about how it was brought about. It was brought about by cutting the legs out from under the workers who were doing important jobs in their communities.

It was brought about by decimating longstanding meaningful community infrastructures which have given us pride and a sense of ourselves and where we come from.

I was at an event in my riding not long ago, the Dartmouth North community centre activity day. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. There were hundreds of children running around with face paint and hotdogs screaming with glee as they knocked someone off the chair into the dunk tank. It was a perfect picture.

There are a lot of children in North Dartmouth and I think 99 percent of them were there that day, but the lives of many of the Dartmouth children and families are far from perfect. In fact, 25 percent of child protection cases in Nova Scotia are in Dartmouth.

Why is that? Why are so many of our young people at risk? Instead of trusting wholly in the vision put forward by the business section of the Globe and Mail I sometimes seek out other sources such as the National Anti-Poverty Organization.

This is what it says about what is happening in this country. From the latest statistics I learned that an estimated 4.941 million, almost one Canadian in six, were living below the poverty line. About 40 percent of the people being served by Canada's food banks are children under the age of 18.

More than 25 percent of Canada's homeless are children and, despite cheerful words to the contrary in the Speech from the Throne, it is not getting any better.

The impact of the Canada health and social transfer is just starting to take effect like a slow release time bomb. The poor, the disabled, the children, the aged and the ill are all bearing the brunt of less money, less commitment to such things as public health, public education and the whole concept of community.

Where I come from there is an angry and demoralized group of crossing guards working for $5.50 an hour because the amalgamated city, which was supposed to be a money saver, has no money to pay them a decent wage. Imagine, the crossing guards, the people who are entrusted to protect our most precious loved ones, our children, are not being paid a living wage. Is that progress?

There are fewer police on the streets, fewer teachers in the classrooms and fewer nurses in the hospitals but there are a whole lot more people being pensioned off who still want to be working and contributing to their communities.

It is moribund and shameful to see the latest statistics on arts funding and realize that the only area of growth this year was in public broadcasting due to an increase in the area of severance pay. Is this progress? I would say not.

We are having a crisis of work in this country. We now have thousands of people in my community who are unemployed or underemployed and undervalued. We now have thousands of Nova Scotia university graduates carrying debtloads of up to $20,000 without any hope of getting work or if they do they are cobbling together a living on a string of minimum wage jobs. We have a crisis of work in this country.

There are desperate young people coming into my office who are being hounded by collection agencies to pay off their student loans. One young woman was fired from a good job and a job that she loved because she was being harassed by a loan agency that did not think she was coming up with the goods fast enough. Her employer let her go because he did not want to have to field phone calls from thugs any longer.

If I had the time and the genius of a playwright like Arthur Miller I would write a play about this incredible scenario. The theme of it would be right up there with “Death of a Salesman” in terms of human tragedy. Yet we are being told that the good times are back.

In the Speech from the Throne we hear that we have a surplus and the next big debate for us to concern ourselves with is how to spend it. Should we cut taxes here or there or should we drop a little into our programs? There is no talk whatsoever about the horrible human and social deficits which have been created in communities like mine by the policies of the government.

Perhaps that is not surprising. In the Speech from the Throne, as we all stood in the Senate Chamber listening to the governor general present the flowery words of the government, I was struck by the different realities within these walls and without.

There in the Senate Chamber there was no sense of need or desperation, no sense that so many people out there are stretched to the limit. This was a warm, rich and prosperous place, a place of plenty. At meetings we are supplied with tables filled with fruits and croissants, melons, grapes and strawberries. Raise your hand in the House of Commons and a page immediately brings you a glass of water.

My esteemed Metis colleague and seatmate from Saskatchewan said something with regard to the incredible discord that we see in the House of Commons on a daily basis. He suggested the whole structure of the place is wrong, that maybe we should be moving across to the Library of Parliament which is round. Perhaps we should all sit in a circle and try to move this group of warring factions into some unity. Perhaps we should use the methods of the First Nations people to try to fix the disunity of this country and this Parliament.

I would like to work with all members of the House of Commons to fix the deep and widening gaps in our society. I make that pledge. I offer this challenge to all of you. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today.

Mr. Myron Thompson (Wild Rose, Ref.)

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on her maiden speech. It was very good. Congratulations and welcome to this place.

There are a couple of quick things I would like to ask the member. I toured her riding around the Dartmouth area and that is one of the prettiest places in Canada. She is very fortunate to be in such a place.

During my tour there I had conversations with a lot of people. I would like to know if the hon. member could disclose to me what the people in her riding are saying regarding the merging of the GST and the PST. Could she tell me what they are saying to her in regard to crime and the justice system? I talked to a number of people and I know what they told me. I would like to see how our stories match up.

Ms. Wendy Lill

Mr. Speaker, the people of Dartmouth and of Nova Scotia are very concerned with the blended sales tax which is the son of the GST. We would like to see it removed. We think it is a very unfair tax that hits consumers and low income earners. It hits people when they are paying for diapers and heating oil, although it does not hit people when they are paying for $400 suits. We think it is an unfair tax and we will be fighting to have it eliminated.

I am not exactly sure what the member's question is regarding the justice system so I am afraid I will have to ask for clarification, if the hon. member wants to do so.

The hon. member wants to do so, but I am not sure the Chair will allow him to. Questions and comments, the hon. member for Winnipeg—Transcona.

Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, I too would like to congratulate the member for Dartmouth on her inaugural speech in the House of Commons. She mentioned something that is of concern to a lot of people right across the country wherever there are Canadian Armed Forces bases. For instance, I know there are people in Shiloh, Manitoba who have made similar representations to me about the alternative service delivery.

I am sure many other members have had similar representations about the way in which we see being replicated now by the national defence department an ideological drive over the last 10 or 15 years whereby people who had good paying jobs in the public sector are losing those jobs by virtue of privatization, contracting out or alternative service delivery, to use fancier words.

The upshot is that these jobs are not disappearing. The work still has to be done. These people either come back to do the work themselves or other people are doing the work for a lot less. We see a trend toward a lower and lower wage economy. It is robbing from many Canadians the ability to have the kind of standard of living that they legitimately expect. Could the member elaborate on that?

Ms. Wendy Lill

Mr. Speaker, I have been struck by exactly what my hon. colleague from Winnipeg has been talking about. People who have been working for 20 or 25 years in the civilian military are now being made redundant or are being put on affected status. They are finding that they can no longer depend on even their pensions being honoured. It is causing incredible stress for their families. It is not a situation I would ever want to find my family in and yet there are thousands of families across the country that are being affected that way.

That is all part of the deficit cutting picture presented by the government. I question its morality and effectiveness.

Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to respond to the Speech from the Throne. This is my first speech in the House of Commons. I am honoured to be here to share my views and to speak on behalf of the people of Winnipeg Centre.

Winnipeg Centre has a great history and tradition of sending social democrats to Ottawa. The seat I am taking in the House of Commons has been held by two of the greatest champions for social justice in our nation's history.

Seventy-six years ago the voters of Winnipeg Centre ignored the fact that the Canadian government wanted to send J.S. Woodsworth to prison for his role in the Winnipeg general strike. Instead they sent him to Parliament. Here he became the leader of what he called the labour group, and the voters of Winnipeg Centre kept re-electing him year after year and that labour group kept getting bigger.

On his death after 20 years in Parliament he was replaced by Stanley Knowles who held this seat until he suffered his stroke in 1981. Cyril Keeper then held this seat until 1988. This past June was cause for national mourning when Stanley Knowles passed away.

J.S. Woodsworth and Stanley Knowles won the admiration of all Canadians for their honesty, their dignity and for their courage. I am pleased that the leaders of all political parties paid tribute to brother Knowles in the House of Commons this past Thursday. Both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition were full of praise. However, there is a danger to this sort of praise.

It is the sort of praise that is used when one wants to bury the cause for which these men fought. We must not only remember these men for their admirable personal qualities, we must remember the ideals that sustained them. I ask the House to listen to these words from J.S. Woodsworth's first speech to the House 75 years ago. He said:

I claim that we have come to a period in the history of our country when we decide once and for all which shall prevail, profits or human welfare. I feel confident that there is a group of men here, new Members of the House, if you will, who have clearly made up their minds that insofar as they decide it, human welfare is to be given the precedence.

There are new members here today, 76 years later, the men and women who make up the NDP caucus who still see this as the key question facing us. It is a question of justice, a question of social justice and it means far more than just the social safety net.

For the past two decades Canadian governments have been tearing apart the social programs that men like Woodsworth, Knowles and Cyril Keeper fought to put in place. Our caucus is going to be fighting to protect what is left of that tattered social safety net.

These words were taken from Stanley Knowles first speech to this Chamber. He said:

Social justice involves a system in which those who toil, being part of the community, own the productive machinery of the nation and therefore receive every day and every month their full and just share of the wealth that they produce.

I regret that last week's Speech from the Throne does not move us any closer to that noble vision.

Like J.S. Woodsworth and Stanley Knowles, I believe that the day will come when nations will be judged not by their military and economic strength, nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their people, by their level of health, nutrition and education, by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for their labour and by the protection that is afforded to the growing minds and bodies of their children. That must and will be the yardstick by which we measure progress and by which we are judged. Society does not move forward unless we all move forward together.

The Speech from the Throne does not address the growing gap in this country between the rich and the poor, between the haves and the have nots. It does nothing to address the need for a more equitable redistribution of wealth in the country. Instead, it relies on an outdated, neo-conservative approach that the free market will provide for all if it is simply left alone. History has shown us otherwise. History has shown us that capital has no conscience.

As a socialist and as a trade unionist I reject the prevailing wisdom that we can no longer afford Canadian social programs. We have endured endless years of cutbacks that have severely affected the lives of the many poor and unemployed Canadians who live in the inner city of Winnipeg.

I do not believe that our deficit problem is a result of overspending on social programs. We spend less on social programs than most developed nations. Our debt and deficit problems are due to a deliberate economic policy of fighting inflation with high interest rates. The predictable and unfortunate consequences of this tight money economic policy have been chronic levels of long term unemployment and spiralling compounding interest on our national debt. I for one am tired of the flat earth society version of our economic problems that we keep hearing from the government and from the official opposition. Their analysis is both false and ultimately dangerous.

Manitoba just went through what has been called the flood of the century. As hard as it was, it could have been very much worse if successive governments had not spent millions of dollars on the Red River floodway diversion system. They knew that money spent on prevention was not money thrown away.

I want to present the government with another flood warning. This time it is not the Red River that is rising, it is the rising tide of desperation in our inner cities. It is the rising tide of poverty and all the consequences of crime, violence, substance abuse, the breakdown of the family.

Just as the blizzard of the century led to the flood of the century, a decade of budget cutting has led to a social crisis and what could amount to a permanent underclass in our society. Rather than investing in the future, the government has opened the floodgates to social disaster.

Common sense dictates that it is time to start investing in flood protection to stem the tide of despair that threatens to sweep away our inner cities and social justice demands it.

I take my seat today, the latest in a long line of people who have been sent to this House by the people of Winnipeg Centre to fight for social justice. As I take my place I am conscious of the honour that is mine. I wish to renew Stanley Knowles' pledge of loyalty to the cause of social justice that J.S. Woodsworth served so well.

I may never fill their shoes but likewise I promise the people of Winnipeg Centre that I will never abandon their cause.