Hon. Pierrette Ringuette:

Honourable senators, I would like to thank my honourable colleague for the wonderful speech he just made as a promotion piece for Bill C-13. However, if you look on your desk, you will see that we are dealing with legislation that contains some 640 pages. We will have to take all of these pages into rigorous consideration, so the honourable senator may have misled all of you in regard to the quick passage of this bill. That will be up to the committee hearing from a considerable number of witnesses.

I would also like to stress to this chamber that my honourable colleague indicated that over 100 infrastructure projects were very successful and created jobs. However, I would like to highlight that the Interim Auditor General, in his most recent report, indicated that the government had absolutely no data to relate in regard to the infrastructure spending that was done and to the number of jobs that were created. Therefore, this is pure assumption that is not based on any kind of data.

The honourable senator also indicated that the current budget, Bill C-13, wants to encourage employment and that the committee will look into that. However, the honourable senator did not indicate where their cuts will be in regard to job creating programs in the different regions of our country, whether it will be through the ACOA program, the Quebec economic development entity, the one for Northern Ontario or for the Western provinces. We will have to look into these cuts that will directly reduce employment in this country. This is notwithstanding, of course, the 70 per cent of federal jobs in the National Capital Region that will be affected.

We have to understand to what degree these cuts will occur. Are we looking at measures that the government will be taking in this budget to reduce only the jobs of the young population of Canada, people who have just begun to work as federal employees or contract employees and are at the end of the employment scale? These young people, these young Canadians, will be cut, so then we will have to look at the proposal to fund bankrupt students who cannot pay their student loans because they have lost potential jobs due to government cuts. It is part of our responsibility not just to look at this bill for its face value and its front page. We have to look at the federal government budget in regard to its immediate, medium-term and long-term implications. I have serious concerns in regard to the young generation of Canadians, which statistically is the highest unemployed portion of Canadian citizens. They certainly require our attention.

It is not by chance that in recent weeks various groups belonging to the Occupy Canada movement have taken up residency in certain major Canadian cities. We must realize that these people have a view of the future that differs from that of the current government. We should also note that this phenomenon is not confined to Canada. Therefore, I believe that we should study in more depth the budget cuts that the government is proposing to make to various programs.

With regard to the transfer of gas tax revenues to municipalities, I would like to remind my honourable colleague that it was a Liberal government that introduced this initiative. And the fact that this will be a permanent measure is a secondary effect that you have acknowledged.

Honourable senators, my honourable colleague from the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance has indicated that we will deal with this bill expeditiously and quickly. I believe that, since the bill has some 600 pages, this would not do justice to the budget proposals.

As a member of the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance, I will certainly work to ensure that the initiatives set out in this bill are conducive to the well-being of Canadian citizens and not to maintaining the status quo.

Please click here to read the full text of this debate

Recent Statements from Liberal Senators