Ontario Hansard - 24-September2008

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you very much to the leader of the official opposition. I appreciate his candid comments.

I'm proud to take part in today's debate on fairness for Ontario. As an Ontarian and a Canadian, I view this debate as healthy for our democracy, for our country and for all those people whom I represent in this Legislature. I support fairness for Ontario, and I'm happy to add my voice to calls for treating Canada's most populous province, the economic engine of our country and the most diverse jurisdiction in Confederation, with even-handedness, particularly as we face unique challenges in our economy, our health care sector and our criminal justice system.

As our leader, John Tory, has pointed out, of course we believe in fairness for Ontario, but the issue of fairness in Ontario is not about equalization; it is about our economy. I think it is safe to say that John Tory, Bob Runciman, myself and our caucus agree with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said just days ago: "Our objective ... is to keep Ontario as the industrial engine of our economy. It is not to see Ontario become a have-not, equalization ... province, and I hope the government of Ontario shares that objective."

In the official opposition, we are concerned that the McGuinty Liberals are blaming the federal Conservatives instead of taking responsibility for the problems they have created for themselves, and in turn, for all Ontarians, those problems being high taxes, skyrocketing energy prices and excessive regulation. It is without question that Ontario has been slipping since Mr. McGuinty came into office. When the Premier of Ontario, Mr. McGuinty, took office, he led the economic engine of Canada. Sadly, now, five years later, under Mr. McGuinty's watch, manufacturing jobs in Ontario have been lost to the tune of 200,000. Ontario has gone from first to worst in Confederation in terms of economic growth, and we are now on the verge of becoming a have-not province.

As an Ontarian, this truly, truly concerns me. One would hope that this motion put forward today by our Premier is more about working together for Ontarians and less about trying to find a scapegoat for Mr. McGuinty's own mismanagement of our now fragile economy because of his very own record of out-of-control spending and record high taxes.

As I mentioned, the debate is about the economy, not equalization. I fear that Mr. McGuinty is using the name of fairness to instead further his own political agenda and ambitions, rather than improving the economy which right now demands all of our attention. Looking at this resolution, one can judge the merits of his arguments as much by what is excluded as by what is included. This is of course troubling on both those accounts. That is why I have two major concerns on how this resolution before us reads and what it is saying to Ontarians.

First, Mr. McGuinty makes an incorrect assumption about employment insurance, which I look forward to touching on later. But I think that in a very real way it exposes the shallowness of his arguments and perhaps is a telling example of why Ontarians aren't drawn to his point of view.

Second, the objectivity of this resolution is obviously called into question with the glaring omission of the ill-fated and risky Liberal carbon tax plan and its detrimental impacts on Ontario's already slowing manufacturing sector, not to mention for areas like mine and ones with strong agricultural communities, what negative impact it will have on family farms right across this province. I can understand why Mr. McGuinty may want to shy away from the carbon tax and criticizing the Liberals, considering his own brother, the federal Liberal environment critic, is an architect of the Liberals' environmental plan. But it's important to those of us taking part in debate to focus on the issue at hand.

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Before I delve into my two major concerns, which I reiterate are the incorrect EI assumption and the glaring omission of the risky carbon tax plan put forward by the Liberals, I do want to take a moment to discuss equalization. It's important for those of us who are taking part in this debate to understand the intricacies of the equalization formula, that we are aware of the posturing that has taken place for decades in this country and that we're aware of exactly what Mr. McGuinty's math actually adds up to. Specifically, it is important to remember that under the Chrétien and Martin Liberals in Ottawa this province, and basically every other province, had the federal books balanced on their backs. There were record cuts to the provinces in health and social transfers, and these transfers are slowly being rebuilt after cutting and slashing by the Chrétien-Martin Liberals in the early 1990s. I'm sure some members here will remember those days. But don't just take my word for it; take Allan Rock's. It was he who said: "It was my government that diminished the size of transfer payments.... I will not stand here and tell you that the cuts in transfer payments we made were insignificant. They were not. And I won't tell you that they have not had an impact. They have." This, of course, was in a speech to the Canadian Medical Association on August 20, 1997.

I'm also sure that members here will never be able to forget when Ontario asked the previous Liberal governments for fairness in transfer payments. Not only were Ontarians' pleas ignored, but the Chrétien-Martin Liberal caucus chair even supported a separatist government in another province over his own. Again, don't just take my word for it; take Paul DeVillers's. Back in 2001, Paul DeVillers, who was an Ontario MP and also the federal Liberal caucus chair, told the National Post, "We can sign agreements with the separatist government but we can't sign a time-of-day agreement with Ontario."

Even when the federal Liberals admitted their cuts have hurt health care, when they said they would rather deal with separatists than deal with Ontario, what did the provincial Liberals say? Do you guys remember what you said? It would have been helpful had you said nothing at all, because this is what you said: "`The federal government has given the province $895 million more than they need for health care,' said David Caplan to the Guelph Mercury on November 10, 1999." Our current Minister of Health at the time said that the federal Liberal government, who by its own admission was cutting and slashing our health care dollars to the bone, was giving Ontario too much money. I thought it was a joke until I read those words myself, yet it gets better.

Mr. McGuinty, who is waging a partisan war during a catastrophic campaign for his own Liberal Party, at one time actually applauded the Conservative government's changes that just last year changed the equalization formula for all Canadians. At the time Mr. McGuinty said about Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, he "made a deliberate effort to bring a principle-based approach to ... equalization and federal transfers.... We are very much in agreement with this approach." I'm not sure what has changed between Mr. McGuinty's interview with the Globe and Mail on June 15, 2007, and today, September 24, 2008, with the exception of two things: In 2008-09, Ontario is expected to receive $13.9 billion in transfers, which is an increase of $2.7 billion from the last Liberal government in 2006. Secondly, it is pretty obvious that there is a federal election on. Yes, there is a federal election on and the federal Liberals are having what could be considered the worst election campaign since Confederation. The big red machine is broken and it needs a lot of help. Enter Mr. McGuinty and this Hail Mary pass. As I mentioned, this resolution before us contains two flaws: one which is contained within the false assumption on EI, and the other which is omitted, the devastating impacts of a carbon tax on our economy.

First let's look at the EI assumption in this resolution, because I think it speaks volumes to the credibility of Mr. McGuinty in his "fairness" fight. While it is clear that Ontario deserves its fair share-and no one here in the opposition questions that-I think it is important that as a Legislature we make our case based on facts. Unfortunately, in their haste to join the federal election campaign of Stéphane Dion, the McGuinty Liberals have added a point not even relevant to the debate. As Mr. McGuinty surely must know, the employment insurance program is based per taxpayer, not by province. The EI program is designed to ensure that eligibility and duration of benefits depend on local unemployment insurance rates. That means those who have a strong economy and who value a strong economy also value fewer people drawing employment insurance. By Mr. McGuinty's logic and the Liberal Party of Ontario's, he would like to see more EI dollars coming into Ontario and thus he would value a higher unemployment rate in this province. This hardly sounds like someone championing Ontario. It hardly sounds like Mr. McGuinty is standing up for Ontario, but let Ontarians be the judge of that. I'm sure most Ontarians would take a strong, vibrant, job-filled economy over an unemployment line any day.

Not only does Mr. McGuinty miss the boat, so to speak, on the whole premise of EI and its program; he also doesn't factor in the fundamentals of why the program was designed. The program was designed to ensure that unemployed Canadians living in areas with similar rates of unemployment and job opportunities are treated the same, regardless of where they live. That's because it's a national program that benefits the taxpayers who pay into it, not the provinces. It works this way: EI provides income support to eligible unemployed Canadians wherever they live, and all contributors are entitled to benefits provided they meet qualifying and entitlement conditions. I tell that to the Liberals because I'm not sure if any of them actually ever had a member of their family on employment insurance. I've had lots, and I can tell you this: Anyone on employment insurance needs the money. What they don't need is the provincial government under Dalton McGuinty trying to take it away from them. As my leader, John Tory, pointed out today in the Sun, even if Ottawa were to rewrite its equalization rules, funds would return to the individual taxpayers, and rightfully so.

Now, the second issue which I raised in this resolution as tricky, because it omits Stéphane Dion's risky carbon tax plan-I know at least one of Mr. McGuinty's advisers has concerns with it too. Warren Kinsella said on May 15, 2008, "Forget about the fact that, with fuel prices having gone up a billion per cent in recent months, we already have a driver-deterring carbon tax. Forget about the fact that it's unfair to people on fixed income (like the elderly) and the poor (who have to heat their homes and buy food, too), and is therefore profoundly un-Liberal." As recently as June 18, Kinsella said, "Sifting through the entrails leaked out to the media, was I wrong to oppose a carbon tax right now? No way. I'm for punishing polluters, not consumers. Cap-and-trade; not this."

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The risky carbon tax plan would be bad for Ontario. It should be in this resolution if Mr. McGuinty were truly serious about engaging the federal parties this election on fairness for Ontario in a non-partisan and objective way. The carbon tax is not fair to Ontario. The Ontario Taxpayers Federation recently completed a study of the risky carbon tax and its impacts on Ontario businesses. They found that the increased power bills alone will be more than the tax offsets they would receive.

If we were all to agree that the real problem facing Ontario is our economy and, on the one hand, we have our Premier giving up the fight and asking for more EI and, on the other, he is totally ignoring a risky carbon tax plan that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has said will cost Ontario businesses-what are Ontarians to expect? Ontario is a strong province, but Mr. McGuinty is taking our economic downturn laying down. If Mr. McGuinty was so concerned about Ontario, he would denounce the carbon tax and he would get to work to ensure Ontarians were on the assembly line, not the unemployment line.

At a time of economic uncertainty, Ontarians cannot afford to experiment with Stéphane Dion's risky carbon tax. Energy costs are arising in this province. How would an added tax be fair for our residents? Ontario is a global trading partner. How fair would it be for Ontario's international exporters when they begin to see their markets shrink when other countries retaliate for the increased tariffs they face when importing to Canada? By undermining the economy, Mr. Dion's plan will only recentralize money further in the hands of Ottawa, which will completely undermine the progress that Canada and Ontario have made and the changes with the federal transfers just last year.

Remember that change. We spoke about it earlier, the change in 2007 made by Stephen Harper and lauded by Dalton McGuinty when he said, and I again quote, that he "made a deliberate effort to bring a principle-based approach to ... equalization and federal transfers.... We are very much in agreement with this approach." Don't you think we should all know a little bit more about this risky carbon tax and all it will cost the province, including recentralizing those hard-fought funds that the provinces, including the province of Ontario, had decentralized into our hands just last year, in 2007?

Shouldn't it be a major issue in this debate? I think so. That is why I'll support an amendment to this resolution to incorporate the risky carbon tax. I think it's relevant to the debate before us, and I think the carbon tax legitimately needs to be examined in this Legislature for its potentially harmful effects to our economy.

I want to touch on something that our leader in the Legislature, Bob Runciman, brought up during his remarks, and that's the assumption on the $20-billion gap. The figure $20 billion-our research indicates that it is out of date. It is based on 2005 data, not 2010, when Ontario is to start receiving payments. I actually think it's pretty dismal for us to be debating Ontario becoming a have-not status.

I raised in the Legislature I think almost a year ago the fact that I grew up in a have-not province. I was born and raised and educated in Nova Scotia. Many members of my family worked seasonal and many of them had to draw EI. I came to Ottawa because Ontario was always the land of opportunity in this country. It was where everybody went. People would go to Toronto because that's where the jobs were. It was the economic engine of the country, and every Canadian knew it. Every Canadian was proud of Ontario because they knew that's where they could have a better life. I came here with 200 bucks in my pocket. My parents' friend drove me. He was actually a Liberal; he actually ran for the Liberal Party. But he was a nice man, George Manos. He drove me to Ottawa when he was visiting three of his four kids who moved here. Two hundred dollars in my pocket, and I worked hard. Now I own a home in Nepean. I have a little girl. She'll be born and raised and educated in Ontario, a province I'm very proud of but one that, when I came here, was at the height of its economic boom. It was the strongest in this country, and in five short years, the folks opposite have taken us from first to worst. They've taken our spending from $60 billion a year to $30 billion in a short period of time, and now we're talking about Ontario becoming a have-not province. Well, I'll stand up for Ontario. I'll stand up and ask you why you're not doing more for our economy.

I'll support this resolution; there's no question about that. I have outlined two areas where I'm very concerned: I think that your assumptions on EI are faulty, and you're undermining the individual taxpayer in this country.

At the end of the day, my favourite prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, once said, "Let us be English or let us be French ... and above all let us be Canadians." That's a big challenge for the folks right across the way. They're not thinking about what this province means to Confederation.

I want to talk a little bit more about the so-called $20-billion fiscal gap, because reducing the so-called $20-billion fiscal gap would not increase provincial revenues unless Mr. McGuinty again increased provincial taxes. I guess I have a question: Why would anybody increase taxes to reduce them? It doesn't make sense, nor does the economic plan of the Liberal Party.

Mr. McGuinty and his colleagues are ignoring the truth. Ontario would not be receiving equalization payments if the economy was growing faster. GDP growth at just 2% would add $1.5 billion to the provincial coffers. We need Ontario to remain the economic and key engine of this country, and we, on this side, will all fight for that.

As I conclude, I just want to make two points. There is a lot of unfairness in this province. I want to raise two examples.

Presently, Ontarians serving in the Canadian Armed Forces are forced to pay the health tax, even though the federal government pays the health care bill for those who are serving us so proudly in Canada's military. Mr. McGuinty should support our troops and eliminate the health tax for men and women serving our country abroad. That's fairness for Ontarians.

My colleague, Sylvia Jones, is a visionary. The registered disability savings plan brought in by my colleague's husband, Jim Flaherty-I'm very proud of the work Mr. Flaherty is doing for Ontario and for Canada. He brought in something for children in this country who are disabled, to help their parents. This Liberal government is clawing back that benefit. Mr. McGuinty is penalizing children in this province who are disabled. They do not receive the benefits that children in British Columbia or Newfoundland receive as a result of the work that Mr. Flaherty has done. And to date, the McGuinty Liberals have not jumped on the bandwagon with Sylvia Jones and her private member's bill to protect children in this province who are disabled. If they were really serious about fairness for Ontarians, they wouldn't even make Sylvia Jones debate her private member's bill; they would adopt it. They would just do it.

Unfairness is all around us. Again, there's no question; I'll support this. I'll also be urging my colleagues opposite to support our amendment on the risky carbon tax, because I think that if they see it, especially those rural members, they'll know it will be detrimental for our agricultural communities if it is put in place, and I think you all know it. I think you all know too that that plan would be detrimental with respect to our small and medium-sized businesses. The folks who are working hard as importers and exporters are going to be penalized because of retaliation from other countries, who are going to see their tariffs increase.

In terms of employment insurance, I'm still trying to figure out why the province that should have every single young man and woman out working wants them on the unemployment line. We can do better than that, and we should do better than that.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for indulging me in this debate. I want to thank the Premier for bringing up this issue. I want to thank Bob Runciman, our leader of the official opposition, for what I thought was a very important speech.

I want to make one comment about that. I noticed all members of the official opposition and all members of the third party sat and listened with respect to our Premier as he made his comments. But throughout the vast majority of my remarks and throughout the entire remarks of the leader of the official opposition, we dealt with heckles and jeers. And if you can't call a spade a spade in this very important debate, I don't know why we're even having it.

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So on that, I conclude. I encourage all of our colleagues to do the right thing for Ontario-to do the right thing for Ontarians, who at the end of the day are all Canadians, and we should all be very proud of that.