Ralph Goodale on Income Trusts in Question Period yesterday

This is pretty good. We just need Ralph Goodale and Ignatieff to now go after Harper on Harper's patent lie about tax leakage (being that it was the central premise of the policy) and start exposing all the litany of “unintended” consequences, like the $100 billion in policy related takeovers that have caused REAL tax leakage of over $1 billion a year........which will grow to $7.5 billion a year if this trust takeover pandemic is not treated.


Hon. Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the most painful part of a recession is lost jobs, affecting hundreds of thousands of families. The Conference Board of Canada said yesterday, the jobless rate will skyrocket this year to nearly double digit levels, but thousands of these victims will not qualify for EI. Existing rules were designed for boom times, not recession, but rules can be changed to fit the new reality.

Why have the Conservatives dug themselves in so rigidly on the uncaring side of this very human issue?

Hon. Diane Finley (Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, CPC): Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear here. The hon. member and his party designed the current system that he said, and has said prior in the House, was designed for boom times.
That member should understand that any one person who loses their job through circumstances beyond their own control is not living in boom times. Those are hard times for that person and for that person's family.
We are taking care of them. We are doing the job. We have expanded the benefits. We have expanded accessibility. All the Liberals' are expanding is their rhetoric and taxes.

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, those are the Conservatives who solemnly promised never to tax income trusts and then broke that promise. They levied a brutal Conservative tax which destroyed $25 billion in the savings of over two million ordinary Canadians. But worse, they are now presiding over the biggest economic disaster since World War II, 380,000 full-time jobs destroyed. Because they are so uncaring, because the minister gives that answer all the time, this has become their Conservative recession.

When will they fix EI?

Hon. Diane Finley (Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, CPC): Mr. Speaker, as I said, any one person who loses their job is a hard time story. It is a hard time for that person and that person's family. While the member opposite is calling for fixes to EI, let us remember that he and his party designed it.

The Winnipeg Free Press said, “The Liberals were the architects of the distortions in the EI programs”. The Ottawa Sun said, “The Liberals gutted EI in the nineties”.We put forward our improvements to the EI system so that we could help those unfortunate enough to lose their jobs. The Liberals voted for it without a single amendment. All they want to do is raise rhetoric and raise taxes.