This morning our colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, who is an economist by training and profession and thus can speak much more competently than me in this field, explained some possible ways of reforming the equalization system in depth.

6. Reiterates its support for an open method of coordination in the fields of pensions, social inclusion and health care, welcomes the Commission's recent initiatives in these fields and expresses the hope that the work undertaken will be pursued in greater depth by the Council; reiterates its request to be fully involved in this process;

6. Reiterates its support for an open method of coordination in the fields of pensions, social inclusion and health care, welcomes the Commission’s recent initiatives in these fields and expresses the hope that the work undertaken will be pursued in greater depth by the Council, in particular in extending it to social protection as a whole, and in supporting Member States in establishing the right to a minimum income, pension or salary; reiterates its request to be fully involved in this process;

This is why, in order to address this tax imbalance between the federal and provincial governments, the committee is asking for an in-depth review of tax fields, particularly as regards personal and corporate income tax, and a transfer of tax points, without reducing equalization payments.

In this field there has been nothing but shameful failures but nevertheless we are still faced with a brick wall which excludes women. This is a very well informed, in-depth, and rigorous report, which is capable of stating fundamental principles with the clarity demonstrated in Paragraph 17. It is audacious but, at the same time, contains considerable practical sense and very necessary proposals.

At 5:40 p.m., pursuant to Standing Order 45, the House resumed consideration of the motion of Mr. Martin (Minister of Finance), seconded by Mr. Gray (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada), — That this House approves in general the budgetary policy of the Government (Ways and Means Proceedings No. 15) The House proceeded to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the amendment of Mr. Loubier (Saint-Hyacinthe–Bagot), seconded by Mr. Pomerleau (Anjou–Rivière-des-Prairies), — That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following: “the budget statement by the Minister of Finance be rejected by the House of Commons because it: unilaterally main ...[+++]tains major reductions in transfer payments to the provinces in the fields of postsecondary education, health and social assistance, while intruding in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction, particularly by creating the Canada Foundation for Innovation from money earmarked for the provinces, introducing a national child tax benefit system, and setting up pilot projects filled with national unity propaganda in the field of health and social programs; proposes no tangible job creation measures, does not substantially reduce Unemployment Insurance contribution rates, or improve protection for unemployed persons, which has been greatly reduced by Employment Insurance; conceals its lack of action in creating jobs and fighting poverty, knowingly reducing effectiveness in these areas and distributing electoral gifts around Canada and Quebec; does not include an in-depth reform of the tax treatment of businesses or individuals, for example, by maintaining benefits for large corporations and rich Canadians; and introduces no measures to compensate the Quebec government for the 1991 harmonization of its sales tax with the federal GST, although Quebec would be eligible for this compensation in light of the $1 billion being paid to t ...