1  INTRODUCTION

Once again Minister you are causing me sleepless nights with your re-introduction of this falsely named “Canada Consumer Product Safety Act” - Bill C-36.  The Hazardous Products and Criminal Code Acts are concerned with safety of the consumer. This Bill C-36 is promoting the loss of Canadian sovereignty and will lead to loss of the rights and freedoms of the Canadian People and remove the fundamentals of the rule of law in this country. The Minister of Justice refuses to see this which in my mind amounts to treason.

The Budget of the present session of Parliament has been passed in principle, and the Bill C-9, Budget Implementation Act, is now whizzing through the House, to the dismay of many who have read its 904 pages. They cover such topics as giving the Environment Minister unilateral authority to decide on environmental assessments for any project, allowing Cabinet to sell all or part of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and scaling back the exclusive rights of Canada Post to collect letters by permitting outside carriers to do so within our borders.

CAP Candidate Jeremy Arney has composed the following letter, which details the specific dangerous points of Bill C-6, An Act Respecting the Safety of Consumer Goods, which Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has confirmed that she intends to bring back as soon as possible, in its original form, without any of the amendments won in the Senate and lost because of the Prorogue of Parliament in December.  Jeremy is providing it here for anyone who wants to understand those points themselves and who may then wish to share with others and use or adapt the letter to send to their own M.P. to help educate him or her and to register their own concerns about the Bill.

Canadians paid $170-million per day in 2008/2009 in unnecessary interest on federal, provincial and municipal debt. The cost for 2009/10 and subsequent years will likely be higher. These costs are reflected in taxes, fees, cut-backs in public services such as education and medicare and deterioration of infrastructure such as roads, sewers, water lines and affordable housing.

If our government had been using its own Bank, the Bank of Canada, as it should have for the past 35 years, we would not be in this situation. From 1867 to 1974, the accumulated federal debt amounted to $18-billion, and during that time we paid for two world wars and other smaller ones, built the trans-Canada highway, contributed to construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, built housing, provided funds for our veterans to go to school, brought in the Canada Pension Plan and made Medicare a national service.

In 1974 the government, which had been borrowing from its own bank since 1938 at near zero interest, decided to borrow less from there and more from the private sector at market rates of interest. The result was a huge increase in federal debt from $18-billion to $588-billion in 1997, with a total debt for all levels of government of over $900-billion.

In 2009 federal debt stood at $464-billion, but by 2015 it will be up to $622-billion. Federal debt charges, currently at $31-billion, will grow accordingly and based on previous figures the total debt charges for all levels of government will be about double the federal charges.