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Dear Constituents, In the last election, the size of the riding of Mississauga South increased by about 5,000 homes due to the increase in the Canadian population. Since this has lead to about a 15% increase in our workload, I have hired another full time assistant in my riding office to ensure that your needs will continue to be served on a timely basis. When you call our office during business hours, you can count on us to personally take your call. Since my last report I have had a very busy but productive schedule. Just before Christmas, I accompanied the Prime Minister to Libya where I had an opportunity to meet with political leaders and Canadian executives doing business in Libya. Three were Mississauga based businesses offering computer and engineering services. Our diplomatic visit was a big boost to these businesses that are in competition for major long-term contracts. Christmas was my time to catch up with my family and friends and despite the occasional bitter cold, it was a very special time for me and I hope for you and your family as well. The tragedy in the tsunami-affected countries moved Canadians to an extraordinary outpouring of generosity. Included in this report is a brief summary of the actions taken by the Government in response to immediate and long term needs for assistance. By this time, the 2005 Budget will have been tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister, Ralph Goodale, with whom I am pictured on the cover. You can obtain copies of the Budget Speech and the Budget in Brief from my office. In this report, I have reproduced extracts from my speech on the budget consultations where I call for a strategy to address the emerging needs of seniors. Canada remains
committed to meeting its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets
under the Kyoto Accord. All Canadians are being asked to take the
ONE-TONNE CHALLENGE and I have included a feature article which
I hope you will find of interest. As you may know, I have sponsored a number of private members’ Bills and Motions. I am pleased to advise that I was selected early in the MPs lottery and my Bill on health warning labels on the containers of alcoholic beverages is under consideration by Parliament. The Bill is intended to bring greater public awareness of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the risks associated with the misuse of beverage alcohol. I am also very pleased to have the support of the Minister of Health. Second Reading debate was completed in February and Public Hearings before the Standing Committee on Health are expected to be completed by the summer. Final vote on the Bill should be taken next Fall. Finally, in my 11 years as a member of parliament, no other issue has generated so many calls and letters as the issue of same sex marriage. Parliament is divided and so is the entire country. A recent Compass Poll showed that 66% of Canadians support the traditional definition of marriage. Following the initial debate at second reading, the Bill goes to a special legislative committee for public hearings. It is uncertain how long those hearings will take and it is possible that the Bill will not be ready for final vote until next Fall. As you know, I have always supported and defended the family and the traditional definition of marriage. For me, marriage is the institution which fosters an environment for the procreation and raising of children. As such, I will be voting against the Bill. Sincerely,
The tsunamis in both South and Southeast Asia touched the global conscience in a way not seen in our lifetime. The shocking human toll moved people throughout the world. Canadians responded and continue to respond to this tragedy with unprecedented generosity. As of mid-January, an estimated $150 million had been raised by Canadians and that amount has been matched by the government of Canada. The Government is providing both financial aid and direct assistance. We are leading a multi-faceted response to assist Canadians who are in need, to provide help on the ground wherever it is needed and to participate in the longer-term reconstruction of the region. Starting immediately and continuing over the next 5 years, we will inject $425 million into tsunami ravaged areas. In addition to matching Canadian’s donations, this includes:
We have also shipped several planeloads of medical and non-medical supplies to the affected regions, including plastic sheeting, water purification tablets, generators, blankets, medicines and mobile feeding units. A Special Ministerial Tsunami Relief Task Force of Cabinet will continue to direct and assess Canada’s ongoing relief and reconstruction efforts to determine whether further measures may be required. Many of the tsunami-affected Nations are poverty stricken and the governments there require all the resources available to assist disaster victims to put their lives back together. That is why we placed a moratorium on debt payments owed to Canada. There is about $1 billion in sovereign debt owing to Canada by tsunami-affected countries. Under the moratorium, Canada will defer payments including both principal and interest. Depending on their level of participation, up to $110 million in debt payments will be deferred each year of the moratorium. This amounts to $30 million annually in interest being foregone. As the scale of the disaster becomes clearer, we will be in a better position to assess the length of the moratorium. Our debt moratorium is just one of the things that Canada is doing to aid this unprecedented disaster and we will continue to help for as long as it is needed – because it is the right thing to do. Canada is one
of the world leaders in providing debt relief to countries in need
– not only to help countries respond to tragedies like the
tsunami in Asia, but to provide countries that are improving government
accountability and strengthening their economies the opportunity
to invest in their citizens. Madagascar became the fourth African
nation whose Canadian debts have been forgiven in recent months
joining Senegal, Ghana and Ethiopia. Thirteen countries have had
their payments frozen by Canada and since December 2000, the debt
of 8 of these has been cancelled.
Our climate is changing. As the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, increases in our atmosphere, they are causing the average temperature to rise. This causes extreme weather events such as droughts, ice storms and floods. Every year, each Canadian produces an average of five tonnes of greenhouse gases and here is the main ways we create them:
In addition, the waste we create that goes to landfills adds another one half tonne of GHGs per person per year. Personal greenhouse gas emissions from energy use accounts for 28% of Canada’s total and therefore we all have the opportunity to reduce GHGs to help meet our commitments under the Kyoto Accord. Since the average Canadian creates 5 tonnes per year (half of which comes from our cars), the Government of Canada has created the ONE-TONNE CHALLENGE to encourage each of us to reduce our own GHG emissions by one tonne. Here are a few examples of how we might meet our personal goal:
Here are a few other suggestions on how you can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that you create:
For more ideas
or to obtain for further information, visit www.climatechange.gc.ca
or call 1-800-622-6232.
Unsolicited telemarketing has become a significant irritant for many Canadians. To reduce the number of these unwanted calls, the Government of Canada is creating a DO-NOT-CALL LIST. Legislation has been introduced in the House of Commons which will allow Canadians who do not want to receive unsolicited calls from companies to add their phone number to a single centralized list that telemarketers will be required to download regularly. The list, which the proposed law requires to be respected, will be established and maintained by the CRTC. To ensure that telemarketers follow the rules, the legislation also gives the CRTC the authority to levy substantial penalties against offenders. Penalties of $1,500 per offending call for each individual and $15,000 per offending call for corporations will be imposed on telemarketers who do not respect the list. Telemarketing companies will also benefit from the DO-NOT-CALL LIST. Their efficiency and productivity should increase as the number of unsuccessful calls is reduced. As well, research shows that the majority of the work handled by call centres is generated by inbound customer service help lines rather than outbound calls for unsolicited telemarketing. If the legislation is adopted, the CRTC will begin consultations with Canadians on the implementation of the DO-NOT-CALL LIST. Such consultations will include discussions about whether any organizations – such as registered charities – should be exempt from the legislation. The Government is confident that the creation of
the DO-NOT-CALL LIST will provide a fair, easy and effective way
for Canadians to protect their privacy and stop intrusive telemarketing.
Canada’s history is a source of pride for all Canadians. It is a history that demonstrates clearly our longstanding desire as a nation to follow the path of democracy. To a very great extent, our progress since Confederation, has been the result of exceptional leadership by Canada’s prime ministers. Our prime ministers are symbols of Canada and it is important that we know and honour their achievements and contributions to this nation. The Right Honourable John Alexander Macdonald was our first prime minister. He was born on January 11, 1815 in Glasgow, Scotland and he died on June 6, 1891 in Ottawa, Ontario. Macdonald moved to Canada with his family as a child and was practicing law by age 20. His political career began in 1844 when he was elected to represent Kingston in the Legislative Assembly. In 1956, he became co-premier of the Province of Canada, a union of the former provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Faced with growing opposition to the union, Macdonald became a leading proponent of a federal system, which would balance a strong central government with respect for regional interests. Many of his ideas on federalism were adopted at the constitutional conferences of 1864 and 1866-67, which led to the creation of the Dominion of Canada. On July 1, 1867,
John A. Macdonald took office as Canada’s first Prime Minister,
serving until 1873 and then again from 1878 to 1891. The governments
he led expanded Confederation by bringing in the other provinces
and promoting the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Sir John A. Macdonald was a Father of Confederation.
On January 31st, I had the opportunity to address the House of Commons on emerging priorities. The following are extracts from that speech: Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this prebudget consultation. As all hon. members know, the finance committee has completed its annual exhaustive consultation with Canadians and has produced a report with some 33 recommendations. In my view, we should not be looking at a budget in isolation. We should look at budgets as a series of budgets and find out where we have been, how we have performed, where we have to backfill and where we have to reshape or reformat some of the spending in certain areas and indeed respond to emerging matters….. What I do want to talk about, however, is the issue of poverty. Poverty is something that I have spent a great deal of my time on as a Member of Parliament over the last 11 years, and more so on the nature of child poverty. I once wrote a monograph in which I described child poverty as a situation where one cannot live in one's own community without being noticed. Poverty is not just about food, clothing and shelter; poverty has to do with whether I can live in a community, participate in a community's activities and interact with people in my community without being noticed. It is like children wearing shoes with holes in them to school and being mocked by their fellow students because they do not have proper shoes to protect their feet. That led me to think about and reflect on poverty as a national issue, but in a broader context. Child poverty is really family poverty. If children are living in poor conditions then obviously their families are unable to provide for them to the level we would like to see. There are many things families can do. We know that family breakdown has a very significant impact on the probability of poverty. In fact, 15% of all families in Canada are one parent or lone parent families, but they account for some 54% of all children living in poverty. Thus, if we are going to address child poverty, we really have to start addressing the social breakdown of the Canadian family. It is really an important aspect. We simply cannot expect governments to take care of children. There is another aspect, which is that of high school dropouts, and it is a terrible situation in Canada. It took a long time to get people in the field of education to admit what the levels of high school dropouts were. I remember that as a member of the finance committee I once at a meeting described high school dropouts as those who choose to sit on the curb and watch the parade go by. They are Canada's poor in waiting. In the vast majority of cases we cannot have less than a high school education and expect to be able to sustain ourselves and become contributing members of society. That is one of the reasons why in the past we have done things with post-secondary education. We have done things with the millennium scholarship fund. We have done things in terms of student debt in debt repayment, in repayment geared to income and in writing off debts…. Those are some elements of family poverty, but I want to focus the poverty discussion a little more on those who are probably the forgotten persons in the Canadian family, those in our society who have the least ability to help themselves. I am talking about Canadian seniors…. I would like to outline for the House a few thoughts for its consideration and for the government's consideration, a few thoughts on poverty, particularly seniors' poverty. First of all, I think we have to establish provincial, territorial and regional poverty lines. We do not have poverty lines established in Canada…. It is time that Canadians asked themselves what level of poverty they are prepared to tolerate in Canada. We should be prepared to establish a guaranteed annual income for seniors. Seniors ought to be respected for what they have contributed to Canada. They should be respected and given the dignity which they have earned. We have to take all steps necessary to eliminate mandatory retirement at age 65 across the entire country. The retirement age of 65 years came in during Bismarck's time. At that time people who were 65 years of age were referred to as the unnecessary eaters. Now people live much longer. People live more productive and happier lives if they are able to fulfill their own destinies, their own targets. It is time to eliminate that discrimination…. The caregiver tax credit needs to be revisited. It is something that I am pleased to say was brought in as a consequence of Motion No. M-30 which I brought forward in this place back in 1997. It is a very modest amount. Seniors depend very heavily on their family caregivers, who more often than not are women within our society…. We should help those family members who are prepared to make the sacrifice to withdraw from the paid labour force to care for a loved one. Those caregivers should also be eligible for EI benefits when they withdraw from the paid labour force. They are providing an important service. It is just like unemployment because they will not receive a paycheque. They are giving up more than a paycheque. They are giving up a chance to earn pension credits for their own future…. Caregivers who withdraw from the paid labour force to care for a needy family member should not be penalized in their Canada pension plan computations if they have made that contribution to their families. We are taking some steps on home care but we are not doing enough. Anybody who knows anything about home care knows that two hours a day for someone who is chronically ill, who has an urgent need, means that somebody still has to come in to fill in the gaps. Home care is going to be more and more in demand in Canada. The Government of Canada has to be a greater player in that regard. With regard to pharmacare, we now spend as much on drugs as we do on doctors. Why is it that when seniors are on a fixed income they are being asked to bear a higher cost of pharmacare spending when as much as 75% of the health care costs are going to be incurred in the last one or two years of a person's life. We need to help seniors with their pharmacare costs. In line with
the whole theme of providing an opportunity for seniors to continue
to live in dignity, the dignity which they have earned and are entitled
to have, we need to do more on affordable housing. We should also have stiffer sentences under the Criminal Code for those who take advantage financially of seniors, those who defraud seniors. This is rampant. People are stealing from seniors because seniors may not understand or may not have someone there to help them make those decisions. There should be a full time cabinet position for seniors, a minister for seniors. There should be someone at the decision making table to advocate on behalf of seniors. We should establish a public education campaign to inform Canadians about the growing prevalence of discrimination on the basis of age. It is called ageism. Ageism is a problem which has slowly crept into the institutions in Canada. We should establish a bill of rights for seniors. A bill of rights for seniors would not override the charter. It would be an articulation of the principles with which we care to assess current programs as they related to seniors, and a filter through which we could assess the relevancy and effectiveness of new programs as they relate to seniors. I hope I have given members a few things to think about. Seniors, though the most vulnerable in our society, deserve to live in dignity and with respect. I suspect that most members in this place would agree.
Visit us on the Internet: www.paulszabo.com
Constituents may write to any Member of Parliament or Cabinet Minister postage free. Simply address your envelope to the particular Member, c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6. Your views and suggestions are important.
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