Quebec Sponsorship Scandal
Insider Trading
Failed Seaking helicopter contracts
Combustible submarines
Canada Steamship contract favoritisms
$2 billion gun registry
etc...etc, etc...
A letter-to-the-editor from today's Welland Tribune:
Jean Chretien and his Liberal government declared that health and education was a 50/50 responsibility between the federal and provincial government. Then, one day, Paul Martin who was then, the finance minister, decided he would balance the budget.
Well, let's look at how he did that.
He cut - I should say slashed - the transfer payments to all provinces by 36 percent for health and education - remember, the thousands of nurses laid off, the hospital bed closures, the long waiting time for surgery and diagnostic procedures, the mess in education, programs canceled, tuition fees going skyhigh...
Transfer payments were also cut for housing, seniors homes, infrastructures, roads and highways, etc.
That's how Mr. Martin balanced the budget - plus the high taxes we are paying, that's the reason why he can boast of the big surplus he's had for eight years.
The problem is that the taxpayers did not blame Mr. Martin; they were too busy blaming the premiers of their own provinces.
I would also like to tell Mr. Martin that if our economy is so strong, it is not for his fiscal policies alone, but for the most part the huge trading with our neighbouirs to the south. You only have to look to our borders to realize that.
I would like to ask Mr. Martin why, in a country that has a surplus of maybe $12 billion for 2005, why do we need school breakfasts for children and regular food drives?
What about the living conditions of our Native reserves? It is deplorable and shameful for a government that has surpluses in the billions to have our Native people without schools or clinics, having to boil water for years and living in conditions worse than some Third World countries.
Our Canada was not built by the Liberal government. It was built by us taxpayers working hard and long hours and sending you all that hard-earned money for you to use it responsibly, wisely, with integrity and for the good of all the people.
Not waste it the way your government has done for many years.
Edith Demers - Welland, Ontario