1983-05-17

GOVERNMENT ORDERS


[Stage Direction]
The House resumed from Tuesday, May 10, 1983, consideration of the motion of Mr. Cosgrove that Bill C-151, an Act to provide supplementary borrowing authority, be read the second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Finance, Trade and Economic Affairs.
Mr. Blaine A. Thacker (Lethbridge-Foothills):: Mr. Speaker, you will recall that on the last day this motion was before the House, I was in the midst of my speech opposing the Government's coming back to the House with a borrowing Bill for $14.7 billion. I indicated that we were standing in the House of Commons a mere six weeks after the last time with a $16 billion borrowing Bill, whereas in actual fact all the Government required was $5 billion. The Government said that it would spend $26 billion. It already has $16 billion, so it only needs $10 billion. Since we know that the Government has $5 billion cash in the till, we should therefore be debating a borrowing Bill of $5 billion. Instead the Government has come to the House for $14.7 billion. That is intolerable and unacceptable and we will certainly not put up with it.
I rise today on another matter which is hanging over our heads. Later today we will discuss a closure motion on the Crow debate, Bill C-155. The West is in flames because once again it has been attacked by a Liberal Party with no Members or representation from the West. The Government has dared to bring in a Bill and after a mere two days of second reading-


The Acting Speaker (Mr. Corbin):: Order, please. I know this is a matter of difficult interpretation for the Chair because of the wide scope of the motion now before the House. Nevertheless, I invite the Hon. Member to relate his remarks to that motion.


Blaine Allen Thacker: Mr. Speaker, I certainly will. In fact it is all tied together with the $14.7 billion borrowing Bill.
After the 1980 election the Liberals had lost all their 27 Members from western Canada. When the Prime Minister (Mr. Trudeau) first came into office, he had 27 western
Members, including four from my Province of Alberta. They have lost them all, not because there is anything wrong with the people in the West, not because there is anything wrong with the Constitution, but because of deliberate Liberal Government policies which have split the country down the middle.
The borrowing Bill is one way to do this, but it goes beyond that. The National Energy Program was an attack on the West in particular but also an attack on all Canadians. It was put through the House by closure. Then we had the Constitution which was clearly a specific attack on the Provinces because it turned most of them into secondary and tertiary Provinces with no power to protect themselves. That Bill was put through by closure. Then we had Canagrex or a Bill which created a state trading corporation in violation of all our private industry corporations. All of this relates back to the borrowing Bill.
The Government can only get away with such things by the use of closure on the actual Bills and by borrowing billions of dollars from people. This must stop and on this Crow business we are determined that it will stop, because it is an attack on the livestock industry, on secondary processors and in fact on grain producers themselves. They will have to pay a lot more money at a time when the price of grain has gone from $6 per bushel down to $4.63. Their costs have risen almost 200 per cent, yet the price of grain has dropped by 50 per cent. It is an attack. The Government will not put it through by a two-day closure debate; the Progressive Conservative Party simply will not stand for it. It is intolerable. It is unacceptable. We will not accept taxation without representation.
Therefore, pursuant to Standing Order 29,1 move;
That this House do now adjourn.


Some Hon. Members:: Hear, hear!


The Acting Speaker (Mr. Corbin):: The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the said motion?


Some Hon. Members:: Agreed.


Some Hon. Members:: No.


The Acting Speaker (Mr. Corbin):: All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.


Some Hon. Members:: Yea.


The Acting Speaker (Mr. Corbin):: All those opposed will please say nay.


Some Hon. Members:: Nay.

May 17, 1983
Borrowing Authority


The Acting Speaker (Mr. Corbin):: In my opinion the yeas have it.
And more than five Members having risen:


The Acting Speaker (Mr. Corbin):: Call in the Members.
[And the division bells having been rung.]


Madam Speaker:: It is now almost 6 p.m. and before leaving the chair, I wish to assert its prerogative and make a brief statement. This morning, early in the day's proceedings, the Hon. Member for Lethbridge-Foothills (Mr. Thacker) moved a motion for the adjournment of the House. A division was called, but the Whips have not indicated in the usual manner that the House is ready to vote. It is therefore my view that, in the circumstances which presently face us, the provisions of Standing Order 8(1) must supersede the adjournment motion moved earlier. I am sustained in this view by the citation on page 295 of the nineteenth edition, of Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice which states:
Dilatory motions, i.e. motions for the adjournment of the House or of the debate or that the chairman do report progress, or do leave the Chair, pending at the moment of interruption, lapse without question put.
Our Standing Orders make no reference to this particular situation and the House has provided no solutions to this particular procedural problem. In the present circumstances, I believe it is in the interest of the House that I should take an initiative.
As far as the Chair is concerned, the dilatory motion moved this morning sought a decision of the House as to whether or not it should adjourn. The issue was as simple as that. As the House had not seen fit to vote on this motion by 6 p.m., I have decided that Standing Order 8(1) must come into force. The normal procedures of the House, including the right to move dilatory motions, are not thereby affected and will continue to be available to Hon. Members. The convention whereby the Whips indicate when the House is ready to vote is also not affected.
The motion has therefore lapsed and in terms of Standing Order 8(1) the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m.
At 6.02 p.m. the House adjourned, without question put, pursuant to Standing Order.

Wednesday, May 18, 1983