Ludger Dionne
Liberal
Mr. DIONNE (Beauce):
Moreover, as the Minister of Finance (Mr. Abbott) has just pointed out, it seems that these controls are a provincial responsibility. If so, I would suggest that the government hand this task back to the provinces.
Why did the government set up a committee on prices? In an attempt to find means of bringing down the cost of living.
Traders and manufacturers of various commodities were called before the committee so that it might find out whether any of them were exploiting the public.
Though not a member of the committee, I closely followed its proceedings, and my personal opinion is that many of its members honestly tried to do a useful piece of work in the public interest.
Unfortunately, others took advantage of their appointment to the committee to put either themselves or their political creed in the limelight.
If there was a time when the political ideologies of certain members of the house should have been kept completely in the background, it was during the sessions of the prices committee. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.
That was evidenced when the prices committee's report was brought in. Much of the criticism in the house about the report was
based on destructive conclusions concerning private enterprise.
I note that such destructive criticism has come mostly from people who would not know the first thing about industrial management.
The sole purpose of many of those speeches -or I should say ravings-was to make out industry as a parasite, a leech feeding on the blood of its people.
To the gentlemen whose philosophy aims solely at establishing a socialist regime in this country, I ask this one question: "What has allowed Canada to develop into one of the most beautiful countries in the world, if not private enterprise?"