Mr. Speaker, my approach to the budget debate of not going through the points in it should not be taken as a testament of the virtues of the budget but of its lack of virtue.
It is quite simple. The government is trying to have it both ways and cannot. I would not agree with my hon. colleague that payroll taxes have gone down. Payroll taxes are not only EI premiums. It is very simple in my view. Payroll taxes are a combination of two premiums: EI premiums and CPP premiums.
If we look at the government's numbers since 1993 there has been a reduction in EI premiums of about $300, but there has also been an increase in CPP premiums by over $900. In effect there has been an increase in payroll taxes of over $610.