Welcome to all of you.
I guess I'll be the face of the low- and fixed-income population in Prince Edward Island, as well as a woman who's presenting.
Thank you, Wayne, for being, finally, a male on this panel who asked a question of the representative from the advisory council on the status of women. It speaks quite loudly that questions weren't directed to her when she gave a very credible presentation about the gender gap in wages and the fact that we don't have a national child care program. After all, the Liberals and Conservatives have been in government, as I believe somebody mentioned, for 45 years. We're still waiting for those two things to come into play. I wanted to make that observation.
I'll just reiterate my concern, as long-time social justice advocate, that we should certainly stop corporate offshore tax dodging, which I think was brought up during up the Conservative government regime; close tax loopholes; raise the corporate income tax rate from 26.3% to the U.S. corporate income tax rate of 30%; tax e-commerce companies to level the playing field; and put basic income guarantee projects back on the government's radar. It could be, indeed, another publicly funded health care program—i.e., medicare. The time is here for that.
Many P.E.I. residents deal with low incomes and high living costs. That includes a 15% increase, just recently, of HST, which includes nearly all forms of heating. We expect that it will also be tacked on to fuel oil as well. Our electricity rates are very high-cost in Prince Edward Island. That also then means that we have higher prices on good food and other necessities of living. This is where basic income guarantee can play a role, for certain.
I think it's time that people who look at financial strategy should include social justice as an equal standing in how they approach things. I'm a little skeptical about whether or not this new government will indeed address all these needs.
I'll sign off here. Those are my observations and comments.