Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that Reformers are Tories in a hurry and we know what the Tories did to the country.
Everyone knows we must get our fiscal house in order. We must reduce spending and a draw a line on further taxation. We must reduce borrowing. We need to move toward better accountability in government programs and allow people to participate in these decisions to a greater degree.
I have been amazed by my colleagues in the Reform Party. That party supports the concept of a flat tax. We might as well call the earth flat. In a statement the leader of the Reform Party proposed a flat tax allowing lower income families to be exempt. Interestingly enough, those with average incomes in excess of $94,000 are currently paying 66 per cent of all personal income tax in the country. If one was to create a flat tax it is clear that income tax would have to be collected more from the middle class.
It certainly has been a strange week for me debating with Reformers and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. People are saying no more taxes, while these members with their hidden agenda intend to increase the relative burdens of the middle class.
The Reform Party talks about funding of special interest groups. I object to the funding of these groups. However, what special interest groups do the Reform Party represent? I do not remember a groundswell of opinion of people in the country to transfer tax burdens from the wealthy to the middle class. The middle class is taxed beyond belief. Forty-five per cent of the average family income goes to some form of taxes. The concept of reverse Robin Hood is not supported in any progressive jurisdiction in the world.
For my own part I have initiated what I like to call a taxpayers' bill of rights which basically has three components.
It is a private member's initiative of my own. It talks about accountability, the accountability of existing and future government programs, that they must be costed in totality and on a taxpayer basis. If this legislation had been in place I believe taxpayers and the electorate in general would have made better decisions that would have possibly prevented us from being in this mess today.
I also proposed a taxpayers' ombudsman that would act as an ombudsman between taxpayers and tax collecting authorities to protect from onerous collection procedures that often occur. As members of Parliament we can all think of how acts have actually been to the detriment of many honest law-abiding people in Canada.
Another part of that bill talks about freedom from undue taxation. It basically sets a cap of 55 per cent in totality of income on which total taxes can be paid. It simply attempts to reduce that by one per cent a year for the next 15 years. It starts with a 55 per cent cap and reduces it. It is a clear solution to some of our spiralling taxation problems.
The motion is just more of the Reform Party's fantasy world. It must be nice to get up in the morning to all this glittering tinsel but, alas, it is truly a wonderland.
To move too fast in the direction of deficit reduction is just as problematic as moving too slow. As programs are cut it will reduce the federal government's share of income taxes, exacerbating the problem. Let us remember the legacy of the Tories reducing spending, increasing taxes and spiralling deficits, caught in a continual loop. This is where the Reform Party would take us but only faster.
We must break the back of deficit and debt. However we need to walk the fine line between reductions and allowing the economy to grow. We would have thought that a party from the west would be familiar with the tight-fisted policies of R. B. Bennett and how these turned the west into a virtual wasteland of the thirties.
People come to rely on aspects of government programs whether social or rapid write-offs for capital investments by businesses. That does not mean they cannot and indeed will be changed. What we are talking about here is a rapidity by which change occurs.
Creating uncertainty in the business sector as well as other sectors of the economy may well witness a flight of capital. To the extent that we create contraction in the economy, other countries will look more promising to invest in. An outward flow of investment will result in the loss of jobs, further exacerbating our deficit and ultimately throwing us into a recession or worse. I am talking about a situation of reverse economics. Clearly to take government moneys and contract the economy is going to create a bigger deficit than we already have.
These are the policies of the Reform Party, the policies of wrack and ruin. It has taken us 20 years to develop the situation we now have. Regrettably we have to deal with it. The question is how quickly.
A slash and burn mentality does not work. We have to maintain the underpinnings of the social fabric of this nation. More important, we cannot afford to turn the corner that is basically going to put us into a recession or worse than that, a depression. Other countries have dealt with this matter in similar circumstances and have created some of these negative spiralling effects that will actually drive the economy into worse shape.
Clearly the way to get out of a deficit problem is to slowly grow the economy. As the economy grows, revenues from governments increase. By going too fast we run the risk of contraction. That contraction will just exacerbate our problems. The Reform Party does not seem to recognize that. The Reform Party would have us driven into a recession or depression within the next three years. This is unacceptable.
What is the solution? Keep the economy growing. Gradually reduce the deficit with targeted or slightly better than 3 per cent of GDP. Increase foreign trade.
Of the component aspects of national income another very important one is our current account deficit. As we can attract more foreign dollars into our country we can deal with the deficit more aggressively. I am happy to see that during our tenure that account deficit has been reduced from $30 billion to $15 billion.
Trade initiatives such as China, South America, more trade with the United States through NAFTA, these are all positive things to bring Canada out of its deficit situation and controlling debts and deficits as they continue in the future. This is clearly the way to go, not through a tremendous contraction of the economy.
In conclusion, we simply cannot afford pushing our economy back into recession. Worse, we cannot afford the luxury of letting the upper income brackets of this country shift their taxes to the middle class.
Once again it has been amazing to me in the last two or three weeks to watch the large crowds the Reform Party has put together. People are saying to cut spending. The other day in Pickering a gentleman was sitting with a sign which read "cut spending". After the meeting he came up to me and said: "I live in your riding. I am on unemployment insurance and I need a training grant".
It is clear that Reform Party members are misleading people, that somehow these cuts do not affect their own people. Worse than that, the flat tax, or as I say the flat earth tax, is an allocation of taxes from the upper income groups to the middle income earners. Do the middle income earners really know that is the Reform Party strategy, that they will bear proportionately more of the taxes?
I can think of no other country in the OECD or any other nation on the earth that subscribes to this policy. The Reform Party will tell us this gives incentive, it creates jobs. What it really does is it lines the pockets of the rich. This is not the policy of the Liberal Party and never has been.
Progressivity in the income tax system is accepted throughout the western world. As I said, I do not think the Reform Party has been totally honest with Canadians and with this Parliament. In conclusion, clearly we cannot afford the Reform Party.