Madam Speaker, you may have guessed that I am particularly interested in the budget's impact on agriculture.
However, I would like to start by commenting briefly on the underhanded way the provinces are being treated, the lack of job creation measures, unfair tax measures and the inequity of certain cuts. If I were to give my impression of the budget brought down by the Minister of Finance in a single sentence, I would call it next year's budget.
As usual, the budget we were supposed to set this year has apparently been postponed until next year, in other words, until after the referendum.
This budget is like a time bomb, and it will be a couple of years before we feel its full impact. Take, for instance, transfer payments to the provinces. In the budget brought down on Monday, transfers for health care, education and social assistance will be cut by $2.5 billion in 1996-97 and $4.5 billion in 1997-98. This is a cut of 40 per cent over three years.
This measure will very likely destabilize provincial budgets and force the provinces to make drastic cuts or even shift part of the burden to the municipalities, as Quebec Liberal Minister Claude Ryan did so neatly in 1992.
And on top of that, there is the obligation to meet so-called national standards. Once again, the provinces are sitting under a federal sword of Damocles.
In the last federal election, the Liberal government was elected on its promise to create jobs. However, after barely a year and a half in power, that same Liberal government decided to ignore its promise to create jobs. There is nothing in Monday's budget to create employment. Nothing but layoffs, as many as 45,000. There is nothing for 800,000 unemployed workers who are looking for work in Quebec. Nothing. The only program that has created some employment and so-called temporary jobs, the infrastructure program, will lose $200 million from its initial budget announced last year.
This is a three-way program, so that in the end, not $200 million but $600 million will be cut.
This budget is unfair because it maintains the preferential treatment of family trusts for another five years, which will give the parties concerned plenty of time to find other ways to evade taxes, and believe me, they will. It is unfair because it comes down relatively hard, but on the wrong people. In the short term, the public will feel the impact of tax hikes on tobacco and gasoline.
Furthermore, the Unemployment Insurance Program will be cut by 10 per cent. The government is going to take money from the unemployed to pay off our debt. This is obscene!