Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker from the Bloc Quebecois talked about how important it is that we overhaul the whole system and how ashamed he is that we are only tinkering with the system.
It brings to mind some comments I was reading in the paper over the last few days about how the Bloc Quebecois feels it can overhaul the whole system. However, now we find it is retreating. Rather than full blown separatism we now find the premier of Quebec saying he does not think that will to fly, water down the whole message, talk about something a lot less draconian than complete separation. Along with the leader of the Bloc Quebecois he now thinks perhaps some form of economic association would be the way to go. That is exactly what they have at this point.
In reference to the previous speaker's comments that he would like to see a full blown overhaul of the whole tax system, I put it in the same context that perhaps the full blown overhaul of the political system in Quebec and in Canada would not go very far either. Let us hope it would not.
That does mean to say this bill is a wonderful piece of stuff. Bill C-70 was a year old before it was even introduced in the House. This pertains not to the budget introduced six weeks ago but to the budget introduced a year and six weeks ago. It has taken the bureaucracy a whole year to come up with 200 pages of what virtually every Canadian would call unintelligible gobbledegook. It is far beyond the comprehension of most people.
This is how we run our tax system today. Not only has the Income Tax Act become incomprehensible to Canadians, it has become incomprehensible in many ways to accountants. It is incomprehensible in much the same way as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was saying last week that the legal system is going to collapse under its own weight because it has become so complex that even lawyers cannot understand it.
The Income Tax Act is going the same way. It has become so complex with additions, deletions, amendments and changes that even accountants cannot figure out what is happening. We then add even greater complexity. Accountants are supposed to be able to figure all this out in anticipation of legislation that is only being introduced now even though the finance minister announced his intentions over a year ago. The income tax people have been assessing tax returns this year based on the contents of this bill. However, it was only tabled on February 16, 1995. People did their tax returns before the legislation was tabled in anticipation of trying to do their tax returns based on information that did not even exist.
How do we expect accounting professionals to do an admirable and efficient job of trying to advise their clients on how to do their tax returns when they are doing it all on the basis of a statement by the Minister of Finance with no legislation to back it up and no real assurance that it will pass? We still have to vote on it. I hope that is not a perfunctory situation.
Parliament holds the public purse. The House gives the executive the authority to raise money. It is raising the money and now it is asking us if it can. What happens if we say no? Perhaps we should say no. I think it is paying lip service to Parliament.
It is an insult to Parliament that the executive can tax Canadians, impose rules, penalties and conditions all on the supposition that it will introduce legislation at some future time. It will then ask Parliament to vote on it and say it has been working on the premise that we were to approve it. What kind of way is that to run a country? Perhaps that is indicative of the kind of mess we are in because, as everybody knows, we are right up to our neck and over our head with a debt of $515 billion.
By the time the government has been in office three years it will have added $100 billion to the debt. By that time it will only have reduced the deficit by $15 billion, from $40 billion to $25 billion.
This policy of gradualism to deal with a crisis in a fiscal situation is not good enough. One hundred billion dollars in interest at 8 per cent is $8 billion more that we will transfer to lenders each year. That means taxes paid by the rank and file Canadians will be transferred to the banks in the United States, Germany and Japan, not back to the taxpayers of Canada. They will not see it.
We are paying the money lenders and they now control the way the country is run. That is a desperate and most unfortunate situation. The Liberal government seems to be totally incapable of grasping the severity of the situation.
Reformers have said get the budget balanced, do not worry about 200 pages of nickels and dimes and changes in the complexity to the Income Tax Act. Let us talk about simplification. Let us talk about getting the budget balanced. We said that it could be done in three years.
The government has a revenue of approximately $120 billion a year. In three years it will have three times $120 billion, which is $360 billion, and during that time it can only find $15 billion to squeak out of there. Is this draconian? Is this really grasping the issue and saying let us get the job done now? I doubt it. I do not think so, and my colleagues agree with me.
It is a shame that parliamentarians in charge of running this country feel that this policy of gradualism is the only way we can address the issue as this great country sinks beneath the
wave of debt. The interest is now the largest cost by far to the government, $50 billion a year.
When the Liberal government was in power 20 years ago and the Prime Minister of the day decided it was time to open the gates and let money be spent, flow like water, would Canadians have voted for them? Would Canadians vote for them today if they realized that $50 billion a year is spent on interest to pay for past excesses and the way previous governments have tried to buy votes with our own money? Now we are spending $1,500 per man, woman, and child just to pay the interest on that debt.
If and when we get the budget balanced, for ever dollar in taxes we are going to collect from Canadians, we will only be able to return 60 cents in services. The rest will go to pay the foreign lenders. That is no value for money. You pay a dollar and you get 60 cents back on your investment. What kind of deal is that? Who goes down to the local store and spends a dollar and expects to get 60 cents in value for the money spent?
They will tell the government that it is out in the next election, because obviously it does not know how to deal with the problem. Remember that the members of the government are the ones who at the last election were parading around the country saying: "Trust us, we are going to get rid of the GST".