Mr. Speaker, I will be taking 10 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, do you remember a time when you had aches and pains and went to the doctor for help? He may have given you some bitter tasting medicine and assured you that you would be well in two weeks. When you left the doctor's office you probably already felt better because your worries were relieved and you knew that all would be well within a definite period of time.
Canadians feel the pain and are worried about their economic situation. There are 1.4 million of them who are unemployed. Their neighbours who work for the government are expecting a pink slip any day. The daughter graduating from university has no job yet. There is a long wait at the hospital for the operation needed by one of their relatives. There is disturbing talk about the viability of the Canada pension plan. This is only a partial list of what worries and pains Canadians in 1996.
Canadians expect their doctor, the government, to help them. They expect the budget to offer relief and hope. They were disappointed. The doctor said: "Keep on taking the bitter medicine I prescribed for you last year. Sorry, while I think you will be all right, I cannot give you a definite date when you can stop taking the medicine and stop worrying".
Canadians are not satisfied with the measures by the government in this budget. The measures are not adequate to restore fiscal balance within a definite time frame. The uncertainty continues as there is increasing talk about a recession, another Quebec crisis or international financial upheaval.
Just a tiny bit more medicine in the form of spending reductions in this budget would have done the trick. Canadians were ready for it. They want to get it over with. They want to get back to normal. What did they get instead? A budget that interrupts a momentum gained by last year's tough love measures.
No one believes that next year's budget leading up to an election will restore this momentum. These facts are also known to international investors. They will not give up their demand for getting at least one or two points more on Canadian bonds than they can get on U.S. bonds.
As a result there is no interest rate relief. High interest rates are the main obstacle to job creation. They burden Canadians with higher mortgage payments and leave them with less income to spend on consumer goods and services that would result in the hiring of more Canadians. Investors cannot afford to build those factories. The interest costs make them non-competitive in international markets.
What worries Canadians also is what a number of media reports noted. The budget signals a shift away from deficit fighting into an election mode. The traditional Liberal methods for buying votes have reappeared.
Money we do not have is being spent to help summer student employment. I feel sorry for those students when in a few years they become taxpayers and have to repay these gifts from Ottawa in full, plus an awful lot of interest on top.
Money we do not have is going into the support of high tech industries. There are pious assurances that the money goes out through recoverable loans and in partnership. Some leaders of high tech industries say they do not want such programs. They do not like having to pay general taxes so that money can be given to competitors who will make life tougher for them. They know there are plenty of venture capitalists out there who lend money to those with economically viable projects and who are large enough to spread the risk.
It is only the high tech ventures that are rejected by the private investors as being too risky that the government will support. Almost by definition, a collection of them will end up not earning enough to repay the government. This is how loans made by the government inevitably turn into subsidies.
Finally, I am on a personal crusade to point out the almost criminal injustice that is being perpetrated on future generations of Canadians. They do not have a vote in Parliament. No one in the system is representing them. They can be taxed without cost to sitting politicians.
We are passing on to the helpless future generations not just a visible debt which already requires to service it about $50 billion of interest every year or 35 per cent of current tax revenues, but we also have burdened them with the cost of services for the elderly. It has been estimated that when the bulk of baby boomers retire in 2030, young or unborn Canadians will be required to pay another $50 billion for medicare, old age security benefits and the Canada pension plan.
Only economic growth, expected to be small, will relieve them of the burden of having to pay at least 70 per cent of tax revenue on the visible and hidden debt they are inheriting. The interest of these unborn or young Canadians obviously does not carry any weight in the minds of those who designed this budget.
It may be on target, as the minister keeps on boasting, but it is also adding shamelessly $90 million a day to the visible debt. I ask the minister and his colleagues: Where is the vaunted Liberal compassion? Does it get applied only to those who can vote for them in the next election? Do the young and future generations count for naught because they cannot vote?
Let me summarize Reform's and my objection to this budget. It coasts. It is giving up momentum in the move to a balanced budget. It fails to provide a definite end to the nation's trauma and uncertainty. It delays the time we are out of the tunnel and the sun shines once more on the possibility of lower interest rates, more jobs, tax reductions and a return to the good old times when budgets are balanced. It sends the wrong message by starting the traditional Liberal spending that precedes and election. It shows no compassion for future generations. It is a bad budget for the current generation; it is a terrible one for future generations.
I move:
That the amendment be amended by adding after the word "Senate" the following: "and in particular, its impact on investor confidence results in these investors continuing to demand high interest rates on Canadian bonds, which delays economic and normal job creation" and;
By adding after the words "transfers to provinces" the following: "and in particular it does not offer Canadians a definite date within this government's mandate in which the deficit is eliminated, and in which economic growth once again would make feasible discussions about tax cuts, debt reductions and the restoration of social program spending".