I see the hon. member from Winnipeg. He was out campaigning against the GST. Now he is mouthing off across the way but all those words do not eliminate the GST. It is still there.
We hear that the Liberals are working to harmonize the GST. Why are they working so hard to put another form of the GST in place? Why do they not do what we have recommended? Why do they not balance the budget and get rid of the GST? Why not eliminate it in stages? Surely, after putting up with all this fiscal restraint, Canadians deserve a reward. Why not grant them that reward in the form of a GST that ultimately disappears? That would
be a wonderful reward. People do not need that tax burden. They have paid a heavy price over the years and it is time they were given that reward.
I will talk about the government's approach to deficit reduction. The finance minister in his budget speech talked about the importance of being fair. I could not agree more. One of the fairest approaches is to make the cuts in a timely fashion. If spending reductions are made in a timely fashion that means we do not pay the price of delay. Canadians really are paying the cost of delay in spades because the government has delayed so in long making its cuts.
In the 1994-95 budget the government cut virtually nothing. It had a golden opportunity to put in place spending reductions that would have put us further ahead than we are today. During the election campaign my party campaigned on a zero in three deficit elimination plan. If that plan had been implemented when the government came to power, today we would be debating what to do with the surpluses. We would not be talking about another $24 billion deficit which is what we are facing.
Over the course of the government's mandate it is going to add $117 billion to the overall debt. That is unbelievable. The Liberals are crowing about the good job they have done. However, let us remember Canadians are paying a heavy burden.
The finance minister talked about fairness which I will also talk about. Is it fair to take $8 billion out of social programs and give it to money traders around the world? I do not think it is. In effect that is what the government has done by waiting as long as it has and by being so timid in the cuts it has made over the course of the last couple of years. It has waited that long. The interest has built up and money is going out of the country never to be seen again.
Who pays the price? The most vulnerable in society pay the price. That is why the Reform Party advocated cuts right away. We also advocated setting priorities and getting those priorities right. We said let us cut at the top. Let us cut MP pensions, for crying out loud. What did the government do? It made sure it welded them into place so members would have their pensions, while it talked about cutting benefits for everybody else. That is bizarre and ridiculous. That should not happen but that is exactly what happened under this government.
We say let us get rid of all of the perks. Let us get rid of all the extra expense around this place. Let us make some economies at the very top. If we do that then we can talk with some authority about the cuts that need to be made throughout government. Unfortunately, they do have to be made throughout government.
In anticipation of questions from hon. members across the way, they are going to make reference to the approach of the Reform Party. We presented a very extensive budget preceding last year's budget which laid out all kinds of initiatives for the government to follow. What did the government members do? They sat there and mocked us. They have said they want to see it again this year. Well we have laid it out for them. The approach is there.
For instance in the area of health care we would have cut about $800 million. What did the government say? It said that was too deep, that we should not cut that deeply. What did the government do? It cut $3.2 billion in health care. It closed more hospital beds across this country than any provincial government, probably more than all of them combined. I think it is time Canadians knew about that.
We would have cut $200 million out of higher education. What did the government do? It cut $1.2 billion out of higher education. That is the cost of delay. What did the government do when we said we would cut $200 million? It said we were slash and burn. The government is cutting $1.2 billion which is unbelievable. Again, this is the cost of delay.
The deficit is not all due to the cost of delay. The Liberals also decided they were going to continue to fund their friends in big business which is why we have all kinds of money going to all kinds of unbelievable places in Canada today. Why do the Sears department stores have to get money from the federal government? Why does Eaton's need to get money from the federal government? Why does American Express get $17,000 from the Canadian government?
There is also $121,000 going to Abitibi-Price. Mark's Work Wearhouse gets $99,000, the Hudson's Bay Company gets $5,000; on and on it goes.
Here is an interesting case which I would like my friend across the way to justify. Why are we sending $105,000 to the Canadian Bankers Association? Banks earned $5 billion in profits last year and the Canadian government is giving the bankers association $105,000. That is unbelievable. It says here that the grant was from the Department of Human Resources Development for training, which is unbelievable.
Members across the way should be ashamed. They should stand in their places and chastise their government. I hope they have the intestinal fortitude to stand at the budget vote tonight, as the hon. member for York South-Weston says he will do, and vote against the government for that kind of hypocritical spending. It is absolutely ridiculous.
I encourage Canadians who are watching the debate to take everything the government has said with respect to the progress it has made with a grain of salt. I ask them to look at where it is cutting.
This is not the beginning of the end of the deficit problem in the country, it is the end of the beginning. The government has barely scratched the surface. Let us hope that it sets its priorities in a way that is mindful of the needs of ordinary Canadians.