Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has been talking about a tax, about a particular manner of handling a tax, and about its effects in Alberta, Saskatchewan and other provinces.
It is always interesting to hear a Reform member refer to taxation but never refer to Reform's so-called budget which it presented, the taxpayers budget. The Reform members' idea of
dealing with matters in Canada is to deal with matters like the elimination of multiculturalism funding. They would eliminate regional development groups such as western economic diversification, an organization that for many western areas of the country has resulted in a dynamic expansion in industry and secondary processing. They recommend the elimination of regional groups in other parts of the country.
The Reform budget also includes a reduction in senior citizens benefits, reductions in unemployment insurance benefits, reductions in funding to post-secondary education, reductions in health, reductions in the Canada assistance plan, reductions in equalization, total cash transfer reductions to provinces totalling 24 per cent, which is over and above what I have already referred to.
Has the hon. member ever tried to correlate the cuts, the drastic slash and burn in the Reform budget to what he is discussing here today?