Mr. Speaker, I would like to split my time with the member for Kelowna.
Looking over this opposition motion by the member for Halifax, I notice that the NDP address some serious problems in the country but they have the wrong solutions. But it is not only the NDP that does not have the solutions, it is the Liberals across the way who are missing solutions as well.
The NDP have suggested that somehow by making an investment in culture they will ameliorate unemployment and will provide jobs. I do not know how flower power is going to put people back to work. The sixties are over. Buying million dollar paintings does not put people to work.
Farmers in Saskatchewan who voted for the NDP would not be in favour of buying million dollar paintings. Seniors in Kamloops or Burnaby would not be in favour of buying million dollar paintings. Unemployed fishers in Atlantic Canada would not be in favour of buying million dollar paintings, but the NDP is. The party that some of these people voted for is. I think some of those people have to question whether or not those members truly understand their needs. Then I look across to the Liberal benches. Once again I will lay out the problem and talk about the lack of solutions.
On the subject of unemployment, we are in our 84th month of unemployment at a rate of 9% or worse. What have they done in response? They have an employment insurance surplus which is now at about $15 billion, or will be by the end of the fiscal year. For every single average working Canadian in the country it means $700. The Liberal government is taking $700 from the average working Canadian for employment insurance and it says it is accountable and is looking after the situation of unemployment? News for them. Economics 101 is that payroll taxes kill jobs. Until the Liberals understand this they will not be able to rectify the problem.
They also talk about how they want to put $90 million toward youth unemployment. They talk about how they care, but they do not. They are talking about $90 million to hire some temporary bureaucrats for the summer to once again grow the size of government. If we look at this a little more closely, beyond the myopic Liberal view of the next election in trying to buy some votes, we realize it would take about 140 years for the Liberals to solve the youth unemployment problem by employing all the unemployed under the age of 30. They cannot rectify it that way. It is a joke as well.
The Liberals then talk about spending a billion dollars in handouts to students. What they do not tell Canadians is that for every dollar they pay, for every one person they claim to help, they hurt nine more. For every single person who will get some sort of benefit, nine more have a bigger debt to face. They have a higher deficit. They have higher taxes. That is what will kill their opportunities when they go into the job market. The government fundamentally misunderstands what it is doing.
Governments, whether it be the ministers or the prime minister in the front benches now or in the past, have always erred on the side of big government. The government has a theory and it is a wrong-headed theory because it does not hold up in reality. The theory is that the bigger government is, the more centralized it is and the more people it employs, this will somehow rectify the situation of unemployment in the country. The government supported then an unemployment insurance policy now an employment insurance policy that subsidizes people in seasonal work to be unemployed. It encourages the problem. It doubles the unemployment rate of our neighbours to the south, the United States, and the Liberals sit smug.
People who were unemployed voted for the Liberals. Farmers in Saskatchewan voted for the NDP. Seniors who are facing real crunches because of fixed incomes received from the government through pensions or other means voted for the NDP. Unemployed fishers in Atlantic Canada who once again gave the Liberals a chance despite the failed Atlantic groundfish strategy were willing to give the NDP a chance.
All those people have been failed because the socialists to the left of me, the NDP, talk about going ahead and spending money on million dollar paintings and funding artists. This will not help unemployed fishers. It will not help farmers in Saskatchewan and it will not help seniors.
The Liberals across the way say they want to help youth but go ahead and put taxes against them with the Canada pension plan. Shame on them. They go ahead and jump the CPP contribution rate to 10%, a $10 billion tax that will be levied against students and young people in the country so they can subsidize their MP pensions, and they gloat with pride.
The Minister of Finance has the gall to stand up in the House and brag about their accomplishments. How can they brag about 84 months of unemployment above 9%? How can they brag about a $10 billion tax?
How can the government brag about balancing the budget when it did it with 36 tax increases since 1993 and two more to boot in the first session in this House? The government has brought forward Bill C-2 which is a $10 billion tax hike. It has brought forward Bill C-10 which goes after seniors who receive social security benefits from the United States. How can it be proud of a record like that?
Only a Liberal could be proud of a record like that. Only Liberals could feign pride in this House and stand up to say that they support those measures, that they are doing it for the sake of tax fairness, that they are putting in a $10 billion tax for the sake of tax fairness, that they are taxing seniors on their social security benefits for tax fairness. Where is the fairness in that? I do not know.
When those people have a chance to examine those policies, when it comes time for re-election, they will look long and hard, and they certainly deserve to.