To get back on track, the budget tabled today by the Minister of Finance is not worth the paper it is printed on. It is despicably election oriented.
It is an election budget, because the Minister of Finance missed a golden opportunity to do extraordinary things, given the exceptional circumstances. He could have done extraordinary things in job creation, in really fighting poverty, in providing a real impetus to long term employment while continuing to aim for zero deficit in the year 2000.
Instead, the Minister of Finance presented measures that are blatantly election oriented and a sad reflection on this government.
Let us take taxation, for example. Last November, we suggested to the Minister of Finance, in a detailed analysis with respect to a review of corporate taxation, ways to tighten up fiscal spending, unfair advantages for large corporations. This would have allowed him to recover no less than $3 billion to plow back into SMBs in support of their job creation effort. What do we see in this budget? Nothing, in this regard. As for individual taxation, it is exactly the same thing.
He has been at the head of the federal finance department for three and a half years and he is unable to produce a single line of tax reform to make the system more equitable for low and middle income taxpayers. What they have done is to hang on to the unfair advantages for the very rich friends of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The Minister of Finance had extraordinary leeway. I will explain. If we compare the projected deficit when he brought down his last budget and the projections in the present budget together with the projections from the large Canadian firms that specialize in this sort of figures, the Minister of Finance had at least $8 billion to play with in 1997-98.
In other words, while continuing to focus on lowering the deficit, and eliminating it by the year 2000, as the Government of Quebec has undertaken to do, the Minister of Finance could have done extraordinary things. Eight billion dollars worth of leeway, of flexibility. And the Minister of Finance is not taking advantage of this.
As far as job creation is concerned, 1.5 million people in Canada who were officially unemployed, three million if we include those who stopped looking for work because they were discouraged or because measures like employment insurance have marginalized them, three million unemployed could have expected something tangible in the way of job creation. They were waiting for the Minister of Finance. They were waiting for the budget.
Instead, the only measure involving new money in this budget amounts to $25 million. Twenty five million dollars, when the Minister of Finance, with his $8 billion, could easily have used part of the surplus in the unemployment insurance fund to make a substantial reduction in premiums. Not 10 cents, which is peanuts, but a substantial reduction in premiums to give job creation a boost. He could have done that. This is something we have been asking him to do for almost a year and a half.
He could also have announced that this decision to put in place the employment insurance system, a name that is rather odious, which came into effect last January, he could have taken part of the surplus generated by the unemployment insurance fund to once again provide adequate protection for the unemployed.
Instead, the Minister of Finance acted like a manager who is hard as nails. Not just a zero deficit objective for the year 2000 but a sky high surplus. The unemployed would just have to wait. As the Prime Minister said not long ago to the unemployed: "Good luck". That is the Minister of Finance for you.
As for child poverty, a few weeks ago, the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister were all of sudden filled with compassion for the children they made even poorer during the past three and a half years with their cuts in social programs totalling $4.5 billion. All of sudden, they feel compassion for poor children.
So what do they give to poor children? This year, $50 million. This year, $50 million more in new money for poor children. Next year, a program worth $600 million in new benefits. Sure, $600 million, but compare that with this government's past record. And this $600 million is new money that is supposed to come to us after the election. Suppose they change their minds, the way they did with the GST?
They have changed their mind as well, an unkept promise of $600 million for daycare; they could change their mind about the child benefit. A total of $600 million, while they have cut $4.5 billion from social programs. A total of $600 million, while they are going to take very close to $1.5 billion away from the unemployed, just by creating employment insurance. Impoverishing the parents of children living in poverty-is that what battling poverty is all about?
It is odious to present things to us under that light. They are the ones responsible for the rise in child poverty, and they are the ones who were calling for a campaign against poverty in the red book, where they decried the fact that there were a million poor children in Canada. Thanks to them, those numbers have risen to 1.5 million; the bulk of the blame lies with them.
This budget sets up a foundation, with all the hoopla, all the theatrics and window dressing the Minister of Finance is capable of. A foundation to fund research in areas that include health and higher education. Here again, an $800 million foundation. The first question that came to mind was where in the Minister of Finance's balance sheet did the $800 million fit. Once again, it boils down to one thing: the Minister of Finance has cut transfer payments to the provinces for funding post-secondary education and health.
As a result, as a Canadian coalition told us in the Finance Committee, the cuts the minister has made will mean, for instance, that in the years to come biomedical research will be cut 30 per cent. This is the disaster the Minister of Finance has wrought. Then they come along to tell us that a research foundation is being created. Yes, created in order to try to pick up the pieces, for they have realized that they made a mistake, but cannot face up to their mistakes.
And where, once again, are the $800 million going to come from? Looking at the forecasts for transfer payments to the provinces made public last year by the Minister of Finance, and comparing them with the revised transfers presented by the Minister of Finance this year, we see that there is a "slight" drop of $800 million in transfers to the provinces. And the research foundation costs precisely $800 million, so once again it is clear that the initial funding for this foundation will be created at the expense of the provinces. That is what the finance minister is up to, and that is what we should thank him for? This budget is why we should be telling him he did a fine job? It is a monumental disgrace.
I will point out, Mr. Speaker, that all these new measures announced with fanfare, every one of them, are in areas exclusively under provincial jurisdiction. They all deal with health, education, income security, which are areas identified in the Constitution as areas exclusively under provincial jurisdiction.
It is quite strange that the Minister of Finance was able to find money on the side to announce, and make a big production of it, federal programs identified by a big flag and the words Government of Canada underneath, but he cannot find a red cent to maintain the transfer payments that were normally made to the provinces for social programs. It is really quite strange. Could it be that he is taking over provincial jurisdictions by squeezing the provinces out and using the Canadian flag and the words Govern-
ment of Canada, prominently displayed, to score political points? The answer is yes.
The measures put forward by the Minister of Finance in this budget are an extension of the Deputy Prime Minister's flag policy, nothing more.
I would have had much to say about this budget; in fact, we will have the opportunity to do so in the days to come. Let me tell you about another important issue which is not mentioned in this budget: the compensation to which Quebec is entitled for harmonizing the GST.
Our province harmonized its sales tax with the GST as early as 1991. Today, it is presenting the federal government with a $1.9 billion bill. The federal government signed an harmonization deal with the maritime provinces, and a cheque was immediately issued. The maritime provinces got close to $1 billion in compensation for harmonizing the GST, while Quebec, which did the same in 1991, did not get anything. For reasons of fairness and justice to Quebec, we expected the budget to make mention of a first payment to the Government of Quebec for harmonizing the GST, but there is no such mention.
In closing, I would like to quote the Minister of Finance, who said in his budget in brief, and I quote: "What government does with scarce resources shows what its values are". This budget shows the government's cynicism, blatantly election oriented strategies and mockery of taxpayers in Quebec and Canada.
I would like to move the motion to adjourn the budget debate. I move, seconded by my colleague for Rimouski-Témiscouata:
That the debate be now adjourned.
(On motion of Mr. Loubier, debate adjourned.)