Madam Speaker, when the government first took office in 1993 it was faced with a $42 billion deficit and certainly the overwhelming Canadian priority was to balance the books.
But even in that climate all four of this government's previous budgets undertook targeted tax reductions to achieve social and economic objectives by providing assistance to education, children, charities and the disabled.
Now that the fiscal situation has improved we have begun a process of tax relief and our first priority has been to provide tax relief to those who can least afford to pay, low and middle income Canadians.
The hon. member cites the example of a $32,000 single wage earner family. In the 1998 budget we increased the basic exemption that essentially put more money in low income Canadians' hands, that is money they can receive on a tax free basis. We eliminated the general federal surtax for Canadians earning up to about $50,000. We have also taken important measures to assist low income families with children. In particular, we realize the challenge we face is certainly one that requires the assistance and the partnership of the provinces.
The hon. member does not feel that there is any benefit or any worth to the national child benefit program that was put in place. I tend to disagree and I am sure that there are thousands of Canadians who also disagree with that.
I think it is fair to say that the initial phase of our program was to balance the budget. The second phase is to continue to build on the 1998 budget which targeted tax relief to those Canadians who can least afford to pay and who have the least amount of earnings. We have begun the process. We are committed to continue that tax relief.
We have provided $7 billion in tax relief over three years in the last budget. The Prime Minister, the finance minister and this government are certainly committed to putting more money into those individuals' hands.