There is no MP pension. In fact there is no pension for people who work in the independent schools. They are there because they are profoundly dedicated.
My father worked for the air force but not long enough to get an air force pension. Then he worked in independent schools where there are no pensions. When he retired he and my mother simply did not have enough money to live on. That is the truth.
One day my father opened up the careers section of the Globe and Mail and found that a school in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubayy, was seeking a headmaster for a new international school. Lo and behold, my father applied and was selected.
In the United Arab Emirates, which is not a country I would suggest as a model for the Canadian economy, the tax rate is precisely zero. There are no taxes.
I am not suggesting that Canada ought to adopt the Arab economic model. However, when we are competing in an international marketplace with the best trained and the most skilled professionals, we are competing with jurisdictions like the United Arab Emirates which allow people to keep 100% of the fruits of their labours, not 30% or 40% as in Canada.
The moral of this personal story is that in three years my father and mother will have been able to save more for their retirement there than they were able to during the time they worked in Canada. That is a shame.
My oldest brother is a very skilled lawyer with an expertise in a particular area of international law. He went to Canadian universities. We subsidized his education, for which he is grateful. When he went on the international marketplace offering his wares, he found that by practising in New York State he was able to keep 20% to 30% more of what he earned than he could here. He just relocated to Dublin, Ireland, with his company, taking 30 employees who would otherwise be in Toronto or Montreal.
There is a kind of personal irony in this story because some of my ancestors actually came to this place 150 years ago during the Irish potato famine, from which I have since recovered. They came here 150 years ago for economic reasons. They came to the shores of this great country aboard the coffin ships in 1847, seeking a life of hope and growth and leaving behind them a life of subsistence agriculture and no opportunity. They found opportunity in Canada and prospered in many different fields.
I am proud of my ancestors who worked so hard to build the country and give so much to me and my generation. However, I find it tragic and ironic that 150 years later the descendants of those very same potato famine emigrants are now going back across the Atlantic, back to the land from whence they came where they now find economic opportunity.
The grandchildren of paupers from Ireland are going back to Ireland now because the tax rates in Ireland have been lowered to a point where it is now leading the OECD in growth. There has been a 9% growth in real income for each of the last four years.
There is no more a brain drain in Ireland. The greatest export in Ireland used to be its people. Now it is keeping its people because it has invested in higher education, in lower tax rates, and in research and development. It is the model growing economy of Europe as a result.
Young Canadians are pulling up their stakes and moving from this place to Ireland because they do not have the kind of opportunity they need here; because relative to our G-7 partners the personal income tax burden of Canadians is a whopping 56% higher; because the Canadian property tax burden is the highest in the entire OECD; because the corporate income tax burden is 9% higher in Canada than the average in our G-7 partners; because the average Canadian family paid a total bill of $21,242 or 46% of their income last year compared to only $17,000 in food, shelter and clothing.
If one were to keep constant the personal income taxes brought in, in 1994 by the government, it would necessitate a $6.5 billion tax cut just to keep income taxes constant with where they were three years ago.
The top marginal tax rate in Canada kicks in at $60,000 a year while in the United States it kicks in at $271,000 a year. The Americans have many flaws but at least they are prepared to reward risk taking and the kind of venturous spirit that is necessary in a free market economy. We penalize those people. We think the wealthy are those who earn over $60,000 a year but the middle class knows differently.
My family and other Canadians have moved abroad because working Canadians and their employees are currently paying a deficit reduction tax of $7 billion into the unemployment insurance fund. It is basically a cook the books fund for the Minister of Finance to cloud the actual size of the deficit.
Young Canadians are moving abroad, are moving to the United States and leaving with the skills we have given them. We have just raised CPP payroll taxes by 73% over six years, the largest single tax increase in Canadian history. It is a $10 billion tax increase which I am ashamed to say my hon. friends in the PC caucus voted for at second reading.
While I am speaking about my friends in the Tory Party, I cannot help but recall their economic record, those who introduced—