Mr. Speaker, I have some questions that perhaps the hon. member might address.
We experienced in the province of Ontario the results of a Tory promised tax cut in 1995 when Mr. Harris was elected based on a 30% cut in provincial income tax. Mr. Harris and some of his colleagues would say that they have had to reduce spending in health care, education and a few other areas due to reductions in the federal transfers.
Our question would be, and it is quite obvious, would it not be more appropriate to say that the decisions made by the Harris government in Ontario clearly are a result of its need to live up to its promise to give a 30% tax cut? Would the member not agree that giving an across the board percentage tax cut simply benefits those people earning higher incomes dramatically more than the people who actually need help? Now that the tax cut is at about 22.5% in the province of Ontario and some folks, notably those wealthier Ontarians, are looking forward to the last 7.5% coming down in the next cut, people are wondering if they made the right decision in Ontario.
Teachers would certainly question whether or not that government's commitment to funding education is appropriate given the tax cut. Doctors, nurses, municipal leaders, municipal taxpayers who are seeing downloading, clearly many people in Ontario are saying “I think we made a mistake by buying into this simple so-called percentage tax cut”.
That is the hon. member's party, the Conservative Party's position, that a 10% cut across the board will somehow magically restore an ability to fund the research grants the member talks about, to put more money back into health care, to somehow mysteriously put more money back into education. We on this side of the House know that the Conservative Party's strategy is to dangle some kind of a percentage tax cut so people might think in the end it will put more money in their pockets when in fact it will take money out of their pockets and take services away from the people who need them.
I wonder if the member might have a response to those comments.