Mr. Speaker, in about three minutes I will formerly move adjournment of the budget debate until tomorrow, but before doing so I would be remiss if I did not say that congratulations are in order concerning the fact that for the first time in 28 years the federal budget is to be balanced.
Some members opposite, most of whom have resisted budget balancing throughout their entire careers, appear to feel that these congratulations are owed to them. What an illusion.
I half expect the finance minister to show up tomorrow with his arm in a sling, having patted himself on the back so many times that he has dislocated his shoulder.
The budget figures themselves plainly show that the federal budget has been balanced primarily on the backs of long suffering Canadian taxpayers, taxpayers who are now contributing more than $30 billion per year to the federal coffers than when the government took office.
If it is the taxpayers of Canada who have contributed the most to balancing the budget, then it is those taxpayers who should be the first to receive the rewards of a balanced budget and it is they who should receive the greatest reward.
One would have expected a grateful government, a grateful minister, to have first devoted any surplus to meeting the priorities of those taxpayers, which are debt reduction and tax relief. Sad to say, this budget does not provide that reward.
Hon. members have not heard this, but they will hear it now. The story of the budget in brief is that there is no serious effort to tackle the debt. Spending is up by $11 billion over the next four years. I would ask Liberal members to listen to the last point because they were not told this in caucus. While tax relief measures amounting to $7 billion are offered over the next three years, total taxes paid by all taxpayers increase by $46 billion over the same period.
In other words, the minister put $900 into the left pocket of the average family and over the next three years will take $6,000 out of the right pocket and hope that the taxpayers will not notice. The taxpayers are going to notice.
It is the intention and the duty of the official opposition over the next few days to fully disclose and expose the betrayal of the taxpayer in this budget and to present alternative measures to make real tax relief and real debt reduction the priorities of the 36th Parliament.
We can hardly wait for that debate in which Canadians will hear the other side of the story. But to give the government time to fortify itself by strong drink and other measures against the exposures of the weaknesses of its budget, to give the government its fleeting moment in the sun, I move:
That the debate be now adjourned.