Mr. Speaker, during the hon. member's remarks she said there was not public support for broad based tax relief.
I am looking at a poll conducted by the Angus Reid group in the past month. In response to the question “What do you think should be the federal government's main priority in deciding what to do with any future surplus money?”, 45% responded that it should be used to reduce the accumulated debt, 29% said that it should be used to cut taxes, and merely 23% said that it should be spent on government programs.
In so far as the budget places much greater emphasis on new spending programs than on either debt reduction, with zero commitment to that in the budget, or tax relief with only a modest commitment, how does the member square that?
When she speaks of tax relief, how does she justify the continued tax increase of bracket creep which KPMG estimates will cost taxpayers over $1,000 in the upcoming fiscal year, on average, far outstripping any tax relief to be delivered to modest income Canadians in the budget?