Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-28 today. It is a rather lengthy bill as are a lot of finance bills. Its intent is to amend the Income Tax Act and other acts. It goes on for some 400 pages to explain why that will be done.
I am sure we will hear from the government side that it will encourage charitable donations, that it will help people put a little more money away or get some more money out of registered retirement, and that some tax shelter abuses might be shut down.
This reminds me a little bit of when British Columbia had a long serving premier by the name of W. A. C. Bennett. What was said of Mr. Bennett during his heyday was that he would fill your shoes full of rocks. Then every once in a while he would take one of the rocks out and expect you to say “Thank you for the relief. Thank you for taking away all the pain”. In many cases he had shoved the rocks in the shoes to begin with. I see exactly the same thing happening with the Income Tax Act.
We have a glossing over of the political and economic reality of the country. We are the most highly taxed group of people in the industrialized world. Tax freedom day comes later and later each year. Now we work a full six months of the year to pay our different taxes.
It reminds me again of another famous quote. I wish the Liberals would read it. It is from Winston Churchill who said that the idea a nation could tax itself into prosperity was one of the cruelest delusions which had ever befuddled the human mind. That is exactly what has happened with the bill.
The government has filled our boots full of rocks. It is going to take out a couple of little pebbles and say “Now don't you feel better for this?” I do not feel any better for this, not a bit better. The idea that all these taxes will make me a prosperous person and that the constituents I represent will suddenly be rolling in the dough is one of the cruelest delusions that has ever befuddled the human mind.
Let us just think of a few of these facts. The Liberal tax policies mean that a single mother with one child and an income of 15,000 lousy dollars will pay $1,364 in income tax. The bill reinforces that by stating it is a good idea.
This lady is trying to raise a child on $15,000 a year. Imagine trying to live on $15,000. I cannot even imagine it. Imagine a single mom being forced to live on this amount. She has pressures and stress, and the government comes along and says “You know you were going to buy some winter coats for your kids. I will take that $1,364 right off the top”. That is cruel.
What about those who are almost middle class, not quite but almost? What if they make $30,000 a year? The bill states that it is a good idea to take $11.2 billion from people who make $30,000 a year and less. Indications in Bill C-28 are that this is a good idea and people should be grateful.
As a matter of fact they will probably stand in their place over there and say that the bill allows people to give more to charity. People making $15,000 a year are charity cases themselves. They do not have any money to give to charity. Any money they might have had has been taken off the top by the finance minister who slurped the top off this bit of money the woman in my example has and said “If you had ever thought of giving to charity I am going to make sure you cannot. Thank you very much, that is mine”.
Churchill was right. It is a cruel delusion Liberals seem to hold to that high taxes will bring prosperity for all. I do not know why they do not just get right at it. Why do they not just make the tax 100%? We would all be so fabulously wealthy we would not know what to do with all the extra money. They could just take it all.
Everyone knows the old story. I am surprised it is not in here. The new income tax form would a very short form. On one line it would say: “How much money did you make?” On the second line: “Just send it all to me”. It would be signed by the Minister of Finance. It would be much simpler and maybe we would be all richer.
Imagine the gall over there with them saying that the Income Tax Act and the tax system in Canada are for the benefit of all Canadians. The Liberals have raised taxes 37 times since they took office. I would be happy to table the list, but what is the point? I do not imagine Liberals would read it. Every time we turn around in income taxes they have failed to index basic deductions. Imagine what that means.
It means that the average family in Canada has seen its income drop by $3,000 since the Liberals took office. Real spending money has dropped by $3,000. We now spend more to service the debt which the Liberals seem happy with than we spend on food, clothing and shelter.
Why do they not take it all? We can all go over to the finance minister's house and enjoy the wealth together, except those who are rich enough to divert the funds somewhere where they do not have to pay the taxes. The lady who is making $15,000 is not one of those people, but there are plenty over there. That is a shame.
What should be done? To begin with, there should not be 450 some pages of gobbledegook in Bill C-28 that we have to try to wade through to find some meat and potatoes for the average family. We should be saying to these people, the single mother trying to raise a child, a family trying to make $30,000, hardly wealthy, we can offer you some help and here is how we are going to do it.
If I could only get the government to listen I would read it something like this. Why not reduce the GST when it gets a chance to help the family that has to pay GST on every little thing it buys for its home? Why not increase the basic personal amount?
In question period today the Leader of the Opposition pointed out that in Canada we start paying taxes at $6,500 a year. Unbelievable. The government asks people who make $6,500 to support the national debt that it has run up. That is less than $600 a month. I do not say I am going to emulate the United States, but imagine if we could have $9,500 before the tax rate cut in. What would you do with the extra $3,000 that is untaxed? You might be able to buy shoes for your kids. That would be the basics. You might be able to start to invest. You might be able save for the future. You might do all kinds of good things.
What would happen if you raised the spousal amount equivalent to the basic personal amount? What about the family making $30,000 who says just let me take home a little more of my money and I will look after my kids. If you would just leave me some money, I will look after quite a bit. But if you are going to take it away you will have to replace it with massive national government programs, where they take all your money, you send it to Ottawa, they deduct 50% for handling and they send it back to you in services you never asked for. They deduct a chunk all along the way. Why not just leave the money with the people? What an advantage that would be.
What if you eliminated the surtax the Tories brought in? What if you said to somebody if you do manage to make $50,000 to $60,000 a year, although that is not exactly rolling in the Cayman Islands, we will not surtax you anymore? We will let you invest in businesses. We will let you invest in your pension plan. We will let you invest in your children's education and their future. We will let you build prosperity in your home town. Instead, if you happen to be a farmer, you happen to have a good year, you make $60,000, you pay a surtax because you are considered a bad asset for Canada and they take the money the money away. That is a shame.
What if you reduced capital gains taxes? Capital gains taxes kill initiative. What if they allowed students, people who we saw protesting in the streets the other day, to claim a tax deduction for interest payments on student loans? What if they reduced job killing payroll taxes like CPP and EI? What if they passed a taxpayer bill of rights so they could not hog the money to finance the future and borrow on our children's future?
If they did all of that they would have adopted the Reform Party's plan “Securing Your Future”. That is what they would have done. Instead of a hopeless 455 page document that says the future is ours because we are the government, it would have been the future is yours and we are going to help you secure it. What a difference if securing future were the aim of this document instead of lining the bank vaults in Ottawa.