Mr. Speaker, I have been listening with great interest to the debate on the tax amendments contained in Bill C-28. I have listened to government members heap praise upon themselves for all their great accomplishments. I will focus my comments on the reality and the truth of the matter regarding the government's direction.
A member from the other side earlier mentioned three great pillars of Canada: health, education and social services. There is no disagreement from members on this side, but the truth of the matter and the facts are that the government cut funding to all three of these areas. It cut transfers from $18 billion to $11.5 billion per year and is now about to raise it and pat itself on the back.
Members opposite keep talking about a stable floor of funding. It is obviously doublespeak. They have cut drastically and now they are adding a bit more funding which is significantly lower than the amount of funding in existence before they took power. The reality and the truth is that the government continues to extract more money from hardworking Canadians. Its guiding principle seems to be take a dollar and give a nickel.
Another member from the other side seemed to lack the understanding that taxes can be reduced by making government smaller and reinvesting money back into the priority areas of health, education and social programs. She thinks the two are mutually exclusive. Liberals cannot envision ever decreasing their hold on Canadian tax dollars without taking from some other area.
Let us talk about the $47 billion interest payment that Canadians pay to service the $600 billion debt. That is eating the heart out of social programs. The Liberals are directly responsible for this situation. Let us make no mistake about that.
The fact is that we have high debt and high taxes. Interest rates are also on the increase. Foreign investors are concerned about our economic climate. The Liberals fail to mention the number of businesses and young professionals who are being driven south by high taxes. The fact is all is not well with the economy. The Liberals continue to spend more than they take in, which is in many ways unbelievable given the amount of taxes paid by hardworking Canadians.
We hear about numbers and statistics. The reality for Canadians is that they are working harder and harder to see less and less take home pay to care for their own families. There is less money for mortgage payments and rent, less money for clothes for their kids, less money to put food on the table, less money for them to spend wisely in the areas they deem most important for themselves and the well-being of their families.
I would like to focus on the situation of one family in particular, on one individual who decided to go public with her struggles. Kim Hicks' life became a bit of a case study of Reform's tax reduction plan. Her case was first mentioned in a speech delivered by the Leader of the Opposition in this House in the prebudget debate. I will take a brief moment to summarize his story.
Kim Hicks is a mother from New Brunswick who wrote to the leaders of all parties seeking a bright light of encouragement regarding her life, her situation. She and her husband worked extremely hard to make ends meet and to provide for their children. There was always more month left at the end of the money. This letter struck a chord with the Leader of the Opposition. He undertook a project and hired Mrs. Hicks and her family to be a case study to implement Reform's economic plan.
Mrs. Hicks was paid the same amount of money she would save in taxes under the Reform plan. She was to report what she would do with the money for her family. Did she squander the money? No. She paid off debts, first priority. She paid for medical procedures her children needed. She put a portion of the money in a savings account. The remainder was used on a modest outing for some family entertainment.
There are thousands of families across Canada suffering under this Liberal government. This exercise is one of the most valuable case studies on Canadian taxation because it was run by real Canadians making real life decisions. StatsCanada and the finance department can run all the scenarios they want. However, they cannot recreate the real human story that Kim Hicks provided.
One would think that the finance minister would have taken a keen interest in such a study. Then again, what does the finance minister know about paying taxes? Instead of emphasizing with the plight of average Canadians, the finance minister dismissed this exercise as a publicity stunt. I would like to tell the Hicks family, whose lives were made that much more bearable, that their happiness is not a media stunt.
What we are opposed to, the underlying principles of this bill, is that there are more and more complicated, convoluted and confusing tax amendments being made which fly in the face of commitment to a fair, simple and visible form of taxation, something we have long called for on behalf of Canadians across this country. It is high time that the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and the rest of the Liberal caucus leave cloud nine and take a hard look at the financial state of Canadian families. Our we the best country in the world in which to live because of this government or in spite of it? It is definitely the later.
Canadian families want to see a reduction in their taxes. That is what they are calling on from this government.