I could get Mr. Young. Maybe he could come and give us a hand.
Talk about highway robbery. This has been going on for years. What is the government's response? “Oh but we give infrastructure grants”. Infrastructure grants come from other sources of taxation and the ministers have to admit that.
The straight 10 cents a litre the government takes out of the pockets of the people from Saskatchewan in a country that has to move grain 100 miles to get to a terminal, and this government returns 21 cents on $5 taken. And the Liberals brag about the fact that they do not have a deficit. They are taking it out of the industries all over Canada.
I would like to inform the members of the NDP caucus down there about this. Do they know what the provincial Liberals are doing in Saskatchewan? They are going around Saskatchewan with a petition to get the provincial government to spend more money on highways. Maybe that is a good petition. The provincial government in Saskatchewan has not been too kind but at least it has spent 40% of what it has taken in. This government is spending less than 4% at times. I hope the federal Liberals will welcome the provincial Liberals from Saskatchewan so they can get some help for Saskatchewan roads. I am sure nobody on this side of the House would kick if the Liberals raised it to 20%.
For five years the Canadian Automobile Association and the truck drivers association have pleaded with this government to give 20% of the money it takes, just 20%. But no, we are getting something like 4%. This government is riding on the shirttails of people who have to make a living in the transportation industry.
The railway located in my town is slated for closure. There are people south of where I live whom I know extremely well. In two years they will have to haul their grain 160 kilometres just to get it to a terminal. And those people over there are wringing their hands with delight because they will be able to tax that industry even more and put farmers completely out of business.
This is the one tax that affects all of Canada and this government steals every time we put the nozzle in the tank to fill it with gas. It is a terrible terrible shame. It is a disgrace. We are the only country of our size that does not have a national highway policy, the only country in the world. And they sit and say “Look what we are doing”. We know what they are doing.
I want to refer to just one other thing. In Saskatchewan we have rural governments. Rural governments are called rural municipalities. These rural municipalities were created at the time Saskatchewan became a province. We have a large number of Indian bands in Saskatchewan. When the previous Conservative government in settling treaties, which took a 10 square section out of a rural municipality, promised and acted that it would give that rural government 25.5 times the assessment in compensation for the tax base that was lost.
But at the same time that government promised that for any land that was purchased by the natives, they would also get the same amount. Now this rural government has gone to court with this government opposite because all it wants to pay for the amount of land purchased is a measly 5.5%.
Some of our rural governments in Saskatchewan have no tax base left and they are holding this up in the court and watching them completely disappear. I visited two RMs during the Christmas break and they are just about finished because they have no money left to provide the services because this government has held it up.
When I said I was happy to talk about this, I really am because I come from a province that is just teetering now in many areas because of the taxation of this government. Heaven forbid, the next tax it will raise will be a carbon tax on more fuel and take great glory in spending 21 cents back to the highways for every 5 dollar it takes. Then it can fire Doug Young at the same time.