Mr. Speaker, I want to say to my hon. friend from St. Albert that I think the Sergeant-at-Arms does carry a sword and I think that is the way we could probably keep some order in this place if we really had to.
It is a pleasure to rise and address this motion. I will read the motion again just for people who are watching this debate:
That this House condemns the government for imperilling the economic and social security of Canadians with their reckless commitment to dramatically increase spending, at a time when the average family's share of the federal debt is approaching $80,000 and Canada has the highest personal income taxes in the G-7.
I think we are talking about an extraordinarily important issue here today. Unfortunately I do not have time to explore that issue as deeply as I would like, but I do want to focus on one aspect of that, what we in the Reform Party refer to as social benefits of tax relief. In order to do that I must talk a little about how government overspending has really come to hurt Canadians.
I want to talk first about the effect of overspending on social programs. Earlier the leader of the New Democratic Party spoke and I know the NDP is extraordinarily concerned about social programs. I can tell the leader of the NDP that the Reform Party is as well. We point out to our friends in the NDP and to the Liberals that since we have run up a debt of $600 billion and now have interest payments in this country of around $47 billion a year, we have had to find cuts elsewhere. The government in its wisdom cut social programs. Who does that hurt the most? It hurts low income Canadians. It hurts the most vulnerable.
I remember sitting on the finance committee and having Dr. Judith Kazimirski appear before the committee. Dr. Kazimirski was the head of the Canadian Medical Association. She spoke with a tremendous amount of passion about how long people with breast cancer or prostate cancer had to wait, on waiting lists, in this country because we cannot properly fund health care today. That is a disgrace. That is what has happened because we have interest payments of $47 billion a year, because successive Liberal, Tory, Liberal, Tory governments kept spending more than they brought in. The result was a debt of $600 billion. It has been the most vulnerable people in society who have paid the biggest price for this. We see that in the erosion of our social programs, but it does not end there.
When we look at the taxation system in this country, we see another perfect example of how overspending and mounting debt have hurt the most vulnerable people in society. If we look at working class Canadians and middle class Canadians, they have paid a tremendous price for overspending. I point to the tax load people have to carry in this country. We have the highest personal income taxes in the G-7, 56% higher than the G-7 average, than all the other people we trade with, the U.K., the United States, Japan. That is staggering.
My friend from the Conservatives was talking a minute ago about people going to the United States. According to the government's industry department study, people in the United States are 25% wealthier than Canadians. Just a decade ago we had Canadians who were on par with the Americans in per capita income. We tied second and third in the world. Now we are twelfth. The economic powerhouse Iceland is ahead of us because the Liberal and Tory governments did not keep their eye on the ball. When the Liberals were reducing the deficit they did it on the backs of taxpayers, so their per capita income went down and down. That meant a tremendous strain on families.
Not surprisingly, in 1991 Decima poll came out and said that 74% of working Canadians said that if they had their druthers, if they could afford it, they would have one parent at home. But they cannot afford it. Since 1990 personal incomes, real disposal incomes, dropped by $3,000 for the average family. That is unbelievable. Now Canadians are under tremendous strain because governments have overspent and the debt has mounted and mounted. Now we have interest payments of $47 billion a year. That would be bad enough, but we have Liberals and now the Conservatives talking about spending even more money.
I guess a debt of $600 billion is not enough. I guess taxes which are among the highest in the world are not enough for these people. Liberals want to spend 50% of the surpluses on new programs. Some people say the surpluses might hit $30 billion. That is $15 billion a year in new spending? We have a debt of $600 billion which leaves us extraordinarily vulnerable to shocks from around the world. But these people are so reckless that they want to spend more.
The Conservatives say they will spend a third of the surplus, $10 billion a year, in new spending advocated by a Conservative government. That is scary to me. This is the time to be prudent on the one hand and secure our present situation by starting to pay down debt. We heard that from Canadians when we went around the country this fall. They said pay down debt, it is our first priority, please pay it down, we have had enough of this profligacy of $600 billion debts, we need to pay it down.
On the other hand and close behind Canadians were saying “Let us start to give people some hope for the future. Let us give them some tax relief. Let us leave them with more money in their pockets so they can drive their own futures, so they can live their lives”.
We have all received letters from people who say “I have had it”. I received a letter from a lady who lives in Quesnel, B.C. Her name is Margaret Snell. It is one of the most heart-wrenching letters I have ever read. Her son came to her and said “Mom, I cannot be in baseball, soccer or hockey this year because we cannot afford it, right?” She was ready to complain about the CPP increases. They simply do not have the money. For them it was not an option of taking it out of disposable income. Like many Canadians, they do not have any disposable income. It was either going to come out of the mortgage or out of the groceries.
My point is simply that Canadians cannot afford a government which continues to spend. We have to have debt reduction. We have to have tax relief.
My party has laid down some solutions. We have set some targets for reducing the debt. Right now the debt is $600 billion. We would reduce it over 20 years to about $343 billion. It would go from 70% of the economy down to about 20%. It would save $20 billion a year in interest charges on the debt. That $20 billion could be returned to social programs. It could be used for tax relief. It is an extraordinarily prudent measure. It is something which would secure the future of young people who are having to bear an inordinate burden because of the profligacy of previous governments.
The other half of that surplus would be devoted to tax relief. We list nine measures in our document. The one which comes to mind right away is that which concerns the 3% and 5% Tory surtaxes. The Conservatives introduced them specifically as a measure to reduce the deficit. The deficit is now gone. The Liberals have a moral obligation to get rid of the 3% and 5% surtaxes. They were implemented specifically to pay down the deficit. It is gone. Let us remove those surtaxes and help all Canadians.
My friends across the way talk so often about the need to be more compassionate. I agree with that. Let us be more compassionate. If we implemented the tax relief measures which the Reform Party is talking about, we would lift 1.3 million low income Canadians off the tax rolls. The single mother who makes $15,000 and pays $1,300 in income tax today would pay nothing. The family of four making $32,000 which is paying $3,000 in income taxes would pay nothing. It is time to help Canadians.
We have laid down the challenge to my friends across the way. This is an hour of decision for them. There is a budget coming up. It will be the first balanced budget in 27 years. It is time for them to set a new course for the country. We do not want to see them go back into that spending mode which got us into this problem in the first place. Canadians do not want it. They have made that extraordinarily clear.
I lay down the challenge to my friends. Please consider seriously what we are suggesting to you today. If you do, I can guarantee that you will have the support of not only the Reform Party but of Canadians from coast to coast.