Mr. Speaker, I am really pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this motion which I thoroughly agree with. The hon. member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke sort of triggered my selection in the direction I was going to take on this.
I want to get right to the spending. He said the Liberal government has done an excellent job of getting it under control. My colleague from Fraser Valley pointed out something very important that I think we really ought to applaud. That is the taxpayers of this country have bent over backwards to help eliminate the deficit. They are the ones who did it. They are the ones who deserve the credit.
Now that they have accomplished this balanced budget, the least that we can do for Canadian taxpayers is say job well done, now we are going to concentrate on reducing the debt and giving you a much deserved tax relief.
The member talked about spending, that everything is under control. He must not be reading the public accounts. I just want to point out a couple of them. One of them will really interest you, Mr. Speaker.
I have only been here four years. If you look through the public accounts you see money being spent for a committee to discover all kinds of different ways to use blueberries to make good jam, good pudding or whatever, a committee that was struck by this government. That is just one example.
The one I am really intrigued with cost $116,000. It is a committee the government put together to study seniors and sexuality. Old guys like us must really be appreciative of that kind of committee. Am I pleased that the government is willing to spend money like that to look after me and my sexuality. That is the kind of bragging the government ought to stand up and talk about.
Look at the public accounts. Look at all the stupid things the government spends money on. And the Liberals sit over there and brag. I hope there is one area where spending does not take place. I hope the Liberals do not have a bunch of money in each one of their budgets to pay chiropractors to help put their arms and shoulders back in place from trying to pat themselves on the back. They do not deserve a pat on the back. The kind of pat they deserve would be a lot lower than on the back, for the way they have spent this country into the situation it is in.
I know members have people coming to them with different complaints regarding this and that and one thing or another. Just the other day before we came back to this session, a fellow came to my office. He was absolutely displeased. He had received a raise. He was as angry as could be. We compared his paycheque before he got the raise. Guess what? He was taking home less money than he was before he got the raise. But guess who was getting more money? The Liberal Government of Canada was getting quite a bit more, more in income tax because it put him up in a higher bracket, and a whole lot more in CPP.
That is the kind of thing these people are doing to Canadians who are trying to make ends meet. Canadians are getting angry and are wondering why the government is doing this to them. We have to stop this and the only way I know of is to kick those guys right out of those seats and put people over there who are willing to look after those kinds of issues because they are not.
Let us look at priorities. In my riding young married couples with one or two children have been evicted from their homes because they cannot pay the rent or they cannot make the mortgage payment. Yet if we look at their paycheques, some of them earn $20,000, some less and some maybe more, but the amount of taxes is pathetic. The taxes would be enough to help them live in their homes.
In the meantime their kids, the wife or the husband might have dental problems but if they do not belong to a dental care plan they cannot think about going to a dentist because they cannot afford it. If one of them needs a pair of glasses, the best hope they have is to pick up a cheap pair at a drugstore rather than go to an optometrist because they cannot afford it. Yet the government can still take taxes and more taxes and smile at them. I do not see how they can be happy about what is happening.
Look at the prison guards. As prison critic I go around talking to the prison guards. They have not had a raise in nine years. There has not been a raise for our security guards, the people who clean our floors or our bus drivers. I am beginning to think that it might not be a good idea to give anybody a raise because it is only the government that will benefit. It means more taxes for the government. Maybe we should say to these people “We will give you a better deal. We will leave a lot more in your pockets rather than give you a whole bunch more money, because it will just be more for us”. I wonder if they think about that.
And how is this for priorities in the prisons? If you are a prison inmate a dentist comes and takes care of your teeth. It does not cost the inmate anything. If he has an eye problem we supply him with glasses. Well good grief, they might even pay for a sex change. Let us do that for them. One of the inmates said to me “You know, it is not bad in here. I have not been cold, it is nice and warm. I get three good squares a day”. We could go to many ridings and find lots of families who wished they could have three square meals a day but they cannot. They have a difficult time, unless they really like Kraft cheese dinners.
And the Liberals sit over there and pat themselves on the back and brag and boast and go to the press club or wherever else to celebrate their great and wonderful victories. But they have nothing to celebrate. They have a long way to go. They have started. We have a balanced budget. That is great. Now let us start thinking about the other things that have to be taken care of.
Canadians had better soon see some relief. They have been supporting this idiotic way of running government for the last 30 years.
I am not a happy grandpa. I really fear for the future of my grandchildren. I wonder if anybody over there is listening and hearing what is being said. Do not pat yourselves on the back too hard.
The statements we hear from young people. They say “We will have to work for the rest of our lives never utilizing the CPP”. They do not believe for a moment that it will be there. They do not believe the rhetoric they are hearing from the government that, boy, it is going to look after them. At the end of the day, after all of the CPP deductions have been made, which they cannot afford to pay because they might have to pay a dental bill or they might have to buy more food, they do not believe the CPP will be there.
They say “I am going to have to pay more and more taxes to help those who are retiring as the years go on”. They feel like they are the ones in Canada who will be burdened with the whole load. Under this government's policies they are not wrong. They are not far from wrong at all. Under our plan we want this shared. I am willing to share in the debt load. I am willing to pay my part. I do not believe any members over there are willing and I can illustrate that.
I am proud to be one of 51 members of this House, along with five members from the Liberal Party and five members from the Bloc, who gave up the gold plated pension to save taxpayers $30 million. I am proud to be part of that. At least it is something which we on this side of the House could do.
But there is not one of them over there who has the fortitude to stand today and say “Count me in. Do away with the gold plated pension”. I applaud those over there who did and I condemn those who have not. Boy, that pension is going to look good to a lot of them. I sure hope they pat themselves hard on the back over that one.
Young people say “We will never have a life as good as our parents'. Our generation will never be better off than the past generation”. They have no confidence whatsoever that can happen.
We can give them confidence if we start getting our priorities straight. The priorities are all wacky. The Liberal priorities are to make sure they cut lots of transfers to the provinces so health care and education will be a real problem. Boy, the provinces have struggled. I applaud those provinces that managed to balance their books a lot sooner than this government did. I applaud them. They are on the right track.
If you want to get on the right track, take a look at our booklet “Securing Your Future”. That is the right track.