Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I have this opportunity to speak on the 1998 budget.
This budget represents a lost opportunity for Canadians. It is a lost opportunity for us to actually change course in the direction we have had within our economy.
I will be speaking over the next 10 minutes about our plan for growth and what we should have seen in the budget. It is the plan presented by the member for Sherbrooke, the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is someone who will be the best prime minister we will ever see in this country in a few years from now.
We need a plan for growth in this economy. A plan for growth based on less tax and less debt will ultimately mean more jobs and more money back into the pockets of Canadians.
Budgets are supposed to be a reflection of our values and our priorities. I find it very difficult to understand that this budget has not provided tax relief to the middle and lower income Canadians. By that I mean as a society, within this budget we are saying it is acceptable to tax someone who makes $7,000 per year, $14,000 less than the poverty line. We are saying as Canadians that it is acceptable to tax those individuals.
We need a plan to grow our economy so that more individuals, middle and lower income earners, can actually participate in the economy to the degree they are capable of doing it.
It is not just the Progressive Conservative Party that actually understands that we need a plan for growth in our economy. I would like to make reference to a press release sent out by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on February 24, shortly after the budget. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce challenged the government to draw up a detailed fiscal framework for the new millennium based on clear criteria for growth, competitiveness and opportunity rather than arbitrary commitments to allocate half the surplus to spending and half to debt reduction and tax relief. We need to deal with it more strategically.
I am speaking on behalf of the citizens of Fundy—Royal. Actually the chairman of the board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Gerry Pond, happens to be a Fundy—Royal resident. What he is saying can actually be incorporated with the initiatives we have put forth in this budget.
Before we actually start talking about a surplus or perceived fiscal dividend, I think it is very healthy for us to actually examine whether we have a surplus in the first place.
Members probably know as they may have heard when we were out campaigning back in the month of May leading up to the election on June 2 that there is a $14 billion accumulated surplus in the employment insurance fund, $14 billion. I know the member from Kings—Hants and the member from Chicoutimi understand that that money belongs in the pockets of Canadian taxpayers. The chief actuary for the EI fund maintains that the EI fund is sustainable at $2 per $100 of insurable earnings as opposed to $2.70 where it certainly lies.
There has been a lot of debate on whether lowering job killing payroll taxes will actually have a jolt in terms of job creation. One does not have to take it as my word. In this very same press release the Canadian Chamber of Commerce stated that if the premium were a $1.95, which is even lower than the $2 I mentioned, instead of the present $2.70 per $100 of insurable earnings, every medium size company across Canada would be able to hire at least one more person. Those are not my words but those of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
We need to put more disposable income into Canadian taxpayers' pockets. I would like to quote the member for Sherbrooke who understands this initiative. He stated that the message the Prime Minister and his government seemed to be sending to Canadian taxpayers was that he knew how to spend their money better than they did. The truth is that less taxes and less debt means more growth and more jobs for Canadians and more money in the Canadian taxpayers' pockets.
The government actually maintains that there is tax relief within the budget. The average amount of tax relief for a low or middle income earner in Canada is about $80. That represents a cup of coffee a week. As the hon. member for Kings—Hants pointed out it would represent one a month if you go to Starbucks.
We are actually pledging as one of our primary first initiatives to raise the personal exemption on the income tax form from $6,500 to $10,000. That one initiative alone would take two million off the tax rolls overnight, two million Canadians who should not have been there in the first place.
We are also calling for an initiative that actually kills the 3% surtax, the deficit elimination surtax, as the budget is now perceived to be balanced. We can actually put more money back into Canadians' pockets.
Before I go further I want to point out that we have a balanced budget. We should say bravo, that is good for all Canadians. It ensures that we are headed in a better direction and that we will not continue to mortgage the future of younger generations any further. We have a debt of $600 billion. The younger you are, the higher proportion of the debt you have to repay. It is fiscally immoral to pay for today's programs with tomorrow's moneys.
We need to ensure that we never go into the spiral of deficit spending again. I challenge the government to bring in a balanced budget legislation with teeth. One of our proposals within our plan for growth, which the member from Kings—Hants was instrumental in developing, was to ensure that if we do not balance the budget we would cut the salary of the Prime Minister and the salaries of the cabinet ministers if they failed to reach their actual targets. That is the minimum we owe Canadians.
The balanced budget initiative has been a result of almost 15 years. As pointed out in the Economist magazine's year end review, Canada's balanced budget is largely due to structural changes in the Canadian economy implemented in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It pointed to tax reforms, privatization and making our economy that much more cost effective, or free trade as the member of Kings—Hants pointed out.
Meanwhile the Liberal government has balanced the budget on the backs of Canadian taxpayers by only having the courage in leadership to cut Ottawa bureaucratic spending by a mere 9% while cutting transfer to the provinces for health care and education. These are the priorities of the Liberal government. Yet it actually maintains that its priorities are health care and education. It gutted health care and education by over 35%.
Over the past five years the government has taxed and cut indiscriminately. The advent of a balanced budget does not give the authority to tax and spend indiscriminately. Canadians have made their priorities clear: increased job creation, the protection of health care service and investing in young people's future through education.
Canada needs a plan for growth. In the budget the government had an opportunity to outline some positive measures to make our economy grow, and that starts with real, meaningful, across the board tax relief.
I apologize to the 410,000 unemployed young Canadians that I am leaving youth to the end of my speech. In terms of our economic spending we almost forget about our youth. When it comes to student debt, I understand that back in 1993 in Atlantic Canada there were nine students who actually had a student debt of over $30,000. Today there are 904 students who have a debt of over $30,000.
If we do not actually provide the funding that today's younger generation requires to ensure that they have access to post-secondary education, and we do not have a lower tax regime so that once they graduate from university they actually have a chance to seek a job and have some opportunity, the brain drain we talk about will turn into a brain train.
I challenge the government to actually provide Canada with a plan for growth through less tax. Less debt means more jobs and more opportunity for young Canadians.