Mr. Speaker, my friend across the way just put the best possible face on the budget, which I had expected. However, in fairness, the official opposition has to put things in perspective here.
My friend did not mention that Canadians face the highest taxes in the G-7 today, 56% higher than the G-7 average. He did not mention that in the last 15 years, between 1980 and 1995, we saw taxes in this country increase relative to GDP by 29% while they went down in the U.S., Japan, the U.K. and Germany. Our taxes have gone absolutely through the roof.
What my friend did not point out is that it is people at the low end of the income scale who pay the highest price because of this huge rise in taxes.
My question to my friend across the way is, given that the government has introduced targeted tax relief but also introduced broad based tax increases with the net effect of raising taxes by close to $7 billion over the next three years, notwithstanding its tiny $7 billion in tax relief, the net effect is still a $7 billion increase, how does that help Canadians and in particular how does it help low income Canadians?