Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak. After the fine speech by my colleague I feel like saying amen and sitting down, but I will not.
I would like to take a little different angle on some of the problems with Bill C-28. As has already been noted, it is another tinkering bill. People on that side of the House seem impressed that they have a 460 page book in both official languages which they can add to the long chain of books that drags and tugs behind business people, entrepreneurs and families as they try to make their way in the world. It hangs behind them like the dead weight it is. The bill will not improve the situation. It is tinkering that does not get to the real nub of the problem that tax rates are too high. The bill does nothing to address that. The amendment put forward by the Reform Party is at least an attempt by the official opposition to rectify a systemic problem on for members on that side of the House. They have never met a tax they did not like.
I would like to look at the taxation problems, especially in the context of British Columbia, and to put forward some Reform Party ideas to stimulate growth, especially in British Columbia where we are at the precipice, it seems, of being in a very serious financial situation.
I will quickly give some background. British Columbia was the only province in Canada last year to post a net loss in jobs. The situation is very serious. The unemployment rate right now in rural areas is pushing 13%. The idea that British Columbia can be taxed and milked and the rewards of that sent off to Ottawa to be distributed by the good graces of those across the way is not going over very well in British Columbia right now. We feel we need to hang on to as many dollars as we can in our own province.
In February the jobless rate in B.C. hit a four year high. Experts predict B.C. will lose even more jobs this year. The TD Bank predicts economic growth of .5%, virtually stagnant growth. In essence British Columbia is virtually in a recession.
Consumer and business confidence is down. The forestry industry is on the ropes. The industry that I made my living in for over 20 years is now virtually shut down in a good part of the province. I will not blame all the woes of the forestry industry on the federal Liberals. However it is enough to say that B.C. is in bad shape economically for a variety of reasons.
How have the Liberal tax policies contributed? In British Columbia's case there are some specifics that are only applicable to British Columbia. The Asian economic flu, as they call it, affected that province worse than others. High taxes are stunting growth. There is only one set of taxpayers. Certainly the NDP provincial government of British Columbia is partially responsible for the highest marginal tax rates in North America at 54%. It is very much a disincentive to entrepreneurship and investing.
The federal Liberals are not without fault. Since 1993 the Liberals have raised taxes 37 times in one way or another by administrative tinkering as in this bill or as in the PUITTA case mentioned earlier, by bracket creep, and by hidden tariffs and hidden user fees. It all adds up to more disincentive for people in British Columbia to invest and to take risks with their capital.
According to the Fraser Institute, in 1997 the average British Columbia family spent $28,400 in taxes. The KPMG management consulting study suggested what the federal government could do to help. It appears that British Columbia has been shortchanged by $1.3 billion through federal government procurement policies. Contrary to what the Minister of Finance said in our province last week, the Liberals have to take at least some of the blame for the economic downturn in British Columbia.
People say that it was kind of a cold winter here. I do not know if that is true, but they did say it was interesting the finance minister finally had his hands in his own pockets for a change. In British Columbia he still has his hands in our pockets.
What does the bill do? Does it lower taxes to build consumer confidence and attract investment across Canada and in British Columbia? No, it does not. The government continues to collect billions and billions of dollars more each year and to offer us small amounts of what it calls tax relief by reducing a surtax on the income tax and a few other tinkerings. It takes tens of billions of dollars more in increased income. It is no wonder British Columbia finds itself on the economic mat with its back to the floor.
The CPP increases passed by the Liberal government were rammed through by using time allocation and by refusing to allow lengthy debate in the House. An Informetrica report indicates that in British Columbia alone 9,100 jobs will be lost with the CPP tax increases alone.
The government continues to tax and continues to spend. Instead of leaving money in the hands of business people, homemakers and families and allowing them to spend it as they see fit, the government takes their money, brings it to Ottawa, deducts 50% for handling and gives it back in services never asked for or programs that do not actually help the economy.
I do not know how much longer the government thinks British Columbians can handle this kind of abuse. It cannot be for much longer because we are already stagnant. We are already facing a recession. There is no hope in sight with the Liberal government tax policies.
What would Reform do? Instead of spending the fiscal dividend before allocating it in the budget, Reform would invest 50% of budgetary surpluses on lowering taxes. Our initial target is to reduce taxes to save the average family over $2,000 by the year 2001. That would mean $2,000 every year to do with as a family would see fit. Let us imagine what that would do to the local economy of towns like Abbotsford and Chilliwack that I represent with 150,000 people or maybe 60,000 or 70,000 families. Let us imagine the impact that much money would have on the local economy.
The Reform Party would achieve these targeted reductions in taxes by reducing the GST and by increasing the basic personal deduction to $7,900. We would reduce capital gains tax, another job killer the Liberal government seems to think is a money milk cow. The Reform Party would reduce job killing payroll taxes paid by employers and extend the child care expense credit to all parents whether they raise their children at home or send them to day care.
In our opinion they need help with their finances and more of the money left in their hands. The government should not say they can only have the money if they send their children to day care. The government should be saying that it wants to help them raise their families and leave more money with them. The government should not choose the type of child care they use. It should allow them to make the decision. The Reform Party thinks that parents or families can make that decision better than the government can.
Overall our measures would focus $2.5 billion in tax relief for British Columbians. I cannot tell how desperately tax relief is needed. We need some way of infusing more money into the local economy in British Columbia and not sending it to Ottawa where it is spent on programs, often programs that we never asked for and do not do any good as we try to build our economy back up.
The Reform Party believes tax reductions would give consumers and business people confidence again that when they invest money or take a risk they can get ahead. We believe tax reductions would attract investment and immigrants to stay in our province with their money, with their investments, to build the province and to stay where tax rates are reasonable instead of where the tax rates are confiscating too much of the wealth. The Reform Party believes that tax reductions would create jobs.
The idea that a nation can tax itself into prosperity is one of the cruelest delusions that has ever befuddled the human mind. I agree. Prosperity is not created in a country by taxing it into prosperity. It is not possible. It has been tried over the last couple of decades. It is time for another tack, especially in British Columbia where tax relief could be offered to the people who need it most: the entrepreneurs, the families and the people who live in a province that is on the edge of a serious recession.