Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to speak today to Bill C-223. I begin by commending the member for Portage—Lisgar for introducing the bill. I commend him for providing the House with an opportunity to debate a very important principle, the principle of tax relief.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind and in the minds of my Progressive Conservative colleagues that this nation is overtaxed. Once the House agrees on this then we can seek solutions. However, let me be clear. Tax relief solutions must be for the benefit of all Canadians. Tax relief must be equitable and it must be efficient. Bill C-223 does not meet this requirement.
There is a very simple question to answer here. The question is, if surplus money is available, who will decide how to spend it? Will it be the Liberal government or will it be the Canadian people? We in the PC Party put our trust in the people. By putting money back into the pockets of Canadians we will let them decide how to better their own lives. That is why my party has proposed raising the personal exemption threshold to $10,000 for every Canadian. That is the fair way to approach this issue.
My friends in the Reform Party are suffering from an identity crisis on this issue. The Reform Party trumpets itself as being the promoter of simpler and flatter taxes. This bill is neither. This is a call for a subsidy, a target tax break that benefits a few. When we enact legislation that targets only certain members of our society we are necessarily excluding others. In this case we would be doing nothing for the poorest members of our nation who are unable to even begin thinking of buying a home. Once again equity does not exist.
The message regarding our tax code is a tired, yet appropriate cliché: keep it simple. This bill at the very least adds another line to our already cumbersome income tax form.
Accountants are the overall winners with tax legislation that adds to the present complicated reporting nightmare that many Canadians are enduring as we speak. We need to make a collective decision that simplifying our Income Tax Act is a worthy goal. Then we need to strengthen our resolve to use our tax laws only to raise revenue, not to set public policy.
Fairness is conspicuously absent in this bill. The bill proposes that the interest paid on the first $100,000 of a mortgage loan secured by that first qualifying home acquired by a taxpayer would be allowed as a deduction for tax purposes. The problem is that $100,000 worth of property is not equal across this nation. The same home that sells for $100,000 in one part of the country might easily command twice that in my riding of Markham. Even if we were willing to complicate the Income Tax Act, we certainly could not accept a tax initiative that does not treat all citizens equally.
There is another component here which should give all of us in this Chamber great pause. If we were to allow tax deductions for mortgage interest we would be opening a Pandora's box. It would be good if the bill's sponsor would reflect on how sure he is that the Liberals would not move quickly to subject our homes to capital gains.
With regard to Bill C-223, we do not even have to wonder. We need only reflect on the words of the member for Etobicoke North. He stood in this House and said “If we allow the interest to be deductible, then surely the capital gains on the sale of the principal residence should be taxable”.
The reason a capital gain on a principal residence in not taxable in Canada now is that we do not consider an investment in a principal residence as an investment. It is the ownership of a private home. Then he continued on to say “You can't have your cake and eat it too”. This leaves little doubt in my mind as to the intention of this Liberal government if we were to pass Bill C-223.
There are other dynamics at play here and they need to be explored. At present there exists great acrimony within Liberal ranks. On the one side we have the Minister of Finance and his ever dwindling allies who know all too well that Canada's finances are still a long way from the Utopia he tried to sell in his budget.
Pushing and prodding them are the Minister of Health and his band of 1970 style tax and spend Liberals. They were thought to be extinct until recently when a small colony of 101 of them were discovered in Ontario.
We on this side of the House watch this battle with great concern. We do so because when the palace coup is complete all hopes for tax relief will be finished.
I say that we need greater vision than that which is represented in Bill C-223. We need to put aside all partisanship on the issue of comprehensive tax reform and come up with an acceptable alternative. This alternative must be effective in putting money back into the pockets of Canadians. It must be equitable so as to produce real bottom line benefits for all Canadians. We need to ensure it makes our tax system less cumbersome so that people can spend less time reporting to Revenue Canada. More importantly, we need to just do it.
I reiterate what my colleague from Kings—Hants said on February 4 when I say that a tax break is better than the status quo, but the public will is on side with those who seek comprehensive tax cuts. Let us not miss this opportunity.