Mr. Speaker, it is a delight to stand in the House of Commons to speak on behalf of families across Canada and to add my words of encouragement to the government to show a little compassion for families, especially young families starting up and buying their first homes.
It is a pleasure to speak in favour of a tax break, something the Liberals just cannot get into their heads. If there is a little surplus, would the Liberals turn it back in terms of a tax break? No. Most of them think they better put it away for an election fund. They think they better keep that money ready in case there is an election. Then they can haul out the millennium fund. They would have all this money to reduce the debt and to reduce taxes and everything will be tickety-boo, great.
The Liberals will win the election because they will have all this money. It is unconscionable. It is terrible that they hang on to their money to use for political purposes. Meanwhile, they are shutting their eyes to the needs of Canadian families, young people and their children.
The bill before us is a private member's bill. I wish we could strengthen Private Members' Business. In my observations in the few years I have been here it seems the ideas which best represent the needs and the wishes of Canadians are presented in Private Members' Business. Those are the times when we get motions and bills like the one before us today which say to the House of Commons, to the government, that there is a need out there which has been identified by an elected representative. The individual MP has raised a matter that has been chosen and we can vote if it is a votable motion as this one is.
Most of the motions go by after debate for an hour and are set aside and nothing is ever done. What a total waste of the time of representatives elected by the people to run the country.
My colleague from Portage—Lisgar has brought forward a very important motion that would provide for a tax break on the money used to pay interest on a mortgage. I think that is absolutely necessary.
When I was a young man, and of course that takes us back decades, it was considered a big expenditure to buy a home. At that time when my wife and I bought our first home. The capital expenditure was $20,000; that was the price of our first home. I remember saying to my wife that a mortgage for 25 years was a long time. The amount of money we had borrowed was $14,000 and I calculated that we would pay over 25 years about $14,000 of interest and $14,000 against the principal.
I am speaking in round numbers, in case anyone is out there checking my mathematical credentials. I have rounded off liberally. If anyone wants the exact numbers, I will provide them. However this is a fact. To purchase a home at 6.5 % over 25 years one pays about 50:50 interest and principal.
Where does that interest go? It goes into the profits of people who have invested money through their banks and other financial institutions. The financial institutions turn around and give people like my wife and me a loan in the form of a mortgage.
It is absolutely incredible because as a home owner borrowing money I have to earn the money, pay taxes on the money and then with the money left after all the taxes pay interest. What happens to the people who receive the interest? They end up paying taxes on it.
As a matter of fact any business can deduct an interest cost as part of their business. Why can a family not deduct their interest cost as part of operating and providing for their family? My colleague is setting forth an eminently sensible proposal. I am amazed because I have read into what other members have been saying in their speeches that they will probably vote against it. It just blows me away. Why would they do that? Why would they continue to make it difficult for young families to get ahead, to buy homes and to start building some capital savings for their future?
Instead the government is most interested in tax, tax, tax and preferably tax the taxes, which it does too. That is another speech that I will give at some other time.
I urge all members to vote in favour of the bill. It is a very good bill. It is long overdue. It would put us, at least in this area, on an equal level with our American neighbours. Goodness knows what kind of a brain drain we have because our brightest young people are going to the States with its favourable tax situation and favourable job situation with a much lower rate of unemployment.
This is a very important measure. I urge all members to use their heads, to think independently and to carefully analyse, as we have done, the implications of the bill. Let us not hide behind technical excuses, that we cannot do this because of that. On and on they will go. Let us not do that this time. Let us rather make a bold decision to do what is right and to vote in favour of the bill.