Mr. Speaker, I listened to the members who spoke before me and raised specific issues relating to the budget measures. I want to present a more global view of the measures proposed in the 1998-99 budget.
My comments will be based on the fact that last year, as members will recall, the Bloc Quebecois said that the budget for the year now ending underestimated certain revenues, and that by the end of the fiscal year the Minister of Finance would end up, as is the case today, with sizable surpluses.
At the time, as members will certainly recall, the Minister of Finance said the Bloc Quebecois had not done its homework, that its predictions would not come true, and that there would be a deficit of some magnitude.
Surprise, surprise, the Bloc Quebecois was right. The Minister of Finance managed to get more revenues than anticipated, with the result that the deficit became that much smaller. However, taxpayers also saw their income get smaller, because the additional money was taken from their pockets by the government.
This year, it feels like we are watching the same scenario again. It is like the sequel to last year's scenario. Once again, the Minister of Finance will not divulge the true revenues that can be anticipated in the new fiscal year that begins tomorrow. This brings me to some important considerations if the government is to treat Canadian taxpayers with respect. After all, they are the ones who provide the government's revenues.
The problem is that if the government collects more money than it needs, then it is overtaxing Canadians. This is the sort of situation we are currently in. It was not the case last year. Revenues were higher than expected, but expenses were greater than the expected, or even actual, revenues.
According to the budget measures proposed, next year's deficit is supposed to be zero, which means that any excess revenue will amount to a surplus. If only a few dollars are involved, for heaven's sake, we are hardly going to claim taxpayers have been overtaxed. But we are not talking about a few dollars here, we are talking about billions.
If we look at a 24-month period, we are talking in the order of between $20 and $30 billion. A huge sum. Especially since the Minister of Finance is not declaring it. As a member in this House I am concerned, because the budget measures have to be approved by this House. We are debating the fiscal year before us in order to reach a conclusion through a vote.
But if what we are debating is incomplete, when will we debate the use of these potential surpluses we expect will materialize? Our expectation is all the stronger because the same situation occurred last year, and we were right.
What we are debating now and will vote on is not the whole of the budget, which will be managed next year. I fear, and I do not think I am alone, that revenues in the order of several billion dollars, indeed tens of billions of dollars, will be beyond the reach of the democratic control exercised by the members of this House. The government is making arrangements to use the money as it pleases. Will it pay off the debt with it? I wish it would, but I do not think that is what will happen.
The Minister of Finance was quite clear in his budget announcements. He will apply to paying down the debt at most $3 billion, an amount he has set aside in a contingency fund. If there are contingencies, then this amount will not be available and the debt will not be paid down, while billions in extra revenues accumulate.
If any money is applied to the debt, at the rate of $3 billion a year, I can tell you that it is going to take 200 years to pay it off. It seems somewhat ridiculous to me.
But I want to get back to what I wanted to say. What will the Minister of Finance do with extra revenues during the fiscal year starting tomorrow morning? There is nothing in the bill about that. In fact, the Minister of Finance, who is a Liberal, has been very conservative; he has taken a liberal approach to spending and a conservative approach to revenues. Well, we are used to seeing people change colours overnight. It seems to be a real fad lately.
Here we have the finance minister, who is conservative with revenues, telling us that revenues will match expenditures exactly. But in fact, we know—we can tell and foresee—that he will have perhaps $10 billion, between $8 billion and $12 billion, at the end of fiscal year 1998-99. Where will this money go? Who will be responsible for deciding what it should be allocated to? The members of this House perhaps? Certainly not. There is nothing about that in these budget provisions.
It will most likely be covered in an addendum to operating expenditures, indicating that the amounts were used for this or that purpose, or else a fund will be established to carry forward the amount for God knows what new project.
My point is that, with this budget, with the measures we are debating here, the Minister of Finance is hiding several billion dollars, the use of which cannot be debated democratically. And democracy is something we care very much about.
I will conclude by saying that the Minister of Finance lacks transparency here and is failing his duty.