Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to enter the debate on the budget and what has been presented to the House of Commons. There are three words that I use as a focus for my speech this morning. The three words are stop, look and listen. These words are addressed to the Minister of Finance and to the Prime Minister: stop, look and listen. These are the three words that we often use when we prepare young people and children when they are going to cross the street: stop, look and listen before you cross to make sure that you are safe.
Why have I chosen these three words in terms of the context of a budget? There are a number of reasons. The first one is the finance minister should stop increasing the debt to larger than it is already. He says we have stopped that, we have balanced the budget, there is not a deficit this year. He did that, he says. No, he did not do that. He increased taxes and taxpayers balanced this budget. Fine, we will grant that the deficit continuation has been stopped. That is good.
Let us go on and ask why it is that it should continue to be stopped. We tell our children to stop, look and listen because we love them. Because we cherish them, we want to preserve the good quality of life that they have. We here in Canada are enjoying a quality of life that is the envy of many parts of the world. Many organizations, agencies and countries have declared Canada as the preferred country in which to live. If we do not stop the burgeoning of the debt, we are going to be in trouble and we will lose that preferred point.
We want to go now to the next word, which is look. Look where the Prime Minister and the finance minister are standing today. If we look at this very carefully we will recognize almost immediately that Canada is standing at the precipice of fiscal disaster. All we need to do is step forward and go into that debt creation spiral once more and we will create a problem not only for ourselves but for generations to come and reduce Canada's position in the world.
Why do I say this? I say this because we need to address a particular question. What are the social consequences of maintaining the position of not preparing and stopping this growth of the debt.
First of all, we should remember that we have in Canada an absolutely inadequate research funding proposal. I want to draw attention here to what has happened in terms of our research and development funding in Canada. In fact, we rank number six and number 14. Let me list the countries that are in a better position than we are in terms of spending on R and D. Sweden spends 2.9% of its GDP on research and development; Japan, 2.87%; Switzerland, 2.8%; United States, 2.75%; Germany, 2.6%; France, 2.4%; United Kingdom, 2.08%; Finland, 2.2%. Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, all of them spend more on R and D than we do.
We claim that we are one of the preferred countries of the world. We say that we want to be competitive. We want to compete successfully in the international marketplace. How can we expect to do this when these other countries are spending more money on research and development than Canada?
It is impossible for us to maintain that position. Why? Because Canada is essentially an exporting nation. We depend upon other countries to buy our products. If they are spending more money on research and development of new ideas and new discoveries, how can we hope to compete with them? The time has come to look at this very seriously.
Then we have the gall of the Minister of Finance telling us that the research money has been put back into the funding councils like MRC and NSERC. All that happened is that the money that was taken away five years ago has been put back.
It has not been put back in one amount. Listen to what the Minister of Industry said in his recent publication that he sent to all MPs. New funding he calls this. New funding for the granting councils will be increased over a three year period beginning with an additional $120 million in 1998 to 1999, continuing with $135 million in 1999 to 2000 and levelling off at $150 million in 2000 to 2001. This will restore the councils' funding levels to 1994-95. Now is that not an interesting twist of logic. First of all he starts off with new funding and then he says this will restore their funding to where it was in 1994-95.
There is no new money here. This is just replacing what they took away. What does this do? Not only does it threaten our competitiveness and our ability to innovate, it demoralizes and challenges, in fact it discourages, the brightest and finest of our intellectual people. Why? Because the material and equipment that they need to use to do their research is inadequate. There is a lack of appreciation for the work that they are doing, there is decreased motivation to pursue new ideas.
What do they do? They leave the country to go elsewhere where their efforts are supported and where they can have better equipment and where their particular work is encouraged and developed.
I want to refer to a particular article that was given to me from the Ottawa Citizen . This is a very serious development that has taken place. In this instance, the declining of money for R and D, the story chronicled the departure of 11 of 17 research scientists. That is well over half. They went to other nations because of the funding cuts in Canada. Eight of these went to the United States. We cannot afford to have this brain drain happen in Canada because that means our brightest and finest are leaving this country and going elsewhere.
It is not just research funding that is the problem here. There is also the question of taxes and salaries. Let us compare a person earning $50,000 in the United States. That person pays, in the United States, $4,910 in taxes. In Canada, that same person earning $50,000 pays $10,647.
Not only is the money there to provide for the equipment and for the research and development but also in the personal taxes that these people pay. Is it any wonder that they leave?
We need quality research. We need to develop it further. Let me point to one particular development at the University of Saskatoon and the establishment there of the Synchrotron facility. That needs to be developed and expanded so that it can do the kinds of things that need to be done in this country.
Medical research has slipped back. The application of new ideas and the development of new technologies is in jeopardy. That is not all. The other social costs that come out of this is that students are unemployed; 16.8% are unemployed. That is far too high. First of all when they graduate, they carry on their shoulders a government debt of $20,000 because of the huge debt that is there. The average student has another $25,000 of student loans. That is a $45,000 debt charge right off the top and that poor student has to start paying income taxes the minute he reaches a salary of $25,000.
What kind of justice, what kind of fairness is that in this particular country?
Not only do we need to look at the social consequences of not stopping the marshalling and the growing of the debt but we have to listen.
In four different high school classes last week I was told for the first time ever by young people that it was not fair that those who graduate from post-secondary institutions have to begin to pay for the debt the government was unable to pay for. The government spends money on their behalf so that they live a standard of life they are not prepared to pay for. They think it is not fair they should be saddled with a tax bill that is so large they are groaning under its burden.
The time has come for the government to stop wasteful spending, to stop giving grants and subsidies to business and industry, and to look at where it is and where it is going. Government should listen to what the people are saying. It should reduce the debt and lower taxes.