Madam Speaker, unfortunately we all face the consequences of our actions, and that includes the Prime Minister.
There are millions of other dollars wasted every year in regional development. I am glad that my colleague, the Minister of Transport, helped me make that point. Over the last several years we spent $3.2 billion running a television network in Canada at the same time as we were cutting billions of dollars out of health care. I think that is completely inappropriate. It shows that the government's priorities are totally mixed up.
Over the last few years we have spent over $4 billion in redundant bureaucracy in the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
My friends across the way know that the auditor general routinely chastized the government for its bungling of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The department recently spent $91 million to negotiate treaties and not a single treaty was actually negotiated. This was brought to the attention of the government by the auditor general.
There were many things that the government spent money on that it did not need to and that it should not have spent money on. At the same time it was cutting the heart out of health care. I point out that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation routinely uncovers hundreds of millions of dollars in wasteful spending.
It was not very long ago that Walter Robinson, president of the federation, a position held by my colleague, the member for Calgary Southeast, held a press conference and unveiled access to information documents showing the federal government routinely makes loans of hundreds of millions of dollars to some of Canada's most profitable and most successful corporations and then fails to collect on the loans.
My friend across the way says it is not true but he cannot provide a shred of evidence that it is not true. Instead of providing that money to health care we see it go to companies that are making literally hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. That is a complete mix-up in terms of priorities.
How easy for the Liberals to spend other people's money so unwisely. Even more aggravating is the fact that the voices of business, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Catherine Swift, Garth White, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council on National Issues, routinely plead with the government to quit subsidizing business. There is not a year that goes by when the finance committee does not have those groups come before us and say please quit distorting the marketplace. Quit taking money from successful businesses, giving it to the government, letting it take a share, passing it on to other unsuccessful businesses so that they can be subsidized and then turn around and compete against these successful businesses. That makes absolutely no sense.
If there is so much wasteful low priority spending in the federal government why is the federal government cutting high priority things like funding for health care, education and RCMP services? Why is the federal government producing dumb blond joke books, giving grants to incredibly profitable businesses and building bureaucracies when sick people are forced to sleep in wheelchairs and in linen closets in Canada's hospitals? I argue that this government truly is the government that put the hell into health care.
When we look beyond the bafflegab in yesterday's speech from the finance minister, three things become very clear. The first thing is that the government wants us to think that after being world champion tax hikers it is now serious about reducing taxes. The second is that after savaging health care it wants us to believe that it really did not mean it and that taking a dollar out and putting 50 cents back in will fix the problems in health care.
The third thing that becomes abundantly clear is that the most important thing to the Liberal government is not health care, it is not reducing taxes, it is making government bigger. It wants to take more of our money and more our options so it can tell us how to live our lives. If members doubt for a moment what I am saying, look at the budget documents from yesterday where the government announced $30 billion in new spending. Where did that money go? Only about $11.5 billion went toward health care initiatives. Only $7.7 went to tax decreases. The remainder went to all kinds of other new spending, non-priority spending. This government has a huge spending problem. I fear that it has returned to its old free spending ways, its big government Liberal ways. Canadians know that is precisely how we got into the situation we are in now, $580 billion in debt.
Let me explain why we must have substantive tax relief, why making health care healthy requires more than just cash and why big government liberalism hurts the poor and the sick and those without skills while sucking away our prosperity and our spirit of innovation.
Let me talk specifically about why we need tax relief. I want to lay out four different arguments for why Canada needs tax relief.
The first point I want to make is that it is the taxpayers' turn. It was taxpayers who balanced this budget. We have had at least, to be generous, 38 tax increases since this government came to power. We are now in the 35th year of having increasing taxes in Canada. We have not had a tax break in Canada in 35 years. We have surtaxes that were added specifically to eliminate the deficit. Well the deficit is still gone but the 5% surtax is still there.
The machinery of government was preserved through all of this, but the taxpayer was hung out to dry, absolutely hung out to dry. We saw government bureaucracies in some cases not only not shrink but actually get bigger.
The first big reason we need to give Canadians some tax relief is simply because it is their turn. Everybody else has benefited in the past with what the government has done, but not the taxpayers. Taxpayers are the ones who have been the long suffering, very patient heroes in this whole mess. They are the ones who bailed this government out. It is time that taxpayers got their share.
The second point I want to make is that the economy needs a tax cut right now. I heard the parliamentary secretary talking a few minutes ago about what is going on around the world and about Brazil, Japan and Russia. We are all very aware of that.
We also know that we had a crisis this summer when the dollar hit new lows which was in part because Canada's tax regime was completely bloated. We could not compete with a tax regime that had Canadians paying some of the highest personal income taxes in the world.
I heard the member for Waterloo—Wellington give a member's statement about how he was so proud that the dollar had now recovered up to 67 cents. I have never seen anyone so inspired by mediocrity in my life. This government seems to think that a 67 cent dollar is just fine. I can guarantee to members across the way that the Reform Party does not agree with them. We think the dollar is a barometer of the health of the economy. We will not accept a 67 cent dollar. We will do things to ensure that Canada's dollar strengthens.
First on the list is to start to cut taxes. I do not agree at all with my friend across the way who says that now is not the time to cut taxes substantially. We disagree with that. We say let us cut taxes substantially. If we do that, the next time there is a crisis in the world, money will come to Canada instead of fleeing Canada like it routinely does under this Liberal government.
The third reason we need to cut taxes immediately is to stem the brain drain. We see a massive brain drain from the member from London. We see it right now. There are four reasons people are leaving Canada in droves.
The first is that young people get their university educations in Canada, subsidized, and then they leave to go to the United States. The reason they go is that there are more jobs in the United States, 4.3% unemployment, than in Canada.
The second point is that the United States pays better. The jobs pay more because there is more of a demand for good employees down there. Jobs end up paying more.
The third point is that they get to keep more of what they earn because their taxes are much lower. The industry department itself pointed out just the other day that in Canada Canadians are paying far higher taxes and their incomes are far lower than those in the United States.
The government's own industry department has chastised the government saying it is time to get our taxes in line with the United States. The Reform Party agrees completely. We point out that if we did cut taxes our revenues would go up just as they went up in Ontario.
The fourth reason people do better when they go to the United States is that the U.S. dollar buys more. We have a 67 cent dollar in Canada, the northern peso. I am embarrassed of our dollar. I think it is ridiculous that my friend from London thinks it is so wonderful.