Mr. Speaker, I rise to begin the debate on the 1999 federal budget.
My colleague, the hon. member for Medicine Hat, as well as other opposition members will focus on various particulars of the budget, in particular the defects for which the government needs to be held accountable of which there are many. We will also be constructive. The opposition will be presenting constructive alternatives in the areas where we feel the budget is deficient, particularly with respect to tax policy.
It is my intent at the beginning to focus on the big picture, that is the financial performance and the service record of the government not just for the last year but since it came to office, and what that record and what this particular budget mean to Canadians in the future.
As members know, this is the sixth budget that has been presented by the current finance minister. If asked to summarize the net effect of these budgets, not just this one but the cumulative effect of the six budgets, in one sentence it would be this: that under this government, Canadians are paying more and getting less. Canadians are paying more and getting less and despite all the rhetoric, despite all the spin doctors, despite all the public relations that accompanied the budget yesterday, the total tax bill paid by Canadians has increased yet again while health care services and other services have been cut. Under this government Canadians pay more for less.
With respect to paying more, Canadians hear all the glowing references in the budget speech and the public relations that accompany it with respect to the performance of the economy, phrases like “unprecedented progress”, “we have strengthened the sinews of our innovative and productive economy”, “we have equipped Canadians to succeed”. Most of these phrases and words have been tested by public opinion firms. They test the words, find out which words resonate best with the public and those words find their way into budgets. This is not something surprising.
But the rank and file of Canadians will be asking at the end of the day: if everything is so rosy, why do I not have more money in my pocket at the end of the month and why do I not have more money in my bank account? The answer to that question in one word is taxes. Under this government Canadians are paying more taxes than they have ever paid before.
I would like to take a few minutes therefore to elaborate on this one simple phrase “paying more” and to demonstrate from the figures that were tabled by the government yesterday how Canadians are, at the end of the day, paying more. Let me start with personal income tax.
At the end of 1993-94 when this government took office, Canadians were paying $51.4 billion in personal income tax for the year. At the end of 1999-2000, they will be paying $75 billion for the year, an increase of $24 billion or 46%, an increase of $650 for every Canadian. The bottom line is that Canadians will pay more income tax than they ever have before, 46% more in total than when the government took office. Canadians are now paying the highest personal income tax rates in the The government taxes its citizens more heavily with respect to personal income tax than any other government of the G-7. That has not changed as a result of this budget. The Liberal legacy is Canadians pay more.
Of course, this government is not content just to tax you when you earn. The whole idea is to get you when you are coming and going so the government also taxes people when they spend. We have the figures on the GST consumption tax, a tax the government solemnly promised to remove before it became the government.
At the end of 1993-94 when this government replaced the Tories, Canadians were paying $15.7 billion in GST per year. At the end of 1999-2000 Canadians will be paying $21.6 billion in GST, an increase of $5.9 billion or 38%. That is an increase of $156 per Canadian. The bottom line is that Canadians are paying more GST under a government that promised to abolish it than they have ever paid before, 38% more in total than when the government took office. When it comes to consumption taxes, Canadians pay more.
The government plays a shell game with taxes to try to make taxpayers feel better off. It announces with great fanfare certain tax reductions, such as the modest reductions in the employment insurance premiums, and then it says nothing about or even hides increases in other taxes such as the CPP increases that are inexorably taking more dollars from Canadians each year.
There are two ways to cut through the shell game. One is to elaborate on how the shell game is played with respect to particular taxes and particular expenditures. I hope some day the auditor general spends a whole day explaining that kind of shell game to the House. But the simplest way to cut through the shell game is to look at the total federal taxes collected from individuals and total tax revenues. Here the story is the same. Canadians pay more.
If we look at total federal taxes paid by persons, and this includes personal income tax, employment insurance, GST and Canada pension plan, at the end of 1993-94 the total of all federal taxes paid by persons for the year was $94.3 billion. At the end of 1999-2000 the total of all federal taxes paid by persons will be $131 billion, an increase of $36.8 billion or 39%. The bottom line again, and notice the inexorable conclusion that we come to by working through the numbers, is Canadians paying more in total federal personal taxes than they have ever paid before.