Madam Speaker, I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance is looking forward to this presentation today. I know he will listen to what I have to say about the budget and take the message to the finance minister and his party.
It has been said that the Liberal government has truly and rightfully earned the title as the pay more, get less government of all time. In all of Canadian history there has been no government that has picked the pockets of the Canadian taxpayer, the individual, small business and large business as has this Liberal government.
No matter what the finance minister said a couple of days ago in his great budget speech, these are the facts. Canadians since 1993 have consistently, every year of this government, paid more in taxes and received less in services.
Here are some numbers. Average Canadian taxpayers are now paying annually over $2,000 more in personal income taxes than they paid in 1993 when the government was elected. These are the people who are out spending their earnings in the marketplace trying to create a growing economy. The average Canadian household income has shrunk by over $4,000 since 1993. Let us imagine taking $4,000 out a household income. One year it is there and five years later it is gone. That is what the government has done to Canadian families.
As well, the government is responsible for the highest increase in payroll taxes for workers and employers than any other government in the history of the country.
We will see Canada pension plan premiums increase by a whopping 73% over the next few years. And guess what? When the current generation in their early twenties and thirties retire, having paid the full 73% increase at least for now, they will get less money. There might be more increases coming down the road. I hope not. Having paid that massive increase through their entire working lives, they will get less money in Canada pension benefits than someone who has paid the lower amount, lower than the 73% amount. That is the legacy of the government.
Average workers and employers are paying far more in EI premiums than necessary. That is another payroll tax. The EI commissioner has clearly said that the government is scooping an additional $7 billion out of the EI fund that it is not entitled to. It is simply not entitled to it. Why does it not just give it back?
One thing that really aggravates hard working Canadians is the war on the two parent, single income family begun many years ago by the hero of the Liberal Party, Pierre Trudeau. It is continuing today under this Liberal government.
The average two parent, single income family with a $60,000 income, that is one parent working and two children, will pay for the privilege of having one parent stay home to nurture the children, to help to steer them in the direction within the belief of the family, over $4,000 more in income tax than a two parent, two income family with two children earning the same $60,000. In other words, if a family earns $60,000 with one parent working and one parent staying home, they pay $4,000 more than if both parents were working earning the same $60,000 and had two children.
One has to ask why the government continues this war against the family. Why is the government so determined to drive every last stay at home parent out of the house and into the workforce? Why is the government so determined through its discriminatory taxation regime to ensure that children growing up do not have at least one parent at home to help in their formative years and through their teen years into adulthood? Why is the government through its taxation regime so determined to do that? I do not know.
It has been suggested that some sort of social engineering is going on. It has been suggested that the Liberal government with its socialist philosophy has figured out that a family unit has strength and as long as that family unit is together the strength is present and the government cannot get its clutches on those kids. It wants to break up families, get rid of the parents, get them out working, put the kids in day care and make free thinkers out of them so that it can come in with its philosophy and teach the kids what the world looks like through the eyes of a Liberal.
I do not say it lightly when I say there is a war against the family. It was started back in the days of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, when he brought in tax regimes that literally forced the second parent out of the home and into the workforce so that they could maintain the same standard of living. It was not to increase their standard of living but to maintain the same standard of living.
What is this master plan the Liberals have had for so many years? We do not know their real agenda, whether it is social engineering or whatever. However, we do know that what they have been doing is very real. It has been very effective in getting both parents into the workforce through their discriminatory tax regimes.
I can speak on behalf of many families who have made sacrifices while raising their children in order to have one parent stay home to be with the family. It happened in our family and it happened in many other families of people whom I know very well. They say it is no longer a privilege to stay home and raise the kids. It is a true sacrifice because one has to give up so many other things to have that ability.
It makes me very angry when I look at the budget to find some relief for the two parent, single income families and it simply is not there. There is over $4,000 difference in taxes between those two examples simply because one parent stays at home and one works or they both go out to work. It is discriminatory. We had hoped the government would address it and it has not.
I say to all the families out there with one parent at home and one income that we will keep the fight up. We will keep the pressure on the government and sooner or later it will recognize the value of mothers or parents who stay home to be with their kids.