Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the comments of the hon. member opposite, especially when he said that this budget reflects and meets the economic and social needs of all Canadians.
The elimination of the 3% surtax amounts to some considerable savings. By my calculations every millionaire in this country will save $8,000. That figure resonates with me and this is why.
In my community this government has just committed to close down the coal mines. The amount of the training allowance that will be given to each miner who has spent on average 25 years underground, whose average age is 47, who owns a home of about $30,000 or $40,000, will be $8,000. That is the training allowance to move them into the new economy which the member boasts about. That is the money to bridge them from this labour intensive industry in which they have spent their lives to the new economy the member boasts about. If we had not given the millionaires the reduction that would save them $8,000, we might have been able to double the amount of training allowance for those miners.
The best illustration I can give the member is my next door neighbour. He will be 47 when the mines close and will have spent 25 years underground. He has a 17-year old boy who is at the top of his class entering university, a 13-year old boy in junior high and an 8-year old daughter with special needs. He will not get a pension. He will get a severance package of maybe $50,000, a portion of which will be taxed back and he will get $8,000 to train for the new economy in an area where the unemployment rate is 20%.
When the member says that the budget reflects and meets the social and economic needs of all Canadians, does he think it meets my neighbour's needs? Would it not have been better to keep in the government treasury the $8,000 from the millionaires and double the training allowance for those miners?