Mr. Speaker, I am not all that happy to talk about this budget because it is about propaganda, not priorities. It is about brainwashing, not budgeting.
Despite all the government spins to the contrary, this budget leaves Canadians paying more in taxes and receiving less in health care. In 1999 the average Canadian will pay over $2,000 more in taxes than they paid in 1993. At the same time total cuts to health care over the last three years amounted to $1,500 per person.
There is no doubt that we had to eliminate the deficit. There is no doubt that Canadians wanted the federal government to balance the books. Before the 1995 budget a wave of protest ran across this country. Rallies were held in over 20 Canadian cities where thousands of overburdened taxpayers demanded an end to the era of chronic deficits. But they were also very clear about one thing: “Don't you dare raise our taxes”. After decades of constant tax hikes the anger of Canadians was growing. The rally cries were around no more taxes and, more importantly, they continued to tell the Canadian government “It's the spending, stupid”. Canadians gave the finance minister clear instructions: Balance the books on the spending side of the ledger, attack waste, inefficiency and lower-priority programs.
The finance minister appeared to hear these concerns. However, appearances can be deceiving. Instead of no more taxes, Canadians were hit with the single largest tax hike in the history of Canada. CPP payroll taxes were increased 73% and bracket creep continues to take a growing bite out of our wallets.
In addition, it seems the finance minister took “It's the spending, stupid” to mean keep up the stupid spending. Instead of cutting waste and inefficiency, the government ravaged transfers for health and education. Instead of funding hip replacement surgery, taxpayers are paying $100,000 in government grants for a book on dumb blond jokes. The government slashes university funding while protecting $4 billion in pork-barrel regional development grants over the last four years. Students get less while there is plenty of money for a very questionable hotel deal in the Prime Minister's very own riding. RCMP services are cut while this government continues to give millions of dollars in illegal trade subsidies to profitable corporations.
The government claims it was forced to cut health care spending. The government claims its hands were tied on real tax relief. It claims it had to make tough decisions so it could balance the budget. The government has no right to claim any credit for balancing the budget because it did nothing.
The credit goes entirely to Canadians—