This is certainly high on his wish list. He is therefore planning on having the budgets and the surpluses he needs to be able to announce a huge tax cut for the public, to pass himself off as the greatest finance minister this country has ever known.
The bulk of revenues have come from the pockets of middle income workers and the unemployed, yet the budget contains nothing for them. The budget does, however, announce one thing: a new employment insurance fund surplus. It had already accumulated some $20 billion or $25 billion in recent years, but the Minister of Human Resources Development confirmed to us this week that all that money has been wasted.
For five years, the Minister of Finance has been telling us “I need reserves, in case a bad economic situation develops”. Now, all of a sudden, the Minister of Human Resources Development tells us the surplus the Minister of Finance wanted to save is all gone.
Now we are told of a new surplus, $4.9 billion. Once again, this money will be used for something other than operating the program.
Now for the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the one who interests me the most. During the prebudget study and debate here in this House, we had reminded the government of the 40% assimilation rate across Canada and pointed out that, if it was a responsible government capable of doing more than just talk, one that wanted to actually do something, it ought to restore the budget envelopes for francophones to their 1993 level, at least.
Let us look at the situation a bit more closely. In 1993-94, the budget allocated for official languages was $310 million. In reality, it was $232 million, $78 million less. Then in 1994-95, the budget was $240 million, $70 million less than the forecast figure. In 1995-96, it was $210 million; this time $100 million less than what was forecast. So, in all, the government will have spent for official languages $248 million less in these three years, almost as much as he will be spending this year.
The $70 million announced live on television on RDI by the Minister of Canadian Heritage in fact represents small compensation for the losses incurred by the official languages program since the Liberals arrived in office in 1993. However, during this time, the minister found pots of money for all sorts of other things.
She found $60 million over three years to spend on propaganda with the Canada information office, the CIO. Such a fine thing. It is too bad she chose such a name for her propaganda service.
Then for her “million flags” operation, she found at least $15 million. For the council on Canadian unity, she spent tens of millions of dollars from the official languages budget, including the $4.8 million wasted by option Canada in one month's time during the referendum, without anyone knowing where the money went. And then she hiked the Canada day budget by 500%, 60% of which was spent in Quebec.
The Bloc Quebecois is certainly not celebrating today, because the government is giving $70 million back to francophone communities. The minister should never have allowed francophone communities, like workers and the unemployed, to bear the brunt of reducing the deficit.
We have been here since 1993. Every day, we get surprises concerning the official languages. When it is not a crown corporation that submits a report in one language only, it is an organization such as Katimavik that sends an invitation to members of parliament in English only. When we contacted Katimavik, we were told “Well, we thought everyone could speak or read English”.
People everywhere forget that there are two official languages. The member for Anjou—Rivière-des-Prairies did not even bother to check—after all he chairs that UNESCO organization—to see that this organization could submit to us, right here, in a place not far from Parliament, a—