Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this particular motion.
I should say at the outset that we oppose this motion. We oppose this motion because it deals with certain provisions of the budget and it introduces provisions which are contrary to the priorities and values of the New Democratic Party. We recognize that the Liberals' political choices are certainly not the choices of our party.
This budget was touted as a health budget. The government put forth this health budget on the basis that it was injecting $11.5 billion to health care funds. We have to look very closely at what this really means.
We note that this money is spread out over a five year span. It will only bring health care spending back to 1995 levels in five years, and even then only back to 1995 levels. This budget is not attached to any comprehensive long term planning. Rather it allows the pressure for two tier American style health care to grow. There is no delivery on the Liberal promise to build national home care programs or a pharmacare program. In reality it provides only a perception that health care needs are being addressed.
We know when we look at our health care system that there is a lot of pressure. People are overworked. People are underpaid. More and more is demanded of the system. There are long waiting lists in various hospitals. This budget does very little to address those issues.
The finance minister has given the wrong prescription for the health care crisis. The dosage is too low and the recovery is too slow. This was supposed to be a health care budget, yet we see no real leadership when it comes to health care.
Let us put this budget in perspective. We note that the Liberal cuts to the Canada health and social transfers, that is, the entire social program funding envelope, since 1995 now amount to $21.5 billion and more than half of that has been in health care. This year's budget puts back only $2 billion, not quite the cause for celebration that we have been led to believe.
Members of the government keep repeating $11.5 billion, $11.5 billion. In reality they have not emphasized the amount that has been cut from this budget. What they want us to believe and to forget is that the $11.5 billion will be spread over five years.
This budget also failed to address a number of very important issues. It failed to help the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are still looking for work. It failed to improve benefits for the unemployed. In fact what we have seen take place in the past is just the opposite of helping the unemployed. We have seen the government seize funds belonging to the unemployed. It wants to put these funds into the general account to pay down the debt.
This budget has failed to combat the homeless crisis. All we have to do is walk down our streets. Even as we walk from the House of Commons down Rideau Street we see many homeless people who are sitting by the side of the road. Yet this budget does not really deal in any concrete fashion with that particular problem.
It has failed to reduce the GST. It has failed to provide federal funding for our highways. In many parts of our country the highways are in severe need of repair. In my home province of Nova Scotia there is a need for highway work. We know that if the highways are not in good shape it reflects upon the potential for tourism. Tourists do not want to come to a province or to a part of the country to drive on poor highways. The government has failed to address that particular issue in its budget.
It has failed to provide proper tax relief. Instead it has eliminated the 3% surtax for people earning $50,000 to $65,000. It addresses the concerns of those who perhaps least need it, whereas the poorest in our country do not receive any real relief from this budget.
One very important issue which has not been addressed by the budget is infrastructure money. The government had a program, which has now come to an end, whereby infrastructure money could be shared among the federal government, the provinces and the municipal governments. This program certainly aided in providing much need infrastructure in many of the small communities throughout our province.
I can tell the House of a need in my riding, a need that is felt by a small black community. The families do not have adequate water. We may think that in this day and age how is it possible that people do not have an adequate water supply? What makes it even more striking is the fact that this community lives and borders the lake that supplies water to Halifax and Dartmouth.
The main water supply is directly adjacent to this small community, yet it is not hooked into the water supply. The people are drinking from wells where the water has been deemed to be unsafe and lacks the proper aesthetics that drinking water should have. People have wells that run dry in the summertime. Quite often they have to call upon the local fire department to deliver water to them. They live next to this large, pure lake which boasts the best treated water in North America and they are not hooked up to it.
These people have been attempting to obtain a hook up to the main water supply. Unfortunately, because they did not come in on time under the previous infrastructure program, they now do not have access to that kind of money to assist them with this project. The cost of the project is very difficult for people who are living on fixed incomes, many who are widows, older people, people with only a small income. To hook up to the water supply may cost many of them $20,000 or $30,000 because of the frontage charges for their properties.
It comes down to a matter of priorities. I have been pursuing this issue on the federal level. I have tried to seek whatever funds might be available from any of the programs that the federal government might have in the area of health, the environment and so forth. However, I have been unable to secure any meaningful funding from the federal government to assist in this project going ahead.
Where does the government put its priorities? Where are the priorities when it comes to serving the needs of people? When I see projects being approved under the millennium partnership program, such as projects to fund a dumb blond joke book, projects to establish mermaids for western towns which are not even near the sea and various other projects, I question the validity of the priorities of the government in meeting the real needs of people.
People can be without water, yet we can find funds to create books which poke fun at various segments of our society. This, to me, is wrong. The government has the whole process of its priorities wrong and this budget simply illustrates that fact. We have to start getting back to the meaningful things in a budget, the things that will assist those people who are unemployed, that will give aid to people who are in need of health care, that will provide home care for people who need it, medicare and so forth. These are the kinds of issues that must be dealt with in a realistic way in our budget.
It is for this reason that I find it very difficult to stand and support a motion which calls for CHST payments to be made to any province because the CHST payments are not being directed in the proper direction and they are not being used to help people. We must get back to the real root causes of helping people to accomplish the things that must be accomplished to enable them to lead full and productive lives.
We see right across our country all kinds of examples of things going wrong in our society. A lot of these things stem from the quality of life within our communities and homes. It is incumbent upon the federal government to provide the kind of financial support and programs that make it possible to have a good quality of life in our homes, communities and throughout our country.