I will. Just pay attention. In a rare scene of a cabinet minister coming to his senses, even the industry minister echoed the calls of the Reform Party for lower taxes. Imagine that.
Is that the parliamentary secretary's well thought vision for tomorrow? In spite of the $11.5 billion the government is adding to the health care system, the fact remains that federal transfers are still $4.3 billion less than when the Liberals took power.
If I go back to our earlier analogy, how does the taxpayer feel? Is he still reeling from the effects after that 30 year beating? The Liberals probably think he feels pretty good. After all, he was just given a free flag. In case that did not cheer him up, maybe the heritage minister can give him a copy of the dumb blonde joke book that he is paying for.
It seems a bunch of Liberals are going around western Canada trying to figure out how western Canadians feel. As someone who is trained in the fine art of grassroots representation, something members across have a little trouble with, I can say he is not doing so well. He is starting to feel the crushing burden of the national debt which has topped $580 billion, 94% of which was rung up since 1975. Each year two out of every three dollars he pays in income tax are gobbled up by interest charges on the national debt.
His family is feeling the pinch of these high taxes. Despite having the same household income as his neighbour, he is paying 24% more in taxes. That does not even include the cost of living expenses.
Feeling somewhat overtaxed and under appreciated, our friend went to the hospital to see what ailed him. When he got there he was told there would be a small wait. “No problem”, he said. Then he asked how many people were ahead of him. “Only about 188,000 or so”, said the nurse. “If you would please sit down, we should get to you within the next year”.
Instead of resuscitating Canadians with the tax relief they deserve, the Liberal government continues to spend, spend, spend. The budget announced $14.1 billion in spending initiatives over the next four years, including the remainder of this fiscal year. The government is expected to reap $156.5 billion for 1998-99, about $5.5 billion higher than what the finance minister predicted last year and about $12.5 billion higher than what he predicted the year before.
The finance minister calls these differences errors of prudence. This sleight of hand accounting will allow for plenty of new spending initiatives.
A recent poll taken by Compas showed that between 96% and 98% of people in each of the provinces believe that controlling taxes, spending and debt are important. Nine out of ten say that tax relief, not new spending, is their number one priority. These numbers are not at all surprising when one considers that the average taxpayer pays $2,000 more in taxes today than what he did when the Liberals took power six years ago.
The country needs to get competitive again. In December 1998 the chief economist of CIBC Wood Gundy said:
From a tax competitive standpoint, Canada ranks dead last in the G-7. While virtually every other G-7 economy lowered its personal income tax burden over the last 15 years, Canada's rose sharply, both as a percentage of GDP and of household income.
If there is one message that I want to hammer home today, it is that Canada needs a tax break and it needs it now. Canadians cannot wait for the finance minister's grand plans of tax breaks spread over the next 15 years. We need them now.
Here comes the person the parliamentary secretary was asking about. Just a week or two ago a constituent of mine, Professor Kurt Ellenberger, an accomplished musician and respected instructor at the University of Lethbridge, accepted a position with an American university. Kurt told me that he could not turn down the chance to double his after tax income. He said he could no longer bear to see his wage increases gobbled up by bracket creep. As a result, the University of Lethbridge and the community have lost a talented musician and teacher. That is just one example of brain drain in this country.
How many more Canadians are going to have to leave before the government wises up and implements some tax breaks?