Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the government's budget. I will be splitting my time with the member for Elk Island.
I am pleased that the government has finally listened to the Reform Party of Canada. We have been fighting since the inception of this party for the last 13 years to end bracket creep. I am pleased to see that end. It is good for Canadians. I am really pleased that the Government of Canada finally listened to the Reform Party of Canada.
Let us get on to a bigger and more important issue, one that I feel very strongly about. That is what this budget is really about. Let us not make any mistakes. The culture of the Liberal government is to spend, spend, spend. For the last 40 years we have seen spend. Liberals believe in bigger, bigger, bigger; more spending, more spending, more spending. I will prove that in the House with the Minister of Finance's own numbers in a minute. Let me quote from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in response to the budget:
This budget boosted overall program spending with no consideration of reallocating resources to higher priorities within an already overinflated spending envelope. By continuing to apply year-end surpluses toward future spending initiatives, it raises the spending bar in the future indefinitely.
We have seen an $86 billion increase in spending in the budget. In HRDC we have seen one of the largest scandals in decades, a billion dollar boondoggle. How did the Minister of Finance respond? He raised its budget by $226 million this year alone. That is how he responds to unaccountable, unacceptable spending. Grants and contributions from all departments are up $1.5 billion this year alone. That is completely unacceptable. Canadians are demanding some actions to bring back accountability.
We have heard Liberal members and even the Minister of Finance ask how come they are not getting any questions on the budget. The budget in every corporation including the Government of Canada is about spending every single last dime of taxpayer money. That is what a budget is. That is what we have been responding to. That is what the billion dollar boondoggle is. That is what this unaccountable spending is. That is what the slush fund is.
The government is more interested in putting money into creating new hotel beds in Shawinigan than it is in putting money into health care and creating beds in hospitals. It is absolutely unacceptable.
What happens when spending is increased to this magnitude? Guess what. We go into another deficit situation. Let us look at the finance minister's numbers. If anyone is interested, I am reading from page 46 of the budget book. There is a graph with two lines, fiscal requirements surplus and budget requirements.
Does the House know what will happen at the end of this year? The budget is what the government plans to spend and the financial requirements on its graph is the money that it will to take to meet those budget requirements. Lo and behold we are in a downward dive like a diving goose going straight into the ground. It crosses zero and keeps going into the minus at the end of this year. We are in a deficit situation. If members do not believe me, they can look on page 46 of the finance minister's own document.
Some would ask what that means. I was in London with the Leader of the Opposition and my colleague from Medicine Hat listening to the economic statement of the Minister of Finance. Do you know, Madam Speaker, what he told us there? He said “I am going to cut up the credit card. Never again will the Government of Canada get into deficit”.
He has found a new gold credit card. By his own numbers he is in a deficit situation at the end of this year. It is in black and white. I urge members to look at it for themselves on page 46 of the minister's own budget. It is right there. The minister's definition of financial requirements on page 47 states:
Another important measure of the Government's finances is the financial requirements...the difference between cash coming into the Government and cash payments made for programs and public debt charges during the year.
The cash coming in to pay for these programs is not enough to meet the government's incestuous, crazy spending habits. It is absolutely crazy. This government is crazy about spending. It is evident in its own numbers. It is planning on taking money that is supposedly coming in from taxpayers next year to pay for this year's budget. That is how people use a credit card. They do not have the cash now, slap it on the old Visa and pay for it later. That is exactly what the government has gone back into.
It has its spending programs. At the same time it is ignoring the debt. There is not a mention about the debt. Yes, there is a $3 billion contingency fund. If the government does not spend it, it may put it on the debt. It does not mention that at all. To health care, which is facing the biggest crisis in the country, it allocates $2.5 billion over four years. It is not nearly enough.
I will conclude right now in one sentence. The government needs to reallocate the money from TAGS and other programs which are unaccountable, which are definitely political slush funds that go to the government's own insiders and its friends. It should bring that money back into health care, bring back accountability and, for goodness sake, make sure that we do not go back into another deficit, as it states we will do on page 46 of the Minister of Finance's own book.
The government should be ashamed of itself for allowing the country to go back into a deficit. It is an absolute bloody disgrace.