Mr. Speaker, there is as far as the Canadian Alliance is concerned. I think the underlying assumption that the hon. member has made is a very significant one. He is almost implying that the Canadian economy could exist independent of the American economy or independent of any other nation in the world.
The world has changed dramatically in the last while. It is now a global economy. A major part of our economic benefit comes from trade with other nations. The major part of that is of course the American economy, the United States, our excellent neighbours to the south. We benefit from them and they benefit from us. It is a mutual and beautiful symbiotic relationship.
If there was a downturn in the American economy would it affect us? Of course it would. It is simply nonsensical to suggest that it would not affect us. Do we have a plan to deal with that situation? I wish I had an hour to tell the hon. member about that, but I will tell him how much the output costs are of every job creating scheme that has been created by his government the Conservative Party, when it was in power, or when the Liberals were in power. Does he realize that for every tax dollar that is given away in the form of job creation schemes, there is an output cost? For payroll taxes, it is 27 cents. For every dollar that is put out in a job creation scheme, 27 cents is lost in output costs. For the sales tax it is roughly 17 cents. For capital costs it is $1.15 for every $1.
Is it any wonder that people are discouraged when they see all these millions of dollars going there? In fact, Jim Mirrlees, who developed the optimum tax theory, has clearly indicated that by applying that to the Canadian billion dollar HRDC system it actually costs the Canadian economy $529 million in order to give away $1 billion.
What is the net gain? It is not nearly as much as what the government is suggesting. It kills jobs in other places. It kills expansion and it does not last.