Madam Speaker, maybe the new Canadian Alliance has some new math, but under the old math of the Reform Party, if we look at its tax plan, it said that in year three it would give $26 billion worth of tax cuts and $26 billion worth of debt reduction.
If we look at the surpluses that are being projected by eight of Canada's leading economists, the way I read it, in 2002-03 we should expect surpluses of $12.5 billion.
This is the same party that was asking for increases in expenditures for the military, the RCMP, infrastructure and aid for farmers. If we add $26 billion and $26 billion we get $52 billion, and then we have to add the additional expenditures which the Reform Party was pursuing. It seems to me that would be quite a bit more than $12.5 billion, which is the amount we would actually have in surpluses. Maybe the Canadian Alliance has some new math.
A person came to my office who was very excited and said “I have heard about Reform's solution 17. If the government would implement a flat tax, I would save a lot of money”. It turned out that under the Reform Party's proposal for a flat tax that person would save 39%.
I scratched a little more and, lo and behold, that person was earning $200,000 a year. I scratched a little more and I compared that with someone under the flat tax who earned $30,000. They would only save 12%. Yes, there was someone who was quite excited about the flat tax proposed by the Reform Party, but they happened to be earning $200,000.