Mr. Speaker, I want to address one specific point. The member announced that the Progressive Conservative Party, as part of its platform, would like to increase a tax credit.
The member referred to it as the basic personal deduction. For the member's edification, it is a basic personal amount, a non-refundable tax credit at a rate of 17%. If we assume a 50% provincial tax rate of the federal tax rate, the equivalent in the pocket for a Canadian would be at a rate of about 25%. The $5,000 increase in the tax credit the member is proposing would generate $1,250 in the pocket of every Canadian taxpayer. That is federal and provincial.
The member will probably know that in 1997, the last year Revenue Canada reported on it, 14 million Canadian taxpayers filed income tax returns and actually paid income taxes. Therefore, if what the member is proposing were to be done, it would mean that 14 million taxpayers times $100 would generate $1.4 billion of cost.
What the member is proposing would cost the federal government $12 billion. This is not something to be taken lightly. The member also went on to speak about EI and $6 billion. Now we are up to $18 billion. I could deal with some of the other points, but in a very few moments the hon. member had summarily eliminated about $20 billion of revenue each and every year to the federal treasury to support programs and services.
My question is simple. I understand clearly what the member would like to cut in terms of the revenue base the government uses to support health care and all other supports it provides to Canadians. If he is to cut $20 billion-plus a year out of the federal treasury, what is he prepared to cut each and every year to ensure that we do not go back into the deficit that his party put us into to start off this mess?