Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to budget 2000, which may be described as failing to meet the needs of the people and should have taken into account all the problems facing the people of Canada and Quebec.
The federal government failed to do a very important thing: to restore the social transfers throughout Canada. In 1995, $48 billion in cuts to the social transfer to the provinces were forecast; in 1999, we have reached $30 billion in cuts. This is money for health, education and income security that has been cut.
We would therefore have preferred to see happen what we have called for on a number of occasions, namely the return of the Canada social transfer to better support the provinces, which provide the frontline services to the public. So, $3.7 billion a year was sought by the Bloc Quebecois even before the budget was presented. What the Minister of Finance delivered was $2.4 billion over five years, in trust, for the provinces to spend as they need.
We know that this practice of the government of putting money in trust for health does not permit the provinces to develop a long term strategy to better meet the needs of the public. At present, the health program is in a state of crisis everywhere in Canada, and it is often said that the need is greater than our ability to meet it. Still, some money will need to be invested after the government has reconsidered its way of doing things in the health sector.
In light of such factors as the ageing population, the new techniques to adequately deal with emergencies and health problems, and the increase in poverty, which requires more prevention work than in the past, I say that we now find ourselves in this situation because the government has been accumulating a social deficit and letting the public down for six years. This is why the situation is so disastrous in the country.
Because of all the cuts made to the Canada social transfer, Quebec has been experiencing a shortfall that has prevented it from hiring 3,000 doctors, 5,000 nurses and 5,800 teachers. Let us not forget that income security recipients could have received an extra $500 annually.
This is a federal government initiative that is far from pleasing the provinces, which are faced as a result with increased demands and an acute problem in health and education. The school drop-out phenomenon tells us that we need more teachers, helpers and educational psychologists.
The federal government's underfinancing has been condemned by a number of stakeholders in health and education. Social rights advocates also demand a greater degree of fairness to ensure adequate financial assistance.
So, regarding the Canada social transfer, it is a big zero in terms of this government's social concerns. This is the mark that I would give to the Liberals.
We noticed a second thing about this budget. It is unacceptable that the government has not budged on EI. The Bloc Quebecois, through the member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, proposed a series of bills that would improve the government's approach to eligibility for employment insurance. It is no longer insurance when six people out of ten do not qualify. And there are all sorts of reasons why they do not.
We wanted to adopt a reform that would take the market into account, but here again I think we have our heads in the sand. What we are seeing now is people trying to cope with insecure and atypical jobs with few social benefits. When people no longer have EI to help keep them afloat until they find another job, it is a disgrace.
The government knows perfectly well what is needed to correct the situation. We know that in the meantime Treasury Board coffers are brimming over with more than $30 billion from the pockets of workers and employers throughout Quebec.
This is unacceptable and, once again, we know only too well that what the federal government likes to do is build up its revenue and its room to manoeuvre with an eye to an election so that it will get the biggest political bang for its buck.
So, there is EI and the Canada social transfer, and I would add social housing. It is unacceptable to see how the government has, since 1993, totally abandoned the help families and single mothers have been calling for, along with low wage earners who can no longer afford to pay the rent, and who often have to pay 30%, 40% and even 50% of their incomes to keep a roof over their heads.
These are alarming figures to the percentage of the population, of single parents and low income families who cannot find a decent place to live at a price they can afford.
In December, with great fanfare, a project was announced which will include the homeless and the street people. There was talk of a bill that would involve the major cities of Canada. As far as Quebec was concerned, there was talk of Montreal and Quebec City, but there was nothing for the regions. The project is being re-evaluated. Now they say there would probably be something for the regions as well.
With $305 million over three years, this is merely a drop in the bucket given the pressing need. It is hoped that the program which has been created will also take into account the realities of Quebec as far as assistance with social housing is concerned. All Quebec community groups comprising the membership of FRAPRU are calling for 1% of the budget, which represents $1.6 billion yearly, for five years.
This is a far cry from the $8 billion the various organizations, and we in the Bloc Quebecois, had called for in order to properly deal with the social housing issue.
The groups have received the message of the Minister of Finance loud and clear, when he plays to the crowd at major international conferences, talking of how we must think of the disadvantaged, that globalization should apply to the poor as well as to the rich, that poverty must be taken into account.
It is unacceptable that, despite the three measures in which the government had room to manoeuvre—much more than what was done in the last budget—to properly respond to the whole problem of the gap between the rich and the poor, nothing was done.
In another area, that of taxation, the tax tables have been indexed. The government did not go far enough in cutting the taxes of low income earners. A single person earning $20,000 will pay $2 less in taxes in 2000-01. The person will pay a huge $14 less in taxes in 2004.
Here again there is very little for people with low incomes. There is nothing either for people on welfare, nothing for those wanting better care or prevention. In the meantime, the Liberal government wanted to ensure it had a lot of manoeuvring room in an election period, so that it could spend for home care and for other forms of help. I always say that the federal government is more concerned with being returned to office in an election than with going after the real problems and, in the end, meeting the needs of the people.
I am currently touring Quebec to listen to what people have to say on the problem of poverty and the social safety net. Clearly, the federal government is evading its responsibilities to provide proper funding in this area through channels of investments; funding is inadequate and often non existent. That is what we see.
The Bloc Quebecois said that there was $95 billion in surplus, but I believe the figure is much higher. The government should have given us a social budget, and not—