Madam Speaker, I need to congratulate the parliamentary secretary. That is such a super question. He could not have asked a better question.
There is this myth going around that the single rate tax, which is different from the flat tax, is a tax break for the rich. It is not. It is an equalization of the tax burden.
The basic exemptions are increased dramatically. We are going to give a percentage tax cut indeed to the average Canadian taxpayer. However the people who benefit the most are the families. For example a mom and a dad and two kids who earn $26,000, I do not have the numbers right at my fingertips on how much tax they would pay under the Liberal government but whatever it is, we are giving them a 100% tax break. Every tax dollar that they have paid they now will no longer have to pay. They get off the tax rolls completely because there is a $10,000 basic exemption for each of the adults and $3,000 for each of the two children which is $6,000. That is $26,000 they earn before they pay a single penny of tax. They get a 100% tax break.
I am not going to apologize for the fact that even those who are making more money also get a tax break. It is time for us to stop punishing people who earn money in this country.
If a person is making $50,000 or $60,000, and if they earn an extra $5,000, I can see where we are going to tax them on that extra income. However I reject the hypothesis that as they earn more we have to take a higher and higher proportion of it because that totally stifles economic growth and it kills the enthusiasm and joy of our citizens. If they earn $10,000, let them pay twice as much more tax as the ones that earn $5,000 more. I am talking about after those basic exemptions.
The other question the member asked had to do with the deductions from taxable income for all of the other expenditures. The short answer is that most of the deductions that are in place now would still remain in place. It is not a flat tax per se. It is a single rate tax. It simply means that there is a certain level on which earners pay no tax and after that it is 17% on every additional dollar after the basic exemptions. They still will be able to apply, for example, their deductions for charitable donations and others.