Madam Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-32. It is an honour to represent the constituents of Saanich—Gulf Islands and British Columbia. This bill is the budget implementation act which gives us a lot of latitude on what we speak about today.
It is important that we lead from the front. Quite often in this Chamber we do not put forward what Canadians, especially the younger generation, really want to see, how we will provide them with alternatives, how we will allow them to fulfil their dreams and aspirations and how they can become excited about this great country.
A number of my colleagues spoke about the endless tax increases, particularly the employment tax increases that have occurred since the Liberals took power in 1993. I am very enthusiastic about what the official opposition, the Canadian Alliance, has to offer the Canadian people. A lot of work has gone into it and it is being reflected in the polls. We are seeing dramatic increases daily. There is a lot of encouragement that Canadians are ready for a change.
The first and foremost change that will come is a single tax rate. We call it solution 17. Our opponents, from the Progressive Conservatives to their friends in the NDP, are criticizing us for this. They have said that we will cut taxes only for the wealthy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I will go into a few of the specific details about solution 17, the single rate tax.
It is important to understand that Canada has three marginal tax rates: 17%, 26% and 29%. We propose to bring those down to a single federal marginal tax rate of 17% which would provide tax savings for every single taxpayer in the country. Most important, it is going to provide the greatest tax relief for the poorest taxpayers, those with the lowest incomes.
It is important not only to emphasize the 17%, but we also propose to increase the basic spousal exemption from $6,000 to $10,000 each for adults who stay at home. That gives two adults $20,000 without any of the other numerous deductions which they can apply, such as their RRSP deductions, before they pay a dime in federal tax. What is the net effect of that? That is going to take 1.9 million, almost two million of our poorest off the tax rolls.
My riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands has many people in retirement. They go there because of the mild winters. It is on the south end of Vancouver Island. There are many seniors in the income range of $20,000 to $30,000 who are struggling and they are paying federal income tax. The Canadian Alliance believes that is wrong and that these people should not be paying it.
We also recognize the importance of raising children and that there is a significant cost to it. We would like to recognize that by bringing in for the first time a child tax deduction of $3,000 per child. Let us look at a family of four with an income of somewhere between $26,000 and $30,000. They are still eligible for the deductions but their basic exemption would be $10,000 for each adult plus $3,000 for each child. They would be able to earn up to $30,000 before one cent in federal income tax was paid.
I do not know how anyone could say that is providing tax relief for the rich. The biggest beneficiaries of our solution 17 will be the taxpayers with the lowest income. We will take them right off the tax rolls.
We recognize that there is another thing taxpayers want, especially the younger generation. I got into politics and ran in 1997 because the dreams and the aspirations of our younger generation had been shattered. They are frustrated. Our best and brightest are flocking to the south. People will come up with numbers and say that there is not that big of a brain drain, but the very best are going, the brightest ones. That is what concerns me.
The economic engine of our country 10 to 15 years from now, the future CEOs, the future entrepreneurs who will create the jobs are the ones who are leaving. In my own family, of my siblings and my wife's siblings, there is one who works in the United States now and there are two others. Almost half of them are in the process or have at least applied for positions in the United States.
With the right government and the right policies in place we can attract investment and Canada can be number one. We could make those younger people in the United States want to come to Canada. We could have the younger generation of Americans say, “Would I ever like to live in Canada”.
That is what we are putting forward. That is why there is so much encouragement within the Canadian Alliance. That encouragement is solely because of our policies and leadership and what we are able to provide.
I can hear some of my colleagues from the New Democratic Party laughing. I encourage them to come to British Columbia. I will take them out there myself. They can talk to British Columbians about the leadership the New Democratic Party has provided in British Columbia. I say that in all seriousness. It has been an unmitigated disaster. In any event, I am not here to talk about that.
I want to read a paragraph from WEFA. The Canadian Alliance put its plan out very early, well in advance of an election, because we wanted our hon. friends from all parties to scrutinize it. We also gave our solution 17 to WEFA which is one of the leading economic forecasting agencies in the country. In fact Mr. Orr does the economic forecasting for the Minister of Finance.
This group is well respected within the financial community. I am going to read the conclusion. It did an in-depth analysis. Anyone watching who would like to learn more about this should contact the office of the member for Medicine Hat for details. He was instrumental in developing solution 17. I am going to read the conclusion in its entirety:
The tax reduction proposals...are well focused on the needs of Canadians today. They expand the economy, and most powerfully: personal disposable income, consumption and our standard of living. They create jobs. By lowering the marginal tax rates they are particularly effective in stimulating work effort, and stemming the brain drain and other productivity enhancing features. By powerfully reducing the level of personal income tax, particularly for Canadians of average and above average income, they are well directed at providing a more competitive tax environment in Canada relative to the U.S. They focus precisely and effectively on “bracket creep”, raising the Basic Personal Exemption, particularly affecting the lowest income taxpayers, by much more than the rate of inflation: by eliminating the current 26% and 29% marginal tax rates, any bracket creep relating to these rates is eliminated. The issue of fairness is addressed, not only by the elimination of bracket creep, but by honouring the original policy intentions of the 5% “deficit reduction” surtax and reducing EI premiums to be consistent with EI policy...the tax reduction proposals of the Reform Party are affordable. If all of the tax reduction proposals are introduced as a combined package, over the 2000-01 to 2004-05 period, there would still be a fiscal surplus in each and every year.
This was done by Dale Orr and Bob Dugan from WEFA. It speaks volumes. WEFA is an independent forecasting agency.
We have put in some other features in our solution 17 which I am very proud of. We are the first party to actually have a plan for debt reduction as a line item in our budget. We have put a line item in the budget because we believe there has to be a plan, just like the plan we all have to pay down our mortgages. We cannot go on year after year saying, as the current government does, that if there is any money left over, we may consider putting it on the debt.
When the economy is strong, we need to pay down the debt. We have made a commitment to pay down $35 billion on the debt. We have made a commitment to narrow the surplus down to $3 billion a year. That is something the government has not done.
I call it leading from the front. It is very important that we put these proposals out there. Obviously Canadians are equally pleased, as the Canadian Alliance's popularity is rising every day in the polls while the Liberal government's popularity drops. Canadians want a change. They want to fulfil their dreams. I know we will be able to deliver and provide what they are looking for.
We need to look at other areas. Taxation alone is not going to solve the problems.
I know we are debating the budget implementation act, but if we are going to solve future budget issues in the country we have to have a much more open and democratic process in the House. There are 301 members here. We have to bring in the ideas of all members so that when we debate the budget they can have meaningful participation instead of only a handful of people who surround the Prime Minister or the Minister of Finance.
The circle of influence is so small. I have often said that we live in a democracy. What is that? We get to go to the polls once every four years to democratically elect a dictator. That is not right. That is wrong. We need to change that. We need to extrapolate on the great ideas of members of the House and allow them to have meaningful participation in the debate. We are committed to making those changes to allow a more democratic process.
After being in Ottawa for three years I believe one of the problems is that the bureaucracy feeds on itself through no fault of is own. It is the fault of the government. It grows and grows and grows. The government has a system that encourages it to grow. It is wildly out of control as is witnessed by the $1 billion boondoggle. We hear those stories daily. I know members on the other side will say no, but the fact is that $1 billion can go out without even being accounted for. We are told that the government did not even have applications for 35% of that $1 billion.
It is not just the department of HRDC. It is rampant throughout ministries within the government. We heard an earlier reference to a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to write a book on dumb blonde jokes. I believe there was a grant to the Canada Arts Council from the government to hang dead rabbits on trees because it was considered art. The list goes on and on and on.
Canadians are in absolute disbelief about this kind of spending. I appreciate it was not the ministers who actually read these applications and said they would be great expenditures of taxpayer money. However they are accountable for this money. Bureaucracy has been blown completely out of control and needs to be brought back in line so that there is accountability.
Another way that we can allow Canadians to fulfil their dreams and achieve their aspirations is economic growth. We have talked about our tax policy at length, solution 17, but there are other things that are absolutely curtailing economic growth and frustrating people such as employment taxes. Employment taxes have increased. I know government members would say they recently decreased the EI contribution rates, and I say only minimally, but they have not told us that they have increased Canada pension plan premiums even more than that.
I find it ironic. We are speaking to Bill C-32, the Budget Implementation Act. The Minister of Finance claims $58 billion in tax relief. If we look at some of the numbers, they are consistent with what the government has done in the past. How does it make up that $58 billion in tax relief? This is mind boggling for me. It is bringing in the $29.5 billion increased Canada pension plan premiums. If we factor those into the additional taxes we are paying, it cuts that amount in half. It did not bring that into the picture. It cherry picked what it put into the $58 billion. It does not tell us the whole story.
Even worse, the government cancelled planned tax increases in the years ahead, tax increases that have not yet happened. Tax increases that were slated for years to come have been cancelled. That is part of its $58 billion tax relief package. Can we imagine? Last year the government said that it would raise taxes by 5%, 10% and then 15% and then cancelled those tax increases and called it tax relief? It is completely unacceptable.
It is time that we had change. We seem to be going in election mode. The government goodie bag is revving up its engines and starting to make announcements of hundreds of millions of dollars. The Liberals believe they can fool the Canadian people and buy their way back into power.
We are in a new millennium and Canadian people will not accept that any longer. They want people to lead from the front. If we want to have the social programs that are so dear to us such as our national health care system, the only way we will be able to afford a sustainable health care system in the decades to come is through wealth created by the private sector. The government can have a strong tax base and the only way that will happen is if it provides the right environment for the private sector to flourish.
The Canadian Alliance has those opportunities. I am very proud to be part of this new energy in the Canadian political landscape. We are seeing it in spades across the country as my colleagues and I have travelled and worked on the leadership race within the Canadian Alliance. It is very exciting for us. It will be most exciting for Canadians who will be the largest beneficiaries. It is time we brought back respect to this institution.