Mr. Speaker, the member is yelling this has to do with forestry workers. The issue here is taxation levels. The private member's bill is specifically trying to reduce the taxes of forestry workers. He has brought back a private member's bill to bring in more tax deductions for the workers in his riding. I fully support the need for tax reductions.
I agree with the member across that it would not be fair to give tax deductions to just the forestry sector. We cannot just provide tax reductions to forestry workers, or as the government would probably like it to members of parliament. In fact, we need to bring in tax deductions for all Canadians.
Let me continue on. These are statistics from Canada. The OECD went on to state: “While productivity growth appears to be better in Canada than anticipated, there continues to be a wide gap in the productivity level compared with the United States, Canada's most important economic partner. This gap is reflected in a substantially lower standard of living in Canada”.
If we go out and talk to the people in our ridings, they will tell us that they are struggling, that there is no money for extras and that there is less every month to pay the bills. That is strictly because we have seen one increase after another by the government. It is reaching into people's back pockets and we have to change that.
I am proud to say that the Canadian Alliance is committed to reducing people's personal taxes with meaningful tax relief, not punishing people who are successful. These are the people who power the economic engine. We are saying that we want to provide tax relief to all Canadians.
I have people in my riding who are earning less than $20,000 and should not be paying any taxes. We would take them right off the tax rolls, yet the government continues to tax them.
I struggled with whether I wanted to run for parliament back in 1997. One of the passions to which I was committed was that the aspirations and dreams of my generation were being shattered strictly through taxation.
We often hear of and talk about the brain drain. It is one of my greatest frustrations. It is not the significant number of people who are leaving Canada, but it is the very best, the very brightest, the economic engine of the country in 15 or 20 years. It is the entrepreneurs, the people who will create jobs in Canada for other people. They are flocking to the states. Why? It is because of the tax levels in this country. It is time for meaningful tax relief which they will feel.
The $12 billion is not the Minister of Finance's, the Prime Minister's or the government's money. It is taxpayer money. We need a plan where we can give taxpayers real, meaningful tax relief. We are committed to doing that.
It is a laudable goal by the member from the Bloc who brought this issue forward. I too have worked in the forest industry. I spent five years working at Crestbrook Forest Industries. I have a lot of friends in the forest industry. It would be very easy for me to stand here and say that we should provide tax relief just to one sector, the forest sector which is huge in British Columbia, but we have to look at reality. We cannot start providing tax relief targeted specifically to one occupation or one sector of society.
We need tax relief for all Canadians. We in the Canadian Alliance are 100% committed to doing that. Jurisdictions all over the globe such as Hong Kong and Ireland have brought in meaningful tax relief, and what has happened? We have seen those economies flourish.
What happens is that it attracts the best and the brightest. Economies flourish and the wealth created by the private sector, not by the government, allows us to have the social programs that are dear to our hearts. We can put the money into health care.
Bill C-211 is asking for a tax deduction for one sector. It is obviously not doable. It needs to extend to all Canadians. I am very proud that the Canadian Alliance is committed to providing meaningful tax relief to every Canadian. Their standard of living would increase. It would allow our best and our brightest young people to stay in the country. It would turn around the tax increases we have seen year after year after year by this government. I can count over 60 sneaky, hidden tax increases. We can turn those around and start putting money back in the hands of the taxpayer, not in the hands of the government.