Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be here today to speak on this particular matter that results from a motion stemming from the “Securing Our Future” report that came from the Standing Committee on Finance.
I want to take a moment to congratulate the member for Kings--Hants and all members of the standing committee for the effort that went into these prebudget consultations. The report, to a large degree, provided Canadians and all the political parties here in the House with the opportunity to have some input into the budget. Unfortunately much of that input and that information was ignored and put to one side because of competing political interests and agendas that relate directly to the Liberal leadership race.
The Minister of Finance brought forward a budget to great acclaim. There was much ballyhoo about this particular budget which was presented almost two years after the last budget. I note with interest that this is the seventh budget, I believe, since 1994 and it is the seventh budget that refuses to follow through on that initial promise of getting rid of the GST. This of course was directly linked to much of the acclaim and the credit that the Minister of Finance would like to garner for himself and his government. However, it is those revenues that have allowed the government to balance the books and to claim to have slain the deficit. Those budgetary surpluses are a direct credit to the previous administration, not this administration.
I would be loath not to point out that the Liberal government campaigned vigorously against that particular policy. It spared no opportunity to eviscerate the previous government for suggesting that it would bring in a services tax that was directly intended, I note, to bring down the deficit at that time.
Many people in the Chamber will recall the olympian back-flip of the current minister of heritage when she suggested that if her government did not get rid of the GST she would resign immediately. Well, she did resign but she ran again. It is the same example for the Leader of the Opposition who has repeated that copout by resigning only to run again, but I digress.
The budget comes up short on a number of levels, particularly with regard to the Canadian military and in addressing the issues of productivity and failing productivity. Sadly, there was ample opportunity in this budget to address many of these issues that predate September 11, for as sad and horrific as those events were, there were many issues that pointed directly to a lagging economy and to the need for the Minister of Finance and for the government to look ahead and reflect a little bit on what the government's fiscal plan was going to be.
Mr. Speaker, I should indicate that I will be splitting my time with my colleague in the coalition, the hon. member for Prince George--Peace River.
Another telling comment was made in the Chamber this week by the Minister of Finance. He stated, “what is important in a budget is the way in fact it is received by the public”. It is a very sad commentary and a telling one as to the priorities or the lack of priorities. It points directly to that age old Liberal adage of being like a windsock, driven in terms of finding out what the priorities of the people are and then giving them what they want, not necessarily what they need.
According to the minister, the budget should be judged simply by the polls and by public opinion. Yet I think most Canadians, if we polled them in their homes and in their places of work, would be quick to point out that there were a lot of things that they would have liked to have seen in this budget completely ignored. My colleagues in the NDP have raised the issue of agriculture, as have members of the coalition and other members in the House.
Agriculture seems to have been given zero contemplation in terms of a budgetary allocation. In fisheries, numerous individuals in the riding of Pictou--Antigonish-Guysborough continue to struggle in that lifelong occupation of working on the sea.
The town of Canso is facing a crisis, to quote the minister of multiculturalism. As we speak, the town of Canso is facing near extinction if the Seafreez plant in that community leaves.
Those are the sorts of practical difficulties with which Canadians are dealing. Will they have a job? If they do not have a job, will they be able avail themselves of the employment insurance that they paid into? Much like the CPP, which is allocated for a specific purpose, to sustain individuals in their retirement or if they are so unfortunate as to be unable to work because of health reasons, the employment insurance program was intended specifically to sustain people when they were out of work. This is an issue we are all too familiar with in Atlantic Canada, and in many regions of the country, such as Quebec, Saskatchewan and right across the country. This is still a huge problem for our people. This again relates directly to productivity, to businesses being able to be productive, to provide employment and and to provide opportunities.
The EI surplus as it stands is ballooning. It is somewhere in the range of $36 billion to $38 billion and it is continuing to accumulate. Individuals, employers and employees are paying into the fund at the rate of $2.05 per $100. There was an opportunity to bring that down further, to allow people to keep more of their hard earned money in their pockets, but those phrases are becoming trite now because it is not happening.
As a result, an opportunity has been missed to tax people less, to let them keep more of their money rather than follow this ballooning idea that we can take money from people in volumes and then give it back to them in a very patronizing way and tell them how their money would be best spent.
I think most Canadians are crystal clear in their minds as to how they would like to spend their money. They would like to pay down their mortgages, provide for their children, put money away perhaps for their children's education, simply live and pay for their oil.
Speaking of oil, we know the auditor general was quick to identify a number of wasteful areas. All governments have suffered from that. There is no pride in pointing out that any one administration was trouble free when it came to government waste, but the auditor general clearly identified that in 16 departments over $16 billion could have been cut in terms of waste.
One of the areas identified was the heating oil rebate. That is not to say that individuals were not entitled to money back, but on the list were individuals who were deceased or who were living outside the country, and some of them were university students living in residence and not paying heating bills. It is indicative of the poor management of taxpayers' money.
Another area of savings I would be quick to point out would be the gun registry. I know there are polls but it all depends on how the question is asked: “Are you in favour of gun control?” Everyone is in favour of gun control but are we in favour of registering long guns at a cost of $700 million? That is another question altogether.
The $130 billion figure in the budget is staggering and hard to contemplate. For the Minister of Finance to stand in his place in the House of Commons and suggest that there was no area in which there could have been cuts, no savings found in the presentation of the budget, insults every Canadian's intelligence.
The productivity crisis that I referred to in my opening remarks is at a very serious level. There was no reduction offered in the budget on investment killing capital taxes, no reduction in the payroll taxes and no reduction in the basic yearly exemption, which is particularly germane to students in the country who in the summer months seek employment, some who make barely $3,000 that would be applied to their education and yet they are taxed on that amount.
I would suggest as well that there is certainly room to raise the basic personal exemption to $12,000 at a minimum. If one is making $12,000, one cannot afford to live in this country. The working poor deserved a break but they did not get it in the budget.