Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Elk Island for once again allowing me to speak and for giving an eloquent performance with constructive suggestions. I will try to be part of that if I can.
The last 10 years since the Liberal government came to power have been labelled the decade of drift for Canada. Perhaps the worst case of that is the situation with our economy. As a nation we are punching so far below our weight that we are sliding further and further down the OECD levels. This is not necessary. As a country we have much greater potential than we have been displaying.
The government has proposed a budget. The only reason it has done so is that the events of September 11 have forced it to put a budget on the table. It might be shocking for Canadians to know that while our unemployment rates have gone up and our dollar, our economy and our competitiveness with respect to other countries have been sliding, the government has been doing nothing.
This has been an era of inaction. The inaction of the government has compromised every person in the country today. The government's agenda has been focused on its polls and that is it. It does not matter what is happening in the country. The government wants to know what its polls are saying. We have seen an agenda for inaction which is the antithesis of innovation, and as a result our competitiveness has been sliding.
As a member of the Canadian Alliance I will offer some of the solutions my party has been putting forth since 1993 to get Canada back in the game, make our country competitive and move us forward. Our solutions would ensure every Canadian could share the wealth and be gainfully employed. They would ensure better social programs, put us on a sustainable footing and make Canada a stronger and better country for all.
We not only need to have balanced budgets. We need to invest in the infrastructure required to be competitive. As my colleague from Elk Island mentioned, the tax structure we have today is choking off the private sector in ways we cannot imagine. The rates are too high and payroll taxes are too high. They absolutely must be reduced. EI premiums can and must be reduced because they are being used as a tax on the private sector.
Personal taxes must decline. Above all else they hurt those in the middle and lower classes. They are the ones hurt most by the government's inaction.
We need investment in research and development. We must allow the private sector to engage in the research and development required for it to compete with countries all over the world. It cannot do that with the high tax rates we have today.
We must reform and simplify our tax system. My party has been proposing a flat tax rate for years. Why do we have the complex tax system we have today where people need a chartered accountant or CGA to do their taxes? It is not necessary. Corporate and personal taxes need to be reduced as do the innovation crushing capital tax structures we have today.
EI premiums should be reduced. CPP premiums are reaching such high levels that in the next few years they will consume 20% to 30% of people's income. The reason is that today's CPP is completely unsustainable. The government knows this full well.
When the Liberal government of the day brought in the CPP it knew full well it would be unsustainable in the future. There will come a time when the system will break apart because it cannot maintain the current structure. As a result many low income seniors will be crushed.
Members of the Liberal Party over there are shaking their heads and saying no. However the architects of the CPP could tell us then and hon. members can tell us today that the CPP is unsustainable.
If the government does not act today to reform the CPP system, tens of thousands of innocent and impoverished low income seniors will be unnecessarily hurt. They will be thrown out on the street because they will not have the money to meet their basic needs. That crime will be on the shoulders of the Liberal government.
We in the Canadian Alliance Party have put forth solutions to save the CPP system so all Canadians, particularly low income seniors, can have a pension on which they can survive. Are we seeing that? No, we are not. We have a system today where rules and regulations are choking off our private sector.
I propose that for every rule and regulation the government proposes in the future two rules and regulations be removed from the books. That is what we are doing in British Columbia. The B.C. government said it would start shaving off a third of all the rules and regulations in its province. The federal government never does this. We need to remove a good chunk of the rules and regulations that are choking the private sector.
Our spending priorities should be education, infrastructure and research and development, not government programs to curry favour with the electorate. The government uses taxpayer money to buy votes and curry favour with the electorate. It takes $10 from the taxpayer and gives $4 back. It does this strategically to ensure it is re-elected.
The public does not buy this any more. As hon. members know, in previous times the government has been able to win over the public all over the country by virtue of giving out government largess. The public is now saying it will not give money to the government unless it spends the money wisely, which is the responsibility of any responsible government. It had better start doing it quickly.
In this decade of drift we have seen a government that accepts mediocrity and inaction. It accepts less than what we can be. It will accept a 50 cent dollar and higher unemployment rates. Why does this have to be? Why is it happening? That is the more interesting question. The reason it is happening is that we do not live in a democracy. If we think for a moment that cabinet controls what is going on in the country we are sadly mistaken.
It is not cabinet that controls what goes on. There are many fine cabinet ministers and backbench members in the government who are innovative and would like to exercise their skills, talents and abilities for the public good, but they cannot. The Prime Minister's Office tells them what to do, what to say, when to say it and how to say it. If they step out of line they know they will be turfed. They will be turfed not to the fifth row but to the sixth row if there were one. Their political careers would be over.
That is not fair. It is not only unfair to good, hardworking members on the government side and members of all political parties. It is unfair to the Canadian public. The public demands better. It demands a government that will use the best minds within its party and the House, that will find the best ideas from around the country and that will apply those ideas to the problems of the nation in a timely fashion.
All we have seen since 1993 is a government of inaction and mediocrity that is obsessed with polls and accepts less than what we can be. On one level we can understand that. Why change when one is so high in the polls? However what is the purpose of power unless one is willing to use it for the public good? Why have it? Why be in that position unless one is willing to use the good graces of the offices one has taken over for the public good?
The Canadian public will not tolerate this much longer. As an opposition party, first as the Reform Party and then as the Alliance Party, we have for years been offering constructive solutions to deal with the big problems affecting Canadians. Members of all political parties have been doing so.
The upcoming budget pressured by the events of September 11 will demonstrate that the government has been inactive. It has been willing to sleepwalk into a recession rather than act proactively to head it off in advance. The public sees that. The opposition ranks see that.
We in my party have offered constructive solutions. The government's obligation is to take our solutions and those from its own side and act on them. If it does not act on them people will be hurt and it will be on the government's shoulders.