Madam Speaker, I know that the hon. member spoke to this bill earlier and I listened to his concerns. I intended to address some of the concerns he mentioned during his speech.
He continues to insist that the bill is a simplification of the Income Tax Act and various other acts. Why then are the amendments needed? The Income Tax Act is very complicated. The new bill has over 500 pages and is further complicating the situation.
The hon. member said that the bill would offer huge tax relief. However, it is too little too late. He bragged about the government's tax relief. According to the hon. member he said that it would be the largest tax relief in Canadian history. I have to contradict him on that point.
I would like to remind the member that the tax decrease which the government is proposing is not an actual tax decrease. I showed through the calculations that it would be less than half and would be over a number of years. I would like to remind him that the largest tax increase in Canadian history took place during this Liberal regime.
He asked me to mention one example. There was a 73% tax increase in CPP. That is the largest tax increase in Canadian history.
It was the Canadian Alliance Party which talked about bracket creep. The government finally listened to us. Whenever I talk to my constituents I always tell them that our party is not only holding the Liberals' feet to the fire, but our party has been carrying a flashlight for a long time. We show the Liberals the darkness and they keep walking behind us. However, the Liberals do not listen. They do not get it right. They steal from our party policy from time to time but we wish they would steal more. Unfortunately, they do not get things right.
Various tax increases, including levies, show that there is a tax increase. I mentioned CPP. The hon. member mentioned that the CPP was arm's length from the government. If that is the case, why did the government grab the surplus from the CPP fund? The CPP premiums were paid by employers and employees and should have been lowered.
The hon. member does not have it right. He should probably take this point into consideration. That is why our party proposed those amendments. The government should listen to Canadians because probably that will help to simplify our Income Tax Act and various other taxes.