Mr. Speaker, I too would like to respond to the budget. It is interesting that the budget we just had in December was just days before the House recessed for the winter, and so we have had a bit of time to think about the implications of the budget and also, of course, the budget before it.
I would like to address, primarily, the need for tax reduction and the fact that the government in its budget documents, both the one prior to the election in the year 2000 and this one, talks about tax reductions but which we do not see in reality. As a result, it does not really affect the economy. As a result, we have a recession.
We can say that there is a worldwide recession. We can say that we are so closely attached to the Americans that because their economy has been reduced so has ours. Yet, over the last number of years, when things were going really well, where the Americans had a really robust economy and we had a spinoff from that, the finance minister was quite pleased to say that they did this, that they created jobs, that they have a budget surplus and that they have been able to pay down some debt. He took all the credit when things were going good but he seems to be somewhat reluctant to take the blame when things do not go as well. He should really make up his mind on which direction he wants to go and tell us outright whether he is responsible for Canada's budgetary process or not. I believe he is.
I want to talk about taxes. It is not plagiarism if it is acknowledged. I found an interesting poem and I will acknowledge where I got it. It actually comes from a constituent in Medicine Hat, so the member for Medicine Hat actually is the source of this poem, via a constituent. It is so good that I entered it into my computer. While I was thinking about what I was going to say, I tried to find that poem and here it is. Pardon me if I look down once in a while to see the screen as I read it. The poem is very appropriate because it shows how we are overwhelmed by taxes in this country. It reads:
Tax the farmer. Tax his dad, Tax whate'er he ever had; If he's broke, it's just too bad, Tax him hard, till he looks sad.
Go ahead and tax the man. Tax his dog and hired hand; Tax his cow. Tax her milk, Tax his bed, tax his quilt;
Tax his pig, tax his pen, Tax his flocks, tax his hen; Tax his corn, tax his wheat, Tax his wagon, tax its squeak;
Tax his wife, tax his boy, Tax whatever gives him joy; Tax the man who works for him, 'Fore his paycheque gets too thin.
Tax his buildings, tax his chattels, Tax his truck and all its rattles; Tax his stock and tax his cash; Tax him double if he's rash.
Tax his light, tax his power, Tax his payroll by the hour; If he's making more than rent, Add another five percent;
Tax whate'er he has to sell, If he hollers--tax his yell.
We make fun of this but taxes are on us all the time. I would like to give a simple example. I pulled up to the service station the other day and was very pleased to see that gasoline in my home town was finally under 50¢ a litre. It has been awhile since we had gasoline prices that low. I paid 49.5¢ a litre to fill up my vehicle. The service station had a little sticker showing the tax component. It was 10¢ for federal taxes; 9¢ for provincial taxes; and 7¢ for GST. I used my trusty calculator to work backward from that and discovered that what I was paying for gasoline was 27.26¢ because the rest was tax.
We make an error when we think about taxes. We say that half of our gas price is taxes. Everyone thinks we are being taxed at 50%, which is high but we can live with it, but that is not accurate.
When we go into a store and buy something for a dollar, the 7% tax is 7¢ because we take 7% of the dollar on the value of the purchase and then we take 8% of the dollar and add another 8¢ because it is 8% of the value of the purchase.
Because the pump price always shows the inclusive price with taxes, we do not see how much the tax is. The pump price should say 27¢ and then the till should add the taxes. We would then be able to see what we actually are paying in taxes. The number works out to be 27.26¢, which is the base price. Nine cents of 27¢ is about one-third, so 33% is provincial tax. We then add the federal tax which is 10¢ on 27¢, around 37%. Those two taxes together are 70%, not 50%, and then we add the 7% GST. Incredibly the GST is computed on the price of the fuel, plus the provincial sales tax and plus the federal sales tax. When we buy gasoline, the GST is added to the actual taxes. We are paying the GST tax on the other two taxes. That works out to around 12% of the value of gasoline because it is 7% of the total.
The total tax on gasoline is 82%. In other words, when I buy a litre of gasoline I am paying just about as much to the government as I am to the manufacturer and the explorer, the person who found the gas in the first place, all the processing, the hauling of it, the transportation, marketing and everything.
I contend that taxes in this country are killing our economy. The finance minister has consistently failed to recognize that high taxes kill jobs. Over and again it has been one of the main reasons for a recession.
If I were to ask the finance minister that question, he would get up and say that he has reduced taxes and he would talk about all the tax reductions.
I will not repeat what has been said in the House so often already, I will simply refer to it. The $100 billion that the finance minister claims he has given in tax relief is actually overstated by over 100%. We could again say that it should be 50% less but, as an amateur mathematician, the number should be around $47 billion in actual tax relief. He has announced that but most Canadians have not felt it yet. If we take that amount, which he has overstated, it is pretty equal to that. He has overstated the amount by about 100%.
It just so happens that in the wonderful world of economics talking about something does not have any real effect. It has a small psychological effect but the fact is that we need to actually leave the money in the pockets of the people who earn it so they can spend it.
I often thought about whether it was better for me to send the money to Ottawa, or in my case, because I am an Albertan, to our capital, Edmonton, and let them spin it around. A little bit would spill over. A little would be given to welfare and to other benefits to other people. What would be better? Is it better to do that or, if my roof is leaking and I need to phone somebody to fix it, that I give the repairman the money? He has a job that not only provides for his family but also contributes to the tax base. I think it is way better to have people who are earning their own way.
My plea today is simple. Let us cut taxes in a real way, let us not just talk about it, so that our economy will get a boost and we will once again have a dollar that will be close to being equal to the American dollar and also a standard of living that stops eroding relative to our neighbours to the south. I reject that particular argument that the finance minister always uses.