Mr. Speaker, I am pleased this morning to have a chance to participate in the debate on the upcoming budget and specifically on the report of the parliamentary committee on finance, which is now before the Canadian people.
The majority report that the parliamentary committee on finance has put forward is profoundly disappointing for a couple of reasons. The best way for me to explain why I feel that way--and it is not only the New Democratic Party that will be critical of this report but the overwhelming majority of Canadians--is to go to the scene of the parliamentary finance committee hearing in my own riding of Halifax six weeks ago on October 30.
On that occasion there were 14 witnesses who appeared before the committee. I will not pretend to have read all of the proceedings of all of the committee meetings held across the country. On checking with my colleagues, many of whom sat with the finance committee at different venues across the country, it is our assessment that the very weight of recommendations that the parliamentary finance committee has brought forward is reflective of probably 20% of the views brought forward across the country before the parliamentary committee. On balance if we average out across the country, 80% of the Canadians who appeared before the parliamentary committee had a different set of priorities. They were appealing, and it is not an exaggeration to say pleading, with the finance committee to communicate to the Government of Canada their priorities.
Of the 14 witnesses that I referred to, two of them would embrace enthusiastically the majority report from the finance committee because it is a reflection of what the chamber of commerce in my city had to say and another organization, the Financial Executives Institute Canada. The latter argued for the tax deductibility of stock options. The chamber of commerce argued for tax reductions and a restraint on public spending.
The other witnesses spoke about the social deficit that had accumulated since the government started its hacking and slashing in 1995 of social housing, poverty programs, child care programs, various aspects of the health care system, post-secondary education, elementary education and interestingly the Coast Guard. There was a common thread in those presentations. They all said that an enormous deficit had accumulated because of the misplaced priorities of the government and now that we were in a period of surplus budgets it was important to reinvest in these programs. It was not a question of whether we had sufficient funds to do it, it was stated that we could not afford not to do it.
The reality is that every single year for almost a decade Canadians have heard the same tired song from the finance minister. He has said we have the greatest economy in the world but we just do not have the money to invest publicly.
Two years ago, when the government was projecting a surplus of $95 billion over five years, what did the government do? It made the decision that the priority would be a $100 billion tax cut. Everyone loves tax cuts but clearly the beneficiaries of those tax cuts, overwhelmingly 80%, were people who did not need tax cuts.
Today, with a projected surplus of $70 billion over the next five years, what does the government want to do, supported by the majority of the committee members? It argues it wants more tax cuts. In fact the same old song it thought that Canadians were singing. I do not think the evidence is there at all to support that.
It is a sad day that the majority of committee members have embraced the official fiction that the federal budget has no room for important spending initiatives. The finance department seems absolutely totally blind to the reality that when it comes to figuring out its expected budget balance every year, it simply cannot count. In every single year, since the government was elected in 1993, the government has exceeded its projection on the budget balance to an accumulated total of almost $80 billion. If people could think of it as the government being $10 billion out on its projection each and every year for the last eight years. It is mind boggling if we really think about it.
After a good session in Halifax of hearing from a wide range of voices about the desperate need to reinvest in our health care, education, other social programs and the Coast Guard, what did the finance minister do that afternoon? He appeared before the committee to enlighten Canadians on the fiscal state of the nation and he projected a budget surplus for the next year of $1 billion.
The motive and intent behind that was clearly to quash any public expectation of what was reasonable to expect the government to do. It would almost be funny if it was not such an act of deception. Maybe it is not proper to say an act of deception, but the only alternative is that it was grotesque incompetence, so we can take our pick. In the meantime we have serious priority issues being ignored by the government.
I want to speak directly to what is acknowledged to be the number one priority by 93% of Canadians. It was reflected in poll result after poll result, and that is a public not for profit health care system.
There are about 400 representatives from every corner of this country, every province and territory, who are on the Hill today to speak directly to health care priorities. They represent advocacy groups, health providers, health research bodies, and a whole range of interests embraced by Canadians with respect to health care. They are very frustrated.
They are frustrated with the fact that in the majority report of the finance committee 14 out of 51 recommendations were for further tax cuts. What is worse is that there were only two recommendations that dealt with health care whatsoever. What is beyond belief is that the recommendations of this report actually reserved the strongest wording for the further protection of patents.
Who would be the chief beneficiary of that? The most profitable corporations in the world, the multinational pharmaceutical industries. The committee was concerned to ensure that their rights were vigorously defended. Forget that rising drug prices charged by multinational drug companies are the single biggest driver in rising health care costs in Canada.
The government needs to listen and listen carefully today to the voices and the recommendations of the hundreds of people who have come together, under the umbrella of the Canadian Health Coalition and the Canadian Labour Congress, representing the vast mass of Canadian interests and priorities with respect to health care.
That means not cherry picking from this report and that report and another report on addressing the future needs of health care. It means standing behind the Romanow commission report, running with it and getting on with the re-investment, and the rebuilding of what can again be the best public not for profit health care system in the world.
Canadians deserve no less. We have the means and foundation to do it. Let us get on with implementing it and in the process lament the fact that the finance committee did not see fit to reflect those kinds of priorities that are so widely shared by Canadians.