Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to speak on behalf of the Canadian Alliance with regard to budget 2003.
I thought the leader of the Alliance gave an excellent presentation this afternoon in pointing out the difference between the official opposition party and what we would do, based on what we have seen out of this budget, and the federal Liberals and their return to spending. I am hoping that this debate will provide a chance to clarify a number of issues and really solidify people's minds on where the parties stand and how different they are. I really think that is important. A number of our critics will be speaking later as this debate continues to outline those exact subjects.
I would just say that the main focus of this budget appears to be spending on big federal government programs. The finance minister has brought in a spending budget. The press is reporting a return to the kinds of spending levels that got us in all this trouble, spending levels similar to those of the 1981-82 budget years, which led to the huge deficits. I think that is a fairly accurate portrayal.
Many people see budget 2003 as the end to fiscal discipline in Ottawa. It is as if budget 1995 had never happened. Not only is the federal government every bit as big today as it was when the Liberals took power, it is in fact significantly larger. However, the real truth is that budget 2003 is not a reversal of Liberal government policy as the days of Liberal cost cutting were already long gone. Already they were long gone by 1997 under the former minister of finance. He started the trend again and really revved it up in 2000. Spending was increasing by 6% to 7% a year. Federal program spending has been on the rise since 1997. Over the last two years federal spending has increased, as I said, by 6% on average. Really, budget 2003 has just upped the ante.
The Liberals seem to be happy now to toss taxpayers' dollars around at a fairly dizzying pace. This is something I was talking about in regard to the spending spree from 1979 to 1984, which was very similar. There will be a staggering $14.5 billion increase in program spending for fiscal 2003, the year that is about to end on March 31. March has not arrived yet, so with the traditional March madness it could be substantially more than that.
I want to emphasize that this is an 11.5% increase over the year before. Only $5 billion of that is going to the provinces for health care funding. The Liberals would like to suggest, “Yes, we have had to increase it, but it is all health care spending”. It is not. As I said, of the $14.5 billion increase in that year, only $5 billion is for health care. That is all. That is a significant amount, but that is the difference. There is more on the way. A further $11 billion increase is what the finance minister told us is in the budget over the next two years. Between last year and March 2005, when the annual program spending will rise to $149.6 billion, the total hike will be more than 20%.
In fact, program spending will reach that $150 billion annually one year earlier than the Minister of Finance had predicted in his own economic statement in October of last year in Halifax. That is how fast it is growing. The government has already exceeded its expectations on spending, faster than it expected by a year. I suggest that perhaps it is the Prime Minister's legacy or buying a launch for the Minister of Finance for his campaign, but whatever the reason is, and we saw evidence of it yesterday, the Liberals are setting a torrid pace on spending.