Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam.
It is my pleasure to speak to the budget. I will start by saying that probably the most surprising thing coming from the perspective of my riding is that we talk about a surplus. Where I come from, when people's credit cards are at their maximum and they have $100 in their pockets, they do not have a surplus. What they should do is put the $100 on the credit cards to help pay them down.
The government talks constantly about this surplus. By underestimating its budgets of course it builds these surpluses. By overtaxing people it builds these surpluses. But it still has a $563 billion debt. It still pays $43 billion a year in interest payments.
It is really difficult for people in my riding to understand how we have a surplus that we must find a way to spend. They think of that as being irresponsible. They think of that as not thinking about our kids and our grandchildren. They think of that as a total spend and tax, kind of berserk planet Ottawa mentality.
We do not see that there is a surplus. We do not see that we should be spending all of this money. We instead see that we should be very carefully evaluating, making the spending of money accountable and emphasize two things: leaving money in people's pockets and trying to get rid of some of the waste that is here so that we can put the money toward the debt and ultimately get rid of it.
We do not understand either how the government can collect $45 billion from EI and throw it into general revenue. That was supposed to be an insurance program, not a slush fund. We do not understand how it can charge $24 for airline security and nothing changes, that the money is not spent on that. We do not understand how it takes gas taxes and does not spend it on roads, that it goes into general revenue.
Generally speaking when we look at that and we hear the government say, “We do want to keep taking more money because we know how to spend it”, we could evaluate that very clearly. In my riding, what would come first to mind is that the government said that the gun registry would cost $129 million, that it would collect $127 million in revenue and the total cost then would be $2 million. It turns out now that it is $1 billion. That really is not very good management, not very good budgeting and certainly not a very good business plan.
We look at the ad scandal where money was spent for things we did not even get. In fact we spent it two or three times over for things we did not get. We see HRDC where $1 billion was spent and there was not even any paperwork done, where cheques went out but nobody knows why or to whom they went out. We see Shawinigate. We see all of those things and we cannot believe that the money is in good hands by sending it to Ottawa.
What we really need is a long term vision for this country, one that encourages innovation, one that shows a genuine desire to reduce that debt, to get it down, as my Chamber of Commerce points out. They would like to see it at 25% of GDP. The government in fact does not have any goals like that.
They would like to see us refocus government programs to reduce the duplication and waste that occurs here. They would like to see us reduce EI and make it a true insurance program so that we collect only what we need to spend.
They would like to see the capital tax gone now, immediately. It was put on by the former government in order to cover deficits. That government has been gone for a long time and now we are phasing it out over five years. That is irresponsible.
They would like to see income tax reduced, simply because they feel they can spend it better.
As the chief environment critic for our party I must emphasize the environmental package today. We have $3 billion that I feel we could spend, and more. We could cooperate with the provinces and the municipalities, and probably do some pretty innovative good things that Canadians would support. However, when I examine this and I look at the spending that is in the budget on the environment, I cannot help but ask some serious questions.
For example, I look at $175 million over two years for contaminated waste sites, like abandoned mines and that sort of thing. Today, I read a report out of Sydney, Nova Scotia, where it says the tar ponds would take $440 million and 11 years to clean up. We have already put millions of dollars into that problem. We could go to northern Saskatchewan or we could go right across this whole country and find government-responsible brown field sites, private ones and so on.
When we look at that $175 million, we cannot help but ask where will that be spent? Will it really make a difference? If it does, we want to see that, and we want to support that, but we want that to be accountable. That is the big concern that I will keep repeating.
We see $40 million for air quality in the B.C.-Washington state and the Great Lakes air sheds. We have just identified the two most polluted air sheds in Canada, namely southern Ontario and the Fraser Valley. So there is $40 million without any real detail of what we will be doing.
Having been an intervener in the Sumas 2 project in Washington state and having been refused intervener status in the examination of the project in Canada, I wish to announce to the House that I have gained intervenor status, not through any help of the government but by other means, in both level one and level two. I will be able to intervene on behalf of Canadians.
It is interesting that the B.C. and Alberta governments had intervener status, but I was turned down because I did not live in B.C. That is kind of interesting, but that is an aside.
The government will be spending $40 million on clean air. We have the second most polluted airshed in B.C. What has the federal government done there?
As much as the minister likes to say he is a good friend of Mr. Locke, the governor of Washington state, and as much as he likes to say he has golfed with him and so on, when I met with representatives in the governor's office I was told they would not even come and talk to us as long as the sewage from Victoria was washing up on Seattle's shore.
To say that we are on great terms or that the federal government is doing something is not accurate. My observation, and the observation of the people of Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, is that the federal government is not doing a thing about this whole issue. What will this $40 million be used for and will the federal government finally intervene on behalf of those Canadians?
I must also look at the $1.7 billion that will be used for climate change. The minister says we should set up a committee of ministers who would not be interested in spending that money. I do not know many ministers who would not be interested. I would think there was something wrong with them if they were not interested in spending part of $1.7 billion.
How will it be spent? Who will have their hand in the cookie jar? Which ministers will administer it? Does one have to be a Liberal Party member to access that money? How accessible is it? How will it be used? This budget just does not tell us that.
While there are some good things there I must question the accountability of the government when it comes to this budget.