Mr. Speaker, the matter I would like to address before the House of Commons today is that of the federal government's hidden property tax. This works in several ways. I bring this issue up to follow up on a question I asked the Minister of Finance earlier this year. The item I addressed in that question was the employment insurance premium overpayment.
Employers and employees are required to pay into the employment insurance fund but the premiums that they pay exceed what the fund requires. That excess money nationwide is to the tune of $5 billion a year. That excess money is dropped into the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government.
In the case of municipalities, they are required as employers to pay out that EI overpayment. But municipalities get the money to pay their employment insurance premiums from property taxes. The property taxes are supposed to be used to provide services to the property. That excess money that is being siphoned off to the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government is in effect a federal property tax. That is not appropriate.
The Minister of Finance in answering the question when I asked it earlier this year said he did not understand what I was talking about. I think he just dodged the question. One of the things I would like in the reply is an acknowledgement of whether or not this is understood.
Clearly the former finance minister understands it because he has been making some comments publicly, as has the Minister of Transport, about the GST that municipalities have to pay. That too is a matter in which municipal property taxes are being diverted to the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government. That is not right because taxation between governments should be revenue neutral. Otherwise we get this unfair situation and the inappropriate use of property taxes.
The excise tax on fuel is another example. Municipalities of course spend a lot of money on fuel and the federal excise tax on fuel has to come from the property tax base. There are all these examples: the excessive employment insurance premiums municipalities are required to pay; the excise tax on fuel; GST on services and goods that they procure to provide services to the properties.
I am saying that municipalities should be refunded their excess EI overpayments. They should be GST exempt. They should be exempt or receive a refund for the excise fuel tax. In that way municipal property taxes will not be diverted into the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government.
I am asking the government to acknowledge that it understands what I am saying and what steps it is prepared to take to reverse this unfair situation. As I say, the former finance minister and the Minister of Transport in recent days have publicly talked about the need to leave more resources in municipalities where it is required because of the emerging importance of infrastructure renewal.