I am being heckled by the parliamentary secretary for finance. He is talking about how in the past we used to complain about the low value of the dollar. I want to answer his concerns if he would quit talking for a second.
It is true. We used to complain about the low value of the dollar. It reflected the fact that our economy was not as productive as it could have been. Today the high value of the dollar reflects the fact that the U.S. dollar has fallen so dramatically. Unfortunately, because our productive capacity did not rise with the dollar, it means that exporters are being hammered very hard. We see this all the time.
I am sure members in ridings ran into this when they were out and about. I know that in the agricultural industry where I come from this is a big issue. People hear it all the time. I see the parliamentary secretary for agriculture nodding over there. It is a pretty serious issue.
The only way to combat that, if we do not have the ability to raise and lower our currency the way we want to every single day, and we do not have that ability since it is part of the world market like any other market, is to ensure that we pull the right fiscal levers so that people have lower corporate taxes, personal income taxes and we eliminate capital taxes for instance. If we do those things, then we would have the capacity to deal with a rapid rise in the dollar, at least more capacity than we have had until this point.
By not reacting, when it has had the opportunity on all these challenges that the government has been warned about for so many years, the government puts Canadian jobs in peril and the livelihood of millions of Canadians in peril. We see all Canadians poorer as a result of it.
We want to argue that as we approach the budget in three weeks time the government must heed this message. It is not simply to please me that I am asking for this, although I would be very pleased if it would go ahead and implement these things. It is necessary to help people, to help individual Canadians, all those people who we ran into in the hockey rinks, coffee shops and town hall meetings that we all had over the very frigid January we just spent in the ridings.
I urge the government to do the right thing and do what is right for the people of Canada. It would also be right politically for the members opposite, by the way. This is something Canadians are demanding.
In a minority Parliament it is also very important for the government to understand that if it does not do these things, then we as the official opposition will have no reason to support the government's budget. I need not paint a more vivid picture than that to show the government what it would mean if we did not support it. Potentially, it could mean the fall of the government.
We are urging the government to take these concerns seriously. If it does, I can assure the House that I will personally tell my caucus that we should support the budget, if the government cuts taxes deeply and implements a standard of living strategy that would ensure that over the long run incomes will rise and we will have revenues to support Canada's social safety net down the road, especially when our baby boomers start to hit their retirement years.
If the House wants to move that we have a question and comment period, I would be happy to address any questions that members may have.