Madam Speaker, I thank you and the members of the House for this opportunity.
I listened intently to the speech of the member for Medicine Hat. There were some parts of it that I would agree with, but I think it would be useful to clarify some points he made.
I do not know how representative his sample was when he wandered around Medicine Hat and surrounding areas. I know that there have been some serious issues with respect to the cattle industry in that area, but if we look at it overall, the economy of Alberta in particular has been doing enormously well and in fact the economy of Canada has been doing enormously well. But we certainly can do better and that is what our government has committed to.
I think it is unfortunate that the member would misquote Don Drummond from TD Canada Trust. He knows Don Drummond and I know Don Drummond and I know that Don Drummond knows the difference between a tax and an investment.
Perhaps where the member gets confused is that there is an issue around take-home pay. I think we still have some work to do in terms of the disposable income of Canadians. I think we also have some work to do with respect to the productivity gap. I do not think there is any confusion around that on this side of the House.
The member talked about tax cuts and about Don Drummond mentioning the CPP going up. Of course the CPP affects one's take-home pay, but the CPP is an investment in one's retirement future. It is not a tax. It is not akin to a tax. It never was a tax. Don Drummond knows that. If the member for Medicine Hat were candid with this House he would recognize that as well.
The other point I would like to bring up is the $100 billion tax cut. As the member pointed out, I had the great opportunity and honour to work with the then minister of finance on the $100 billion tax cut, which actually was a $100 billion tax cut. The problem is that members of the Conservative Party were so astounded that the government would move so aggressively on tax cuts that they have tried for years and months since then to argue that it was not a tax cut.
Let me clarify two very important points. The first is the Canada child tax credit. The members of that party over there, the Conservative Party--I cannot remember if it was the Reform Party at the time or the Alliance--do not see the Canada child benefit as a tax cut. It is true that it is not going to big business and it is not going to high income Canadians, but it is true that it is reducing the taxes that otherwise would be payable by low income Canadians with families, and in a big way nowadays, even bigger now than back in budget 2000.