Mr. Speaker, this morning I suggested some tax approaches that I wish the finance minister would give some consideration to that would alleviate the burden on Canadians, but also produce, at the very minimum, the same flow of revenue to the government as it is getting with its present regime of excessively high taxation.
I would like to propose something else to the finance minister and ask him at the very least to consider whether he would accept this idea or reject it. This has to do with the whole issue of the so-called surpluses and how they are so incredibly underestimated or overestimated. The famous dyslexic budget surplus projection from over a year ago where we were told was going to be $1.9 billion turned out to be $9.1 billion.
I understand the vagaries of trying to predict what a surplus is going to be. Yes, the items on which a budget is predicated can change during the year, but a surplus of that order of magnitude is inexcusable.
There are two problems that arise. First of all, throughout the year the government can see when an excessive surplus is coming its way. What the government does is madly and wildly spends through the year as it sees that wave of overtaxed dollars coming at it. It can wildly spend it and yet still wind up in a surplus. In fact, it looks as if it has had good management, but in fact it has been terrible management and it has blown away the windfall that was coming its way.
The way to avoid that, and I would ask the finance minister to give this consideration, is through incisive quarterly reports from each department, from the revenue generating departments and from the spending departments. At the start of each year departments produce budgets showing how much they are going to spend or receive in revenue, but if they have to market quarterly and show how they are approaching their targets, there can be sufficient advance warning that the government could see.
For instance, after the first quarter the government could see that revenues are coming in at a little higher rate. More importantly, the transparency that will result from that is that all Canadians and we in Parliament would see that revenues are coming in at a higher rate. By the second quarter, if that wave of surplus was continuing, it would be visible.
At the end of the year that would avoid the wild spending because the budget year is approaching. There is money in the till and it has to be spent. To avoid that March madness, we would see this coming in quarterly reports. The adjustments could be made, but it also has to be reported to the people. Then we would have a real sense of what the true surplus is, how much was unplanned spending because it would be marked every quarter and how much was in fact based on unpredictable events.
The price of oil and gas can change, there can be a SARS crisis, and I appreciate that, but it would put the government on notice that the development of the increased or decreased revenues was going to be known to everybody and known incrementally as it was happening throughout the year. It would produce far better management, far better spending, and the possibility of some true tax reductions which would still result in a surplus.
Would the minister consider that process of transparent, incisive quarterly reports from each department, so that we would know what was coming at us as we move throughout the year?