Madam Speaker, the minister knows full well that the post living differential looks at the average cost of a basket of goods and as a consequence most soldiers do not even receive the cost of living differential.
Soldiers do not receive a cost of living differential while they are posted at CFB Petawawa. The cost of living differential that would have refunded the health premium tax should have been calculated in July in time for the August pay cycle. It was not on the pay stub. If the government were being honest with soldiers, it would have made an adjustment on their pay for the health tax premium in August. It did not happen.
The health minister, in his response when I raised the question of the health tax premium in the House, took the legalistic position that this is a tax and the tax has to be paid. What the minister omitted in his response, which is the reason for this adjournment debate, is the fact that the Liberal Party of Ontario identified this as a health care premium, a so-called dedicated tax, the same way that employment insurance deductions are just another tax with a different name, such as a payroll tax.
Governments can play with the wording of anything to make it sound more acceptable, but a tax is a tax is a tax. It is time to stand up for the Canada Health Act, stand up for the women and men who work in Canada's military, and axe that tax.
