Mr. Speaker, I understand what the member is saying. I would say to him that this is not the budget of the government covering our plans for the next couple of years. This is a $2.4 billion bill which is going to deal with three areas. It provides some initial relief to about 300,000 low income Canadians. It also provides assistance for energy retrofits so that there can be real savings in the cost of energy for homes and not for public institutions. Finally, it deals with some public transit assistance, which is part of our overall commitment to energy efficiency.
The member wants tax cuts for everyone. Let us take for example the energy rebate that is being offered here to the prescribed recipients. It is about $564 million. If it were to be given, as he suggests, to all Canadians, it ratchets it up to $2.5 billion or something like that. Is it really that simple, to just say give it to everybody and it is fair?
We do have a progressive income tax system. If it is income tax relief he is talking about, let us have the debate on income tax relief. It will be, I am sure, in the next budget, following up and building on the $100 billion tax cuts that we have had, and the further $13 billion that has occurred since that time and occurs regularly simply because of the indexation of the tax system. There are tax cuts going on each and every year.
The member also has to understand that it is imprudent for any government, as Mike Harris proved, to simply slash taxes, like the Laffer system, and expect that somehow the benefits will automatically flow. I know that when a budget is done for tax cuts, the revenue has to be left out, but the benefits can be anticipated. That is the difference between the Conservatives and the prudent Liberals.