Mr. Speaker, it was with great anticipation that I prepared for this opportunity to speak today on the upcoming federal budget.
As the federal representative for Prince George—Peace River it is incumbent upon me to advocate that tax dollars are utilized by the government wisely, fairly and in accordance with the wishes of my constituents. While this duty is carried out each and every day in some form or another, today is the opportunity for me to state on the record in the House how the residents of Prince George—Peace River want their government to prioritize and manage their money. And it is their money, despite the government's tendency to boast of its annual surpluses. A surplus is built upon the backs of the Canadian taxpayers. A surplus simply means that the government has overtaxed Canadians.
I often remark that there is a fundamental difference between a Liberal and a Conservative. A Liberal looks at a surplus and asks, “How can we devise new programs to spend the money?” A Conservative looks at a surplus and says, “We have overtaxed Canadians and we should return it to them because it is their money”.
This year it means that the federal government will have taken close to $11 billion more from taxpayers than it was committed to spend. Are taxpayers going to get some of their money back? If the Prime Minister and his government were to stick to the commitment they made last October, just over three months ago, Canadians would get some of that $11 billion back in the form of tax relief, or as I prefer to call it, a pay increase.
Specifically the throne speech amendments, which government MPs voted to support, called for tax cuts for hard-working Canadians. If the government intends to honour this three month old pledge, we should expect to see substantive tax cuts in the upcoming budget.
In Mackenzie, B.C. for example, a small community in my riding, a remote northern town where the cost of living is considerably higher than most other communities, residents might expect to see at long last the reinstatement of their northern residents tax deduction. No one in the federal government has been able to justify why the deduction was taken from Mackenzie in the first place, but in the upcoming budget there is an opportunity to correct the oversight while simultaneously complying with the throne speech amendment to cut taxes.
During the election campaign the federal Liberals ridiculed calls from the Conservative Party of Canada for substantive tax cuts. They ridiculed our calls to increase funding for health care, for education and for our armed forces. The Liberals said that these proposals to cut taxes and at the same time invest in Canadians' security and well-being were preposterous because the money simply was not there. The government projected a surplus at that time of just $1.9 billion. We know that was underestimated by roughly $9 billion. We are also well aware that the money certainly is there.
What about the $1 billion plus that has been spent on the dysfunctional gun registry? What about the millions wasted on the federal sponsorship program? In fact, with an ounce of fiscal responsibility and fiscal management, there is ample room for tax cuts as well as funding for critical areas of our country's social and economic health.
In Prince George—Peace River, like most of Canada, there is grave concern about the state of our health care system. Some have told me bluntly that although they are not pleased that the government is set to amass an $11 billion surplus this fiscal year, they do not want it back. Some of my constituents do not want those surplus dollars if, and it is an important if, the government can assure them that they will actually be able to find a family doctor, not just more talk about health accords and complex and cantankerous federal-provincial negotiations, not more idle rhetoric about shortening the waiting lines, but a living, breathing medical professional whom they can access when they or their loved ones are in need of care.
The doctor shortage in my riding is critical. Whenever a doctor retires in one of our communities, the pressure intensifies on the already overburdened local medical services. Recent examples include Tumbler Ridge and Fort Nelson where residents have relatively few options for medical care. There is also an urgent need for additional palliative care, and homes and resources for the elderly.
It is not just health care that has been neglected. A recent report shows that Canadian workers have seen barely any growth in their real take home pay, and I repeat that this is their take home pay, throughout the past 15 years while government spending has grown at record rates. I can assure everyone that there has not been a corresponding improvement in infrastructure and government services in Prince George—Peace River.
As one notable demonstration of this decay in infrastructure in the city of Prince George, known as B.C.'s northern capital, two major transportation corridors, Highway 97 and Highway 16, and two major rivers, the Fraser and the Nechako, converge to form an economic hub that is critical to the economy of the entire region. Yet a significant number of the logging trucks, heavy equipment for the oil and gas industry, and other industrial traffic that passes through the city must cross an old single lane wooden bridge dating back to the 1930s.
Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. I was mistaken in not stating that at the outset of my speech.
It is not unrealistic for the residents of Prince George and area, who have heard the Prime Minister's promises for a new infrastructure deal for Canadian cities and who have seen their paycheques shrink due to taxes, to expect that the upcoming budget will address their need for a replacement for the Nechako River bridge.
Similarly, airports in Prince George, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek are vital to the transportation infrastructure of northern B.C. where ground transportation is not always a feasible or cost effective option. Yet since the federal government has off-loaded these airports to local airport authorities, it has taken a hands-off approach to ensure their ongoing safety and viability.
The airport capital assistance program, or ACAP as it is known, which is supposed to assist these airports, had $6.9 million left over in the last fiscal year. This is money the program was allocated but did not spend. It is money that those airports and many other small rural airports across the country need for new terminals and runways and to ensure safe operation. In Prince George the airport cannot even get an answer from the minister responsible for the Canada Border Services Agency as to whether it can get more customs officers to meet the growing demand for international cargo services.
This federal neglect is felt all the way to the farm gate as well. Farmers in the Peace region have been hit hard by the BSE crisis, low commodity prices and drought in recent years, followed by snow and wet fields at harvest time this past fall. It is incumbent upon the federal government to take measures in the upcoming budget to help our family farms pull themselves back from the brink of bankruptcy.
After all, it is the same government that just a couple of months ago found another $96 million to spare for the federal firearms registry. In fact, it is when my constituents imagine what the $1 billion plus the Liberals have spent on the gun registry could have meant in terms of tax relief and real priorities that they get angry.
To my constituents real priorities are the ongoing softwood lumber dispute with the United States and the mountain pine beetle epidemic that has devastated the forest industry throughout the past decade. Yet the federal government has allocated a grand total of just $8 million to fight the pine beetle infestation, this for an industry that drives 25% of B.C.'s economy and from a government that had no problem wasting millions in the sponsorship program.
Ultimately, I am very proud of Prince George—Peace River. I am proud of the innovation, the perseverance and hard work of its residents. Through economic crises and what often seems like outright neglect from Ottawa, the citizens, businesses and municipal representatives have demonstrated the initiative and ability to grow and to improve our quality of life in Prince George—Peace River.
As the Prime Minister and finance minister put the finishing touches on their upcoming budget, I would like to remind them that the constituents in Prince George—Peace River are not looking for handouts or more mammoth government programs. They want fiscal responsibility and accountability. They want to know that the tax dollars they worked hard to earn are working hard for them. They want to know that their government in Ottawa respects them and respects their tax dollars.