Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak in this prebudget debate session. I was pleased to hear from my colleague from Edmonton—Leduc who highlighted many of the systematic problems that we still see with the government in the way that it forecasts numbers and in the way that it approaches budgetary processes. He highlighted some of the tax issues very well.
I would like to follow up on some of those issues, namely the issue of small business from my experiences and the experiences still of my family. I will then focus specifically on some of the infrastructure challenges, which were just talked about, because there are some huge critical challenges not only in Windsor and other parts of this province but right across the country. We need to have a systematic approach on how we can fund some of these critical challenges that we have in infrastructure across the country.
We have heard from a number of members in the House, not only from our side in the opposition but from a number of members who do agree that Canadians are taxed too heavily. This is a continuous problem. Regardless of what tax cuts have been implemented, through regulations or through other forms of increases, Canadian families still have a huge burden, especially middle and lower incomes families. They have huge challenges in making all their commitments and making ends meet and yet we still have not seen any effective tax relief come forward from the government, especially in light of the surpluses that continue to grown.
Many of my colleagues have talked about the fact that the finance minister had challenges in reading what surplus numbers were going to be coming down, especially when there can be such a huge mistake made: a forecast of $1.9 billion when in fact it was a $9.1 billion surplus, which is just outrageous. It clearly indicates that we need to do something when it comes to reducing the tax burden on Canadian families.
We in the opposition were glad we were able to include some of our thoughts in the Speech from the Throne when it came to putting a focus on what is hopefully the government's mandate to reduce overall taxes on middle and lower income Canadians.
As my hon. colleague from Edmonton--Leduc mentioned, we know that high taxes reduce growth, which happens at all levels of the economy, whether it is small, medium or large businesses. We have seen that continuously where the economy is not growing at the pace that it should, especially because of the fact that taxes continue to choke the productivity in this country.
As I mentioned, with my background in small business I remember working long hours trying to meet all my commitments when it came to payroll taxes, to paying my suppliers and when it came to ensuring I was paying my employees effectively. I remember that at the end of the day, if nothing else was adding up, I was the one taking the pay cut. I, as the business owner, made sure that I met all my commitments.
I can look at my parents today who are working as hard as ever. They have been in this country now for over 30 years, and very thankful to be in this country, but as small business owners they work from early in the morning until late at night, especially when there are changes in the economy and people are not spending as much money on some of the items that they sell through their retail businesses. They are not having coffee or other things that they work so hard to produce and provide. They are the ones who take the cut but the taxes remain the same. There is no break for them when it comes to the obligations that the government puts forward, especially when it comes to taxes and when it comes to regulations.
Those are the things that governments can do something about, especially when it comes to encouraging these people who work so hard. My family is a perfect example of that, as I was not too long ago, with some of the challenges that we had to continually face.
I will be addressing that in a little while, but the EI surplus is something that continues to irk especially small business owners who work so hard. They have to pay the EI tax and contribute on behalf of their employees and then they look at the surplus that exists. I believe it is over $40 billion and the government still has not made any effort to give that money, which rightfully belongs to the employers and the employees, back to those people who work so hard.
We argue that this high tax position is both unfair to Canadians whose take home pay has barely grown over the last 15 years and dangerous to our long term economic growth and therefore to our ability to fund our social safety net. I continuously travel and speak especially to people who are approaching retirement. They are concerned about making contributions to their CPP and yet they know that in the long run that program will not be there for them in the way that they had been promised and had hoped for.
Some of those people may have been fortunate enough to put extra savings aside but the government has done nothing to encourage that sort of retirement savings, especially in the way that we should be because we are facing a huge crisis when it comes to the working group that will be out there. The number of employees versus the people who will be retiring is a huge problem.
The budget should include a longer term standard of living strategy that starts at the process of strengthening Canada's competitive position through a program of targeted tax relief, reduction of burdensome regulations and strategic spending and measured debt repayment. Some of my colleagues talked about measured debt repayment. We have not seen any clear vision when it comes to the government and paying down debt. We continue to push the government to hopefully make some sort of legislated effort to pay down debt. We would be more than happy to provide some of the details for the government if it wishes.
I have talked about the long term strategy of raising the living standard for Canadians. During the past 40 years Canada's productivity has remained relatively unchanged compared with that of the United States. It remains stuck at about 85% of the U.S. level. This productivity gap is relevant because it accounts for an income gap of just over $6,000 per Canadian compared with Americans.
When we look at unemployment rates we see that they are set well above those in the United States and this has persisted for a quarter century. I think it was in the 1970s, in looking at some of the figures, that Canadian and U.S. unemployment rates were the same. We have obviously continued to slip and I think that is really affecting, as we know, the productivity gap. If we had some prudent fiscal management by the government I think it would have a huge impact on the way that our productivity gap would be dealt with.
I also mentioned the EI surplus. This is still something we have not dealt with. It is about a $46 billion of surplus. The government should stop overcharging Canadians. EI premiums should be lowered immediately and stakeholders must be given a say in the benefit and premium levels.
I now want to talk about the infrastructure and the critical problems that we have. We have been very disappointed with the way the government has come forward. As we all know, it talked about the new deal for cities over the course of the election. It has been close to six months since the government took power and yet we have seen nothing come forward when it comes to any new deal for cities, nor any idea of how the fuel tax money will be transferred to the communities. I think the minister has been dragging his feet. No new information has come out on how that will work. I take it that we will be forced to wait for the budget to see how that money will be transferred and what sort of criteria will be placed on that new deal when it comes to transferring the money.
This is an issue that goes way back. We know that the fuel taxes being collected on gasoline were supposed to be invested into critical infrastructure, namely highways and other forms of infrastructure in our municipalities, but we know that the government took the fuel tax, put it into general revenues and spent it on things like the sponsorship program or other things that did not give value back to Canadians when it came to problems in infrastructure.
Hence, today, whether, as I mentioned, it is in the area of Windsor or all the way out to B.C. or even in my own backyard in Edmonton, we see huge problems with the bridges, roadways and pot holes. Canadians see that on a daily basis. We have to figure out how we are going to proceed in order to actually bridge that gap in critical infrastructure.
We on our side have proposed ways to identify what critical infrastructure means and how to coordinate a strategy with the provinces and municipalities to ensure that sort of infrastructure gets funded. We have not seen any form of direction from the government. We hope to see some sort of announcement on whether or not it plans to impose some sort of conditions on the fuel tax transfer, but also to look at a long term strategy. Is there a plan in place to actually fund infrastructure in a strategic way, working with stakeholders, to be able to plan on a long term basis so that we can start attacking the infrastructure deficit that is in the billions of dollars and continues to rise?
As many of my colleagues have said, we would like to see a real effort on the part of the government to get its fiscal house in order. It seems to have fallen by the wayside, especially in light of all the surpluses that the government is continuously collecting.
We need to give Canadians a break but we also need to make those strategic investments. Infrastructure is something that communities have been calling for, whether it is rural or urban, and we need to see some clear criteria that government is going to bring forward hopefully in this budget.