Mr. Speaker, the member talked about the fact that over the last 15 years, and I am not sure what studies he is citing, families do not have the same disposable income that they used to have, and I agree. Where I find myself at variance with the hon. member is that I think it is a very limited argument to suggest that this is only because of, or even because of for that matter, the taxation policies that have been in place over that period of time.
I wonder why the hon. member ignores study after study that shows that one of the reasons Canadian families do not have the disposable income they used to have is that we now have a low wage economy compared to what we had 10 or 15 years ago. This was deliberately created with the knowledge and consent of the member's own party, the predecessor party, the Progressive Conservative Party. The free trade agreement was designed to bring down wages in this country.
It does not matter what kind of tax regime we have. If people are making half as much an hour as they used to make because their old manufacturing jobs have disappeared and they are now working for a telemarketing company for seven bucks an hour instead of making something for 16 bucks an hour, we could have as low a tax regime as we liked, but we would still have people with no disposable income because they are not getting paid a decent wage.
Why do we never ever hear that from the Conservative Party, the Reform Party, the Progressive Conservative Party, or whatever that party will morph into next?
The fact is that party never gets the message that Canadians who are poor are poor because they are not being paid enough by their employers because there is too big a surplus going into profit margins. It is not taxes; it is the fact that people are not being paid enough in the first place.