Mr. Speaker, I represent the riding of Winnipeg Centre, which was formerly represented by Stanley Knowles, a man who many concede to be the architect and the father of our old age security system and guaranteed income system.
I can only say that, given what my colleague has told us today and what my own research shows, Stanley Knowles must be doing flip-flops in his grave to take note that after nine years of budgetary surpluses and now, after a huge budgetary surplus by the present government, old age pensioners, especially low income old age pensioners, will actually get a cut in pay.
Has my colleague come across the same research that I have found? I will read from Revenue Canada's basic personal exemption page. It says that the basic personal amount deduction will be reduced on July 1, 2006, from $9,039 to $8,639. That is not a reduction in taxes or a tax cut. That is reducing the basic personal exemption, which means that those seniors will be paying taxes on more of their meagre incomes at a rate of 15.25%, which is also a tax increase. It used to be 15% flat and now it is 15.25%. That tells me that seniors will be paying $61 a year more in taxes than they were before.
Does my colleague concur with this? Could he also explain how, in all good conscience, low income pensioners should actually get a cut in pay in an era of record surpluses?