Mr. Speaker, this is an important discussion for this place. Committee members have spent many months engaging Canadians in prebudget consultations. We have met with hundreds of individuals and organizations. On behalf of the Parliament of Canada, we have brought before the House a complete synopsis of options and views that must be taken into consideration in the budget preparation.
Canadians are watching today with a great deal of cynicism and skepticism. Based on past experience and the record of the previous Liberal government, there has hardly been an occasion when governments of the day have listened to what Canadians have said. Expectations have been raised and Canadians have invariably been disappointed. It has been the case over the last five or six budgets under the previous Liberal government. I certainly hope it is not the case today.
Given statements made by the government and announcements delivered by the finance minister, I do not hold out great hope that the government is listening to Canadians any more than the previous government did, but we need to try. We need to remind the government what Canadians have said.
I want to give a few impressions of the hearings. However, before I do that, I want to indicate that the committee functioned well and was active. I thank all my colleagues on it, including the chair, the member for Portage—Lisgar, as well as the research staff, the clerk of the committee, the translators, the interpreters and the logistics personnel, all of whom made it possible for us to travel to many parts of the country to hear from so many Canadians.
The first impression from the hearings is one of cynicism in the face of the knowledge that the government has basically used up the surplus capacity it has had and has provided us with almost a bare cupboard. By all indications, the surplus dollars we have seen over the years will not necessarily be there in the next several years. The great surpluses that we have seen, especially for the last fiscal year, have been unceremoniously put toward the debt without due regard for balance or the concerns of Canadians.
If there was one thing the committee heard over and over from Canadians, it was that the present government and the one before it had not offered a balanced approach, and it was high time it did so. For years Canadians were told the government had to get rid of the deficit and then it would be their turn. When the deficit was eliminated through huge cuts, the Liberals said that it was not the turn of Canadians yet, that they had to give big corporate breaks and tax reductions to wealthy individuals. When that was done, the Liberals turned to Canadians and said that it was still not their turn, that they had to put every penny of available money toward the debt.
Then came the end of the Liberals and Canadians looked to the Conservatives with some hope, I would not say with a lot of hope, that they might be prepared to balance the equation. It is not really a radical concept. It is not a social democratic approach by any means. It is a compromise position to put some money against the debt, some money toward tax cuts and some money toward program spending.
Let us start to repair the damage that has been done to Canadians over the last decade or two. Let us look at the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the increasing desperation on the part of working mothers, and the growing frustration on the part of low wage earners in this country who never seem to get ahead and never get a wage increase. They never get a raise.
That was one of the most important messages we heard right across this country, that it is time for Canadians, but instead of government actually listening to those concerns, we listened to the finance minister give his economic update in which he said the government was going to do even more in terms of getting rid of the debt and even more in terms of spending cuts.
Since my time is almost halfway up already, I want to note that I am splitting my time with the member for Victoria.
The second important message we heard from Canadians was that competitiveness is not something we deal with just in economic terms. It is not just about the bottom line for corporations. It is about how we build a society that can be competitive on a global scale in economic and human terms.
Over and over, people rejected the notion that all we had to do was reduce corporate taxes and give more tax incentives to big corporations, the trickle-down would happen, and Canadians would benefit sometime, somewhere, somehow, even though by then, by cutting so deeply into programs and using all available revenue for tax breaks for corporations, we really kill medicare, universal education, public housing, and sustainable environmental programs.
In fact, Canadians want the government to understand that the most competitive nations in the world are those that have been responsible not only in terms of fiscal planning and debt reduction, and not only in terms of a fair, progressive taxation policy, but also in terms of major public investment. The countries that do the best competitively and economically around the world are those that invest in a universal child care program, in health care, in housing, in environmental and sustainable programs, and in the most vulnerable people, in women, people with disabilities and aboriginal peoples.
There is a lesson around the world for all of us. I do not know if members on the Conservative side have heard this or if the Minister of Finance is going to ever grasp it.
That is what we have to do today: we have to make them understand that when we look at the future we have to invest in those programs that do both, programs that ensure economic prosperity but also raise the level of the human condition. We have to ensure that we address some of the most embarrassing and shameful circumstances and statistics ever faced in this country. It is absolutely unacceptable that a country as rich as Canada has the kind of homelessness and poverty that we have seen in this winter weather.
The committee heard from a homeless person. I am sure my colleagues on committee will recall him. His name is Dri. His full name is Rainer Driemeyer. He said, “Taxation is the cost of living in a civil society”. He was reminding us that taxation is not bad per se, but that it must be done in a balanced context and it must ensure that we have the resources to pay for the things that we cherish as a country.
We heard from child care workers who showed us smiling faces of children who had been through the most progressive child care facilities anywhere in the world and who want to see that kind of program encouraged and continued.
We heard from Canadians who felt that we have what it takes. We have the resources. We have the knowledge. We have the abilities. We just need a government that is willing to let us put those talents to the use of this great country and for the future of our children.