Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for confirming my view that the budget is not an hon. member, dishonest though it may be, though it is in fact.
I will move on now to the second theme, that the budget has no vision. It is a dishonest budget without any vision. When the parliamentary secretary says that the budget creates an environment for growth in a competitive tax system, that is a total joke.
A responsible budget must answer the following question: how can a country of 30 million people compete with the world's giants like China and India? This budget says nothing about that.
In the area of taxes, this budget does the opposite of what should be done. In all other areas the budget does absolutely nothing.
As far as taxes are concerned, the only difference between this budget and our plan is that income tax will go up so that the GST can go down. Every economist in this country, except perhaps the Prime Minister, agrees that increasing income taxes and reducing consumption taxes is the worst policy in the world. If we want to have a productive economy, full growth, savings and investments, if we want to be competitive in the world, this is the worst thing we could do, period.
This issue has another dimension. In reality, Canada will not be able to compete with China's and India's low salaries. That is not our vision. That is not what we want. What we need is our brains, research, innovation and new ideas. The budget provides nothing for this.
This budget is nothing but an insult to students in post-secondary education and to those working in research and innovation. While the Liberals allocated $2.5 billion to research and development over five years, this budget allocates only $250 million. It is an insult. It is nothing.
The insult is worse yet for students pursuing post-secondary studies. This is what we would have done: grant $6,000 to each student taking post-secondary education over the span of their four years at university or college. What is this government doing? It is giving a tax break on text books needed for university studies to the tune of $80 a year. We are talking about $6,000 compared to $80. That is the difference in how much this government and the Liberals value students and their parents who work hard to pay for tuition fees.
There is nothing in this budget to support the Canadian economy, which is facing intense competition with the world's new giants.
The third point is that this is a meanspirited budget. It plays to the political base of the Conservative Party. I believe it will fail. It is a crass attempt to take money from people who are unlikely to vote for the Conservatives and put money into the pockets of those whom they hope will vote Conservative. It is as simple as that.
For example, can members in the House please tell me why it is only the lowest income tax rate that was increased? This is the only way to hit those who earn $35,000 or less and it is the lower incomes that were hit by the tax hike because they are less likely to vote Conservative.
Can members tell me why it is only sports playing families as opposed to music loving families that get the tax break? I suppose the sports playing families are more likely to vote Conservative, but even they will not be very happy when they find out that their $500 tax credit is not worth $500; it is worth more like $80.
The social engineering by the Conservative Party favoured activities like sports, which get money, yet unfavoured activities like music do not, let alone the person who has a difficult time even affording to buy a basketball.
Why do the aboriginals get shafted? Why is their $5 billion taken away? I suppose it is because they are not likely to vote Conservative. Better to put the money into the pockets of the Conservative base.
Why do the Conservatives take away money from the supplement to the child tax credit? The lowest income, mothers of young children, get much less of the $1,200 because the supplement is clawed back. Again, they are not likely to vote Conservative, are they?
Why, apart from the fact that the finance minister wants to put homeless people in jail, does the budget talk about cutting off their funding? I suppose, apart from the government and the minister thinking they should be in jail, the homeless will probably not vote Conservative.
Why does the government skate close to the edge on returning to deficit? It takes away the prudence, that cushion, to protect us from going into deficit. It is less kind to future generations, the ones who benefit from the debt paydown. Any responsible economist knows that in a time of an aging population, it is even more important than normal to pay down the debt. Why do the Conservatives not care about future generations? It is simple. Future generations will not vote in the next election.
The Conservatives do not care about the environment. Why do they slash and burn expenditures on the environment? Everything except the special measures with direct benefit to the brother of the Minister of Finance. That one gets money, but everything else is slashed. I supposed the environment will not vote in the next election.
This is a dishonest budget. It does not tell the truth, the black and white truth about what is happening to income tax rates. It is a visionless budget. It does nothing for the future of this country. It is a meanspirited budget. It takes money out of the pockets of the least privileged, simply because they are unlikely to vote Conservative, and put the money into the pockets of the Conservative base.
My last point is that it will not work. It will not work because Canadians, like that gentleman from Brandon--Souris, are intelligent. The government underestimates their intelligence. Canadians will know when they get their pay stub in July that their income tax rates have gone up. They will not believe this dishonest budget because they will see it in black and white on their pay slips.
This dishonest budget will not resonate with Canadians. Indeed, polling shows that two-thirds of Canadians question the motives of the budget. Two-thirds of Canadians already believe that the budget is designed to get a majority, and not designed to be good for Canada.
I believe that Canadians will react negatively to this dishonest budget. Canadians will react negatively to a fiscally irresponsible and socially destructive budget that contains no vision for our future and that risks returning into deficit.
Finally, Canadians will react extremely negative to this crass, politically opportunistic budget which takes money from the homeless, the aboriginals, and the lowest income Canadians, to put it into the pockets of the Conservative base.
Canadians have a basic sense of fairness, decency, and a desire for vision for this country. We as Liberals are delighted, come the next election, to fight the Conservatives on a visionless, dishonest, unfair and duplicitous budget. We are convinced that Canadians will be with us.