Mr. Speaker, I do not know how that member is going to go home and tell the poor people in his riding that he is increasing their income tax from 15% to 15.5%. I invite all the people at home to look at their income tax forms. I would not have brought this up if he had not said it was a reduction. I ask people to look at their income tax forms, at the column with the lowest rate. It is 15% this year. On July 1 it goes up to 15.5%.
That is not the only reduction for low income people. The low income tax credit for young children has been removed. As for the $1,200, with cuts to that because of their income tax and other benefits they lose, it could be as low as $200 for low income people. The Caledon Institute said that, not the opposition. That is 55¢ a day for day care. How is the member going to tell stay at home parents that they will receive 55¢? The member for Nepean—Carleton just said it costs $40 a day and the government is giving 55¢.
The government is cutting culture by two-thirds of the increase it was going to get. How can government members be proud of that?
However, my question is about the broken promises, which seem to be adding up. Why was there so much talk about defence? Actually, I really enjoy our defence minister and I think he is a great minister, but he got scooped. Our party had larger increases for defence. After all the hyperbole, the Conservatives did not give such a big increase and there is no talk about equipment. The three icebreakers, which I was delighted to hear about, have vanished since the campaign promises.
I would like to ask the member about the capital gains tax promise that has now vanished from the budget.
The member also mentioned agriculture. The last part of my question is about how the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance had a prebudget meeting. I congratulate her for that. It was reported to me that when Conservative members asked her where the $1.5 billion was, as the member just suggested, she said, “Oh, we can't talk about that until it has been through cabinet”. Then the Conservative members asked, “Where is the money for this spring? How is this money going to flow?” The answer was, “Oh, we don't know that”.
The farmers need money for this spring. Not a single Conservative member yet has mentioned any possible mechanism by which the farmers will be able to get any of that $1.5 billion to stop the bankruptcies that are going on right now.
Just so we do not get the common question about what our government did, let us remember that statistically and financially in the last several years we gave the largest funding to farmers at any time in history.