I hear one member is enthusiastic about it anyway.
Most Canadians know, when they filled out their 2005 income tax return, that the tax rate on the first tax bracket was in fact 15% and that the budget would increase it to 15.5%. How can that be? I know the finance minister did not want to deliberately mislead the House, so how do we explain this? It is easy.
Every time changes are made which affect the Income Tax Act they are usually done in a budget. We have a budget and it has been referred to the finance committee. Today we are debating a budget implementation bill, which would legislate the changes that were articulated in the budget. It has not been passed yet. It is still in debate. It still has to go through the full legislative process. Therefore, we can say that the change from 16% down to 15% was not legislated. It was in force and will be in force until it is either reversed by a subsequent statutory instrument or by an implementation bill itself.
I wanted to raise that point because the summary of the provisions, which relate to individuals and families, says:
--the basic personal amount—the amount that an individual can earn without paying federal income tax—...grows each year and remains above currently legislated levels for 2005, 2006, and 2007.
That statement is absolutely true. The legislation has not been passed, but it is in force. It has been proclaimed. Canadians know they paid 15% on their 2005 income tax return. This is game playing and unfortunately Canadians have to be exposed to it.
If the government were talking about tax changes for individuals, it would also have to indicate that the $500 reduction in the personal exemption, the amount on which Canadians do not pay tax, was also eliminated by the budget. The government did not boast about this too much, and only because it increases the tax burden on Canadians.
Then the government comes in with its taxable child care allowance of $1,200, which most Canadians thought would be money in their pockets. However, that is not exactly correct because it is taxable. Concurrent with this is the elimination of the young child supplement under the Canada child tax benefit program. That amounts to $249 a year. The Caledon Institute has calculated that if we take this plus the increase in the effective taxation of the first tax bracket, a family making about $20,000 a year will only benefit on a net basis of around $200. A family making $200,000 could benefit by as much as $1,100 of the $1,200. This tends to paint a picture.
There are many items in the budget which have higher benefits for wealthier Canadians and low and middle income Canadians have been left behind. The gap between the rich and the poor will grow. Poverty and inequity between Canadians are not concerns of the government, but it says it is.
Just this morning, the finance minister rose to speak to the bill. He said very plainly that the benefits of the budget on the taxation side are evenly distributed to all Canadians. This is not the case.
In his own document, on the benefits to helping individuals and families, it says that someone earning less than $15,000 will benefit from this tax relief by $51 in the year 2006. Let us move up the line. Someone making $15,000 to $30,000 will get $199. Someone from $30,000 to $45,000 goes up to $367. I could read out the list, but when we get to $100,000 to $150,000, the benefit to someone is $795 a year.
It is pretty clear from the government's own document that low income Canadians do not benefit evenly. In fact, they are getting about one-sixteenth the amount of a high income earning family from these benefits. It is a disturbing picture. Some have suggested that there is a motive here and I suppose we will find out.
I would suggest that members look at the Caledon Institute website to see the analysis of how low income Canadians will not get the same benefits. I am sorry to say that many of these people will not realize that and will not find that out until they file their next tax return for the 2006 taxation year.
Many of those people who are employed and have source deductions, and always have a small difference of a $1 here owing or $1 refundable, will find out they owe hundreds of dollars to pay back the amounts that they received under that $1,200 family allowance.
The Conservatives boast about the benefits of the GST adjustment. Yes, it is politically correct, but there is no economic expert who would support the policy strength of making such a move.
Could members imagine a theatre that charges $50 for a ticket? Will it now start charging $49.32 or something like that? Nonsense, it will not be passed on. That is one of the problems of having reductions in certain, either ad valorem or consumption taxes. There is no way to track it. Even on gasoline, the producers will simply increase the price because they know the consumer is getting a little break on the tax side and the consumer, on a net basis, will be no better off. There must be a way to deal with it.
When we think about it, people making $30,000 a year and after they pay taxes of about $8,000, their disposable income of that, about 60% of it, may be attracting GST. All of a sudden we are talking about something like $12,000 that may be GST taxable. On $12,000, the savings will be $120, and that is the maximum they could get, simply because that is the amount they can afford to spend, unless they go out and borrow it, in which case, chances are their interest rate costs will destroy the economics of making the purchase in the first place.
The higher we go up the income scale, the more disposable income is available. It means that Canadians who buy much more expensive automobiles, other consumer durables or even be a big house, will tend to be in a position to reap the majority of the benefits. Again, it is not as advertised. It is not evenly distributed. It is not what the minister said. He mislead the House by saying Canadians would benefit evenly.
I would really think that he should be straight. If the policy is good, give it to us with all the details, all of the numbers and the analysis, so that Canadians can see these things.
On Sunday on the TV program Question Period, the health minister spoke about health issues, and particularly the guaranteed wait time. That issue was in the election platform of the government. It was one of the five items that were dealt with, that the Conservatives said they would deal with in the budget.
When we look at it, and it is kind of interesting, the Minister of Finance did not dispute that there was no money in there for the guaranteed wait times, but the health minister said something different. He said that there was enough money in the $42 billion health accord signed by the previous government and therefore there was no new money for the guaranteed wait times.
I would suggest that again, it was not as advertised. The House has been misled and Canadians have been misled because there is no money in the budget for guaranteed wait times. It is an expensive proposition. This is a promise made and a promise broken.