Mr. Speaker, I asked a simple, serious question about whether something went up or whether something went down. If we read the finance documents for any of the millions of Canadians filling out their tax forms, it is perfectly obvious and undeniable that the tax rate as we stand is 15%. One does not have to be a mathematical wizard to know that 15.5% is higher than 15%.
When the minister has this obvious mistake in his budget and all of the tables are wrong and he refuses to acknowledge it, clearly it makes a mockery of this idea of accountability. It makes a mockery of his statement in the budget itself that the numbers must be presented clearly.
These numbers are not only unclear, they are wrong. Clearly, it calls into question the honesty of this budget when he says something absolutely and obviously wrong, and refuses to acknowledge that fact. I have no doubt that the Canadian people and the media will see through this obvious error in the budget which the minister refuses to acknowledge.
I am now happy to pronounce the finance minister, as a consequence of his budget, a full-fledged member of the reverse Robin Hood club. What he has done with his income tax hike, in combination with the GST cut, is to dip into the pockets of hard-working Canadians and take money out of the pockets of all of those earning less than $50,000, and put that money into the pockets of the better heeled Canadians. That is what his budget has done and that is probably why he does not want to admit it, but that is the truth.
He may know that many Canadian parents are worried about the rising costs of sending their kids to college and university. He may know that the Liberals were committed to $6,000 for each and every university and college student, to pay half of their tuition fees in year one and year four.
What does the government propose instead? It proposes $80 for a tax write-off on books. That is a token and it is an insulting token to all those hard-working Canadians struggling with rising tuition fees.
The budget eliminates the child tax benefit, which helped those in greatest need, in favour of a child care program that will benefit many people who can pay for a whole lot of services.
The budget also scuttles the Kelowna accord, thus penalizing members of the first nations, many of whom are among the country's most disadvantaged.
It is utterly unacceptable to cherry-pick the Kelowna accord without even having any consultation whatsoever with first nations representatives.
How can the Conservatives pretend that this budget responds to the needs of Canadian families? It is also fiscally irresponsible. By eliminating economic prudence, the extra cushion provided in the case of a downturn some time in the future, and by not identifying the sources of the spending cuts, it brings us dangerously close to going back into deficit.
The Liberal Party spent 13 years cleaning up the $42 billion mess left by the Conservatives. We are not going to stand idly by and allow those people to repeat that history again.
Finally, this budget has no vision. This budget is confined by the smallness and the small mindedness of the top five priorities. What Canadians need and what Canadians deserve is a blueprint for our future, for our children and our grandchildren. Canadians deserve an answer to the question of how this country of some 30 million will compete and prosper in a world of emerging giants, a question to which this government has no answer.
I have one final example pertaining to R&D and brainpower. Those things are essential to this challenge. We as Liberals offered $2.5 billion for research and development. What does the government offer? It offers $200 million. This is another token and another sign it is not serious with the issues that really affect Canadians.
This budget fails to maintain fiscal responsibility. It fails to provide real tax relief for low and middle income Canadians. It fails to address the issue of climate change. It fails to provide real child care choice for Canadians. It is a total failure and this side of the House, the official opposition, will have absolutely no hesitation in voting against this failure budget.
I will have more to say tomorrow about this failure. Therefore, I move:
That the debate be now adjourned.
(Motion agreed to)