House of Commons Hansard #15 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was budget.

Topics

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

I will just finish my question. Does the member now understand that the money that he is referring to is money out of last year's surplus. It is not really part of this budget. If he would like to give us his support for that initiative and say how important it is, we would welcome that.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

Bloc

Yvan Loubier Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Speaker, we are getting caught up in details here.

In reality, there are two reasons why the Liberals and the NDP are opposed to this budget.

First, there is political opportunism. They know that since the Bloc supported the first measure, that is to say the fiscal imbalance—and nothing else, Mr. Speaker—they can strut around and say that they oppose this budget.

Second, neither of these parties believes in a proper, lasting resolution of the fiscal imbalance. The Liberal Party members have never even been able to say the word without breaking out in hives and they turned green whenever they heard it.

Insofar as the NDP is concerned, it is very centralizing. When I chaired the select committee on the fiscal imbalance last year, I proposed some measures that would have transferred tax points to the governments of Quebec and the provinces, just as Mr. Pearson did for Quebec in the 1960s with Mr. Lesage. He offered them as well to all the provinces. The NDP was totally opposed to this idea and insisted on keeping the firm fist of a strong central government, with financial transfers used to bribe the governments of Quebec and the provinces with Canada-wide standards and all sorts of conditions. That is what he finds frustrating.

Moreover, one of the candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Party did not hesitate to say yesterday that we were destroying Canada by trying to find a solution to the fiscal imbalance. What ridiculous nonsense, when people are waiting in hospitals for operations, the college and university education system is crumbling everywhere, particularly in Quebec, and disadvantaged people are being left in the street! What sort of conception of the country do they have?

Because of this symbol, a strong central government, they are prepared to let people die in the street. For heaven’s sake! Let them use their heads a little. I no longer understand the reasoning of the ultra-federalists. Something is not working right somewhere.

On thing is for sure, and we said it earlier: the Bloc has never given up on the unemployed. Last year, the NDP abandoned the unemployed with Bill C-48. They were no longer one of their concerns. But the Bloc has always gone on caring. The Bloc has never given up on older workers who are victims of massive layoffs. We have always been consistent. We have never given up the battle against the fiscal imbalance, in order to provide proper services with a transfer of tax fields and equalization. We have always been consistent. Unfortunately, we cannot say as much of the other two opposition parties.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to participate in this debate on the very first budget of the Conservatives and to indicate why we are so adamantly opposed to it.

I want to begin by making a further comment on the difficulties I have with the position taken by the Bloc. The Bloc critic is wrong when he suggests that the NDP is opposing the budget because of either opposition to the fiscal imbalance or because of political opportunism. He will know he is wrong in both instances when it comes to the NDP.

He will know that throughout the time we have spent together on the finance committee, the NDP has been in the forefront of discussions around addressing the fiscal imbalance, calling on the Liberals to recognize it. Although it might be hard in the middle of debate, given their position to support the Conservatives, which comes as a surprise to all of us and for which we cannot determine solid reasons, he will at least understand that the very issues he raises as reasons for the Bloc supporting the Conservatives are all those items which are part of Bill C-48, the NDP's better balanced budget, for which the Bloc was in complete opposition.

When the Bloc stands up and congratulates the government on $1 billion for education money and for enhancing the infrastructure at our post-secondary educational institutional level, he and his colleagues obviously forget that the money is there only because the NDP negotiated it in the last minority Parliament, having convinced the Liberals that it was better to invest in those areas that mattered to Canadians than to completely squander their fiscal surplus and capacity.

When the member of the Bloc raises support for the Conservative budget because of the $300 million for foreign assistance, he ought to remember that is only there because of the NDP's better balanced budget in Bill C-48.

I want to applaud the Conservatives on this front because they have recognized the importance of respecting the will of the House. They have acknowledged that Parliament passed a budget last year, which called for the expenditure of $4.6 billion over two years for education, housing, aboriginal affairs, the environment and foreign affairs. Those are all areas that are important to Canadians.

We waited a long time for the Liberals to move on the implementation of that bill and that money. They failed to do so. They dilly-dallied and delayed as long as they could and finally went down to defeat and no longer had the opportunity to do so. Thank heavens, after considerable lobbying on the part of the NDP, the Conservatives did listen and agreed to flow the money, at least close to $4 billion of that $4.6 billion, knowing they had a huge cushion on which to draw, a tremendous surplus that made it quite easy for them to pay down that debt and to honour that commitment. We are grateful this money is flowing.

Canadians will see the benefit of having a strong New Democratic force in Parliament. They also will see the benefit of having a minority Parliament and how we can make it work for the betterment of all Canadians.

When it comes to the budget and our opposition to the Conservative plan, we are opposed because it is not a plan. It has no vision. It is government by tax credits, and government by tax credits does not a country make. It is the scattering of tax credits to the detriment of a coherent vision that is forward looking. That is the very purpose of a budget. It is to present a blueprint to Canadians to help us sort through where we go in the future, to know that some of those economic barriers that Canadians now face in terms of their ability to contribute to their fullest are addressed on a number of fronts. A budget is intended to address those obstacles, those barriers and to ensure that everyone in the country, regardless of sex, race and ability, is able to contribute to his or her fullest ability.

The budget fails to recognize that fundamental principle. It fails to accept people as individuals. It fails to ensure that it is gender neutral in its approach and does not present a bias or an ideological bent in its configurations. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to the issue of child care.

I do not perhaps have to repeat the fact that we are only here because we have had 13 years of Liberal government that promised child care and never delivered, as my colleagues have pointed out, not one space in that entire period for child care. If they had at least delivered one space per year, we would have had 13 child care spaces, and that would have been at least better than what we have. Unfortunately, we have zero from the Liberals. They can stop the hot air in this chamber and their bragging. They had these agreements at the eleventh hour in a minority Parliament.

With pressure from the NDP, they finally decided to keep a promise and put in place a child care program by signing three deals with three provinces and beginning some discussions with some others, hardly making a dent in the formidable task of establishing a national child care program. Yet now they are ready to claim victory if only they had been given another month in the House.

They might want to remember that it was their former leader who told the House and Canadians that he would have an election by the end of February. What difference did a month make in how Canadians would decide on the future of the Liberals? Canadians defeated the Liberals, not the NDP. Canadians had it with their irresponsible lack of transparent operations, their borderline corruption practices and their broken promises.

Maybe I should not be so gentle and talk about borderline. Other people in the House are quite willing to talk openly about the corruption that appears to have been the case among Liberals, but I do not want to go there. All I need to do is focus on broken promises, which leads us to this point today of having still a serious problem and another government that refuses to recognize the problem of the day.

The government has not given us a child care program. It has given us an allowance that gives a few dollars to parents who have children under the age of six. As all the newspapers have reported and as all the documentaries have suggested, this will benefit women who stay at home. I wish I could say women or men, but I think the truth of the matter is the government is using a public policy to pursue a particular ideological perspective. I would not go so far as to suggest Conservatives would like to see all women barefoot, pregnant in the kitchen, however, let me point out--

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:05 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

My goodness, I guess I have struck a raw nerve.

Perhaps I could go on and describe for the members the difficulties inherent in their policies from the point of view of working women. They might not recognize that 70% of women in the workforce today have preschool children. I would hope it might get through to the Conservatives so they could understand that when this is the reality and when they have a policy that does not address the needs of those families and working women by ensuring good quality care, instead giving a few pennies to help parents juggle working family responsibilities, clearly they have ignored the reality of women in our society today.

Perhaps I only need to point out to them the numerous headlines that suggest the birth rate is at 0%. The birth rate is not growing because it is very hard for families to juggle their responsibilities without any decent support by government. Decent support means quality child care. Decent support means places where people can take their children when they are working, places that are safe and regulated, where there is professional staff, places that are non-profit so no one can make money off the backs of kids.

What we have is a policy that is slanted against working women. The Conservatives today are where the Liberals were 20 years ago when members in this House stood and said, “Working women are a social phenomenon”, or, “We only have to worry about men who are employed between the ages of 18 and 40, because after all they are the primary workers”. Never mind the contribution that women make. Never mind the fact that because of the policies of consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments, families cannot possibly manage to make ends meet without two people in the family working. Those members should get that through their heads because that is what we are dealing with today. We are dealing with a situation where women want to work or have to work, and our policies should ensure that their children are able to go to the best quality child care spaces available.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:10 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:10 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, I think that the Conservatives and the Liberals should stop and listen just for a moment. I did not heckle during their speeches. If I struck a raw nerve, maybe that will cause them to listen a bit more, because this is a serious problem. There are one million children today in unregulated child care spaces.

I ask, which member in this House is prepared to place his or her child in an unregulated child care space without knowing whether the child care professionals have been trained appropriately, without knowing that there are certain safety standards, without ensuring the best quality care? I did not do it. I would not do it. I do not think anyone else in this House would do it.

It is time the Conservatives recognized that we have to invest in child care spaces. They did not do that in this budget. What did they do? They gave some money for a child care allowance, for a baby allowance. That is fine. I am not quarrelling with that. They could have done both. They could have ensured families had an allowance and they could have put money into child care spaces. They had two choices.

The Conservatives could have taken it away from the $7 billion that went to corporate tax breaks, despite the fact that we have the highest profits ever in our corporate sector, and despite the fact that we have shifted the burden away from individuals in terms of paying taxes to corporations. That would be one choice. I think that is reasonable. Let us give to families for a change, ordinary Canadians, working women, children. Why do we have to squander our future by neglecting our children on the backs of corporate profits? Why does the government insist on sacrificing our children because it is so shortsighted and so close-minded about the fact that working women are here to stay?

There is a second option that the Conservatives had. If they had wanted to keep their corporate tax cuts, fine. Canadians disagree. We disagree. But if they are that focused on that, then so be it. But they had another choice. They decided to put $5 billion in additional money beyond the norm against the debt because of their incredible surplus they had going into this budget process.

If we look at the books, $8 billion went against the debt. That is $5 billion more than the normal $3 billion in prudence and contingency funds. Five billion dollars more to bring down the debt from $494 billion to $486 billion, which means we are not paying off the debt hardly one second sooner than if we did not do that.

That $5 billion would have created one million child care spaces, one million spaces to ensure that children are properly cared for in a nurturing environment, so that women can work and feel confident that their children are cared for and people can feel that they are doing their best as parents. They are not listening to this nonsense from the Conservatives that somehow women are bad mothers if they put their children in child care. That is the essence of what the Conservatives are saying. There is so much more we need to be saying. That was the first point I wanted to make.

The second point has to do with the failure by the Conservatives to keep their commitment to Canadians in terms of their election platform. We hear them boast and brag a lot about their five priorities, five issues that they want to accomplish. Interestingly enough, there is one that is hardly mentioned at all in the budget, yet it is the most important issue facing Canadians. It causes the most grief and agony. It is the most difficult matter in real, personal, human terms and that is the quality of our health care system and the length of the waiting lists.

The Conservatives clearly promised a reduction in wait times. It was a big to-do, a big fanfare in the last election. They said, “This budget will accomplish all five of those priorities, including the reduction in wait times”. What have we got in the budget on health care? There are some words about the government working on it with the provinces. The Conservatives will enforce the money that the Liberals put in, even though that was not working and the Conservatives were the first to criticize it. They were the first to jump all over the Liberals for suggesting the money was not going to where it should in terms of reduced wait times.

There is nothing else. There is not one penny toward the hiring of more nurses, even though there is a looming shortage of 78,000 in this country, or soon to be. There is not a penny in terms of developing primary health care to take the burden off the institutional expensive side of the system. There is not a mention of alternative remedies and natural herbal medicines. There is not a mention of anything in terms of building a health care system where people do not have to wait for agonizing weeks and months and years to get the help they need.

There is so much more to be said. I want to talk about the absolute betrayal of aboriginal people in this country. I want to talk about the impact on my own constituency of Winnipeg North where the average individual income is $21,000. People will not benefit from the GST cut. Really, just as the newspaper said, the rich benefit the most. People in my constituency will be hurt and will not benefit from the budget.

We believe there has to be investment in very serious areas that affect working families. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I move:

That the amendment be amended by adding the following after “for over a decade”:

And that this House further condemns the government for the continuation of the last government's obsession with corporate tax reductions as opposed to spending to help working families, specifically condemning the higher priority given to physical infrastructure while ignoring direct financial assistance for students at our post-secondary institutions, the lack of spending to reform our inadequate employment insurance system, and the ongoing lack of commitment to create not for profit child care spaces with multi-year funding.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

I will take the amendment under reserve and get back to the House as to its admissibility.

We will proceed to questions and comments. I hope we have a little more order during questions and comments than we did during the speech by the member.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Calgary Nose Hill Alberta

Conservative

Diane Ablonczy ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's concerns regarding assistance for moms with kids. We know from the studies for example that only one-half of moms--

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

An hon. member

Lights.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

I think we might be having some technical difficulties with the microphone system. Would the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance please repeat her question? We could not hear her original question when she started.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Diane Ablonczy Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB

Mr. Speaker, I do commend my colleague for her passion about Canada's kids. I think it is very important. But we know from studies that only one-half of moms with kids choose some kind of child care and of that half, only one-third of them actually choose full time day care. In other words, because of family and work circumstances, other arrangements suit those moms better.

If we focus our whole debate and all of our resources on that one-third of one-half, which is one-sixth of Canadian moms who want full time day care, what about the other moms who make different choices, who have different needs? Of course, that is why this government campaigned on offering Canadians a universal child care allowance that would help all moms look after the kids in the way they choose.

If we take enormous resources and just provide services for the one-sixth of Canadian moms who want full time day care, we are disrespecting the choices and the needs of the five-sixths of Canadian moms who have other choices. How does the member help us to square that circle when we know that we want to help all families, all kids, all moms, but they have such a wide range of needs and choices in day care?

I would like to hear from my colleague on that issue because it is very important. It is one that we forget when we just argue for one type of care and forget about the choices of the vast majority of mothers in this country.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, the member raises an interesting question. However, the premise of her question is not reflective of the reality. The realty is that the vast majority of working parents want to put their children into safe child care centres and spaces.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Chuck Strahl Conservative Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC

That is nonsense.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Daryl Kramp

That is wrong.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Let me finish. Mr. Speaker, could we have some order?

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order. Please allow the member for Winnipeg Centre to finish responding to the question. I am having difficulty hearing her. If we could allow her to finish without interruption, I would appreciate that.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, the fact that not all children are placed in child care spaces is not because the parents do not want to have those spaces that are provided for on a quality basis. It is because those spaces do not exist.

When we talk about child care, we are not talking, as the Conservatives like to suggest, about only full time child care in a certain building according to a certain pattern. We are talking about a child care service that meets the needs of all families, whether it is part time child care, 24 hour child care, shift work child care, rural child care, after school child care, infant child care, child care for children with disabilities, the whole range. That is what a truly responsible child care system provides.

In fact, that is the kind of system that exists in Manitoba, but it cannot keep doing that on its own without some federal support and partnership. That is what this debate is all about. In Manitoba, despite the involvement by the provincial government for many years and despite the fact that it is one of the best systems in the country, there are 15,000 children on the waiting list.

What we need is a government that is prepared to partner with a government like Manitoba, which is also in partnership with the vast array of people concerned about child care, the whole movement, the whole coalition around ensuring the best possible care for children. We need to invest in child care and ensure that those one million children who do not have access to proper, regulated, quality child care do so.

Let me add one more point. As a mother with two children who has gone through the system, I first tried the route because I could not get a child care space of an unregulated place in someone's home. I was not happy with that situation because I did not know what qualifications that person had and what was happening to my child during the day. I worked like crazy to ensure that I found a way to get my children into organized, quality child care offered on a non profit basis, and my kids are wonderful people. They will make a great contribution to society, just like all the other working women out there who want the very same thing for their children.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON

Mr. Speaker, I listened very carefully to the hon. member's speech and I got the distinct impression that she was making her own personal contribution to our Kyoto deficit.

I fail to understand the almost ridiculous presumption on the part of the hon. member opposite. The previous government had a signed agreement with all of the provinces with respect to the aboriginal issue. It was fully funded and fully signed. That party pulled the plug.

The previous government had fully signed and fully funded operational agreements with all of the provinces with respect to day care, yet the members have the unmitigated gall to stand here in this chamber and claim to be part of the progressive side of the political equation.

With her party's actions, in effectively defeating the previous Liberal government and substituting for that previous Liberal government a Conservative government that has absolutely no interest in day care spaces and absolutely no interest in the Kelowna accord as demonstrated by its budget, how can she possibly stand here without further adding to the deficit that we are suffering under Kyoto?

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, members may think I have a lot of power in the House or that the 29 member group of New Democrats has a lot of power, but we did not defeat the Liberal Party on our own. As far as I know, people voted and Canadians defeated the Liberal government because they were just not happy with its record of achievement or non-achievement.

The Liberals felt so desperate on the eve of an election, and knowing that their leader had committed to one by the end of February of this year, that it drove them to suddenly go about this country frantically trying to sign deals even though they had not planned for them. Even though they did not book the numbers and had no commitment to actually keep those promises, based on their previous record of 13 years, does not make a case on their side. It certainly does not address the situation we are faced with today, which is in fact trying to convince the government to invest in those areas that give us the greatest bang for our buck.

Rather than this scattergun approach of tax credits, we should be taking that money and ensuring proper education so that students can get enter university or college without facing prohibitive tuition costs, so that our environment is protected and pollution does not go up, so that aboriginal people can have some sense that the government is working to close the gap between the rich and the poor, and so that working families can access quality child care. That is the challenge before us. That is why this debate is so important and why we oppose the Conservative budget.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON

Mr. Speaker, I do not agree with a lot of what the hon. member said. Although I respect her passion for Canadian families, I disagree that all families should put their children into a day care program or they are not doing the right thing for their kids. I agree that the Liberals were sort of kicked out by the Canadian public, but I have some good news for the member. It is not really a question but just a comment.

I have some good news. In the budget, had the member read it, the Conservatives are putting $250 million toward day care spaces and 125,000 spaces will be created. Hopefully, she feels much better now.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:35 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, I do not mind a good healthy debate in the House, but I sure do not like misrepresentation. Clearly, at no point did I stand in the House and suggest that all parents should send their kids to day care. I said the opposite. I said parents need to have a choice and if there are no spaces, there is no choice. If we do not invest money to create the spaces, there is no choice. The government's obligation today is in fact to create the choice.

The $250 million that the member is talking about, and he failed to actually give the full description of the program, is money for businesses to provide a tax credit for the creation of spaces. He only has to look at the Mike Harris government which tried this and did not create a single child care space as a result of that.

He knows as well that this amount, even if it did go directly into child care spaces, is still a very small percentage of what is required to meet the needs of working families and working women in society today to ensure that all children are able to get the best care possible and go on to make great contributions to this country.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

I have reviewed the subamendment moved by the member for Winnipeg North and I have found that it is in order.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:35 p.m.

Calgary Nose Hill Alberta

Conservative

Diane Ablonczy ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise to speak to budget 2006. As we have just seen in this House, this is a budget that is generating a lot of excitement and it is good to speak to it. This is the first budget from the Conservative government and one that we are very proud of.

The Government of Canada spends a great deal of Canadians' money. In fact, this budget will spend $188 billion, taxed from the pockets of working Canadians. This is not government by tax credit. The government is spending $188 billion. This is a government that is very much engaged in programs and in areas of responsibility that assist Canadians. We do not want to be over-involved, and that is a balancing act that we are determined to win.

Of the $188 billion of spending, less than half of that is actually discretionary. It is like a family when they have money coming in the door from income. There are some things they have to spend money on whether they want to or not. They spend money on their mortgage or their rent. They have to spend money on food. They have to spend money on the necessities of life like clothing, transportation, educational costs, all the things that families have to spend money on. There is of course some area of discretion.

We went to Canadians during the last election campaign and we told them that if they chose us to run their finances, to spend their money to do the things that would administer the country on their behalf, then these were the things we were going to make a priority, and we listed our five priorities. This budget delivers on those five priorities. It is focused on the things we told Canadians we were going to do.

Why is that important? It is important because the faith and trust in political leadership has eroded. It has gone down a lot over the last few years. It is important that leaders tell people what they are going to do, and then actually follow through and keep their word. That is what this budget does.

It restores some accountability and some discipline to federal spending, and I am going to talk about that in a minute.

This budget provides tax relief for working class Canadians which is important because their tax burden has now outstripped the money that they spend on the necessities of life. That is not fair. It is not right and it is not necessary. We also reduced the national debt and are committed to balanced budgets. These are very important principles.

I would like to start with a determination to be accountable. The previous government would routinely make five year, pie in the sky promises, most of them to be delivered half a decade down the road. We think that Canadians should only have to spend money on what can be delivered today, what they know is going to happen now, and not down the road after many years. Basically, in this budget, our plans are over a two year period. We will only put in measures that are affordable and ready to be implemented.

Over the last five years, government spending has grown by an average of 8.2% annually. That is close to 10%. I ask Canadians watching this debate: How many of their incomes have grown by close to 10% per year over the last five years? The answer is none.

Last year, the party opposite, that was governing our country, actually spent an increase of 14.4% over that one year, nearly a 15% increase in spending. How many Canadians had a 15% increase in their income in order to support that level of spending by government? The answer is none. We have been much more moderate. Spending growth in this budget is 5.4% and next year it will be down to 4.1%. That is important.

We also want to ensure that when we do spend, we are not just throwing money out there to have bragging rights. We want to ensure that the spending actually buys something for Canadians. It gives real results if there is some value for money. We are re-evaluating the programs where there is spending taking place. Some of those programs get a D on this evaluation. A lot of them get an F. We are not going to continue to spend hard-working Canadians' money on programs that are not getting results for them. We are going to re-evaluate and spend money that actually gets results.

We will also be reducing Canada's debt by $3 billion a year. We are considering putting any surplus after that $3 billion in debt reduction into the Canada pension plan and the Quebec pension plan. These plans have huge unfunded liabilities. The bulk of the benefits from these plans is going to be borne by younger Canadians who are not even taxpayers yet. We want to help them all we can to be fair to them in meeting their obligations down the road.

We also will improve the financial accountability on how money is spent. We believe the Auditor General should be able to tell Canadians how their money is spent when it goes into crown corporations and into federally funded foundations. This should not be hidden as the Liberals hid it. It is Canadians' money and they have a right to know how it is spent.

This budget also recognizes that Canadians pay too much tax. The average working Canadian's burden for the necessities of life has risen about 1,000%. Let us guess how much the tax burden has risen in the same time. It is 1,600%. That is the tax they are being overtaxed.

We want to make sure there are some tax reductions to even it out, to give Canadians the right to spend their own money as much as possible, so our budget plan delivers on our commitment to cut the GST by one percentage point. That will be effective July 1. We also will benefit all Canadians with this tax cut, not just those who earn income. Every single Canadian is going to benefit from this reduction in the GST. In fact, the benefit will be close to $9 billion back into the hands of Canadians over two years, even those who do not pay any personal income tax. Although the GST rate is being cut, we are going to keep the GST credit at current levels to protect low income and modest income Canadians.

That is not all. The budget also proposes a comprehensive plan to reduce personal income taxes for all taxpayers. That means there will be a new Canada employment credit for all working Canadians. Effective July 1, the first $500 of income that a working Canadian earns will not be taxed. That will then double in 2007 to $1,000. This will help all working Canadians to keep more of their own money and to meet the costs of employment.

We will also permanently reduce the lowest personal income tax rate. Starting on July 1, it will go from 16% to 15.5%. This is the rate that applies on the first $36,400 of income. It benefits the low income earners who need this decrease in taxes the most.

The Liberals claim that this is a tax reduction they wanted to put into place, but they did not put it into place. They announced it and did some technical things to make it happen, but they never passed it into law.

This is now going to become the law of the land. The personal income tax rate on the lowest tax bracket will actually permanently be reduced from 16% to 15.5%. If the Liberals had wanted to do that, why did they not do it? They had 13 years.

We will also legislate an increase in the basic personal amount of income Canadians can earn tax free. Again, the Liberals claim they wanted to do it. They started to do it, but they never passed it into law because it did not matter enough to them to actually do it in time to pass it into law. It was a deathbed promise to try to get more votes during the election. Thankfully it failed, because now we have a government that means business about tax reduction for Canadians.

Also, we want to help the job creators of this country, the economic engines, people who engage in business and economic activity, so we are going to eliminate the federal capital tax as of January 2008. If businesses have capital needs, they should not have to pay extra tax in order to bring money into their business.

We are going to eliminate the corporate surtax starting in 2008. This was a tax the Liberals brought in that was supposed to help reduce the deficit. It was not needed in the last few years and yet the Liberals kept it on. We also are going to reduce the general corporate tax rate from 21% to 19% by 2010.

This will make us competitive with our largest trading partner. We do 85% of our business with one country and that country has a better tax regime than we do. Our businesses cannot compete. They do not have enough cash in their hands. They cannot keep enough of their own earnings in order to compete. We want to make sure we change this so that we are on a level playing field, so that we can vigorously use our talent, our innovation and our entrepreneurship in this country to succeed and to create prosperity for all Canadians.

We did not stop there. In budget 2006 we also recognized small business as the backbone of our economy, so we are going to increase the amount of small business income that is eligible for the 12% tax rate from $300,000 a year to $400,000 a year by next year. And we are going to reduce that 12% tax rate to 11.5% in 2008 and to 11% in 2009.

We want to free the economic engines of country to create good jobs for Canadians and to create prosperity for all of us.

Canadians know that with a small population our education and skills are very important in making us competitive in the global market. We know that education and skills training are key to our economic future. That is why we are going to invest significantly in training and education.

Starting immediately, there will be a new tax credit of up $2,000 for employers who hire apprentices. In January 2007, a new apprentice incentive grant will provide $1,000 a year to apprentices in the first two years of an eligible program. That is in addition to all the other tax reductions for working Canadians.

Many tradespeople have to provide their own tools in their work. We are now going to allow a deduction of up to $500 for the cost of tools.

We are going to help post-secondary students with a tax credit for the cost of textbooks. We are going to fully exempt all scholarships, bursaries and fellowship income for students.

In addition to that, we have allocated $1 billion for urgently needed investments in post-secondary educational infrastructure. In fact, the federal government spends $8 billion a year on education. As of this budget, that has been increased by $800 million more in this year.

On aboriginals, we note that under the past government aboriginals lived in the most appalling third world conditions. We are determined to change that. In this budget, we will spend $450 million to upgrade water, housing and education facilities on reserves and also to help aboriginal children. We will provide $300 million for off reserve housing and $300 million for badly needed housing in the north. We also have allocated $2.2 billion to lay to rest this terrible situation of the residential schools problem. Thus, in this budget, there is $3.2 billion allocated to aboriginal spending.

Over the next few years, and beginning now, we will be holding discussions with aboriginal leaders as to further programs that will assist aboriginals, and we will be funding those in future budgets. We do not believe in the Liberal way of having a big meeting on the eve of an election, on an electoral deathbed, allocating big bunches of money with no plan at all. We will make plans. We will put them into place. We will fund them. We will make the lives of aboriginals better in this country.

We also want to support our primary economic sectors that are facing serious challenges, both at home and abroad. That is why this budget provides $2 billion in support for the agriculture sector over two years, including an additional special $1 billion immediate investment to assist farmers.

I compliment my colleague, the Minister of Agriculture, who has been meeting for months across the country with stakeholders in this important industry, hearing their concerns and bringing together a plan to address the immediate needs and the future needs of this critically important industry.

We also commit $400 million over the next two years to the forestry sector, in addition to delivering what the Liberals could not for years, which is an end to the war on softwood lumber that was robbing our communities of income and robbing many Canadian families of jobs. We have put that to rest.

We will also invest an additional $400 million for the sector, particularly to help support worker adjustment as this new softwood lumber agreement comes into effect, to strengthen our industry's long term competitiveness, and to combat the pine beetle infestation, which was ignored by the previous government and is destroying our forests at an alarming rate. We are going to get busy and do something about that.

We have already had some discussion about our measures to help families with children. This of course is a priority for all members of this House. We have, I think, reasonable disagreements on how to go about it, but as members know, our party believes that all parents need help. We want to have universal assistance and support for every single parent and family in this country, so we have introduced, as we campaigned on, our universal child care plan. It will give $3.7 billion in funding over two years for a universal child care benefit. It will give families $100 per month for each child under the age of six to assist them in raising their children, in caring for their children, in providing for whatever care families think is most appropriate for their own family situation. It will benefit 1.5 million families and over 2 million children.

As well, we are mindful that many parents, some parents, choose full time institutional day care. We will invest $250 million a year, starting next year, with real plans to increase the number of child care spaces by 25,000 spaces each year. We are now building plans to make sure those spaces actually are created, unlike the Liberal deathbed plan to throw out money with no requirement that actual spaces be created. We are going to create spaces so that the segment of families that need them will actually have them.

We are also going to increase the child disability benefit so that more families can have that assistance for children with disabilities. We are going to also keep our promise to introduce a tax credit of up to $500 on fees for fitness programs for children under 16.

Mr. Speaker, there is so much more in this budget and, although you say I have one minute, I have three more pages. How can that be?

We are going to protect Canadians.

We have plans to address the fiscal imbalance in a meaningful way and open up discussions with the provinces.

We are going to apply the fiscal discipline that we talked about, that Canadians are needing.

Budget 2006 keeps promises. It is a promise-keeping budget. Ours is a party that believes when we say we are going to do something, we actually keep our word. That is what Canadians are like. They are honest people who keep their word. They want their leaders to do the very same thing. We focus on the priorities that Canadians elected us to deliver. It sets the stage for future action, as future budgets and future financial resources become available, to continue to build an even better Canada for all Canadians.

Financial Statement of Minister of FinanceThe BudgetGovernment Orders

5:55 p.m.

Liberal

John Cannis Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, before I ask my question I want to quote something on page 15 of the budget speech under the heading “Economic and Fiscal Update”:

--Canadians have reached a level of accomplishment few other countries can rival.

I want to point out that the Conservatives keep saying that they have only been in government 100 days. The budget further goes on to state:

Looking at our current situation, Canadians have many reasons to be confident. Unemployment is at a 30-year low, we have low inflation and strong consumer confidence, and corporate profits are at record levels.

How can the Conservatives stand and say that they have accomplished it when bureaucrats privately joke behind their backs that this is the first balanced budget by a Tory government since Robert Borden was prime minister in 1912?

We made record achievements in this country. If the Conservatives were honest with Canadians, they would acknowledge the results. She says, “you guys didn't implement it”. She knows very well why we did not implement it. It was because the Conservative Party, with the same old NDP Party, which should rename itself, and the Bloc Québécois were in cahoots and prematurely brought down the government. The member cannot fool Canadians.

You guys say, “We say what we are going to do and follow through”. The Minister of Justice is here. In their pamphlets the Conservative candidates said they would cancel the gun registry right away and take the money and put it into health care for wait time reductions. They said they would immediately repeal same sex marriage. Will you then immediately bring in legislation for same sex marriage as we had before? Will you cancel the gun registry immediately as you promised in your pamphlets? With regard to health care, for which there was only one line, you are only going to implement--