Mr. Speaker, $60 billion is a very stark figure. It is a lot of money. That sum, $60 billion, has been given in corporate tax cuts to huge corporations, like big banks, since 2000.
I fail to understand why banks that made $19 billion in profits last year will get even more tax breaks according to the Conservatives' throne speech. In all, by 2011 there will be a 10 point drop in the federal corporate tax rate since 2001.
The Liberals and Conservatives give tax breaks to the richest Canadians, but there is nothing for affordable child care. There is nothing to hire more nurses and doctors. There is nothing to invest in our cities, our artists and to improve our public transit.
Just for this year without the big corporate tax cuts, Canada would have had $12.7 billion to invest in ordinary Canadians. To give even more corporate tax cuts after the billions in tax giveaways is insulting to the two-thirds of Canadians who say they are not benefiting from the economic growth. It is wrong and it is unfair.