Mr. Speaker, since the member is not fully aware of exactly what the motion is before the House, I will read part of it. It states:
...the government must also drive greater Canadian productivity by making investments in things such as:
physical infrastructure, new technologies, research and development....
This has basically been the thrust of my talk this afternoon.
That said, I will agree with him that the government has not lowered taxes because it has been a thinly disguised veil that it has put over the Income Tax Act. Every Canadian who filled out a tax form in 2005 knows that his or her marginal tax rate on the lowest bracket was indeed 15%. Every Canadian who filled out a tax form in 2006 knows that his or her marginal tax rate for the lowest income tax bracket was 15.25%, an increase. In fact, the Government of Canada, the Conservative government, increased the taxes of every Canadian.
In 2005, the marginal tax bracket rate was 15%, put in place by the Liberal government, and then, in 2006, it went to 15.25%, an increase, effective July 1, 2006, of half a percentage point. Half a percentage point is how much the taxes went up and that is exactly what will be filled out on this year's tax form.
That may be thinly disguised because the Conservative government continues to repeat a mantra that it lowered taxes, but every Canadian tax filer knows that it actually increased them.