Mr. Speaker, predictable partisanship goes on in a budget debate. The government presenting the budget is quite rightly proud of it and of course the opposition parties have difficulty recognizing its positive nature.
I would like to focus on the sheer statistical reality of this budget. People can argue about whether they think a certain thing is a good idea or not, but there are some things this budget will accomplish which will be of truly historic proportion and that should be noted and acknowledged.
First and most important is the whole aspect of fiscal imbalance. For decades and possibly for more than a generation, there has been this question of fiscal imbalance. Most Canadians, myself included for many years, have had difficulty understanding it because it is a complex issue, but because it is complex does not mean there is no solution to it.
Fiscal imbalance is the situation where in the perception of the provinces and territories there is an abundance of taxpayer dollars lodged at the federal level. They feel it should be spread around on an equal basis in such a way that they will have the capacity to deliver essential services.
It is acknowledged that from time to time in the history of a country various provinces or territories may or may not have the capacity to deliver approximately comparable services. At times when they do not have that capacity, there is this sharing at the federal level of the dollars that sit there. It is a constitutional item. That is in essence what the program talks about.
For perhaps a generation or more federal governments have used this as a political tool and it has been built up by an ad hoc system of how much money should go to a given province at a given time. The Prime Minister and the finance minister made a commitment to once and for all come up with a formula-based, rules-based program where there would not be any argument anymore, or so they thought and hoped, and where there certainly would not be a sense of depending on which party was in power could affect how much money a province would receive.
They came up with a formula based on recommendations in the O'Brien report that at least took the argument out of whether a province received preferential treatment or not. That has happened. This is of historic proportions.
We now have a formula in place in the area of equalization that is rules-based and formula-based, and one which has taken out the ad hoc system which has been used by previous governments just to try and bend the will of people for political gain.
With that formula now in place some provinces are indicating that they are not happy with it. Some concerns have been raised in British Columbia. Even a good friend of mine who is a minister in the government there has raised some issues. The issue of British Columbia's share is an interesting one because British Columbia is called a have province.
When we are talking about provinces, countries, cities or individuals, prosperity and poverty do not happen by accident. An exception to that rule would be a windfall of some kind for a province, or a country, or an individual. Then there will be prosperity at least on a temporary basis. A disaster can strike an individual, a city, a province or a country and there can be poverty at least on a temporary basis. Other than these instances, both prosperity and poverty occur in most cases because of certain principles being applied or not applied.
The people of British Columbia finally rid themselves of the socialist government that had plunged that province into an economic morass for years. I was in Alberta at the time and business was coming from B.C. in streams because of the poorly thought out, socialistic approach to governance and to economic issues. B.C. was spinning down and becoming a have not province.
There has been a Liberal government there for a few years, and I use the word Liberal because that is what it calls itself so it is with some reticence obviously, and is it perfect? No it is not. No government is perfect. The trend has been reversed and there is economic prosperity. Things have turned around. Is there prosperity for everybody? No. It is not perfect, but it is a lot better than what it used to be.
With its new government, British Columbia, hopefully, will never need to draw on the equalization formula. However, should something happen, by accident or some other reason, that turns things around economically in British Columbia, the same formula that is being applied to Quebec, to Ontario and to Newfoundland and Labrador today, will be applied to British Columbia.
In spite of the adjustment, $4.7 billion will go to British Columbia this year because of this formula. A member just said that is a lot of money. We have $3.1 billion just in the health transfer alone and another $1.3 billion in the social transfer which is for post-secondary education and other issues related to that. B.C. is definitely benefiting from this particular budget.
It has also been raised that there is nothing in the budget for British Columbia this year for the pine beetle infestation problem. This is a problem that was ignored by the federal Liberals when it first was identified quite a number of years ago. Now it has devastated the forest industry in many of our communities and a commitment was made last year, which is being maintained, a $1 billion commitment over 10 years to deal with the beetle infestation problem and all of the negative effects of it. The money was announced last year and it is there again this year.
Those were some of the issues that people in British Columbia have raised. I am pleased to see the benefits that the people of British Columbia will be receiving from this particular budget.
Let us look at some of the approaches to prosperity and how the budget is based on those principles. The government recognizes the importance of families and the importance of children and the costs that go with that. Though we are told children are a blessing, and those of us with kids will generally acknowledge that, though from time to time we have our moments, but to acknowledge the raising of children there is a child tax credit in place of $2,000 per person for every child. That money is in addition to last year's child care benefit that is in place. That means $174 million for British Columbians.
Another thing of historic proportions that happened in this budget is that the so-called marriage penalty has finally been eliminated. The process by which a working spouse would be graded at one level of taxation, a spouse who is working in the home, which is also full time if not overtime, was not given the same benefit as two individuals living together under the same roof. We and families have been asking for years why we have that marriage penalty. We took that out and we raised the spousal benefit. It is the first time in history that has happened at the federal level. Thirty-five million dollars will go to B.C. just because of that adjustment alone.
On day care, $250 million was committed across the country, $87 million of which will land in B.C. for the creation of child care spaces, along with the program that will continue to allow parents to be compensated for the child care of their choice. It will no longer be the Liberal type approach of one way only. It will be a proper approach of allowing the parents to decide.
For farmers, $60 million will land in B.C. because of what we are doing on the farm programs in this budget.
For seniors, another thing of historic proportion, we have raised the level at which they can maintain their retirement savings, not just until 69 years old when they must transfer their money into a RRIF but up to 71. It was not too many years ago that the Liberals knocked it down from 71 years old to 69. We have raised it back up, along with income splitting.
There is $30 million for the Great Bear Rain Forest.
Cities will be able to have predictability because the formula now related to the GST. It is not just 57% of the GST rebate that goes to cities but now it will be 100%. The gas tax formula will now be maintained into the future for years.
People in Penticton, Summerland, Westbank, Merritt, Logan Lake, Naramata, Peachland--I hope I have not left anyone out--the hard-working, locally elected officials will have some predictability in terms of what they can see in terms of growth in infrastructure because our region is growing. It is the most beautiful region in all of Canada with the most wonderful people. People from the entire country are going there, not just to retire but to invest and to grow.
This budget will meet the needs and the environmental needs that we are so concerned about.