Mr. Speaker, I would like to share my time with the hon. member for Outremont, the NDP finance critic.
Yesterday we saw what happens when a government cobbles together a budget which it does not really believe in. It is a budget that will not protect the most vulnerable, will not protect the jobs of today, and will not create the new jobs of tomorrow.
The Conservative budget, unfortunately supported by the Liberal Party, gives $60 in tax breaks to large business for every dollar to people out of work. During the past two months, more than 100,000 people have lost their jobs, yet there is nothing in this budget to help more laid-off workers access employment insurance benefits.
Two-thirds of women who need employment insurance cannot get it even though they pay into it, and this budget refuses to change that. Workers losing their jobs today will not get any EI faster when they desperately need it to put food on the table. What good is an extra five weeks for the majority of workers who cannot even get the first week of employment insurance?
What does this budget mean for the most vulnerable? It means that employment insurance will be just as hard to get as before. It means that housing will be just as scarce. It means that people are facing a future that is just as bleak. Families on the edge, losing their jobs, homes and savings, can take nothing from this budget.
This budget will not safeguard jobs. Forestry, mining and agriculture are not going to get the support they need through these tough times. Equalization payments have been capped, forcing some provinces into impossible choices in these difficult times. Few jobs will be saved. This budget will not create any jobs either, especially those green jobs for the future economy of the 21st century.
The infrastructure program hinges on amounts that must be matched by provincial, territorial or municipal governments, but these government have no money. They will not be able to follow through. The plan will not work and jobs will not be created.
Infrastructure funds will come far too slow to make a difference soon enough. That means too few shovels breaking the ground and too few jobs for Canadians at the time that they are losing their employment. And because there is no made in Canada buying policy, we cannot even be sure that any spending on materials will help our own forestry and manufacturing sectors.
Tax cuts will not work the way fast-flowing infrastructure funding would have worked, but that is where this government has decided to spend big.
According to the government's own figures, for every dollar in corporate tax cuts, we get a mere 20¢ improvement in GDP. For personal tax cuts, for every dollar spent, we get only a 90¢ improvement in the GDP. However, for infrastructure spending that actually flows, we get a $1.50 improvement to the GDP for every dollar spent and with real support for low income earners we also get a $1.50 improvement in the GDP. But that has not stopped this government from putting the lion's share of the spending in this budget into the least effective tools to improve our economy, namely, those tax cuts.
This budget contains no serious measures to seek a greener economic future. Less than 1% of the stimulus spending could be described in any way as green spending. This is at a time when the United States is seeking a green recovery to create a more sustainable economy. The Prime Minister has shown no such vision. Instead of investing in renewable energy, this budget gives millions to nuclear energy and unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage. This is just a handout to the big polluters. Anything green in this budget is purely cosmetic. We know this government will cut environmental regulations before it funds green alternatives; we have seen that in the past.
This budget attacks pay equity for women. It does not construct affordable housing for the numerous low-income families in our cities who are now homeless. It does not create child care spaces for children of working parents.
To those who need better child benefits most, there is virtually no help at all.
It makes post-secondary education no more accessible for our youngest and our brightest at a time when they need that hope.
The budget is not good for Canada. It is not good for Canadian families. Even those few proposals in this budget that are not flawed have no guarantee of being implemented because the Prime Minister has broken his commitment to Canadians before. He said he opposed budget leaks and then he ordered them to happen.
He promised not to appoint unelected senators, but yesterday, 18 new senators joined the Senate—a new record for patronage appointments. He had legislation passed for fixed election dates, but he called an early election, going against his own legislation.
Now, the Prime Minister has delivered a budget containing measures that he has spent his entire lifetime opposing, but he expects Canadians to have confidence in him now, to trust that he will actually get the job done. The record of this Prime Minister tells us that he will not. This is not only a question of the content of the budget, it is a question of confidence in the government. We do not have confidence that the Prime Minister will keep his commitments.
Despite all this, the Conservatives will stay in power because the new leader of the Liberal Party has decided to keep them there. It is an important decision that will have serious consequences for millions of people. It is the same poor policy as that of his predecessor, the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville. When the Liberals vote for the budget, with or without the minimal amendments, it will be the 45th time they have voted to keep the Conservatives in power.
So, because a budget vote is a confidence vote, on behalf of the tens of thousands who are going to be thrown out of work but will not get any help from this government or this budget, on behalf of the people who have waited too long for child care or health care, on behalf of the seniors who have lived too long in poverty, and on behalf of future generations who are counting on us to take strong, urgent and bold action on the environment, we will vote no confidence in this government.
Our former leader and respected member of this House, Tommy Douglas, once said, “Courage my friends, 'tis not too late to build a better world”.
I am disappointed that others in this House are not willing to show that same courage and that same conviction at this important moment in time. Meaningless amendments will not change the fundamental failures of this budget or repair the trust that this government has broken with the Canadian people.
We cannot support such a budget or such a government.