Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance mentioned several times that Budget 2013 would have no new taxes. The Minister of State for Finance gave the same answer when he was asked about Budget 2013 in the House.
When the Conservative government creates tax credits—the so-called boutique tax credits—for arts or sports for example, it talks about tax cuts that benefit Canadians. When tax credits are scrapped, it pretends not to notice.
The hon. member for Westmount—Ville-Marie asked a very relevant question that the government member did not answer. What is considered a tax credit or a new tax? In the budget, there is $8 billion in new taxes and in reduced or cancelled tax credits. The member said that there were no corporate tax increases, but there is an increase of $2.3 billion over the next five years, and that is only from scrapping the dividend tax credit for small and medium-sized businesses.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue look us in the eye and say that there are no tax increases? If she cannot, what is her definition of a tax? The government does not seem to know, even though it governs a G8 country. That makes no sense at all.