Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity that the member provided by agreeing to share his time.
It was just last week that a poll came out indicating that Canadians believe the Prime Minister is actually quite secretive and has failed to govern with high ethical standards. One only needs to reflect on some of the things that have been said today from the government benches to get a better understanding of why so many Canadians from coast to coast to coast have this feeling that they just cannot trust the Conservatives, that there is a hidden message out there, and that the Prime Minister is not being straightforward with Canadians.
There is some irony there. The Leader of the Liberal Party gave a specific quote. He quoted a dictionary, the Collins English Dictionary. He stated that the dictionary said a tariff is “a tax levied by a government on imports”. It is a tax.
If Canadians are asked what a tariff is at a breakfast nook or a Tim Hortons, or wherever it might be, or what it is when the government increases a charge on a product coming into Canada, chances are they will appreciate that it is in fact a tax.
The government needs to concede that it is in fact bringing in tax increases, yet it is spending huge amounts of tax dollars—millions—on advertising its so-called action plan, which many, including myself, would argue is a dud. The government will spend millions of public dollars, tax dollars, telling Canadians that it is not increasing taxes, when in fact the government is increasing taxes and using tax dollars to try to convince Canadians that it is not increasing tax dollars. There is some irony in that.
We in the Liberal caucus recognize that a tax increase is a tax increase, and that is what this tariff is all about. It is going to generate in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars. The number of $330-plus million is being used. We know for a fact that we are talking about at least a quarter of a billion dollars. That is a great deal of money.
Where is that money coming from? Who is going to be footing that bill? Who is going to be providing that additional revenue? It is going to be the middle class. It is going to be those individuals who aspire to be a part of the middle class. Those are the individuals who are going to have to pay for it.
We hear a lot about the iPods, and for good reason. At the end of the day, when we go back to the core of the question that the leader of the Liberal Party put to the Prime Minister today, what we are talking about includes tricycles, school supplies, and those little red wagons that quite often a child aspires to get, whether it is from the Canadian Tire department store or from the many other retail outlets across our land. These are relatively young parents who are trying to get the financial means to provide for their children in a productive fashion.
Many would argue that the middle class is a very important group of people, and the government is ignoring that group. It is ignoring this group because it believes it can take them for granted. On the one hand the government says it is not increasing taxes, but on the other hand it is using tariffs to garner $300 million plus, and that is going to have an impact on the middle class. There is going to be a tax increase through this budget 2013.
There has always been a price gap. I have raised this today in the form of questions to both government and New Democrats in regard to recognizing the importance of the price gap between the United States and Canada.
Our population in good part lives along that border. With regard to consumers and retailers, I can speak from Manitoba's perspective, but I believe retailers across this land recognize that one of the greatest frustrations they have is justifying to consumers in Canada why our prices are a little higher than those of the United States.
In good part, the new tax the government will implement this year will increase the price gap between Canada and the United States. We have independent economists who have acknowledged that will happen, that we will see a larger price gap. We have met with many different small business people throughout this country who are concerned about the price gap. The government has turned a deaf ear to one of the most important economic engines in our country today, which is small business. Small businesses are concerned about the price gap.
The government has done very little to address this very important issue. I would pose the question, and I am surprised that the government has not provided impact studies that have been done so that we would know first-hand the degree to which these tax increases will impact Canadians, both for consumers and for the potential jobs that could be lost because of the increase in the price gap.
I suspect, as in the past on many of the economic measures taken by the government, that it has not done its homework. My colleague from Markham—Unionville indicated that he does not necessarily believe that the Conservative government saw the impact of the increased tariff on wigs. We would like to think not. However, the government has now been made aware that the greatest consumers for wigs today are individuals who are receiving chemotherapy or cancer treatment. There are a good number of reasons why individuals require wigs. How will the government respond, now that the issue has been brought to its attention? We will have to wait and see.
It bears repeating that the government has a responsibility to be more transparent and accountable for the actions it is taking. There are tax increases in the budget. The middle class and our consumers from coast to coast to coast will have to pay more because of these tax increases that are being imposed upon them. Some Canadians will be affected more than others because of their need for many of the products on which the tariffs are being applied.
I heard the other day the spending on the promotion of the economic action plan, the one I referred to as the dud, will be literally in the millions of dollars this year, to tell Canadians that we are not having tax increases, which is just not true. There are significant tax increases.
I challenge members of the Conservative government to stand in their place and acknowledge the reality that the PMO follows the debates in the chamber, and if individuals mention the economic action plan in a positive way, they get a gold star. If they say there is a tax increase in our budget, they are in a lot of trouble from the PMO.
The Conservatives cannot accept or acknowledge the facts. If they do that, even if they are not true, they are going to be in the far back corners of the Conservative caucus. I suspect that is one of the greatest challenges they have today.