Mr. Speaker, this is an unfair budget that dedicates a lot of tax dollars, tax expenditures to the wealthiest families and virtually ignores the middle class. The middle class are the job creators. When they are doing well, our economy is doing well as opposed to flatlined like it is under the Conservative government.
The budget is not only unfair, but it is also disappointing and deceiving when it comes to the Canadian Armed Forces. It is much trumpeted by the minister, but the reality is there is not a penny for two years and there is nothing to fill the gaps when it comes to medical professionals which has forced injured soldiers to wait months for help with potential PTSD and other conditions.
I am wondering whether the Conservative member opposite is aware that while an escalator has been announced, there has been a de-escalator in place since 2010. It will take more than a decade to build back just the cuts under the government. In fact, this budget will lead to the lowest percentage, some .8% of GDP in defence spending, actually a 20% decrease as a share of the gross domestic product compared with today.