Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise to address what I think is a very important piece of legislation that we have been debating for the last while. It is important in the sense that we are witnessing the implementation of what I believe is a very significant aspect of an election platform that the Prime Minister of Canada campaigned on, not only for a relatively short period of our summer and leading to October 19, but something about which the Liberal Party had talked for many months while in opposition.
We acknowledge and recognize the importance of Canada's middle class. In fact, members will find that when the Prime Minister was first elected leader of the Liberal Party the term “middle class” started to be talked about and mentioned a whole lot more inside the House of Commons, because that is an issue that he brought to the House and, time and again, has reinforced with great success since his capture of the leadership of the Liberal Party. Through that, we have heard members of all political parties talking more about Canada's middle class.
Let us get back to the election platform. The election platform was very clear that we would change tax rates and that those who make in excess of $200,000 a year would be expected to pay a little more. If we talk to those individuals, I am sure we would find that a good-sized majority of those people understand the need to pay a little more. After all, it is all about fairness.
Then we have those people in a tax bracket on which we have focused a great deal of attention here in the House for well over a year now. It was incorporated into an election platform that there would be a tax break to the middle class. That is what this bill would do. It would deliver on an election promise that was made and will be kept. That is why we see a sense of pride when members of the Liberal caucus stand to speak to address this particular piece of legislation. It is because we are keeping a commitment.
It would even go a little further than that tax break. Again, the last budget doubled the contribution limit to the TFSA. It was roundly criticized when the then Conservative majority government proposed to double the contribution limit. I argued at that point that doubling the limit was not the appropriate tax break to give to Canadians. In terms of percentages, very few Canadians actually take advantage by contributing the maximum amount to the TFSA, which at that time was just over $5,000.
I represent a riding that is working class in a very real way, and my constituents do not have $10,000 sitting around to invest in a tax-free savings plan. They are trying to cope with the economic demands facing them today. We made the commitment back then that we would not be supporting the increase that the previous Conservative government was making. There was wide support for our not supporting it. The previous government of Canada did not have support from the different stakeholders when it implemented that particular tax break. There was no real support. It all came from the Prime Minister's Office back then. The Liberal Party is correcting a wrong. The contribution limit should never have been increased. This is something that is also incorporated into the legislation we have before us.
I know a lot of people talk about what sort of tax breaks we want to provide to Canadians. Let us recall the debate on income splitting. That was another Conservative idea that did not have the support of Jim Flaherty, members will recall. Do they remember the income split? It was a couple of billion dollars annually to Canada's wealthiest individuals. Who was going to foot the bill? Canada's middle class was going to foot that particular bill. Even Jim Flaherty, the former Conservative minister, recognized the flaw of that Conservative policy. We recognized back then that this was not the type of Canada we wanted to see and that there was a need to reinforce the positive.
This is something I believe is a step in the right direction.
I hear a lot of the Conservatives talking about deficits. This is really something to hear, now, being on the government side. When I was in opposition, we raised the issue of deficits. I raised the issue on numerous occasions. In fact, when they brought in the budget, saying that they had a balanced budget, I made it very clear that it was a bogus balanced budget, that they were fudging the numbers. Members can check Hansard. They will see it right there, in black and white.
However, I was not alone. They do not have to believe me. Even the Governor of the Bank of Canada indicated that this was going to be a deficit budget, and that was done in the month of July.
There was no surplus budget handed over to the Liberal government on October 19. That is a deception. We inherited a deficit, much as Jean Chrétien inherited a deficit, and he turned that deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus.
Then what happened? Then the Conservatives got their hands on the purse again and they turned that multibillion-dollar surplus into a multibillion-dollar deficit within two years. That was even prior to Canada getting into the recession.
Ever since they achieved that deficit, every year since then, they have had a deficit, including the 2015 and 2016 budget.
The opposition will have to excuse me, as I suspect most Canadians realize that the Conservatives do not know how to balance the books. The only party that has balanced the books here in Ottawa has been the Liberal Party, and it has demonstrated that time and again.
I would suggest that we listen to what the Prime Minister has very eloquently said to Canadians, that at the end of the day, today, this is doing a lot for the middle class.
Well, there is a lot more that is coming down the pike.
We can talk about the Canada child benefit program that would be lifting, literally, tens of thousands of children out of poverty. That is a very strong positive.
Imagine a government, now, that is going to take a proactive approach at dealing with some of those important social issues that, again, are going to help Canada's middle class and those aspiring to become a part of the middle class—programs such as housing and the impact that housing would make across all regions of our country, coast to coast to coast, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars that would be spent on our infrastructure.
This expenditure on infrastructure would create jobs, real jobs.
The infrastructure program that the Conservatives had was nothing more than an empty shell. They would say they were going to spend this kind of money on infrastructure, but it was years down the line, not when the economy needed it, not when the municipalities were calling for it. They had their own political agenda, in terms of the expenditure of public dollars dealing with infrastructure, when the needs are today. That is what they should have been doing, but they did not recognize that.
This government does recognize that. We are seeing more money invested in infrastructure at a time when Canada most needs that money to be spent in the history of our country, or at least in the most modern history, in the last 40 or 50 years. It is because we believe in building Canada's infrastructure. By building our infrastructure, we are helping the local economies throughout the country in many different ways, not only from a social perspective, but also from an economic perspective.
There is a lot of discussion about oil prices. It is interesting watching the Conservatives yap across the aisle on that particular issue. We should remind them what the price of oil was when they were in office. It was $110. When they left, before October 19, it was at maybe $30. I might be a little bit off.
Where were all those Alberta members of Parliament? They were nowhere to be seen. I can tell members that the Alberta members of the Liberal caucus are very vocal, as they understand, as all the Liberal caucus understands, the importance of what is taking place in Alberta.
We are going to do for Alberta what we do for other provinces. We are not only going to demonstrate that we care, but we are going to invest. By strengthening Canada's middle class, we will be strengthening the economy, and all of us will benefit by it despite what the Conservative opposition might have to say.