Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak of the Liberal government's proposed line of credit plan, also known as budget 2016. As everyone can imagine, either from the last sentence or my previous speech on this bill, I am not a fan of this budget.
The Minister of Finance and his parliamentary secretary have gone on ad nauseam about pre-budget consultations as a way to justify this mess of a budget. They went coast to coast to coast consulting thousands of Canadians, record numbers of Canadians, epic numbers of Canadians, listening to what Canadians wanted in this budget. The parliamentary secretary even spoke of hearing of people's dreams in formulating this budget.
When looking at this budget, I am wondering just what these Canadians told them. I would like to hear from either one of them about how many of the thousands they claim to have consulted said, “Please break your campaign promise of running a small deficit, and instead saddle us with an additional $20 billion in debt this year alone.”
I wonder how many said, “Please, Finance Minister, break your campaign promise to balance the budget in the fourth year of your mandate, and instead hit us with $120 billion in added debt and let us pay for that with a hefty hike in taxes.” How many spoke about their dreams, as the parliamentary secretary claimed, by saying, “I dream of this government twice breaking its promise to provide $3 billion in home care and palliative care”? Precisely how many went out to consultations and said, “Please, oh, please, break your promise to cut taxes for small business owners”? I am sure that there were many who asked them to break their promise to make their famous tax changes revenue neutral instead of a $3-billion hole in the books.
I would dearly love to hear how many Canadians attended these meetings and said, “Minister, we need a tax cut for people like MPs in the House today, those who make $170,000 a year, but let's give nothing to the 66% of Canadian taxpayers who make $45,000 a year or less.” I am sure that they were sitting at the round table being told that those making $170,000 a year are the real ones who need our help, not the working poor.
The constant refrain of having heard from the people on this budget is just a catchphrase, merely offering platitudes in order to distract from what this budget really is. It is a budget full of broken promises that will do nothing but saddle Canadians with future taxes, and doublespeak that shows nowhere how they will ever pay back this borrowed money. In fact, the government seems to be in denial that this money has to be paid back at all, like the money is coming from some magical ATM machine, perhaps run by the bank of sunny ways and unicorns.
Members of the chamber may know that I have been a vocal advocate of EI fairness for all Canadians. I am happy that the government finally came to its senses when adding Edmonton to the zones where people are eligible for additional help. However, I am still at a loss as to why we had to fight the government tooth and nail to have the Edmonton region included. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour told the House that Edmonton was finally eligible, after the added jobs losses when the Fort McMurray fire moved above the magical and completely arbitrary two-point increase threshold.
What the government could not seem to understand is that unemployment had trended up 35% over the benchmark from the previous year. However, we were told by the Edmonton Liberal MP that a 35% increase in out-of-work Edmontonians was not a dramatic enough increase to warrant action. The Prime Minister further told out-of-work Edmontonians that they were fortunate with a 35% increase in unemployment, as it could have been worse. The Liberals should maybe change their line from “real change” to “just hang in there”.
The government does not seem to understand the difference between a percentage point increase, on which the formula is based, and what a percentage increase is. Unemployed people in Edmonton region know, as they are living it every day. The Liberals' magical two-point increase threshold for Edmonton above the 4.9% base rate, they said, actually means that Edmonton would need a 39% increase in unemployment before the people are eligible for additional help. That seems to be very confusing for the government. However, being out of work and having the government and its Alberta MP sitting on their hands instead of advocating for the province is all the more perplexing.
It is not just Edmonton that is facing this ridiculous situation. The oil and gas region of southern Saskatchewan is also being placed in this conundrum. What a message this government is sending to the unemployed in these regions. Simply put, this government is saying two things through its current policy: one, that people chose to live in the wrong place; and, two, the government would like to see more people unemployed before it is able to help. Yes, more people need to be hurting before it can help, something a government should never say to its citizens. The government's main purpose is to help its citizens, to ensure that all citizens are prosperous.
The second area where the government seems to shrug its shoulders to the west is in its self-congratulatory infrastructure program. The Liberals' golden goose of infrastructure spending includes a complete bias in favour of eastern cities. Budget 2016 allocates the cream of the crop to Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City. However, for those backward-thinking western cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Saskatoon that do not seem to elect enough Liberals, the government is simply throwing a bone to them to save face.
I broke down the numbers the last time, but I know that the members across the way have a short memory, so I will again go over the distribution breakdown in the Liberals' infrastructure spending. The province of Alberta, for years Canada's fastest growing province, the economic engine of this country, has been allocated $347 million for public transit infrastructure, just 10% of the total amount of funds available. Alberta currently boasts 12% of Canada's population, and that number is set to grow in the coming years. Ontario will get $1.5 billion for public infrastructure, 44% of the total amount of funds available, yet has 38% of the country's population. Quebec will receive 27% of the total amount of funds available, and it has just 23% of the country's population.
Alberta is being shortchanged almost 15% on a per capita basis. Alberta, which still contributes to the equalization plan, is getting shortchanged. Alberta is still the fastest-growing province with the fastest-growing big cities. Alberta has taken it on the chin with the oil crash. With all of this, Alberta is still not getting its fair share.
We should be thankful that we have the infrastructure minister himself in Edmonton, otherwise we would not be so fortunate as to be only shortchanged 15%. Again, the infrastructure minister is probably too busy renovating his office and picking out the perfect furniture to stand up for his city and his province.
Let us look at the scorecard. We have one Edmonton Liberal MP who says that a 35% increase in Edmonton unemployment was not dramatic enough to warrant help. We have another Alberta Liberal MP saying 100,000 newly employed Albertans are finding their situation “refreshing”, and are happy that the Liberal government and all four Alberta Liberal MPs are refusing to support the energy east pipeline. We have another Alberta Liberal MP who cannot find the funds to ensure his home province receives a fair share of infrastructure funding, but he certainly found funds to fund sky palace 2.0 in his Ottawa office.
The whole fair share mentality does not apply to actions or behaviour of the Liberal government. Fair share only seems to apply to successful and hard-working Canadians when it comes to asking them to pay more taxes.
What is clear is the fact that the budget is a dog's breakfast of broken promises, out of control spending, no plan to grow the economy or pay back the huge deficits, but with some regional favouritism thrown in for good measure.
I hope that I am wrong in this regard. In fact, I am begging the government to prove me wrong. I am asking the government to treat all regions in the country as equals. I am asking the government to honour its campaign promises. Until then, I will refuse to support this unfair, unbalanced, and unequal budget.