Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in this House, and specifically today to speak to this motion.
I have a good friend. She is a young woman who is just finishing her university degree. She sent me a Snapchat which said, “Do something to stop the Prime Minister from taking my money.” That is really why we are here today. We are debating a motion that would have the government commit to stop spending Canadians' taxpayer dollars in such a reckless and irresponsible way.
The motion in front of us today, which was proposed by the Conservative Party, would have the government agree that there should be no further tax hikes on Canadian families, businesses, seniors, or students. That is a no-brainer. We have not seen a lot of economic growth under the Liberal government's tenure to date. It seems reasonable to ask the government to show Canadians that it is willing to make a commitment, ahead of its disastrous budget tomorrow, to stop the haemorrhaging and to stop raising taxes on Canadian families.
We are also asking the government to take immediate measures to ensure companies hire young Canadians and address the youth unemployment crisis. We know that economic growth has slowed under the Liberal government's tenure, and that the people who are most affected by this are young Canadians. Certainly, in my home province of Alberta, that crisis has been magnified to a very large extent over the last year and a half.
We are also asking the government to vote for a credible plan to return to a balanced budget by 2019, as the Liberals promised Canadians in the election campaign. They have completely abandoned this promise, and they are expecting Canadians just to turn a blind eye to it. The Liberals have an opportunity with this motion today to support that.
In this motion, we are also asking the government to not sell Canadian airports. The analogy I used this weekend on a television talk show is that it is as though the Liberals went to Vegas on a drunken weekend bender, got this massive credit card bill, have nothing to show for it except a hangover, and now they are selling Canadian airports to pay for it. We are asking the government not to do that.
That is the form and substance of the motion. Why is it so important that the government do that today?
First, I need to point out the higher tax burden that Canadians are paying under the Liberal government. We want the government to agree to stop raising taxes. Why? Since the Liberals have formed government, and because they have put in place higher Canada pension plan premiums, each Canadian household will pay about $2,200 more every year. That means $2,200 coming directly out of the pockets of Canadian families. For most Canadian families, that is a lot of money and the government has taken that right out of their pockets.
With the Liberals' national price on carbon, which we know will not actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions and will not do anything to help climate change, that means up to another $2,500 directly out of the pockets of Canadians.
The Liberals cancelled the family tax cut. We know that is about $2,000 per household. They cancelled the arts and fitness tax credit. That is about $225 a child. For a family that is trying to put their kids into hockey, that is a lot of money. The Liberals took that away, so effectively that is a tax increase. The other thing, which is especially for students, is that the government cancelled the education and textbook tax credits, which is another $500 roughly per student.
The Liberals also increased the small business tax rate. That is an average of $1,800 per company. They have also increased employment insurance premiums, which is another $85 per worker.
What is even more important is that the Liberals, if they refuse to stand up and say, “Yes, we agree. It is common sense, and we are not going to increase taxes on Canadians”, and I am not optimistic about it, then they are going to provide Canadians some assurances on what we are hearing is going to actually be in their budget tomorrow. We are hearing that tomorrow's budget will increase the capital gains inclusion rate. What does that mean? The Liberals are pre-positioning this with editorials in the Toronto Star and whatnot saying that the capital gains tax only affects the wealthy.
However, in reality, there are 1.2 million Canadians who earn less than $50,000 who take advantage of that tax credit. Many of them are low-income seniors. These would be seniors who had bought stocks in a company or something 20 or 30 years ago and are looking to divest some of that. They are going to have a huge tax burden. This is going to send a chill right across the economy. If this is in the budget tomorrow, my God. When we look at competitiveness with our neighbour to the south right now, this is just disastrous. It is not only disastrous for the economy, but it is directly disastrous for those 1.2 million people who want to become part of the middle class and are now not going to be able to afford to do it.
The Liberals are going to tax stock options for employees. We have heard about this. Ending the public transit tax credit is on the table, as is ending the volunteer firefighter tax credit. The Liberals have also been pre-positioning a tax on Internet services, like Netflix.
It is very simple for the Liberals to stand here and say, “We understand all of this damage that we have done to Canadian families, but we are going to give them a break tomorrow, and we are going to stand up and say that we are not going to increase taxes.” However, anybody who has been listening to the debate today will know that they are not going to vote for this motion. Why? The Liberals have mortgaged our future into oblivion.
Here is the problem. The Liberals have increased taxes on Canadians by a crazy amount, and members can do the math that I outlined at the start of my speech. This is a lot of money for the average Canadian family. What is even more important is that they have increased our deficits to the point where the parliamentary budget officer is saying that we cannot balance the budget for at least 30 years, and what do the Liberals have to show for it? Nothing.
Here are some key economic metrics. Canadians are working less under the Liberal government. The hours worked are down by 0.3% over the last year. Canadians are earning less wages, down 1.3% over the last year, but the cost of living is up by 2.1%. I do not need to tell these statistics to Canadians, because they are feeling it in their pocketbooks, which is why we need to support this motion here today.
For us in this place, we have a fiduciary responsibility to Canadian taxpayers to be responsible stewards of their money. If we are going to spend into oblivion, as the government is doing, we better have some results from it. I will continue to tell members about what is not happening for Canadians.
This spending has failed to grow the economy. GDP grew by 1.4% in 2016, which is exactly what the federal government projected before last year's budget. If members remember, this time last year, the federal government was saying that it would be mortgaging Canada's future, and all of a sudden we were going to see a massive increase in growth. What did we see? Nothing. There was no growth.
The other thing I am going to point out is that the government was supposed to flow all sorts of money into infrastructure spending. I do not see any roads being built. I do not see the LRT in my riding being completed, especially in Alberta where we have so many people out of work, especially trades that could be getting back to work with some of these funds, but the government has done nothing. However, I will say that the infrastructure minister managed to find time to spend $800,000 to renovate his office here in Ottawa, so that was a priority.
The other problem we have is competitiveness as we compare ourselves to the U.S. As we sink ourselves into a deeper hole, get no results from it, and take more money away from Canadian taxpayers, there is no bright future here whatsoever for Canadians, and that is wrong.
This is why we put this motion forward today. It seems very reasonable to me for the government to stand and say, “We oppose taking away more money out of Canadians' pockets, because we know that we have nothing to show for it.”
It is very funny as I stand here and listen to the Liberals heckle me. They are uncomfortable because they know that I am right. They know there has been nothing to show for their reckless spending. They know that their campaign promises were abysmally improperly costed. It was just a massive sham. Now those chickens are coming home to roost.
I am proud to stand up for my constituents and hard-working Canadians to say that enough is enough. I will be standing up and voting for this motion to say that, no, we do not need to tax Canadians more. No, we do not need to grow government for absolutely no reason with absolutely no results, and that is the difference between this side of the House and that side of the House.