Debates of Feb. 4th, 2019

Opposition Motion—Taxes

[An hon. member]

Wayne, you can do better than reading notes of Gerry Butts.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Maybe the member heckling over there would like to pick up the tax code and check the facts instead of listening to the rhetoric that comes out of the research department over there. All the Conservatives know how to do is not talk about facts but attack and misrepresent.

In addition, this government introduced the Canada child benefit, which will help nine in 10 families. Better yet, we made it tax free. Those two measures will mean a typical middle-class family is now $2,000 better off per year than they were under the Harper Conservatives.

In fact, for the member for Carleton's riding, the Minister of Finance told him in question period today that 30,000 people in his riding of Carleton had lower taxes and 16,000 children in that riding benefited as a result of this government's measures with respect to the Canada child benefit.

The bottom line is that a majority of Canadians are paying a lower effective tax rate under this government as a result of the actions we have taken since 2015. Regardless of how the official opposition tries to confuse and fudge the numbers, those are the facts. Lower taxes for the middle class and better opportunities as a result for families moving forward are the facts.

On his third point, the member for Carleton talked about the government's higher Canada pension plan premiums and used an exaggerated number out decades from now. Do the Conservative members not meet with seniors in their ridings? Do they not understand the facts on the ground, that people without pensions can hardly afford to put food on the table? The Canada pension plan changes are all about that. It is not a tax, but an investment in the future of seniors so future generations of MPs in our positions do not have to see the agony of people coming through the doors when they do not have the money in their pensions to meet the necessary essentials of life.

The Canada pension plan is an important vehicle for retirement. Private pensions are disappearing across the country and around the western world. Pensions are a fundamentally important mechanism to ensure Canadians have security in retirement.

Again, pensions are not taxes but investments in the security of seniors in the future. Members who are worth their salt have seen those seniors come into their office without the money to meet their needs.

In their motion, the Conservatives came up with a number on cancelling the family tax credit. Again, they misrepresent the facts. We instituted, as I said earlier, the Canada child benefit, which has seen more money going to more families than before, stopped giving money to the highest-income families and has indexed that benefit to inflation. It is a more efficient model than the previous model, because it more effectively targets families and parents who need financial assistance.

As stated earlier, in the riding of the member for Carleton, 16,000 children will benefit from the Canada child benefit. Is the member and the leader of his party telling families in his riding that they want to do away with that and go back to the old system where their benefits were taxed? Is that what the member is saying? There are consequences to some of these points that members opposite make.

Conservatives talked about the cancelling of a couple of tax credits. Members on the opposite side maybe do not understand what a tax credit really is. Tax credits are only available to those who have the means to get them. In other words, they have to have a substantial income in order to benefit from them. That means that those who do not have that kind of income do not get the tax credits, and they are the ones who really need the chance to enter sports and other areas.

Tax credits like the ones mentioned are marginal at best, because tax credits are only helpful to people who can afford the goods and services in the first place. If people want to sign their children up for summer soccer, send their children to university and claim eligible books or any other eligible deductions, they have to have already had the money to acquire those things in the first place. Tax credits do not assist individuals who are the most financially vulnerable. There are people who live paycheque to paycheque. They do not get the benefit from those tax credits, because they cannot afford to send their kids to soccer in the first place. That is not effective tax policy. We need effective tax policy, and we need to ensure there is fairness in the tax system. That is why the tax credits were done away with and we moved to the Canada child benefit and other means.

The member's motion states that the government's higher employment insurance premiums lead to higher costs per worker. Do the members opposite believe they are telling the truth when they make that statement? Let me turn to insurance premiums in the documents from EI. In 2013 through 2016, the rate was $1.88. Today it is $1.62. Can members opposite not add and subtract? That is a lower rate: $1.88 down to $1.62. It means that the maximum annual employer premium has gone down from $1,337.06 to $1,204.31. That is not increasing premiums. Come on, folks. Let us at least lay out the truth in this place.

As a final note, we in this government invest in Canadians and the things that matter most to them. We are keeping a close eye on our fiscal track, carefully managing deficits and protecting Canada's long-term fiscal sustainability, with a steady declining debt-to-GDP ratio. Canada has, by far, the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio among the G7 countries.

Across Canada, more Canadians are working, and middle-class Canadians have more money to save, invest and grow the economy. We will continue to stand up for the middle class, while the only plan of the Conservatives is austerity and cuts. As we have seen in this motion, we cannot believe what they claim to be facts, because they are, quite honestly, not truthful.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his speech, albeit I do find it a little rich that he is claiming that the leader of the Conservative Party is misleading Canadians when that is exactly what is is doing.

The fact of the matter is that Canadians actually do not have more money in their pockets. That is because the Liberals are jacking up taxes. We know that is going to happen in the next couple of months, when we will see a new carbon tax. I am confident in saying that the people in Simcoe—Grey know that they have less money in their pockets today to do the things they want to do with their families than they did in 2015 or before that.

Maybe the member could revise his creative analogies around our leader, because our leader is focused on making sure Canadians have more money in their pockets and no carbon tax, unlike that government, which wants to jack up their taxes.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely surprised that I have not changed the member for Simcoe—Grey's mind. She must have under her pillow at night the research from the Conservative Party of Canada, which has absolutely nothing to do with the facts that I have laid out.

I would ask the member for Simcoe—Grey to read the motion. She will see that the motion put forward by the member of Carleton is absolutely not factual. The member can go back and look at my remarks. Canadians are paying lower taxes today, but the 1% is paying higher, and we understand that.

We have also invested in research for science. We have put money into the Canada child benefit, which benefits many families in the member's riding.

We have had to get over the 10 years of cuts by the Harper government, of which she was a member when in cabinet. Canadians paid dearly for these cuts. Now we have to invest in Canadians' future, which is exactly what we are doing, and we are doing it while staying on track, managing our fiscal responsibilities well and keeping a lower debt-to-GDP ratio. Ours is the lowest in the G7. In fact, our unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in 40 years.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I was glad that the member talked about the Canada pension plan and the investment it truly is for Canadians. No doubt we need to plan for retirement with an aging population. We do not need to pass the buck or kick the can down the road. However, where the New Democrats differ from the Liberals is on the issue of pensions in the private sector, where, as he noted, pensions are becoming rare.

In the case of Sears, for example, workers have already paid into their pensions as a deferred wage. They signed a contractual agreement upon employment. Money was taken out of their paycheque and put into another fund. However, those workers are now getting ripped off through the bankruptcy laws we have in Canada, which allow corporations and CEOs and a whole series of other entities to come first, before the workers can receive their deferred wage of a pension.

I would ask the member to address that issue and describe where his government might be on it. We have had this issue with so many people across the country, and it is a good example of the need to modernize our Pension Act. The member believes that investing in pensions is good for us and for our workers, but when we have theft by the companies during bankruptcy, in my opinion, it needs to change.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure what policy the government will be coming out with, if we are, but I will certainly tell the member where I am at personally.

I believe that pensions should be paid into in the same way as CPP and EI premiums. They should be put into a fund and guaranteed to be there for the workers who work in corporations and other companies. If the company fails in those obligations, then the board of directors should be responsible for those obligations to those citizens for the work they did for those companies over the years. That is where I stand.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, rising in the House today gives me the opportunity to talk about the greatest country in the world, and that is Canada. In my opinion, the greatest value of this country is fairness. It does not matter where one comes from, what race one is, what religion one believes in, the size of one's wallet, how much money one has or who one is connected to, this country is about opportunity, fairness, hard work and our people.

We in this country are so lucky. We are rich in resources. We have oil and gas. We have iron ore, nickel, and we have diamonds. However, our greatest resource is our people, and investing in our people is what makes this country the greatest place on earth.

That is why our government believes in investing in our greatest resource, our people, and investing in their health care, in the infrastructure in their communities and helping businesses. Our plan includes investing in transit, in providing more CPP, so that our seniors will have more money in their retirement years, and increasing the guaranteed income supplement for our seniors and our vulnerable people.

Our plan included bringing forward the Canada child benefit, which impacts so many families. Nine out of ten families have more money in their pockets today to invest in their kids.

Our plan includes lowering the cost of higher education for our students, so that they can have hope and the opportunity through their hard work to become our future astronauts, construction workers, nurses, doctors and any other profession under the sun.

This is our competitive advantage. Canadians know that when everyone is at their best, when we work together, we build together, dream together, we can achieve anything.

Canadians deserve to feel confident that their hard work will be rewarded with greater opportunities and a fair chance at success. We believe that a fair tax system is fundamental to instilling this confidence. When middle-class Canadians have more money to invest, save and grow the economy, all Canadians benefit.

Right from day one, our government has taken action on this understanding. Our first legislative action was to raise taxes on the wealthiest Canadians in order to cut taxes for the middle class, and now nearly nine million Canadians are benefiting from this middle-class tax cut. Single individuals who benefit from the middle-class tax cut are saving on average $330 a year, while couples who benefit are saving about $540 a year.

We then moved to provide simpler, more generous and better targeted support to those Canadian families who needed it the most. We did this by replacing, in 2016, the old child benefit system with the Canada child benefit.

During the first year of the new benefit, over 3.3 million families received more than $23 billion in CCB payments. As a result of the CCB, 9 out of ten families were better off during that first year. These families received on average almost $2,300 more in tax-free benefits, unlike the previous program. I am proud to say that the CCB has helped to lift about 300,000 children out of poverty. What an amazing measure. The government has worked on poverty reduction for many years, but the CCB made a monumental difference in the vision we have, that no child and no family should live in poverty in our great country.

To ensure that the CCB continues to play a vital role in helping those Canadian families, our government strengthened the CCB by indexing those benefits, and we did that to the cost of living. We did that for two full years before we made an announcement. That will help to grow our economy and help our fiscal position.

This is an important achievement, not just for those looking to build a better future for their families but for all Canadians. Thanks to the middle-class tax cut and the Canada child benefit, now a typical middle-class family of four receives, on average, about $2,000 more each year to help with the cost of raising their children, saving for the future and growing our economy for the benefit of everyone.

Following this success, our government went even further to deliver tax support to those who need it most. We know that low-income Canadians are working sometimes two or three jobs so that they can join that middle class. They are working hard. We have to give them those rungs on that ladder so that they can continue to climb. They want to give their children and their grandchildren a better chance at success. Like all Canadians, they deserve to have that through their hard work and be rewarded through opportunities that we will provide.

Through our budget 2018, we introduced the new Canada workers benefit, a new tax benefit that would put more money in the pockets of low-income workers. The new Canada workers benefit builds on the former working income tax benefit, or WITB, to give even more people greater financial benefits from working. Compared with the WITB, the new Canada workers benefit will increase the maximum benefit and raise the income level at which the benefit is entirely phased out. That means now that somebody working under WITB, a low-income worker, would earn up to about $500 more. On an income of $15,000, that is a huge difference.

All together, our government's actions mean almost $1 billion of new support starting in 2019 for low-income workers under the Canada workers benefit. By increasing these financial benefits associated with joining the workforce and staying in the workforce, the Canada workers benefit is proving that the best way to take people out of poverty is through a job.

Our government knows that small business is a key driver in our economy, accounting for 70% of all private sector jobs. I know that in my riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville, from going to the restaurants or financial services or the local garages, how hard those small business people work. That is why over the years and up to this year, we have lowered that small business tax from 11% down to 10% and now to 9%. What I am hearing from my small businesses is that this is terrific. They can now hire more people and they need more people. What all the businesses around my area are asking for is more people. That is because our economy is doing so well.

Our economy has created 800,000 new jobs since we came into government. That is tremendous. What that is doing is fuelling our communities and fuelling our neighbourhoods. We know that our plan, with all of these ingredients, is working. That is what has caused these 800,000 net new jobs. We are supporting small businesses by lowering their taxes.

Last year, we showed leadership by introducing pay equity legislation in federally regulated sectors. We are committed to ensuring that women receive equal pay for work of equal value, again all of this getting back to that so important value of fairness. In many countries this is not possible but here it is and we continue to invest in that value of fairness because that is our competitive edge. However, what we hear from the Conservatives is that they want to back out. They are talking about cuts to infrastructure, cuts to investments, cuts to health care, cuts to education, cuts to our communities and cuts to the hardest-working people in Canada.

We have to give people hope. People are working hard. We want to give them hope. Through our successive budgets that is what we have done. That is what I am hearing from people in my community. They say to continue to provide these incentives and to continue to give them help so that they can invest in their families, invest in our community, invest in our country and continue to make Canada the greatest place on earth.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague for his passionate speech on fairness. That is what he talked about.

He has good reason to sing Canada's praises on many fronts, and it is true that efforts are being made to increase fairness.

However, I would like to ask him whether he thinks it is fair that OTT services like Netflix are not required to collect GST.

How does he explain the fact that, among all the competitors in the cultural community, his government is favouring a web giant by not forcing it to abide by the same rules as its Canadian competitors?

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, look at the facts. The plan is working. These ingredients to fairness are about the Canada child benefit, the GIS increase for seniors, the Canada workers benefit. All of these work together, not in silos, as a comprehensive plan to help our economy and bring forward fairness. It is working with 800,000 net new jobs. Our government has a plan and we will continue to invest in our greatest resource, our people.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, nowhere in the motion is there any talk about cutting, but there are things that the Conservative opposition would love to cut, such as the carbon tax and the half a billion dollars wasted on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. We would cut the Prime Minister's perks that he has layered on for himself. We would cut the government's waste especially.

It seems like there are more jobs being created here in Ottawa, a strategy for strategies, than jobs being created in places such as my home province of Alberta. If we cut the war on the energy sector, in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, it would actually get people in the energy sector back to work.

Since the member has provided so many numbers, perhaps he could explain to this side of the House when the budget will actually be balanced.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to be in the House and look at the Conservative Party as we brought forward a budget that had all of these programs and the Conservatives decided to vote against it. They voted against veterans, against the environment, against infrastructure and against health care. They voted against job creation.

The facts show 800,000 net new jobs. The member might not like to hear it, but the votes speak for themselves. The Conservatives voted against all of that.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being recognized.

I listened carefully to my hon. colleague. I had the opportunity to work with him on the Standing Committee on International Trade.

I would like to hear what he has to say about his riding. Our plan is working. We created 800,000 jobs and lowered taxes for SMEs.

What did the new free trade agreements signed by our government do for the SMEs in his riding?

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, when we formed government in 2015, we looked at many of our trade agreements and they were stalled. When we looked at our agreement with Europe, it was stalled. It was going nowhere and we started it moving again. We moved it past the finish line. We did it and we completed that agreement.

We also did the same thing with the CPTPP, so now we have the opportunity to trade with many of the Pacific Rim countries. It has also happened with the USMCA. All of these agreements happened because our government understands how important trade is and how important business is for our country. That is where jobs are created and that is why 800,000 net new jobs have been created. Many are through small business, but that is all part of the supply chain.

Canada's population in the world is 0.5%, but we do 2.5% of the world's trade. We punch well above our weight and we are going to continue to do so because of the agreements we were able to get signed with the rest of the world.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of splitting my time today with the member for Perth—Wellington.

I rise in the House today to speak to the motion on the floor and call upon the Prime Minister to provide written confirmation that his government will not raise taxes on Canadians. In order to do this, we should look at the record of the Liberals when they are in power. Indeed, it is a tale to tell.

As writer and philosopher George Santayana penned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we look at the Liberal government of the 1960s through to the 1980s, under the Liberals, federal spending rose from 30% to 53% of GDP. I am sure that many people in the chamber can remember that incredible inflation. Prime lending rates skyrocketed to an incredible 22%. Subsequently, the inability to pay such exorbitant rates resulted in both corporate and personal bankruptcies. It would be two decades before Canadians would crawl out of this economic black hole and begin to reduce the country's debt. In fact, by 1984, Canada's international debt had grown by 700%.

If we fast-track to 2019, the current Government of Canada is on the same trajectory. There is 81% of middle-income Canadians who have experienced the economic pain of higher taxes, and the Prime Minister has promised Canadians that he would not raise taxes but lower them.

Another obvious comparison to years ago is the now failed and infamous national energy program. Starting in 1980, the national energy program, with the Liberal Party behind it, single-handedly destroyed the thriving economic engine that benefited all Canadians, putting thousands of Canadians out of work and causing many to not only lose their livelihoods but their homes as well.

Enter the current Liberal government and its pipeline debacle. Because of the Prime Minister's failure to secure a pipeline, thousands of Canadians have lost their jobs. It sounds familiar, does it not? Currently, Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for a $4.5-billion pipeline that may never be built. Last week, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the government has probably overpaid for the Trans Mountain pipeline by an unbelievable $1 billion. This is costing the Canadian economy about $50 million a day.

Doug Porter, the chief economist and managing director of BMO Financial Group, predicts the following: “I think Canada has a very weak competitive position. I think we’re going to get crushed in the next recession”. Canadians are already feeling the crush. The average income tax increase for middle-income Canadians is $840. In addition, Canada pension plan premiums have gone up to $2,200 per household, and employment insurance premiums are up by $85 per worker.

The outlook is even bleaker as the Liberals insist upon this new carbon tax of theirs. This will end up costing households about $2,500. Sadly, the carbon tax fails to address the environment and serves to make life even more expensive for Canadians, and yet the Prime Minister has promised that he will not raise taxes. This is not the Liberal record. Fifty years ago, the Liberals inherited a strong, growing and varied Canadian economy, and when they left in 1984, Canadians were still feeling the effects of Canada's worst recession since the Great Depression.

The current Liberal government inherited Stephen Harper's zero-deficit balance sheet a little over three years ago, and over the last three years, the government has added $60 billion to the national debt. The Prime Minister promised that the budget would be balanced this year. Instead, the deficit will hit $21.3 billion. Again, he has promised that he will not raise taxes. This is why we are here today. We are calling upon the Prime Minister to provide written confirmation that his government will not further raise taxes on Canadians. In light of how he has bungled our coffers thus far, it is simply not credible to believe the Prime Minister when he says that he will not raise taxes. The question that I think Canadians have to ask is, by how much? According to Finance, the budget will not return to balance until 2040, and by then racking up an additional $271 billion of debt.

Financial trends are cyclical. Most economists believe Canadians and the world will be facing an economic downturn. The Prime Minister has left nothing to cushion Canada from such a forecast. Last year Canada's national debt reached an all-time high of $670 billion, or a massive $47,600 per Canadian family. A recent Fraser Institute report states that a very serious downturn could add more than $50 billion per year to the government's deficit forecast. Canada's national debt would be nearly a trillion dollars by the year 2023. That is unfathomable and should be unthinkable.

When the recession hit Canada in 2009 we were largely insulated because of the prudent economic planning by the former Conservative government. I remember travelling with prime minister Stephen Harper, and it was astonishing to see world leaders lining up to speak with the prime minister. Presidents and prime ministers from around the globe would line up to ask Mr. Harper how it was that Canada was the only country in the G7 able to withstand the worldwide economic downturn. It was due in part to ensuring that we had a good financial cushion to rely on in the event of a fiscal recession. The Liberals, on the other hand, seem hell-bent on employing any fiscal policy so long as it is not in line with what the Conservatives implemented.

In addition, I remember back in 1988 when the Liberals were against implementing the GST. They had just finished coming off an election where they were against the free trade agreement, and we remember how they changed their minds on that one. All Liberal leaders at the time were against implementing the GST. Liberal leader John Turner said the GST was an attack on the weaker regions of the country, that it was regressive, against lower-income groups, invisible, sneaky and of course an administrative nightmare.

It gets better. Paul Martin stated in the chamber the following: “Mr. Speaker, the goods and services tax is a stupid, inept and incompetent tax”. He went on to say he would abolish the GST.

It did not stop there. In 1990, then Liberal leader Jean Chrétien said on September 27 of that year, “I want this tax dead”. He went on to say the following: “I am opposed to the GST. I have always been opposed to it, and I will always be opposed to it. It is a tax that is both regressive and discriminatory”.

We cannot believe any of those Liberal leaders. What they did when they returned to power was to be completely onside with implementing the GST. What I have been saying about them is that they cannot be trusted in these areas.

I was told many years ago that the Liberals would say whatever it takes to get elected. If they think it will get them elected to be against the free trade agreement, they are against it. If it helps them to be against GST, wage and price controls, name it, over the years it was whatever they felt was necessary. However, they would always go with something afterward that was completely out of line with that.

NAFTA is just another example of their bungling of their international obligations for our country. We can see that the new NAFTA that is being presented to us is weaker than the existing one. It will raise the price of condos through the steel and aluminum tariffs. That is just one example. American farmers will have tariff-free access to 3.6% of Canada's dairy market. It will send hundreds of millions of dollars more of their product into our country, and not a single concession was made by the United States.

Why do we want to have a written confirmation from the Prime Minister that he will not raise taxes? Just have a look at the last 50 years of Liberal governments. The Liberals say one thing during an election and do something different after the election. It is our job to hold them accountable as much as we can. That is why we want to have this in writing.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for this member. He has some legislative experience and he has been around here for a while. I do question, though, some of the rhetoric that is coming from the other side of the House, in particular about this notion that somehow Canadians are paying more in tax. The reality of the situation is that when we consider the CCB, that is not the case. The only organization that I am aware of that is backing up this claim is the Fraser Institute.

The Fraser Institute was created from big money from the tobacco industry. The Fraser Institute led the charge in being opposed to anti-smoking laws. The Fraser Institute is funded by big oil from organizations such as ExxonMobil. The Fraser Institute promotes huge tax cuts for the 1% in corporations.

I cannot help but ask how this member, with all the experience he has in this House, can confidently stand up in this House and speak the way he has been when the data is being backed up by an organization such as the Fraser Institute. Does he not have just a little shame in doing that?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I guess the hon. member forgot to mention this, but the Dairy Farmers of Canada estimate that the new NAFTA agreement will cost them $190 million per year. It will cost Canadian farmers $190 million per year.

The hon. member should check them out. If he does not like the Fraser Institute, why does he not invite them into his office and sit down with them about this? If he wants to see what is going to happen when the Liberals start implementing this carbon tax, he will see Canadians right across this country, from coast to coast, saying the same thing—that this is costing them and that they have to spend more money on these things.

The hon. member should check it out, because we are not alone when we say that the government is taxing Canadians much more.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question to clarify something for all Canadians. I hope I will get an answer that will make things clearer.

In your motion, you ask the Prime Minister to provide written confirmation that he will not impose any more taxes. I would like to appeal to your judgment. If the Minister of Finance found a bit of courage and finally asked Netflix to collect GST, would your caucus consider that a new tax?

I hope not because it is not right that Netflix does not have to collect GST.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I would remind the hon. member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert that he is to address the Chair when asking a question.

The hon. member for Niagara Falls.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with you on that one.

That said, we want the Prime Minister to put it down in writing for just the reasons that I have articulated over the years. The Liberals have a record going back 50 years of saying one thing during an election and doing something completely different afterwards.

I remember how emotional the Liberals were when they were against the free trade agreement. Do members remember that one, and how determined they were?

Then they were passing out erasers in my riding, saying they were going to erase the GST. We know exactly what happened on that.

It was actually the Conservative government that reduced the GST and combined it with provincial taxes to form an HST. We are the ones people can count on to do the things that we promised to do. The Liberals have a long, long record of doing the exact opposite whenever they take power in this country.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member's speech was sort of interesting. He was saying that the Liberals are now going to have a deficit this year of some $23 billion.

Does that mean that their revenue has actually dropped, and that this is the reason, or has the revenue for the government actually increased? That would mean it has more money coming in but is spending more to create a $23 billion deficit.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, for the Liberals it is never a problem spending money. If a report comes out that they overpaid for the Trans Mountain pipeline by a billion dollars, so what? What is a billion dollars? It is just small change for members of the Liberal Party. That is their problem.

All of us here on this side were part of a government that was very careful, very deliberate with respect to government spending. We were always being careful. This is exactly the opposite of what we are getting here today, and this is why the country needs a change of government.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed an honour and a privilege to rise in this House today to share some comments on today's supply day motion. Supply day motions are an opportunity for us, as the opposition, to hold the government to account. There sure is a lot to hold the government to account on. Just look at the litany of tax increases it has undertaken in the three short years it has been in office, as clearly articulated by the mover of this motion, the hon. member for Carleton.

Canadians in my riding of Perth—Wellington, and indeed Canadians across the country, are noticing this. They are noticing this because time and time again they see the government spending more money than it takes in. They see a government that promised, in the election campaign, teeny tiny deficits of $10 billion. It promised $10 billion for three short years, and by 2019, this very year, it would be back in the black. It promised Canadians, hand over heart, three short years of deficits, and then we would be back to balanced budgets. Of course, that did not happen.

This opposition day motion lays out very clearly the views of this opposition when it comes to the government's tax increases. We want a clear commitment, in writing, that the Liberals will cease their tax increases on Canadians. Canadians in my riding of Perth—Wellington and Canadians across the country are finding the cost of living to be going up. At the end of each month, they notice that there is not a lot left. They might be making ends meet. They might be getting by, but that is about it. They are struggling.

At the end of each month, Canadians sit down at kitchen tables across this country and look at their expenses and what they have brought in. They know, as Conservatives know, that they have to make those numbers balance. They have to make tough decisions. They have to decide whether they can put off that needed house repair for maybe that much longer. They have to decide whether they will be able to sock away a bit of money for a rainy day fund. They have to make difficult decisions for their kids and their futures. Do they have enough money that month to put a bit away for an RESP to plan for their kids' future education? Do they have a bit of money so maybe they can enrol the kids in a sporting activity, like soccer or swimming lessons, or will they have to forego that because money is tight? Parents have to make those tough decisions. Canadians have to make those tough decisions.

Small businesses have to make tough decisions. A small business owner has to decide whether there is enough left over at the end of the month to reinvest in the business or to pay himself or herself a salary that month. I have talked to small business owners in my riding, as my colleagues have talked to small business owners across the country, and they are finding it tough. They are finding it tough because of the challenges the Liberal government has put before them.

It is not just in my riding. It is in ridings across this country. In a neighbouring riding, Kitchener South—Hespeler, I have had some great conversations with the Conservative candidate there, Mr. Alan Keeso. Alan Keeso is going to be a great MP when he arrives in this House in a few short months. Alan has two master's degrees from Oxford, where he also played on the Oxford hockey team. He was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. Most importantly, he listens to his community. He listens to his neighbours. He listens to the people on the doorstep talk about their concerns about what is happening in their community.

What he is hearing in Kitchener South—Hespeler reflects what a lot of us are hearing across the country, which is that families are finding it tough. The question of affordability is constantly there. They are concerned about a carbon tax. They are concerned that the carbon tax is going to end up being a tax on everything, that it is going to increase the cost of everyday items families rely on, such as groceries and getting to and from work. Small businesses are concerned about the other changes as well, such as increased payroll taxes, a tax on both the individual and the employer.

Alan says that families are just shaking their heads about the Liberals' spending and how they can blow so much money today, which will cause increases in taxes down the road to pay for the Liberals' mismanagement.

Alan related a story to me about a small business owner he was talking to. This particular small business owner had to let employees go because he said the incentive was gone from growing his business. That incentive is gone because of the Liberals. That is wrong. Alan told me this particular business owner, a constituent in Kitchener South—Hespeler, raised his concerns when the Liberals' tax changes were proposed two summers ago with the hon. member for Kitchener South—Hespeler. Nothing happened. He found no support from his local MP when he raised his concerns about the disastrous proposals the Liberal Minister of Finance presented for small businesses. It is absolutely shameful.

There is hope. There is hope because the Conservatives are listening. Conservatives in places like Kitchener South—Hespeler and across the country are listening to their constituents. They are listening to the concerns of Canadians. Those concerns are real.

I talked to seniors. Seniors are concerned. A lot of seniors have spent their lives preparing for their retirements, putting money away, ensuring that when the time came for them to retire they could live comfortably. They are not living extravagantly. They are not blowing their money. They are simply living and enjoying what, quite rightfully, they are entitled to. However, now that they are on a fixed income, they are concerned about what the current Liberals are going to do to their lives. They are concerned about the cost of heating their homes. They are concerned about the cost of their groceries. They are concerned about the cost of medication as well, which is not going to be helped by the concessions of the Liberals in the recent NAFTA negotiations.

The Liberals are offering them false and I would dare say dishonest hope when they flout their changes to the CPP. In fact, the changes proposed to the payroll tax increases to CPP will not come into play in full degree until 2065, offering a false hope to today's seniors.

We all know that today's budget deficits are tomorrow's tax increases. According to the Department of Finance's own numbers, the budget will not be balanced until 2040.

I have three young kids, Ainsley, Bennett and Caroline. Ainsley, my four-year old, will be 26 years old by the time the budget is finally balanced. My nine-month old, Caroline, will be 22 years old. She will be graduating from university by the time the budget is finally balanced. Their generation will be paying the tax increases caused by the nearly $1 trillion in debt that will exist by the year 2040. Year after year, that debt and debt financing are not going toward investments with respect to the concerns of Canadians. It will not help to build infrastructure in rural communities, in places like Mapleton, St. Marys, Perth South, Listowel, Mitchell, Stratford or Milverton. They are not building infrastructure. Money is being wasted on increased deficit and debt financing charges because the current Liberals have not lived within their means.

Canadians were sold a bill of goods in 2015. They were promised three short years and a return to a balanced budget by 2019. That has not happened.

The Conservatives will always stand up for Canadian taxpayers. Come October 2019, we will once again tell Canadians that we will be standing on the side of Canadian families, taxpayers and small business owners.

[Steven MacKinnon, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, Lib.]

Mr. Speaker, while I enjoyed the member's speech, when I listen to folks on the other side, I often wonder where they were when their party was going to market with its 150 billion dollars' worth of borrowing in less than 10 years, accumulating, as the Conservatives have, over 65% of Canada's debt over the course of its history. However, I digress.

I have a very specific question for the member. The average family in the member's constituency is getting $8,160, tax free, to use as they choose, for skating or piano lessons, child care or whatever the parents see fit to spend it on. How much of that money will be cut in the Conservative platform?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we will be cutting the perks that the Prime Minister receives at taxpayer expense. We will be cutting the half a billion dollars that is wasted on building infrastructure outside of Canada. People in my riding are concerned about the roads and bridges in our communities. They are shocked when they hear the Liberals are spending half a billion dollars building infrastructure through the Asian infrastructure bank.

The member for Gatineau brought up our record from when we were in office. However, let us be very clear: That was during the global recession. Thanks to the leadership of the Hon. Jim Flaherty, we weathered that storm better than any other G7 country. At the end of our term, we returned to a balanced budget a year ahead of schedule. That is the type of leadership we want to see in a minister of finance, the leadership that Jim Flaherty showed for all Canadians during his time as our minister.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleague whether he thinks that asking Netflix to collect GST constitutes a new tax.