Madam Speaker, I rise on behalf of many disappointed Canadians across this country to register disbelief in the priorities of this government as reflected in its budget and the priorities in particular of the Minister of Finance.
In yesterday's budget the Minister of Finance talked about building a Canada for the 21st century. That is what he chose to title his budget. But he shows no sign of recognizing that cutting and slashing over the past four years in health, in education, in vital social services, in environmental protections have weakened Canada's foundation and the very fabric of the nation. The finance minister may make a great interior decorator but Canada needs a first rate general contractor. We need someone who knows the difference between rebuilding and redecorating.
It is unbelievable that this budget is silent on jobs. This budget is silent on health care transfers and it barely mumbles about poverty.
The government thinks that a scrap of wallpaper here and a splash of paint there will be sufficient to disguise the truth that Canada's foundation is not as solid as it needs to be.
When Canadians balanced the budget through health care cuts, through increased poverty and through lower incomes the finance minister and the Liberal government lost their last excuse to ignore the pressing needs of Canadians, the excuse of the deficit.
Earlier in the week we were heartened, we were actually encouraged, when the finance minister emerged from the G-7 meetings and proclaimed that this budget would address growing inequality in this country and that it would address unemployment.
What do we get in this budget? No targets for reducing unemployment; not for reducing unemployment by 1% a year or by any other target. There is no target for reducing poverty; not by one half, not by one third and not by any other target.
What targets do we have in the budget? We have the target to keep inflation in the same 1% to 3% band where it has been since 1991. The last time I checked inflation it was below 1%.
What is the level of employment? It is still hovering around 9%.
And what about our children? In this great country with its wealth of natural resources that claims to be progressive, 21% of our children live in poverty.
I want to give the Minister of Finance credit on one count and that is for targeting tax breaks to low and middle income Canadians. But he could have made better choices. He could have made more cost effective choices.
Across this country the GST is a burden on every single Canadian. The Minister of Finance could have introduced increases in the GST tax credit to provide some important and immediate relief. He could have exempted some basic necessities like home heating oil, children's clothing and school supplies. Not only would that have provided important tax relief, but accepted economic analyses make it clear that GST cuts would create more jobs than any other form of tax cut.
It is absolutely unbelievable, and I believe to the vast majority of Canadians unacceptable, that there is not one single new dollar in this budget for health care transfers. Let me say to colleagues opposite, no matter what this government may try to tell them, cancelling a cut in spending is not a spending increase.
Canadians have said on many occasions that the greatest priorities for allocating the budget surplus were health care, education and jobs.
I want to remind this government of its own solemn red book promise that 50% of any budget surplus would be spent on vital programs and services and the other 50% would be spent on debt reduction and tax reduction.
The fiscal dividend in this budget is $6.5 billion, and 70% of that amount has gone to debt reduction and tax reduction. If this government had simply kept its promise, if this government had simply done what the Prime Minister said during the election campaign it would do and what the finance minister said again and again the government would do, then it would have invested another $1.5 billion in health and other social transfers. That is the real priority for Canadians.
Do you know what else, Madam Speaker, is an absolute tragedy? If this government had kept its commitment to allocate 50% of the surplus for health and social spending, in the process it would have generated a great many jobs. We know how many jobs have been wiped out in this country over the last three years by the excessive slashing and cutting in health, education and other vital public programs. The government did not choose to do that.
I know the Tories and the Reformers are rejoicing at the Liberal acceptance of their priorities. But there are a great many Canadians who feel very badly betrayed by the decision of this government not to reinvest 50% of the surplus in health care and education.
I want to tell members of the House briefly about a letter I received recently from a young woman in New Brunswick. It is a woman I do not know. It is a woman with whom I spoke on the phone the evening before the budget. I wanted to call and talk with her about what would be in that budget, if it was to provide some kind of relief to her circumstances, to the situation in which she finds herself.
This is a woman with six years of university education. This is a woman with two post-secondary degrees. Like a lot of students, she has $40,000 in student debt. In fact, like 600,000 young people under the age of 30 in this country today, she still does not have a job despite how hard she has worked, despite how much she has sacrificed.
As this woman reminded me in her letter, she did exactly what she was encouraged to do which was to work hard, to go into debt and then she would be sure to get a good job. Today that young woman is living with her parents, like a lot of others in her age category. Because she is living with her parents she is not eligible for social assistance. She is not eligible either for employment insurance. She is in default on her student loan.
I will quote directly from that woman's letter:
I have spent my life much like most people, searching for happiness. How is it possible if I cannot be proud? How is it possible if I cry myself to sleep every night and through most days? I am ashamed. I cry tears of shame. All I want is to be a person.
No matter what direction I look in, I do not see a light. I am no longer in the tunnel, I am at the bottom of a pit and there is someone piling on the dirt.
You know, if I was given that Senator's job—the one who never shows up for work—if I had his job, I would show up every day. I know what it is like to need work. I know how important a job can be in the role of feeding one's soul.
This budget ignores this young woman and this budget ignores a great many other young men and young women like her. Is there a job for these young people? Is there any commitment to relieve the poverty she is experiencing? Because she is earning no money none of the tax benefits introduced in this budget is of any benefit to her whatsoever. No millennium fund will help her in her current situation. The premium reduction for employees will not help her either because she is over 25 years of age.
This government refused to set any targets and timetables to help ensure that people like her would get back to work.
Disgracefully, the only real job initiative, the reduction of the employer EI premium on young people hired over the next two years, will only help to employ one half of one per cent of the 400,000 young people unemployed in this country today. The government's commitment to youth employment is window dressing at best.
Last week this government announced no new money for summer youth employment programs. There are 48,000 fewer young people working today than there were two years ago.
To recap, what do we have in this budget? No meaningful job creation; nothing new for children living in poverty; a millennium fund that will not start for two years and at its best will help only 7% of Canadian students, leaving 93% of those students without any help from that millennium fund; not a single new dollar for our health care system or for our education institutions.
This budget sets out the battle lines for the fight for a better world. Unlike this government, the Reformers and the Tories, our party believes that better world begins by investing in the institutions that give us a civil society.
This finance minister had the chance to make investments to fight social inequality and promote job creation as he promised. This government chose another way. It chose not to offer hope but to dash expectations. It chose to ignore the crisis of poverty and the growing gap between the super rich and everyone else in this country. It chose to paper over the problems in our society, the cracks in the very foundation of our nation. It made a mistake for which Canadians like my young friend in New Brunswick will pay the price.
Shame on this government. Shame on a government that can gleefully pat itself on the back for ignoring the problems at the very foundation of our civil society.
