Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak about our new government's first budget. I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Brandon—Souris.
Public life is about reflecting the essence of the objective, economic and daily realities in the lives of our fellow citizens, the way we work, the way we live, the way we care for those we love and the way we strive for better lives and a better Canada.
Our government’s first budget is guided by these realities and by important principles. Those principles are clear and specific.
First, government has no absolute right to more and more of the hard-earned money of working Canadians. When government is too large, taxes are too high and surpluses are endemic.
Second, there is only one taxpayer who carries the provincial, federal and municipal load, not three separate taxpayers unrelated to each other.
Third, government must be respectful of the dollars it spends. Taxpayers expect and demand that spending be focused, transparent and accountable. We must ensure Canadians receive good value for the money they send and the money we spend. Our budget honours these principles.
Our budget reduces the tax burden on individual Canadians by $20 billion, more than the last four federal budgets put together.
The budget delivers more than twice as much tax relief as new spending. For every new tax dollar we spend, our government is returning $2 to hard-working Canadians through initiatives such as the 1% GST tax reduction, the new Canada employment credit, a permanent reduction in the lowest income tax rate as of July 1 and increases in the basic tax exemption for all Canadians.
These tax cuts are broad, are evenly directed and help millions of Canadians from coast to coast. The budget delivers tax relief people can see, tax relief that makes a difference, tax relief on which Canadians can count.
Our tax relief plan will exempt 655,000 low-income Canadians from federal income tax.
All of this is within our government's ironclad commitment to balance the federal budget. We are doing all of this while investing more in health care, child care, defence and national security, policing, safe communities and protected borders and more for farmers across Canada who deserve and merit transitional support during these challenging and unbalanced global commodity pricing periods. We can do all this because we will reduce waste, redundancy, overlap and unchecked growth in the federal government's spending.
I will speak about spending for a moment. Over the past five years, total program spending has grown by an average of 8.2% annually. In one year, 2004-05, growth in spending increased by 14.4% under the previous government. These are simply not sustainable or desirable levels of growth in spending. Our budget brings that down to 5.4% for this year and 4.1% for next year.
Our government is taking a targeted approach, and is determined.
We are reining in spending and looking inward to ensure that we as a government have our own house in order. We will review all programs and departments to ensure compliance with a few basic principles: first, that government programs are focused on results and value for money; second, that programs are consistent with federal responsibilities; and third, that when programs no longer serve the purpose for which they were created, they are ended. We will identify $1 billion in savings over this year and next and report by the fall.
Our government will be transparent and open with Canadians concerning the country’s public finances.
The days of surprise surpluses are over. The tax system does not exist to fund large federal surpluses that give licence to spend the people's hard-earned money as if it belonged to the Government of Canada. Government works for the people, not the other way around.
The budget our government delivered on May 2 embraces that kind of relationship between a government and the taxpayers to whom the government is accountable. This is a budget that demonstrates strong support for Canadians and their families. The budget provides Canadian families with children under six a $1,200 a year universal child care benefit so they can make their own choices on child care. It helps apprentices in the trades. It encourages young Canadians to participate in physical fitness and sports programs. It helps students with university education deductions. It reduces the tax burden on small business.
It is on the farm, in the classroom, on the factory floor, in research labs, small businesses on construction sites, community centres and church basements of all denominations where Canadians move the country forward every day. That is where we should be removing the burdens of excess taxation and encouraging independence, initiative and hard work because they are at the very core of what drives and enriches Canadian lives.
Government should help in areas that cannot be faced alone by hard-working Canadians in those areas where a framework of equality and opportunity surely reflects our values as caring citizens, neighbours and human beings, very much in the Canadian tradition, in education and health care, in securing safe communities and public health and supporting persons with disabilities, in defence and in removing the capital gains tax from donations to cultural, social and health charities. The government has a role to play and we have embraced that role in the new budget.
As the finance minister and minister responsible for the Greater Toronto Area, I am honoured to be part of a new government that embraces the kind of shift from the old paradigm of Ottawa overspending and Ottawa knowing best. Instead, we are focussing now on priorities that produce results for people in their daily lives. Infrastructure is for example.
Our budget provides more than $16 billion over the next four years for infrastructure.
This is a long term investment that will mean better roads, more efficient borders and modern public transit through increased capital funding and tax incentives for transit riders. The ultimate goal of these investments is to get people and goods moving in order to keep Canada competitive. An essential part of our first budget is about making Canada more competitive and more productive. In fact, there are 23 specific initiatives in the budget designed to move us forward on this front.
Productivity and competitiveness are about innovation, fair and reasonable tax rates, education, research and development and enhanced workplace productivity. We are embracing a new beginning, a beginning where the taxpayer is respected as opposed to being overburdened, a beginning where the federal, provincial and territorial governments can work together, like we did on softwood lumber, to restore a fiscal balance to the federation and a beginning where we support families, reward initiative and foster productivity in all regions of Canada.
With the budget, we have turned a new leaf. We have turned a new leaf away from excessive taxation and wasteful federal spending. We have turned a new leaf away from condescension to the provinces and feigned and unnecessary hostility toward our greatest ally and trading partner to the south. We have turned a new leaf away from government that puts being big ahead of every other value or attribute.
Our government is focussed, deliberate and fiscally responsible. Our government is managing a few priorities at a time. We will not over-promise and we will not overspend. Our government knows its place and respects its core accountability to the taxpayers of Canada. We are keeping our promises to Canada. They entrusted us to focus on priorities and deliver results.
