Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to join in the chorus of condemnation of the Conservative government's attempt to hide a $330 million tax hike.
It is a bit weird, however, that we have the NDP, which is traditionally protectionist, pushing for lower tariffs and we have the Conservatives, who are traditionally non-protectionist, pushing for higher tariffs. We Liberals are the only consistent ones because we traditionally push for lower tariffs, which is what in fact we are doing today.
In general, if you meet someone and ask him whether he thinks tariffs are a good thing and he says yes, you are probably talking to a New Democrat. If he says no, you are probably talking to a Conservative or a Liberal.
Therefore, the NDP seems to find itself in a situation of some confusion, relative to its normal state of mind. Nevertheless, we agree with the NDP fully on this motion.
The decision by the Conservative government represents a massive broken promise and will have negative implications for middle-class Canadian families, Canadian retailers and even some of the world's poorest countries.
I was surprised to read about these tariff increases in budget 2013, as I clearly remember reading in the Conservatives' 2011 platform, in bold text no less, that they would “not raise taxes on Canadian consumers”. That is exactly what they have done here, a massive $330 million tax on consumers.
With all due respect to the sanctity of the House, I would make the general proposition that from a normal or intellectual point of view, this debate is totally ridiculous because everybody knows, as stated by our new Liberal leader in question period, the dictionary definition of a tariff is a tax on imports. Everybody knows the Conservatives have raised tariffs by $300 million, so they have raised taxes. That is clear and it is logical. I do not see any argument against it. If a tariff is a tax on imports, if imports go up $330 million, that is a tax hike.
Now it is true the Conservatives cut some tariffs, but by a much smaller amount. Therefore, net tariff revenue has gone up, ergo, a tax increase.
This ridiculous argument that if it is the tariffs on China and India that go up, then it is not an tariff increase is stupid. A tariff is a tariff.
The market does not care whether it is a justified tariff or an unjustified tariff. If the tariff goes up, the cost of the good and the price of the good goes up and it is a tax. It does not matter whether members will argue that China and India no longer deserve these low tariffs. It still is the case that if those tariffs go up, prices go up, and that is a tax hike.
Mr. Speaker, I hope you will not mind if I mention a bit late that I would like to share half of my with the member for Winnipeg North.
That is the first case. This tariff hike is a tax hike. Any normal person would agree with that.
A second example is these EI premium tax hikes that the Conservatives keep doing. They have had three increases in EI, coming to nearly $2 billion per year. Is that not a tax hike? If it is, how dare they say in the budget that they will not have any tax hikes. It is a tax hike. An employment insurance premium is a direct tax on jobs. Any increase in EI premiums is a tax hike, not just any old tax, but a tax on jobs, to the tune of close to $2 billion a year. That is the second case where they were wrong.
I suppose the Conservatives could muddle around and say the word “tax” is not there. It is employment insurance premium, so we will not call it a tax hike. That is just fiddling with words. EI premium is a tax, it is a tax on jobs and it has to be counted as such.
However, if they can pretend that a tariff increase is not a tax hike or an EI premium increase is not a tax hike, they certainly cannot pretend that an increase in the income tax rate is not a tax hike.
That is what the Conservatives did in 2006. They increased the income tax rate by half of a percentage point. This was published by CRA. It was a done deal. They tried to claim that they were lowering the tax rate by a half point.
What I am trying to say is that the Conservatives have increased taxes at least three times, whether we are talking about income tax or taxes related to employment insurance benefits or tariffs. Each time they denied what was obvious, but in each instance they increased taxes.
Why do the Conservatives play this game, which from an intellectual point of view appears to be ridiculous and evidently wrong? I think the only reason is that when we add the political element, they think they can get away with it. We all know that what they are saying is wrong. However, when they say repeatedly, again and again, that they are not raising taxes, even though it is evident that they are, the Conservatives hope that the public will not notice and that they can carry this message, even though it is untruthful, through to the public.
That is why we have motions like this today. It is to try to get the information out to the public that the Conservatives are doing what we all know they are doing, which is raising taxes. That is why, among other reasons, the Liberal Party is pleased to support this NDP motion in an attempt to help educate the public as to what the government is in fact doing, as opposed to what it says it is doing.
These taxes make it extremely hard for middle-class Canadian families to make ends meet. This is a tax directly on the items Canadians need to make their households run properly. It is a tax on bicycles, blankets, wigs, coffee makers, paint brushes, kitchen knives and iPods. Yes, the dreaded iPod tax is here, thanks to the Conservative government. This is the best part: the only way to avoid the iPod tax is to join the iPod registry. Does that sound like the gun registry? My goodness.
Some of these tax increases demonstrate a heartless disregard for Canadians. I have mentioned the tax on wigs. What group makes the greatest use of wigs? It is actually Canadians undergoing chemotherapy. I cannot believe that the Conservative government would willingly attack Canadian cancer patients like this.
What we are seeing is the end product of a hastily made policy done on the back of an envelope to meet an artificial deficit reduction deadline. In its 2011 platform, the government set an unrealistic deadline to eliminate the deficit. Now the Conservatives are scrambling to make it happen by doing calculations on the backs of envelopes and raising taxes on middle-class families when they said that they would not.
The government should understand that the Canadian tariff regime is a complex machine with many moving parts. To do something at the snap of a finger on the back of an envelope will obviously have unintended consequences, such as the example of chemotherapy. I do not think that the Conservatives deliberately set out to attack people on chemotherapy, but they did not think things through. That is one of the unintended consequences of this very bad legislation.
I will end with one last point. I am not sure if this is an intended or unintended consequence. There are negative effects on the least developed, poorest countries in the world. When those countries import inputs for the manufacture of clothing, for example, from countries that are now seeing higher tariffs, such as India and China, Canada, when it imports things from these least developed countries, will have to impose higher tariffs, which will impose a burden not only on Canadian consumers but also on the residents of these least developed countries.
In conclusion, from the point of view of government honesty, to deny that it is raising taxes is a travesty. Indeed, these measures have negative effects for Canadian consumers, for people living close to the border and for some of the poorest countries in the world.
