Preston Manning

[Taxation, March 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, these are the facts. A two income family and a one income family, each with children, each earning $50,000 a year, are taxed differently by this government. The one income family is penalized up to $4,000 more than the two income family.

If the finance minister does not believe in that discrimination, why does he not change his tax policy which is at the root of it?

[Taxation, March 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister is in full damage control mode. He has been asked four or five questions about an obviously discriminatory tax position in the government's tax policy and he has not answered. I ask him one more time why did his 1999 budget make things worse rather than better for stay at home parents?

[Taxation, March 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, whenever the finance minister starts to bellow like that I am reminded of the preacher who wrote in his notes “Argument weak here, yell like hell”.

I want to ask the finance minister, which weakness in his budget is he trying to cover? Is he trying to cover the establishment of two tier health care? Is he trying to cover the highest income tax rates in the western world? Or is he trying to cover discrimination against stay at home parents?

[Taxation, March 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, obviously the Prime Minister was not listening yesterday. His minister was asked why government tax policy discriminates against stay at home parents and he did not deny the discrimination. Instead he justified it by saying “Well, they don't work as hard as parents outside the home”.

Is this the reason the government continues to discriminate against stay at home parents in its tax policies and in its budget?

[Taxation, March 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Secretary of State for International Financial Institutions took a swipe at parents who stay home with their children. He said they do not work as hard as parents who work outside the home, that their expenses are smaller, and that is why the Liberal government discriminates against them in the tax system.

Will the Prime Minister explain to the millions of Canadian parents who stay home with their children why their work and their financial position are of such little value to this government?

[Taxation, March 2nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the record of this government is collecting $42 billion more in taxes this year than it collected when it came to office. The worst part of it is who is being hit the hardest. It is not the high income Canadians. It is the poorer families.

In British Columbia a family with two children and earning only $25,000 will pay a 70% tax on every extra dollar of income it earns. If the Prime Minister is not embarrassed by the highest taxes ever charged in Canada, is he not embarrassed by the fact that he is taking those taxes for the most part from the poorest Canadians?

[Taxation, March 2nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian economy did not grow by 6% last year. The disposable income of Canadians did not grow by 6% last year. The average Canadian did not get a 6% increase in income last year. Yet the government takes 6% more in income and payroll taxes from those Canadians.

Why did the Prime Minister insist on a 6% higher tax collection last year with even higher taxes to follow in 1999?

[Taxation, March 2nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Statistics Canada restated the obvious that taxes are up yet again thanks to the Liberal government. The Prime Minister cranked up income taxes and payroll taxes by a whopping 6% in one year so that even when the economy grows it is the government's income that grows faster than the taxpayers' income.

Why did the Prime Minister tax away most of the income increases that Canadians managed to earn last year?

[Taxation, March 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary did not answer the question. Besides, the child tax credit gets clawed back after families make $26,000 a year.

The question is simply this: We have two families, identical income, two children, but one has a parent stay home and the other does not. The family with a parent who stays home to look after the children ends up paying $4,000 a year more in taxes than the other family.

Is it the policy of the government to discriminate against families that make that choice? Can the secretary answer the question?

[Taxation, March 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the tax position of two families after this budget.

Suppose there are two families, both earning $50,000 each and each with two children. We would think that they would both pay the same amount of tax. But if one family chooses to have one parent stay at home, that family under this government's tax policy ends up paying about $4,000 more per year in taxes.

Why does the government think that it is fair that one family should pay $4,000 more a year in taxes simply because one parent chose to stay home?