Mr. Speaker, budget 2016 is indeed a missed opportunity to reduce the inequality in our communities. Therefore, it is a missed opportunity to actually create real change. However, as my mother taught me, I do want to start by giving credit where credit is due.
I would like to commend the government on its choice to make investments in affordable housing by way of confirming for the next two years the rental subsidies for social housing. I know the social housing providers and the tenants in social housing in my community are relieved that this support is continuing.
I welcome the increase to the guaranteed income supplement and the commitment to enhancing the Canada pension plan. Likewise, I applaud the budget's commitment to lift the punitive and unfair 2% cap on funding for first nations. The tax-free Canada child care benefit will assist many parents and families in my riding. Each of these commitments is a good first step.
That said, the bill and the budget, when we weigh its costs and its benefits to Canadians, does not remove enough of the tax burden for those hard-working Canadians who fall below the median income of those few lucky enough to receive the tax breaks. In fact, the so-called middle-class tax break offers nothing for more than 60% of Canadians.
With its first budget, the government had the opportunity to create real change, to invest in reducing income inequality in the country and to begin to really tackle inequality through the most effective and efficient way possible, through progressive tax measures.
I know for a fact that large numbers of people from communities in my riding will not benefit from the middle-class tax cut. According to the city of Saskatoon statistics from 2014, the median income for five of Saskatoon's poor neighbourhoods in my riding will not benefit from the tax break. Those are thousands of people in my riding alone.
These are folks working two to three minimum wage jobs, paying well over 30% of their wages for unaffordable housing, and living in what we have called a “food desert”. If they are fortunate enough to have money left over after paying rent, the cost of healthy food is often out of reach. Research done in my community saw an increase in the number of mothers going hungry in order to afford to buy food for their children. Put simply, good, healthy food is unaffordable. A tax break for those doing well will do absolutely nothing for these people.
Likewise, the budget does nothing for those who cannot find affordable child care, especially those working to re-enter the workforce or to get training to upgrade their skills and become employable.
Many in my riding are young people with young children, and they have dreams and aspirations. These dreams are not unreasonable. Nor should they be unattainable. We should support them in every way we can. One of the ways we can do this is by providing increased access to child care spaces that are affordable.
Right now in my riding it costs almost as much for a single child in child care as it does for rent. That is of course if there is actually a space. Where is the incentive to work or go to school in that kind of situation? Simply put, a lack of affordable child care spaces is a huge barrier to young parents being able to realize their dreams. It is in fact a deterrent. It inhibits the economic growth by reducing productivity, and we must remove this barrier. A government that is committed to women's equality can pave the way to realizing that equality by implementing a national, universal, affordable child care program. However, there is no mention of child care in the budget.
The budget has been called a betrayal of small business by none other than the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Canada's number one job creator is small business. Small business is a hugely important source of employment in my riding. In a city where there is limited primary industry, we survive on the strength of our secondary industry, our small businesses. Small business is central to the economic well-being in Saskatoon, especially during a downturn in the resource sector.
As a matter of fact, one of my campaign volunteers, a bright young woman and mother, started her own business while I was on the campaign trail. After spending her formative years in too many foster homes to count, Rachel is working harder than I have ever seen to make it, and she is, but where is the help? Where is the support for people like Rachel?
This budget also disappoints in another way. It provides no assistance at all for those in need of prescription drugs or home care. Right now, I have a veteran living in my riding who has to choose between rent, food, and the charge for the essential drugs that he needs. He pays his rent, which takes up to 85% of his pension, and uses the rest to pay for necessary prescription drugs. He has trouble looking after himself, has no family to help, and lives in a home that he increasingly cannot afford, which causes him to be housebound because of the physical inaccessibility of the building. How is he supposed to survive?
How does this happen in a country as rich as Canada? How is it that a country such as Canada does not have a national pharmacare program?
It is about choices, and this budget is about choosing to believe in a failed theory of trickle-down economics.
The government's thinking in this budget seems to be that if the Liberals give tax breaks to those who do not need them, eventually, and somehow miraculously, people living in poverty will somehow be lifted out of poverty. This is wishful thinking and proven time and again to fail in practice. It is anything but real change. It is pretty much same old, same old. Moreover, if that kind of thinking worked in practice, we would have eliminated poverty a long time ago.
That trickle will not get anywhere near being helpful to the poor, because the budget bill also does nothing to rein in the super rich who are hiding hundreds of millions of tax dollars in overseas accounts. People making $45,000 or less a year will not get a tax break, but the rich and profitable get a chance to avoid paying taxes altogether. That is plain wrong, and it is unfair. It costs us Canadians dearly, not only in millions of foregone tax revenue, but it also impedes our ability to make real change right now in 2016.
What makes the rich and the large profitable corporations better than those working long hours at two minimum-wage jobs just to get by? Why do they not have to pay their fair share? Why are they getting better and special treatment for their income?
Budgets are about choices, choices that say this is what is most important. Budget 2016 and the implementation bill chooses tax havens for millionaire CEOs and giveaways often to foreign-based corporations that take economic wealth from our country and profit off of our public resources, all the while being carried on the backs and the taxes of hard-working Canadians, the people who live and work and go to school despite all the barriers in my community. That is unacceptable. It is a long way off from real change.
Real change does not make first nation children wait for equality. Real change invests in health care.
Canadians need improved pharmacare and home care. Making health care accessible and affordable will save lives. Why not choose to save lives? Why has the Liberal government government chosen to break its promise to invest in health care? After promising $3 billion over the next four years, the Liberal government has provided nothing for home care in the budget.
Real change does not continue to raid the EI fund of almost $7 billion over the next three years. People need those dollars now. It is their money.
In my riding, we have a lot of talented, hard-working Canadians who are unemployed, thanks to an economic downturn in the region. Real change is using EI money for what it was intended: to help unemployed workers.
People are working harder than ever, but cannot get ahead. As my colleague mentioned, the recent Statistics Canada report demonstrates that income mobility is not happening. The rich are staying rich at the same rate as the poor are staying poor. Over the past 30 years, hard-working Canadians have helped grow our economy by 50%, but those same hard-working people have seen wages stagnant and retirement security vanish.
Budget 2016 makes some changes, but not real change. It merely tinkers, when there is so much potential to make bold, important investments, choices that bring real change, like equality for women, and more fairness and equity for everyday Canadians.
Unfortunately for them, budget 2016 is many deficits away from real change.