Finance committee  All we're doing is changing the personal amount back to where it was before, so that we don't add low-income Canadians to the tax rolls. If they show no compassion to hard-working Canadians, in terms of insisting on raising the rates, maybe they could at least refrain from cutting the basic personal amount, which adds 200,000 low-income Canadians to the tax rolls.

Finance committee  McCallum, and therefore we're going to do what's right on this side of the table and give those hard-working Canadians the decrease they deserve. Get used to it.

House debate  Speaker, this is a government that keeps its promises. We have kept our promise to give hard-working Canadians a break and cut the GST by 1%. We have kept our promise to give families a choice in child care. We have kept our promise to introduce legislation to crack down on crime and make our communities safer.

Employment Insurance Act  Unfortunately, the EI plan is supposed to be insurance. What ended up happening was the government overtaxed hard-working Canadians. This bill will rectify that and give more money back to hard-working Canadians. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Budget Implementation Act, 2006  They chose instead to once again follow the Liberal path of investing in areas that help big business and the wealthiest in this country. They chose to neglect hard-working Canadians who spend day and night sustaining themselves and their families, contributing to their communities, volunteering at hockey rinks and church bazaars, walking on safety patrols and helping people in need.

Budget Implementation Act, 2006  We have to look at all the ways that the government is putting money back in the hands of hard-working Canadians. There is money for child care, the $1,200 a year. The member talks about how much that equates to per day et cetera. Let us look at how much money hundreds of thousands of families across this nation received under the previous Liberal government.

House debate  Although budget 2006 is entitled “Turning A New Leaf”, this shoddy document is turning the stomachs of hard-working Canadians. The Conservatives say that parents would receive $1,200 for children under the age of six, but they do not say that this benefit would be taxable. This makes no sense. Why promise parents a certain amount of money only to claw it back at tax time?

The Budget  Do members of the House remember unemployment insurance now called employment insurance? That is money collected from hard-working Canadians to provide some insurance against the loss of employment. What have former governments done? Since 1994 the balance in the EI fund has steadily increased to $46 billion, which is actually three times higher than what the chief actuary said was necessary to fund future EI claims.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, in our budget we are focusing on priorities that are important to hard-working Canadians. Over the next four years, we will invest a total of about $16.5 billion in new infrastructure initiatives. The budget will provide $591 million over the next eight years to the Pacific gateway project.

The Budget  For the first time in more than a decade, the government has finally removed its hand from the pockets of hard-working Canadians. Instead, our budget is returning more money than ever back to Canadians. Newcomers, who have come to Canada with hopes and dreams, no longer have to worry about their tax dollars funding corruption and waste.

The Budget  As a government, we also have a responsibility to provide programs that are important to hard-working Canadians and, unlike the previous government which spent erratically on ever changing priorities, our new government has focused its spending on key federal priorities with programs that will get results and provide value for taxpayers' money.

Business of Supply  Even if the government creates the spaces it is talking about, how does it believe that ordinary hard-working Canadians can possibly afford them?

Business of Supply  For too long, the people in power have been dismissing the difficulties that hard-working parents face. Let us give hard-working Canadian families the choices they need to raise their children as they see fit. Let us give Canadian parents a break. Let us give Canadian families a real choice in child care with Canada's universal child care plan.

The Budget  Some of those programs get a D on this evaluation. A lot of them get an F. We are not going to continue to spend hard-working Canadians' money on programs that are not getting results for them. We are going to re-evaluate and spend money that actually gets results. We will also be reducing Canada's debt by $3 billion a year.

The Budget  This budget delivers more than twice as much tax relief as new spending. For every new dollar we spend, the government is returning two dollars to hard-working Canadians. There is more, Mr. Speaker. Small businesses are crucial to the Canadian economy. Approximately 87% of all Canadian businesses are small businesses. They are responsible for almost half of all new jobs created in this country.