2006-05-15 Budget Speech C-13
The following link will take you to the Hansard speech by Blaine Calkins. Below is the excerpt from Hansard:
Mr. Blaine Calkins (Wetaskiwin, CPC): Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to be speaking on the government's budget implementation bill. I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak to Bill C-13, which will implement the provisions of the new government's budget that was passed in the House last week.
I want to begin by congratulating the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. I want to thank them for keeping their promises made to Canadians during the election campaign. This is one of the first steps in restoring accountability to our system.
Canadians are tired of being courted by politicians trolling for votes, only to be left in the lurch once the ballots have been counted. It is time to rebuild the relationship between voters and the government, and that rebuilding process began on January 23.
The Prime Minister has set out five achievable priorities and he has taken action on them. This budget puts the mechanisms in place to achieve those goals and one of the key elements of this budget is tax relief.
There are 29 different tax cuts that will deliver $20 billion in tax relief over the next two years. There is more tax relief in this first Conservative budget than in the last four federal Liberal budgets combined. To top it off, there is $2 in tax relief for every $1 in new program spending. That is a ratio that puts people over programs and it is a ratio that Canadians can feel good about.
For 13 years, Liberal budgets let Canadians down. Year after year, Liberal budgets featured little more than empty promises and wasteful spending. Canadians have been working harder and longer, and saving less, just to pay for Liberal scandals and boondoggles. Who could forget the sponsorship program, or the extravagant and ineffective long gun registry, or where the HRDC money went?
What did Canadians get for all their long hours of hard work from successive Liberal governments? They got to pay too much in taxes for too little in return and watch their tax dollars go to programs deemed wasteful and unnecessary. Finally, families are going to get a tax break, and this is near and dear to my heart. Families were promised help and the Conservative government has delivered.
This new government will increase the amount that all Canadians can earn without paying federal income tax. This budget reduces the lowest personal income tax rate from 16% to 15.5% effective July 1. On average, families will pay less personal income tax in 2006 than proposed by the Liberals in 2005.
This government believes that it is time to give back the hard-earned money that Canadians sent to the government and it is time to give that money back to Canadians. How are we going to do that?
First, there is the universal child care strategy, a key campaign promise and a throne speech priority. When it comes into effect on July 1, it will provide families with children under the age of six with $100 per month per child.
We are introducing a tax cut to promote physical fitness among children, effective January 1, 2007. This credit will provide up to $500 in fees for physical activity programs for each eligible child under the age of 16.
Aboriginal women, children and families will benefit from the $450 million aimed at improving education and socio-economic conditions, as well as water supplies and housing issues on reserves.
Low income Canadians, those whose incomes are too low to pay any income tax, deserve tax relief too, something our predecessors clearly did not believe in. All Canadians will benefit from the reduction in the GST, whether they are purchasing big ticket items like a new car or a new home, or if they are just purchasing everyday essentials.
Workers will benefit from the new $1,000 Canada employment credit starting July 1. This new tax credit gives Canadians a break on what it costs to go to work, recognizing that people incur expenses while they are going to work for such things as home computers, uniforms and supplies. This government has focused its spending on key federal priorities with programs that will get results and provide value to taxpayers for their money.
However, more than any other group in Canada, farmers have long borne the brunt of the Liberal lack of foresight on developing effective programs. Farming is part of our heritage. It is certainly part of my heritage and that of the majority of constituents in Wetaskiwin. For far too long, agriculture has been overlooked by Liberal governments. We promised help for farmers. We have delivered help for farmers, farm families and farming communities.
This government recognizes not only the importance of agriculture but the difficulties facing farmers today. To support Canadian farming communities, the government is providing $1.5 billion this year alone. This includes $500 million for farmer support, plus a one time investment of $1 billion to assist farmers in the transition to more effective programming for farm income stabilization and disaster relief.
Agriculture has received more money in this budget than any government has ever given to the sector in one budget before. Falling prices and trade disputes are causing farmers and producers real financial hardship. Current insurance and income support programs are not coming close to meeting the needs.
Canadian farmers need our support now more than ever. That is why one of the government's first actions was to accelerate disbursement of $755 million in payments under the grains and oilseeds payment program. That is why the government is taking action to restore and sustain a strong, vibrant farm sector that will provide farmers with the income they need to stay in business.
Our government commits $2 billion in funding over two years, $1.5 billion of which will be allocated in the budget. We are delivering on the promises we made in the election campaign for farmers, families and all Canadians.
This year Canada Day will be better than ever, thanks to the tax breaks the government is implementing, effective July 1, 2006. We can look forward to a cut in the GST from 7% to 6%; implementation of the universal child care benefit, which gives $1,200 per year to families for each child under six; an increase in the child disability benefit from $2,044 to $2,300; the creation of the Canada employment credit, $1,000 tax credit for computers, uniforms and supplies; reduction of the lowest tax rate by 0.5%, from 16% to 15.5%; and implementation of the tax credit for the purchase of monthly transit passes. That is not bad for just 100 days.
It will be a happy birthday for all Canadians and I urge all members in the House to support Bill C-13.
Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for listing the budget items. I want to focus on one and it has to do with health care, which has always been the number one priority of Canadians.
The Conservative election platform did talk about health care from the standpoint of wait time guarantees. The member will know that it really involves the Government of Canada providing additional financial support, so that Canadians can be transported to other provinces or, indeed, even to the U.S. for medically necessary health care, which is subject to the wait time guarantee.
The member congratulated the Prime Minister and the finance minister for keeping their promises, but he will recall that not only was the wait time guarantee in the platform but it was also one of the five priorities. Yet in the budget, there was not one penny of new health care funding for wait time guarantees.
There is additional moneys going to the provinces for health with regard to the $42.5 billion accord that was signed, but as was confirmed by the Minister of Health on Sunday on TV's Question Period, there is no new money in the budget, and he feels that there is sufficient moneys within the accord.
Will the member withdraw the congratulations to the finance minister and the Prime Minister because not only did they not deliver, they broke one of the most important promises they made to Canadians?
Mr. Blaine Calkins: Mr. Speaker, I will not withdraw my congratulations to the Prime Minister or the finance minister. As a matter of fact, I will recongratulate the Prime Minister and the finance minister for providing us with one of the best budgets that I can remember in recent history.
There is $5.5 billion allocated for wait time reductions across the board in the budget. There is $52 million for the cancer initiative and there is $1 billion in new funding for pandemic research. There is a lot of money already there.
In my home province of Alberta right now, and I am very proud to be from Alberta, it is taking new initiatives and investing the money to find ways to make the system more efficient and more effective. Everybody understands that health care is very expensive and it is a very near and dear issue to most people. Canadians want health care when they need it.
There is nothing worse than sitting on a waiting list, knowing we have some ailment, knowing that we cannot move because a hip or a knee needs to be replaced, or waiting for cancer treatment. We have to get people the help they need when they need it. That is why I am very pleased that one of our top five priorities is to establish those wait time guarantees, working in consultation with the provinces, and ensuring we have the funding to deliver on that guarantee.
[Translation]
Ms. Denise Savoie (Victoria, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I also deplore the fact that many previous governments did not keep their election promises. In this regard, I have a question regarding post-secondary education. Last week, the Minister of Human Resources claimed that the Canada social transfer included, and I quote from Hansard:
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—$16 billion for education—
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However, only $8.5 billion are available for this transfer. These funds are for social assistance and a number of other programs, not just post-secondary education. It seems, once again, that we will have to make a leap of faith and that the government has not kept its promise in this matter. During the election campaign, the Conservatives also made a very clear promise concerning a fund exclusively for post-secondary education.
In the interest of transparency, will my colleague elaborate on the figures before this House?
[English]
Mr. Blaine Calkins: Mr. Speaker, this is a matter that deals with a social transfer. It is a massive block of money that is sent from the federal government to the provincial government, so it can choose how it wants to allocate that money in the province. The member is absolutely correct. It can go to education and other programs. That is the old way of doing business, which is to have one government passing money on to another level of government with strings attached and have governments squabble and quibble over the money.
I am proud and very happy about this budget as somebody who received a post-secondary education for eight years and had to apply for loans the whole time. As a former faculty member at a post-secondary institution in my home province, post-secondary education has been very important to me. I never got any money back or a tax credit for $10,000 worth of books that I bought, but finally, this government is putting money back in the hands of those students. I had money given to me for bursaries that was clawed back in income tax. We are addressing—[Blaine was cut off on time]