FINA Committee Report
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NDP Dissenting Opinion to the The Peoples’ Priorities Lorne Nystrom, NDP Finance Critic Yvon Godin, NDP Critic for Employment Insurance, Training, Small business, and Official Languages November 2002 The Peoples’ Priorities “When asked to choose their most desired tax policy change, most witnesses identified other priorities.” Peoples, Places and Priorities, Pre-Budget Report of the Hello Ottawa! Is Anybody Listening? Every year, Canadians hear the same song from their Finance Minister — Canada has the greatest economy in the western world — but we can’t afford to do anything. Two years ago, when the government was projecting a surplus of some $95 billion over five years — they put $100 billion into tax cuts. Today, with a projected surplus of $70 billion over the next five years, they want to keep on cutting taxes — but restrict spending to money they can “reallocate” from existing programs. The majority on this Committee has embraced without question the official fiction that the federal budget has no room for important spending initiatives — and is totally blind to the reality that when it comes to figuring out its expected budget balance every year, the Finance department can’t count. In every single year since it was elected in 1993, the government has exceeded its projection on the budget balance to a cumulative total of $80 billion. Or, to put it simply, the Finance Minister is out — on average — by $10 billion a year. To most Canadians there are two sides to a budget balance — there’s what comes in, and what goes out. If you keep cutting what you bring in, pretty soon you can’t afford the roof over your head, and you’re on the street. In Canada today, that’s a pretty mean street.
And the majority thinks we need more tax cuts? Of the 51 recommendations in the Report, 14 are for further tax cuts. For health care, priority #1 for 93% of Canadians, there is but one recommendation. The Report notes in the main body that “Canadians overwhelmingly support the public health care system” and “increased and stable funding of health care is needed,” and “public health care should be broadened to pharmacare and homecare”. Even the Ontario Chamber of Commerce was critical of privatization, because it “moves costs around without necessarily reducing them”. Nice affirmations — but the one timid recommendation on health care says nothing about halting privatization, and the only dollar increase it argues for is to go the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Affirmations alone are empty. Health care needs a transfusion of cash; they want to put spending in a straitjacket. The Auditor General pointed out the fallacy in the government’s argument about using the surplus to pay down the debt. She told Canadians the surplus for the year does not automatically go to pay down the debt. “There is neither any law nor accounting rule that requires this. Following the terrorist attacks in the US, the federal government abandoned economic prudence altogether and reduced the contingency reserve to $1.5 billion.” The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, tax collectors for the government, also reported recently on where the government could find more money. Last year, it reported $16 billion in unpaid taxes — or double the amount of last year’s surplus. Where is the slippage? Not from ordinary Canadians on wages and salaries, 98% of whom pay up promptly. It’s the 20% “risk of non-compliance” in the corporate sector that is to blame. Are they to pay up? Not likely. With the war on the deficit, Canadians recognized that when a government sets targets, it is making a commitment. The Majority report sets just one target, and the Everest of its ambition is to ensure we cut tax rates for corporations to lower levels than the US. The Committee reports that “without further changes, Canadian corporate tax rates will fall below the US by 2003, and will be 5 percentage points less by 2005.” Somehow that’s not good enough for the majority. They want an annual review to see that our tax rates don’t get out of line with Washington. The strongest wording in the recommendations is reserved for protection of patents. The chief beneficiary? — the most profitable corporations in the world, the multinational pharmaceutical industry. The Committee wants to ensure their rights are “vigorously defended.” Forget that rising drug prices charged by multinational drug companies are the biggest driver in rising health care costs in Canada. Somehow the Committee can’t connect those dots. Canadians can. In their overwhelming support for health care as the pinnacle What we need is to set targets for Canadians, and the best and the brightest will take up the challenge. The NDP’s priorities and targets are Canadian priorities: Health Care The government should take immediate steps to
Secure Future for All of our Kids The 2003 Budget should launch a five-year social investment plan for Canada’s children aimed at making significant reductions in the level and depth of child poverty, and endowing every child with the conditions for healthy development, and giving the working poor the means to provide for their families. We need an immediate federal financial commitment to
Prairie Farm Families Ongoing US trade harassment of our wheat farmers is just the latest new pressure on Prairie farmers. Experts agree that there is room, within the confines of WTO rules to increase farm support significantly without running afoul of the WTO. An immediate increase in federal support to farmers through the NISA is urgently needed Housing and Homelessness In the 2003 federal budget, the government should finally adopt a National Affordable Housing Strategy which recognizes housing as a basic right, and commits an additional 1% of total program spending on housing. Post-Secondary Education Without leadership we are heading towards an admission policy based on wealth. Under current rules only 1 student in 24 is getting debt relief. Canada needs to
Unemployment Insurance New Democrats want to see EI funds separated from government accounts, and used to improve benefits for Canada’s unemployed. We would
The Environment and Infrastructure Long term health and productivity of the economy depend on reversing two decades of neglect of our physical infrastructure. New Democrats support providing sufficient resources to ensure that we:
Disablility Tax Credit The government should move to develop a comprehensive program to level the playing field for Canadians with disabilities, by acting on the unanimous recommendations of the committee report “Getting It Right for Canadians: The Disability Tax Credit”; in particular the recommendations calling for changes to the eligibility requirements of the Disability Tax Credit so that they will incorporate in a more humane and compassionate manner the real life circumstances of persons with disabilities, and withdraw the proposed changes to the Disability Tax Credit, released on August 30th, 2002. International Development Assistance
Defence and Security: New Democrats support our forces and their families, stationed overseas and living on bases at home. In the February budget, the government must focus first on improving the lives of soldiers and their families and second, on updating equipment which will not further endanger our soldier’s lives. |