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议长先生，很高兴在保守党政府提出第10个财政预算案的第二天发表我的看法。这份预算案把最大的好处给了最不需要的人。
这并不是说这份预算案不重要。恰恰相反。我们很快会有选举。当我们竞选时，总理和他的候选人们会以此来说服选民，继续保留权力。因此，重要的是加拿大国民要知道它是怎样一个方案，包含什麽，缺少了哪些？
比如，它不是一份为中产阶层和想进入中产行列的人们，发展经济、创造工作岗位的预算案。
2015预算案是一份为政治打造的文件，承载保守党竞选的希冀，却没有考虑加拿大的前途。
早在加拿大成为国家以前，当Louis-HippolyteLa Fontaine选举时，他对自己的选民们说：“加拿大是我们先驱的土地。这是我们的国家，要接纳来自世界各地的不同的人们在这裡扎根，成为承载他们家庭希望的安居之地。像我们一样，他们最大的愿望是人民幸福、国家繁荣，并将此作为传统，在这个年轻而好客的国度，儘量向自己的后代努力传播这一共识。最重要的是他们的孩子们一定要如同我们一般认同加拿大。前加拿大总督伍冰芝（应为“枝“——编者注）说：“那一小段阐明了我们作为加拿大人生活在一个移民社会的所有原则。”我同意，但不仅于此。
这段话表达了加拿大人承诺并尊重了无数代的最基本观念：儿孙们要有公平的机会并有比父母更好的生活。
这在加拿大已经传承了很长时间。上世纪，我们的经济增长，中产阶层壮大，打造了未来繁荣经济的基础。当中产阶层发展并成功时，整个国家都会成功。
可是，过去十年情况发生了变化。
总理哈珀2006年开始执政时，继承了年度130亿财政盈余、也许是当年西方国家中最强的财经体。但哈珀3年就带加拿大陷入赤字，而且这发生在经济衰退之前。从那时开始至今10年，因为保守党理财失误，现在世界139个国家经济增长超过加拿大。而这发生在油价下滑之前，在这被延期推出的预算案之前。
不过，加拿大国民不需要看国际财经来了解加拿大做得有多糟。过去30年，加拿大税后收入中值的家庭，中产阶层，收入仅增长了15％。加拿大国民依然勤奋工作，为我们国家及未来做贡献。但当这些辛勤的人们准备退休生活时会发生什麽？他们很多将不得不为了生存继续工作。
研究显示，1/3的加拿大人在临近退休时完全没有积蓄。
过去政府会帮助。但现在却减少了。哈珀总理提高了领取老人津贴（OAS和GIS）的年龄，让加拿大国民更难得到应有的退休生活。总理这样做是为了把免税储蓄账户额度增加一倍，再次只让富裕人士得益。这不公平。加拿大国民应该有一个更好的方案，专注壮大中产阶层。
总理本可以实施一项增长经济的计划，但他没有。从这份预算案中可见，总理根本不愿意这样做。过去十年，保守党政府没有做过任何事促进经济增长。所以我们经济的中流砥柱：中产阶层，越来越衰弱。
和2002年比，那时有67%的加拿大人视自己为中产阶层的一员，现在则不到50％，而且至少57%的加拿大人认为下一代的情况会更糟糕。
一个像我们这样在许多方面都很丰裕的国家，怎麽会落得如此境地？为什麽如此多加拿大人每天都在为生计烦忧，入不敷出？
因为政府忽视了La Fontaine在170年前就提示过的，加拿大国家特质中的重要一环：公平。
公平并不意味着每个人都一样，但它意味着每人都应当被给予平等的机会。加拿大理应如此。无论人们从哪裡来，无论是谁，都应该被公平对待。这样，我们才能一起成功，才能创造经济增长。
这份新预算案中，保守党依然没有增长经济的方案。他们的计划恰恰相反。
总理带领的保守党政府花20亿为最富有的加拿大人减税。为了支付这笔钱，他们卖掉了一堆国家资产、削减重要基建投资、削减给皇家骑警和安全服务机构的拨款、削减退伍军人医疗经费。如此他们才能给不足15%的加拿大人税务减免，让其他85%的国民为他们买单。这不能帮助我们的经济增长，更不会壮大我们的中产阶层。
这是不公平的。
哈珀政府喜欢吹嘘自经济衰退以来增加了多少工作岗位。事实却是成千上万的加拿大人仍然没工作或被大材小用。现在比经济衰退前增加了20万无业人口。
实际上，就业增长率已经连续15个月低于1%。这是近40年裡，除经济萧条期以外，就业增长率持续低于这临界点最久的一次。年轻人的工作统计数据更加严峻。现在加拿大年轻人的工作岗位比经济衰退前少了16.5万个。
一个真正能促进经济增长的计划应该是怎样？它应当从投资基础建设开始。保守党告诉国民他们已经把钱投入了基建，但这不完全是事实。他们的基建计划实在太少又太迟。与以往水平相比，政府去年砍掉了87％的加拿大建设基金的项目。
今年保守党对此也没有实际改善，对基建的拨款承诺被推迟到几年后才兑现。
真正的经济增长计划，应该落实一个踏实认真的基建计划，创造就业机会，为加拿大应对不断变化的全球经济、气候变化做好准备。我认为尤其是气候变化，至少要相信气候的确在变化，才会来处理应对。
回到基础建设和投资上。每投资1元于水路或陆路交通会带来1.20元的经济增长；每投资1元于可负担住房会带来1.40元的经济增长；投资10亿加币于基础建设会创造年1.6万个良好工作岗位：加拿大国民需要并想要做的工作。这有很好的回报率，这才是经济增长。
基础设施现代化会辅助及加速商业发展，可让加拿大人更快更安全地到达目的地。正如我所说，明智投资基建将使加拿大做好准备应对气候变化的影响。我还需要指出，长达500多页的预算案中完全没有提及气候变化——无论是作为我们面对的现状，还是作为经济挑战。这种置之不理意味深长。实在说，针对气候变化的讨论不仅仅是科学问题，也是经济议题。这是我们应当在2015年讨论的问题，保守党政府却对这议题完全无视，特别失败。
而总理的优先要务：除了给最富有的加拿大人20亿税务减免外，竟然是买广告！
儘管加拿大人一直在为生活挣扎，保守党政府却花费7.5亿投放广告，宣传有时并不存在的东西。想想吧，7.5亿经费用来做电视广告和广告牌，花钱说服民众。这不是审慎理财，这纯粹、简单，就是浪费。不仅如此，这更是侮辱了纳税人。
总理不应该自认为加拿大人因为电视商业广告的宣传，就会信任他们执政。
国会议员们应该知道加拿大国民是如何了解政府是否在做事的。我可以提示一下。不是因为人们看了电视广告，而是在开车上班经过新道路和更安全的桥樑时；搭乘新的公交系统节省了时间时；是在我们有一份应对气候变化的计划时；我们创造薪水良好的全职工作时；是当孩子们能够去好学校时。
当人们有真实而公平的成功机会时，加拿大人会知道他们的政府在做实事。然而，哈珀总理对所有这些毫无计划。
相反，哈珀又新花费750万买电视广告，来确保这份预算案在电视上更好看。这不是有利加拿大的计划，这是宣传保守党的广告方案。哈珀用勤奋工作的加拿大纳税人的钱为自己的广告买单。这大错特错。
一代一代的加拿大人与朋友及陌生人交往时，都表现出要竭力公平待人。在加拿大成立几十年之前，我们就知道必须坚持这个原则：无论我们是谁，无论我们来自何方，我们都会共同富裕。
政府的预算案不应该是一个推销工具，而应该是一份在许多事项中勾划出我们国家未来走向的蓝图。
它不是无谓的广告。它应该是一个公平及互助友爱的计划；一个对国家财政和社会负责的计划。
这份预算案完全没有这些，我们不能支持它。
因此，我提出要修订修正案，要求添加以下两点：
﹣ 不公平地仅对富人有益，却没有帮助中产阶层以及努力工作要迈入中产的人们；
﹣ 没有创造工作岗位和增长经济的计划。
（来源：贾斯廷•杜鲁多微信公众号）
Speech by Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons on Budget 2015
Justin Trudeau
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have this opportunity to speak the day after the Conservative government tabled its 10th budget. This is a budget that gives the most to Canadians who need it the least. I am not saying that this is not an important document—quite the contrary.
Soon we will have an election. When the time comes for us to campaign, the Prime Minister and his candidates will cite this latest budget when they try to convince voters to keep them in power. Therefore, it is important that Canadians know what this is, what is in it and what is not.
It is not, for instance, a plan for jobs and growth for the middle class and those looking to join it.
The budget is a political document produced to that end. It is a vision for a Conservative election campaign; it is not a vision for Canada.
A long time ago, before Canada officially became a country, another campaign was under way, and when Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine talked to his constituents in Terrebonne, he said:
“Canada is the land of our ancestors; it is our country as it must be the adopted country of the various populations which come from diverse portions of the globe, to make their way into its vast forests as the future resting place of their families and their hopes. Like us, their paramount desire must be the happiness and prosperity of Canada, as the heritage which they should endeavour to transmit to their descendants in this young and hospitable country. Above all their children must be like ourselves, Canadians.”
Former Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, said: “In that small paragraph are enunciated all the principles by which we as Canadians live in an immigrant society.” I agree, but that is not all.
This paragraph expresses a fundamental idea that Canadians are committed to and have respected for generations: the idea that their children and grandchildren will have an equal chance and a better life than they had.
That is how it was in Canada for a long time. Over the past century, our economy grew, and so did our middle class, becoming the foundation of a prosperous economic future. When the middle class grows and succeeds, so too does the entire country.
Nonetheless, something changed in the past decade.
When the Prime Minister first took over in 2006, he inherited a $13 billion surplus. It was at the time of perhaps the strongest fiscal situation in the world. It took him only three years to put Canada back into deficit, and that was ahead of the recession. Since then, nearly 10 years of Conservative fiscal mismanagement have left 139 other countries ahead of Canada for expected growth in 2015, and that was before oil prices took a slide. That was before this delayed budget.
However, Canadians do not have to hear about international finances to know how poorly things are going. Over the past 30 years, median after-tax family incomes in Canada, those of the middle class, have only increased by 15 percent. Still, Canadians keep working hard, making contributions to our country and its future. Yet what happens when those hard-working Canadians are ready to settle into retirement? Many will not. They will have to keep working just to survive.
Studies now show that a full third of Canadians nearing retirement age have not been able to save for it at all.
It used to be that the government would help. Now that is less the case. By pushing up the age to qualify for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the Prime Minister has made it even harder for Canadians to get the retirement they deserve. He did this so his government could double the Tax-Free Savings Account limit. Again, that doubling only favours the richest Canadians. That is unfair. Canada deserves a better plan, focused on strengthening the middle class.
The Prime Minister could have implemented a plan for growth; he did not. When we study this budget, we see that he still does not want to. This government has done nothing to promote growth in the last decade, and therefore our middle class, the backbone of the economy, has begun to weaken.
Less than half of Canadians consider themselves to be part of the middle class, compared to 67 percent in 2002. No less than 57 percent of Canadians now believe that the next generation will be worse off.
How can a nation such as ours, which is rich in so many ways, have come to this, and why are so many Canadians having trouble making ends meet every day?
It is because the government has neglected that other key component of Canada’s character that LaFontaine hinted at 170 years ago: fairness.
Here is the thing about fairness. It does not mean everyone is equal, but it does mean that everyone is given an equal chance. Canada is about that. No matter who people are or where they are from, they deserve a fair shot. That is how we succeed together. That is how our economy grows.
As we have seen with this new budget, the Conservatives still have no plan for growth. Here is what their plan is instead.
The Prime Minister and his Conservative government want to spend $2 billion on a tax break for the richest Canadians. In order to pay for it, they sold a bunch of assets and cut back on things like critical infrastructure investments, support for the RCMP and our security services, and health care funding for our veterans. All of this so they can give fewer than 15 percent of Canadians a tax break and have the other 85 percent pick-up the tab. That will not help our economy grow and it will not help our middle class grow.
It is not fair.
The Prime Minister and his government like to talk about the number of jobs created since the recession. However, the reality is that hundreds of thousands of Canadians are still unemployed or underemployed. There are some 200,000 more unemployed people than there were before the recession.
In fact, the rate of job growth was less than one percent for 15 consecutive months. This is the longest period with growth below this threshold in almost 40 years, excluding recessionary periods.
The statistics on youth are even grimmer. There are now more than 165,000 fewer jobs for young Canadians than there were before the recession.
What does a plan for growth actually look like? It could start with infrastructure investments. The Conservatives will tell Canadians that they have poured money into infrastructure, but that is not the entire truth. Their plan for infrastructure is simply too little too late. Last year the government slashed the Building Canada infrastructure program by 87 percent from its previous level.
This year there has been no real improvement. What has been committed for infrastructure is back-loaded until years from now.
A real plan for growth would put in place today a serious infrastructure plan to create jobs and prepare Canada for the changing global economy, as well as changing climate, although I suppose in the latter case one has to believe it is actually happening before one can do anything to address it.
To get back to infrastructure and investments, every dollar invested in roads, water or public transit generates $1.20 in growth. Every dollar invested in affordable housing generates $1.40 in growth. One $1 billion invested in infrastructure creates 16,000 person-years of good jobs — the kind of jobs Canadians need and are prepared to do. That is an excellent rate of return. That is economic growth.
Modernizing infrastructure facilitates and accelerates commerce. It enables Canadians to get to their destinations more quickly and more safely. As I said, smart investments in infrastructure will prepare Canada for the effects of climate change. I should also point out that climate change is not mentioned once in over 500 pages in this budget — not as a reality we face or as an economic challenge. That exclusion speaks volumes. Honestly, a discussion on climate change is not just about science; it is also about the economy. This is a discussion that we need to have in 2015, and the government’s complete disregard for this issue is a special kind of failure.
What is the Prime Minister’s priority instead; that is, aside from that $2 billion tax break for the richest Canadians? Advertising.
While Canadians have been struggling, the Prime Minister’s government has justified spending some $750 million on advertising to promote things that sometimes do not even exist.
Think about it. That is three-quarters of a billion dollars on TV commercials and billboards, on paid persuasion. This is not fiscal prudence; this is waste, pure and simple. More than that, it is insulting. The Prime Minister must not think much of Canadians to suppose they believe that legitimacy to govern is earned by running a bunch of commercials on TV.
Do members know how Canadians know their government is working? I will give them a hint. It is not because they saw a TV ad. They know it when they drive to work on new roads and safer bridges. They know it when a new fleet of buses gets them across town in less time. They know it when we have a plan to address our changing climate. They know it when we have well paying, full-time jobs, and when their kids can go to a good school.
Canadians know that their government is working when they have a real, fair chance to succeed. However, the Prime Minister has no real plan for anything.
Instead, he will spend another $7.5 million to ensure that this budget looks good on TV. That is not a plan for Canada. That is an advertising plan for the Conservative Party. He is using hard-working Canadians’ money to pay for that advertising. That is just plain wrong.
Generations of Canadians have shown that in our dealings with our friends and with strangers, we strive to be a fair people. Decades before we were even properly a nation, this was a principle to which we knew we must adhere so we would all prosper, whoever we are, wherever we may be from.
A government’s budget should not be a marketing tool. It should be a document that, among other things, lays out a road map for how we want our country to look.
It is not a callow piece of advertising. It ought to be a fair and compassionate plan, one that is both fiscally and socially responsible. This budget is none of those things. We cannot support it.
Therefore, I move that the amendment be amended by adding the following:
• unfairly benefits the rich instead of helping the middle class and those working hard to join it and;
• contains no plan for jobs and growth. |
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