Families Set Budgets Too

June 23, 2008

The American economy is battling through tough times. Like other people around the world, Canadians must remain vigilant so that when the United States sneezes, we don’t catch their cold.

Fortunately, Canada has been taking its vitamins. Today unemployment is at a 33 year low, more than 100,000 new jobs have been created in the past year alone, and interest rates and inflation remain quite low.

For Canada to remain on such strong economic footing, despite the malaise of our biggest trading partner, is a testament to the work ethic, ingenuity and innovation of individual Canadians themselves.

Of course, government also has a role to play. What that role should be will likely be a hot topic in the political debates of our future.

Our government has followed a balanced approach. We have paid down billions of dollars in debt. We have reduced the tax burden on businesses and working families.

And we have been careful with your tax dollars by focusing our spending on the priorities of Canadians.

But the economy is about more than just the big picture. It is also about individual Canadian families as they try to balance their household budgets and make ends meet.

Government isn’t the only place where people set budgets. Families set budgets too. In a time when the cost of living is already high, there is no smarter move than to allow Canadians of all ages and incomes to hold on to more of their own money.

The other day I had a discussion with some colleagues about how much average Canadians are actually saving. Of course, every family’s story is different. Even so, all Canadians are seeing real results.

Take your typical working family. An everyday two-income, two-kid family making just under $90,000 per year is saving $800 per year because we cut the GST from 7% to 5%.

This same family is saving an additional $1,500 due to lower income taxes. Should one of the kids in this family be under the age of six, the family can count on more than a thousand dollars in additional savings through the Conservative Government’s child care benefit.

That means that this typical working family is holding on to at least $3,000 per year that would otherwise have gone into the coffers of past governments. While these savings are long overdue, they are far from permanent.

Some politicians believe that only big and bloated government programs can make a difference in Canadians’ lives. These same politicians will tell you that the only way to pay for these big programs is to force Canadians to pay higher taxes.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, for example, has all sorts of ideas on how Canadians can pay more tax in order to fund his endless priorities, spending promises and special interest groups. First he wanted to raise the GST.

Most recently, however, he’s come up with a tax increase he likes even more.

Stéphane Dion's latest plan is to trick Canadians into paying a permanent new carbon tax. If he gets his way, Canadians will be stuck paying a permanent new tax that will destroy jobs and drive up the cost of gas, electricity and everything else that you buy. The Liberals are trying to dress up their carbon tax with phony names like “tax-shift” or “green-shift,” but Canadians will not be fooled.

No matter how he tries to sugarcoat the title of his new tax, the end result remains the same: your family will pay more for virtually everything. Considering that gas and energy costs are already at an all-time high, Canadians cannot afford this risk.

Canada is economically healthy because Canadians themselves are better off. In a time of economic uncertainty abroad, we must not let the failed, big-taxing approaches of the past put all of this progress at risk.

Guy Lauzon, M.P.
Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry