Three times and you are out. I am too close to the Reform Party, Mr. Speaker.
One of the reasons I was profoundly disappointed in this document was that members of the Reform Party campaigned on comprehensive tax reform during the last election. They campaigned on restructuring the tax acts. It is no secret to members that I was delighted when there were 40-odd members returned to the House who shared-at least I thought they shared-my view, as do many other members on this side of the House that it is time to overhaul the entire personal and corporate income tax structure.
Canadians should know that in this document the only reference to proposals for a taxpayer protection act are one page, on pages 53 and 54. Canadians believed the Reform Party was truly committed to tax reform. In a document of 55 pages, to only have one page devoted to tax reform is not a serious effort.
It is a serious flaw in the document because I happen to believe, and I know a lot of Reform members believe, that Canadians are frustrated with the current tax acts. The complex tax system we have is one of the reasons why people are putting money offshore. It is one of the reasons we have such a large underground economy. It is one of the reasons we have a lot of entrepreneurs who are not investing in creating jobs. On that issue I say that the paper prepared today, the taxpayers' budget, is misleading and it falls short.
There is another thing that concerns me about this debate in total today. It is this total preoccupation with the federal deficit. I believe, as all members believe, that the deficit must be dealt with. I cannot imagine a member standing up anywhere saying that the deficit is not important.
We have had enough debates on the federal deficit and the fiscal discipline side of this equation. We are not talking about the growth side. How are we going to put 2.2 million Canadians back to work? I wish we would spend more time speaking back and forth and I think Canadians would like to see more debate in the House back and forth on how we can put people back to work.
I want to be very specific about what I mean. My colleague from Waterloo handed me a document he received today, a debating document called "The Working Nation". This is a policy paper on policies and programs from the Australian government.
The Australians have an idea that I would like to share with members and all Canadians today. It is called the job compact. This is an idea they are debating in their House right now. The job compact will apply to all those who have been in receipt of a job search or a new start allowance for 18 months or more. A job compact will include more intensive case management, training and support to ensure the unemployed person is job-ready, a job for six to twelve months primarily in the private sector, a training wage which combines employment with training, leading to recognized and transferable skills. New work opportunities will encourage local proposals for employment generation, especially in regions where other employment opportunities are limited. Intensive job search assistance and referral to suitable vacancies at the end of the job compact maximizes employment outcomes for those assisted. There will be stronger penalties for job seekers who do not meet their obligations under the job compact. The paper goes on to describe how jobs will be
obtained and how employers will be further encouraged to consider the abilities of long term unemployed, et cetera.
That is a specific idea the government is currently putting forward to give every unemployed Australian a chance to get back to work. That is the kind of thing I personally wish we could debate in the House. We have talked enough about the deficit and the debt.
When all is said and done and the budget comes out next week, I am sure all the things in the red book will be there. However we still have to face the challenge right away of getting those people back to work. That is what I think is missing in the debate.
The whole notion of human deficit is very important. As our human deficit grows eventually it will hit us like a ton of bricks. There are 700,000 university trained and educated young people who cannot find work. That is crazy. That is what I believe our focus should be on.
I want to expand my point about human deficit. It is the reason we have a fiscal framework right now that is not very healthy. Not only are there unemployment costs and health care costs but there are all kinds of potential loss.
My appeal to the opposition parties is that they have now made their point about the federal deficit and the debt. I believe all members of the House understand it well. I am confident, as I said earlier, the Minister of Finance will bring testimony to that realization next week.
I would like to suggest to members of the House that our preoccupation in the next 60 or 90 days should be on identifying the priorities and government instruments we can use to stimulate entrepreneurship and to market the country to get the human deficit under control. Let us change our language from federal deficit to human deficit and let us attack it next.