When the new Parliament begins to debate the best way to handle budget surpluses, expected to appear in federal finances after 1998, the Reform party plans to lead the charge against government proposals to increase spending.
The surpluses should be used to pay down the national debt and reduce taxes, Reform leader Preston Manning said last week as the party’s shadow cabinet gathered for a one-day session.
“That is the priority we think the government should pursue,” said Manning.
He plans to oppose Liberal plans to use half of any surplus to reduce the debt and taxes and the other half to enrich programs or create new ones.
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“Canadians want tax relief before they want bigger government.”
For Reform agriculture spokes-person Jay Hill, it is a message that should be popular down on the farm.
He said in an interview last week that “the single biggest issue by far” he has heard from farmers this summer is shrinking farm income margins.
It flows in part from falling prices for some commodities and increasing input costs.
“But it also includes high taxes,” he said. “Farmers face oppressively high tax rates, like all Canadians. The government should set some realistic targets for tax reductions. It would give farmers some hope.”
Hill, MP for the Prince George-Peace River region of British Columbia, said if the government left more money in farmers’ pockets, they would invest it.
“Farmers are spenders,” he said. “But they are finding their margins shrinking and one of the biggest costs they face is taxes.”
He said Vegreville, Alta. MP Leon Benoit, an assistant Reform agriculture spokesperson, will concentrate some of his attention on the input cost issue in the parliamentary session ahead.
Hill said he would not automatically oppose all specific spending increases for agriculture, once there are surpluses.
“I can’t say specifically if there are areas where spending should be increased,” he said. “I think that would be a case-by-case thing. But as a general rule, I think farmers would benefit more from tax cuts, leaving them more of the money they earn.”
It will be a major Reform issue in the new Parliament.
Hill said the Canadian Wheat Board issue also will figure prominently in the House of Commons autumn debate.
He said wheat board minister Ralph Goodale must have heard the message from prairie farmers this summer that a voluntary board is the preference of a significant segment of prairie farmers.
“He must have been hearing the same message that I have been hearing,” said the Reform MP.
“If he does not make a move in that direction, it means he has not been listening.
“We should not be putting farmers in jail for trying to sell their own produce.”
