Mr. Speaker, the House is bursting at the seams.
September 11: How many times have we heard the date throughout the last three months? Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Washington with my colleagues on the transport committee. The officials there were referring to 9/11. They did not say September 11. They said 9/11. I think the budget reaffirms to Canadians what we all know, that it really was 911. It was an emergency call to all democracies around the world that value the safety, the security and the freedoms and values we have fought so long and so hard to establish for our countries, our families and our communities.
It really put a jump-shift on a lot of the important priorities that governments set for themselves. Prior to September 11, many members of parliament were working feverishly to make their representations to government officials and to ministers about some of their priorities. I wanted this budget to be a green budget. I wanted it to be a budget that dealt with the environment. I consulted with my constituents. I did a survey. Ten thousand surveys went out. My constituents told me that if we do not take care of our environment nothing else really matters because we will not live long enough to enjoy everything else we have in this beautiful country.
I wanted to allow spouses who stay at home to care for pre-school children, thus withdrawing from the paid labour force, an opportunity to buy into the Canada pension plan system for those years, so that over their career of working, whether it is paid or unpaid work, we would recognize the value of that work. They would have an opportunity to earn a full Canada pension plan. I thought it was an important priority to recognize the value of unpaid work.
I wanted to look at our EI system. I wanted to look at the possibility of improving the lot of casual employees who do not put in enough hours of work to ever qualify for benefits but have to pay the premiums. Rather than reducing the premiums directly, I wanted us to increase the exemption so that they would pay only on a smaller portion of their earnings. It would stimulate job creation.
Members in this place all have different priorities or ideas that they would like to see the government consider, but 9/11, September 11, changed that. It is imperative that we reassess our security and safety in Canada just as every other democratic country is doing. Without safety and security in a country there is no sovereignty. Without sovereignty we have no economy. Without an economy, a stable, growing and vibrant economy, quality of life starts to deteriorate. Therefore it was imperative that this budget be a budget of safety and security.
It has been that. It is not very glamorous but it is a necessity. I think all members agree with the steps taken to ensure the safety and security, the investment in policing, the investment in airline and airport security, the investment in our military and other defence measures and in our intelligence services, all totalling an enormous amount of money invested in security, because without that security we have nothing.
Canadians also know that Canada has to go on governing and following through to the best of its ability with the other important priorities for all nations. We have to take care of the financial fundamentals. We have to make sure that we are fiscally prudent and fiscally responsible, even in times of 911 calls.
In fact what has happened here is that the fiscal prudence of the government since 1993 has not only put us on good financial footing, but prudent financial management and contingencies have put us in a position of being able to address these 911 calls.
Canadians are probably comforted by the fact that this budget is a balanced budget, as budgets has been for a number of years now, with surpluses. We have committed to a balanced budget not only for this year but for the next year and the year following that. That has to provide important confidence to all Canadians.
We have paid down debt. We have not spent money that was available in surpluses. It was important to bring down our debt to an affordable level. We will continue to pay it down. In fact, it is now below 50% of GDP. It is an important step. We will do more, but we have to make choices and safety and security certainly have to be there.
Many of the speakers in the House have suggested there is nothing for new health spending or tax measures, et cetera. There is. There are long term commitments to our Canada health and social transfer and to tax cuts. A $100 billion tax cut program was presented by the finance minister and included in a previous budget so that Canadians could plan for and understand what their tax liability would be and so that provincial governments that receive the funding in support of program spending, for post-secondary education and health care, have scheduled funding and know it will be there.
This year there is almost $3 billion extra for spending in health care. In my own province of Ontario, 90% of the incremental spending in health care was financed by additional transfers from the federal government. It shows that the federal government is doing more than its share in Ontario and that Ontario should be spending more on health care. We cannot legislate that, but we will certainly make sure that the people of Ontario know that the federal government is doing its fair share on health care and that the province of Ontario is responsible for letting its citizens down by not matching its responsibilities.
The previous speaker referred to interest rates being at an all time low. I remember when we were fighting a $42 billion deficit back in 1993. We talked about the impact of interest rates and what a 1% drop in interest rates would mean in terms of mortgage financing and purchasing automobiles. That is real after tax savings to Canadians. Interest rates are now at a 40 year low. It is very important. This is helpful to Canadians.
There is no question about the defence issue. Many have said we should do more. I think the important thing for Canadians to know is that our military leaders have advised us that they have the tools and the resources to do the job they have been asked to do. They always have been there to do that job and I am very proud of that.
As a member of the transport committee, I had the opportunity, with my colleagues, to look at the whole issue of safety and security in our airlines and airports. I think Canadians should know that the United States very quickly passed legislation back on November 19 to put something in place before Thanksgiving because they wanted to, hopefully, re-stimulate the confidence of its travelling public during the week which is historically the busiest week for travel in the United States. We found out that only 80% of the aircraft actually flew during that week, and of those only 80% of the capacity was utilized. It basically means that on the busiest travel week of the whole year in the United States only about two-thirds of the capacity was utilized. It is obvious, then, that the impact on the confidence of Canadian travellers is just as severe and that it is very important for us to address the safety and security issues in Canada.
In my last moments I simply would like to thank the Prime Minister. He promised me that fetal alcohol syndrome would be on the agenda of the Government of Canada. It was in the throne speech at the beginning of this parliament and it was in this budget. He has kept his promise. He has delivered. I want to thank him very much.