House of Commons Hansard #71 of the 37th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was budget.

Topics

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I think if you ask the hon. minister to ask that question again of the House, he will receive unanimous consent from all parties.

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)

I will ask the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport to read the motion once more.

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Devillers Liberal Simcoe North, ON

Mr. Speaker, I believe that you will now find unanimous consent for the following motion:

That when the House begins proceedings under the provisions of Standing Order 52 later this day, no quorum calls nor dilatory motions shall be entertained by the Speaker after 8 p.m.

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)

Is there unanimous consent to table the motion?

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)

Does the House agree with the terms of the motion?

Business of the HouseGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

(Motion agreed to)

The House resumed consideration of the motion that this House approves in general the budgetary policy of the government.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

March 17th, 2003 / 4:35 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to talk further about the budget. To reiterate, I am quite happy that there are a number of references to the north in the budget and now perhaps I will go on to talk about the future to some extent, now that we have had feedback, and where we can go in the future to increase and improve the economy, especially as related to my constituency.

As I mentioned, I was delighted that in the budget there is increased money for Coast Guard and national defence. It is very important from my perspective that some of these funds go toward protecting northern sovereignty. It has been proven that the Northwest Passage is melting at an accelerating rate. Foreign ships are now intruding in that area, sometimes without being questioned at all. This can have ramifications on our environment, on defence, on immigration and on tenure of sovereignty in the area. I encourage those responsible to ensure that some of those Coast Guard and national defence expenditures are made in the north, especially as related to northern sovereignty and the Northwest Passage.

I was of course very happy to see that the national child benefit is up 100% since 1996. Some say it is the most important social program in the last decade. It goes a long way to helping to fight child poverty. We need to continually work in that area.

For aboriginal people, there are a number of programs and there is funding in the budget. In my riding, which is approximately 24% aboriginal, there will be a larger uptake than there will in most of Canada. It is very important for my riding that there are new post-secondary scholarships, money for water and waste water treatment and money for aboriginal skills and training. Specifically there is once again reference to the north, because the budget mentions training for large projects such as northern gas pipelines. I think there was $25 million in that area.

There is also money for an urban aboriginal strategy, which is very important for Canada because a very significant portion of aboriginal people do not live on reserves and sometimes fall between the cracks related to programs and funding, et cetera, in urban areas. I am delighted that an urban aboriginal strategy is referred to in the budget. Of course, increasing the money for Aboriginal Business Canada is very positive. The aboriginal people have a very dynamic business community with a number of excellent businesses and we have been able to help them over the years. Increasing that support is very positive.

I was also very happy to see the national immunization strategy in the budget. Before the budget, a number of constituents spoke to me specifically about smallpox, but I am glad this $45 million has been allocated to deal with immunization.

Of course I think we were all happy to see the child disability benefit so that families can better care for children with disabilities.

I was also happy to see the $10 million related to historic site preservation. We have a great history in Yukon since the Klondike gold rush in 1898 and with centuries of first nations history before that. Preserving our historic places is a very important part of our tourism industry, which is the biggest private sector employer in our economy at the moment.

Also, the Business Development Bank of Canada is an important player in financing in Yukon so I was delighted to see $190 million added to the venture capital for business development.

I was also glad to see money for climate change. When we had prebudget discussions with the finance minister, I brought in a youth who said that she was very supportive of measures to deal with climate change. I am delighted that there is $1.7 billion and, in particular, $50 million to increase climate and atmospheric research activities, including research related to northern Canada.

I was delighted to see the reference to the north because climate change has a far more dramatic effect on the north. In some areas of the Arctic some of our first nations administration buildings are sinking because permafrost is melting. We depend on ice bridges for our economy and those are not forming early enough for the trucks to get across. It affects the migration patterns of the wildlife on which aboriginal people depend for their sustenance. It has all sorts of effects in the north.

We were delighted to see that study and a lot of the other money going toward renewable energy, wind energy and energy efficient alternative fuels. We have some wind energy in the north. Energy costs more in the north so we are happy to see anything that will lower the costs and lower our CO

2

emissions.

We were also very happy, and it was one of the first things mentioned by the finance minister, that it will be a balanced budget. We will continue not to spend more than we take in and continue to reduce the national debt. As a very rich country, both in resources and people, we do not want to needlessly spend on interest payments when we could be spending on health care and education.

One of the very important things in my riding, which people asked me about before the budget and for which I lobbied hard, is funding support for the communities partnership initiative. The committee work in Yukon was exemplary. People wanted it to continue and they were delighted that it will be extended for three years.

Tourism is very important. It is probably the largest private industry in our economy at the moment as far as employment goes, although a lot of it is seasonal. People lobbied for it and were delighted with the decrease in the air security tax from $12 to $7 per flight. That 40% decrease helps this major industry. In the future, any money we can give to the Canadian Tourism Commission to help market Canada around the world will be well received. It is a very competitive environment and we want to continue being competitive with other countries to bring in tourists and maintain tourism in Canada.

Along the line of tourism, of course, our national parks are very important. We were delighted with the announcement earlier of 10 new national parks and 5 new marine areas, and the $74 million that will go toward creating those and to protecting the biological integrity of existing parks. I think that may be over five years but it could even be accelerated to two years because obviously we will need more money in the future to deal with those two issues. I know the Yukon branch of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society would definitely like to see that.

Some tourists come to see how placer mining works in Yukon. Placer mining is our second largest industry and it contributes importantly to the infrastructure. A vast majority of the tourists only come for certain months of the year and yet tourist operators have to make their payments over the entire year. In the shorter seasons the placer industry provides income for the tourist infrastructure and allows the tourism industry to exist.

We have a lot of support for the placer industry in Yukon. We had Black Wednesday last week where 100% of the businesses in Dawson City in particular showed their support for the placer industry in one way or another. I would like to congratulate Jorn Meier, the president of the Dawson City Chamber of Commerce; Lindsay Jordan, the executive director of the Dawson City Chamber of Commerce; Don Cox of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce; and Sandy Babcock, the executive director of Yukon Chamber of Commerce, for all their work in putting these events together that showed support for the placer industry. This included a luncheon banquet in Whitehorse that had to turn people away because there were so many people lined up to support this great industry in our history.

The placer industry provides taxes to the four orders of government: the federal, the territorial, the first nations and the municipal, which is very important for the City of Dawson of course, but also for the City of Mayo and other communities. Sometimes people leave out the first nations government which has selected lands for the revenues that it will generate from the placer industry, so it is important to the first nations as well.

With the unique funding formula that we have in Yukon, if we were to lose revenue from an industry, whether it is the placer industry or others, then the formula financing would kick in to replenish that. Therefore there are costs in other ways to the federal government if we cannot make sure that we support our industries.

As most people are aware, Yukon has one of the highest rates of unemployment, behind a couple of the maritime provinces at this point. We need all the support we can get to help the economy.

I have also met with the child care people since budget day. They are happy that there is more money for child care; $935 million over five years. They are hoping the provinces, the territories and the federal government will hurry up and get the agreement in place so they can start delivering. The present schedule for the first year will not make very much difference or create a lot of spaces. We would like to get that implemented as quickly as possible and with sufficient resources.

The $35 million extra for aboriginal early learning and child care is very important for my riding as well. The head start program, as an example, has been a resounding success. For years I have been trying to and have successfully achieved getting more money for that program. We have different groups in first nations communities around Yukon that would like one of these head start programs because of its success. In fact, just a few days ago I met with the Gwitchin people in the farthest community from Ottawa, Old Crow in the far north. They would like to start up a head start program.

I also want to acknowledge and support the comments of my colleague from Peterborough when he talked about all the educational items and the post-secondary education money in this budget. I was delighted to see the 2,000 extra scholarships for MAs and the additional 2,000 for PhDs.

The reason I raise this is that unfortunately we have just had the passing of the dean of Yukon College, Aron Senkpiel. His whole career was aimed at providing research in and for the north, for Yukon College as a northern academic institution. I am sure he would have been happy to see that the granting councils will also be asked to enhance their support for northern research as part of the increased funding they will receive in this budget. I remember meeting with him not long ago. He spent a lot of his life developing the University of the Arctic, which is a university of the circumpolar world done over the computer. That is a great institution. I hope that young people listening today will consider attending either Yukon College or the circumpolar University of the Arctic through the computer. It is a great legacy to Mr. Senkpiel.

As I said earlier, because of the state of our economy we always need to promote economic development in the north. This is partly done through infrastructure and it would be great if more funds could be attached to economic development in the three northern territories and in the northern parts of the provinces, but specifically in my riding of Yukon because of its low employment levels at the moment.

Something that is not related to the budget but which always causes us a hiccup, and which many of my constituents have mentioned to me, is to keep pursuing our work on the internal trade agreement. In British Columbia quite often there are regulations and licensing, especially for things related to trucking, which make it very difficult for our people to work in British Columbia.

Another item for which I lobbied and which I was delighted to see, and one that is very important for the north from my perspective, is the $175 million toward federal abandoned contaminated sites. Once again, it mentions specifically the north. It talks about the abandoned hard rock mines in the north. As members know, the hard rock mines leave tailings full of minerals like zinc which can be poisonous to fish. Now that these companies have gone bankrupt and left, a lot of work needs to be done to clean this up. It is of specific danger to our fishery. I was delighted to see work start in that area in a large way.

I was also happy to see the excise exemption for biodiesel fuel to clean up our atmosphere. I am sure most people were happy that we were able to preserve the largest tax cut in history, the $100 billion, and that will continue on as it was scheduled in previous budgets.

The resource industry in Canada, but specifically in the north, is very important. We were delighted to see the reduction in the resource tax from 28% to 21% and a deduction for mining royalties. Mining of course was the biggest economic generator in Yukon over the last century toward the gross territorial product. We were also delighted to see the new tax credit for qualifying mineral exploration. All these things will help the type of businesses that have existed and could exist in my riding.

The infrastructure, as I mentioned earlier, is always important in the north. We have difficult climatic conditions, with permafrost. We have long distances to build roads and sewers in this permafrost and we must compensate when it melts or freezes and try to stop it from melting and freezing. There are very few taxpayers in that distance so assistance for infrastructure is exceptionally important to us. We were delighted to see the increases in infrastructure: $2 billion extra for the strategic infrastructure program over the next 10 years and another $1 billion for municipal infrastructure. The Association of Yukon Communities and all the municipalities in the Yukon have been very effective in using the infrastructure program in the past and have great needs that they need to continue on with.

I was delighted to see that $32 million will go toward the environmental and regulatory assessment of a natural gas pipeline. This project, the Alaska highway natural gas pipeline, will be the largest project of its type in the history of the world. It will have a huge economic benefit for everyone and will create jobs in not only my riding but in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and most of Canada.

There was also an initiative to bring skilled immigrants to rural areas. In the past, as we know, immigrants have gone primarily to Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in large numbers. The small areas have a harder time accessing this talent.

Health care in my riding, as it is in others, is a very important consideration. We were delighted to see an increase in spending. We have some special challenges related to recruitment in the far north, related to human resources strategy, related to having access to specialists and hospitals in other provinces because we do not have major surgery hospitals in the north. As well, my constituents want waiting lists to be reduced. All that was done in the health care accord in those areas was good. I hope we will continue to look at the core costs of health care.

I have talked to my medical association since and the challenges are still in the core costs as we go on. Although there was a recruitment and human resources strategy for the future, the crux of the situation right now is that there is quite a shortage. Anything that can be done to alleviate that shortage in the immediate term would be very helpful. It goes without saying that the first nations health care increase of $1.3 billion is very important for my riding.

I was delighted to see the increase in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' green fund. I lobbied for that in every budget. It has been increased because we have done such an excellent job in protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gases with that program.

I mentioned the support for business. I mentioned a number of the tax provisions already. I mentioned the reduction in the national debt and the fact it is a balanced budget. Most of the businesses in our area are small businesses so they were quite happy to see the increase in the exemptions for small businesses so that when their tax rate is 12%, it goes from $200,000 to $300,000 a year, and that the capital tax was eliminated over five years, which many of them asked for.

I was very happy to see that many of the provisions, which touched many of the aspects of what people in my riding were concerned about and what people came to me about before the budget, were addressed.

Today I have spoken about some areas where things can be improved even more in the future for the people in my riding.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

Oak Ridges Ontario

Liberal

Bryon Wilfert LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, the member has had a long and distinguished career dealing with municipal issues in Yukon, particularly with the Yukon Association of Communities. I would like to clarify something by asking the member to comment.

There was some comment from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities after the budget about the infrastructure funding. I have a letter dated March 5 from the president of the FCM indicating that the budget in fact has many positive elements to it. He talked about the green enabling fund. He talked about a number of the issues, infrastructure as well, and the fact that the minister had mentioned a down payment on infrastructure.

In terms of the issue of improving the quality of life for Yukoners, particularly in communities, how does the member see the budget touching them specifically in terms of dealing with infrastructure and air quality? Perhaps he could elaborate on the green enabling fund. That seems to be of particular interest to a number of communities in Yukon.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, when the Liberal government came in, it started the infrastructure programs. There was no such program in the recent past. In Yukon it was very successful. There was a one-third sharing arrangement so that the municipalities, the territorial government and the federal government each put in a third.

As far as I remember, every single municipality in Yukon had access to those programs, whether they were for hockey arenas, sewer and water, or fixing roads damaged by permafrost. To indicate how bad it was, one of our communities replaced sewer pipes that were made out of wood staves. That illustrates how old the infrastructure was. The problem in the previous rounds of infrastructure funding was that it was done on a per capita basis. That of course does not go very far in the north.

As I said earlier, we have permafrost. We have very few taxpayers and they are very far apart. A couple of years ago the finance committee, and thanks to members of all parties who were on the finance committee, realized that type of formula did not work for infrastructure in the north. An increase in infrastructure funding has been fought for since I was at the Association of Yukon Communities and subsequently by president Glen Everitt, executive director Jim Slater and all the municipalities and the FCM. In the most recent round for strategic infrastructure, they were successful in receiving a base amount for the northern communities for infrastructure.

I am hoping the strategic infrastructure fund will not specifically be used for our Canada winter games contribution. There are all sorts of lists. Each territory has brought forward lists of millions of dollars for areas where infrastructure funding would be very helpful. It will improve the quality of life so that we can recruit and maintain workers, including health care professionals, for the projects that we need in Yukon.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

NDP

Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Yukon on his remarks regarding national parks and the child tax benefit.

I am pleased to see that he is one of the few Liberals who actually recognizes that although there is money going to national parks, it is simply not enough and he is hoping there will be more in the future. I congratulate him for that statement.

As he also knows, the major flaw of the child tax benefit program, which I think is a very good program, is that it still allows the provinces to claw back dollar for dollar. In Nova Scotia for example, the poorest people still do not have access to it because the province claws it back.

One of the good things, and I give the hon. Minister of Human Resources Development credit, is the compassionate care leave for palliative and serious rehabilitative care for only six weeks.

The member knows that on Thursday we will be debating Bill C-206, which is votable, which expands that particular initiative to the same benefits as that of maternity leave. This means if a couple has a child through natural birth or adoption, one partner can take a year of maternity leave to care for the child. On the other hand, if a couple has a child who is diagnosed with cancer and only has six to eight months to live, six weeks of this program simply will not be enough.

The bill that we introduced over five years ago would allow a parent to stay home with an ill child, for example, for the same duration as provided for maternity leave. I am wondering if he would support that type of initiative. We will vote in the House of Commons to move that bill to committee. I am wondering if the hon. member for Yukon, who is a fine member of the House of Commons, would actually support that type of initiative.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, I will comment on two items that the member raised. First, on palliative care, I think we were all pretty excited when the finance bill was introduced. I will look at the items the member has talked about and the rationale, arguments and the details in that debate. Anything that can improve that situation would be good.

In relation to the clawback, the member has raised a very good point. In the past we have had some good and bad experiences with the provinces. On some occasions, as the member has said, the provinces have taken the money and we did not attain the objective that we all agreed to fulfill, whereas there are other provinces that responsibly fulfilled the objective that we wanted. The money was for early childhood education and early childhood development although they may have clawed back to provide for other programs that do the same thing.

I am very sensitive to that issue as well. I would be very angry, as perhaps the member was, when those funds are designated for early childhood development and are used for something else. We will certainly fight to do anything we can to make sure that does not occur in this situation.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

NDP

Dick Proctor NDP Palliser, SK

Mr. Speaker, I will be dividing my time with my colleague, the member for Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore.

I am going to focus this afternoon on two important aspects of the budget, post-secondary education and agriculture. Before I do that I want to say a word or two in general about the budget itself and respond to the criticism from the Canadian Alliance, the C.D. Howe Institute, the Fraser Institute and other right-wing organizations that accused the government that spending was raised too quickly in its budget last month.

Au contraire, we would argue that with the enormous surpluses the government has been running, together with its perpetual ability to grossly underestimate said surpluses year upon year, the budget could have and should have done a whole lot more to make urgently needed social investments. When measured against the share of the overall economy, program funding continues to fall and remains well below where it was a decade ago. Federal spending for example has dropped from 16.5% of gross domestic product to just 11.4% over the past 10 years. This is a reduction that is equal to approximately $40 billion in annual spending.

I will now refer to post-secondary education.

This budget tells us that next year, the CHST will be divided into two separate transfers: a health transfer comprised of 62% of the resources, and another one designed to support post-secondary education and social service with 38% of the resources.

While health spending will increase substantially, funding for post-secondary education will decrease sharply, from $2.4 billion to $1.8 billion.

One must therefore wonder if the new spending for health announced with great fanfare is really new spending, or whether part of this spending comes from a reallocation of funds previously allocated to post-secondary education and social services.

The cutbacks to post-secondary education are unconscionable given what has happened to the levels of student debt and tuition fees in recent years. Average student debt when the government came to power was $13,000. Today it is over $21,000. Tuition fees have exceeded inflation by sixfold between 1991 and 2001.

The government responds by saying that tuition fees are a provincial responsibility, but what it cannot seem to get through its thick head is that it is federal cutbacks that have jacked up tuition fees. It is a cause and effect relationship.

Students and the rest of us realize every day that higher education has never been as important as it is today; new jobs are knowledge based. Yet, it is more difficult than ever to be a full-time student in Canada.

Over the past 20 years, the United States has increased funding for post-secondary education by approximately 20%, while Canada cut back support to colleges and universities by 30%.

For Canadians, this means higher tuition fees and debt loads and fewer students who can afford to attend university on a full time basis simply because they are forced to work part time to help defray their costs. It means crumbling buildings on university campuses because basic maintenance has been deferred due to the cash crunch. It means more reliance on sessional lecturers. It also means larger classrooms. Enrolments are forecast to rise by 30% over the next decade, and the government has to come to grips with that.

Are higher tuition fees keeping some students from attending university? One president told me last week that while the evidence is inconclusive, the data does reveal that children of families in the bottom quartile are not attending post-secondary institutions at the same high rate as those in the top quartile.

A number of solutions are obvious. Reduce costs by entering into genuine partnerships with provinces. Replace the millennium scholarship program with needs based grants. Relieve student debt by having the federal government assume interest costs on Canada student loans during the life of that loan. Eliminate all taxes on scholarships, grants and bursaries. If it is good enough for lottery winners in Canada to escape the tax man, surely it ought to be good enough for our students.

One meaningful solution would be to reduce tuition fees and provide a national system of needs based grants. Anything less is simply tinkering around the margins.

Let me turn briefly to the other subject, agriculture.

Although the government announced increased funding for crop insurance programs, food inspection, veterinary colleges and the Canadian Grain Commission, no new funds will go directly to farmers.

How can this be after the important announcement made by the Prime Minister last June? It is difficult for Canadian farmers to reach a consensus, but the current government has done the impossible.

Farm leaders are unanimous in their opposition to the business risk management proposal of the agricultural policy framework saying they are much worse off under these new proposals than what exists at the present time. It is elementary my dear Watson, the deputy minister, but with 22 major Canadian farm groups saying they have been ignored, the only farmers the department has not alienated are those it has not yet met. This is because the new NISA is nothing more than the old Canadian farm income plan and the government is demanding that more of the money for the new NISA come directly from a farmer's or a producer's NISA account.

In other words, even if some producers are in a better position following the creation of this new risk management program, it will be because they took risks with their own money. If they do not have the necessary funds, too bad for them.

In fact, the current government should increase its financial support for agriculture by $1.1 billion per year, over the next five years. Currently, there is no indexation, and this is totally ridiculous. This money would help farmers forced to compete with the treasuries of Washington and Brussels. This means $1.3 billion annually.

The budget makes passing reference to the problems of international subsidies in agriculture but once again fails to offer any solutions. It could be summed up as “we feel the farmers' pain”. Maybe the government should feel the pulse of farmers instead. If it does not do something and do it significantly and quickly, agriculture and the family farm as we know it will simply not make it.

Based on the Harbinson draft report on a new agricultural agreement at the WTO, it seems likely that in nine or ten years, a new agreement in this area will greatly reduce agricultural subsidies. But the current government carelessly assumes that our farmers will be able to survive another decade of unfair competition by foreign governments.

The government must recognize the damage done to farm families by American and European subsidies and protect the income of farmers.

Ottawa must consult openly with farm organizations, provincial and territorial governments to provide new safety net programs acceptable to the industry. It is time finally to show some grit and determination by challenging the Americans and the Europeans at the WTO.

The U.S. farm bill last year announced an additional $19 billion in farm subsidies which took the Americans to the outer limit, we were told, of what they could spend under the WTO rules. How is it then that they have just announced another package in excess of $3 billion to assist American grain and oilseed producers. The nervous Nellies across the way say we cannot take the U.S. to WTO court because the trade imbalance is so lopsided in Canada's favour.

We witnessed the contretemps that occurred on the split-run magazine issue when the Americans threatened to retaliate on steel. If that is the case then we should not have signed the agreement in the first place. Either we have rules that everybody signs on to and agrees to play by or we walk away from the agreement.

As the Prince Edward Island farmer told the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food a year ago, the way it is now under the WTO and the free trade agreement, Americans have rights while Canadians have obligations.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:10 p.m.

Liberal

Peter Adams Liberal Peterborough, ON

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague. The first part of his speech had to do with tuition fees and the role of the federal government in that field. The second part had to do with agriculture.

On the tuition fees, it is a fact by the way that it is provincial jurisdiction but it is also a fact that the government has done its very best to deal with the matter of access to universities and colleges across the country. The extraordinary thing is that in the province of Quebec, the Cegep, going to college is actually free. Here is one jurisdiction, with whatever changes the federal government has made, has been able to cope with it by making it free. I think is a very attractive thing to go to college, and post-secondary education is a necessity nowadays.

I think he has forgotten the improvements to the Canada student loan which are in the budget. He has forgotten the million students who will receive millennium scholarships. He has forgotten the funding of indirect cost of research which helps professors employ students and provide them with a meaningful living. He has forgotten the 4,000 graduate scholarships in the budget. He has forgotten 2,000 Canada research chairs through which the federal government directly funds the universities, going around the province. He has forgotten the large fund for aboriginal student education. He has forgotten the RESPs tax exemptions with grants for families planning to send their kids to school.

However, the remarkable thing is that he goes on to agriculture and then seems to forget his interest in post-secondary education. He forgets that in the budget, for example, the veterinary colleges receive direct support which is important for training young people in a key profession nowadays with global trade.

He mentioned one part of the agricultural policy framework. However he forgot that a substantial part of the APF is going to research which is a very traditional federal government function, and research is well accepted by farmers. Farmers know they need a strong research base to be competitive. I would like the member's comments on those things. Is he interested, by the way, in post-secondary education in agriculture?

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:10 p.m.

NDP

Dick Proctor NDP Palliser, SK

Mr. Speaker, the member for Peterborough was listening but he was not listening very carefully because I did deal with agriculture in the first part. I did mention that there was money for things like the Canadian Grain Commission, like veterinarian colleges and two or three other things to which the member referred. What I tried to say, and would stand by 100%, was that there was no money put into the pockets of farmers to help them out of an enormously difficult time, which has gone on for too long and for several years.

The point is there is less money coming up in the new budget with the new NISA program than was available under the old CFIP program. The government has managed to have 22 farm organizations saying that it should delay the agriculture policy framework, the business risk management plan, because it will not provide even the same very modest levels of support that the old AIDA program provided and more recently, the CFIP plan provided.

I did not ignore what the member was alleging but I was trying to put it in perspective that there is no money for Canadian farmers in the budget introduced last month.

With respect to post-secondary education, all the student organizations across the country are very concerned about the hikes in tuition fees, and it comes as a direct result. As I was trying to say in referencing this, there needs to be a partnership between the provinces and the federal government, not between the federal government and business or the provinces and business. Let us do it government to government. Let us get back to established program financing the way it was many years ago where it was mostly a fifty:fifty arrangement. We have gone a long way back from that on health care. We have gone in the same direction on post-secondary.

It is time that the federal government stepped up to the plate. Yes, money for research is good but it is the young people who are entering university, the undergraduates, the people in the liberal arts education who are not getting the same kind of access to education as they did in the past.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:15 p.m.

NDP

Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Palliser for his comments on education and agriculture but I would like to zero in on a couple of issues which the budget ignored.

A budget should reflect today's reality of the present as well as the future. Unfortunately, in my riding, and I am sure clear across the country, the budget has ignored completely the concerns of people on fixed and low incomes, those who are seniors and who are struggling to pay their heating bills. We certainly cannot say that it has been an exceptionally cold winter and that is why the prices of home oil and gas have gone up. This is consistent.

These people are suffering under the weight of heavy oil and gas prices. They are having to make some very tough choices. Those are choices that we as parliamentarians should not allow them to face alone. We as a government and as members of Parliament should be able to reflect their concerns and address their daily needs.

Another issue is the airport security tax. Even with a 40% reduction in the airport security tax, about $42 million will be taken out of the Atlantic economy. That is at the maximum. It will be up to $42 million. However the government is only putting back in anywhere from $6 million to $10 million for airport security. Where is the other $30 million to $34 million going? It is going into general revenues. That was a tax put on after 9/11 to convince Canadians that air travellers would have to pay more, even though it affected airport travel and the profits of airlines, to have enhanced security.

We agree with the fact that there should be enhanced security at the airports but the amount of money still being taken from consumers is affecting not only consumer travel but the profits of airlines as well. We are saying that the government should lower it even further. If a user fee has to be charged in that regard, a $5 charge, similar to that in the United States, will be much more acceptable and reflective of what is put back into security, rather than it going into general revenue which is meant for other areas.

Another concern that the government has completely forgotten about is a shipbuilding policy for Canada. We have tried and tried. I know my colleagues from Halifax, Dartmouth, Acadie—Bathurst and my former colleagues Gordon Earle, Michelle Dockrill and Peter Mancini, have been trying very hard to get the government to focus its attention on the need for a national shipbuilding policy.

I know the former minister of industry, Mr. Tobin, set up a committee which came up with a report called “Breaking Through: The Canadian Shipbuilding Industry”. It is a very good report but so far it has fallen upon deaf ears. We are not surprised by that because we have a finance minister who is quoted as saying that the shipbuilding industry in this country is a sunset industry. We could not disagree with him more. We are asking the government to refocus its energies and to put in a shipbuilding policy to keep our shipyards of Saint John, New Brunswick, Halifax, Marystown, Lévis, Quebec, Welland, Ontario and in Vancouver alive and well. These are very good paying jobs and the budget unfortunately has neglected that very important industry.

Regarding the military, unfortunately the $800 million that has been allocated to it will go to pay the credit card and current operations overseas. It does not address the structural concerns within the military of acquiring new ships, Sea King replacement helicopters and other aircraft for that matter. We are telling the government that if it built those ships in Canada, it could have a naval shipbuilding policy which would then spawn a very good domestic shipbuilding policy. We believe that would be the way to go.

It is interesting in 1993, when the Liberals came to power, there was a $42 billion deficit, yet they announced a $45 billion infrastructure program over four years. By the way, I give them credit for the $45 billion infrastructure program because infrastructure programs are very important for the country. However now in 2003, with an $11 billion forecast, they can only come up with $3 billion over 10 years.

I do not understand how on one hand the government can have a huge deficit and come out with more money over a shorter period of time, and have a huge surplus and come up with less money over a longer period of time. I do not understand that and that is why many cities are concerned about what is going on with the infrastructure program.

On the issue of national parks, a lot of people who work in the parks associations across the country were virtually assured that there would be at least $200 million in this budget, not only to preserve the ecological integrity of our national parks and wilderness areas, but also to include the 10 new national terrestrial parks and the five new marine parks.

Unfortunately, the budget was seriously lacking in sufficient funds for that. We can only hope that the government will realize the error of its ways and will understand that a good thing to do would be to get rid of the gun legislation, in my opinion, and use that money to fund national parks. That would be a very good legacy for the Prime Minister.

I know the Prime Minister has taken a special interest in parks. He has done it his whole life. I hope that before he leaves, he ensures that there is adequate funding to not only maintain the ecological integrity of the current parks that we have, but also the 10 new ones and the five marine protected areas.

One of the most important organizations in our country, especially where I come from on the east coast, is the Coast Guard. The budget announced $75 million over two years for the Coast Guard. Unfortunately, that would not even buy a brand new icebreaker, let alone meet the needs of our Coast Guard men and women. We must address this issue a lot more positively than we have been doing in this particular budget.

We need to have clear indications from the government that again with a proper shipbuilding policy we could build new Coast Guard vessels and icebreakers here in the country. We could put people to work and give them the enhanced security training that we require for the protection of our east coast in terms of fisheries violations, environmental violations, illegal immigrants and drug detection as well. I believe that would not be a liability to the government but an asset if it invested in that particular way.

I will give the government credit because for five years I have been working on a bill called compassionate care leave. Finally, after two throne speeches, after the Kirby report, and after the Romanow report--and I give the hon. Minister of Human Resources Development top notch credit for at least getting the finance minister to announce it in the budget--effective January 2004 there will be a six week program for compassionate care leave. Unfortunately, although it is a toe in the door--I would have preferred that it was a whole foot through the door--it simply is not enough.

We have the funding in the EI program to meet these needs. Bill C-206 which I introduced over five years ago, and which is being debated for third hour debate on Thursday, will be votable next Monday or Tuesday. It states that any couple, parent or relative who has a child or a relative under a palliative care situation can prevent them from going into an institution. For example, currently a husband and wife who have a child through natural birth or adoption, one of them can take a year off for either paternity of maternity leave. They have job protection and are able to care for that child in their home.

What happens if a couple has a child that is diagnosed with cancer and has six to eight months to live? What do they do then? Bill C-206 would offer that one of those parents, or any other relative, should be allowed to stay home with that child, have job security, and be with that child in the last days of its life. It would prevent the child from becoming institutionalized. It would offer job security to the family member. It would also give a little income to them as well because we all know the EI fund has quite a surplus in it. For every dollar that we would use on the EI fund to offset the lost wages of a particular individual, we would save $4 to $6 on the health care system because we would prevent that individual from becoming institutionalized.

This is one of the best programs that we could ever do in this country and I thank the government for doing that, initially at a very snail-like pace. I hope that all members of Parliament will support the bill and allow it to go to committee to have further clarification and discussion. If indeed that were happen, then the budget in that regard would be a good thing.

In closing, all of us should pray for peace in Iraq and pray for the people in the Middle East.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the member from Eastern Shore for his work on his private member's bill, but that is not what I want to talk about today.

He just made some affirmations that must be corrected. He was talking about the first infrastructure program of the government being $45 billion when we had a deficit. It was exactly $6 billion: $2 billion by the Government of Canada, $2 billion by the provinces and $2 billion by the municipalities.

It is important that if we are going to use numbers that are not accurate to then declaim a situation, that does not make sense. We must ensure that we use accurate figures.

The first infrastructure program was launched as a result of some of the work done by the member for Ottawa Centre and the member for Nepean--Carleton at the time, Mrs. Gaffney. It resulted in the federal, provincial, municipal infrastructure program of $6 billion, $2 billion to each order of government.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS

Actually, Mr. Speaker, my quote was $4 billion to $5 billion. However, if indeed we take what the hon. member is saying, that it was $6 billion, comprising $2 billion, $2 billion and $2 billion, is he then saying the $3 billion announced in the budget is $1 billion, $1 billion and $1 billion over 10 years? Is that the rationale that we are using? I just thought I would throw that back at him.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:25 p.m.

Oak Ridges Ontario

Liberal

Bryon Wilfert LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, following up on that, I would like to point out that the president of the FCM in his letter dated March 5 said yes, he initially had some concerns with regard to the infrastructure announcement and then said that he welcomed the clarification of the minister with regard to the fact that this was a down payment.

First of all, there had not been a 10 year program until this government came along. As the House knows, there was no infrastructure program at all until 1994 when, as my colleague mentioned, this government brought it in.

The president of the FCM also mentioned that the budget contained many positive elements including the extension of affordable housing initiatives and measures aimed at curbing child poverty and increasing child care funding.

I would like to point out to the hon. member that the Canada child tax benefit will double to $10 billion by 2007. In the budget for 2003 we will see an increase of $150 and $185 in 2005-06 which means it will go from $2,632 to $3,243 by 2007. This is certainly important in terms of the issues that I know the member has been concerned about.

I know that the member also mentioned the air security charge. I know that is an issue that continues to be of concern to that particular member and I appreciate his comments. The government has reduced it by over 40%. The government has made it clear that it is committed to ensuring the revenue from the charge is in line with expenditures, not to make money out of it, but obviously in line to ensure the enhancement of public safety when it comes to the airline industry.

I just want to put those comments on the table and welcome any further comments from the hon. member.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS

I thank the hon. member for his comments, Mr. Speaker, but if the need for it is a user fee neutral expenditure why then is the maximum of $42 million being taken out of the Atlantic economy and the maximum of $6 million to $10 million being put in for airport security. We still have about $25 million to $30 million extra that is going to general revenues.

If indeed the member is correct, then that money should be strictly for airport security and not going into general revenues. As well, the government has not yet addressed the fact that provinces can still claw back the child tax benefit.

The government of Nova Scotia still claws back the child tax benefit. Although the benefit is a good initiative, and the provinces do with it what they please, it still does not help the people who desperately need it. The federal government should have said to the provinces, “Thou shalt not claw back on a federal program”. That would have assisted those people especially single moms with children and those on low incomes and fixed incomes.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Irwin Cotler Liberal Mount Royal, QC

Mr. Speaker, a budget is not just a financial statement or a statement on the financial health of a nation, rather, at its core, it is a statement about the health of a nation as a whole. It is not just an accounting exercise, but a reflection and representation of the values and vision that inspire and underpin it, of the sense of who we are and what we aspire to be as a nation and as a people.

Accordingly, as the member for Mount Royal I am delighted that this budget gives expression to the values and voices, the humanistic vision of my diverse riding. In particular, it addresses those core values that have permeated every encounter that I have had in the constituency and upon which I initially presented my candidacy for elected office.

First, the need for a universal, accessible, comprehensive, publicly funded, sustainable and renewable health care system. Second, the understanding that education is not only inextricably bound up with the imperatives of a knowledge-based economy, but is the defining signature of a society. Third, that the protection of the environment is not only intertwined with the economy, but with the health of society as a whole. Fourth, that affordable housing is itself a crucial co-determinant of one's well-being. Fifth, as I have mentioned elsewhere, the question: Is it good for children? is not only the litmus test of a commitment to human rights, but a litmus test also of the normativity of the core values of a budget. Finally, that gender sensibility should be mainstreamed in the budget as it should be mainstreamed in all public policy, that women's rights are human rights as I have stated elsewhere, and human rights mean nothing if they do not also include respect for the rights of women.

I will address two priority concerns in this budget, health care and education, which reflect priority concerns in my riding as they do in my province as a whole.

During the course of a take note debate on June 11, 2002, in this Chamber, I identified eight strategic priorities for health care in my province and riding of Mount Royal. What I propose to do now is look at how each of these eight strategic priorities find expression in the budget.

The first and most compelling need, as I expressed then and restate now, is for an increased supply of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to meet current and emerging demands. Increased health care funding of $9.5 billion in cash transfers to the provinces and territories over the next five years could be used in part to hire these additional health care professionals, and $16 billion over five years to the health care reform fund would assist staffing concerns, as would $3.5 billion in the Canada health and social transfer to relieve existing pressures. There is still a concern expressed in the critiques of the Canadian Health Coalition, the Health Action Lobby, the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Healthcare Association that the funding is insufficient to address the human resources deficit in health care. This could adversely affect timely access to health care.

I am pleased that three of my strategic priorities namely, improving primary care, allowing for access to the right care, by the right provider, when and where they need it; strengthening of home and community care to relieve pressure on the more than one in five Canadian families who currently care for a sick or elderly family member in the home; and coordinating efforts to manage rising costs for pharmaceutical products, currently the fastest growing cost component of the health care system--and particularly an acute concern in Quebec--have found explicit expression in the budget in the form of $16 billion for a five year health reform specifically targeted to these concerns of primary health care, home care and catastrophic drug costs.

I am equally pleased that my four remaining strategic priorities namely, supporting the development of common indicators and monitoring so that we can measure, report and improve health care system performance; harnessing the potential offered by recent advances in information, Internet and communication technologies to enhance access to and better integrate the delivery of health services and electronic patient records; investing in new and enhanced health equipment like MRIs and CAT scans to reduce the wait time associated with diagnostic and treatment services and improve the quality of life; and renewing performance standards and expanding the use of standards also found expression in the budget.

These four strategic priorities have also found specific expression in the budget in the creation of a new Canadian health care transfer by April 1, 2004 to enhance transparency and accountability and ensure predictable annual increases in health transfers; in the $1.5 billion specifically earmarked for a diagnostic and medical equipment fund; in the $600 million to continue development of secure electronic patient records; and, in $500 million for research hospitals to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Governments have also agreed to create a health council that will report regularly to Canadians on the quality of the health care system so that Canadians can see how reforms are in fact being implemented and how their health care dollars are being spent; in effect, the institutionalization of an accountability principle in the budgetary framework.

The ultimate purpose of the health care accord, which was entered into on February 4 and 5 and which finds budgetary expression in the 2003 budget, is to ensure that Canadians have access to a health care provider 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This, in particular, will find expression in the increased ability and capacity for the CLSC, such as those in my constituency and elsewhere in Quebec, to have the human resource capacity and the other resources to deliver such services as timely access. Canadians need to have timely access to diagnostic procedures and treatment; have better access to quality home and community care services; and have access to the drugs they need without undue financial hardship.

If I am making specific and repetitive reference to the importance of access, it is because it is crucial to a health care system and to the qualitative character of that health care system that Canadians will not have to repeat their health history nor undergo the same test for every provider that they see; and that they will see their health care system as being what it aspires to be: efficient, responsive, adaptive and renewable to their changing needs and those of their families and communities now and in the future.

As well, the government will increase funding to address the specific health needs of aboriginal people. The health accord, which again finds expression in this budget, will, in addition to strengthening the equalization program and in light of improved federal fiscal circumstances which underpin the budget, the equalization ceiling will be permanently removed on a going forward basis.

I will now move to my second priority. Education is not only the motor that will drive our knowledge based economy but is an investment in our identities as peoples. I make that kind of reference because of the particular plural character of my constituency, one of the most multicultural constituencies in the country. In that sense, I am delighted in the singular budgetary investment in both access to post-secondary education and in excellence in university research, the whole with a view to establishing an educational system that is the best in the world.

I would like to make specific reference at this point to the budgetary investment and to the character of that investment in what will become a signature identification of who we are and what we can aspire to be as a people.

As we will recall, the government created the Millennium Scholarship Foundation to give young Canadians better access to post-secondary education. It established the Canada Foundation for Innovation to modernize the infrastructure of our universities. That has already awarded research grants to more than 2,400 projects, almost half of them in the health sciences, and it has created some 2,000 Canada research chairs to ensure that our universities can attract and retain the best faculties. I trust that these research chairs will also respond to the concerns that have been expressed about the need for a gender sensibility.

The budget also creates new ground. It creates new ground in the new investment specifically targeted which I think will make Canada a country that has the best educational system in the world and can compete on all levels with the best in the world.

Let me identify and enumerate, and for reasons of time I will do so telegraphically and enumeratively, the specific initiatives in this budget with respect to human investment and the investment in education.

First, the government will be increasing the budgets of the federal research granting councils by $125 million a year. Those federal research granting councils, and I speak here as a university professor, and the importance of that research will enhance in all levels of society the knowledge based economy as well.

Second, we will be institutionalizing a substantial federal contribution to the indirect costs of research, something that had been a concern of universities as they had expressed it to us and now is addressed in the budget.

Third, we will seek to help students better manage their debtloads by amending the Canada student loans program. At this point, protected persons in Canada, like convention refugees, can now be eligible for student loans.

Fourth, the budget will increase our investment in the Canadian Foundation for Innovation by $500 million, specifically for the infrastructure needs of Canada's research hospitals, and here it links up with the health care investor.

Fifth, it will extend new research funding to Genome Canada and the ALMA astronomy project.

Sixth, and of particular importance, and this too responds to a need that has found expression and representations made to us over the past years and that now finds protection in the budget, the government will create the Canada graduate scholarships program. When this program is fully in place it will support 2,000 masters and 2,000 doctoral students every year and it will support them at levels that make graduate programs in Canadian universities competitive with the best in the world. This new program, for example, will increase the number of graduate scholarships offered by the federal government by more than 70%, to around 10,000 a year, and 60% of the new scholarships will be in the humanities and social sciences, again addressing a certain disparity and responding to a concern as expressed to us by graduate students across the country.

Seventh, there will be a $12 million endowment for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation to help expand its scholarships for aboriginal students.

Eighth, we will be contributing $100 million toward the creation of the Canadian learning institute which will help Canadians to make better decisions about the education of their children.

Finally, and of particular interest and concern to my own constituency which has an increasing number of new Canadians in its midst, Canada's distinct knowledge advantage and its distinct capacity to make a singular contribution in a knowledge based economy is built by expanding the skills of our labour force and by helping all Canadians who want to work, including new Canadians, to apply their talent and initiative to productive enterprise. Therefore we will be investing $41 million over the next two years to help new Canadians integrate into our economy, whether in the form of second language skills, in faster recognition of foreign credentials, or in pilot projects to attract skilled immigrants to smaller communities across the country. Our objective is clear: a new level of opportunity and potential to contribute for all Canadians, particular young Canadians.

I would hope that the particular priorities that I identified of health care and education, among the other, what might be called, social rights basket concerns, which reflect and represent not only the core values and vision of my constituency but I suspect the province as a whole, can make a dramatic contribution to the human welfare and the human condition in the country while making us competitive internationally in a human sense as well as in an economic sense.

The BudgetGovernment Orders

5:45 p.m.

Liberal

John Bryden Liberal Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Aldershot, ON

Mr. Speaker, with the member's permission, given the world events just now, the prospect of war in Iraq and the profound financial and economic implications it might have, can he give us some sense of his feeling about where Canada is placed in terms of our economic prospects should the Americans unilaterally attack Iraq with the assistance of the British?