Greg Thompson

[The Budget, May 9th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, that is coming from the member who fell asleep on this fund in his years in this place.

[The Budget, May 9th, 2006]

Again, Mr. Speaker, I could step through many elements of the budget, but at the end of the day we are providing real tax relief to Canadians and we are committed to a strong and vibrant economy.

The member may want to focus on unemployment, but we want to focus on employment. We support the program, obviously, and as members know, in my career in the House I have been up on that subject many times. At the end of the day, we want to put in a tax system that supports our workers, supports industry, and supports growth in the economy, along with education and training for our young people so that we will have the best trained workforce in the world. Those are some of the commitments we have made and obviously some of them are in the budget.

I am pretty proud of how our budget has addressed some of those very issues he mentioned. Again, I think it is very good news for the province of Quebec. I do not have the exact numbers here, but I have seen them. I think he appreciates them because he supported our budget initiative, obviously because it is good for the province of Quebec.

I am very proud of what we have done for his province. I am proud of what we have done for the other areas of the country as well.

[The Budget, May 9th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Barrie.

This is the first opportunity I have had to stand in the House with you in the chair, Mr. Speaker, and I congratulate you on your appointment as Deputy Speaker. You have had a long history in this place, dating back to 1979, and you have the respect of the House. Your seniority in this place is well recognized. It is nice to see you in the position.

This budget is a good budget. I have to reference it by going back to the Liberals of the past. After almost 13 years of missed opportunities and empty promises from Liberal prime ministers, Canadians can finally claim to have a federal government that not only reflects their priorities but respects their voice. This is a balanced budget, a Conservative budget, and it is about restoring the faith of voters who had started to grow cynical about politics and politicians. It is a refreshing change.

The budget is also about keeping election promises, a practice that some Canadians sadly were beginning to think had gone the way of the Edsel and the eight track cassette, both of which you can remember, Mr. Speaker, although perhaps I am getting off to a bad start with you by saying that.

Our budget provides about $20 billion in personal income tax relief to Canadians, more than the last four Liberal budgets combined.

We are reducing the GST from 7% to 6% and eventually to 5%.

On top of that, there is tax relief for seniors, students, working Canadians, commuters, apprentices, and parents with active children. With that last, of course, I am referring to the tax credit that parents will get when they enroll their children in sports activities. A healthy nation is important.

The budget is balanced and still pays down the national debt. More important, for every dollar of new spending in the budget, we have $2 in tax relief.

We have $3.7 billion for real choice in child care. That translates into $1,200 a year going to parents for every child under the age of six. This is sort of about the Liberal plan versus the Conservative plan, but of course the Liberals never had a plan. They were in office for 13 years, promised it through successive elections and never delivered. On top of that, they never built one child care space. That is their sad record.

We are also investing in safer streets and communities. The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Public Safety made some of those announcements last week. All of it will be coming to the floor of the House of Commons for debate.

There is new money for reducing health care wait times.

There is $16.5 billion for infrastructure.

There is $5.3 billion for defence over five years, including the recruiting of 23,000 regular and reserve forces members.

There is $2 billion more for farmers over two years.

As well, Mr. Speaker, and being a westerner you would know this, there is an additional $500 million for farm support, a one time investment of $1 billion for disaster relief, and accelerated use of the $755 million under the grains and oilseeds payment program, which was one of the first things we announced.

As Minister of Veterans Affairs, I am also pleased to announce that we have $352 million more for veterans in the main estimates. One of the arguments we sometimes hear in this place is that we cannot put everything into the budget announcement, but we have that $352 million for our veterans. Obviously, a lot of that is going to the implementation of the new charter, which every member in the House supported and continues to support.

As we well know, we get elected in our hometowns and our home constituencies, so I think it is important that I mention how this impacts on the province of New Brunswick. New Brunswickers, under our plan, will pay $183 million less in taxes next year. Families in New Brunswick earning between $45,000 and $60,000 a year will be better off by about $650 a family under our plan.

The universal child care benefit will provide New Brunswick parents with $50.9 million next year. Under the Liberals' plan, the one they never did actually enact, for New Brunswick their agreement would have resulted in $110 million for New Brunswick over five years, so that means approximately $5 million and some change a year versus our $50.9 million next year alone.

There is $16.5 billion for infrastructure, as I mentioned, with $13.9 million this year alone in federal gas revenues for New Brunswick municipalities.

There is $23 million to modernize New Brunswick's post-secondary institutions.

We have $9.4 million available immediately to improve the province's transit systems.

There is $18.4 million for affordable housing.

All this money spread over a province of only 700,000 people is significant.

There is an extra $18.7 million in new equalization payments for New Brunswick. We are committed to solving the fiscal imbalance, which the former government could not do. The present government is committed to this. We are going to do it.

As well, there is $4 million to be put toward reducing health care wait times in New Brunswick.

Also, I want to remind the House and New Brunswickers of some of the announcements that we have had in New Brunswick over the last number of weeks.

The Prime Minister was in New Brunswick on March 24. I was with him as we travelled around the province. He announced the following: $200 million for highways; $6 million for a new stadium in Moncton to host the world junior track and field championships; and $2.8 million for the Saint John Harbour cleanup.

This last is one where we have had a bit of controversy in the province of New Brunswick, because this is obviously $2.8 million more than what the Liberals ever provided for harbour cleanup in Saint John, New Brunswick. Their argument is that it is not enough. We agree, so we have made a commitment that we are going to work with the city of Saint John and the province of New Brunswick to see a completion of this project over the next number of years.

We are not going to be as the Liberals were in terms of making announcements only to have people find out that they were not real, that they were bogus announcements. For example, the harbour cleanup situation in Saint John was simply an announcement, a sort of deathbed repentance. It is something the Liberals announced without having cabinet authority or having gone through Treasury Board.

They went into the city of Saint John and made an announcement less than a month before the election simply for the sake of announcing it, but with no firm commitment. It is a file that the present member for Saint John fell asleep on a number of years ago when he was a member of the government from 1993 to 1997. We are committed to that project and, over the course of a number of years, we will get it done.

With only one minute left, I will mention what I think is also an important one: $21 million was announced through the Atlantic innovation fund for nine research projects in the province of New Brunswick, for a total value, with all the partners, of about $52 million.

We were the ones who came up with the moneys to help out our struggling agriculture industry, with real money to get the job done, and also with $5.5 million to help with the second phase of the Fundy Trail, a world class tourist attraction.

We have invested in infrastructure in many spots around the province of New Brunswick in the last number of weeks. We are totally committed to the province of New Brunswick and to this country of Canada.

We are doing the very best we possibly can. I think that is reflected in the budget.As I said earlier, I think it is refreshing that Canadians can actually see a government doing what it promised to do.

[The Environment, May 4th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, that member obviously fell asleep on the job. When we were in Saint John he obviously was asleep on the job as well because we were in his home town announcing real money for that project.

Not only did the Liberals fail on Point Lepreau and the harbour cleanup, they also failed our aquaculture industry where they promised money for the ag industry and delivered absolutely nothing.

The member's record is a record of failure.

[The Environment, May 4th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, that member is the guy that fell asleep on this file in his first term here in the House. That problem has been around for years. We addressed it. The Prime Minister was in Saint John, New Brunswick, along with the Minister of ACOA. We put real money into that project. The member put zero dollars in it. He put zero dollars into Point Lepreau. Bogus promises to New Brunswickers is the member's record.

[Veterans, April 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the member could in fact be speaking to the wrong minister in terms of this file. My job is to look after the veterans and to take care of that very hospital to which he is speaking.

The member is talking about a transfer of lands and properties. I believe his question should be directed at another ministry, not ours. Our commitment is to that hospital, to the renovation of that hospital and to the patients it looks after. That is our commitment, to the veterans, to the patients and to the hospital.

[Veterans, April 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that the Government of Canada is spending about $104 million on a modernization program at that particular hospital. In terms of the specifics, I will have to meet with the member to go over those.

However, I can assure the member that there is a major commitment by this government to proceed with the modernization of Ste. Anne's. It is an important part of our operation and we recognize that. Under the new charter there will be more important work to be done at Ste. Anne's. We have a total commitment to that hospital.

[Veterans, April 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the difference between our approach on agent orange and just about any approach that the Liberals have is that we have a plan and we have an objective in mind. I am working very closely with my colleague, the Minister of National Defence, to come up with a plan.

It has two parts to it and one of them is compensation. We are going to do our homework. We are going to do it on the basis of good information. We are working very carefully to ensure that our plan is a good plan as opposed to the one that the Liberals had on hepatitis C which still has not been clarified and is still in the courts. We are not going to allow that to happen. Our plan will be consistent with good government and fairness to all victims in terms of the exposure to agent orange.

[Veterans, April 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I made it perfectly clear yesterday that every member in the House of Commons deserves recognition for the implementation of the charter because every member in this House, from all sides, supports it, including the Senate. I was more than generous in pointing that out.

The real ownership of this belongs to our Canadian Forces veterans and the six major veterans organizations that really pushed the government to get this done. I thank all of those organizations and all hon. members.

[Interparliamentary Delegations, November 28th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34, I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian delegation of the Canada-U.S Interparliamentary Group respecting its participation at the National Governors Association 2005 annual meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, from July 15-18.

I would also like to present to the House, in both official languages, the report respecting the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group at the Council of State Governments, Eastern Regional Conference, 45th annual meeting at Montville, Connecticut from July 25-28.