Bill C-13 (Historical)

Budget Implementation Act, 2006

An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on May 2, 2006

Part 1 amends the Excise Tax Act to implement, effective July 1, 2006, the reduction in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the federal component of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) from 7 to 6 per cent. It also amends the Act to provide transitional rules for determining the GST/HST rate applicable to transactions that straddle the July 1, 2006, implementation date, including transitional rebates in respect of the sale of residential complexes where transfer of ownership and possession both take place on or after July 1, 2006, pursuant to a written agreement entered into on or before May 2, 2006. The Excise Act, 2001 and the Excise Act are amended to increase the excise duties on tobacco and alcohol products to offset the impact of the GST/HST rate reduction. The Air Travellers Security Charge Act is amended to ensure that rates for domestic and transborder air travel reflect the impact of the GST/HST rate reduction. Those amendments generally apply as of July 1, 2006.
Part 2 implements income tax measures proposed or referenced in Budget 2006 to
(a) reduce personal income taxes;
(b) increase the child disability benefit;
(c) increase the refundable medical expense tax credit;
(d) eliminate capital gains tax on charitable donations of publicly-listed securities and ecologically-sensitive land;
(e) reintroduce the mineral exploration tax credit for new flow-through share agreements entered into before April 2007;
(f) expand the eligibility criteria for the disability tax credit;
(g) expand the list of expenses eligible for the disability supports deduction;
(h) expand the list of expenses eligible for the medical expenses tax credit;
(i) clarify the eligibility of home renovation and construction expenses for the medical expenses tax credit;
(j) double the amount of disability-related and medical expenses that can be claimed by a caregiver;
(k) introduce a tax credit in respect of adoption expenses;
(l) introduce a tax deferral for shareholders of agricultural co-ops;
(m) reduce corporate income taxes;
(n) eliminate the federal capital tax; and
(o) extend the carry-over period for non-capital losses and investment tax credits.
Part 3 amends Schedule I to the Excise Tax Act to repeal the excise tax on clocks, items made from semi-precious stones and items commonly known as jewellery, effective May 2, 2006.
Part 4 amends the First Nations Goods and Services Tax Act to facilitate the establishment of taxation arrangements between the government of specified provinces and interested Indian Bands situated in those specified provinces. It also amends the Yukon First Nations Self-Government Act to provide transitional income tax measures consistent with negotiated agreements.
Part 5 amends the Excise Tax Act, the Excise Act, 2001, the Air Travellers Security Charge Act and the Income Tax Act to harmonize various accounting, interest, penalty and related administrative and enforcement provisions. These amendments will apply based on an implementation date that is the later of April 1, 2007, and Royal Assent. It also amends the Excise Tax Act to confirm that debt collection services that are generally provided by collection agents to financial institutions are not financial services for GST/HST purposes and are therefore taxable for GST/HST purposes.
Part 6 enacts the Universal Child Care Benefit Act to assist families by supporting their child care choices through direct financial support to a maximum of $1,200 per year in respect of each of their children who has not attained the age of six years. It also makes consequential and related amendments to the Income Tax Act, the Employment Insurance Act, the Children’s Special Allowances Act and the Old Age Security Act.
Part 7 amends the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act to determine the amount of the fiscal equalization payments to the provinces and the territorial formula financing payments to each of the territories for the fiscal years beginning after March 31, 2006 and to authorize the Minister of Finance to make an additional fiscal equalization payment to British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, and to make an additional territorial formula financing payment to Yukon and Nunavut, for the fiscal year beginning on April 1, 2006.
Part 8 provides for a total payment of $650,000,000 to the provinces and territories for the fiscal year 2006-2007 in respect of early learning and child care. It provides for payments to the territories for the fiscal year 2006-2007.
Part 9 authorizes the Minister of Finance to enter into an agreement to provide protection to mortgagees in respect of mortgage insurance policies that are provided by a mortgage insurer that is approved by the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to sell mortgage insurance in Canada. It also fixes the maximum amount of such protection and determines how that amount can be changed.
Part 10 extends the sunset provisions of financial institutions statutes by six months from October 24, 2006 to April 24, 2007.
Part 11 amends the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act, Public Service Superannuation Act and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act to change the existing formula by which adjustments are made to a contributor’s annuity.
Part 12 enacts the Mackenzie Gas Project Impacts Act, the purpose of which is to create the Corporation for the Mitigation of Mackenzie Gas Project Impacts. The corporation will provide contributions to regional organizations that will fund projects that mitigate the existing or anticipated socio-economic impacts on communities in the Northwest Territories arising from the Mackenzie gas project. The Part also provides that a payment of $500,000,000 may be made to the corporation and adds the name of the corporation to the schedule of certain federal Acts.
Part 13 amends the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Agreement Act to permit the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to carry out its purpose in Mongolia and to allow the Governor in Council to amend, by order, the schedule to that Act. It amends the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act to increase the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation’s legislative borrowing limit from thirty million dollars to fifty million dollars. It also amends the Public Sector Pension Investment Board Act to create share capital for the Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Budget Implementation Act, 2006

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is a mystery to many Quebeckers as to why the Bloc support the budget. The member gave two reasons I would just like to ask him about.

First is the assistance to students. Does the member really think that the $80 for books is serious compared to the $6,000 for tuition that we were offering?

The second is on transit. As the member knows, we provided billions of dollars in direct subsidies to expand the transit systems. Does he think that would be a better expenditure of the money than just providing reimbursements for transit passes for people who are already riding on very crowded transit systems?

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will first address the second point raised by my colleague.

As for the environment, neither the Liberal nor Conservative government has had clear messages and programs to improve the situation. At this point, we are even regressing. We have moved from a government that claimed to support the Kyoto protocol but did not take satisfactory measures to meet it--and public transit was a factor--to a government that refuses to meet the obligations of the protocol, although it proposes certain measures--with respect to public transit--that are satisfactory. However, in terms of all of the measures needed to improve the situation concerning the environment, a lot of work remains to be done.

The Bloc Québécois is very anxious to see how the government will use the $2 billion that has been set aside. That said, there is no doubt that the Canadian and Quebec population wanted a change in government. It was wise enough to elect a minority government and it can now see the Bloc's responsible attitude. I am very confident that the public will receive the message loud and clear, and will see that the current model of government provides the greatest opportunity for Quebec, should it remain part of Canada, to have its say. Nevertheless, Quebeckers are fully aware that there will be no resolution as long as we represent only 25% of votes and are entitled to only 25% of budgets. We need 100% responsibility. Only then will Quebec be sovereign.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, being a very positive person, it is hard to get into my new role of being a critic, but I will make an attempt.

The title of my speech today is “Lament for a Nation” because there is a new government with a new throne speech and a new budget that are so prejudicial to the vulnerable, to the poor, to the students, to the environment, to artists, to aboriginal people. With the duplicity of some opposition parties and in spite of the national media's attempts, members of the public are not yet fully aware of this sad lament.

The first people I want to lament for are the Quebeckers who supported the Bloc.

Quebeckers believe in public transit, affordable housing, training, post-secondary education and foreign aid, yet on June 23, the Bloc betrayed Quebeckers and voted against all these things. We can see the results. There was a dramatic drop in the polls and the unimaginable happened: the Conservatives won Quebec City.

As if the Bloc did not learn a lesson from this, they did it again. Quebeckers did not ask for a budget that was built on the backs of the most vulnerable, the students, that increased income tax for the poor, that abolished Kyoto, abolished Kelowna and abolished national child care that took hundreds of millions of dollars from Quebec and that did nothing for older workers and their perceived fiscal imbalance. Yet the Bloc members betrayed their voters again. They betrayed Quebeckers.

Now I want to talk to my colleagues, the Liberal members from Quebec. They can be proud of always supporting those who are vulnerable, the environment, the poor, students and the native peoples.

Quebeckers believe in these and can be proud that they have had Liberal deputies who have steadfastly fought for these in the wake of a devastating Conservative budget, which did little to strategically support these.

Lament number two is for the NDP. The supporters of NDP members were delighted when the rare circumstances evolved that gave this small party the balance of power. We worked together to make even greater gains than the Liberals had already made in public transit, affordable housing for aboriginal people, training, foreign aid and great social progress. Then they threw it all away and, in partnership with the Conservatives, set the stage for the election of a Conservative government. A number of their supporters were furious. We lament for the true social reformers who the NDP abandoned.

The NDP tried to blame the public. It was not the public who pulled the plug early on Parliament before Kelowna could be implemented and before the national child care agreements were realized.

I will never forget a man who came into my office during the election campaign, a lifelong NDP supporter, who said that he and his wife would be voting for me for the first time.

Most astonishing in our lament of NDP voters is their party's duplicity in not fighting strenuously against a throne speech that had virtually nothing in it for students, for labour unions, for women, for the environment, all areas for which the NDP used to strenuously fight.

I want to turn now to the national media. I do not lament for the national media. I think it is great. It does tremendous research and comes up with very exciting and intelligent articles. I am wondering, as a media that prides itself as being the unofficial opposition, if it is lamenting a bit when we have a budget that offers trinkets which are all overblown in their importance. I think a Bloc member mentioned earlier in debate that some of the offerings were worth about a cup of coffee and so prejudicial to the vulnerable. Yet the Tories are still riding so high in the polls. I will provide examples of these two cases.

The first example of a trinket is the $80 for books. The Liberal Party provided millennium scholarships with thousands and thousands of dollars to thousands of students. This was the biggest scholarship program in history. Just recently, the Liberal government offered $6,000 per student for tuition and $12,000 for poorer students.

A Conservative member was asked by a Liberal member what the budget did to help low income single mothers. The Conservative said that they could go back to school with the $80 for their books. I phoned a college bookstore and asked for the price of three books. It was $110, $134 and $160. A person could not even buy three-quarters of a book.

An example is the most vulnerable is aboriginal people. It says on page 112 of the budget that the budget of Indian Affairs has grown about $350 million a year because there is a growing population and inflation. How much did the government increase the budget? The Conservatives increased it $150 million, which is less than 50% of the average of previous governments. What is $150 million of the $5 billion that the Liberal government offered for Kelowna? It is one thirty-third of that amount. When reporters asked where the $5 billion went, what answer did they get? The previous Liberal government had it all set aside.

Finally, my lament is for the Conservatives. This is a party that was once progressives, but it gives Canadians a budget that preys on the vulnerable. I have to compliment the Conservatives for the item that increases money to charities. That is good. In general, the Conservatives tell students that $80 is a good deal compared to the $6,000 that the Liberal government was offering.

The Conservatives complain about smog and then cut 15 climate change programs that help reduce smog. They cut the $4 billion worth of clean air and climate change programs and replace it with what we call in sports “future considerations”. There is only half the money, $2 billion, for ideas that have never come forward yet and no plan.

The Conservatives broke faith with the aboriginal people of our country when they broke faith with the premiers and the leaders of first nations. The Conservatives do nothing more than Bill C-48 to help the poorest people in the world.

The Conservatives cannot come to agreement on military equipment.

The Conservatives, as per on page 218, will increase income tax for the poorest in society from 15% to 15.5% on July 1 of this year. The Conservatives have reduced the basic personal exemption, again most severely affecting the poor, as per again on page 218. It is amazing that the Department of Finance allowed them put this line in the budget. It says that the government will give the poor a break on the GST and then it takes it back. It says and I quote page 218:

The basic personal amount will be reduced by $400 to...on July 1, 2006 at the same time as the GST rate is reduced.

The Conservatives will once again, like the Sheriff of Nottingham, take away from the poor by eliminating the young child national supplement for low income people.

Conservatives ignore rural people in their budget and almost taunt them. They kept one Liberal rural program, the rural infrastructure program. They give one example in the budget of this rural project. Let us see what they say. Remember that rural Canada is 95% of the land mass, so what project did they pick for their one example?

This will allow this fund to support further improvements to municipal infrastructure, such as the Evergreen Commons at the Don Valley Brick Works in Toronto.

That is a great project and a great symbol of the Conservatives' lack of commitment to rural Canada.

The Prime Minister, during the 2006 election, mocked some agreement as politicians paying politicians. Then the Conservatives do exactly the same thing by taking $1 billion from our students and giving it to provincial politicians. That is politicians paying politicians.

The Conservative government does not support culture. It has cut the increases to artists by two-thirds. The Conservative government, after the Liberal government gave very large support to people staying at home through the national child benefit, gives as little as 55¢ a day or 14 minutes of day care.

The Conservative government sold the future of our children by cutting increases in R and D by as much as 90%.

There may be some low income people who get a slight reduction in taxes, but the fact is they are the only level of people who are also given income tax increases. Last night I bought a quart of milk for $2.29. For 55¢ a day, a low income person could quit his or her job and buy a quarter of a litre of milk for the children. Is that being better off? I agree that the wealthy and businesses should get tax cuts, but they should be fair tax cuts. They will get thousands of dollars back.

We can see why the throne speech and budget are described as a lament for a nation. The nation I was raised in and am proud to represent is one of generosity, where everyone, corporations, small business, the wealthy, the middle class and the poor all benefit from the record benefits of Canadian prosperity. A rising tide raises everyone equally.

It was a nation trying to come to peace with the aboriginal people and reduce their disparities. It was a nation that supported national parks, child care, research and development, clean air programs and the cultural achievements of our artists, whose dreams were to bring to reality what the United Nations said was the best country in the world.

Instead we have a nation whose government has had the richest inheritance in history, yet has given some small general tax breaks and then claws them back with increased taxes to one group of Canadians and one group alone, the poor. This is why indeed today we lament for a nation.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague's comments across the way. It is highly ironic that he used the phrase “lament for a nation”. Is he aware that it was written by a famous Canadian by the name of George Grant? He lamented the fact that the over decades the Liberals had given away many of Canada's great traditions, given away what he saw as the heart and soul of what it meant to be Canadian, not simply a country limited by its geography, but a country that was also imbibed with the spirit and ideas that came out of centuries of conflict and resolution, centuries of working together across a vast, inchoate land.

Does the member know that Lament For a Nation. The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism was written by George Grant a number of decades ago? It criticized the Liberal Party and suggested that the vehicle for preserving Canada's traditions and its great past into the future was the Conservative Party?

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, taking away the things that Canada is all about is exactly why we are lamenting a nation today.

When they had the fiscal capacity and the greatest surplus in history given to them, why could Conservatives not let everyone increase at the same rate? Why would they tax the lowest income people? Is that part of what being Canadian is?

The wealthy and the corporations in our country are very generous. They donate to all kinds of things. They never would have asked that they get tax cuts and that low income people not get the same level of tax cuts. They never would have asked that we destroy the peace and harmony of a historical agreement, which was so hard to come by, with the premiers and the first nations leaders. They never would have asked for this change in our country and the spirit of this nation. That is why it is a lament for a nation.

[Christian Ouellet, Bloc, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the hon. member for Yukon why he is congratulating the Liberal members from Quebec, when they did so poorly in the recent election.

I was elected in a riding that had been Liberal, where they discovered that the Liberal Party really did not have significant and worthwhile solutions to propose to Quebec. We are wondering now how is it he feels that the Bloc Québécois is acting irresponsibly by supporting the minority government's budget.

Had we not voted in favour of this budget, an election would have been called, to the distress of the member for Yukon.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, he talks about how the Liberals did in Quebec. They did better than the Bloc Québécois. It thought that it would gain all sorts of seats, but lost them instead. It did not get anywhere near what it was projecting because last June it voted against public transit, affordable housing, training, post-secondary education and foreign aid, all the things in which Quebeckers believe.

Now it has supported a budget that, once again, is lacking all sorts of things in which Quebeckers believe such as strong support for students and increased income tax for the poor. It abolished Kyoto. I think 90% of Quebeckers believe in Kyoto. The Bloc voted for a budget that abolished Kelowna. Quebeckers have been very supportive of aboriginal people. The budget abolished a national child care program that was bringing hundreds and hundreds of dollars to Quebec. It enhanced the fiscal imbalance of Quebec by taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from it. That is why the Bloc is doing so poorly.

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is very interested in the environmental implications, with respect to programs that have been slashed in the budget, as they affect the north, certainly the FedNor programs and programs related to the Canadian rural partnership.

Would the member like to expand for a moment on how slashing those programs is going to affect the north at a time when we are looking at the north as being one of the great frontiers that will add considerably to the value in our Canadian economy in the future?

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, I will be elaborating on that in my speech at 6:30 p.m. I would say the north has the highest climate change in the world. It is devastating. Our species are changing, as well as the ice roads on which our economy depends. It has more effect on us in the north.

The cancelling of 15 environmental greenhouse gas programs is affecting the north more dramatically. Species like polar bears will become extinct. It is affecting us more than any other Canadians. That is why we need the support of the government, not to cancel all these things without putting anything in place as we become more and more devastated in the north.

[The Acting Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

It is my duty, pursuant to Standing Order 38, to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Yukon, Indian Affairs and Northern Development; the hon. member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, Softwood Lumber.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to the budget implementation act.

I will start by making some corrections that I think are important in terms of the revisionist theory that is happening on the Liberal side with regard to what brought about an election. I also want to point out that the Liberals still have not learned a sense of responsibility regarding their conduct in the last Parliament in promising one thing to Canadians and then delivering another.

It is amazing to hear that the timing of the election was solely brought on by the NDP, when the fact of the matter is it was the member for LaSalle—Émard who literally went on television and begged for his life. There was only three weeks difference in when we actually had the election. He begged across this country. He set a precedent. It was the first time a prime minister had used the national media to ask for time so that the Liberals could actually bring something forward. The reality is there was only a three week difference. What else is amazing is at that time even if we had chosen to support the Liberals, there still would not have been enough votes in the House of Commons to prop them up.

The fact is the Liberals have really missed the point that Canadians made a decision. Canadians made a decision and their votes should not be taken for granted. They have that right.

What we have now is a budget which in many respects reminds me of the budgets that the member for LaSalle—Émard put forward in the late 1990s which focused on tax cuts for corporations as opposed to investing in Canadians. That is one of the reasons as a New Democrat I cannot support the present budget bill. It does not invest enough in Canadians. At a time when we have record surpluses we still have outstanding challenges.

One area I want to focus on today is the manufacturing sector. An industrial strategy has been repeatedly called for. We have witnessed the struggles of the aerospace and textile industries which are very important economic engines for the Canadian economy. This goes back to prior to the rise in the Canadian dollar. The rise in the Canadian dollar is in large part due to the high oil and gas exports to the United States. Those are having a significant impact on the dollar which has a subsequent impact on manufacturing in Canada.

Studies, the most recent of which was on January 27, have shown that with the labour market shifts in manufacturing, construction and natural resources, we are witnessing one of the biggest downturns in Canadian manufacturing history.

I come from Windsor, Ontario. The automotive industry traditionally has paid a lot of money into the federal government coffers through personal and corporate taxes, which has benefited this country significantly. That industry is at risk for a couple of reasons. There is no public policy of framework on how to increase the capacity to create manufacturing jobs and keep them going forward or, more importantly, incentives regarding employment on the shop floor.

The United States has incentives, economic relief and strategic elements for training as well as incentives for infrastructure which capture Canadian jobs. That is a real risk here. We know with the dollar going up it has had an significant impact.

In a study from 2002 to 2005, before we actually had a significant shift in the Canadian dollar which is further problematic, manufacturing jobs fell by nearly 149,000, representing a 6.4% loss during that time. This is significant because once we lose those jobs they are gone.

It is interesting that in the budget plan a chart on page 32 indicates a steep decline in manufacturing employment from 1970 to 2005. The decline is represented by a downward slope so steep that someone could ski jump off it. Unfortunately, we have not been doing anything to push that rate back up again. We have not done enough.

Interestingly, in the budget plan there is a graph showing immediate crude oil prices, but we witnessed the exact opposite. On budget day it was over $75 a barrel which is a significant increase. That pushes up the manufacturing issues relating to productivity which are so difficult to deal with. There are the elements of a higher dollar that had traditionally been relied upon as a crutch by the government without an actual strategy.

Potential solutions have been proposed. The Centre for Policy Alternatives has a good one. I am going to outline a few of the things where the budget does not allocate or speak to the auto sector which is very important. There are simple things we could do.

We could establish a multi-stakeholder sectoral development council. We did that in the past with CAPC recommendations. The Canadaian Automotive Partnership Council got together to create a national strategy. Everyone is on side, from business to labour to municipalities. It is a comprehensive strategy.

What is interesting about this budget, which reminds me once again of the regime of the member for LaSalle—Émard, was that a previous Liberal minister, the member for Vancouver Kingsway, could have acted on the CAPC recommendations. It is a model that is spoken about. He had an opportunity to act on it and he chose not to. At committee I challenged the then Liberal minister of industry, science and technology to bring forward an automotive manufacturing strategy. He promised on two different occasions that he would bring that back. He did not deliver.

What is interesting is that the member has now moved over to the Conservative Party as the Minister of International Trade. Why did he not bring the work related to the budget and auto policy with him? Will it come? We do not know. We have not heard. It is not in the budget. It is not in the speaking points. The Minister of Industry has been virtually silent. It is certainly not one of the five priorities. A convincing case could be made, but we have not heard about this very important file.

I cannot understand it. The member for Vancouver Kingsway carried the softwood lumber position that was constructed under the Liberal regime over to the Conservative side. The softwood lumber issue was basically trade crime against Canadians but he did not bring forward a piece of legislation for the automotive sector and the manufacturing sector at one of the most sensitive times. It is an interesting point in time because we have newer technologies. We hear a lot about the potential tax credits and some of the structures that could be put in place to move newer technologies from shop floors into manufacturing, but where is the sectoral strategy to deliver that? We have yet to hear.

I am very pleased that the industry committee has agreed to study manufacturing losses and jobs in the upcoming session of Parliament. It is a priority. It is very important, but we need to do more.

Another aspect is we could review the Canadian investment act to ensure that incoming foreign investment generates significant benefits in the public interest. This is something that has been put forth with regard to China Minmetals. China Minmetals was going to purchase Canadian companies. We objected to that. It was shot down at committee. We had tried to put that forth at that time. We now hear grumblings that the legislation might come back for amendment. We might have an interest in that. We need to look at that in terms of what type of export of Canadian jobs is happening.

This is not foreign to Canada. In the United States, congressmen and other legislators are looking at similar types of changes to their legislation and ownership rules. We have seen that most recently with Dubai and with other types of initiatives relating to manufacturing. Hopefully we will see that type of review come forward, and not just in terms of what I raised at industry committee. We talked a lot about safety and security and national security issues but there still is nothing today in our foreign investment act that prevents rogue nations, when we define them as rogue nations, from actually buying Canadian companies. Some of them could be sensitive strategically involving telecommunications and natural resources and could have a significant impact on the Canadian market and on manufacturing here and abroad. There is nothing in there. Currently all the information is kept private and there is no recourse for members of Parliament or the public to get the information.

Another thing that we are calling for, and I would have hoped to see a comment on this, is in regard to the free trade talks with Korea. There is a significant problem with regard to the automotive industry. Right now Korea has a significant trade surplus with us in the automotive sector that we cannot penetrate. We would like to hear about those things.

In closing, another very important issue which comes into play is the western hemisphere travel initiative. We never saw anything for the tourism sector in this budget to the detriment of our economy and our tourism sector. That should be in the budget as well.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, coming from Oshawa, I share my colleague's passion about the manufacturing sector and the automotive industry. I was hoping he could clarify the NDP's position for me. In this budget we gave out significant tax cuts to all corporations and all businesses to make them much more competitive internationally. It seems that the NDP members are consistently against these types of tax cuts.

Even the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters said that this is actually the best budget for manufacturers in the past five years. It has things in it for border infrastructure. The member mentioned the CAPC report.

I wonder if he could help clarify this one point for me because it is something I have been trying to understand for the last few years. How can the NDP be against tax cuts for large corporations when these corporations create so many jobs for Canadians and tax cuts allow the corporations to compete internationally? How can the NDP be against that when this budget is the best one in the last five years for that?

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's question and his interest in the auto industry, but the reality is that the tax cuts are not even the number one thing the corporations are asking for. Looking at the CAPC report, tax cuts are not the priority. It is infrastructure and other things.

What is interesting about the budget and the infrastructure that is being delivered is it is over five to six years. We know from history that the length of minority governments is a couple of years at best. We have only seen a renewal of funds. We have not really seen significant improvements in border infrastructure. Coming from Windsor West, I have heard it all in terms of promises for infrastructure which are never delivered.

With regard to tax cuts, I would ask the hon. member to go back to his constituency and ask why it is that they support continuing a $1.5 billion tax cut or subsidies for the oil and gas industry and why those companies are not exempted in this respect. Canadians see the record profits in the oil and gas industry. All the companies have record prices at the pump and they are going to get another tax cut. That does not make any sense.

Yes, we can have some good tax cuts, there is no doubt about that, but they have to be strategic and they have to lead to good jobs for Canadians, enjoyed by all, not just a select few.

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member. In the time I have been listening to this debate in the House, he is one of the few members to have linked the strategic part of the budget that either will nurture and cultivate manufacturing jobs and high value activity or it will not. The member quite frankly has come down on the side that it will not.

We all understand that Ontario, particularly the part of Ontario that the member comes from, is a catalyst to creating equalization that is being redistributed to the rest of the country. The manufacturing base is fundamental to that.

I wonder if the member could further elaborate on how the budget has not acted as that catalyst, particularly for the transportation and engineering sectors that he knows so well. Perhaps he would like to take a moment to emphasize how strategically unprogressive this budget is in acting as a catalyst to investing in the transportation sector.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is really important not to underestimate the value of sectoral strategies in transportation and the environment. Coming from my area with regard to auto manufacturing we know that if we can advance newer technologies onto the road quicker, we are going to significantly improve our air quality as well as maintain investment in jobs that are very significant in enabling people to purchase homes, send children to school, contribute to the United Way. All that is at risk.

What is worse is that by not moving this technology to manufacturing in our own country, we are witnessing other countries doing that. For example, in China and Southeast Asia we are witnessing significant problems with Canadian technology not being moved as quickly as others. That is unfortunate. We have great Canadian success stories but we have to have sectoral strategies. I would argue those strategies should be tied to national goals and national issues. Air quality would be one.

My region has some of the dirtiest air in the country which is tragic because half of it comes from the United States. The other half comes from local industry but what we can control locally is very significant. We should mitigate and lower that. The budget does not do that because it does not have sectoral strategies. That is what is needed to really move stuff from the classroom to the manufacturing shop floor which once again would return payments to Canada's coffers.