Mr. Speaker, I think you are doing a fine job. I am also a rookie. You are an experienced parliamentarian. I appreciate this opportunity to address the House this afternoon.
The resolution before the House requests the government to table a clear, detailed plan to show how and when it intends to balance the budget, including a clear statement of its vision of the role of the government in the economy in order for the people of Canada to debate the plan and vision.
We need that plan if we are to change the present course from government overspending to working within our means. To effect that change or any other change three things are required.
First, we must recognize the problem. As Andrew Coyne said so clearly in the Globe and Mail yesterday, the deficit is not the problem anymore. It is the debt. It was fine to aim for a balanced budget ten years ago, but $300 billion in debt later is simply inadequate. That is the problem, the debt and not the deficit.
The second thing that needs to be done to effect change is understand the implications of what will happen if we do nothing to solve the problem. Third is accepting responsibility to do what is necessary.
These are sound principles that all people who have anything to do with the change agree on and all sides of this House agree on. The grey book is full of sound principles but it falls short by failing to provide a means by which principles can be made practical. It is time that the government took control of accepting its own principles and put them into action, not just talking about them but showing the courage to act upon them. The key lies in knowing which principles are crucial, which principles will meet the challenge of reducing spending and create a dynamic economy.
First, knowledge and technology are the new natural resource. Second, translating knowledge and technology into practical, revenue generating services will provide jobs. Third, Canadians will require training and to continue to learn throughout their lives the skills necessary to harness the new natural resource. Fourth, regional development will be redefined and by doing so will redefine government relationships with industry where industry determines its requirements and is self-funding and lessens the reliance on government resources. Fifth, we need to
incorporate the global world into our marketplace and develop our exporting capabilities.
As associate industry critic for the Reform Party, I believe much of this responsibility will fall to the Minister of Industry. The Department of Industry will be integral in the development and implementation of the new natural resource. However the department has not yet adequately set its focus to accomplish that. It must do so before it will be able to set a responsible budget, and it will need to do that in consultation with the Minister of Finance.
We hope the program review currently under way will result in some answers. A noble start has been made in the recent science and technology review across Canada. If the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Finance truly recognize that knowledge and technology are the new natural resources of the country then we can reasonably expect to find answers to creating jobs and to reduce spending.
Industry must take the lead in job creation. The beauty of knowledge and technology based industry is that they are globally capable, prompting an expanded marketplace and a demand for a greater workforce. Industry in this way will generate employment.
Better implementation of research will foster development and Canada will begin to find practical ways of translating good ideas into revenue generation. With an increase in production and the revenue to support it, Canadians will be employed. Best of all, government will be able to reduce its expenditures.
With the creation of this new natural resource there will be no requirement for government to prop up industries and regions which have lost their economic livelihood through the depreciation of traditional resources. The new natural resource and knowledge and technology based workforce will no longer be indigenous to a particular part of the country. The have not status of some of the provinces will no longer exist. St. John's as well as Vancouver will be able to participate and benefit from the ability to farm the resource of knowledgeable people.
Costs to the government of $803 million in regional spending could be eliminated. Regional support which was created to lessen a reliance on traditional resources will no longer be required except on the very smallest of levels to assist industry through transition. In fact, the very notion of regions may well disappear and the restriction of provincial boundaries will be transcended out of necessity.
Industry will assume responsibility and take its rightful place as the generator of jobs and the patron of a sound fiscal environment. It is but one solution but a very important one. It will signal change, but a change that is essential and necessary. It will help government meet its main objective of reducing spending, creating employment, and ultimately fighting the debt. Only government can set the wheels moving in this direction but it must commit to these objectives and it must provide a plan.
As members in an employed society, Canadians will enthusiastically help to make that change. It can be done. I know it can be done. But we need the conviction of the government to do it, and we need it now.