Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak in support of the budget. The budget is about jobs. It is about opportunity. It is about a new path away from the past, the path of unemployment, of poverty, of stress. It is about a new path for the future which involves new technology and growth for our economy.
It is about new initiatives such as the Canadian investment fund. This fund will be sponsored by the banks as well as governments in a supportive partnership to find and finance new technology for new jobs.
It is about a technological network, where we encourage the use of technology and people getting these technologies together to create new wealth.
It is also about a study into our pension funds, how we invest our money, and how we can utilize that money in our economy.
If we reduced unemployment by 4.5 per cent we would create $70 billion, more than enough money to pay off our deficit, to create a surplus, to put people back to work. That is the long term goal of the budget.
We talk in the budget about a new code of ethics for the banks and how they deal with small businesses. We have heard constantly of how small business enterprises are having difficulty raising capital. Why should this be? After all, that is what banks do for a living. One thing we have not focused on very effectively is that the government is competing in the capital markets with small business. A $500 billion deficit means the government competes in the market for the same supply of funds to finance small businesses.
People have not realized how our economy has changed over the years. When we think of British Columbia, we think of the forestry. There are more people employed in medical research in British Columbia than in the forestry. When we think of Nova Scotia, we think of the fishery. There are more people employed in teaching in Nova Scotia than in the fishery. The banks we talk about have only 6 per cent of the capital base of the country.
In some ways we are going at this in the wrong way. I suggest that we need to take the studies that are mentioned in the budget to review pension funds and how the savings of Canadians can be more effectively used to support the economy. The budget refers to research and development initiatives, more expenditure on things like the space program. This will put Canada into the 21st century.
My hon. friend, the minister of state talked earlier today about the information highway and how this is going to bring Canada into the 21st century, linking up our small communities, linguistic groups and things of commonality throughout this country, making this nation strong and whole again.
Why does the government have to get involved in all these things? Why has this become a problem? Why have we come to this point in our history where we are living through this deep recession? I suggest it is partially the psychology of Canadians in general. We have not invested in our own economy.
The economy is probably typified more than in any other country in the world by foreign ownership. Canadians have allowed foreigners to control major sectors of their economy. I am talking about automobile manufacturing, aluminum smelting, big sections of the forestry industry and on and on it goes. What has the effect of this done to us? We have not had significant investments in research and development. We have short changed our future by allowing others to take over the role of investment.
Fortunately the world has changed in a very effective way for Canada. We are now seeing the end of what I and many have called the smokestack economy. The larger companies in our economy are getting smaller every day. Many of us in our ridings feel this very much as these companies shed employment. These are the things that make the headlines in our local newspapers. However, this is also an opportunity. It is an opportunity for Canadians to take control of their economy once again.
Why is it that someone living in a home on a particular street is complaining about receiving 5.5 per cent interest rate on a guaranteed investment certificate and someone else in a company is laying off workers because they cannot get capital to finance their business. This is the dilemma and the strange aspect that affects Canada today.
Why is it our small businesses cannot get access to equity capital? What is it that prevents them from raising funds in the open market? It is very costly to get access to our market exchange. Many TSE and other stocks are foreign owned.
For the small businessman it is almost impossible to jump from his small business entrepreneurial investment and get access to registered stock exchanges.
What is the solution to some of these problems? I suggest that the budget has started us on the path to a new definition of access to capital and how Canadians have to take control of the economy into their own hands.
We have a number of institutions we can utilize to create new capital and confidence for Canadians by investing in the economy. The National Research Council, as members know, is very interested and has been very involved in new technology.
My review and discussions with some people at the National Research Council leads me to the conclusion that 75 per cent of all inventions the council has created over the years are still resident in Ottawa. We are not involving this kind of technology in the marketplace. I am happy to say that the industry ministry has talked about departmentalizing and moving some departments out into the areas where businesses are affected. I believe that the National Research Council could be an effective method of certifying processes.
Another agency we now have is the Federal Business Development Bank. I believe it can act as a secondary marketing tool creating pools of minority interests in small businesses to sell these pools to registered retirement savings plans and other pension funds. In this way Canadians will have some assurance and liquidity from the aspect of investing their money in Canadian small businesses.
How many times have we as members of Parliament watched some of our clients come before us, our constituents, and talk about the fact that they have a good process, that everybody wants it, that it is marketable, but they cannot receive funding for it and they have to go south of the border? What happens to most of them is they fail. We have to do better.
I believe that the budget is only the first step in the long process of creating new capital for Canadian businesses and ending our drudgery with unemployment.