Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to the budget. The theme of this year's budget is "securing the future". I think that securing the future is exactly what is needed in these difficult times.
In the last few weeks, I had the opportunity to tour my riding of Brome-Missisquoi, to visit every town and village and talk with the people. I can tell you that the main concerns or needs of the people of Brome-Missisquoi-which are probably similar to those of other Canadians-are as follows. I will try to list them in order of frequency.
Their first concern is taxes. I will get back to this in a minute to compare public expectations with what is in the budget. Second, bureaucrats and their red tape. Third, duplication between the federal government and the provinces and how it can be eliminated as quickly as possible. Fourth, how to decentralize the management of certain programs. Fifth, how to achieve recognition of Quebec's distinctiveness.
I will now go back to the people's first four concerns in light of the finance minister's last budget. The budget starts out by stating that we must secure our financial future.
One year before the Liberal Party came to office, budget figures pegged the deficit at $42 billion. The deficit fell to $37.5 billion one year later and to $32.7 billion two years later. The new deficit forecast is $24.3 billion, then $17 billion for next year.
I mentioned earlier that political choices have to be made, and political choices are important. We could have cut the deficit down to zero tomorrow morning. But what about social programs? What about the most vulnerable in our society? I think we must go ahead without forgetting the needs of the most vulnerable in our society.
We will eventually eliminate the deficit, but the new Canada social transfer will help the most vulnerable in our society make it through. I think that this is important, in the choices the government made.
The second point is rethinking the role of government. I was telling you earlier about the concerns of the people of Brome-Missisquoi, about the need to reduce duplication.
Let me give you an example. The speech from the throne provides for the establishment of a national food inspection agency. Now, this is a measure that will help eliminate duplication. Currently, when it comes to food inspection, we have inspectors from Agriculture Canada and Health Canada at the federal level. At the provincial level, we have inspectors from the Régie des marchés agricoles du Québec, as well as from the Fédération des producteurs, which administers the joint program for that sector. Then, if we are talking about restaurants in Montreal, there are city inspectors who make regular visits to these establishments. That makes a lot of inspectors in the food inspection sector.
An agency like that will allow us to offer a partnership to all the other levels of government, because it is in the best interests of the
citizen. The citizen at the end of the process will not get the visit of five inspectors dealing with five different issues during the same week. This is an example of how to streamline operations and help eliminate duplication between the federal and provincial governments.
A similar example is the proposed revenue commission. Again, and this is particularly true in Quebec, the GST and the TVQ are harmonized. Agreements were signed by the federal and Quebec governments and things are going well. However, if we can increase the number of such agreements between Ottawa and the provinces, so much the better. Again, this will benefit citizens and taxpayers. In that sense, I believe the Canadian government is making great efforts to eliminate or reduce duplication.
A budget is about the moneys to be allocated or to be spent in a given year. Earlier, I stressed the importance of protecting seniors, as well as those who need to get an education and those who need health care services. As I said before in this House, thanks to the new Canada social transfer, the federal government will no longer send three cheques to the provinces, that is one for education, one for health and one for social security. It will be a single cheque. Provinces will be able to take that single cheque and spend it according to their own priorities.
Last year, when this was announced, the big cheque which combined the previous three cheques was cut about 4 per cent. But we should look at the facts. The federal government cut its program spending by 7 per cent, but transfer payments to the provinces by 4 per cent only. Better than that, the Minister of Finance announced in his last budget that the federal government had agreed to a new five year funding framework for the Canada social transfer, starting in 1998-99.
The first two years, the federal contribution will be kept as its current level. Then, in the following years, the transfers will increase at a rate linked to economic growth. What this means is that the federal government will not, as other governments are doing, transfer its deficit to the next level of government. The federal government will continue to assume its responsibilities, under the Canada social transfer, for health, education and social security. This is important.
I have the privilege of sitting on the public accounts committee of this House, where we can examine the way senior officials and deputy ministers manage, one after the other. This allows the Canadian government to be managed as well as can be, to cut spending and streamline operations to stay within budget, to see where we are going with our budgets from the inside, and to monitor those who spend money week after week and month after month. This allows us to save. These savings do not penalize the citizens who, I repeat, are the reason we are here in this House.
In conclusion, I want to speak about the best part of this budget. The best part is the job creation program for our youth. We have
increased the resources allocated to the youth summer employment creation program from $60 million last year to $120 million this summer, for all of Canada. This is a real investment in the future, it is a measure that will help young people across the country who represent our future; therefore it will foster our progress as a society.