Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this motion and in support of the 1997-98 federal budget. This budget continues the course set on October 25, 1993 when Canadians voted for change in the last federal election. It provides the tools necessary to help keep Canada the best country in the world.
When the Liberal government was elected in 1993 we had three choices. Two were easy. The third was difficult.
The first choice we had was to continue spending without any concern for the future, as the past Conservative government did. In nine years the Conservatives nearly tripled the debt and left us with a deficit of nearly $45 billion.
It would have been easy in the short term to give everyone all they wanted, to add to the deficit and debt and to let someone else deal with the problem, just as the Reform Party now is proposing on the CPP issue. That would have been irresponsible and it would have placed Canada's future and our sovereignty at risk.
The second easy choice would have been to make deficit elimination our only goal, as it used to be the Reform Party's. In doing so we could have easily abandoned the sick, the elderly, those most vulnerable and possibly eliminated the deficit much faster.
It would have also been irresponsible because it would have caused pain by ignoring the millions of Canadians who rely on the federal government for their pensions, for health care, for post-sec-
ondary education and for the countless government services provided each and every day.
Instead, Liberals opted for a third choice, one that was challenging, difficult and required imagination, innovation and responsibility. This third choice was to reduce the deficit while preserving social programs.
We know that the efforts initiated by the Liberal government have been difficult. They have meant fewer public servant positions. They have required new ways of doing business in government and they have called for sacrifice.
In doing so, we are admired around the world for the way we have turned our federal budget around and for ensuring that those most vulnerable are cared for which is, after all, the reason we are the best country in the world.
The finance minister visited Guelph on November 12, 1996. In doing so, he participated in a call-in program on our local radio station, CJOY. He met with reporters from the Guelph Mercury and the Guelph Tribune and his visit to Guelph must have had enormous impact on him because this is truly a Guelph-Wellington budget.
When the minister announced $800 million for the new Canada Foundation for Innovation, he was speaking directly to the researchers and administration of the University of Guelph.
He spoke directly to President Mordechai Rozanski, Larry Milligan and others who asked me to help them in their work. Our commitment to fund research infrastructure will ensure that the place of the University of Guelph as the finest post-secondary education facility in Canada will not be challenged.
When the budget promotes donations to charitable organizations it speaks directly to Morris Twist of the United Way social planning council, to Lindsay Kennedy of the Wellington County literacy council and to Jassy Narayan of Onward Willow.
It encourages the thousands of volunteers who help make Guelph-Wellington the best community in Canada and it makes the responsibility of the professionals who run social service agencies, clubs and foundations a little easier.
When the budget provides more funding for infrastructure, it responds to a resolution passed on February 3, 1997 by Guelph city council asking for the continuation of this important initiative.
In providing more assistance for people with disabilities, it is in direct response to the recommendations and suggestions offered by groups and individuals in Guelph-Wellington to the task force chaired by our colleague from Fredericton-York-Sunbury.
In promoting trade, this federal budget has said to business leaders in Guelph-Wellinton like James Watson of Armtec, Wolf Haessler of Skyjack and Hock Choong of Semex that others will be allowed to benefit from Team Canada as they have.
I have been allowed a number of opportunities, especially as chair of the national Liberal caucus committee on economic development, to speak to the finance minister on priorities for the people of Guelph-Wellington.
In response to a survey I sent out in December 1994, my constituents identified three areas of importance for federal spending: health, social services and youth. When the finance minister presented his budget on February 18 he spoke to those priorities.
We have encouraged our young people through initiatives like the youth employment strategy and in helping parents and students to cope with the rising costs of post-secondary education to obtain the experience and education necessary in today's changing workforce. By assisting young people to obtain a post-secondary degree we are also helping the people of Guelph-Wellington whose jobs are dependent upon a growing student population.
In providing $300 million over three years to assist efforts to find new and better ways to meet Canada's health care needs we are acknowledging the many people in Guelph-Wellington who have asked us to make health care a priority. I am pleased that a health transition fund will provide funding for projects that could include home care services. If this fund means that people can stay in their homes longer then it will mean much for the elderly and the sick in Guelph-Wellington and all across Canada.
In developing the new Canada child tax benefit, we are not abandoning the social safety net for those children and their parents who need our help the most. These are exactly the kinds of federal spending priorities that have been demanded by the people of Guelph-Wellington; all of this while never wavering from our deficit reduction targets.
There are those who are critical of this budget. They spoke earlier. Let them come to Guelph-Wellington to address our university researchers and tell them that they are opposed to the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Let them visit our charities and tell our volunteers that they are opposed to support for charitable giving and let them respond to the thousands of Guelph-Wellington residents who told me that health care is important. Let them say to those people that they are opposed to improving Canada's health care system. Let them meet our students and their parents and say that they are opposed to investing in post secondary education, and let them tell our citizens with disabilities that they are opposed to our help.
This budget does stay the course. In doing so it says that the hard work, the sacrifices and the reductions that Canadians have made since October 1993 were not lost. In fact, this is a budget of hope and it is a budget for a stronger and brighter future.