Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Ottawa West. I am pleased to have an opportunity to rise on debate today to address the budget which the finance minister brought down in the House a few short weeks ago.
I will examine three perspectives, what this budget does for Canadians in general, what this budget does for rural Canada specifically, and what this budget does for the residents of my riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka.
This budget shows the good, strong fiscal management of Canada. That is what the Minister of Finance has provided for the last four years. That is what this government has provided. If we look at the comments in the popular press and at some of the public surveys regarding the budget, that observation is shared by a great deal of Canadians, indeed by the majority of Canadians.
What we have seen and what the Minister of Finance was able to say in that budget is that Canada will have its lowest deficit in15 years. We have managed as a government to take a deficit of about $42 billion which we inherited in 1993 and reduce it to less than $19 billion in this fiscal year.
More important was the finance minister's comment that within another fiscal year or so the federal government will no longer have to enter into new borrowings. In essence if we calculated our deficit as most other nations do we would say that we were balanced. We will no longer have to enter into the markets for new borrowing. That will be the first time in almost a generation and a half that it has happened.
Canada today is enjoying some of the lowest interest rates that it has seen in 40 years. That is a benefit and something that flows from our strong fiscal management. We are seeing the lowest sustained rate of inflation in 30 years. That is protecting the purchasing power of Canadians. It is engendering consumer confidence. It is important to point out that low inflation protects purchasing power for low income Canadians in particular.
The Minister of Finance through his budgets has been able to create an environment in which job creation has occurred. I do not think there is anybody in this House who would not want to see more of it occurring, but good progress has been made. There have been 700,000 net new jobs created in the last 41 months of this Liberal government. That is even more impressive when we compare that to the record of the last 41 months of the previous Conservative government where some 146,000 net jobs were lost. We have gone from losing about 150,000 jobs to gaining about 700,000 jobs.
This budget also saw a targeted tax reduction of about $1.9 billion. But it was not a tax reduction as we have seen suggested by the Reform Party or what we have seen done in Ontario, which was across the board which provides very little benefit to the people at the low income end while it provides substantial benefits to the high income people.
This has been a targeted tax cut that has helped specific Canadians. It has helped low income Canadians with children. That is who the tax cut has been targeted to. It has been targeted to individuals seeking post-secondary education. We have had targeted tax cuts to help Canadians with disabilities and we have had tax cuts to help charitable organizations that are at work in our communities trying to help those most in need. That is what this budget has done for Canada as a whole.
I was particularly pleased to see that the budget also addressed the needs of rural Canada and rural Canadians. Indeed, this budget began the process of fulfilling the Prime Minister's throne speech commitment of last February 1996 when he clearly said that we needed to work on the whole issue of rural development.
We saw that through a new commitment to tourism, a very important industry in rural Canada. We saw the Canadian Tourism Commission's budget increase from $50 million to $65 million. This was very important for rural Canada.
We also saw the Minister of Finance make a commitment of some $50 million to the Farm Credit Corporation. These funds are going to be used to explore and develop innovative ways to move forward the whole issue of economic development in rural Canada.
We also saw the minister make a new commitment of $30 million to the community access program which is absolutely essential for rural Canada. We in rural Canada need the on ramp to the information highway, so to speak, if we are to be competitive and compete in the world market. I was pleased to see that commitment to rural Canada. It builds on the natural resource committee's report on rural Canada which I had the opportunity to chair when we did that report. It dealt with some of the things that we needed to do for rural Canada. I applaud the minister for beginning the process of working toward the development of our economies in rural Canada.
I would like to talk for a minute about some of the things that this budget is doing specifically for the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka. For the fourth year in a row the budget does not increase personal income tax rates for the people who are living in my riding. Indeed, it does not increase it for any Canadian anywhere.
The second item depends on Mike Harris stopping his political games. We have proposed a second phase of the infrastructure program. That first phase saw investments in the riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka of some $26 million. We saw $1.7 million on tourism infrastructure which is very important. We saw a $1.3 million investment on increased fire protection for the residents of my riding. In a rural area, fire protection is on a volunteer basis and this program has provided us with some of the tools that we need to increase that protection.
We saw over $500,000 invested in our local school boards to assist with education in our riding. Once we get this program on board in Ontario, I estimate around a $9 million additional investment will be occurring. This is very important for the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka.
Again on tourism, there is a specific problem in an area like mine where tourism operators are trying to access capital to create new private tourism infrastructures, things like resorts, hotels and restaurants. It has been a real problem because that capital has not been available from our chartered banks.
The Business Development Bank of Canada, through a $50 million investment by the government, is creating a $250 million loan pool that will allow the tourism operators in rural areas like Parry Sound-Muskoka to develop rural infrastructure or tourism infrastructure that will be increasing economic activity and increasing jobs in Parry Sound-Muskoka.
There is also another change in the budget that is very important to rural Canadians and the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka and it has to do with the education tax credit. This is a credit that allows a tax deduction for folks who have to live away from home to go to school. In the urban areas there are a number of people who do go away, but in rural Canada almost 100 per cent of our young people who want to have post-secondary education have to travel to obtain it. This tax deduction, which is a 300 per cent increase over the last
two years, is going to make a substantial difference for the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka either for those who go to school or for their parents who are supporting them when they do it.
Another measure in the budget which is going to help people specifically in my riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka is our new hires program. What it means is that the small business men and women of my riding who go out and hire somebody new in 1997 are not going to have to pay any increase in their EI premiums. This is a specific measure designed to help stimulate job creation all across Canada, particularly in a riding like mine which is so dependent on the small business sector. That is an excellent program and it will be of significant benefit to an area like Parry Sound-Muskoka.
In conclusion, the budget continues to provide strong and competent fiscal management for the country. Second, it creates a climate in which jobs and economic growth can occur. Third, it addresses the needs of rural Canadians with some very specific measures which will help the people who live, work and earn their living in rural Canada. Finally, the budget and the provisions in it will help the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka.
I am proud to be part of the government. I am proud to support the Minister of Finance who has tabled this budget, his fourth, which is bringing wealth, increased economic activity and increased prosperity to our country.