Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this budget debate.
Let me start with what the Prime Minister and the finance minister have said. I quote: “The victory over the deficit is due to the hard work and sacrifice of Canadians over the past four years. Therefore, achieving a balanced budget is a win not for the government but for Canadians. This is their victory”.
The only way to measure the significance of this achievement is to look at where we started. First, when we came to office four years ago our deficit stood at $42 billion, the highest in Canada's history. At 6% we had the second highest deficit to GDP ratio of any G-7 country. Second, the federal debt to GDP ratio was almost 72% and rising. Third, the unemployment rate was 11.4% at the beginning of 1994. Last, our interest rates were above rates in the United States. That is where we were in 1994. That was our dismal starting point.
Where do we stand today? Today the deficit is dead, dead for 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999 and the year 2000. This is the first time Canada has had a balanced budget in almost 30 years. What a monumental accomplishment. I believe that all Canadians, and I hope that all the opposition parties, will applaud. Canada has the only balanced budget of any G-7 nation.
That is not all. This shall be the first time in almost 50 years that the Canadian government will have three consecutive balanced budgets. Last year the debt to GDP ratio fell, the first meaningful decline in 20 years. It will fall again even more. By the turn of the century, the debt to GDP ratio is projected to fall just over 60%, the biggest percentage decline of any G-7 nation again.
What about jobs? More than a million new jobs have been created since the government took office in 1993. Last year alone some 372,000 jobs were created. Employment has risen in every region of our country during the past 18 months.
We admit that the unemployment rate is still high, but it has dropped remarkably since 1994 and the downward trend definitely is clear.
What about interest rates? For the first time ever both our short and long term interest rates are below those in the United States. That means that a home owner who gets a five year term $100,000 mortgage will save more than $3,000 a year on mortgage payments compared with three years ago. It means that a consumer who gets a car loan of $18,000 will save $320 a year. It means a saving of some $7,500 on a $25,000 small business loan over 10 years.
That is not all. According to a Statistics Canada report issued a couple of weeks ago the economy grew by 3.8% in 1997. Inflation is at its lowest level in three decades. Consumer confidence rebounded in 1997. Business confidence achieved record levels in the same year.
Let me quote what others have said. From the Globe and Mail , a longstanding and acerbic critic of federal budgets, Jeffrey Simpson, said: “This week's budget was the best in a generation. It got priorities—right. It helped redefine the proper role of government in a modern economy. It balanced revenues and expenditures. It opted for prudent forecasts”.
It is a major accomplishment. In a four year period we have gone from a $42 billion deficit to zero.
The CTV Ottawa bureau chief was poetic when he said Canada was the Titanic that missed the iceberg.
I would like to read quotations from my province of Manitoba. The headline in the Winnipeg Free Press read: “In the black. Surpluses rolling in after 28 straight years of deficit spending”.
There is more from the Free Press : “Door opens to tax relief. Measures benefit 90% of taxpayers”.
I remind members of the opposition that means tax relief for about 14 million Canadians.
The president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said: “The biggest thing in there for small business was the income tax reduction. Putting more money into people's hands is good for the economy”.
Another headline in the Free Press read: “Students' debt pains eased”. It will ease the crushing student debtloads. It will increase interest relief and make post-secondary education more accessible for Canadians.
Indeed praises for the budget come from a cross-section of people across the country. They come from the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, from the Canadian Youth Foundation, from the Association of Universities and Colleges. I hope that opposition members will share the sentiments of those people who are truly concerned and interested in the budget.
The chairman of the Association of Universities and Colleges, Paul Davenport, said: “The millennium fund is going to help students. So for student assistance, this is the best budget that I've ever seen in my 20 years of university life. This is a breakthrough budget for universities, a tremendous boost for accessibility in Canada. This is going to help our young people participate in the knowledge based economy”.
Why do they praise the budget? Perhaps the best quotation has come from a Toronto Star editorial: “This budget tells the nation how the Liberals see Canada in the 21st century. Their vision rests on the principle that every Canadian should have the right to learn”. With those praises I really cannot understand how opposition members can still find things that are not in the budget. If they focus on what is not in the budget they will miss the great things that are in the budget.
The research granting councils receive an extra $400 million. This will certainly prevent our best scientists from leaving the country. This is of benefit to our scientists and students and it is good news for all Canadians, for the fruits of the labours of our researchers will certainly spill over for the benefit of all Canadians.
Another quote in the papers was by the social critics: “The finance minister heads in the right direction”. Perhaps another article I will quote from in the Free Press will sum up the social vision of the Liberals and the social conscience that we can see in this budget, in addition to transferring $1.5 billion for health care and social transfer for the years far ahead. The finance minister said there are those who seem to believe there is nothing government can do and nothing government should do, that we should just unleash the market and let loose the forces of change and abandon those whom opportunity has passed by. That view is not ours. A rising economic tide tide does not lift all boats.
In conclusion, I am very glad to see the Prime Minister and the finance minister working on a coherent tangent and vision for the country. I have one last quote from the Winnipeg Free Press editorial: “This budget is a milestone in Canadian politics. It is the first time we have had a surplus in almost 28 years. It is the first time since 1970 that the federal finance minister has been able to talk about long term choices, not short term choices. This is the first time that we are able to build a country instead of just holding it together”.