Mr. Speaker, as I was indicating when debate was interrupted for question period, budget '99 has allocated $30 million for the Medical Research Council and Health Canada's national health research and development program for each of the next three years. This new allocation is to provide immediate support for advanced health research.
For example, at the University of Manitoba, researchers are working to reduce the 30% rejection rate for kidney transplants. Moreover, $65 million is initially set aside in the year 2000-01 to support the launch of the envisioned Canadian institutes of health research, an amount that will be increased to $175 million the year thereafter.
The combination of all the initiatives announced in budget '99 is to increase the funding for health research, both medical and nursing, by $550 million over the remainder of this fiscal year and the coming next three years.
Let me now return to the component of the budget that focuses on creation, dissemination, sharing and the application of knowledge as it impacts the economy, and on the component of the budget that supports employment.
Over the next three years $465 million has been earmarked for the youth employment strategy and another $110 million per year for the Canada jobs fund. These two particular strategic funds alone will help ensure a bright future for our youth as well as attend to the employment needs of our adults of today.
First, to help create knowledge, the federal government has earmarked the following budgetary amounts: $200 million to the Canada Foundation for Innovation; $75 million to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; $15 million to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; $31 million to the National Research Council; and $55 million for biotechnology research and development by federal science based departments and agencies. These amounts total $376 million for initiatives to create knowledge.
Second, to help disseminate and share the created knowledge, budget '99 has allocated the following amounts: $60 million to smart communities to establish demonstration projects that promote the effective use of information technologies in such areas as education and lifelong learning, government services, business and industry, employment, library and information services, transportation and culture; and $60 million to GeoConnections to make available to the information highway comprehensive and integrated data about Canada's geography, environment, people and resources.
Third, to commercialize knowledge so as to reap the economic and social benefits for all Canadians, budget '99 has allocated the following amounts: $90 million to the networks of centres of excellence; $150 million to technology partnerships Canada; $50 million to the Business Development Bank of Canada to expand financing for small and medium size knowledge based and export oriented businesses; and $430 million to the Canadian Space Agency.
Budget '99 is indeed the best budget of them all. These initiatives in budget '99 are the products of the determination, will and sacrifice that Canadians have collectively shared since 1993 when they entrusted this government to change their despair to hope, their pessimism to optimism, their doubt to a renewed sense of confidence.
I am humbly proud to be part of this government's team that worked with Canadians to succeed in eliminating the national deficit, balancing the books of the nation and reducing the national debt and personal income taxes.
I am proud to be part of this government that believes we have achieved what we have achieved not because of any single value we have pursued, but because of the many values we have advanced together, because of the sharing and openness we have shown to each other as fellow citizens.
I am proud to be part of this government team that working with Canadians is truly building today for a better tomorrow.