Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to respond to the hon. member's question concerning productivity. The available evidence shows that Canadians can improve their productivity performance relative to other major trading partners.
Improving our productivity performance matters because the more efficiently we can combine our resources to produce goods and services, the more easily Canadians can use some of those resources in other areas of endeavour they believe are important to improve their standard of living, including health, education and the environment. For this reason the government is committed to building a stronger, more innovative and more productive economy.
Budget 1999 underlined this commitment by continuing to build the fiscal base for long term growth. It also provides for substantive new investments undertaken in partnership with the private sector in the creation, dissemination and commercialization of knowledge. Just a few examples of these investments are: $200 million for the Canada Foundation for Innovation to build research infrastructure; $60 million over three years to establish smart community demonstration projects that will broaden access to the information highway; and $90 million over three years for the networks of centres of excellence to support partnerships among world class researchers in the private sector.
These and other investments will help improve foreign activity and ultimately our standard of living. They are vital at this time, but they are not the complete answer.
Together we must tackle the multifaceted elements of the productivity challenge, such as strong business investment, research and development performance, the commercialization of innovation and encouraging higher levels of training in areas appropriate for the demands of the new knowledge based economy, and improving our trade performance. We must work together on productivity in the House, in the committees and in our constituencies.