Madam Speaker, I am pleased to participate in the prebudget debate. As the finance minister indicated we will have a budget shortly and, as is the tradition, members like to have an opportunity to reflect the views of their constituents.
I had an opportunity to consult with my constituents in the riding of Mississauga South by carrying out an extensive survey on issues related to Canada's future and how those issues might be reflected in a current budget. Those issues should take care of not only the short term priorities but also plant the seeds and the foundation for the long term vision of the country. I am very proud that the government has been able to do so since it took office in 1993.
We took responsibility for governing Canada in 1993. The deficit of some $42 billion was a daunting task and a lot of hard decisions had to be made. The government made those decisions and the pain was shared by all Canadians. We have surpluses now as a result of the restraint shown by all Canadians and the government in its spending. We have also been able to pay down some $35 billion of debt, which is certainly very important.
My constituents told me very clearly and have for a very long time that deficit financing is a non-starter. We used to be in a deficit which caused great hardship to Canadians. We will not go back to a deficit. Canadians at large would share the view that we have to live within our means.
We have been faced with extraordinary circumstances as a result of September 11 and the events that followed. The government stepped forward and took the necessary measures to invest appropriately in safety and security issues for all Canadians.
We have commitments from the prior budget with regard to income tax relief for Canadians and we will continue with those. Much of the tax cuts will be triggered in the forthcoming year. We have increases in health spending and transfers to the provinces. It is very important that Canadians know that we will continue to invest in health. We had other spending that occurred to respond to emergent priorities of Canadians.
There is ongoing substantial stimulative spending already. Some have suggested that we should spend even more, but we have to listen to the economists and to the financial experts across Canada about the economic lag implication. How much would one have to spend today to have an impact on the upcoming fiscal year? Economists have said that with the commitments made to security measures we cannot spend tens of billions of dollars and still maintain a balanced budget or a small surplus.
The constituents of Mississauga South and I believe all Canadians would say we must protect the fiscal prudence that we have developed over the years and we must live within our means.
Part of the survey that I did was under the theme of an aging society. As I indicated, we have to take care of the obvious priorities. Ipsos-Reid did a survey and a study on an aging society. I was very taken by the results of its analysis. An aging society results from the fact that we have a baby boom generation. This is the substantial blip in our demographics that occurred as a result of post-war birth rates. Those rates have gone down substantially from about 2.4 to 1.6 children per family.
The size of the population over 55 years of age will increase by about another three million people in the next 10 years. The number of seniors in Canada will increase to one-third of the population in 20 years. Members will know that we currently have five workers for every one retiree. We will have only three workers for every one retiree as our baby boomers age.
That means there will be a greater demand on our health care system and a greater reliance on our social security, OAS and GIS. It means that the tax base will erode and people will move away from employment taxation to retirement taxation. It means that we have to start thinking carefully about planning for an aging society. Immigration to Canada will account for 100% of our labour force requirements within 10 years .
I would like to speak about immigrants. It is unfortunate but since September 11 we have had a number of incidents, media reports and commentaries regarding new Canadians, immigrants and refugees. They lumped them all together as a bunch of criminals abusing our health and welfare system. Canadians know that is not true.
Statistics Canada did a report indicating that immigrants to Canada were healthier as a group than born Canadians. The reason was that they had to pass a health test to get into the country. Immigrants as a group were wealthier than born Canadians because in the point system they had to have security and accumulated wealth, which they bring here.
Recent immigrants and visible minorities represent about 30% of the population of Canada and only 10% of the prison population. It is clear that immigrants are least likely to run afoul of the laws of Canada.
Statistics Canada reports that when new Canadians start their careers they lag behind in their compensation levels compared to people with the same level of education and experience, but after five years they exceed the compensation levels of born Canadians with the same experience and education. That is significant because it shows that new Canadians have come here, made a stake, worked hard, dealt with the best and have shown what they can do. They make significant contributions to our country and we should be very proud of that.
We should start to reflect the sensitivity to issues related to an aging society in our budget. We should start to appreciate the importance of new Canadians since we do not have the birth rate to supply the labour force replacement we need. All immigrants have a long history of significant contribution to our country. Although there are circumstances where people have not held up to that standard, we cannot paint all immigrants and refugees with the same brush.
There was one final priority that was set by the constituents of Mississauga South. Although health was the number one priority, they came out very strongly for the environment. The environment is a very important priority for Canadians. We only have to see the issues we have with air and water quality to know that we are exposed in those areas. Our commitments under the Kyoto accord are important. We need to start to lay the foundation for the financial commitment to make sure our air and water are safe and secure.
One constituent made an appropriate comment by saying that without diligent stewardship of our environment there will be no aging society and no future generations.
It is very important that we invest in our environment. We have to meet our priorities with regard to safety and security of our country as we move forward and as resources permit.
We must get on with our priorities of taking care of health care, our seniors and our environment so we will have a growing and healthy population able to enjoy their retirement years.