Madam Speaker, it is a great honour to rise to participate in this debate on budget 2001.
Let me begin by saying from the outset that I hope many of the initiatives in this week's budget will in fact be judged by history to be unnecessary and, in a certain sense, a waste. It may sound strange to hear me say that I hope much of the money spent in this budget proves to be a waste, but we live in a strange world these days, a world that became a whole lot smaller on September 11, a world that while not at war, at least in the usual sense, is experiencing many warlike factors. Everyone who gets in a plane, goes across the U.S. border or even visits Parliament Hill can experience in a small way how the world has changed. We are in a great battle right now against an enemy whom we do not know. We do not even know where the enemy is and we do not know how numerous our enemies might be.
Having pointed out the obvious, I will say let us all hope that these extra precautions we are taking, which I think are necessary in today's context, in a historical context will prove to be unnecessary. I am one of many people who believe that the ultimate solution to our problem in terms of international conflict will not be found in more money for guards and guns. That will not solve the problem.
We need to step outside the box. We need to ask ourselves why it is that certain groups of people who perhaps live far away in some other part of the world hate the west. Why is there is so much conflict in other parts of the world and how will it affect us both in the near term and the long term? As well, what can Canada do to make a contribution to solving those underlying conflicts?
I am one who believes that we must deal with the underlying problems, such as abject poverty in many places in the world where people are living in refugee camps, have grown up in refugee camps, have lived there for 20, 30 or 40 years and have no hope of ever getting out of those camps. Unless we deal with some of those problems, we will not deal with the issue of violence that is now affecting us, as we saw on September 11.
Let me turn for a minute to the economic issues that were in this week's budget and talk a bit about the context. Currently the economy is sending us mixed signals. On the one hand, there is job loss and rising unemployment, which I think all of us would agree is worrisome. We may be in a recession. It is somewhat of an academic distinction, but certainly the economy is slowing down and we do not have the same sense of optimism that we did six months or a year ago. However, at the same time many sectors of the economy are actually doing quite well. For example, housing starts are very strong. The automobile manufacturing industry, while experiencing a slowdown from last year, is still forecasting its second or third best year ever. On a more macro level, interest rates are low and continuing to fall, which will increase consumer demand. Also of note is the low world price of oil, which translates into low gas prices at the pumps. Again, that puts more money in people's pockets which in turn will spur consumer demand.
My point in bringing these factors to the House's attention is to state that I am an optimist. I am with those who think that the economy will turn around in the second part of next year. I believe the government has made wise assumptions in terms of its forecasting and that one thing we do not want to do is overreact to this downturn and make what is a worrisome or a bad situation even worse.
Having spelled out a bit of the context of this unusual budget for an unusual time, let me talk about what I think is worth noting. Certainly the $2.2 billion over the next five years for security for airports, as I have mentioned, I think is a necessary expenditure but in a certain sense it is a necessary evil. It is a choice that was made between trying to deal with the lesser of two evils. Do we do nothing? Then when an airplane is blown up or something worse, perhaps, would we realize that we should have done something? Or do we do something in the hope that the money we spend will prove to have been unnecessary? I think this money has to be spent. Like others have said, I think all of us wish it did not have to be spent, but the fact is that it does.
Our enhanced border infrastructure is an example of a good thing that may come out of a bad situation. We are investing a lot of time, energy and resources into making the border more passable, for example, for trucks carrying automobile parts. That would have a big impact on my community. With or without the crisis of September 11, it may prove to be one thing that is worth spending money on. I am hopeful we will look back and say that for this it was money well spent.
Certainly our investment in strategic infrastructure will be money well spent. It is probably something that we should have done even without September 11. It is something that makes sense to do in terms of stimulating the economy in light of a slowdown. For my own community, a small item in the budget is one that can have a big impact on some communities and that is the extra money for fishing harbours. In Elgin county there is a major fishing harbour in the town of Port Stanley. I am hopeful that some of the money announced in the budget can find its way to my own community.
Our commitment for research and innovation should be applauded. A member opposite was speaking earlier about the Kyoto accord, about competition and about paying a price for environmental regulation. Fundamentally all of us would agree that ultimately this country competes on our general level of knowledge and the general level of skills and training of our population. Money spent on research and innovation would allow us to do things, whether it is paying for social programs or incurring more environmental regulation, without suffering a drop in our standard of living.
Also of note is the increased funding for international assistance or foreign aid. As I said earlier in describing the context in which we are living in terms of September 11, I think this money could prove to be part of the solution. It is not the total solution because there is no silver bullet for dealing with the issue of international conflict. If the money is spent wisely, in bringing people together, in education, in alleviating some of the horrendous hardships people are living with in today's world while they see other people living in tremendous luxury, if it is spent in order to bring the rest of the world up to the standard of living that we enjoy, there are reasons to be hopeful that the levels of hatred and conflict would drop and I think all members should applaud it.
Last, I also commend the government for spending more money on environmental initiatives. Wind power may not seem like a big deal, but it is the cleanest known source of energy in the world today. It is a technology that Canada has been relatively late in adopting. The Europeans have been way out in front of us on this. It is just one small example of Canada catching up.
In closing, I would also like to commend the government for keeping its commitment to the $100 billion tax decrease that we announced last year. Things like the low interest rates, the drop in taxes and low gasoline prices will stimulate the economy and make it reasonable to expect that the economy will turn around in the second half of next year and we will be back on an agenda of innovation, prosperity and growth. People who may have just recently lost their jobs have a lot of reasons to be optimistic that the economy will turn around. They should not give up hope. Canada is on a very strong track right now and will continue to be.