Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague from the Northwest Territories and the strong position she made earlier today. I will not repeat all the excellent points but I did want to say that the three northern MPs have been working very well together for those people north of sixty. Over the last year we have co-operated in a lot of initiatives, along with our three colleagues from the other place, and we have moved the northern agenda forward. A great deal of credit goes to my colleague from the Northwest Territories.
I am happy to rise today to talk about things in general related to the budget because general things affect all Canadians and they affect my constituents in the same way.
Madam Speaker, I also want to mention that I will be sharing my time with the member for Elgin--Middlesex--London.
I was happy to see a number of things in the budget, especially in the environment under which the budget had to be prepared. Everyone knows there were immense security demands on the government by Canadians but also because of the recession that was accelerated by September 11, that there were reduced revenues, less business taxes and less individual taxes. Governments have a lot less room to manoeuvre. Under these difficult situations, it still managed to put in a number of good things related to the environment and poverty that I will speak about later. I was very happy to see those things in this particular budget.
Everyone knew this would be a security budget. After September 11, I think every member of parliament in the House received phone calls, letters and talked to constituents who expressed fear, fear for themselves and fear for their families.
I cannot help but remember going to the U.S. embassy just down the street and looking at the tens of thousands of flowers and cards and reading the cards from children who expressed the fear they were experiencing.
I am sure all Canadians realize that steps had to be taken and the only thing we are debating today is the nature of those steps and the amount of those steps.
However, $7.7 billion worth of steps were taken in the budget for things such as air security, borders, the RCMP, intelligence and defence. What I was really happy about in those expenditures is that a number of them went for one of the things that I have been pushing very hard for which is the border.
The expenditures for the borders serves the second objective of the budget, the economy, which of course was hit hard by the recession accelerated by the events of September 11. As the finance minister mentioned today, a lot of us were pushing for improvements to the border at a number of committees.
I was delighted to see $1.2 billion in the budget dedicated to borders and a number of other things: for example, $58 million to speed up passage of pre-approved persons at the border; $107 million for specialized equipment; $135 million for multi-agency integrated border teams; and another $600 million, in consultation with provinces, territories and municipalities, for border infrastructure. Of course some of these things were needed before September 11. Once again this is an incredible boost to the economy: improved highway access at aisles to the border, processing centres for commercial vehicles and even the soft electronic infrastructure needed to help facilitate trains and trucks to get across the border.
I am happy the security money went not only for security but for those items that could really improve the economy at this important time. For my own riding, it was very important that the border and air security was emphasized and dealt with because tourism is often the biggest private sector employer in my riding. It is absolutely essential to tourism that people feel safe in the air and when they cross the borders into Canada.
I want to mention a couple of things that were not lost under these stringent economic conditions and reduced resources that the government had to work with in preparing this budget. The first one is health care. As everyone has heard a number of times, we had the biggest transfer in history last fall when the Prime Minister and the premiers agreed on what health care would need over the next few years. Over $23 billion was allocated to not only health care but to early childhood development.
Another thing that was not lost, which a lot of people were worried would be lost, was the biggest tax cut in history, the $100 billion in tax cuts. At a time like this that will give a tremendous boost to the economy. In conjunction with that, we are now experiencing low interest rates. Although that is monetary policy, not very much could do as much as those two items working together to stimulate the economy in a time when the whole world is in a recession accelerated by the terrorism attacks. I also want to emphasize that most of those tax cuts go to lower and middle income people.
The thing I mostly wanted to emphasize today, over and above those security items that everyone knew had to be expended, is that the government could still keep on with its agenda of moving forward on a number of things that are very important for people, especially the poor and especially on the environment.
Obviously we could not go as far as we wanted to go because we had to make security expenditures, but they have not been forgotten and we have still made progress on the most important items. A perfect example, and something that is very important to my riding, is the $185 million for aboriginal children. They are probably close to the most vulnerable in our society and I lobbied hard for that before the budget. I was absolutely delighted to see that was not lost under all the other constraints.
Who could argue with the support for students with disabilities or the very large increase in foreign aid?
After September 11, I, and I imagine most MPs, heard from a number of constituents who encouraged Canada to keep up with and even increase its investment in foreign aid because of the needs in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world. I was delighted with the huge increase in our funding to Afghanistan of up to $100 million and also the $500 million Africa fund.
Another item of spending that has been mentioned is the money for apprentice mechanics, which a lot of MPs have talked about. I think everyone agrees with that. Something else in the budget, which a lot of us have talked about for a long time, is help for lifelong adult learning. This will help people in today's economy to keep up with the changing technologies.
I was also delighted to see support for culture. Culture is a big economic factor in my riding. Cultural industries are big and they are growing and to see the government's continued support for that was important.
I was really excited to see the element of wind energy, which is something else I have championed in the House before. It is very important for reducing our greenhouse gases in a positive way. In the north, I think Yukon has been leading. We have two windmills on a mountain beside Whitehorse and they are working very well. Hopefully this will increase wind energy in Canada. In fact there is a provision for microhydro, which we also have in the Yukon, and even woodlots.
In the area of support, I was excited to see support for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities because they often provide inventive things for the budget. A number of their proposals related to the environment. Even though we are under incredibly tight financial constraints, the $25 million green municipal enabling fund and the $100 million green municipal investment fund were actually doubled in the budget. I know the people I shared this weekend with in Dawson City, the FCM board of directors, will be very excited that their programs have been carried on, even their brownfield redevelopment strategy.
Finally, as has been said many times before, it is exciting to see the $2 billion in infrastructure addition. Who could argue with that? Anyone who does argue with that should go to rural and northern Canada where people have no sewers, no fresh water and no indoor water. Before the infrastructure program was brought in, some people were still using wood stave pipes for water or sewer.
I hope we can keep the budget debate in context. A reporter I ran into on the street on budget night put it clearly. He said that it was too bad the terrorists caused the demands on security. From the frustration we see in the debate, I know all of us would rather have spent that money on something else.
However, the budget was done in the context of a new world, a world we did not create, a world we did not want and a world with elements of evil that we did not bargain for, but now we will have to deal with and defeat.