Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have a few minutes today to give my comments on the throne speech on behalf of my constituents of York West and to compliment the Prime Minister on both the comments in the throne speech and his comments today.
The recognition of the need for an urban strategy to carry our country into the 21st century was clearly enunciated today and articulated very well by the Prime Minister in the throne speech as well.
Canada has changed immensely in the last 100 years, where 80% of our people currently live in our large urban regions. The recognition of their contribution and how important they are to the well-being of this country was clearly recognized in the throne speech.
The commitment to establishing a long term infrastructure program so that our urban regions can plan their development and their futures was a key issue in the work we, as a task force, were doing on behalf of the Prime Minister. It recognized the need for cities to be able to plan their futures when it came to infrastructure issues and the capital investment required to deal with long term transit issues, sewer, water and so on. These are very expensive things for many municipalities and many of them are having tremendous difficulty.
The FCM recently indicated that there was a requirement for $44 billion worth of infrastructure to bring it up to the level that it should be in 2002. That is a very significant amount. The fact that the government has, since 1993, invested over $4 billion already is a start in moving toward really meeting those needs, together with the private sector.
Yesterday there were many issues that were raised in the throne speech that affect the urban agenda, including children and the disabled. I compliment the Prime Minister on those particular issues. Compensating caregivers who need to take time away from their work to take care of an elderly person or a sick child is a critically important part of who we all are and the type of people we are.
As we move forward in the throne speech on the current initiatives, there is also mention made of the need for affordable housing and an investment into affordable housing that we want to see hopefully in the spring budget. These are issues that are critically important. They were raised in our work on the task force regarding urban regions: lack of affordable housing; the need for long term infrastructure; quality of life services; support for new immigrants moving into our cities who are predominantly settling in our large urban regions; and additional support for ESL.
Clearly, these issues were raised in the throne speech as acknowledgment of the work done by my colleagues on the task force. I must compliment them for the great work they did in helping to bring that forward. As well, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Urban Development Institute of Canada, CUTA and other organizations worked along with them to ensure that the government understood the importance of the regions.
On behalf of the mayors of our cities, I pass on their compliments to the Prime Minister that the throne speech clearly recognizes the issues that are very important to them and the need for change. Reassessing our priorities, focusing on innovation, skills and training, support for research and development and our universities are all key issues at play in our large urban regions.
We can do all that while still respecting the jurisdiction of the provinces and working with them as a partner as we move forward. We need to be investing our dollars in economic engines to ensure that they stay strong and have the services required to provide a healthy lifestyle for the citizens who live there. This is just the beginning of putting together an urban strategy. It is one that will take a lot of time to develop but will clearly map out a future for Canada in partnership with our urban regions and with our provinces. By respecting our jurisdictional matters and working with them to target programs at the regional level, we can build this country together. That is clearly what the task force has recommended in its report as a way to target the support we want to offer our communities and where we can reap the benefits as a federal government.
We talked in that report about a new relationship to develop an urban strategy for Canada. After the throne speech yesterday and the Prime Minister's comments today, I believe we are heading in that direction to offer the support to the people living in our urban centres so that we are building a strong Canada for everyone.
The recognition of the problems with foreign credentials continues to be a significant problem, especially in the large urban centres. The need for removing those barriers for foreign credentials continues to be an important issue.
Encouraging skilled foreign workers to come to Canada and fast-tracking the immigration process is something that is needed. In speaking with construction people and so on, they have a real slowdown in getting the skilled trades work done when they are building houses and apartments. There are not enough workers in Canada currently trained who can move that forward.
The recognition of these issues is important when we are trying to ensure that we have strong, vibrant urban regions that can position our country to compete internationally and nationally as we go forward.
The review of the security regulations was another issue that we pointed out in our report. It was important have a national security commission that could move those agendas forward and reduce the over-regulation that we currently have in a variety of areas throughout Canada.
There is recognition of the need for a national drug strategy that is currently being discussed with another one of our caucus groups.
Those issues impact the important decisions that are made in urban regions. The need for us to be moving forward on them are another few ways of how we can make our urban regions stronger. We can also implement the many recommendations in the throne speech, as well as what the Prime Minister commented on today.
It is targeted investments, ensuring that we have strong urban regions, that will be helpful as we move forward on these agendas.
The throne speech captured all the reasons that I am the member of Parliament for York West. It talked about how we are to continue to be a caring society, one that cares about those who are sick, one that cares about the disabled. The reinforcement of our support for the health care system in Canada, as well as the interest in the Kyoto agreement, and the fact that we must find a mechanism to be able to carry it out recognizes the importance of it for healthy communities. It talks about the need to ensure that new technologies are also coming on line and that we are investing as we go forward on all those issues.
We have a great opportunity with the throne speech to set us in a new direction. The Prime Minister said an urban strategy for the 21st century. Clearly he showed the vision to put that in the throne speech and it is one thing that we all need to appreciate how wonderful it was. It talked about so many issues that matter to all of us as Canadians. We can work together to ensure that we are building a strong and powerful country.