Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a pleasure to join in the debate on the budget.
As well, it is a pleasure to share my time with the Minister of National Defence, a member who certainly is held in high esteem in the House. I congratulate him on his job in presenting the case for the men and women of the Canadian armed forces to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance as he secured an additional $13 billion in new funding, the single largest increase in military spending in the past 20 years. As indicated, those dollars will go toward the acquisition of new equipment and quality of life issues for the men and women of the armed forces. Certainly this will allow the armed forces to play a significant role on the world stage and will support our position as a global leader. I congratulate the minister.
I would like to comment on what was not in the budget. For the first time since coming to the House my colleague from Sydney—Victoria and I were very pleased to see that the Sydney tar ponds were not mentioned in a budget document. Contrary to the intervention by my colleague across the way, the member for Red Deer who is the Conservative Party critic on the environment, that promise was made and kept in 2004 when the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and the Minister of Finance blended their forces to come up with $280 million in federal money to work with the province of Nova Scotia in addressing the problem of the cleanup of the Sydney tar ponds.
That money has been booked. That money has been peeled out. The project has been brought forward by the province of Nova Scotia. It is being juried now by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and the Minister of the Environment. There will be a decision made as to the assessment process of the project that is being put forward and then the cleanup will continue.
Make no mistake that even as this process transpires, there is work being done on the Sydney tar ponds. Projects common to whatever technology is used are being advanced. Over $40 million will be spent in the next two years to build such things as cofferdams, projects that will assist with that cleanup process. Much has been done. The fundamentals are in place and that cleanup will proceed.
I will make comments on three broad issues. Obviously the people of Cape Breton—Canso, like all other Canadians, have an interest in the federal government making sure that sound fiscal management is adhered to. We are no different from any other Canadian.
Recording an eighth consecutive balanced and surplus budget is significant. It is the first time since Confederation. This has allowed the federal government to apply $60 billion in surplus funds on the accrued debt, which has enabled us to release an additional $3 billion annually to go into programs such as health care, transportation and infrastructure. All of those programs have benefited from sound fiscal management by the government.
Again in this budget we see responsibility in the establishment of a contingency reserve fund of $3 billion. That is significant and important. It allows the federal government when national emergencies arise, such as SARS and what took place with hurricane Juan in Nova Scotia, to step in and play its part in helping communities, cities and provinces deal with those emergencies.
The health care accord was signed and the money is being booked in this budget. Again, for years we heard that the number one priority of all Canadians was the health care system and making sure that a sound financial structure was in place to ensure that all Canadians had universal access to health care services.
For the people in Nova Scotia it means an additional $1.6 billion over the next 10 years in their health care system. This goes to core service funding. This goes toward acquisition of new equipment. In my own community the Cape Breton Regional Hospital has been able to secure an MRI unit. We established a bone densitometer unit in the hospital. In Inverness in Richmond County we have been able to secure digital X-ray machines. Now an X-ray can be taken and can be e-mailed anywhere in the world to be read by a specialist. There is benefit. As well, moneys have been identified to try to address wait times.
The budget identifies the money that Canadians expect to see in their child care and early intervention systems. Our Minister of Social Development continues to meet with the provinces and deal with this important issue. He will embark on a round of bilateral agreements. We are hoping that very soon Nova Scotia will be ready to sign on to this federal deal and that the community services minister, David Morse, will be able to apply those moneys where they are so very greatly needed.
We look at the current plight of the Town Day Care Centre in Glace Bay in trying to establish a new day care facility. We hope that there is latitude and conditions in the bilateral agreement so that investment in such facilities can take place.
Several aspects of the budget speak directly to the people in Atlantic Canada and to the people of Cape Breton--Canso. I want to identify a couple of those important aspects.
There is one thing that the Atlantic caucus pushed for strongly. We were very pleased that the Prime Minister recognized that we have had success in this area. He knows that further success can be realized through investments through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. We have had tremendous success through our ACOA programming over the last number of years. We believe that the $700 million that was booked in this budget will continue to build on that success.
I look at some of the opportunities that have been seized and realized. EDS, Stream International, Dynogen and Techlink are companies that have come to establish in the Atlantic region, in Cape Breton specifically. They have been able to grow the number of jobs within our community.
Only 10 short years ago our unemployment rate hovered around 24% or 25%. Currently with the investments that have been made and the strides taken in growing the job market, unemployment is down to on either side of 14%. It has been down as low as 14%. It is at about 14.5% to 15% right now, which is progress. More Canadians are working. More Canadians are contributing to the system. We have done this by trying to address research and development in innovative industries.
There is a great success story in Mulgrave. Ocean Nutrition has come in and has created about 120 jobs right in Mulgrave. The company develops omega-3 fish oils.
The $350 million that has been booked for EI reform will benefit those who work in seasonal industries. Again, in rural Cape Breton, rural Nova Scotia, the industries that drive the economic engine, tourism, forestry, and of course the fishery, are seasonal in nature. These are not seasonal workers; these are seasonal industries. The changes in the money that has been booked for those industries will certainly give some confidence to the people who work in those industries and to people in those communities.
On the guaranteed income supplement, $2.7 billion will make a difference in the households of those seniors on low incomes. There is $400 for each individual, $700 a couple.
I believe that those changes and the programs that were identified in the budget will make a significant difference in the lives of Canadians from coast to coast, including the Canadians whom I represent in my constituency.