Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Edmonton—Strathcona.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the voters and the citizens of Wellington—Halton Hills for giving me the privilege of representing them on the floor of the House of Commons for the second time. I am truly honoured by this trust and the confidence that the people have shown in me and I am determined to act in a manner that is consistent and worthy of that trust.
I would also like to thank all the volunteers who assisted me in the most recent campaign. Many Canadians may not realize that there are literally tens of thousands of volunteers who help out. In any particular riding, there are hundreds of volunteers who assist in election campaigns. This is time that they take off work and it is time they take away from their families to participate in our democratic and civic processes. It is a commitment they make because they believe in the importance of our parliamentary institutions and in our democracy. I want to thank them especially for taking that time helping me and our government in that regard.
Anybody who has spent time in politics also realizes the enormous burden that our jobs and our work places on our families. I would also like to thank my wife Carrie for all the commitment she has shown over the last number of years in helping me with my work.
Budget 2006 delivers on our commitments. It is a balanced budget that focuses priorities and that delivers on many of the commitments we made in the most recent election campaign, including debt reduction.
In the recent election campaign, we made a number of commitments to the Canadian people. We broke them down into our key five priorities. I am happy to say that our budget delivers on many of those commitments.
Budget 2006 gives tangible expression to the things that we told Canadians we would do. During the election we said that we would commit to certain things. We have come to this House and we have done those things. There is no greater way to restore the trust and faith of Canadians in government than to do what we said we would do during election campaigns.
One of the government's top priorities is to enhance accountability to Canadians and transparency in government operations. The federal accountability action plan published on April 11 introduces a broad range of reforms, including the establishment of a position of parliamentary budget officer and a commitment to provide quarterly updates on fiscal forecasts for the current fiscal year.
The budget offers sweeping tax relief for individual taxpayers, totalling nearly $20 million over two years. That is as much relief as was provided in the last four budgets put together. Budget 2006 provides improved assistance to Canadians and their families, to the tune of $5.2 billion over two years. Budget 2006 invests $1.4 billion over two years in protecting Canadian families and communities, ensuring border security and enhancing public health emergency preparedness.
Over the same period, the budget will provide $73 million for making our financial system safer. The government is also committed to strengthening Canada's role on the international scene by investing $1.1 billion over two years in the Canadian Forces and striving to ensure the efficiency of international aid.
In this budget, the government pledges to take immediate measures to restore fiscal balance in Canada and respond to concerns in that regard, by implementing the ten year plan to strengthen health care and—in conjunction with provincial and territorial governments—developing and introducing a wait time guarantee for necessary medical treatment, among other things.
The budget is also good news for Wellington—Halton Hills. In our area, many farmers over the last year have faced particularly devastating economic circumstances, especially farmers outside the supply managed system. They have indicated to us over the last number of years that they do need help.
Our government has responded. In the budget we fulfilled our election commitment to put an additional $500 million annually into farm income support. Budget 2006 not only delivers on that commitment, but it goes beyond that. Our government has deep roots in rural Canada and we understand the plight that farmers today face. The budget responds to those dire needs of many farmer by putting an additional $1 billion in budget 2006 into farm income support.
The total additional financial support that the Government of Canada has committed to Canadian farmers is $1.5 billion for this current fiscal year.
I am very glad I can go back to the citizens and the farmers of Wellington—Halton Hills and tell them that our government is committed to Canadian agriculture and that we will deliver on those commitments.
Like all provinces, Ontario faces infrastructure challenges. Our government made commitments during the election to help provinces and municipalities with infrastructure. The Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities has delivered on those commitments. Budget 2006 puts an additional $6.6 billion into infrastructure support: $2.4 billion for the highways and border infrastructure fund; $2 billion for the Canada strategic infrastructure fund; and $2.2 billion for the municipal rural infrastructure fund, also known as COMRIF, in Ontario.
In addition, we met our commitment during the election to continue with the previous government's gas tax commitments by committing an additional $4.4 billion over the next four years to deliver that gas tax on a per capita basis to Canada's municipalities. In budget 2006 municipalities in the province of Ontario will receive $233.9 million as part of that commitment to fulfill the gas tax.
Another area that our government fulfilled its commitment on is the environment. During the election campaign, we committed to putting in place a 15.5% federal tax credit for public transit fees. We have delivered on that commitment.
We have also delivered our commitment to support the Canadian arts and Canadian culture by committing an additional $50 million over the next two years to ensure that arts and art institutions are supported. This money will go toward the Canada Council for the Arts to ensure that it can deliver and protect Canadian culture throughout our great country.
Finally, our government has been prudent in its financial planning and we have delivered $3 billion in debt reduction for the upcoming fiscal year. Our belief is that the best way to protect social programs is to run a good fiscal program and to ensure that the fiscal and monetary situation of the country is run in such a way that the Government of Canada has adequate resources in future years to deliver the programs that Canadians so value.
In conclusion, before I take questions from members of the opposition, as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister for Sport, I am very proud on some of the commitments that our government has delivered in the budget.
The budget offers immediate assistance to the citizens living in my riding of Wellington—Halton Hills and to all Canadians.
It offers a clean plan for the future to effectively address many of the serious challenges our country faces and represents a tremendous step forward in the right direction for our great country.