Mr. Speaker, in the face of global economic uncertainty, Canadians can be confident that their federal government is engaged in prudent fiscal management, and taking aggressive and pre-emptive measures to help Canada succeed.
For instance, we have provided nearly $200 billion in long term, permanent tax relief to stimulate and bolster the economy, including lowering business tax rates to the lowest among major industrialized economies, cutting personal income taxes, and reducing the GST by two per cent.
This year alone, there has been $21 billion in tax relief. That is roughly 1.4% of Canada's economy. It has entered and is entering our economy this year in a timely and permanent economic jolt.
We are making the largest federal public infrastructure investment since World War II through our $33 billion building Canada fund.
We have also introduced a $1 billion community development trust to assist communities and workers affected by economic instability, build a better future through job training, create opportunities for workers, economic development to create new jobs, and infrastructure development to stimulate economic diversification.
Indeed, the member's home province of Ontario has been very appreciative of our trust. Ontario's Liberal premier has called it “good for the people of Ontario” and said that the Prime Minister has “done something which we've been asking of him”.
In its recent budget, the provincial government in Ontario outlined how it will utilize its portion of the $1 billion trust, including initiatives to help unemployed workers transition to new careers and well-paid jobs in the growing areas of the economy.
Collectively, these measures have been praised by a wide range of organizations, including the IMF, whose recent “World Economic Outlook” singled out Canada's action to date, remarking:
A package of tax cuts has provided a timely fiscal stimulus...the government's structural policy agenda should help increase competitiveness and productivity growth to underpin longer-term prospects.
Similarly, the University of Toronto's Institute for Policy Analysis heralded our Conservative government's measures to strengthen Canada's economy, stating:
Helping offset the [global economic] weakness...will be the “fortuitous” injection of stimulus from the tax cuts....
A Calgary Herald editorial praised the government's efforts to support the Canadian economy, pointing out that:
--the fall economic update [will] strengthen consumer demand, notably the 1% GST reduction, and...announced a billion-dollar fund to assist one-industry communities...for once a government seems to have been ahead of the curve.
We remain confident in our fiscal outlook.
We will continue our record of running balanced budgets.
Even the Liberal finance critic, the member for Markham—Unionville, has acknowledged that Canada will continue to remain in a surplus position, remarking that “if history is any guide...over time, surpluses will turn out to be larger than they currently are”.