Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Halifax.
I appreciate the opportunity to debate this motion put forward by the member for Parkdale—High Park.
It was crystal clear to those of us who were paying attention that this country was going to face an enormous downturn of profound proportions in our economy. It was clear to our cities, labour community, NGOs and institutions like those involved in health care delivery and education. The only group that seemed to be oblivious to the impending economic downturn was the Conservative Party of Canada and the government that fronts for it.
In August 2007, we watched as the American mortgage sector went into meltdown. People lost their homes, savings and hopes for the future. That meltdown sent shock waves through the American economy and real and obvious warnings to the global community, to us here in Canada and to those of us in the New Democratic Party.
We have seen over and over again that what happens in the U.S. has a significant impact on Canadians and on our economy. That is the very reason that our leader and our caucus pressed the government to address the signals in our economy that all was not well.
I would remind members of the job losses: more than 14,000 in my community in just the past few months. In fact, London has experienced a 75% increase in those seeking employment insurance in the last few weeks. These are desperate families who come to my office. They are terrified of losing their homes. They do not know how they will manage or provide for their children and dependants. These are people who have been given no recourse or hope because of the vacuous economic update that we heard from the government last November, which was an insult to all Canadians.
The equally empty 2009 budget, in turn, offers nothing to those facing unemployment. Sixty per cent of Canadians do not even qualify for EI despite the fact that they paid into the employment insurance fund.
The same government is offering $60 billion in tax cuts to the most profitable corporations, big banks and big oil. The same government took away women's human rights when it inflicted its so-called pay equity bill into the budget implementation bill and rolled back women's equality to the 1950s.
The same government gutted Status of Women Canada, abandoned veterans and their widows, undermined the Investment Canada Act and opened the door to foreign takeovers of Canadian business. It is the same government that absconded with $54 billion from the surplus in the EI fund and denied first nations their rights by rejecting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and completely ignored our obligations under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
It is the same government that created a $3 billion slush fund and now refuses to say what it is for. This is the same government that is asking Canadians and the House of Commons to trust it when it comes to the distribution of the infrastructure dollars that we keep hearing about. I, for one, have real doubts. I have profound reservations because I do not trust it.
I do not know how the government spent its time over the past fall and early winter, other than proroguing the House when its incompetence became unbearable, but I can say that members of the New Democratic Party caucus were talking to Canadians and asking how best to defend against the coming economic storm. We talked to workers who were unemployed or about to be unemployed. We talked to seniors, educators, students, health care providers, the chambers of commerce in our cities, small businesses and NGOs. We even talked to our municipal leaders.
One of the crystal clear messages we heard from all sectors was that there was no time to waste, that we needed to act responsibly and quickly to address the economic crisis. That is the reason that my leader went to the Prime Minister on November 12 with a plan that met the needs of those with whom we had consulted. The Prime Minister, unfortunately, rejected all that support and cooperative gesture from my leader.
However, the fact remains that the advice that we took to him was the same advice that we heard in those town halls from the experts, from the people who are living with unemployment, the municipalities, the businesses, the people who deliver our services.
I met with members of the council for the city of London and they were very clear in what they had to say. Like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, they told me that the long term health of Canada's economy was closely linked to the scope and quality of municipal infrastructure investment and that municipal infrastructure deficits were a national issue requiring national leadership. They were very clear that there was no time for a top down, project by project delivery of infrastructure dollars. They needed and respectfully requested that the vehicle for delivery of the infrastructure money be on a per capita basis in the manner of the methodology used to deliver gas tax money.
As I am sure the House will recall, the transfer of money to municipalities came about in 2005 because the government adopted a policy put forward by the New Democratic Party. Since that time, municipalities have made effective use of those dollars, be it for public transit or other important kinds of infrastructure.
In my own city of London, the London Transit Commission, working closely with the members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, used gas tax money to upgrade our transit system to meet the needs of Londoners with differing physical abilities and to increase ridership. It was a very welcomed improvement for the workers, students, seniors and physically challenged ridership in London. The general manager of the London Transit Commission was very kind in his praise for NDP efforts with regard to gas tax funds for municipalities.
It has also become clear that in the past four years this money has been used wisely and well by municipalities. They know what is critical and most effective in their own jurisdictions. They are the level of government most familiar and responsive to local needs. That is the reason, among those I have already mentioned, that the method chosen by the government makes me very skeptical about the appropriate use of the promised money and, indeed, whether the money will actually flow.
Last January, my leader and I attended a town hall meeting in St. Thomas, Ontario. That community, as the House may recall, has been devastated by job losses and the exodus of the manufacturing industry is breathtaking. It is a town of about 35,000 people, with perhaps 17,000 to 18,000 families, and of those families nearly 5,000 have been affected by lay-off at Sterling Trucks, Lear, Formet and many more. It is absolutely catastrophic. We were meeting with these families, and the mayor of St. Thomas was present because this issue was at the heart of the crisis lived by the people of the St. Thomas area every day. The mayor of St. Thomas told us that while he appreciated the extra $7 billion in infrastructure money, he said that it would do no good if it was not spent.
I would like to remind the House that in budgets 2007 and 2008, $33 billion was set aside for infrastructure. We asked the mayor of St. Thomas, indeed, many of the mayors across the country, about that $33 billion and, without exception, they reported that they could not access the money. It was never spent. It was never intended to be spent because it was tied to a share put in place by the municipality and the province.
These municipalities are broke. They are stretched to the limit. They have no money for infrastructure. We need an honest vehicle for this money and we need flexibility. We need to see it flow but I do not see that in budget 2009.