The minister could be invited because money is coming from his department, so he can come, but we are asking another minister to come.
These are projects shovel ready and ready to go. This stimulus will work.
I am also excited about the southern Ontario development agency. This project will help stimulate the economy in southern Ontario over the next five years. It is much needed.
On housing, I often hear from people in my area about housing, and it is an important issue. As the GTA caucus chair, and in my own riding of Burlington, social housing has been an issue. We are spending $1 billion over the next two years on social housing and that money is being administered by CMHC. We are going to ensure that social housing renovations needed in our communities will happen. That is an important piece about which we have been hearing.
I have heard from others about green initiatives, that we are not doing anything green. That is not the case. There are $1 billion in a green infrastructure fund. If the projects have merit and they produce green results, they will be funded. We have $1 billion set aside to help develop green technology.
We have heard a lot about the home renovation tax credit. In my own riding, for example, Stats Canada did a report. It said there were about 50,000 homes in my riding. About 5% of them need repair. If we extrapolate that and if everyone does their work, taxpayers in my riding would save over $3 million in home renovations. Hundreds of thousands of dollars would be spent, stimulating the economy, on those renovations.
On the arts and culture side, I have been very active in the performing arts area, trying to develop a performing arts centre for the city of Burlington. That is happening. I am excited about the money we will spend on the arts. The other area from a local perspective is we have the Joseph Brant Museum. It is looking at expansion and it is getting ready to go.
In the action plan, the government has allocated $60 million over the next two years for local museums and local theatres. These are the kinds of programs that local groups and museums can take advantage of and make things happen for the community and stimulate the economy at the same time.
As a member of the finance committee and the finance team from the Conservative side, we had meetings with individuals before the budget was presented last Tuesday. The one thing I heard over and over again was that we needed to on the work share program. The work share program in the action plan adds 14 weeks to that program. For those who do not know, if a company reduces its workforce without laying people off, it can reduce the work week, pay employees for two or three days a week and the balance is done through EI. It is a great program and we are adding 14 weeks to that program to help companies get through these tough times and help those individuals who need those jobs.
We have reduced the taxes, which is one thing that has not been mentioned a lot. We are raising the personal amount from $9,600 to $10,320. Every taxpayer will get a tax deduction from their basic personal tax. It is money in their pocket that they can to spend to stimulate the economy. Let us be honest. What will happen is those who need the money most will take advantage of it the most. They will spend their money and that will be fantastic for their families and their communities.
I want to remind people that we are doing some work for seniors in the budget. We have added $1,000 to the age deduction for seniors. We have kept what was in the November economic update, which is the 25% reduction in the withdrawal requirements from RRIFs. It is not getting a lot of mention, but it is very important for seniors. In fact, it affects about 2.2 million seniors.
In summary, a friend of mine who is a writer and a very bright individual said in his book, “It is not what you do, but it is what you do with what you do”. In this action plan, what we are doing is making a difference for Canadians. We are not just sitting here doing nothing. We are taking action through our economic action plan. I ask everybody to consider that when it comes to the vote tonight.