Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver Quadra.
It is amazing how a few months have really changed the economic direction of our country. It was not very long ago, just before the election, that the Minister of Finance was bragging about four balanced budgets to occur over the next four years and that things were not too bad all. The Prime Minister, in September, said, as an economist, that if bad times were to come, they would have already been here.
Now we are in a situation where we have a very dire situation across the country. People are worried about their mortgages, their pensions, their jobs and the future for their children. It did not have to be this way.
As a former parliamentary secretary to two ministers of finance, during those very difficult days in dealing with a deficit, it was one in which we had to make some very difficult choices. In 1993, 33¢ of every dollar was borrowed money. We were transferring money that we did not actually have because 33¢ was borrowed at the time.
Through the support of Canadians, we were able to get to a point where we started to pay down the national debt. Now, unfortunately, because of the current situation, 85% of that debt payment will be lost due to the inaction and mismanagement of the finances of the nation by the present government. In fact, over a quarter million people are out of work over the last few months due to these job losses because of the direction the government has taken.
One of the concerns I have is on infrastructure. As a former president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, there is nothing more important than dealing with the infrastructure in Canada. The government announced the $8.8 billion fund, the building Canada fund, to deal with infrastructure.
I will give the government an A+ on announcements. I will give it an F when it comes to delivering. The only project the government has announced is a complex in of Regina.
Over the last number of months, the FCM has asked the government for a list of specific projects. Where has all the money the government has announced gone? In terms of projects, municipal governments need to move their five to ten year capital forecasts forward. I know many members in the House would have brought to the attention of the government projects. I wrote both the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Finance in December on six key projects in Richmond Hill, which the Richmond Hill Council wanted to move forward. I have received no response to the present time. Again, however, there have been a lot of announcements.
One of the things that surprised me, and this came out last week, was that 78% of infrastructure projects the government had talked about would go to ridings held by the governing party. I do not remember the governing party acquiring 78% of the vote at any time. It was very interesting that non-conservative ridings were getting announcements suddenly for projects.
The government criticized the opposition for saying that it had not seen any projects, then suddenly, it said it was going to announce these projects. Again, over three-quarters those projects would go the ridings held by the government.
The Liberal Party announced that it would propose a budget implementation amendment, which was passed and which dealt with accountability. One thing we need when we deal with public finance is accountability. It is important, when we are dealing with an infrastructure deficit of over $120 billion, that we know the projects will be delivered in a timely fashion, that during a very short construction period, municipal governments can get those contracts awarded, through a very public process, and that the monies will be sent out.
Liberal governments in the past were very good at dealing with national infrastructure projects, and I can say that from experience. In 1994 to 1997, when we had a third, a third, a third, from municipal, provincial and federal governments, those projects got out there. They were designed not only to put people to work, but to improve the economic situation in Canada and the ability to move goods and services across the country, et cetera.
We have proposed, and our leader made it very clear, that we will hold the government accountable. Some in the House suggested that this was not very much. I would suggest that holding the government accountable for every dollar is, in fact, a great deal. It is extremely important that we understand where the money goes.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the mayors and councillors across Canada would like to see this money out there, and not just go to those ridings that are held by the government. Clearly we need to deal with infrastructure issues across the country need. They need to be dealt with in terms of roads and sewers. They need to be dealt with for green infrastructure, whether it be water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, culture amenities, recreational centres, bicycle paths and other things. Cities and communities are the economic engine of the country.
If we have a strong municipal centre, we will be able to compete both nationally and around the world, which is extremely important.
As I said, Richmond Hill identified a number of projects. I hope both the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and the Minister of Finance will get back very quickly because clearly people want to know the status of those projects.
It is very interesting that we have this stimulus. The government has often talked about a short-term deficit, the last one lasted over 24 years, and it is not easy to deal with a deficit. Yes, we hear about a worldwide economic slowdown, but much of what has happened in our country is the result of the mismanagement of the government. During the election we heard what excellent money managers the Conservatives were. I guess that is before they decided to come clean with the books. As a parliamentary secretary to the finance minister, I know when they got those numbers. They had the numbers and they knew how bad things were during the election, but when the Liberal Party put forth a five point program to deal with the economy, we were told that we were saying the sky was falling, that we were being alarmists. After the election, the truth came out.
It will be very important to see that these what are called shovel ready projects are transparent. It is important that we deal with issues like EI. The government could have easily dealt with shortening the EI waiting period, eliminating the two week period. People who are unemployed need the money now. They cannot wait. Suggesting that we add five weeks on to the end is not really of much help. People want to get it right away. Again, that could have been done very quickly by the government.
We have set very clear benchmarks for the government, including March 26, June 23 and so on, to look at where the monies have been spent. It is important, though, that we do not throw good money after bad. We need real strategies. We need to look at strategies in the auto sector. We need to ensure that we simply do not turn money over so that in three months people will come back and look for more. We have a very important sectors in our country, in auto, forestry and manufacturing. We cannot simply put Band-Aids on them. We have to ensure that we deal with the long-term issues for Canada.
We also have to ensure that we do not see protectionist walls go up so we are unable to trade or compete internationally. There is an important meeting of the G20 occurring in London, England at the beginning of April. The former minister of finance and former Prime Minister Martin was instrumental in the establishment of the G20. The G20 is an important vehicle to ensure that we deal with those issues where trade barriers may go up.
We have read and been very concerned about protectionist legislation in the United States. There is a tendency often to circle the wagons and to simply say that we will deal with our own situation. We have to be competitive internationally. We have to get our goods and services out there. We have to hope as well that the current situation in the United States is such that when American consumers start to buy that they will buy not only American goods but Canadian goods.
There is a need for strategy to broaden our trade links, not to put all our eggs in one basket with 80% of our trade with the United States. This is something co-operatively that all the political parties in the House can work toward.
It is about accountability, it is about ensuring that good paying jobs are created and that there is a strategy. One of the areas I would like to see members talk more about is on the innovative strategy, getting ahead of the curve in terms of some of the ways we can move forward. RIM is a good example in Canada, a great Canadian invention which is now seen around the world. That is the kind of thing we have to continue to promote.
I look forward to any questions.