Debates of June 8th, 2010

Jobs and Economic Growth Act

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Burlington has received its fair share of both the stimulus funding and of the longer term funding from the building Canada fund. With respect to our vision for infrastructure, we are improving the waste water plant that serves Burlington and the surrounding area. It will take a number of years, but that is a requirement to make sure that we have a proper environment and good, quality, clean water in Lake Ontario. We had that vision and we are able to fund that.

On the stimulus side, we have a number of projects, whether it is through the recreational program or the infrastructure program. Let me list some of them. It is helping to build a fire hall. We are building a new rink. We will have a new transit centre. We are creating a new park. There are four or five solid items that we are doing that have created jobs—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Questions and comments. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend not only for a great speech today but for the tremendous work he does on the finance committee. Most of the members of the finance committee refer to him as the deputy, because he fills in admirably and understands the issues. He puts forward some great ideas.

I listened to his speech today, and there are a couple of things I want to highlight that may not have received enough attention. These two items were studied at finance committee, so he should be able to reflect on them. One item is pensions, or retirement income adequacy, as we are referring to it, for Canadians and future retirees. It is a very topical issue.

The second item is credit cards, which were discussed at committee. The reaction to what was heard at committee is reflected in Bill C-9. We have put in changes in relation to both retirement income adequacy and credit cards.

I wonder if the hon. member could enlighten us about some of the positive changes in Bill C-9.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the parliamentary secretary for his leadership on that committee and for his work with our colleagues across the aisle on these things.

We are doing some things on the pension side in Bill C-9 that the finance minister announced earlier in the fall. The bill would require an employer to fully fund benefits if the whole pension plan is terminated. The bill would establish a distressed pension plan workout scheme under which employers and employees and retirees could negotiate changes to plan funding. The bill would permit the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to replace an actuary if he or she is of the opinion that it is in the best interests of the members and the retirees. Finally, an administrator would be required to make additional information available to members and retirees following the termination of a pension plan.

We have heard many times, not just during this process but in the process of studying the retirement system and pension plans, that people do not have any information. The changes we are making through Bill C-9 are vital changes that would allow pensioners to have control and a say in their future retirement plans.

[Jim Maloway, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the member spoke about venture capital markets. I would like to find out from him about the health of the Canadian venture capital market. It is difficult in the United States, as well. Most of the venture capital markets are in Massachusetts and Silicon Valley. The rest of the country has a hard time competing. It is the same for Canada.

Ian MacLellan, the founder of ARISE, a company in Waterloo that manufactures solar panels, was looking for venture capital, but he had to move to Germany and become a partner with the German government. That is one example of Canada losing out. A venture capital market would have been helpful to him at that time.

I would like the member to give us an update on the state of venture capital in this country. Labour investment funds across the country in different provinces have had varying degrees of success. There have been some successes and some failures. It is a tough market, regardless of what government is in power--

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order. The hon. member for Burlington has 30 seconds left.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the venture capital market in Canada traditionally has been small and it continues to be small. It trucked up considerably during the recession.

I want to point out that the official magazine of Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association states:

The Canadian government has listened to the financing community, understood the severity of the problem and removed the major tax barriers that have prevented critically needed international investment capital from crossing our borders.

That is a quote from the association. That is in Bill C-9. That is why members should support it.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to rise and speak at third and final reading to the jobs and economic growth act, referred to in the House as Bill C-9.

We spent quite a bit of time debating this, and I am almost as happy as most Canadians are to see this debate coming to a close so that we can move it on to the other house and actually implement all of these good measures.

The jobs and economic growth act and budget 2010 are an integral part of Canada's economic action plan. It is a positive and ambitious plan that has been successfully strengthening our economy and helping to create jobs throughout our country.

Recent job gains help illustrate that Canada's economic action plan is indeed working. May represented the eighth month, out of the past 10, of job gains. Since July 2009, Canada has created over 300,000 net new jobs.

What is more, both the OECD and the IMF have predicted that Canada's economic growth will lead the G7 by a wide margin this year. What is more, just recently, the IMF singled out Canada for praise, saying, “Canada entered the global crisis in good shape and thus the exit strategy appears less challenging than elsewhere”.

This reinforces what we have said all along. While not immune from the global recession, Canada's economy entered it from the strongest position, and Canada will exit it in the strongest position. Listen to a Toronto Sun editorial following the great announcement that over 100,000 new jobs were created last April. It said:

Our economy in April produced a record 108,700 jobs...the largest one-month increase ever in raw numbers....[T]he job growth numbers support [the] Prime Minister's contention Canada's economic recovery is among the strongest in the world....What politicians of all stripes on Parliament Hill need to remember is that for average Canadians, the economy is job one.

We agree. We acknowledge that the global recovery remains fragile. That is why our number one priority remains the economy. That is why we have been working, and will continue to, to fully implement Canada's economic action plan, which is a blueprint for creating jobs, lowering taxes, fostering economic growth, and investing in better infrastructure.

Budget 2010 and the jobs and economic growth act is one way our government is doing just that. It is staying focused on job one, the economy.

In the remainder of my time, I want to speak about the constructive and encouraging initiatives in the jobs and economic growth act. However, first I would like to highlight, for the benefit of the chamber and Canadians, how witness after witness at the finance committee, during its consideration of this important act, spoke strongly in favour of these important initiatives They were witnesses like the Canadian Apparel Federation and the 400 Canadian companies and 50,000 workers it represents. The Canadian Apparel Federation spoke glowingly of the jobs and economic growth act and the historic step within it to eliminate all tariffs on manufacturing inputs and machinery and equipment. It understood the importance of this bold move, one that will make Canada the first G20 country to establish itself as a tariff-free zone for manufacturers.

In the words of the Canadian Apparel Federation at the hearing:

[O]ur most important industrial policy issue has been the duties paid on imported raw materials. I am happy today to support the passage of Bill C-9, because it contains the elimination of these duties....In the current economic climate, this is the most effective policy at government's disposal to lower the costs of domestic manufacturing. It eliminates an unnecessary financial burden on domestic manufacturers....

That is a compelling argument.

Witnesses such as the Retail Council of Canada, and the 40,000 Canadian stores and online merchants it represents, strongly urged the committee to pass the jobs and economic growth act, especially the legislative provisions within it to monitor compliance with the code of conduct for the credit and debit card industry and to regulate the industry if necessary.

The Retail Council of Canada stated:

Merchants across Canada are following this issue closely. They commend the minister...for establishing a card payment regulatory framework and for equipping the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada with the tools it needs to monitor and enforce compliance with the code of conduct changes, changes that are both contained in Bill C-9....[W]e...applaud the fact that there are regulations that will allow the minister to in fact regulate the payment system....[T]his may have to happen sooner versus later.

What about witnesses such as the Canadian Cancer Society, which spoke in favour of the initiative in the jobs and economic growth act to help counter illegal contraband through an enhanced stamping regime for tobacco products?

As the Canadian Cancer Society stated at committee:

All members of Parliament are aware of how we have a significant illegal contraband problem in Canada, and we need solutions. We support the enhanced tax stamp regime that will be authorized with this bill....It will assist in preventing counterfeiting.

The finance committee has also heard from witnesses such as Pathways to Education Canada. The jobs and economic growth act provides $20 million for pathways, which is a unique program of early interventions and support for high school students to help them overcome the barriers they may face in pursuing post-secondary education. This community-based, volunteer-supported program provides tutoring, mentoring, counselling, and financial support to disadvantaged youth and their families. It has an established record of reducing high school dropout rates. It has a record of being effective in increasing post-secondary enrollment of students from inner-city high schools.

The $20 million in new support authorized with the passage of the jobs and economic growth act would allow Pathways to grow and would help even more disadvantaged youth.

As David Hughes, president of Pathways to Education Canada, told the committee:

[O]ur program...is lowering dropout rates of at-risk youth and helping them to make the all-important transition to post-secondary education and meaningful employment. This investment will enable Pathways...to expand its program from being a regional program to being a national one, helping us expand to 15 to 20 locations, to seven to eight provinces, and serving over 10,000 students.

The committee also heard from Genome Canada. Genome Canada is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to developing and implementing a national strategy in genomics and proteomics research for the benefit of all Canadians.

The research performed by Genome Canada, such as genomics research, has outcomes in the areas of human health, the environment, and natural resources. Recognizing the work performed by Genome Canada, the jobs and economic growth act would invest $75 million in this organization to launch new research, an investment that Genome Canada is ready to put to work.

Indeed, when Genome Canada appeared before committee, it noted:

[W]e are proud of our track record....[T]he recent federal budget provided $75 million in additional funding to Genome Canada, for which we are thankful....We want to get these funds directly into the hands of the researchers as quickly as possible....Excellence is the only standard that Genome Canada will accept or fund.

Witnesses also appeared before the finance committee to applaud the provisions in the jobs and economic growth act that would enable credit unions to grow and remain competitive by permitting them to incorporate as federal entities, if they so choose.

We all recognize that Canada is home to a strong and vibrant credit union industry that provides financial services to millions of Canadian consumers and small businesses. It has long been argued that allowing credit unions to grow on a national scale would broaden choices for consumers by helping credit unions attract new members and improve services for existing members across provincial borders.

Indeed, that is what we heard at finance committee.

Credit Union Central of Canada presented a very convincing case. It noted that the jobs and economic growth act provided:

a good first step towards the establishment of a useful, attractive, accessible, and distinctive federal charter option for credit unions.

The president of Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, Tracy Redies, added that the act was:

—a historic milestone that will enhance the strength and stability of the credit union sector and financial services industry as a whole....It will give credit unions the chance to develop greater economies of scale and more competitive cost bases while remaining true to cooperative principles. This, in turn, will allow the development of a wider range of enhanced products and services that credit union members now expect.

Increased competition from federal credit unions will provide Canadian consumers more choice, drive innovation, and lower prices.

Finally, the finance committee heard powerful testimony from witnesses praising the government for allowing competition in the outgoing international mail marketplace. We heard evidence that this move would directly save thousands of Canadian jobs. I note that this competition has already been occurring for decades.

Representatives of the Canadian Printing Industries Association, which represents over 7,200 printing establishments that employ some 65,500 Canadians, came to committee to warn of the dire consequences of failing to pass the jobs and economic growth act in a timely manner. They said:

Canadian printers and remail companies have already seen a significant decrease in business given this industry's uncertainty over the past few years. Without this amendment, these companies stand to lose even more business as their customers will simply take their business to another country....No one is going to win: not Canada Post, not our small businesses, and not the Canadian economy.

What about the other quote that we heard from Barry Sikora? This was at committee also. Mr. Sikora is a small businessman and has been involved in the international mail industry for over 30 years. Mr. Sikora came to committee with a simple plea. He said:

—my company employed 31 people. We're not a huge corporation; we're an average business in the printing industry. Now, because of this situation, we're down to 17 employees. Many of our customers have left...they have taken their business to another country. They have forced our industry to lay off long-time employees, and that's not a pleasant thing to do....We're hoping that it will come back, but...If this doesn't pass, I'm out of business.

He is referring to the jobs and economic growth act.

For those in this chamber who would get lost in ideological and procedural debate, I ask them to remember Mr. Sikora and the hard-working Canadians his business employs. I want them to think about these employees, the jobs that would be lost and the families affected if we did not pass this act in a timely manner. We need to always keep that in perspective.

We also need to keep in mind the other positive measures in the jobs and economic growth act. I would be remiss if I did not speak briefly to a few of these measures. For instance, the act provides important tax relief to those Canadian seniors who collect U.S. social security benefits.

For background, before 1996, Canadian seniors, who received U.S. social security benefits, were required to only include 50% of those benefits when calculating their Canadian income tax. In 1996 the then-Liberal government changed the tax law to tax 85% of those social security payments, an unwelcome change for those Canadian seniors on fixed incomes.

Budget 2010 and the jobs and economic growth act reinstates the pre-1996 tax treatment for those Canadian seniors who have been in receipt of these benefits before 1996, as well as their spouses or common-law partners eligible to receive survivor benefits. This important change, which fulfills a promise that our Prime Minister made during the 2008 election campaign, was warmly welcomed. Indeed, listen to what William Thrasher of the Canadians Asking for Social Security Equality told the Windsor Star recently. He said:

We've been fighting for this for 15 years...The tax increase was a "disaster" for seniors. People were thrown out of nursing homes because they couldn't afford to live there...at least seniors will be getting a bigger portion of their social security. It's a major victory.

However, there is more in our jobs and economic growth act. As we all will recall, in 2006 our Conservative government introduced the universal child care benefit. This benefit provides $100 per month for each child under the age of six and gives working families the support and freedom to choose the best child care option for them. The jobs and economic growth act will ensure that single parents are not disadvantaged by allowing single parents to choose to include universal child care benefit payments in the income of a dependant. In most cases the dependant would not be subject to tax.

This change will ensure that single parents are not disadvantaged by their family status and will provide nearly $200 in tax relief for each child a single parent may have. The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada , like most observers, has welcomed this change. It has said:

—the government has recognized that single parent families have been unfairly penalized through an excessive tax clawback of the Universal Child Care Benefit.

There is so much more to applaud in the jobs and economic growth act, like the half a billion dollars in payments to various provinces to support the key health care and social services that they provide by ensuring no decline in their total transfers in 2010-11, money that our provincial partners are counting on receiving in a timely fashion. Indeed they put it in their budgets. There is also the modification to section 116 of the Income Tax Act to better help Canada attract foreign venture capital and the jobs that it will create. In addition, there is the important extension of the mineral exploration tax credit, a move that will help promote employment and investment growth in rural and remote communities throughout Canada.

Clearly the jobs and economic growth act will implement key measures in Canada's economic action plan to help to secure sustained recovery and create jobs. Given the importance of the jobs and economic growth act, I ask all members to give it the support it deserves and to pass this important legislation in a timely manner.

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has enumerated almost in a fashion of litany all the advantages of tax and non-tax. Perhaps he would like to recall this for members in the House, and anyone else who is interested. In the course of a year the Conservatives built up a deficit of $55 billion when they came here with a surplus. Perhaps he can tell us why in that same year the economy collapse and caused a loss of 550,000 jobs.

The parliamentary secretary goes on at great length to talk about the job creation. Everyone in Canada wants to know where those jobs are. At last count, if every one of those jobs were to carry a wage of $100,000 for every $1 billion of stimulus, we would have X number of jobs. In fact, for $30 billion of stimulus, we ought to have the creation of 300,000 jobs. That deficit is also part of the stimulus package. Where are those 550,000 jobs represented by the deficit? The fact is they are not there. We are still losing jobs.

In my province of Ontario, which is responsible for about 40% of GDP, if we were to make the calculation bringing over what the province has spent in stimulus, it means we would have been spending in Ontario alone $200,000 per job, but the jobs still are not there. Whose credit is it? Is it Ontario's credit or the Conservatives' credit?

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, what an interesting question. I am thankful every morning when I get up and I am not that depressed about Canada. I do not know how the hon. member can try to make a bad story out of what the rest of the world is looking at with envy.

Since July of last year we, as all of Canada, have created the environment for Canadian businesses to rehire. We have created the environment through our stimulus and through budget 2009. If we can get this bill through the House, the continuation year two of the jobs and economic growth act, we will create more jobs in our country.

However, that sort of negative comment would make businesses wonder why they were operating in our country. It is because we are the government. We put in place a positive environment for businesses to operate in. We have reduced their taxes so they have more money to expand their business. We have reduced their taxes so they can increase the number of employees. That is why we have 310,000 new jobs since July.

[Daniel Paillé, Bloc, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the parliamentary secretary on being named the hardest working MP of the year. It seems his colleague will applaud just about anything.

Page 176 of the budget shows that employment insurance revenues will be going up.They will rise from $22.6 billion to $25.2 billion, then to $26.6 billion. Compare that to the information on page 180, which shows that the cost of employment insurance benefits is expected to drop.

Employment insurance benefits are the moneys paid out to unemployed workers, and employment insurance contributions are collected not from the government, but from employees and employers. There is a big difference between the two, and over the past four years, that difference added up to a surplus of $19.2 billion. How can they say they have a $19.2 billion surplus when they took that money from workers and employers? Is this theft, or is it a new tax?

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

The simple answer, Mr. Speaker, is neither. However, the hon. member brought up theft and that is a pretty strong word to use in the House.

When we came to government, that surplus was gone. It was contributed by employees and employers for a time such as what we have just faced, a downturn in the economy and increases in unemployment. Unfortunately, the previous Liberal government chose to spend that money on its own political wishes.

[Daniel Paillé, Bloc, Hochelaga, QC]

You would do the same thing.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

The hon. member suggests that can be done again. We put in place a separate board that is arm's-length from the government so that can never happen again. We saw the falling of the last government and we chose not to go down that road.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to take a lot of time. As everyone knows, we do not support this budget. It is not because there are not some good things in it, there are, but it is more because of the hidden agenda the Conservatives put in on items they were unable to put through in other bills.

An example is Canada Post. We hear the Conservatives saying that we will be able to send our mail overseas for services in Canada. Let us get this straight. We are going to send the mail to Jamaica to come back to Canada for distribution.

This bill consists of 880 pages. Canada Post is instrumental within our communities, providing direct service. Could the member guarantee me that none of the post offices, especially those in rural areas, will see any closures because of the proposed changes in the bill?

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting the hon. member should suggest that we will send jobs overseas. She perhaps did not hear me read the quote from Barry Sikora in the finance committee, who is a Canadian resident, Canadian employer and Canadian taxpayer. He pleaded with us to ensure we would allow him to compete.

In committee Moya Greene suggested that it would not impact Canada Post's bottom line one way or the other. What the board of Canada Post chooses to do is beyond my purview. I encourage it to continue its support of rural post offices, and I assume it will because we have basically given it that direction.

Rural post offices are very important to my constituents. I would not be a part of jeopardizing them. This is providing jobs and competition, which is what Canada is all about.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-9 has 24 sections in it. We hear often from the opposition that this is a big bill and so on. Hundreds of pages are for the tariff relief that we are providing.

However, we are providing expenditure restraint. We are improving competition when it comes to Canada Post. We are fighting money laundering. We are improving the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's abilities. There is a variety of things we are doing.

Could the parliamentary secretary tell me why anybody would be voting against this particular bill?

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am stumped because I have no answer for that question. I have no idea why anyone, who is elected by Canadians, would vote against some of the positive things, in fact, all of the positive things that are in this budget.

The hon. member raises a good comment, that opposition members stand up and complain about the complexity of this legislation. This document appears certainly to be a large document. I have seen some people throwing it around as if it is not that important, but it is important, and 52% of it is actually defining the tariffs that we are reducing, the tariffs that have been impeding businesses from being able to compete internationally.

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to address the issue of this budget.

As members know, we have some serious reservations about this budget plan, primarily because of that four letter word “plan”. We do not see one.

What we do see is, and the parliamentary secretary has described it, a mixture of certain elements that the government surreptitiously wants to see addressed, accepted and moved on, and not having the courage to address some of those issues.

For example, he talked about remailers and the reorganization of Canada Post as if it was a fait accompli already but not having the courage to present the stand-alone legislation here so that we could have a look at what the government wants to do.

He threw around figures, for example, about the number of people in the printing business in this country. Of course, we know there are people who are engaged in the printing business, but they are not all engaged in the business of remailers. They are not all engaged in the business associated with whatever it is that Canada Post does relative to the printers.

It is a little bit too much to ask the Canadian public to support a piece of legislation that says “vote for us, we are good, we have the public's interest in mind, and by the way to those who are printers or involved in transportation or any delivery of service, this bill will address those interests, and it does that because it eliminates taxation”.

We are all left scratching our heads. What is it? There is a document that is 880 pages long. The government says it is the fiscal plan for the country, that it is the business upon which the country must live or die over the course of this next year, that it is the basis for the creation of jobs, but it is not willing to separate out some various items.

There is the issue about the re-transformation, and I say re-transformation because Canada Post has been transformed so many times since I have been here that I do not even know if it is Canada Post as it was before. There is reference to what the soon-to-be former president says about where Canada Post is headed and the business plan. There is mention of privatization, but no, not privatization. There is mention of the privatization of rural mail post offices, but no, we are not going to be privatizing those post offices. There is the fact that we are not going against the unions and CUPW, but no, that is not what it is about.

What is it about? Why would the government put all those questions and queries in the bill, while throwing out these little nuggets of whatever it is that is part of the fiscal plan, the economic plan, the economic strategy of the government, if in fact we can still talk about it as a strategy? Why would the government throw it all in this 880-page long bill and expect members of Parliament to be experts on it?

The government is not an expert on it. It has members of Parliament reading out speeches. The only jobs it is creating with that is for those speech writers who revel in the opportunity to have their mots of wisdom, their words of explanation, repeated over and over again so that they become speaking points and are read in this place.

These words say the same thing; we are good and they are bad. However, what is not talked about are the consequences of taking one move from one place to another. For example, if we talk about reorganizing the post office, reorganizing the way that we do international remailers, we cannot even discuss the merits of that. We cannot even discuss the financial implications of that.

We have discussed some of this in the past. I can give members some of the numbers. The government contests all of the numbers that the Parliamentary Budget Officer gave.

However, we cannot do that because we are talking about the larger fiscal plan of the government. We are talking about an economic strategy, which must be at the base of the authority that the public gives elected office holders, that the public gives chambers, assemblies of people, like this one here to make decisions on their behalf.

That is not what is in this budget plan. It certainly is not to be seen in that issue related to the post office. By the way, the post office is an important element of our society. Yes, it creates many jobs. It delivers and it is a stimulus for a lot of economic activities. It has general revenues of about $7.8 billion a year. In the large scheme of things, it is important but it is not the overriding issue.

The overriding issue is the plan that the government put in place to tax Canadians and to build on that taxation.

In my question a few minutes ago I talked about one very specific element. We need to get beyond the subterfuge that is presented in some of these fabricated speeches, otherwise known as talking points, that pass for debate in this place when delivered by the government side.

We need the government to tell us about what it calls its plan, that dirty four letter word again. We need it to tell us what it is going to be doing with our money and our confidence. That is the question that everybody here wants addressed. The general public wants the same thing.

Members have heard me say this before, that the Conservatives acquired a deficit in the last 18 months. They inherited a $12 billion surplus, which was gifted to them by the last Liberal government, and I realize that is not very palatable for them. It was a Liberal government that bequeathed a $12 billion surplus, and the Conservatives ate that up. Not only did they eat that up, but they squandered the opportunity to build on what was made available to them by responsible administrations that preceded them. We are now faced with a $55 billion deficit.

Any responsible, accountable government would have told us its plan. It would have addressed this. But no, the Conservatives sneaked in the back door and put themselves into a situation where they went from a $12 billion surplus to a $55 billion deficit. Then they say they are going to re-establish the economic climate. I want members to notice the word re-establish. The Conservatives are going to re-establish the economic health of the country, implying of course what everybody sees to be the obvious.

The Conservatives drove the surplus down to the ground and then say it was a synchronized depression-recession collapse. The Conservatives claim it is everybody else's fault. “The devil made me do it” is what Flip Wilson use to say in the sixties. I think he was the mentor for the current government, especially for the Minister of Finance. The devil made us do this.

We were fine as long as we lived under a Liberal administration, but now the world has decided to punish us and the Conservatives decided they were going to visit unhappiness on Canada. That is why we have a deficit.

The Conservatives are saying they are going to cut taxes, so that everybody else will invest in Canada and get us out of this deficit. That $55 billion amounts to about $2,000 per person in Canada. Every man, woman and child must pay $2,000 to reduce that deficit. Where will that money come from? It is going to come out of the pockets of people who work, corporations that still turn a profit. It is going to come out of the pockets and purses of every single Canadian. Everybody is asking, how else are we going to get rid of the deficit? When we had a responsible government, we did not have a deficit.

I notice the finance minister is too busy to appear here on a finance bill. I am sorry, I should not have said that. I take it back. The Minister of Finance could have spoken for himself but he asked the parliamentary secretary to speak on his behalf. He said that we need to create an environment for building the economy of the country. I would like him to tell me which industries the government is going to stimulate. Will it be the auto sector? It cannot be that sector because we have already given it $12 billion in loans and subsidies, et cetera. That sector is not creating any more jobs. The economy has collapsed for the auto industry.

Is the government going to stimulate the agricultural sector? No, because everybody is engaged in buying their food products from other places at a very competitive price. The government claims it cannot build a market for the agricultural sector because it should not be up to the government to do it.

Maybe it is the mining sector. The government does not believe in industrial strategy because it cannot be insinuated in the day to day decisions of private enterprise.

Maybe it is fishing. Can we see something there? Our coastal communities in particular might rely on that. Do we have a plan for it? Do we have something that is associated with biodiversity, the environment, investments in infrastructure to associate productivity with agri-production and with value added businesses? No, we do not have that because we do not find that is very productive, but we have a stimulus program.

We are looking for the stimulus program. Everyone in the country has a stimulus program. Every province has a stimulus program to get us out of a recession that the government threw us into because it said that we did not need to worry and that we should be happy. After the 2008 election it said that there was no problem in this country that it could not handle. It said that since it already had that $12 billion surplus that the Liberal government gave it, it could ride out the storm.

Bang, 14 days after the election we were in the worst economic crisis we could ever be. Why? Because someone on the opposite side was asleep at the switch, and that is exactly where the government is today.

Members of Parliament on this side of the House look at this and say that this is a tax and squander government. The bill is 880 pages of taxing and squandering. Then the government has the gall to stand up and say that it is reducing taxes.

My colleague from the Bloc Québécois, who made some reference to a question by a member on this side before, at least took the trouble to look at particular pages. I will bet that if he looks at the budget plan again, out of those 880 pages, he too will scratch his head in surprise and say, as he has said already, that people will be paying payroll taxes. There is an additional $11 billion in payroll taxes that will accrue to those who work and those who offer work.

I do not know why the government thinks that that is a stimulus. By the way, the Liberal administration for nine straight years reduced payroll taxes.

I am sure my Bloc colleague is also thinking that before reducing taxes because reducing taxes stimulates economic activity, surely to heaven, if we raise taxes on travellers by $3.5 billion, which I am sure is somewhere in that 880 pages and maybe one of the other parliamentary secretaries will do it for the Minister of Finance and point out to us, how does that stimulate further travel.

Here is the problem with subterfuge. The government sneaks it in under the pretext that it will make additional investments in security so that we can fly safely. It used the opportunity to build on paranoia just last December and it threw $11 million into buying scanners that everyone says that they might be superfluous but because we are afraid of flying and afraid of terrorists, it is a worthwhile investment. The government bought 44 scanners for $11 million. There is not that much space in our airports but it would find it and put them in and everything will be fine. Then, immediately after that, it will spend another $3.5 billion on another 60,000 of these scanners. Where is it going to put them? How will it encourage travel by increasing the cost to travellers by $3.5 billion?

No, the government will not use the word “taxation” for these things. There is a new moniker for all of these things now. This will be the government of fee for usage, not tax. If we are going to use the infrastructure of air travel, we have to pay an additional fee, which is only fair. Only 60 million people travel and there are only 32 million Canadians but they take about 60 million flight movements in Canada. Now the government will tax them an additional $3.5 billion for the audacity of travelling.

We want to see where in this budget plan there is the $1.2 billion for the G8 and G20 summit which suddenly out of the blue has become the new normal in terms of cost for putting on an international conference. The government has taken the word “squander” to artistic levels.

I will tell members about squandering. It is not just about money thrown away for building man-made lakes inside closed environments when we have hundreds of thousands of lakes right here in southern Ontario. No. It is the squandering opportunity.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance took great pains to remind everybody about the child credit, the $100 for every child under the age of six so that women and families could get out and work. The only place in the country that actually provides child care at a reasonable price is in Quebec. However, people living in Toronto or anywhere in southern Ontario who wants child care services for their children under the age of six, unless they are going to junior K, which is paid by the provincial government now after age four, will be paying $50 a day. If they get a discount, that might go down to $30 or $35. That means, at the very best, they will get either two or three days of child care services for their infant, toddler or pre-schooler. That is what that $100 represents. That $100 represented a plan, that was before it became a dirty word, a strategic plan to provide a universal and universally accessible child care program nationwide, in conjunction with the provinces, and the initial cost from the federal side was $5 billion.

The Conservatives turned around, took a reasonable plan that had already been negotiated with the provinces for $5 billion, and substituted it with $100 a month for those children under the age of six.

Talk about squandering an opportunity to build a legacy for the future.

We look at this financial plan of theirs and we see that another squandered opportunity is what they want to do with AECL, the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars in developing a national, internationally-recognized institution with very high-paying jobs for engineers and scientists to produce medical isotopes and other energies. We are leaders in the world on this. However, the government, in its classic modus operandi, its method of operation for everything, has decided to squander that opportunity, vilify the people who work in it, allow the institution to collapse into disrepair and then say that it is in such a bad situation that it will sell it off to some sucker so that we can export the benefits and the sacrifices that everybody had made in order to achieve those benefits in the past. It wants to hand that off to somebody else.We will turn back to being hewers of wood and drawers of water.

I am not sure about the hewers of wood anymore because the Conservatives' plan for the forestry sector and the 350 communities around this country that rely exclusively on forestry has been shameful, to say the least. They have abandoned the complete market in the United States and when the Americans call and say, “Listen, Canada. Back off”, we say, “How quickly?”.

We have not done anything in terms of promoting our products, either our first primary product or our downstream products, anywhere around the world, but we are quick to eliminate anything that involves additional research and development. Why? Because the government is afraid of the words “industrial strategy”. It requires some thinking, it requires a vision and it requires a plan. More important, however, it involves believing in Canada and believing in its citizens. The Conservative government opposite does not believe in any of it. That is why it has come up with a subterfuge of 880 pages, expecting everybody to buy a pig in a poke.

Do members know what? The Conservatives have made a mess of this country in the four and a half years they have been here and they deserve to be thrown out.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening with some amusement to the comments the member made and I would indicate to him that having a surplus is not particularly difficult. Any Joe could have a surplus. If we look at how the Liberal government did it, it was not by good business practices but by taxing hard-working Canadians who had to work harder to pay more taxes. If we burden the people, we will get more money, but the Liberals balanced their books and got a surplus on the backs of Canadians.

First, they took $25 billion from the provinces and the municipalities that had to forgo infrastructure and certain things that had to be done. They tried to balance their books on the backs of ordinary Canadians. They then raided the EI account by taking $50 billion from that account for their own pet political projects and then said that they had a piddling surplus.

They did it on the backs of ordinary Canadians, which is nothing to brag about. It was not because of good business practices. They took it from hard-working Canadians. What did they do with that money? They spent it.

We reduced taxes for ordinary Canadians. We reduced the deficit by $38 billion in the years we were in government. We not only reduced taxes but we put money into infrastructure. During the difficult times, we were there helping Canadians and ensuring that we were not balancing the books by taxing ordinary Canadians.

What would they do if they became government? The Liberal Leader of the Opposition said that he would raise the GST, raise taxes, spend--

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I will have to stop the hon. member there to give the member for Eglinton--Lawrence a chance to respond.

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know where the parliamentary secretary thinks he lives.

If anybody could have eliminated the deficit, maybe Brian Mulroney and all of his ministers who caused the deficit to rise to $43 billion would have given them a hint. I am sorry but apparently he has been giving them advice, so they have taken a surplus and they are back down to a $55 billion deficit.

What did we do with that money, he asks? I just want to point out two programs for him. One was an increase in equalization payments to all provinces. It was $32 billion over a 10 year period, $3.2 billion per annum. That is still ongoing. It is in year five.

There was also an additional $41 billion transfer in health transfers to the provinces, which is $4.1 billion per annum every year. We are now in year five and we have another five years of this to go. That was all money that was put into the fiscal plan in 2005 and it was effected. It was put in place. Everybody here knew about it and everybody voted for it. That is $72 billion.

As for reducing the tax burden, he knows quite well that the former Liberal administration not only reduced the deficit to zero but also the debt by over $100 billion. His government brought it back up again.

[Jim Maloway, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has to be concerned about a double-dip recession in the United States. We know that $1.3 trillion worth of commercial loans are coming due and commercial real estate values are collapsing in a lot of the different markets. There is a freeze on credit for small business. Banks are being very restrictive in their commercial loans and very conservative in their lending. Manufacturers cannot get lines of credit.

In fact, in 2008, 400 of the largest U.S. contractors were doing 80% of their business in private sector work. Now, the 400 largest U.S. contractors are doing 80% of their work in the public sector, which will be running out at the end of the stimulus package at the end of this year. Unemployment is then going to rise.

How does the member think Canada will be impacted by this possible double-dip recession in the United States?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member was not here when we ran through these difficult times in a previous Liberal administration, but today I see that even the government members opposite turn around and say that people look to Canada for the fiscal stability for which it is known, one that was built over 13 years of Liberal administration.

One of the things that we did, and that the government has been busily undoing, is that we did not follow the American example of allowing the banks to make loans to people who could not pay them and to allow their stock markets to speculate on the bets that the banks took on people being able or not being able to repay their debts. We made it very difficult.

We had a very conventional, traditional and responsible way to do business. In my brief comment a few moments ago, I said that we needed a fiscal plan as well as an economic strategy but that this bill does not address either one.

We made sure that we had a fiscal plan and those guys are eroding it.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it has been quite a performance here this afternoon. I think the hon. member actually used the word “subterfuge” in his comments. I would say that the sultan of subterfuge is over there. All we have had here this afternoon is a bunch of bluster and talking points from his own party.

This is a serious discussion about Canada's economic action plan. The member said that there is an absence of a plan. Perhaps he missed the document that came out in 2007 called “Advantage Canada”. It set out an entire framework for investments not only in infrastructure but also in knowledge. It is the framework that this government has been using since 2007. We have added to that, of course, through Canada's economic action plan, but these are substantial investments, well coordinated in the economy to have the kind of results that we are seeing.

On job creation, three-quarters of the job losses that came as a result of the global recession in the last year have been recovered. Over $200 billion in tax savings have been received and are now in the pockets of Canadian consumers right across the country. That is helping to stimulate the economy and create jobs. The hon. member ought to rely a little less on the rhetoric and consider some of the key questions that we should be discussing here in the House.