Mr. Speaker, I am going to be sharing my time with the very hard-working member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.
It is an honour to participate in the debate on economic action plan 2013. While the budget was tabled only yesterday, this is a process that started for myself and my colleagues on the finance committee last summer when we started preparing for our committee's annual pre-budget consultations.
Today's document is truly a reflection of months and months of consultations by the finance minister, the finance committee and all members of Parliament who went from coast to coast to coast to ask Canadians for their ideas and thoughts on how to make the Canadian economy stronger. I would like to thank all Canadians who made their voices heard and participated in that process and assure them that economic action plan 2013 keeps Canada on the right track for jobs and economic growth.
Indeed, with over 950,000 net new jobs created since the depth of the global recession in July 2009, with 90% full time and nearly 80% of those jobs private sector jobs, Canada has the absolute best job growth record among all G7 countries in recent years. What is more, Canada is alone among G7 countries to receive the highest possible credit ratings from all of the major credit rating agencies with a stable outlook, which contributes to low borrowing costs. It is little wonder Canada has earned the trust of global investors for its responsible fiscal, economic and financial sector management.
In the words of the independent IMF recently, “Our outlook for the Canadian economy is a relatively rosy one”. However, as Will Rogers once said, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”. Indeed, in a fast-changing global economy that not only remains uncertain in places such as the U.S. and Europe, but where Canada faces growing competition from new emerging economies such as China and India, we cannot afford to be complacent. We need to keep on moving forward with positive measures for Canada's economy and job growth.
Economic action plan 2013 strengthens this record with actions in all areas that drive economic progress and prosperity by connecting Canadians with available jobs, helping manufacturers and businesses succeed in the global economy, creating a new building Canada plan, investing in world-class research and innovation, and supporting families and communities.
During my time, I would like to delve into more detail about these key initiatives.
The first is connecting Canadians with available jobs. The government knows that Canadian workers are among the highest educated and best trained in the world. However, the training system must be better attuned to helping Canadians acquire the skills they need to obtain high-quality jobs.
Economic action plan 2013 announces the government's intention to renew the labour market agreements with the provinces and territories in 2014 with investments of $500 million per year.
The agreements will be reformed to directly connect skills training with employers and jobs for Canadians with the Canada job grant, which is the centrepiece of the new agreements.
The grant will account for $300 million of total annual labour market agreement funding from the federal government on full implementation in 2017-18. The grant will require matching contributions from employers as well as provinces and territories.
Businesses with a plan to train Canadians for an existing job or a better job will be eligible to apply. The grant will provide access to a maximum $5,000 federal contribution per person toward training at eligible training institutions.
This means that the grant could provide Canadians with $15,000 or more per person, including provincial, territorial and employer contributions.
I am extremely proud of the Canada job grant as it responds to the most common and frequently mentioned concern during the pre-budget consultations that I participated in as both a proud member of the finance committee and as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance.
Indeed, as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce outlined in its recent Top 10 Barriers to Competitiveness for 2013 report, the number one issue identified by businesses across the country as holding back economic growth and hurting our ability to compete globally was Canada's skills shortage.
In the words of chamber president Perrin Beatty, “We have a skills problem well on its way to becoming a crisis, and you need only look at the demographic wedge that we're confronting to see that the problem is only going to get worse.”
As well, we could listen to the president of the Mining Association of Canada, Pierre Gratton, speaking about his sector alone: “Labour market studies show that mining will need to hire 10,000 workers every year for the next 10 years. ...and we all need to work together—industry, governments, educational institutions, first nations and other partners—to ensure Canada's economy does not falter because we fail to fill the jobs our economy has to offer.”
I think the Canada job grant, which will directly connect employers looking for skilled workers who want to fill those jobs, is an extremely positive initiative in helping match and train more Canadians, but that is not all we are doing to support training in economic action plan 2013. We are also supporting persons with disabilities, youth, aboriginal people and newcomers to get into the labour force with new training investments. Indeed, I would like to highlight just a few of the measures we are taking to create and provide more opportunities for aboriginal youth.
This government is providing $241 million to help aboriginal youth across Canada to access the skills and training they need to participate in large economic projects like those in the resource sector near their communities. Indeed, in my home province of Manitoba, we see tremendous success stories of businesses getting aboriginal youth involved and allowing them to benefit from economic opportunities.
I use as an example what I saw first-hand with Vale Inco in Thompson, which established its own training program for aboriginal youth on reserve. We are seeing more aboriginals than ever before getting involved, being employed by resource industries such as Vale Inco and taking advantage of these good high-quality jobs.
The budget will complement and enhance our ability to work with business, other levels of government and first nations communities to provide economic opportunities for the unemployed. I think that is something we would all like to see happen more and more, and economic action plan 2013 will do just that.
I would like to also discuss the new investments for infrastructure in the budget, specifically the creation of a new building Canada plan.
Canada's prosperity is supported by a vast and complex network of highways and roads, water and waste water infrastructure, transit systems and recreational and cultural facilities. This network reaches into every community and touches every Canadian.
The new building Canada plan provides approximately $53.5 billion in new and existing funding for provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure. Overall, the new plan will provide $70 billion in federal funding over 10 years for infrastructure.
In my limited time here today, those were a couple of things that I wanted to speak about in economic action plan 2013, but I do need to mention that I know we all, as MPs, have Canadian citizens at heart. This is a budget that will help Canadian citizens in a number of areas.
I would implore the opposition to take the time to really, truly consider the effects and the positive initiatives for Canadian people and to support the budget once and for all, because it really does help our communities to thrive. It concentrates on job creation, on economic growth and on the long-term prosperity of our country.
