Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today not only in support of economic action plan 2013 but of Bill C-60, our budget implementation bill.
We come to a discussion about the economic action plan in this bill at a time when our economy is creating job growth in quarter one in 2013 at a very robust 2.5%. There is an adjustment to quarter-four growth last year. We have now had seven consecutive quarters of growth. In total, we have well over 900,000 net new jobs, 90% of them full-time, with 75% to 80% of them in the private sector. All of that is just since July 2009, which was the depth of the recession.
The IMF and OECD have predicted that Canada will experience some of the strongest growth in the G7 projecting out quite a way. We have the lowest overall tax rate on new businesses in the G7. That is a serious competitive advantage for the country. We also have the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, by a country mile, as we would say in Essex, or two, in this case. We are headed to pre-recession levels in due course. We have a deficit that has just come in lower than forecast and a sterling Triple-A credit rating with all of the major credit rating agencies.
Of course, we recognize that when we look to Europe and south of the border, or from where I live, north of the border, to the United States, there is more to do. There are still very real threats in the global economic landscape. That is why we need economic action plan 2013 and why we need to get on with the business of implementing the economic action plan here with Bill C-60.
It is important to put economic action plan 2013 in the context that it builds on previous work we have been undertaking. For those of us in the auto sector, which is where my roots are, we had a national auto strategy in 2008, including the creation of the auto innovation fund. Now we have the renewal of the auto innovation fund after major investments to create jobs.
The growing forward 2 program builds on growing forward 1, which was to strengthen the farm gate. Growing forward 2 is targeted at the food processing industry to get the sector into the export markets and to expand it and create jobs.
We had the original build Canada plan in 2007, which was $33 billion. Later we had the gas tax fund, which we made permanent just a couple of years ago. The new infrastructure plan in economic action plan 2013 would be long term. Included in Bill C-60 is the fact that we would begin to index the gas tax fund. We lay that program out in the bill.
With respect to a new border crossing between Windsor and Detroit, which is a vital economic lifeline, if we look back at past budgets, we lay aside the funding for the Herb Gray Parkway, which is currently under construction. Those funds allowed us to go ahead and acquire the land on the Canadian side for customs and the toll plaza. In this budget, funds are set aside that will help us begin some land acquisition over there, now that there is a presidential permit on the U.S. side.
We are also building on our elimination of red tape and are streamlining the regulatory regime to spur economic growth. I could go on and on, but I want to focus on a few measures that I think are extremely important. If we look first of all at the Canada job grant, we are tackling the skills mismatch, which is a critical problem we face in the labour market.
Even in Windsor-Essex, where we have had chronically high unemployment for a number of years, we have a machine tool, die and mould sector, for example, in which we have hundreds of jobs that have been open and unfilled. Many of them have been unfilled for as many as six months or more. Why is that? It is because those who may be unemployed in that area, and who may even have good skills, do not necessarily have the appropriate skills.
We know this from experience in Ontario. We can look at the second careers program, which retrained a lot of unemployed workers through the recession and out of it. People were training to be chefs and truck drivers. These are not unimportant jobs, but they are not hitting the labour market as it exists. The great benefit and the beauty of the idea of the Canada job grant is that it would put the employer, who has an actual opening and a plan for short-term training, at the centre of the equation to meaningfully train someone in a specific job to fill that opening. That is a major step forward.
I also like the fact that we are embarking on a major long-term infrastructure plan. That is extremely important for municipalities. As I said earlier, the gas tax fund has been made permanent. In this economic action plan, we did not stop there. We are going to be indexing that fund at 2%, and then in increments of $100 million.
If members talked to any municipality, including rural municipalities like ours, they would find that this is vital. Municipalities can borrow against it if they want to build a project now, because it is permanent and they know what the transfers will be. They can pool it and wait, if the municipalities choose to do that. They can apply these funds to their own priorities with respect to their local infrastructure.
The government is expanding the categories for the municipalities so that they can do more with that particular funding Maybe the municipalities have already invested heavily in upgrading their waste water infrastructure, as they have in Amherstburg, and it may be time to move on to something different. Those funds can be used in those ways.
I am surprised that the opposition is not supporting that. Bill C-60 lays out a schedule for indexing and a formula for how that is going to occur. It will be a significant blow to municipalities to find out that not everyone in the House is going to be casting a vote in favour of that.
The economic action plan is also really important because there are a lot of tools for the economy in Ontario, particularly southern Ontario, where I come from. We are still concerned about the economy in Ontario. The provincial government is pursuing high-tax policies that have driven up the cost of electricity, which used to underwrite the strong manufacturing sector in Ontario. Our businesses are grappling with that as they try to function in a global economy.
I am encouraging our provincial counterparts not only to get on board with the Canada job grant, in terms of better retraining, but to follow the example we have been setting with consecutive budgets, including this one, by lowering taxes.
In Bill C-60, we extend the accelerated capital cost allowance for an additional two years. That is critical. It is allowing our auto sector and our food processors in Ontario, which happen to be the largest manufacturing sectors in Ontario, to retool and invest in the equipment they need to not only increase their productivity but to lower their costs over the long term.
We are renewing the auto innovation fund, as I briefly mentioned earlier. It is a critical fund as we look to secure the automotive footprint in North America. I have to say that for a government that participated on behalf of taxpayers in restructuring Chrysler and General Motors, the auto industry is coming back with pent-up demand. They have a business case that works. A fund like this will allow them to tap in and help with creating jobs for innovative products that are rolling off the assembly line.
We have extended FedDev Ontario an additional five years to help diversify the economy. That is a significant step forward. The creation of an advanced manufacturing fund is going to really help in that regard as well.
The promised overhaul of the National Research Council to commercialize research and development is important to the sector but in a way that is going to allow small and medium-sized businesses that may not be able to develop the in-house R and D capability to access all of this great public infrastructure we have built through successive investments in our science and technology fund. To be able to do that to create jobs is a very good thing.
The one item I want to close with is one that is personally important me. It is the expansion of the adoption expenses tax credit. Many will know, since my Motion 386 of a couple of years ago and the study on federal support for adoptive parents and children, that this has been an area of passion for me. It would look at families who choose the path of adoption. There would be a recognition in our budget that there are 30,000 children waiting to be adopted in Canada.
This is a measure that would allow some of those costs to be underwritten or subsidized to get more of these children into the loving permanence they need. I encourage the opposition to get behind measures like this and get behind the economy and support Bill C-60.