Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to talk about public finances in this place.
Before talking about the promising numbers and projects in the works for Canadians and residents of Orléans, I would like to congratulate our athletes who represented us so well in Sochi from February 7 to 23.
I would like to extend special congratulations to our athletes from Orleans, Vincent De Haître, Ivanie Blondin, and Cody Sorensen, for being great ambassadors of our region and our country.
I would also like to mention that I am sharing my time with the hon. member, the very dignified member for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound.
With a total medal count of 25, of which 10 were gold, I am happy to say that the $153 million we have invested in our athletes in the past four economic action plans has yielded results.
The Government of Canada is the largest investor in sports development in the country. Since 2006, we have increased investment in sports development by more than 50%. The economic action plan 2014 plans to maintain this record level of funding for sports development and training for elite athletes.
This includes $23 million per year ongoing beginning in 2015-16 for the sport support program.
Special Olympics Canada will receive $10.8 million over four years, which is in addition to the $1 million in ongoing funding the organization will receive through the sport support program.
The government will allow income contributed to an amateur athlete trust to qualify as earned income for the purpose of determining that individual's annual RRSP contribution limit. This will provide amateur athletes with more flexibility to save for retirement on a tax-assisted basis and ease their eventual integration into the workforce by deferring tax on income from their athletic endeavours.
With these measures in place, Canada will continue bringing home medals from various world championships and Olympic games but, more importantly, children will have role models to encourage them to get out there and move, to participate in sports. This is the best way to fight childhood obesity.
To stimulate our economy, Canada needs to distinguish itself as an innovative country. Thanks to a working group established in 2006 with city councillors from Orleans and the Orléans Chamber of Commerce, we are in the process of rebranding Orleans in terms of economic development. While western Ottawa continues its excellent work developing world-class IT programs, Orleans and eastern Ottawa will become the national epicentre for cybersecurity and telecommunications security.
The new VENUS Cybersecurity Corporation chose to set up shop in Orléans. VENUS will serve as a business incubator for knowledge-sector jobs in east Ottawa. It will draw new companies to Orléans.
Venus receives support from this government through the National Research Council and the Communications Security Establishment Canada as well as the Government of Ontario, the City of Ottawa, and various partners in private and para-public sectors.
This is the kind of example the government should be following to stimulate Canada's economy.
With Venus, the upcoming move of the Communications Security Establishment Canada to Ottawa-Orléans, and the regional importance of the National Research Council, Orléans has everything it needs to excel.
We are pleased to propose investments in research and development.
The best Minister of Finance in the world has proposed an investment of $46 million in new annual funding to the granting councils to support cutting-edge research and scientific discovery.
The best minister of finance in the world—I am not the one saying this; it is internationally recognized—is also proposing to invest $222 million in the TRIUMF lab to support advanced research and to create leading-edge companies.
To ensure that the next generation of researchers is ready, we are proposing a record $1.5 billion investment over 10 years by creating the Canada first research excellence fund.
Members will agree with me that Canada is the most dynamic country in the world to do business in, and this statement is based on hard facts.
More than 1 million net new jobs have been created in Canada since the worst days of the economic crisis, in July 2009. Moreover, 85% of these jobs are full-time positions, and 80% of them are in the private sector.
Furthermore, the economy in the national capital is very strong, despite the unfortunate cuts to the public service in the past few years and the doomsayers' predictions.
Ottawa's unemployment rate in January 2014 was 6.3%, which is below the national average of 7%.
Independent and credible organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are predicting that Canada will have the strongest growth among the G7 countries in the years ahead.
This does not happen by magic, as the leader of the third party would have us believe. The tight spending controls put in place by the best Minister of Finance in the world and the government are behind this job creation.
The government is responsible for creating a favourable business climate.
Keeping our debt load under control is part of this climate. Economic action plan 2014 shows us that Canadians are almost done using their credit cards to make ends meet every month.
We are on track to balance our budget by 2015-16. Furthermore, Canada's net debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest of all G7 countries, sitting at 37.5%. That, as far as I am concerned, is still too high, but it is still 20% below the next ranked country, Germany.
To keep our momentum going, we need to focus on our infrastructure, another cornerstone of our economy. Our massive investment in infrastructure during the recession was one of the main reasons Canada was the first country to climb out of the recession.
State-of-the-art infrastructure is a symbol of a healthy economy. Our previous infrastructure plan allowed Ottawa to begin work on a light rail system, which will be operational by 2018. The federal government has invested $600 million in this major public transportation project through the building Canada fund and the Canada strategic infrastructure fund in addition to $161 million from the gas tax fund.
Thanks to the infrastructure improvement fund announced in January 2009 to help stimulate the Canadian economy, citizens in Ottawa–Orléans saw 11 projects in their neighbourhoods receive more than $11 million in funding.
It is with pleasure that I see that the minister of infrastructure is proposing $70 billion over 10 years as part of the ambitious building Canada plan.
I have pages more to deliver. I know that the most important thing of interest to Ottawa under this program will be a further extension of the light rail program and more funding for cleaning up the Ottawa River.