Mr. Speaker, what a privilege it is to stand in our place in such a wonderful chamber here in the House of Commons to share with Canadians what we feel is important to us as we have heard from our constituents.
Let me start by giving my most sincere, heartfelt thanks to the constituents of Winnipeg North. It is such a privilege to represent one of the best, beautiful areas of Canada. Winnipeg North has many different industries, a great deal of diversity and is an area that I am very proud to call my home.
Also, as was referenced earlier, I would like to acknowledge the need for change. We saw that take place on October 19 overwhelmingly in every region of our country. We are the only political party that received support in every region of the country where Canadians witnessed and saw the need for change and took the actions necessary to put Canada in a much better light going forward.
Today we have a cabinet that is gender-equal in terms of the number of female and male ministers, which is a first. I have the privilege to serve as the parliamentary secretary, and I thank my leader for entrusting me with that particular responsibility.
I thought I would talk about something that is really important to all Canadians, no matter what part of the country they live in and that is the economy. It is something that we have articulated for a number of years. In fact, when the Prime Minister was first elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he talked about the middle class in Canada and its importance. Two years before he became the leader of the Liberal Party, those two words were spoken relatively rarely in the House of Commons, but he took that on as an idea that needed to be talked about. He wanted to ensure that the House would address the issue of Canada's middle class.
The middle class is the driving force of our economy. If there is a healthy middle class, we can have a healthy economy. If we look at economies around the world, where there is a healthy maturing middle class, the economy is doing relatively well.
There are many aspects of the throne speech that people can have hope from when thinking about the future of our great nation. I would like to highlight a couple of them affecting the middle class. We talk about tax breaks. We are in essence giving a tax break to Canada's middle class. We are creating another tax that is going to be at the upper end of Canada's wealthiest, recognizing that they need to pay their fair share and that we need to get more money into the pockets of our middle class.
Another direct way we are doing that is through the Canada child benefit. We need to realize the benefits of that great program for Canada's middle class, but as has been talked about by many of my colleagues and many individuals who are apolitical, or third parties, they recognize that by increasing the Canada child benefit program, we will in essence not only be putting money into middle-class pockets, but also lifting children out of poverty. We think that is a great thing to do, something we have advocated for many years.
When I look at many of the things the NDP and Conservatives have in common but that show the Liberals to be different, there are a number of issues that come to mind. Number one is the balanced budget and the concept of a balanced budget.
My Conservative friends need a history reminder. The Conservative Party has never done well when it comes to balanced budgets. The previous government was a great failure when it came to balanced budgets. The Conservatives need to be reminded that they inherited a multi-billion dollar surplus from the eras of former prime minister Chrétien and former prime minister Paul Martin. Within a couple of years, the Conservatives turned it into a multi-billion dollar deficit. It is important to recognize that they turned it into a deficit before the recession had taken place. Every year since then, the Conservative government has had a deficit, with the one exception being the last budget that it proposed.
However, we knew back then that it was a bogus balanced budget. There was no surplus. When I addressed the House on that issue, I indicated that we could not trust the Conservative books, which were in fact cooked. It was only a few weeks later, after the House had adjourned, that we found out through the Parliamentary Budget Officer that there was a billion-dollar deficit. I do not need to make up the truth. The truth speaks for itself.
In fairness to the last Conservative government, we need to look at previous Conservative government where we have found the same thing. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien inherited a deficit, and he turned it into a surplus.
Let me go to my colleagues and friends in the New Democratic Party, who are challenged on this issue. They are eager to tell people what they want to hear. NDP members said that they were going to have a balanced budget. That was an irresponsible statement coming from what the leader of the NDP calls a so-called progressive party. The New Democratic Party pledged in its campaign to have a balanced budget. Yet, I listened to the speeches, and every speech talked about spending money on this or that. Whatever happened to that party's pledge to Canadians, the very people they garnered their votes from? Whatever happened to that party's pledge to a balanced budget?
I would argue that right from the beginning, the leader of the Liberal Party, now Prime Minister of Canada, has been straightforward, transparent, and honest with Canadians. He clearly indicated that there would be a budget deficit this year.
We recognize that sometimes we need to look at what is happening in our economy. We do not want to run balanced budgets during economic times in which people are feeling challenged, unemployment is high and getting higher, and we are going into a recession. We want to be able to invest in Canadians and in our infrastructure, and by doing that we would be creating opportunities.
The Liberal Party is committed to doing that. People are going to see in different ways that this is a government that truly cares and recognizes the value of investing in Canadians. That will take place in the form of infrastructure. We are going to invest billions of dollars in building Canadian communities. From coast to coast to coast, people are going to see activity. We are going to focus our attention on what is important to Canadians. We recognize that infrastructure is absolutely critical, and now is the time for us to invest in infrastructure.
When I was in opposition, I questioned why the government did not recognize the value of investing in Canada's infrastructure, and in part we are paying the price of the former government's neglect in that area.
However, do not fear. The Liberal government will make it a priority and we will get the money flowing so those very important projects that needed to get done are, in fact, going to be started under a new infrastructure program that is going to be 10 times as effective as the former infrastructure program.
Free trade is another issue of discussion inside the chamber that I have recognized over the last number of years. I like the free trade debate because, again, it shows the differences among the three major political parties. On the one hand, there are the Conservatives. We all know that they will do anything necessary in order to achieve an agreement. It does not necessarily have to even be in Canada's best interest. We know that trade has actually not done that well under the Conservative government. Again, maybe it is a history lesson that they need to understand.
When the Conservatives inherited the reins of power, what did they have? They had a multi-billion dollar trade surplus in Canada. It did not take them long to make that trade surplus evaporate.
In the last 50 months, we have seen trade deficits. They took a multi-billion dollar trade surplus and turned it into a billion-plus dollar trade deficit. We continue to be in deficit, even with the free trade agreements that the government brought in, which, for the most part, the Liberal Party of Canada supported, because Liberals recognize the value and importance of trade. Trade is good for Canada. We are a trading nation. If we do not invest in trade and look for opportunities, all of us lose out. It is absolutely critical. Not only today but in terms of our future economic growth, we need trade.
We heard that today in the answers from the minister responsible for trade, who is most capable and able. She articulated the importance of us getting this right, and that Canadians had to be engaged in this debate. I will remind the Conservatives once again that the Liberals understand the importance of that trade file and how trade equates to jobs. The billions lost through deficits in trade with the previous Conservative government has meant tens of thousands of jobs lost, and many of those jobs were manufacturing jobs, particularly in the province of Ontario. Ontario has been hit very hard by the former Conservative government.
In terms of the future, we feel good about the idea of where our markets can be with the potential that exists and I am very confident. We have seen that in the last four weeks with the number of world leaders with whom the Prime Minister met. I know, for example, the Minister of International Trade had the opportunity to visit the Philippines and other countries. There is a sense that, yes, we will get back on track and we will be able to inch toward a trade surplus. That is important because it means jobs, and jobs are something we should all be fighting for.
I do not want to leave out my colleagues in the New Democratic Party. They tend to believe that free trade agreements are bad things. They stand in their places time and time again, and I underline the word “time”, to vote against free trade agreements. They talk about the Jordan agreement. I was here for the Jordan agreement and the one time there was a vote, it was a voice vote so they did not actually have to stand in their places. In fairness, I recognized one time when they actually stood in their places and voted in favour of a trade agreement.
The reason I say that is I would hope the New Democrats would understand how important it is to give true value to how trade agreements can complement Canada's economy, advance us into the world of trade, see that as a positive thing, and start moving forward.
Another area is democratic reform. We made it very clear. We said that 2015 was the last time we would go with the first past the post system. The Conservatives are saying no, that we cannot do that. I am sorry. It was an election promise and it is something we will be working with.
The Conservatives do not recognize the need for electoral reform. They want to keep the same system. Even if Canadians do not want the same system, it does not matter to the Conservatives. They want to keep what they have.
Then we have the New Democrats. The New Democrats have already made up their minds. They say, “Yes, let's go and talk to the public. Let's consult”, but in their minds it would be proportional representation. They have already made that statement.
It reminds me a lot of the issue of Senate reform. Being from western Canada, I can remember the Conservatives jumping up and down, yelling how they wanted Senate reform. Then when they finally got the reins of power, what did they do for Senate reform? Nothing. Not a thing.
In fact, the most significant Senate reform in the last eight years was when the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada indicated that senators could not be a part of the elected Liberal caucus. That is the most significant thing that took place with Senate reform. That is it. The Conservatives had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Now, the NDP, on the other hand, like to say that they want to reflect the wishes of Canadians. They are telling Canadians, “We don't care what you think. We already have our opinion. Our opinion is to abolish it, even though it would be virtually next to impossible to do”. They need to realize that we would have to get unanimity from all of the different provinces to make that happen. Do members think that would stop the NDP from making that sort of commitment? No.
Again, we are attempting to respond to what Canadians are telling us. There is a need for change. We are going to invoke many changes in the Senate, changes that would not require constitutional change, changes that could be done internally. I would ask both the Conservatives and my New Democrat friends to see it in a more positive light and possibly contribute to that reform.
In this session, I trust that we are going to hear a lot about many other, different issues, ones that are important not only to my constituents but also in fact to all Canadians, such as an inquiry regarding murdered and missing women and girls, over 1,200 of them, many of them from Winnipeg North, who have gone missing or who have been murdered. This is something that is long overdue. I understand now that there is virtually unanimous support for that in the chamber. I understand that in the Conservative Party, members are recognizing the importance of such an inquiry.
We have a government that truly cares about something that is most significant to virtually all Canadians; that is, the issue of health care. We have a government now that wants to be able to work with provinces to try to come up with a new health care accord. The last time we had a health care accord was back in the Paul Martin era. The reason they have the funds they have today, those record-high funds, is that accord. Canada needs a new health care accord. That is something we are going to work toward getting.
I could talk about agriculture and issues such as the pork industry in the province of Manitoba and how hard we need to work to diversify many of our rural communities and to support our agricultural communities. I have had an opportunity to take many tours in rural communities and am a bit biased about the pork industry, in particular, but there is so much more. I can recall piles of wheat that we needed to get off to shore at the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board. The government was challenged, in terms of getting our wheat to market. We lost opportunities there.
There is so much that we could be doing, so much that we can be saying. I have not even had the chance to talk about the immigration file, whether it is the visiting visas or the processing times, and the Liberal Party's commitment to improve that by investing in our civil service. That means also showing respect for our civil service, something that the previous government was challenged to do.
Crime and safety issues have also come up, housing issues, social issues, and much more.
I see my time has expired. I look forward to members' questions, so that I may be able to provide more.
