Mr. Speaker, the motion before the House, as I read it, is that the government can take action to create a balanced economy, support the middle class, and encourage manufacturing and small business job creation.
In my opinion, to do that we have to look at our country's ability to be financially stable, with a strong social safety net, including a fiscal house that is in order, because a lot of the dialogue on the economic downturn in 2008 concerned the debt ratios of governments in certain countries.
We can look at our government's track record on this, and I wish I had an hour to talk about it, when it comes to that balanced economy component.
First, when we came into office between 2006 and 2008, we aggressively paid down our government's debt in our desire to have a balanced budget and to ensure that we do had a strong fiscal house that was in order. When the economic downturn hit in 2008, we took measures to bolster consumer confidence and job creation through targeted infrastructure spending, like the knowledge infrastructure program and community infrastructure improvement program. These were designed to create jobs, but also in a way that we could move back toward fiscal balance once we were out of the economic downturn.
We were also trying to ensure that the situation was right for job creation, and so we increased our trade agreements. When we came into office, I believe were six trade agreements in place. We now have over 40.
We also invested $50 billion in infrastructure through the building Canada plan, which is one of the largest infrastructure funding programs in Canadian history.
We also looked at ways to ensure that we have a strong, skilled labour pool, which I could speak to in detail, and a healthy and educated population, which is why we have increased transfer payments to the provinces. We have ensured a stable source of funding for both health care and education so that our provincial partners can plan for those investments well into the future.
Two other things are important. We have also made sure that we lowered the tax rate on job creating companies. Why have we done that? It is because, all else considered equal, tax rates are certainly a determinant to whether or not we attract foreign investment into the country.
We have also looked at ways to reduce our red tape burden, which I will speak to in a moment, but most important, we have undergone a strategic review in government.
Through all of these other economic actions I just talked about it, we have increased revenues for the government while ensuring that we are taking good care of our fiduciary responsibility to manage taxpayer dollars wisely. We have made sure that we are on track to balance our budget, which we will continue to do this fiscal year.
All in all, with this economic plan that we have put in place, the ground is fertile for Canada's continued long-term economic success. That is the macro picture of our balanced economy. The conditions are right for job creation and entrepreneurship, et cetera, in Canada after and years of our government's strong, stable, steadfast focus on smart and predictable economic policy.
In terms of support for the middle class, the tax burden in Canada is at its lowest level in 50 years. When we look at the tax relief and benefits that an average two-earner family of four will accrue, historically since 2006, and with our new measures, there will be an additional $6,600 in the pockets of Canadian families per year.
That is not insubstantial. It means a lot to Canadian families. Ensuring that Canadian families have choice in how they can spend their money, with more income flexibility, that tax reduction means a lot to Canadians.
Through our economic action plan, we have one of the best job creation records in the G7, with more jobs available for Canadians and their families, which addresses the middle class piece of the motion.
As the Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, I want to speak a little bit about my portfolio. I do not think the debate is about our inability to support the energy sector and have a stable Canadian economy at the same time. It is about the fact we have some very strong primary industries in Canada. Certainly in western Canada, the energy sector is part of that, as are agriculture and forestry, but the strength of those primary industries can be used to create receptor capacity for emerging secondary industries.
Whenever I address a chamber of commerce in western Canada, I always talk about the fact that in my position I want Canadians to see western Canada as more than hewers of wood and drawers of water. While those industries create hundreds of thousands of jobs and will continue to be important for the economy, there are stories to be told about the emergence of digital media clusters, of biomedical technology, the pharmaceutical sector, of the burgeoning field of clean energy technology, of our aerospace sector in western Canada. It has been through our government's targeted measures to support these areas, many of which are small businesses, that we have seen them start to grow and thrive.
With regard to small business support in general, I want to explain our tax rate policy for job-creating companies. I will first quote my colleague from Hamilton Mountain, whom I have great respect for, from debate in February 2011. She is a very talented parliamentarian, but I do disagree with her on this point. She rose in debate on a Liberal motion and said:
I am delighted to rise in the House to speak to the Liberal motion calling on the government not to proceed with further corporate tax cuts and to restore the tax rate for large corporations to 2010 levels in the upcoming budget.
She continued to talk about why we should not be lowering tax rates on job-creating companies.
A lower taxation rate gives companies the ability to be more liquid and to have more choices, and it also attracts foreign direct investment. That is why we have reduced the corporate tax rate to very competitive levels internationally. On the small business side, we lowered the threshold on tax rates for small and medium-size enterprises to $500,000, so that more businesses would be classified at that particular rate. Again, we reduced the rate and I believe my colleagues opposite voted against those motions. So I find it somewhat rich that they are putting this forward today, because it has been our government that has consistently put forward both in its messaging and tangible policy our commitments to small business.
Small business can be supported in many ways above and beyond these tax breaks that we have already done. Indeed, through Western Economic Diversification we have a wide variety of measures to support small businesses. For instance, we support the Western Canada Business Service Network, which includes organizations such as Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, a great organization. We have the Community Futures Alberta organization, which provides small business loans to small businesses in rural communities to see economic diversification.
We have also invested across the R and D life cycle for innovation. To say that we do not have an innovation tax credit is simply ridiculous, because we have the SR and ED tax program.
My concern about the NDP's motion is that there is absolutely no detail on what this would be spent on. New Democrats have not tried to define innovative activities, what areas they would focus on. I believe that through the Jenkins report and the things we have done, we have done a very good job to support basic research. We have supported commercialization activities as well as tax credits for innovation-happening companies.
In my department, we have the western innovation initiative, which is a new program with $100 million over five years targeted at providing support for small businesses that are looking at prototype development, process, scale-up, and these sorts of things. This has been an awesome program. We have seen huge subscription rates for it. Again, in the area of the R and D life cycle, we could talk about every step of the way that our government has supported, including our venture capital action plan.
I want to close with something my colleague was alluding to. When looking at corporate tax rates, we cannot just look at tax cuts. We also have to look at other tax rates. My concern is that the NDP has never come out and said that it would not impose a carbon tax on Canadian businesses. I know there is usually a giggle on the other side when this is brought up, but a carbon tax would in fact raise input costs like electricity, like consumable goods and manufacturing, which I do not think my colleagues opposite have adequately modelled.
Frankly, if I had a small business, I would be concerned about the inability of the NDP to put forward a predictable and stable plan when it comes to taxation rates. This is what our government has done. We have said, “here is what we are going to do to help you”, and we have followed through.