Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague from Foothills for his informative speech.
Let me begin by congratulating you, Mr. Speaker, on your election in Simcoe North, next door to my riding, and also to your position as Deputy Speaker. I look forward to working with you.
I would also like to thank my constituents from Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock for placing their trust in me to represent them here. I would like to thank my campaign manager, my campaign team, the volunteers who came out, day in and day out, and knocked on doors, put up signs, and gave out literature. My provincial colleague, Laurie Scott, was there as well. Also, I offer a special thanks to John and Brenda Hymus. They are good friends of mine who were with me each and every day of this campaign, and that was something special to have.
Many members will know my predecessor, Barry Devolin. I had the opportunity to work with Barry for the past 11 years, and I would be remiss if I did not mention him. He was a mentor to me, and a role model, and I also consider him a very good friend. I would like to thank him for his ongoing support and advice.
For all of us here, it is a very humbling experience to speak in this chamber. This job has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember, and I think I speak for everyone when I say it feels good to be here. I am honoured to do so. I am proud to report that just two weeks after the election, my constituency office was up and running. We were taking phone calls, helping constituents with everything from citizenship applications to Canada pension and Canada Revenue Agency issues and of course passports and everything in between. I want to thank my staff for working very hard and tirelessly, getting that office up as quickly as possibly, and getting back to serving the constituents of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock.
I should point out that this past week I was able to hold what I hope will be the first of many passport clinics in this riding. I was able to meet hundreds of my constituents as they came out to talk about not only passports but also the various issues that affect them.
Who are the people of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock? The people there are as strong as my riding is beautiful. We put our hands to hard work, our voices to causes, and our hearts and minds to the challenges we face. We take care of our neighbours. We teach our children how to learn good things, grow crops, make good choices, and respect those who have done these things as a good deal, and to continue to put themselves forward in their community. We are a polite group. We roll up our sleeves for the good of our towns, and we of course take our weekends seriously. We hear loons and frogs when we sleep and, if we are in favour of a louder scene, we are just a quick drive from Toronto. We are farmers, machinists, protectors, environmentalists, gardeners, artists, doctors, tradespeople, and store owners. We pitch in. We take pride in our old buildings, our stretches of natural lands, and common sense. We have history, morals, and intention. We know how to enjoy life.
It is those exact people who are concerned about the direction in which the current Liberal government is taking our great nation. How many more promises will be broken as we continue this mandate? I am going to talk about some of the issues I heard while back in my riding.
Canada, under our previous Conservative government was a major player in the fight against terror across the world. The Liberal Speech from the Throne promised, “The Government will strengthen its relationship with allies, especially with our closest friend and partner, the United States”.
Despite this, the Liberal government's pledge to withdraw from the battle against ISIS has severely hurt our relations with our allies, specifically the United States. Only six months ago, then foreign affairs minister Rob Nicholson hosted an international meeting in Quebec City to discuss the military and political aspects of the mission against ISIS. Today, we are not even welcome to have a seat at that table.
The current government also claimed it “will continue to work with its allies in the fight against terrorism”. How can the Liberals claim to be strengthening our relationships and working with our allies in this fight against terrorism when they have single-handedly isolated Canada from its allies and withdrawn our forces at the exact same time our allies are stepping up their efforts? Canada has gone from a nation that, in my opinion, punched above its weight each and every time to a nation now willing to stand on the sidelines while our allies fight against terrorism.
The Liberals have proclaimed that Canada is back on the world stage. In reality, in my opinion, we are being forced to sit back while our allies battle to defend our shared values. All of this has taken place in four short months, and I fear it will continue to happen for the rest of this mandate.
On the issue of democratic reform, I have spoken to my constituents. They are concerned about the Liberal electoral reform. In the Speech from the Throne, the Liberals stated, “2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system”. The government's same minister has indicated there will be no electoral referendum. How does the Liberal government plan on restoring the trust of Canadians in public institutions when it has already indicated that it will not give Canadians a chance to be heard through a national referendum?
Not giving Canadians a chance to be heard directly goes completely against the promise of the Liberals to restore the trust of Canadians. It is just another of the promises that the Liberals will continue to break. A committee comprised of a select number of parliamentarians studying electoral reform is not, and in my opinion never will be, a substitute for all Canadians having their voices heard directly. The Liberal committee is simply a vehicle for which they can impose their own predetermined agenda without any meaningful way to restrain them.
I will now speak to agriculture and natural resources, as did my friend from Foothills. As he mentioned quite eloquently, the Prime Minister was in Switzerland representing Canada at the World Economic Forum. He was given a chance to promote Canada to the world. Instead he left out some of the most important of our industries: natural resources and agriculture. Do not misunderstand me. Our resourcefulness innovation is an important part, and continues to be, of our prosperity in Canada. However, instead of promoting the many desirable industries and businesses that our great nation has to offer, the Prime Minister spoke just about confidence, and he was positive.
Canada is a rich nation and has a rich resource-based economy. The Prime Minister had the opportunity to promote this to the world, and instead failed to do so.
In Canada, one in five jobs are based on trade, and our Conservative government sought increased opportunities for Canadians by signing free trade agreements across the globe. We stood side by side with Canadians to promote and protect jobs.
Despite overlooking natural resources, there is no mention of Canada's world-class food supply. We are well known all over this world for the quality and security of our food production system. Many in this place will know the name Kawartha Dairy in my riding. Many people line up for long periods of time for that great ice cream. We are now seeing innovators like Mariposa Dairy in the process of completing a $2 million expansion with its award-winning goat cheese. Grass Hill Farms in my home town of Bobcaygeon is a world leader in quality goat milk and genetic research. Its goat products are in demand all across this globe, and we need to ensure that it has access to these markets.
Let us look where we stand currently. We are in the winter. It will soon be spring. The government will be tabling its budget. What is projected for 2016 and how will be its projections create jobs? My friend from Foothills talked about the oil supply. The value of our Canadian dollar continues to drop to the weakest it has been since 2003. The Liberal government promised deficits of $10 billion per year, necessary spending to jump-start the economy. That figure is now projected to be more like $13 billion to $14 billion. Why is that?
In my opinion, the Liberals said in the election campaign that tax hikes to be imposed on the richest 1% would pay for the middle-class tax cut. However, as it turns out, after some big number crunching, tax cuts for the middle class will actually not be recovered by those high-income earners. Instead, it will cost Ottawa $1.2 billion a year. It basically means that we will have increased taxes later or spending cuts, maybe both. Future generations, my children, my grandchildren will have to pay for this.
This ideology has been known to wreck economies of many countries. It has wrecked some of the economies of our provinces. I see a big tax hike on the horizon, and I am scared about that. Since 2008, with infrastructure spending, we have seen $200 million in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock be invested. That has seen new arenas built, libraries, renovation, and the list goes on, all creating infrastructure and jobs. We need to continue that.
We need to work on expanding high speed Internet. We have made a great start hitting that, going all across eastern Ontario and the country, but there are gaps. In Haliburton county there are gaps, and we need to fix those gaps. If we are not connected to the Internet, we are not connected to the world, we cannot have economic activity. We need that to succeed.