Madam Speaker, it is impossible to overestimate how delighted I am with the understanding of and service to the north of the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister, and the other ministers.
A few summers ago, the Prime Minister spent the better part of a week in my riding, attending AFN meetings and meeting Yukon chiefs and hundreds of Yukoners to better understand our northern views and issues and the people of the north. This is respect for the north.
Shortly after Parliament started sitting, my staff said I was invited to talk to the Minister of Finance about our issues in the north. I was astounded that I, from the nation's farthest riding from Ottawa, in the remote northwest, Yukon, would be one of the first people that the Minister of Finance consulted. It was such a gratifying indication of his respect for rural and northern Canada; and he listened, as I will outline later in my speech. For so many issues from the north and for the poor of the country being in the budget, I can only express my deepest gratification.
In our inspiring election platform, we made many promises to implement in the next four years. Many people have approached me and said how delighted they are that so many of those promises have already been kept by the Prime Minister and cabinet, and we are just starting the four years.
Today I will concentrate on items related primarily to the north and also to poverty.
Our northern strategy is about the people of the north, first and foremost, and the Minister of Finance and government came through in spades. The very large increase in the northern allowance, 33%, bringing $10.2 million to Yukoners over two years, is a huge reflection of the government's understanding of the high cost of survival and just making ends meet in the north.
I and my colleagues from NWT and Labrador and the Minister of Fisheries from Nunavut lobbied hard for this, and we are excited that the biggest increase for individual northerners in recent memory has come to fruition. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce also lobbied for this to help employers retain employees in the north. If this were the only benefit done for the north in this budget, then this budget would still be a huge win for those living in the north and the Arctic, but this is not all we received.
The major funding for our regional development agency, CanNor, was expiring. The SINED funding was expiring last March 31. I, our northern colleagues, and organizations like chambers of commerce and the Yukon College, who have benefited from CanNor funding, lobbied hard to have the funding reinstated, and indeed it was. The minister listened, and there is $40 million over the next two years.
The two biggest sectors in my economy in the Yukon are mining and infrastructure. Again, the government came through. Last summer, I exhorted that the mineral exploration tax credit not be ruled out in our platform, and indeed, that came true. I am sure that the chambers of mines in the Yukon, in the north, and even nationally talked to the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Finance about this important exploration tax credit at a time when mining is down. Again, the Minister of Finance listened.
Tourism, often the biggest employer in my economy, has the biggest sector of RDP of probably any riding in the country. Therefore, more than anyone, we were delighted with the $50 million going to Destination Canada to market Canada. Again, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce also lobbied for an increase in Destination Canada funds.
Another huge sector in the Canadian economy is culture, bigger in our economy than most ridings in the country. Therefore, the cultural sector was delighted with the increase or reinstatement of programming in the Yukon and across the country.
Also, the IT sector is a huge economic sector in my riding. The sector appreciates the major investments in this budget in IT, science, research, and clean technologies.
When the food mail program changed to nutrition north in 2010-11, I lobbied hard that it would be devastating, and obviously it has been. The people of the Arctic have been so devastated, those who can least afford it in Canada. Certainly, we all appreciate the increases to the nutrition north program in this budget.
Paul Martin made a sea change in dealing with aboriginal people in this country; listening to them and coming up with a huge amount, bigger than any government at any level in the history of Canada, with $5 billion in the Kelowna accord for projects that first nations, Inuit, and Métis had come up with. It was bottom-up. People dreamed, after that had been cancelled by subsequent governments, that this huge amount might come back again.
Many people never thought that huge amount of $8.4 billion of the budget increase would actually come. Whether it is for aboriginal languages, water and sewer, aboriginal skills, or court worker programs, it all is a sign that the government is trying to reduce the disparity in the lives of aboriginal people and other Canadians.
Of course, our people spoke passionately at meetings about a national inquiry into missing aboriginal people, and we are all so moved that the inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls has been started.
As I have been saying for over a decade, climate change affects the north more than any other place in the world, and we are delighted that there are many items related to that in the budget, but especially that we in the north can do our own part, with $10.7 million for renewable projects in northern and aboriginal Canada and communities that are presently on diesel.
The benefits for the north in my riding go on and on: $8 million to Yukoners for affordable housing; up to $850,000 for transit for Whitehorse; increased services to northern veterans; large increases in social and green infrastructure; a $23.2 million increase in the Yukon government's transfer payments; an infrastructure bank; $500 million over five years for rural and remote Internet; $10 million to improve the major northern projects regulatory review; investments in northern national parks; millions for research and traditional knowledge in the north before resources develop, such as drilling in the fragile Arctic waters; increased EI benefits for the Whitehorse region; funding for adult education like that presently delivered by Yukon College; $6.4 for northern cultural and recreational facilities; up to $13.1 million to upgrade the federal infrastructure; and middle-class tax cuts for so many Canadians.
I see my colleagues in the House are beginning to think this is the greatest gold rush since the Klondike in 1898, and they all want to move to the Yukon. They can see why I am so delighted in the budget.
When I left Parliament in 2011, there were at least three of us who were very passionate about fighting poverty: Tony Martin, a wonderful human being from the NDP, and Mike Savage who is now mayor of Halifax, who both spoke so passionately about fighting poverty. It is certainly what I believe, and I am delighted to be able to come back to a government that holds that as one of its highest principles. That is $118 million over two years for a national homelessness strategy; more money for affordable housing, for women's shelters; a 10% increase in the GIS for Canada's poorest seniors, which will help 900,000 seniors; child tax benefits.
This is the biggest transformation of social programs since national health care. It is probably my biggest priority. Imagine a low-income mother getting $6,400 for a child whom she is having a hard time supporting. With that, how much nutritious food could she buy? How much clothing, how many sports programs and arts programs, how much for supplies and funding for school trips out of $6,400, tax-free, to make her life so much easier and let her feel she could deliver what a mother should be able to deliver to her children?
This will raise more than 300,000 children out of poverty. This is what the government I believe in is all about, and this is why I am so proud of this budget and want to support it. I thank the finance minister for delivering for the north.