Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to stand today and outline some of the failures of the Liberal government.
One of the things the Liberal government talks about all the time is that the economy and the environment must go hand in hand. However, I think we have to put the economy ahead of the environment if we want a clean environment. I would ask every member in this place to get out their phones and tablets and have a look at the island that contains both the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has a much better economy than Haiti has. We can see a clear line on the Google map and the Dominican Republic is literally greener than Haiti. That is because the economy works in the Dominican Republic, and the economy is struggling in Haiti.
That is the thing we see here in Canada as well. We need to ensure that Canada's economy continues to work into the future if we want to rely on having one of the nicest countries in the entire world. Right here in Canada we have some of the cleanest water in the world, most of the populace of wildlife, some of the most pristine glaciers and some of the greatest landscapes that people come from around the world to see. There are other things that are not necessarily attached to the landscape, but people from around the world come to Canada to see, such as the northern lights. Our economy is based a lot upon our landscape, but it is also required that we have a great economy in order to maintain the levels where we can protect our environment.
The signature piece of the government's ruling up until now has been the carbon tax. It has taken the Liberals three years to get it off the ground. It does the opposite of what the Liberals want it to do. It does nothing for the environment, and it takes money out of the pockets of everyday Canadians. When money is taken out of the pockets of everyday Canadians, the economy starts to falter.
The other thing the Liberals are doing is spending our children's future. They have this massive deficit every year, and that can only hurt the economy in the long term. When we hurt the economy in the long term, we will see that the environment gets more of a strain placed on it. When companies are unable to invest, a lot of times the first thing we see is their inability to do the cleanup, to hire the cleanup crews. That sort of thing does not happen. We are seeing that right now in Alberta.
Alberta, under the visionary leadership of Peter Lougheed, put in place the orphan well program. The liability for cleaning up abandoned wells in Alberta was placed on all oil companies in general and was funded by a unique system. Now, with the lack of investment coming into northern Alberta, we are seeing the multiplication of these abandoned wells, and because the economy is not functioning well, we are unable to go in and clean up some of these orphan wells across northern Alberta.
It is imperative that we have a good economy that keeps the cash flowing and allows us to do the things we need to clean up the environment. Our record is amazing on this kind of thing.
My uncle lives right on Lake Erie, and he said over the last 10 years the cleanup efforts that have happened in the Great Lakes have been visible for all to see. In the Slave Lake area up in my riding, the amount of investment the federal government put into the area to ensure the lake stayed full of water, with the weir on the end of the lake and that sort of thing, was very much appreciated. We have seen the cycle of nature come around. The lake still is backed up with water just from the fact that we have had a lot of rain over the last three years.
That said, the carbon tax is only going to take money out of the economy. In addition, the Liberals' deficit spending will also take money out of the economy in the future. However, today we would expect that if are expending all this extra money, we should see in this debt-fuelled economy a spike in GDP growth relative to the amount of deficit spending, but we have not seen that either.
Budget 2016 said that the deficit would raise the level of GDP by half a per cent and we have only seen GDP growth of only point one per cent. We are not even getting good value for the money when we are taking out a loan for our country's future. That is definitely one of the things I want to see.
The last thing I want to talk about is the whole idea of infrastructure spending. In northern Alberta there are several highways that run north-south. Highway 88 was freshly paved over the summer. It goes from Slave Lake up to Fort Vermillion. The highway is about 300 or 400 kilometres long. The people from Fort Vermillion, La Crete and High Level are immensely proud of their new highway. Five years ago, most of it was gravel road and members can imagine that 300 to 400 kilometres of gravel road was not an exciting drive. People are very excited about Highway 88 and the new pavement. We have seen Highway 60, Highways 43 and 44, which run north-south. The highway going up to Fort McMurray has been in the news often.
What is lacking in northern Alberta is an east-west connector. Currently, if one wants to go from Peace River over to Fort McMurray, which are about 300 kilometres apart, it is a 700 kilometre driving tour because people have to go down nearly to Edmonton and then drive back up toward Fort McMurray. It is a long drive. Going through my hometown of Barrhead would be the shortest way.
There is an idea called the N-55, north of the 55, connector. Most of the roadway is in place. it is either a gravel road or a logging road. There are still about seven kilometres needed to connect it through the middle. Sixty-six kilometres are already upgraded and ready to be paved. I have heard from hundreds of constituents that it would be a great economic corridor and it would eliminate several hours of driving if there were a connector from Peace River, B.C. to Fort McMurray. I have been calling it the N-55 connector. I look forward to getting some funding for that. However, I must say that the infrastructure funding from the Liberal government has been sparse in northern Alberta.
When I was first elected, everyone said the infrastructure plan of the Liberals was amazing and they were looking forward to having the funds to build these projects that would enhance the economic viability of many places in northern Alberta. They were looking forward to having that funding. Now I read in the budget that the Liberals are still struggling to get the infrastructure money out. I have a recommendation for them.
My constituency overlaps about 100 communities with about 1,000 elected representatives. Many of the town and county councils say that one thing that works amazingly well is the gas tax refund. If the government is struggling to get money out for infrastructure, it should put more in the gas tax refund. Funds from the gas tax refund are allocated out for several years in advance. They know where the money is coming from and where it is going. If the government were to double or triple the gas tax refund, communities would be able to get those projects out of their five-year plan and put them in their three-year plan or two-year plan. It would also be good for the economy in northern Alberta particularly right now. Labour rates have come down significantly over the last few years and it would be a great time to build some amazing infrastructure in northern Alberta.
I hope that the government is listening. I hope we can see a renewed effort to get the infrastructure money out to northern Alberta to build some of these projects like the N-55 connector.