Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time today with the member for Kelowna—Lake Country.
I would like to start by thanking the residents of Northumberland—Peterborough South for allowing me the great honour to rise and speak today.
I would also like to take a moment to thank the leader of Her Majesty's official opposition for his service to the party, Parliament and the country. I look forward to serving in Parliament with him and continuing his great work.
Members are of course aware of the hon. member's accomplishments: He was the youngest Speaker ever in Canada, he increased the size of our caucus dramatically and he won the popular vote. However, I would like to relate a story of what happened during the campaign, as I think it highlights a part of his character that we may not all be aware of.
He came out to visit my riding, the beautiful riding of Northumberland—Peterborough South. My son was there and was a bit upset: He was moved away from his dad and did not like it. The Leader of the Opposition went over to my son, cheered him up, grabbed one of his hands and we started to swing him. We swung him once, twice, three times and he would not let us stop. The wild part was that whenever we went to any other political event, and I apologize for the breach in protocol in using a member's name, but my son would ask, “Is Andrew Scheer going to be there?” I am definitely the second-most popular politician in my house.
Once again I thank, from the bottom of my heart, the Leader of the Opposition for his great service to his country and what he did for my family personally. I would not be here without him.
On a different note, I want to thank the Prime Minister for his conciliatory tone in the Speech from the Throne. However, to solve the many issues we are facing today, change will require more than a change in tone. We need substance. We need willingness from the government to partner with a party that received the most votes in the last federal election. Canadians elected us not just to speak but to act. We need to act for those who are struggling the most.
During the last five months of the campaign, I door-knocked with our team, knocking on over 40,000 doors, and heard over and over again that times are getting tougher and things are getting more expensive. We need to act for those people. We need to make things better for the average Canadian.
The average Canadian now spends more on taxes than on food, clothing and shelter combined. This is being felt by our most vulnerable. Young Canadians looking to start their lives are finding it harder and harder to pay their rent or mortgage. The idea of saving for a rainy day, which will happen with the shocks in the economy, is not there any more. Folks out there right now are trying to make it from payment to payment and, quite frankly, these are not always being made. Nearly half of Canadians are within $200 of not making their payments. Sadly, there are many folks who are not making their payments at all, as personal bankruptcies are reaching decade highs.
Our millennials and those before asked our generation and the generations before for an opportunity. Instead, all they got was legalized marijuana. The generations that preceded them felt the dignity and honour of working, of building equity in their businesses and homes, but increasingly the youth of our generation are being denied that opportunity. We need to give them back the opportunity to not just get by but get ahead.
We need to act and we need to act soon for the underemployed and unemployed. We have had the worst job losses since 2008. Personal prosperity does not start with a government program; it starts with a great job or a new business.
Canadian small businesses provide more than 70% of the jobs in the private sector, yet the finance minister looks at business owners simply as a way to avoid taxes. I do not think that is right.
Businesses in Canada are not optimistic about the future. Over the last five years, we have seen a 20% reduction in investments in equipment and plants. When they look forward, they do not see good things to come. Government needs to get out of the way of business owners to make sure they can do what they do best: create jobs. We need to cut the red tape now, not five years from now, not 10 years from now.
At the heart of many of these issues is the productivity gap, which has only been exacerbated over the last four years. Canadians contribute $50 to the GDP per hour of work. In contrast, our neighbours to the south contribute $60, or better yet, Switzerland contributes $65 and Ireland 84.
What is the big deal? How does it affect us? It has a real impact on Canadians, because it is lowering our wages. If we want life to be more affordable, if we want Canadians to be more prosperous, we must increase our productivity, because this has brought down our average wages to $19. In contrast, in the United States it is $23, or better yet, it is almost double that in Switzerland, at $33.
When we increase productivity, we increase the wealth of our nation, wealth that can be used by parents to help feed their children, by students to pay for university, by the unemployed to be employed and by seniors to retire with dignity. Despite the overwhelming evidence that productivity will make life better for all Canadians, the word “productivity” was mentioned in the throne speech exactly zero times.
The Speech from the Throne was replete with messages that would suppress productivity instead of increasing it. It did not contain any measures to improve the drivers of productivity, such as innovation, technology, small business and, notably, any support for the resource sector. Canadians involved in the resource sector contribute a remarkable $600 per hour to the GDP. If we want to increase the wealth of our nation, we need to continue to invest in the resource sector.
When we enhance the productivity of our nation, we necessarily create jobs, increase income and increase the size of the middle class. Of equal importance, we also increase tax revenue, which can be used to increase our funding for important social programs like health care, the environment and, perhaps most importantly, our military.
People within my riding and the rest of Canada need jobs, higher incomes and more affordable goods and services. Quite frankly, the Speech from the Throne did not provide those things. We have a choice to make: We can continue to watch our productivity slip down the spiral underneath the tremendous weight of failed policies, increased regulation and excessive taxation, or we can decide to take a different path and instead climb the staircase of prosperity.
Our nation is depending on us coming to Parliament and to our committees, supporting not just our party's ideas, but the best ideas. This is our reality. If we do not act together, if the government does not compromise with the party that won the most seats in the last election, we will further alienate our regions and drive a deeper wedge into our wonderful country.
We will need more than a conciliatory tone. We need an openness to a different direction, a more productive direction, a movement away from that downward productivity spiral and a movement up the staircase of prosperity.