Mr. Speaker, thank you for recognizing me and giving me the opportunity to speak to Bill C-15, which is the budget implementation act and the overall budgetary policy of this government.
Let me start by recognizing and thanking the people of Ottawa Centre for giving me the opportunity to speak on their behalf in the House. It is an honour every time I get up.
Every single budget tabled on behalf of the Government of Canada, no matter which political stripe, is shaped by the context or moment in time we are living in. This moment is quite unique. We hear different expressions, such as a hinge moment, a pivotal moment and a moment of great consequence, and I think all of them are quite appropriate descriptions of the times we are living in.
We are seeing serious signals toward protectionism, especially by the United States, and tariffs are being imposed on countries that have been long-time friends and allies, like Canada, for no justifiable reason. We are seeing shifting geopolitical alliances between countries, and countries like Canada are considering what they should be doing to invest in the north or the defence sector. That is the context in which this budget is being presented.
The aim of this budget is to set Canada up for success in this changing economic and political environment. In fact, I would argue that it would be highly inappropriate if the government did not make bold decisions, as we see in this budget, because then we would not be responding to the challenges.
The big challenge we have to respond to is strengthening our economy to make sure that our country remains both politically and economically independent. It is imperative and something the Prime Minister spoke about. In fact, the most recent election was fought on that. What steps are necessary to make Canada an economically independent country so that we are less reliant on the United States, are more focused on ensuring we trade with different parts of the world and are able to build our economy?
There are two big elements to make that happen that are part and parcel of this budget. One is to build one economy, as opposed to 13 in the country, and build the country east to west, which is the true axis of the country, with, of course, our northern coast and northern communities as well. This is as opposed to how we have always done business, which is from north to south and to the United States. This is something we have to reorient. In that process, we have to open up opportunities, through our Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts, to other parts of the world. The investments my Conservative colleagues continue to oppose, which are part of this budget, are not just wasted money; they are being invested to build the infrastructure necessary for the economic independence of Canada.
There are a couple of other points I want to raise that I think are worth mentioning.
In this budget, there are no new tax increases. In fact, we are cutting taxes for over 20 million Canadians, especially those in the middle class, by lowering an income tax bracket. We have gotten rid of the divisive consumer carbon tax, which is helping families save money. We are cutting taxes. There are no new taxes in this budget, which is worthy of support.
In addition to that, we are not cutting any social services. We are making sure that Canadians get the help they need, whether through the Canada child benefit, the $10-a-day child care plan, the Canada disability benefit, the national school food program being made permanent, old age security or the guaranteed income supplement. All those important supports that Canadians rely on are being maintained and protected in this budget.
That is an important element for me in my support for the budget, but there are four or five key points I want to raise that are important in the budget.
One is the focus on trade diversification. As I mentioned earlier, we need to make sure we are not reliant solely on trading with the United States. We need to diversify our trade. The Prime Minister and the government have set a target of doubling our non-U.S. exports over a decade; that is about $300 billion that we are talking about. That will happen only if we engage with other parts of the world.
That is why the Prime Minister and members of the government are renewing our relationships and are rebuilding our alliances with other parts of the world, whether it is in Europe, the Indo-Pacific or the Middle East, to make sure that we are creating new opportunities for our businesses to do business.
We heard in question period earlier today that the Government of the United Arab Emirates has decided to invest $70 billion in Canada. That is a huge gain, as are the free trade agreements we have signed with Indonesia. We are negotiating with Thailand, with the Philippines, with Mercosur and with ASEAN.
All of this will allow us to diversify trade and open new markets for our businesses.
The other big element of the budget is investment in infrastructure. We are talking about schools, hospitals and community facilities. As all of us often talk about, these is the infrastructure that our communities use, and we hear from our communities about it. The government is investing directly in our communities. It is going to support our constituents and make sure they continue to live a better quality of life. I believe that the number is around $50 billion over the next few years that is being invested in our community. That is a really important investment. Again, building community assets that are going to support our communities is part of the budget.
The part I am quite excited about is Build Canada Homes, again, making sure we really deal with the housing crisis the country is going through by leveraging the capacity of the government to build more homes and to build them faster, to really leverage in that way a lot of the lands owned by the federal government. I know quite a bit about this because in my riding of Ottawa Centre there are a lot of federal lands ready to be repurposed and redeveloped to build affordable housing. There are neighbourhoods like Tunney's Pasture and Confederation Heights in my community, and there are buildings like the Jackson Building, which is right in downtown Ottawa, that could be repurposed for homes.
All those investments are going to create good homes for people.
There are also the superdeductions that are part of the budget. They are going to spur so much economic growth. They are going to ensure that there are new investments coming into our communities. Something the business communities have been asking for for some time is part of the budget so we can really attract private capital to be invested.
Last but not least, there is investment in our Canadian Armed Forces, to make sure that we not only meet the requirement of 2% of our GDP but also increase it to 5% to ensure the security and protection of our country from coast to coast to coast, especially the Arctic coast, so we protect not only us but our neighbours as well.
This is why I am supporting the budget. It is an investment in our country. It is a generational investment because it is investing in the generations ahead of us. Our responsibility is to build for them. That is what the budget is doing: building equity that we can then build on to create the prosperity that Canadians deserve and that we have always worked for.