Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Waterloo, who is always way more on top of her game than I am.
I am going to be sharing my time with the member for Vancouver Granville.
Where I left off, I mentioned that Charlottetown was the location of the national headquarters of the Department of Veterans Affairs. This budget is important in that regard because it speaks specifically to another significant investment in Veterans Affairs to deal with the backlog of veterans' claims and the other modernization required to give veterans the services they rightly deserve. That is good news for the people of Charlottetown, for the people who serve veterans and for our veterans community.
The presence of the national headquarters of Veterans Affairs in my riding is particularly important, and the vote of confidence that the riding has received for the work being done there is demonstrated by the investments that have been made in the Daniel J. MacDonald Building and also by the investments in the budget. Unlike with the previous government, there are no deep and disproportionate cuts and there is no closure of district offices, which we reopened immediately upon coming into power.
I want to talk a bit about how the budget would impact my province and my riding.
Prince Edward Island is a place that relies heavily on tourism. We are 180,000 people, but we receive more than 1.7 million visitors a year. That was last year's number. This year's number was way up, and it was up for a few reasons. One, of course, is that Canadians have decided to stay home, and we were the beneficiaries of that. The other is that the weather this year was absolutely incredible for the beaches and all of the activities that people enjoy so much on Prince Edward Island. It was tough for the farmers but good for the tourists, so the tourism industry flourished.
There are two more reasons we had such a good year in tourism in Prince Edward Island this year. One is the decision of the Government of Canada to reduce the tolls on the Confederation Bridge from $50 to $20. That had a big impact on the traffic going back and forth across the bridge, and there was a significant increase there. The other reason, which might surprise members, is the Canada strong pass. The Canada strong pass basically provided for free entry into national parks, and the national park in Prince Edward Island is a major draw for tourists and locals alike. It was good to see in this budget that this success will be repeated, as the Canada strong pass will be around for another year.
Also included in the budget are investments in airport infrastructure. This is critically important as well, and it builds on another investment that was recently made with respect to air travel and Prince Edward Island to provide regional connectivity. Back when COVID struck, the airlines abandoned short-haul regional routes and cut off service from Charlottetown to Halifax. Being able to get from Charlottetown to Halifax opened up the rest of the country and provided many other options. We had not had that flight since the COVID pandemic, until an announcement recently of a program to bring it back through an investment of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
The investment in airport infrastructure in this budget is critically important, because my hope and expectation is that increased service will lead to increased numbers. It is already a phenomenon that we have seen irrespective of this investment, but all of this feeds into good news for the tourism sector in Prince Edward Island.
On the subject of infrastructure, since the sunsetting of the investing in Canada infrastructure program, there has been a pretty significant gap in the availability of infrastructure funds from the Government of Canada for anything other than green-inclusive community buildings or housing. This is something I have heard frequently in my office from hard-working, dedicated, community-minded organizations that have a good project in mind for which there is no fund. Now there is.
This budget has introduced the build communities strong fund. It has specifically indicated that health infrastructure is eligible, that colleges and universities are eligible and that local infrastructure is a key element of it. All of these things are new. All of these things would unlock private investment. All of these things would provide for greater continuity and a greater provision of services within the community. There is a particular synergy as well to the extent that health infrastructure would now be included.
Just within the last couple of days, the Progressive Conservative provincial government in Prince Edward Island introduced its capital budget, which had millions of dollars in health infrastructure in it. This will be a chance for further co-operation and partnership between the two levels of government.
There is another point I would like to mention for a number of reasons. Prince Edward Island has a very vibrant Acadian, francophone, francophile and franco-curious community. That vitality was on full show on August 15, when Charlottetown hosted National Acadian Day celebrations.
As part of the budget, we decided to double the funding for this celebration and make it permanent. This is the result of the efforts made by community representatives like Charles Duguay of the Société acadienne et francophone de l'Île‑du‑Prince‑Édouard. They pushed very hard to make their voices heard. We heard their message and we responded. I am particularly proud of that.
The other thing I want to touch upon is the national school food program, which is national because of a pilot project done in Prince Edward Island. It was done particularly well; it was particularly well executed, and it was scaled across the country. It is a source of pride that it has now been made permanent. It will provide a savings of $800 for a typical family with two children and will allow 400,000 more kids to have healthy food.
For me, it is more than that. It is yet another indication that a small place like Prince Edward Island is an ideal location for a pilot project. There are advocates in Prince Edward Island right now pushing for a pilot project for a basic income guarantee. We, as Liberals and elected officials, have an obligation to those who are more vulnerable than us, and I believe we will all be measured by that.
This is a budget that works for my riding, for my province and for my country. I am proud to stand and vote in support of it. I hope members on all sides will not use this budget to force a Christmas election. We will see how much good will and can come of it. Let us support it.