Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for St. Paul's.
I am pleased to take part in today's debate on the Speech from the Throne, but before beginning, Madam Speaker, I too want to congratulate you on your appointment as Acting Speaker of the House, and to wish you good luck.
On June 2 of this year, I began my second term of office, this time as the member for Ahuntsic, in the riding where I have lived with my family for close to 30 years. The riding of Ahuntsic has a long Liberal tradition, and I take great pride in following in the steps of women like the Hon. Jeanne Sauvé and Thérèse Killens. I pledge to continue to work hard with my government for the well-being of the residents of Ahuntsic, for nothing makes me happier than to serve my fellow citizens and all Canadians. I thank the citizens of Ahuntsic for their support.
Canadians are optimistic. Their confidence has returned because of our good governance, and because of a climate in which 974,000 jobs have been created since we formed the government in 1993. For the first time in close to 30 years, the Government of Canada will not be facing a monumental deficit. We are once again in a position to meet Canadians' priorities without exceeding our financial means.
The result is that we can now make strategic investments for our children, our young people, our health, and our communities, as well as for the sector of knowledge and creativity.
During our first mandate we demonstrated the leadership Canadians expect from their federal government. That is why Canadians returned their confidence on June 2 by electing a Liberal government to lead them into the 21st century.
We have restored their optimism and renewed their hope for the future. We were not mean, as some of our opponents will have you believe, but we were lean. We were not pseudo-conservatives as others would have you believe, we were true liberals. I will quote a great Canadian who led this country into another century, Sir Wilfrid Laurier:
I am a Liberal of the English school. I believe in that school which has all along claimed that it is the privilege of all subjects, whether high or low, whether rich or poor, whether ecclesiastic or laymen, to participate in the administration of public affairs, to discuss, to influence, to persuade, to convince—but which has always denied, even to the highest, the right to dictate to the lowest.
That is what Liberalism is all about.
We also know that the government cannot act alone. Canadians want their government to work in partnership. We are ready to work with all our partners—the provinces and territories, the private sector, non profit agencies, the volunteer sector and all Canadians—to better equip our country to meet the needs of Canadians.
We are not trying to encroach on the fundamental rights of the provinces, as the Bloc Quebecois is accusing us of doing, but rather to help my province, Quebec, develop within this flexible federation. A more smoothly operating federation is the key to our future. A federation is not static, but rather constantly changing. Together we will decide how it will change.
The Speech from the Throne sets out the broad lines of our strategy for our second mandate. Job creation and economic growth are and will remain our first priorities.
Accordingly, we want to keep our efforts focussed on helping small and medium size business develop and market new technologies.
Small and medium size businesses need to make the transition to new technologies if they are to survive in today's market. Manufacturers make up the majority of industry in my riding of Ahuntsic, names like Simon Chang, Tolédano and Christina Canada, which most recently received a grant from the federal government to help develop a new fibre for bathing suits. This new project will help to create nearly 200 jobs in Ahuntsic. This initiative funded through the transitional job fund is an example of the success of our job creation commitment, and that is just one example in my riding.
Investing in our youth has the largest return for Canada. As a mother of two young girls this issue is of utmost importance to me personally and I believe to all my colleagues in the House. We need to give children the best start possible.
During our first mandate we established a prenatal program and increased the Canada child tax benefit by $850 million a year. In our second mandate we will continue to develop a national child benefit system to respond to the problems of low income families with children. We will also develop a national children's agenda and establish centres of excellence to deepen our understanding of children's development and well-being. Who can argue with that?
We must do everything to guarantee our young people a better future. The youth service corps and youth internship programs were hugely successful in our first mandate. I had a number of projects in my riding and I can testify to their impact on the development of young people.
Young people want to gain experience in order to overcome the obstacles blocking their entry into the labour market. Furthermore, this experience revives their self confidence and increases their worth with future employers.
The youth employment strategy and the public service youth internship program will also create opportunities for young people in the riding of Ahuntsic and for the students of the collège Bois-de-Boulogne, who will certainly benefit from these programs.
Finally, the $1 billion Canada millennium scholarship endowment fund that the Prime Minister announced yesterday in response to the Speech from the Throne demonstrates once again our commitment to helping young Canadians. I would like to congratulate the Prime Minister on behalf of all our children and on behalf of my daughters.
These programs go a long way in helping our youth reach their potential and making them responsible citizens in their communities. There is nothing sadder than seeing youth resort to crime in the absence of hope for their future.
During my first mandate I worked directly with street kids and youth workers and saw firsthand the problems our youth are facing today. I bring these experiences to my new role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. I thank the prime minister for giving me that opportunity.
Our focus in our second mandate will be crime prevention, youth justice and victim rights. By investing in crime prevention we are investing in the future of our children and ensuring safer streets and communities.
The throne speech announced an increase in funding for community based crime prevention initiatives to $30 million a year, further demonstrating our commitment to helping communities deal with the roots of crime. It also announced the government's intention to develop alternatives to incarceration for low risk, non-violent offenders such as sentencing reforms, community diversion programs and alternative sentencing.
My goal in my second mandate is to continue to serve my constituents and Canadians with honesty and integrity, as this government has shown, to remain accessible and approachable to those I represent and finally to remind them of the important role they play in shaping Canada's public policy.
As a Canadian of Hellenic origins, I take particular pride in knowing that the ancient Hellenic ideals of democracy and the agora are continuing to thrive in Canada because of this government.
As Aristotle once said, if liberty and equality are chiefly to be found in a democracy, they will be best obtained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
