Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Halton.
It is my pleasure to respond to the Speech from the Throne, a blueprint for the continued progress and prosperity which have been the hallmark of the government since 1993. It is a prosperity that has been shared right across the country and increasingly a prosperity that has been shared with the rest of the world.
The Government of Canada has done an exemplary job of consistently and competently managing taxpayers' money and ensuring that government has the flexibility it needs to address the concerns of Canadians promptly and to react to what cannot be expected, be it natural disasters like floods and ice storms, or the terrorist attacks on the United States, to which as a neighbour we have responded immediately and generously.
However, we are not just about maintaining the status quo. While there is nothing more difficult than to pose innovative ideas and take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things, the Government of Canada has clearly identified a number of new initiatives that are meant to lead to social and economic progress for Canada.
It is not necessary to recite once again an exhaustive list of these goals and priorities that have been outlined, but I must say I am proud that our government is working toward: the protection of the environment; improved life chances for aboriginal people, particularly children; ensuring that Canadians are secure; investing in research and development to make Canada a world leader in innovation and learning; expanding minority language and second language education; the creation of a ten-year program for infrastructure, including a responsible transportation system that will be used to ease traffic problems in cities and trade corridors; targeting regional development activities to address the direct challenges of Canada's urban, rural and northern communities; and, an accessible and quality health care system.
I want to take a minute to express my disgust at the untruths that are being circulated regarding health care spending in the country. Provincial governments and opposition parties often like to distort the facts on health care spending by saying that the current federal contribution to health care is 14%. We have seen the advertisements in newspapers and on TV. They are a deliberate distortion of the amounts of money that the federal government transfers to provinces. That figure is closer to 40% rather than 14%. When we consider all the different kinds of federal spending, such as transfers to the provinces and territories, direct spending and federal tax credits, we spend $29 billion a year on health care. This $29 billion is almost 40% of all public spending on health care.
In P.E.I.'s case, the federal share of provincial health spending during 2001-02 was 68%. That is $86 million from the CHST in cash and an additional $67 million in CHST through tax points. Combined, the total was $153 million, and P.E.I. was not the only province that was given considerable amounts of money by the federal government, whether it was in equalization payments or CHST transfers.
For example, the province of Manitoba received $1.207 billion in equalization payments, plus $720 million in CHST cash and $554 million in tax points, for a total of $1.274 billion. These statistics were gathered by the Department of Finance and upgraded on March 6. With the exception of Alberta and Ontario, all provinces received equalization payments, plus they received tax credits and CHST tax points. The average for all of Canada is $1.107 billion, which is par for the course across the country.
So indeed, not only are we giving considerable amounts of money and spending almost 40% of the total spending on health care, we are also giving the provinces the flexibility in tax points to be able to spend that money whichever way they see fit. That is respecting jurisdiction in matters of health care. If we made one mistake in this arrangement we negotiated in 1997, it is that we did not include at least a bottom or minimum figure on the CHST transfers to be spent on health care. They had the flexibility to spend the money not only on health care but on other social priorities too. We respected the provincial spending jurisdiction in those areas.
None of our plans, including providing such federal assistance in health care spending, could have been achieved without the hard work the Government of Canada, on behalf of the people of Canada, has put into balancing budgets since 1993. Theodore Roosevelt once said “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”. Since taking office in 1993, the federal government has followed this creed and has worked hard to strengthen the fundamentals of the Canadian economy by living within our financial means.
The Governor of the Bank of Canada predicted that the Canadian economy would be on track for 2002. He was right. The economy has recovered since the slowdown and the terrorist attacks, with positive growth rates that are expected to increase in the near future. The Globe and Mail recently reported that the Bank of Nova Scotia, in its latest global economic forecast, expects Canada to lead all Group of Seven nations in economic growth. Our actions have helped the Canadian economy weather the economic downturn in 2001 and the negative consequences of the terrorist attacks and have resulted in economic growth rates that have outperformed those of the United States.
Five consecutive surpluses, including a record $17.1 billion surplus in 2000-01 have allowed us to reduce the national debt by almost $41 billion, which happens to be saving Canadians $3 billion a year in reduced interest payments. We could, if we eliminated that debt, actually reduce our spending by over $40 billion a year. Surpluses have also allowed us to make $100 billion in broad-based tax cuts and have allowed us to put $23.4 billion into health care and early childhood development. Our prudent management has led to lower interest rates, which are helping the economy grow today.
In P.E.I. we have seen the unemployment rates steadily decline from an all-time high of 18.1% in 1992, at the end of the Mulroney years, to a low of 11.9% in 2001. Between 1992 and 2001, employment grew 23% in Prince Edward Island, outpacing both population and labour force growth in the 1990s. In 2000, P.E.I. led the country in terms of economic growth and was in third place behind Newfoundland and Alberta in 2001.
I want to make special mention of our potato industry, which has certainly seen its ups and downs over the last few years due to the trade ramifications of potato wart and PVYn. However, the industry is currently showing signs of positive growth and stability as Canadian and U.S. officials work together to protect both potato growers and consumers in both countries against unnecessary trade restrictions. I must say that this may be the year our potato growers finally get to pay off a little of their debts. There is a bumper crop and the prices are relatively good.
I cannot say enough about ACOA, the regional development agency. With the low levels of investment by private enterprise, the fact is that outside the city of Charlottetown, our major city, in our rural areas we would certainly be in sad shape today if it were not for the ACOA investments. For example, there was a $300 million Atlantic innovation fund announced by the Prime Minister of Canada as the flagship element of the broader $700 million Atlantic investment partnership. This is a direct effort by the Canadian government to keep our young people in the area by investing in high-tech information technology programs.
I also want to mention some benefits to my riding because of government investment in Prince Edward Island. There is the wind test facility in North Cape, where we are now investing in wind power. The program was spun off from an Alberta pilot project and has been continued in Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island. We are producing 25% more power than was anticipated from this windmill investment in my riding. We see great strides being made with that incentive. I also want to mention the money that ACOA and other agencies have put into the Northport development in my riding and into harbour repair. We have never before seen the amounts of money that have been invested in our harbours on behalf of fishermen.
