Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my allotted time with my learned and articulate colleague from Mississauga West.
It is rather interesting to listen to the debate. A colleague in the Conservative Party talked about the Liberals being big government. We should compare the size of government today with what it was prior to the election of the Liberal government.
Let us look at the motion to see whether or not there is a problem with it. It says “lower the tax burden”. It does not say by how much. Would it be lower the tax burden of everybody? By how much? Are we talking one percentage point or ten? Is a particular level required before it is effective? They do not talk about that, of course.
Offer interest relief to students is another comment that is made. How much interest relief? Does it matter? Is it a little bit? Are we talking total relief? Are we going to put it off for a while? No, of course they would not explain it.
Do you know why they would not explain it, Mr. Speaker? I will tell you why. It is because they do not know what to do. They had nine years to do it, and what did they do? Nothing but accumulate large debt, a huge $42 million deficit, and in fact get booted out as they should have been.
When hon. members talk about brain drain, I suspect some of them can spell it but I bet they cannot define it. They do not know what they are talking about. They are offering a simplistic solution. They say we should lower interest rates and offer some interest relief and all of a sudden we will get a solution for those people who may be seeking employment elsewhere. That is why they are out of power.
They say nothing about the short term challenge Canadian industries face or nothing about the long term challenge. They do not know the difference. They have made no concrete proposals in terms of how you would address each one. Absolutely none.
And do you know why? Because they do not know the solutions. They have no creativity, no imagination.
This is from a party that left us with a $42.8 billion deficit. I want to say en anglais et en français that when they left power the unemployment rate was 11.4%.
We had an unemployment level of 11.4% in Canada. And here they are today with ill-defined solutions, and no suggestion on how to go about solving the problems.
They failed to acknowledge that. I am not one of those who pretend that we as a government have been perfect, but we have done some things that have been acknowledged and in fact have worked. We do have the lowest unemployment levels in seven years. We have with other Canadians created over one million jobs. We started from the second highest level in terms of the deficit to GDP ratio and we are now down to the lowest.
They fail to acknowledge those and many other successes of this government. I hope it is not because they do not understand.
When one speaks about a knowledge based economy it is important to realize that we have to train, attract and retain highly skilled workers. That is not done in a simplistic manner, as has been suggested. We need to encourage people who have good ideas and good skills and who have the ability to continue to learn. We live in a society where continued learning is absolutely essential.
The principal issue here is to understand the complexity of the problem. I have not heard that from members opposite. I have heard slick little slogans that if we do this and if we do that all of a sudden everybody will want to stay. I am sorry but that is not the way it works. We have to broaden and deepen the talent pool in Canada.
We have had difficulties all along the way. We continue to have difficulties.
I had the honour of chairing the G-8 ministers committee on science, education and technology. Countries such as the United States of America, Japan, Russia, Germany, Italy and France shared with each other the challenges they face. Do they have the same problems we have? On this particular front they do. Is that what they have to do as well? Do they have to adopt this ill-defined solution? This solution does not even attempt to define the problem.
Not only do taxes have to be decreased, as the motion says. That is one part of the solution, of course, but the true solutions are far more comprehensive and far more complex. We need partnerships between the universities and the various sectors, the various levels of government, and industry. All this is essential. The government is already working with all those partners.
It is working toward deepening the pool of scientific and technological workers.
I want to give some concrete examples. I challenge my colleagues opposite to argue the points which I am about to raise.
There is the millennium fund which will provide scholarships to tens of thousands of low income able Canadians. I heard a member of the Reform Party suggest that it is wasted money.
All I can say is that the young people with whom I speak do not believe it is a waste of money.
We have not sufficiently invested in the granting councils in the past. I hope that will be corrected because they are a source of tremendous possibilities for the education of people generally and in particular young people.
We have established an infrastructure that encourages innovation. No doubt members are aware of reason for the establishment of centres of excellence, which bring together researchers from government, universities and business. There is the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.
The foundation for innovation now has over $800 million which will be devoted to improving the infrastructure of universities, colleges, teaching hospitals and like enterprises which undertake research. Why? So they can employ, train and educate more young people for today's knowledge based economy. That $800 million will activate over $2 billion. Was that a bold and creative move on the part of government? Yes it was.
We need to encourage workers to stay in Canada. We have done that by using the national graduate register, helping students and employers to match job openings with qualified Canadians. Over 50,000 people are on that network. We have had a great deal of success with it.
The student connection program is the first business experience for many young people. Those young people train managers and employees on how to use the Internet so they can get a head start or be competitive in the knowledge based economy.
We need to create an economic environment which fosters innovation. We have the IRAP program. We have research and development tax credits. We have an unemployment rate which is the lowest it has been in seven years. It is still too high, but it is coming down.
Through much sacrifice we Canadians have collectively created one million jobs since 1993. We must continue to build partnerships among all levels of government with our partners in the private sector. We must work together to enable Canada to enter the new millennium as a leader and not as a follower.
I will close these few remarks with the comment that it is always so easy to turn up with a ready made solution. It is so easy to turn up claiming one knows the answers. It is so easy to suggest something without defining it. It is so easy to criticize without offering any concrete and proven solutions.
That is exactly what this is. To get this motion from a party that had nine years of opportunity in government and that will probably be judged as the worst government this nation has ever had is extremely difficult to believe. To suggest that we are going to address the need for workers in the knowledge based economy by undertaking those two steps, steps that are supported by both parties on the right, is really not understanding the problem. It is really not addressing it. It is really letting Canadians down.
