Geoff Regan

[*Question No. 82—, January 30th, 2002]

I ask that the answers to Starred Questions Nos. 81 and 82 be made orders for return. These returns would be tabled immediately.

[Question No. 94—, January 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, would you be so kind as to call Starred Questions Nos. 81 and 82.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, if Question No. 94 could be made an order for return, the return would be tabled immediately.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 85 and 92.

[Government Response to Petitions, January 30th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to several petitions.

[The Budget, January 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask you to consider the fact that, Mr. Gray was a member of the House at the time the motion was moved and therefore the motion stands as valid.

[The Budget, January 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I listened very intently to the hon. member's comments. It seemed that we were in question period with such riled up puffed up anger being displayed. I am not sure it was actually sincere but that is for him to determine.

He asked about EI. He said first of all that I was claiming that everyone was happy with EI. That is not what I said at all. People were concerned about the changes to employment insurance. That is why last year changes were brought in by the government, as the member knows but wants to conveniently ignore right now.

Let us talk about the fact that he wants the government to spend, spend, spend. He does not think that the government needed to do any of those fiscal changes to bring our budget into balance, to get our finances in order, to get our debt down a little bit, which is saving $200 million every year for our taxpayers. The NDP would sooner have us have huge deficits, a huge growing debt, less ability to pay for health care, education, transfers to provinces, et cetera, and enormously high interest rates. What would that do to families in his riding, in my riding and all across the country? What would that do?

[The Budget, January 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think that the people in my part of the world, the people of my province, see themselves as victims. I think they are proud to be Canadian, proud to be Nova Scotian.

They realize that some hard things had to be done to solve Canada's financial problems, that budget cuts had to be made, that changes were necessary. In my riding, there is considerable support for the changes to EI.

Certainly, there were some who were against it. At the same time, however, it needs to be understood that the changes were necessary. I think most people know that the system needed changing, needed some reforming, some transformation. People in the provinces, in Nova Scotia for instance, also know—

[The Budget, January 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, in relation to the question of the member for Souris--Moose Mountain with regard border and electronic cards, I think he would agree with me that it is important that we keep the border open. Obviously he recognizes that. It is important that the government continue to look for ways to do that. If electronic cards were being used in the past then they may be the answer. However it is important to keep looking for ways to overcome any concerns the American government may have about the use of those cards or about how those cards are assigned.

That is one reason why the government has invested more dollars in security, including dollars for security clearances and for the RCMP and CSIS to look into not only people who are coming into the country but also to ensure that we find terrorists who might try to operate from our country.

On the question of employment insurance, it is important to understand that we have a system which encourages employers to hire part time. However, if we say to them that they will only have to pay premiums for someone who works more than 15 hours a week, then the incentive is there for them to only hire people part time. People need to have full time, regular, good jobs with good benefits. That is so important to people, and it is important to have an incentive for that.

He makes a good point about the students and the impact on them. Let us remember the overall impact of this is an important and positive one.

[The Budget, January 29th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to have the chance to speak to the government's fifth consecutive balanced budget. Let us think about that for a moment. It has had five consecutive balanced budgets.

During or before the 1993 election who would have believed we would come to the point in such a short time, eight years, of being able to talk about surpluses and five consecutive balanced budgets? During and before the 1993 election people said to me they would not see the end of deficits in their lifetimes. They said we would never have a balanced budget because things were so bad, deficits were so large and the problems were so great that we would never get there.

It took a lot of sacrifice. Canadians all shared the pain of that sacrifice but amazingly enough we got through it. We are better off for it. The economy became stronger because of it. Because the government was no longer constantly borrowing new and greater sums of money each year the governor of the Bank of Canada was able to lower interest rates to a point where they are now around 2%. This should help us through what is now a time of economic uncertainty. If we still had huge deficits every year the government would still be borrowing huge amounts of money every year.

When the government borrows enormous amounts of money on the money markets it means there is less available elsewhere or it must raise interest rates to attract investment in those dollars and get people to buy its bonds. This causes interest rates to rise. Having our finances in order is a huge improvement. It has helped a great deal in improving our economy and is getting us through what is now a difficult time.

Let us talk about that time. Let us talk about the budget of December 2001 and put it in context.

As we all know, last year on September 11 we saw an awful and horrendous event. It had human repercussions and took a terrible human toll on New York and on families around the world whose members were killed. However let us also remember that it had an economic impact. In bringing forth its budget in December it was the responsibility of the government to deal with both the economic impact of the events and the economic climate that was already occurring. Last summer we saw somewhat of an economic softening and the beginning of concerns about our economy. This was added to a great deal by the events of September 11.

When we look at what was done in the budget we must remember we were in a time of great uncertainty. There was great concern in Canada about the possibility of further attacks. Can we be absolutely certain there will be no attack of any sort today, tomorrow or the next day? Of course not. However it is important for the government to take the best steps it can to prevent such attacks by investing in the equipment and measures that will make air travel and our borders more secure.

What did the government do in the budget? First, it provided a timely and necessary boost to our economy. It invested in Canada. The government announced in the finance minister's budget that we would have a strategic infrastructure foundation. The foundation will boost the economy and respond to the needs of communities across the country such as my own community of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

During much of last year I spoke of the need for the Government of Canada to help out and invest in the cleanup of Halifax harbour by way of the Halifax harbour solutions project. For 250 years or so untreated sewage has been flowing into Halifax harbour. It is a disgrace and an embarrassment for Halifax. It has also become an important environmental problem for the nation. Problems like it need to be addressed across the country, especially in major centres. They need a new kind of flexibility which the foundation provides.

In the past the infrastructure program required that each level of government contribute equally. One-third, one-third, one-third was the typical shared funding approach in each case. The great thing about the new foundation is that it is more flexible.

For instance, in the case of Nova Scotia and the Halifax harbour solutions project, the province has said it will not take part in or support it. That is alarming to me and very disappointing. I hope the province will reconsider and come to realize that it is important to invest in the Halifax area, not just in the rest of the province, which I recognize is also important.

However the Nova Scotia provincial government is rurally based. Most of its members are in the rural areas. It is important that the government also pay attention to the problems in Halifax. One of the big ones is the need to clean up the harbour. I hope it reconsiders its view on this and comes to the table and shares in the investment in that project.

However the great thing about the Strategic Infrastructure Foundation is that it provides more flexibility. It does not insist on a one-third, one-third, one-third sharing. There may be opportunities to do things a little differently directly with the municipality, the city itself, to solve this enormous and very important environmental problem.

The budget also builds personal economic security by keeping us safe as Canadians, by keeping terrorists out and by keeping our borders open and efficient. Some may ask why are we so worried about investing in keeping our borders efficient. Let us consider that something like $2 billion a day in trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border. More important, consider the millions of Canadian families whose incomes are reliant upon our products being sold to the U.S. Maybe then we can begin to understand how important it is to keep the border open and maintain the free movement of goods from Canada to the U.S.

It is not just a question of pure economics. It is a question that can hit home to families all across our country. My province of Nova Scotia has Michelin Tires, a company that exports a great deal to the U.S., as well as many of the fish companies.

I do not want to give the impression that our economy is commodity based. This raises the question of the dollar these days. In fact, in Nova Scotia resource industries are much less a proportion of our economy than they used to be. What is a much larger part of our economy right now is the offshore industry, which is a resource industry, but more important it is the fabrication of oil and gas platforms and the building of offshore supply ships. A whole sector of the Atlantic economy now is beginning to boom and has a great opportunity to take off in the next few years.

It is of great concern to me that the government may be looking at negotiations with the EFTA countries, members of the European free trade association who are not in the EU. That includes Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. My concern is that as part of this deal we potentially could see a removal of the present tariff on ships and marine structures coming into Canada.

At the moment it is preserving for Canada the benefits of our offshore industry. This extends across the country because suppliers in other provinces are supplying these companies. Companies in our regions that are building these platforms and supplying goods to the offshore industry are doing a tremendous business. It is just beginning and it is creating a great economic boom in Halifax, Saint John and it is spreading across the region.

It is important that we maintain that. I hope the government will ensure that in any negotiations with the EFTA countries it preserves that tariff and the industry to ensure that Canadians will benefit from the development of our offshore. That is a major concern in my area. I am looking forward to the government responding to that concern as I am sure it will.

Another aspect of the budget is that it keeps our finances healthy. I talked about the fact that it is the fifth consecutive balanced budget in the history of the government. How long had it been before that? It had been something like 25 years since there had been a balanced budget. That is a sad fact, but it is important understand the context of the accomplishment we have achieved in balancing the budget. We have a balanced budget again and another one next year. It is important that we keep balancing our budget in the future.

I hope hon. members will agree with me and will support the government's budget.