Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Vancouver East.
I am pleased today to speak on third reading of Bill C-76. I begin by reading from page 16 of the Liberal red book which was the book we campaigned on during the election. It establishes in many ways the mandate of the government. It states:
A Liberal government will adopt a two-track fiscal policy, matching a drive for jobs and growth with a comprehensive approach to controlling debt and deficits. The two tracks run parallel: fiscal discipline will support economic growth, while growth and jobs will enhance government revenues.
That is the basis of our platform and of our budgets.
The 1995 budget pursues both the goals outlined in that statement. Infrastructure projects are creating jobs across the country. I am certainly pleased to have them creating jobs in Halifax West. This program is an excellent example of job creation activities as one side of the two track approach.
The other side is also very important. We are attacking the debt and deficit. This attack is an important step toward a healthy economy, toward job creation. It creates the best possible climate for job creation.
For instance, since the budget interest rates have come down a bit. We would like to see them come down a lot more. Everyone who has a Visa account, a mortgage or a loan would like to see interest rates come down. We hope they will. However it has to be remembered that if the cuts in the budget had not been as large as they were interest rates would probably have risen.
Last year over 430,000 new jobs were created. That is largely due to the fact that interest rates were lower than they had been at times in the past.
If interest rates had been raised right after the last budget a lot of jobs would have been lost. In my area of Halifax West there is some concern because of the large civil service presence in the Halifax area. People who are being affected by the reduction in the civil service are very concerned.
The number of civil servants being cut is 45,000 across the country. When we recognize how many jobs that were created last year, over 430,000 jobs, you can see how much you can lose by having interest rates rise. What we lose in civil service jobs we hope to make up for by keeping interest rates low. That is a very important point.
Keeping interest rates low is very important in terms of the disposable income that people have to spend on things. If they are paying more for their mortgage, paying more for their Visa account, paying more for all their loans they have less to spend on consumer items, less to keep the economy going.
As we all know, expenditure reduction is a key to reducing our deficit. We cannot reduce our deficit without reducing our expenditures. That is why the government will reduce cumulatively over the next three years $25.3 billion. We are doing this without increasing personal income taxes.
We are maintaining our assault on the deficit with fundamental changes to the structure of government. Government must still be active but we have to find ways to reduce duplication. We have to realize the things that are the most important, find the priorities for government and reduce activity in other areas. We cannot afford to be in all areas all the time.
We are making tough choices in the budget. There is no question about it. It was not an easy budget to work out. There have been difficult decisions made. Program review involves some of those decisions; it involves going through the whole government department by department and analysing which activities and programs of government we should maintain and which we should reduce or remove. We have to maintain the most important ones. It is all about sustaining the most important activities of government. Those are the reasons we have to do this in terms of government reduction.
For those in my area and for those people who are affected by the cuts to government programs and the civil service, it is very difficult to accept and to receive those cuts. That is why it is so important we achieve our reduction in the civil service in a humane way. I spoke to the President of the Treasury Board when he was in Halifax some weeks ago about this matter, trying to maximize the flexibility so civil servants could move between the departments where there were possibilities of openings.
We are also merging and commercializing many programs of government in order to reduce our costs. We are also doing some other things I think are very positive. Most people recognize it as part of the balancing act that happened in this and the very important balance provided in the budget. We have cut business subsidies by I believe $60 million; that is important in terms of balance.
We are trying to achieve better management of government. We have also made changes in the new Canada health and social transfer. The Reform Party is telling us we have not made enough cuts. I do not think it has a real understanding of what the
effect of those cuts are on regions like mine. There will definitely be a real challenge in places like Halifax and throughout the Atlantic because of some of these reductions, especially in the metro area of Halifax-Dartmouth. We will rise to meet that challenge. We can do it and we know we have to. At the same time, to say we should go much further right now makes no sense to me at all. It fails to realize the impact these reductions will have in regions like Atlantic Canada.
The people in my riding of Halifax West have told me in their view the budget struck a good balance between the two tracks of our approach. There are enough cuts to get us on track regarding the deficit, to get it down where it should be quickly. At the same time we are maintaining the important principles of our government, the important Liberal principles of maintaining social programs.
I mentioned there is no hike in the budget in personal income taxes. There are new measures to ensure that taxes owed are collected. That is very important in terms of improving fairness in our tax system. There are also tighter rules for tax deferrals and for foreign and family trusts. It is certainly time the tax holiday for family trusts came to an end.
The red book platform focused in many ways on small and medium size businesses. The 1995 budget contains many continued efforts to support small business which we all know is the engine of our economy and which provides so many jobs. So many of the new jobs in our economy are being created by small business and so it is very important to continue to support small business activities.
The government looked to members of Parliament for input in terms of what we should be doing to help small business, which is why last October the industry committee came out with its report "Taking Care of Small Business". In November, 1994 the small business working committee came out with its report "Breaking Through Barriers". Many of the recommendations in those reports were adopted by the Minister of Industry when he gave response entitled "Building a More Innovative Economy" which contained among others key initiatives measures to reduce the paper burden for business. We all hear about the red tape and the number of forms people have to file and deal with when they are in small business. It is overwhelming for them.
I was talking recently to a friend who operates a small engineering business in my riding. He was talking about how he is always filling out an endless array of forms. It is important to reduce some of these forms. Also in those initiatives I mentioned there was a strategic procurement initiative which is very important to see that some of our government procurement comes more and more from small business across the country.
We are seeing the expansion of the Canada business service centres across the country to provide more services to help small businesses getting started or that need help with advice in terms of expansion. We are seeing the reform of the regulatory systems which will help to reduce red tape. We are also seeing new export financing initiatives targeted toward small business. The Export Development Corporation has been instructed very strongly to not only help the big companies but to focus its attention toward helping small business.
That is very important. Small business told us the most important obstacles to growth and jobs and to its growth, which means growth and jobs, is the debt and deficit. That is why we attack those obstacles. The budget reaffirms our commitment to small business as the engine of growth and job creation.
I am pleased that the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is assisting in those efforts and doing important work. It is one of the most important financing tools in Atlantic Canada.
The OECD has advised countries that if they want to provide for a strong future they should support the development of self-employment skills in our populations. I am pleased to recommend support of this bill.