James Rajotte

[The Budget, March 24th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I want to return the member's comments. I served with him on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. He was an outstanding vice-chair of that committee. He certainly made it work and I commend him for his work, for instance, on the report we did in 2007 which recognized that we had to do something for the manufacturing sector and thereby implemented the changes with respect to the accelerated capital cost allowance. So I certainly commend him for his work there.

I remember the promise made in the last election campaign. Obviously, that was a promise made over a full term of government which we hoped to see.

In terms of reducing fuel costs though, this government has reduced costs overall in terms of consumers and namely with respect to the goods and services tax, from 7% to 6% to 5%. That is the biggest thing that could be done, whether for someone putting gas in a car, or buying a new home. The biggest change we could make for consumers is to reduce the GST, which we have done.

In terms of the fuel excise tax, we will see what happens in the next campaign which we expect will start in the next few days. However, I appreciate the member's question and his work, and I thank him for his comments.

[The Budget, March 24th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to participate in this debate on budget 2011. I will be splitting my time with the Minister of Labour.

I want to encourage all parliamentarians to support this excellent budget. I want to encourage all Canadians, in fact, to read this budget in detail because it includes a number of measures that are certainly worthy of support.

In general, this budget supports job creation by helping businesses and entrepreneurs succeed.

It keeps taxes low, invests in projects of national importance and it maintains Canada's brand as one of the best places to invest in the world. It supports families and communities so that all Canadians can enjoy a high standard of living and our communities can stay vibrant and safe.

It invests in innovation, education and training to promote research and leading-edge technologies, and to provide Canadians with the opportunity and incentives to acquire the skills needed for jobs in today's labour market.

It also preserves our fiscal advantage in order to be able to invest in the priorities of Canadians, to keep Canada's economy growing strongly and to maintain our low interest rates.

Particularly, I want to address the benefits in this budget for my province, the province of Alberta.

Under our Conservative government in 2011-12, Alberta will see record federal transfers totalling nearly $3.4 billion; an increase of $1.1 billion from the former Liberal government.

Alberta will see growing transfer support for health care, which is a 29% jump from the Liberal government, or $2.1 billion; and for social services, which is a jump of nearly $1.3 billion, or 114% over the former government.

This increased support will help hospitals, doctors, nurses, schools, teachers and other critical services in my province.

A permanent annual investment of $2 billion in the gas tax fund would be legislated, which was the number one priority outlined to me by the mayors of Edmonton, Leduc and Devon in terms of making this a predictable, stable, long-term funding for municipalities that they can count on into the future.

A one-time credit of $1,000 against the small employer's increase in 2011 EI premiums over those paid in 2010, which was called for by small businesses from across Canada and by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. I want to thank them for putting that idea forward.

The budget also provides assistance to the manufacturing and processing sector. I want to compliment the work of people like Larry Kaumeyer from Almita Piling Inc. and Lori Schmidt who works with Productivity Alberta, another investment that we made through western diversification in terms of making these manufacturers and processors even more efficient.

I want to compliment the Minister of Finance on extending the accelerated capital cost allowance for manufacturing and processing, which was something that was unanimously supported in the 2007 industry committee report.

There is also help for farmers, especially those in rural areas, in terms of a $50 million initiative for agricultural innovation.

There is an additional support of $10 million for work sharing. This was raised by companies like Argus Manufacturing and Nisku. It would allow these companies to retain employees by having the government cover part of the cost of the employee. For those industries that have periods of boom and bust, it would allow them to retain employees during those tough times so that they would be there when the market and services pick up.

I would like to recognize the work done by both the current and former ministers in terms of the Red Tape Reduction Commission and also extending the BizPaL service across the country.

As well, I would like to recognize the extension of the energy retrofit housing program.

In my riding in the area of Devon where we have the research centre that deals with a lot of the tailings technology for the oil sands, Sustainable Development Technology Canada is very active in terms of supporting companies like Titanium with some very new technologies. This budget provides $40 million over two years in SDTC and that is why they have come out in support of this budget very strongly.

I want to talk about innovation and investments in R and D. This budget provides $80 million in new funding over three years for the industrial research assistance program, IRAP. Small- and medium-size businesses across this country would all point to IRAP as an effective program that works and our government has funded this to the tune of $80 million over three years.

There is an additional $37 million per year to support three federal research granting councils, CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC, which had asked for increased funding. We are prioritizing during times when we have to reach a balanced budget by 2015-16.

We are investing in key areas like innovation and research at universities and colleges, which is why the universities and the colleges have come out and strongly supported this budget.

Just before Christmas, this Parliament adopted a motion I introduced with respect to Alzheimer's. I am very proud to say that this budget allocates $100 million to help establish a Canada brain research fund. It will support the very best Canadian neuroscience and accelerate discoveries to improve the health and quality of life of Canadians who suffer from brain disorders.

The motion was adopted unanimously by this House of Commons. Members of Parliament from the four parties spoke in favour of the motion and it is now in the federal budget. The point that the Prime Minister is making in his statement this week to the other parties and to Canadians is that a lot of the initiatives in the budget were in fact ideas that were presented by all four parties and by Canadians from all walks of life. The motion made its way into the budget and this is why the budget does deserve support.

There is some other funding in terms of investment and research and development. Over $50 million over five years is provided to support the creation of 10 new Canada Excellence Research Chairs.

There is an additional $65 million for Genome Canada to continue its work. This was certainly called for by all four parties as well.

Another $50 million over five years is provided to the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, which is doing outstanding work in that region.

Another $60 million over three years is provided to promote increased student enrolment in key disciplines related to the digital economy.

I do want to address the issue of seniors because many seniors in my riding have come forward, especially in the province of Alberta where the inflation rate has been higher than the national average. Obviously, having an economy that typically grows above a national average overall is a good thing, but it does place some constraints certainly on seniors, many of whom are on fixed incomes, in terms of dealing with rising costs. The budget enhances the guaranteed income supplement for those seniors who rely almost exclusively on their old age security and their GIS payments. It puts an additional $300 million into this program, which is $600 for single seniors and $840 for a couple. This investment will help 680,000 seniors across this country.

As the House knows, this was asked for by other parties. It was certainly supported strongly by members of the Conservative caucus. This is an initiative worthy of support and I ask all parties to therefore support it.

With respect to the mandatory retirement age for federally regulated employees, we in fact are changing the federal rules with respect to this and the targeted initiative for older workers, which was in fact another request made by opposition parties.

I want to review some of the initiatives that this government has already taken with respect to seniors.

Since 2006, our government has increased the age amount, first by $1,000 in 2006, and then by another $1,000 in 2009. We have doubled the maximum amount of income eligible for the pension income credit to $2,000. We have introduced pension income splitting. We have increased the age limit for maturing pensions and RRSP plans to 71 from 69 years of age, something that was done by the former government. It had put it down to 69 from 71. We have reversed that policy change. This means that in 2011, a single senior can earn at least $19,000 and a senior couple at least $38,000, before having to pay any federal income tax.

In the time remaining in my speech, I would like to quote from a number of organizations which have come out in strong support of this budget. Chambers of commerce from across the country have applauded it. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce applauds a low-tax budget.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and its network have been very active in the corporate income tax debate over the last few months and our message has been heard:

--Canada’s low tax plan has created a healthy economic environment for business investment and we applaud the government for staying the course.

It is not only endorsed by those organizations representing all businesses. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, also came out and endorsed this budget as well. It endorsed the EI hiring tax credit:

CFIB is extremely pleased to see its top budget priority- an EI Hiring Credit for Small Business--announced in the 2011 budget. As this budget forecasts rising EI premiums in each of the next three years, this credit will be a major help to small firms in growing their workforce.

In terms of red tape, the CFIB as well commends this government for its action taken in terms of improving taxpayer fairness under the Canada Revenue Agency, which I know my colleague will follow up on in his speech later this afternoon.

In terms of retirement income, the CFIB strongly endorses the government's action with respect to the ongoing work to introduce pooled registered pension plans to really help those Canadians who do not have a public pension plan or do not have a private pension plan.

I see that my time is up--

[Business of Supply, March 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his very thoughtful speech. I understand it is his practice in this place and I sincerely appreciate him for doing this.

I agree with his points about wholesale reform in the Senate being necessary.

There are obviously two options. One is to do wholesale reform of the Senate through a constitutional amendment process, which would be very long, complex and may have very little chance of success. The alternative is to do exactly what our government is proposing to do, which is to introduce bills such as those for the election of senators and for term limits.

Would the hon. member consider supporting these two important pieces of legislation as a way of getting the ball rolling on Senate reform so that we can make it an elected chamber where people cannot serve up to 40 years in that place. This would be a way of starting the reform ball going so that we can reform it to an institution where it is effective, elected and equal in the long term.

[The Budget, March 2nd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, since 2006, Parliament has passed five straight successful budgets.

In that time our Conservative government has cut taxes for the average Canadian family by $3,000, rebuilt Canada's infrastructure, brought health care transfers to record highs and much more.

While the Liberal-led coalition wants to force an unnecessary election to impose a $6 billion tax hike, our government is focused on what really matter to Canadians: jobs and economic growth.

As we approach the next phase of Canada's economic action plan, would the minister inform Canadians when he will present budget 2011?

[Business of Supply, February 8th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is exactly correct. The rate dropped from 18% to 16.5% on January 1. If Liberals get into office, they will increase taxes in this country by 1.5% on any business making over $500,000. That is not just large corporations. That is medium and small corporations as well.

The plan is to go to 15%. As the chambers of commerce across this country have said, they have booked on that, they are investing on that and they are hiring people on that. That will be a tax cut as well. That will be a 3% tax cut on every small, medium and large corporation in this country.

[Business of Supply, February 8th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, in terms of the national debt, obviously in the last couple of years we have added to it, but it is important to point out that between 2006 and 2008 our government paid $40 billion on our national debt and every single payment was opposed by parties opposite in terms of putting money toward our savings and actually reducing the debt between 2006 and 2008.

I would also point out that I have encouraged members of the opposition to put on the table any of the spending that it has opposed over the last two years and say that we should not be doing it in terms of infrastructure or any other stimulus spending.

In terms of reducing the deficit going forward, we have a five-year plan to do that by 2015. We will be ending the stimulus program in 2011. We have also frozen the operational budgets of departments. We have frozen the salaries of the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, all members of Parliament and their budgets.

We will be restraining spending, but we will not, as my colleague from Burlington said, be cutting transfers for health care, education and transfers to the municipalities. Those transfers will continue going forward.

[Business of Supply, February 8th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, we did lower the rate to 15% and we have taken about one million people off the tax rolls in this country. We have raised the marginal tax rate so that lower income people are paying less tax. We have lowered the consumption tax in this country from 7% to 5%. We have lowered every type of tax, whether it is personal, business or family tax. We have put $3,000 more in every Canadian families' pockets so that they can save or spend as they best see fit.

This is the tax plan that must go forward and I encourage the member opposite to reject his own motion.

[Business of Supply, February 8th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I hesitate to follow the member for Burlington who is such a passionate defender of lowering taxes in this country.

It is my pleasure today to address the motion put forward by the Liberal Party of Canada. I stand today in support of Canada's job creators and against this very irresponsible tax hike proposal by the Liberal Party that would threaten our economic recovery and harm hard-working Canadian families.

Unlike the Liberal Party that wants higher taxes to fuel bigger bureaucracies, our government believes in keeping taxes low for both families and job creators.

Since we took office in 2006, we have aggressively pursued a low tax plan to help create jobs right across this country. It is a plan with over 100 tax cuts to date and it is reducing taxes in every single way the government collects them: personal, consumption, business, excise taxes and more. Our low tax plan has reduced the overall tax burden on Canadians to its lowest level in nearly 50 years. It is a low tax plan that has already removed over one million low income Canadians completely from the tax rolls. It is a low tax plan that has reduced the GST, a tax on every Canadian, from 7% to 5%, that introduced the landmark tax free savings account to help Canadians save and much more. It is a low tax plan that has left nearly $3,000 in the pockets of a typical Canadian family, where it belongs, to save or spend as that family sees fit.

We have also lowered taxes for businesses so they can keep more of their hard-earned money, allowing them to grow and create more jobs for Canadians.

Our plan has included everything from broad-based business tax relief; support to the provinces in their elimination of job-killing capital taxes; lowering the tax rate for small businesses from 12% to 11%; increasing the bracket for the small business tax rate from $300,000 to $500,000; eliminating tariffs on productivity-improving machinery and equipment, which was done in last year's Budget Implementation Act; introducing a temporary accelerated capital cost allowance, which was begun back in budget 2007 on manufacturing or processing machinery and equipment; and much more. This broad-based tax relief has served as the centrepiece of our low tax plan for businesses and has proven successful in spurring investment in Canada and helping to create jobs for Canadians.

In 2007, our government introduced and Parliament passed these broad-based tax reductions that will lower Canada's business tax rate to 15% in 2012.

Since 2007, Canadian businesses have been making their investment decisions and hiring Canadian workers based on this low tax plan for businesses. Over 110,000 businesses in Canada are currently benefiting from our low tax plan to grow and create more and better paying jobs for Canadians.

The economic benefits of our government's low tax plan have been verified by numerous independent observers. A well-respected University of Calgary economist, Jack Mintz, recently released a report showing that the final three point reduction in the business tax rate alone would lead to nearly $50 billion in greater capital investment and over 200,000 new jobs over time.

Similarly, the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters recently released another report praising our low tax plan as “critical drivers of the Canadian economy” that will, among other things, help to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, increase the personal incomes of Canadians by over $30 billion, increase per capita personal income by $880, and contribute between $2.6 billion and $3.7 billion in additional net revenues for all levels of government.

I encourage all parliamentarians to read these objective reports to see the facts on this issue.

It has to be noted that the Liberals claimed to support this broad-based tax relief but let us remember that on April 2, 2008, they stood in this chamber to oppose a very similar motion from the NDP. Canadians should review the debate in that Hansard.

I would like to remind the Liberals of that debate and what the Liberal finance critic at the time, my friend, the member for Markham—Unionville, said. He said:

...we need to create a new Canadian advantage to attract capital and jobs to this country and that new Canadian advantage...is to create a low corporate tax rate....

That we believe will replace the weak currency as a new Canadian advantage and will serve this country well to improve productivity, competitiveness and attract jobs....

The federal NDP members are in the class war mentality where any corporate tax cut is just seen as a sop to the rich. They do not understand, as their Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, British fellow social democrats learned long ago, that we have to create wealth before we can redistribute it, and that in order to compete in this world and get jobs it makes sense to have lower corporate tax rates.

Why are the federal NDP members almost alone in the world in being the Neanderthal version of the global social democratic movement.

Those are harsh words, not from me but from the Liberal finance critic at the time. It is just shocking to hear the kind of language they would use. However, his argument was exactly right and his argument is the argument that our government is putting forward in pursuing the path that we are on. It is interesting that the argument used by the Liberal finance critic at the time is something that the Liberal Party and the Liberal leader fail to understand today.

As chair of the finance committee, I have the privilege every year of travelling across the country and hearing from many communities across this great country. We heard from many of the over 110,000 businesses and their representatives, groups like the Mining Association of British Columbia, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, the Conseil du patronat du Québec, the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian institute of Chartered Accountants. All of those groups were unanimous in their support for our low tax plan.

A witness from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, in his testimony before the committee, said:

The single most important or most damaging thing the government could do at this point to stall the recovery would be to cancel the planned tax reductions. Business has been planning on them. The private sector has been hiring based on them. The private sector has been investing based on them. If suddenly those were repealed at this point, the impact would be to get business to shelve its plans for expansion and getting people back to work.

We in this party are committed to helping create more and more jobs by making Canada the best place to do business with our low tax plan.

Canada's continued job growth shows it is getting positive results. Indeed, we have created over 460,000 jobs since July 2009, a very good statement for the economy, and the strongest job growth in the G7 with nearly 70,000 jobs created in January alone according to Statistics Canada.

However, too many Canadians are still looking for work and the global economic recovery remains fragile. We must stay the course with our low tax plan to protect and create jobs to allow companies to invest across this country.

I encourage all members of this House to reject the Liberal plan to raise taxes and, frankly, embrace the position that it held only a few months ago to continue with this path to allow Canada to remain an economic leader in the world today.

[Committees of the House, February 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Finance, entitled “Question of Privilege - Production of Documents”.

[Pensions, December 16th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, our Conservative government has a strong record of improving retirement income for Canadians.

First, we have lowered the tax bill for seniors and pensioners by over $2 billion a year, including pension income splitting and the tax-free savings account.

Second, we consulted and introduced landmark reform to federally-regulated pension plans.

Third, as over 90% of pensions are provincially regulated, we worked with our provincial and territorial counterparts on larger retirement income issues.

Could the parliamentary secretary update the House with the latest news on this front?