Mr. Speaker, Nova Scotia, as I have assured its finance minister, will be kept whole, including the accord.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 58% of the vote.
Equalization Payments December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, Nova Scotia, as I have assured its finance minister, will be kept whole, including the accord.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, what is needed is a steady, stable, long-term view. This is not a game. The jobs and savings of Canadians are at risk. We are in a period of global economic crisis and Canada is not an island. This is a not a time to panic or attack business with new punishing taxes as proposed by the NDP in the last election, or a carbon tax as proposed by the Liberal Party in the last election.
This is not a time for a huge new structural deficit of $30 billion or more as proposed by the three musketeers over there.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, we have taken a steady, stable, long-term view to economic development in Canada. We have also acted promptly and in advance of the serious economic slowdown globally this year.
We cut taxes across the board last fall, keeping money in the economy right now. And yes, tax cuts do stimulate the economy by leaving money in the hands of people in Canada so they spend it, and businesses so they can reinvest it and create jobs.
That stimulus is 2% of GDP, 30 days from now in Canada, the doubling of infrastructure spending, 30 days from now in Canada--
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, as I am sure the hon. member knows, because I am sure she looked at the news this morning, we in fact continue to perform in Canada better than our G7 partners. We perform better because we took steps in advance. We prepared. We reduced the GST effective January 1 this year. The United Kingdom just did it last week.
The good news is that the Canadian GDP, gross domestic product, grew 1.3% in the third quarter of this year.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
The only denial going on, Mr. Speaker, is the new-found friendship between separatists and Liberals in this House.
The fact is we have the accelerated capital cost allowance to help manufacturers. We have reduced business taxes. This is very important for manufacturers in this country. In the fall economic statement, we brought in additional equity provisions for the Business Development Bank and the Export Development Bank. This is very important for the manufacturing sector.
These are measures that I would think would be supported by the member who just asked the question.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, as set out in the fall economic statement, we used the average which was also the median of the private sector economists as of November 14, so we have some friends there.
But what of the new-found friends of the Liberal Party? “The vast majority of Canadians want nothing to do with a party of economic Luddites, which is why that party is marginal, why it will remain marginal and why it is not taken seriously by the people of Canada”. Those are the words of the economic leader on the other side, the member for Markham—Unionville.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, there is something cooking and it is a new-found friendship and some strange bedfellows over here, these clueless people that they are making arrangements with about economic policy.
If we run a deficit of $30 billion in this country, we are running a structural deficit. It took a long time to get out of that problem. We have taken the long-term view, the view that says we have to help Canadian business with the Bank of Canada, with Bill C-50, with ensuring adequate credit in this country. There are more provisions in that regard in the fall economic statement, all good for the country, not running big deficits.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I think that the members opposite ought to be frank about their assessment of their new-found friends in the New Democratic Party. Here is what they say about their new friends in the New Democratic Party on their economic policy: “--delusional, clueless, irresponsible policy and it is still characterized in the neanderthal economic thinking of the New Democratic Party”.
I thank the expert, the member for Markham—Unionville, and the other expert on deficits, the member for Toronto Centre.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Actually, Mr. Speaker, economic recovery begins with managing the economy well, in a stable way, in a long-term way. It does not begin by driving the Canadian economy into a long-term structural deficit by taking Canada back to the 1970s, by making sure, as Liberals will do, that interest payments for Canadian taxpayers go way up in the air like the bad old days of the 1970s. Canadians have seen that in their lifetimes. They do not want to see that again.
The Economy December 1st, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member would agree it is not ideological to double infrastructure spending, and it is not ideological to help pensioners in Canada by extending some pension relief, particularly, given the problems with the pension plans in the province of Quebec. I can tell the hon. member it is not ideological to help seniors with their RRIFs this year and to help them in 2008. All of that is in the fall economic statement which I gather the hon. member, his party and his friends are against.