Mr. Speaker, I forgot to mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Mississauga West.
I have gone with the task force across the country to some of our large urban regions. The issues that have come forward from all of them are that the communities are feeling under siege. Our large urban regions have limited tax ability to continue to raise taxes. People on the other end just cannot afford immense tax increases on their properties. They are feeling under siege. We look at them as being the jewels of our country; the large urban regions house about 80% of the population. It is important that they stay competitive and that they do well. They are very much looking to the federal government for help.
It is interesting that when things get rough, everybody seems to look to the father figure, the federal government, which is how they described it to me. They are in enormous difficulties. They are looking to us to show some leadership and to help them.
The competitiveness of these large urban regions is critical to their growth and development. It is not only locally; they need to be doing well internationally. We must stay focused on those issues. We must look at what the role is for the federal government, how we can best assist them and be a better partner in government. They feel their quality of life is very much threatened.
Cities which were once spotlessly clean and very efficient with great transportation and transit systems are now embroiled in gridlock. There are enormous problems. There is the frustration of being stuck on the road and not being able to get home at night, taking an hour to get home, and the air quality which all of us are having to experience.
From what I am hearing from our regions, what is needed is an integrated transportation network much like what the Minister of Transport is currently looking at.
Commuter rail is the responsibility of the federal government. An integrated system within our transportation network would be an enormous help to these large urban regions. We must keep in mind that urban transit is a provincial responsibility, not a federal one. The commuter rail is our role. We are looking at working with municipalities on trying to enhance that role, whether it be light rail or subways, enhanced VIA Rail or Go system, whatever happens to be out there that is of assistance to our municipalities to move on the gridlock issue.
Another issue that has been raised by one of our colleagues in our round table discussions is the need for more affordable housing, both rental and home ownership. There is an enormous need for that.
There is also a need to attract skilled workers. We are an aging society. A lot of the people that worked in construction came from other countries. The need here in Canada is immense with the aging population we have currently.
Another issue was climate change and other related initiatives that need to be happening to deal with the Kyoto targets and how we can improve the air quality. Much of that is tied into transportation and how we might deal with that.
Brownfield sites which in many cases are good sites for redevelopment in a variety of areas will not get redeveloped. They will continue to stagnate in the state they are unless they get serious help by changing the liability issues and allowing deductions for some of the cleanup costs.
I raise some of these issues so that hopefully, if the Minister of Finance cannot get them into this budget, he will give some consideration to getting them into another budget.
The federal government has a lot of brownfield sites and so do the provinces and municipalities. If we could figure out how to deal with some of those liability issues, there would be great opportunities for intensification in some of our neighbourhoods to prevent some of the urban sprawl that is currently happening.
Fiscal tools were mentioned a lot in our round table discussions as a way to stop tying the hands of the municipalities behind their backs. Given the freedom and the responsibility, I am confident they would not use those fiscal tools in any way that would hamper the opportunity to be competitive and continue to grow in the regions.
From my experience as a city councillor, before we are going to add on any more taxes, the first thing we do is look at the economic competitiveness of the region and how it will compare. We look for the alternatives to ensure that our cities stay as competitive as Montreal and Vancouver. Of course now we are dealing with cities on an international level. It is important to make sure that the cities stay very competitive.
Health and education are very important. We need to have a well educated workforce. Our children need full opportunities to go to university and explore the avenues of tomorrow for themselves.
The universities, and York University in my riding in particular, do a fabulous job of opening the doors to a lot of programs for people who maybe would not have had a chance to go to university some years back. That happens as a result of foundations and other programs that offer opportunities to many young people.
Investment in research is also an area, especially after September 11. It shows just how important that is to us, when we deal with the kinds of scares we have had in the last couple of weeks, that we continue to invest in areas of research that hold a cure for many of the problems in society today. A certain amount of investment is needed. I am proud to say that our government has made it another one of its many high end priorities, to ensure that we get research money in there.
We make choices as a government and I think we have made the right choices. The $100 billion tax cut, which is the biggest tax cut in the history of Canada, is now coming into play at a time when we probably will need it more than ever. It is hoped we will be able to keep that money going into the economy. Our infrastructure programs are kicking into gear as well. That will help create the jobs and the opportunities that will certainly be needed in the future.
Those were choices that we made. We could have decided, as some of our colleagues on the other side have asked, to go for massive tax cuts. Then we would have had to make other decisions. I am confident we have made the right decisions.
The Minister of Finance did a fine job of putting those things in place prior to September 11, certainly not knowing what was coming. The layout of those programs and those tax cuts has come at an appropriate time for all of us. We look at those tax cuts and we know that we put the incentives into our programs to continue going.
At the end of the day our seniors want confidence in the economy. They want to know that the health care system will continue to be funded in a fair and equitable way. As an example, approximately $8 billion in additional health funding is going into the province of Ontario. That is over and above what was previously indicated. The health care money is there in order to ensure that seniors and other residents in my riding get the health care they want.
We wish everyone good luck with the budget and ask that the issues of our urban regions stay front and centre as we deal with the pressures on our budget today.
