Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with another member.
It is an honour to rise today to give thanks first and foremost to the residents of the riding of Ajax—Pickering for the incredible opportunity to stand and serve in this House. I was born in the riding of Ajax--Pickering. I have lived there my entire life. Coming here and representing them, being their voice in Ottawa is indeed a humbling and most amazing opportunity.
When I walk the halls of these buildings and when I stand here and most particularly when I stood at the back of the Senate chamber and listened to the Speech from the Throne, I am reminded of why I ran, why my constituents sent me here and of my passion for this nation.
The throne speech indeed speaks directly to much of what I feel is great about this nation and much of what we need to continue to do to keep our nation strong. It reaffirms the priorities that my constituents have and the priorities that Canadians in general have. I shall speak to some of these points not just in terms of what was committed, but also in terms of what has been done to date because much has been accomplished.
Few things are more near and dear to my constituents and all the constituents that we represent than health care. The fundamental principle is that when we walk into a hospital, the health care professionals first and foremost ask how can they help us, not how much money is in our pockets. Having a full public health system that treats all individuals equally is of critical importance.
The new health accord that was struck at the first ministers meeting puts $41 billion into health care over the next 10 years. There are key measures and insurances to hold the provinces to account for the money that we have allocated. This will ensure a long term public health care system that we can all be proud of.
I was proud to be appointed to the cities and communities caucus committee. As a former city councillor I know the plight of cities. I respect the incredible intervention of the federal government in an area that typically is not its jurisdiction, to help cities and communities, and to recognize that they are indeed the engines of our economy. If we do not assist them, issues such as transit and infrastructure will not be solved. If those problems are not solved, our economy cannot continue to prosper.
As a member of that committee, let me assure all members that the commitment we have made on the gas tax will be carried through, just as our down payment to cities in the form of a GST rebate was followed through on.
I heard a lot of talk a few moments ago from the member opposite about the economy and of needing to pay down the debt. We remain the only G-7 nation that is in the black. For seven consecutive years we have paid down our debt. For seven consecutive years we have ensured that the monster of the deficit that plagued us for years has been killed.
Let us look at the state of our economy. I can only imagine sitting in this House 11 years ago with the state that Canada was in. At that point in time Canada was at the bottom of the G-7. Prior to the Liberal government coming into power we had an unemployment rate that exceeded 14%, interest rates that exceeded 12%. The Wall Street Journal mocked us, saying we were an honorary member of the third world.
Imagine if someone had stood up then and said that in 11 years' time our nation would be at the top of the G-7, that we would be in a position where we would have eliminated our deficit, where our unemployment rate would be at 7.2%, where our employment rate would exceed that of the United States. We have generated three million net new jobs. The federal tax on families is down 27%, for individuals, 21%. The CPP which I was told as a young person never to expect, that it would not be there for me, is now guaranteed for the next 75 years.
Despite blackouts, despite SARS, we now lead the G-7 across almost every single category. That is a remarkable achievement and not something that should be so easily brushed aside.
The opposition deals in utopia; everything must be absolutely perfect. The government has taken us from the bottom of the heap to the absolute top.
When we look at what we must do to continue forward, the throne speech talks about the course we must stay on. What the opposition calls padding, we call security. We make sure that we exceed our estimates, yet we are mocked. Imagine being mocked for not only meeting but exceeding what was promised. That is something we take exceptional pride in. When we make estimates, we make sure we not only hit them but that we exceed them.
When we continue forward we will not allow the beast of deficit to come again. Some suggest that we should spend to the brink, that we should make promises to the last cent that we have, but we will not do that. We will not allow the economy to be put into peril by that kind of dangerous activity. We will continue to review expenditures.
I was recently named to the public accounts committee. As a member of that committee I will be honoured to take part in ensuring that we continue to be as efficient as we can be, that we allocate government resources to the areas where we must spend, that we take away from the low priority areas and put resources into the high priority areas so that we have the money to achieve the things we need to achieve.
We will continue to invest in research and development. What the official opposition has often called corporate welfare we call an investment in our future. We will make sure that we continue to lead. In my riding there is a company, Messier Dowty, that receives grants to ensure that we are leaders in aerospace. We will keep the high paying jobs here. We will keep the research and development in this country. We will leverage it on things like the Beacon project at General Motors. We will make sure we are at the table and are part of that project to leverage $200 million of investment by the federal government for over $2 billion of worth to our economy.
I was exceptionally pleased to see in the throne speech the focus that was placed on the environment and on sustainability. The remarkably executed first offering of Petro-Canada will give us much needed dollars to put toward new sources of energy and new ways of conducting business. It recognizes the responsibility we have in service to our people. It also acknowledges, by saying that we must adopt the Kyoto accord, that each and everyone of us as members of Parliament and individual constituents has a responsibility to the Kyoto accord to make sure that we keep our air clean and that we are not looking out our windows through a dense haze of fog and smog.
I wish to address unity. The throne speech talked eloquently about the need for us to come together, to come together as members of different parties and to come together as a nation. We obviously know there is a threat particularly from one party. This nation that we love is built upon diversity, upon our differences, upon using our differences to strong effect, upon not pitting region against region, but putting region for region, and there is a party in the House that would tear apart that great experiment. It would rip apart that which we hold so dear so that its leader could become premier.
We must make sure that this noble idea of Canada, this place where people from all different ethnic cultural and linguistic backgrounds come together in one place for one cause is not destroyed. We are Canada's champions. I intend to be Canada's champion.
I love Quebec, I love Ontario, I love the Atlantic region, I love the North, I love the West. We all share the same interests.
As we are one, we must act as one. That is our challenge and it is something I intend to defend.
