Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a great privilege today to speak on a good economic action plan. However, I do not think anybody in this House, including those from our side, would say that it is perfect. There are not such perfect things at this point, but in view of what we are dealing with, it is a good plan, it is a decent plan, and it takes us ahead. When we compare it to what the others would offer, it is probably a great plan.
I want to start by talking about the fiscal side. That said, I think we all realize right away that the fiscal side involves the human side, and there is an integral kind of connection, a coherent kind of approach to it in our budget this year. Therefore, I will talk about the fiscal side and the compassionate Conservative side by way of some of the social side as well.
First of all, I want to note, as other members in this place already have, that this budget, in a very considerable way, wants to connect Canadians with available jobs. It is pretty important that we do that. Instead of giving a handout, as some people say, we give a hand up, which increases human dignity and builds people. It is a pretty important thing to be doing just from a human perspective.
We are also, as someone has said and is often repeated in this place, teaching a person to fish and not just giving them a fish by way of the Canada skills grant, which would provide some $15,000 or more per person, which would be combined with some provincial monies and the employer funding as well.
I met today here on Parliament Hill with a representative from the chemical association, who was commending this particular feature. For that industry, it is pretty important to be able to increase and bring people from apprenticeships to journeymen, and he sees the Canada skills grant as a very important way of doing that. Also, in relation to strengthening the apprentice system, he remarked as well that growing out of the Canada skills grant, it will do that. It will make it easier to get the needed experience for journeyman status.
In terms of expanding the pie, that is a pretty necessary thing. If we are just looking at the status quo and thinking we do not need any more journeymen because we are not figuring to advance and progress and expand beyond our borders, then of course some would say that there would be some fights over journeymen and the journeymen coming on. However, we are looking beyond. We realize that to hold our own we need to do that. We need to have strength in the apprenticeship system.
We are supporting job opportunities as well as providing tools for persons with disabilities, who often are not looked at as part of the labour force when we are wanting to bring people on stream to have the opportunities that others do.
As well, for our youth, getting that first job is a pretty important thing. In my province of Saskatchewan, there is a burgeoning birth rate among the aboriginal people, and many of these young people deserve jobs, as does any other Canadian. They will be the future workforce in the province of Saskatchewan in a big way, particularly in the resource sector up in the north, where there are high-paying jobs close to their home communities and close to these first nations settlements. That will be a great thing in that they can stay even closer to family and have good-paying jobs to support themselves, their families and others as well.
Also, there is the matter of helping recent immigrants find a job when we allow them into our country and bring them here. Most of us are immigrants in some fashion, I might say. We need to provide more than just a promise of a dream and a better tomorrow and a bright future by putting some actual steps to it and supporting them in job opportunities so we can fill the labour shortages and have the economy carry on because of that.
Those are some of the initial things that strike me as really important in our budget in connecting Canadians with available jobs in parts of the country.
For example, in Saskatchewan, my own home province, there is a great deal of prosperity and success these days, but there is a labour shortage. For those reasons, this budget strikes to my heart because of the need in my own backyard, my own riding of Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, where we have seen a 15% growth over the last few years since census indications and change of boundaries and so on. Because of that, we need to ensure that we are filling those needs, and the labour market needs to respond to that.
Also, I think that the long-term infrastructure plan is wise. There are things the private sector should and can be doing, but in terms of critical infrastructure, there is a vital role that government can play. Therefore, we have a new long-term infrastructure plan with over $70 billion over 10 years for a new building Canada plan.
Some of these figures have been cited before: $32.2 billion over 10 years for a community improvement fund; $14 billion for a new building Canada fund; $1.25 billion for the renewal of the P3 Canada; and $6 billion under current infrastructure programs for provinces, territories and municipalities in 2014-15 and beyond.
There is the matter of investing in world-class research and innovation. Taking it directly into the workplace, as well, is quite crucial. We are doing that by way of advanced research, supporting business innovation and enhancing Canada's venture capital system.
I am going to talk in a few moments about the support for families and communities in our budget. I also want to talk about helping small businesses succeed, the heart and engine of the economy, and medium and larger-sized businesses as well, and some of the things we have done there.
We are providing tax relief for manufacturers, helping small businesses expand, with $225 million to extend and expand the temporary hiring credit for small businesses for one year; increasing the lifetime capital gains exemption to $110 million over five years, by increasing the lifetime capital gains exemption to $800,000 for small business owners, farmers and fishers, and indexing that new limit to inflation going forward; and supporting mining exploration. Canada has a great deal of natural resources, so we need to key in and capitalize on that.
I want to read part of an email sent to me by one of my good constituents, a lady in Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan. She makes a good argument against socialism in the story and how we need to continually fight that back for the good of all Canadians. She stated:
A previous Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. John Diefenbaker, once said the poor cannot be helped by pulling down the rich. The middle class and the rich people have the businesses—
She is a business lady herself:
—that need people to keep them viable, thus providing them with a living to support their families and communities. These middle class and rich people often encourage employees to begin their own businesses thus ensuring the cycle will continue. I personally have seen that happen in my lifetime.
When governments decide to enter the realm of business it takes tax dollars to keep the businesses going. We have been down this road before during the time of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and it was a disaster.
She lived through that era. This was from a good constituent in Blaine Lake.
She also sent me an article titled, “Is this man a genius?”. It is about the follies and problems of socialism. Members have probably heard this. The article states:
IS THIS MAN A GENIUS?
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on [socialism]'s plan”.. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars--something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.... These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
God forbid that we would ever come to that. The NDP proposal seems to be pretty much along that line.
I will have to address some of the other things in the following questions, which I am looking forward to at this juncture.
