Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to split my time, as I split my seat every day, with my colleague, the member for Lac-Saint-Louis.
The budget we are discussing is not perfect. It is quite imperfect, but it is at least a step forward from the economic update of this past November when the government carried on its tradition of putting politics before people.
After years of budget surpluses and sound fiscal management by previous Liberal governments, we now find ourselves in deficits and with a growing debt. The responsibility rests solely in the unsteady hands of the Conservative government.
This is a turbulent time for Canadians. Real people are suffering and many are worried about their future.
It is not easy for some politicians and political parties to set aside their personal wishes and personal ambitions to do what is best for the country. We should and the Liberal Party will. It is our view and my view that the budget needs to have an opportunity to work but there has to be strong oversight.
The government will be judged on its progress or lack thereof and it knows that it will face the Canadian public if it fails this test. In my review of the budget, I have placed the measures into three categories: first, measures that could be positive for Canadians but which will have to be watched very carefully; second, measures that do not go nearly far enough; and finally, measures that are totally absent.
In terms of measures that might be positive but need safeguards is the working income tax benefit. I think that WITB, a refundable tax credit that supplements earnings for eligible working low income families, is a positive program and it does help some families climb over the so-called welfare wall. The government is adding $580 million, effectively doubling it, and, in fairness to the government, if this goes through it is a positive measure.
On housing, there are some measures outlined in the budget that go to support affordable social housing for seniors, aboriginals, persons with disabilities as well as incentives to retrofit existing social housing to make them more energy efficient. That should be good as well.
On skills training, I believe the investments in what the government is calling the Canada skills and transition strategy will allow unemployed workers more time to find a good job and get the training to compete for tomorrow's jobs.
Those supports are welcomed by us as they will be welcomed by Canadians but they need to be tracked very carefully.
On deferred maintenance at universities and colleges, up to $2 billion is dedicated to colleges and universities to address deferred maintenance; that is to say, repair the facilities that students and researchers use. That can be very positive but, again, the details are very blurry. I have significant concern about the provision that universities, community colleges, polytechnics, provinces and municipalities will be expected to kick in matching funds to get the money. In particular for smaller colleges and universities, and especially in my province of Nova Scotia, freeing up money to match federal money is not an option. As a professor said to me this morning, “This may be a gift we cannot afford”. I think that is well said.
On research, we saw today the spectacle of the minister saying that we need not worry about the cuts. In Canada, eight or nine years ago we invested in research and innovation in a huge way at a time when the American administration of George Bush was cutting research funding. It was a perfect storm for us.
We now face the exact opposite. Under President Obama, the United States in investing in science at a time when we are not. Researchers across the country are concerned about that and they should be. One of the best ways to increase productivity is to invest in research. We will have to keep a very close eye on that.
There are provisions in the budget that are weak and not well thought out. Surely equalization is a prime example. We have seen what a devastating impact it will have on the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In my own province we have this spectacle of a premier saying that it is okay, that he has made a deal with the Prime Minister. However, there is nothing on paper to say the deal is any good. That is so far from the Atlantic accord negotiated by Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier John Hamm. It is a disgrace and it will need to be watched very carefully.
We were told there would be all kinds of changes to EI. There were great signals from the minister. We have added five weeks, which is good, and some training money. The government might though have used some creativity. If it had wanted to create stimulus, why would it not have eliminated the two week waiting period? That money would go into the economy right now, instead of adding five weeks at the end that some may use or some may not. It could have got rid of the two week waiting period and added three weeks at the other end so at least people could take advantage of the money now when they need it.
It is troubling to hear about wait times for the processing. The minister seems not particularly concerned and yesterday we had a headline saying that the government would not pay the unemployed to stay home. The minister in charge of employment insurance is saying that it may be too lucrative, that Canadians will flee from their jobs and jump on to employment insurance to make $340 a week. That is a disgrace and an insult to working people in Canada. I would encourage the minister and the government to get serious about employment insurance reform as we go forward.
Our leader has indicated a Liberal government will take the necessary steps to bring about changes to EI, in concert with stakeholder group, changes that are fair and treat workers equally.
In support for families, we could have done something significant for the poorest families in the country. There was some tinkering with the national child benefit, but it does not even help those who are most affected. That is a disgrace.
In terms of categories that are not even covered in this budget, what about early learning and child care? We continue to have a government that holds firm on its ideological opposition to any national leadership role in child care. Child care is a tremendously important issue for Canadians and this budget contains nothing to help working families with the difficulty and the cost of accessing child care services in Canada.
What we have now, sadly, is a small taxable benefit that does little or nothing to enhance access to child care and does not create a space. Families who want to go out into the workforce or go back to school in order to better live their lives are stuck again.
It was a Liberal government, led by the member for York Centre, that brought in a national child care program, a program advocated for for years by child care advocates across this country, people like Pat Hogan and Sue Wolstenholme in Nova Scotia, like Martha Friendly in Toronto, Monica Lysack from Saskatchewan, and many others who fought hard, only to see their success turn into despair when the government tore up those agreements. Again, politics trumps people. It is unacceptable.
One of the overarching concerns that touches upon a number of the issues that I mentioned is poverty. Poverty should concern everybody in this country. It is one of the issues on which, along with other colleagues from the human resources committee of the House, we worked in the previous Parliament, and I hope that the HUMA committee will again take up that work when the committees resume.
I hope that we will have in Canada a national strategy to combat poverty, something we do not have now and something for which I hold out very little hope under this government.
I was proud that our party brought forth the thirty-fifty plan in the past election. It placed poverty, and particularly child poverty, at the centre of our platform. It continues to be a national disgrace that we have so many children going to school with little or no food, whose basic needs are not met, and it should be a shame to us all.
I believe that a Liberal government will one day, perhaps sooner than some think, end the dark ages of the Conservative government and replace ideology with hope.
We will say to all Canadians that we support: literacy, equality, the mandate of Status of Women Canada, the court challenges program, child care, proper funding and access to universities and colleges, and that we support the right of all people to live in a country that is generous and fair. Those are the beliefs of most Canadians and they are our beliefs as well. We will form a government that will once again place people first and politics last.
This budget will pass, but we will hold the government to account and the day will soon come when Canadians will have their say again.
