Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to second the motion for the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne.
First of all, I would like to thank the Prime Minister for giving me the opportunity to second the motion before the Parliament of Canada. I would also like to thank the voters in the riding of Laval West who have put their trust in me to represent them in the federal parliament, which is a great honour.
As their elected representative I will continue to work with my colleagues as well as with the private sector and NGOs to meet the challenges of the new millenium, which were outlined in the Speech from the Throne.
The riding of Laval West Quebec, is very representative of the population of both Quebec and Canada. It is home to Canadians of various origins, mostly francophone, but there are also many anglophones and Canadians of Greek, Portuguese, Armenian, Lebanese, Egyptian, West Indian, Jewish and other origins.
The riding has a major rural component, depending mainly on horticulture, and a very urban component, namely the great city of Laval. There are low, middle and high income families. It is a community that works hard together and, like Canada as a whole, finds a way to affirm its diversity in unity.
Laval is the second largest city in Quebec. Since its inception its activities have shifted toward the secondary sector, without eliminating all of its primary sector. In the past 15 years Laval's focus has been on high tech and the industrial, commercial and financial sectors.
The priorities set by our government in the throne speech are completely in line with the expectations and priorities of the families in Laval: a prosperous and healthy society.
Children are the foundation of the society of tomorrow. The more attention we focus on the children of today in their early years, the better their future and our future will be. Dozens of community and not for profit organizations are already involved every day in helping low and middle income families. Our government intends to adopt a positive and responsible attitude to bring hope to the families of Laval, the families of Canada.
While I was listening to Her Excellency reading the Speech from the Throne, something kept crossing my mind. I believe that every member of this House, above and beyond any differences of opinion, was thinking exactly the same thing: the progress this country has made in the past six years, the work that has been accomplished by all Canadians, is truly remarkable.
I would like to take a moment to review the position Canada was in six years ago. Unemployment was at 11.4%. Inflation and high interest rates were undermining our economy. There was a record deficit of $42 billion which was constantly rising, adding to our country's debt.
In a nutshell, Canada was on the verge of bankruptcy, and something drastic definitely needed to be done.
This government was therefore elected with the mandate of remedying the situation. Canadians realized this was going to mean some difficult years and numerous sacrifices, but they also realized they could count on us to listen to them, to work along with them, to make the necessary choices, keeping in mind their values and their priorities. We had the confidence of Canadians and we knew that we could have confidence in them as well.
Let us look at what we have become today: a country of over 30 million people, with unemployment at its lowest level in ten years. The era of budget deficits is behind us.
With inflation and interest rates under control, many Canadians are now able to buy a house and start a family without having to worry about going deep into debt.
Canadians are also seeing their tax bill drop. The news in the throne speech is that their net income will rise in the years ahead.
Aware that running a country is more than an exercise in accounting, our government has done all this. Balancing a budget is not an end in itself and neither is lowering taxes. Rather, these are ways of bringing about a vision, our vision, the vision of all Canadians for a strong, united, and prosperous Canada with a quality of life unequalled anywhere else in the world, a Canada whose successes know no limitations.
While some would have us live in the past, this government has always had its eye on the future, on the future of this country and on the future of every single Canadian, and the future begins with families and children. It begins by giving every young Canadian a chance to succeed in the new knowledge based economy and build a better quality of life. This government has no higher priority.
That is why over the last few years we placed the cornerstones of the national children's agenda with a special focus on the problems of low income families with children. Along with our partners we have made considerable progress so far. We created the national child benefit through which low income families receive in total $1.7 billion every year while provinces and territories are reinvesting in complementary services. Our government has already pledged new funds that will bring the total to $2 billion a year by July 2000. And that is not all.
As we speak, hundreds of projects to help children and parents are under way in communities across Canada with the assistance of federal programs, projects that benefit from programs such as aboriginal head starts which were recently expanded to include children who live on reserves, the Canadian prenatal nutrition program which funds community groups that counsel and help women at risk of having unhealthy babies, the community action program for children which funds community groups that assist in meeting the developmental needs of at risk children from birth to age six. We did all this as we were fighting to bring the nation's finances under control. Imagine what we will be able to do now.
Our government has committed to increasing resources for early childhood development, providing targeted assistance for low income families with children and fostering family friendly workplaces. We will continue to work with our partners, the provinces and the territories, to further improve community support for early childhood development. We will continue to invest in the national child benefit. We will continue to put more money in the hands of families through further tax relief. We will give parents the freedom to spend more time with their children. We will implement workplace policies that are more favourable to families and we will modernize family law with an eye to placing the needs of children first.
This is not all that our government has done to help children. In recent years we have also introduced the Canadian opportunities strategy to provide Canadians with easier and more affordable access to education and training.
We have established the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation and set up a $2.5 billion fund that will begin distributing over 100,000 scholarships a year to postsecondary students from low and middle income families starting in January.
We have created the Canada education savings grant to help Canadians invest in their children's future. We have introduced a tax credit for interest payments on student loans. In addition, we have implemented other programs, the benefits of which will continue to be felt for years to come: the youth employment strategy, SchoolNet, a program promoting community access to the Internet, and the computers for schools program.
The Speech from the Throne clearly indicated that we will be building on these sound foundations in the years to come, that we will be relying on the modern infrastructure currently being put in place, not only to improve the skills and prospects of young Canadians, but also to help them to better know their fellow Canadians from other regions and our society, which is one of diversity within unity.
We took office at a time when major changes were taking place. These changes, which include globalization, the rapid emergence of new technologies and their application in all areas of the economy, have a growing impact on the daily lives of Canadians.
Canadians had every reason to be concerned. Not only was our country at the mercy of events, but the government had very limited means to start the process of catching up. The burdens of the past were preventing us from moving toward the future.
Today's throne speech is indicative of a complete turnaround. It reaffirms Canada's position at the forefront of a knowledge based economy, it stresses our country's attachment to social justice and equity, it shows a Canada that is united by the compassion, optimism, determination and deep conviction of its citizens, and it will be the best country in the 21st century.
I am proud of our government, but I am particularly proud of my fellow Canadians. We never let go of our values. We never listened to those who wanted us to take the easy way out. Instead, we rolled up our sleeves and set out to do the task at hand.
We took advantage of the solidarity and determination of Canadians and we marched together toward our common objective, which is to make Canada a country with a future, a country constantly striving for ever greater success.
