Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise to speak today about our government's priorities: jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.
The Minister of Finance is doing a terrific job with our financial policies and has helped create well over 800,000 new jobs since the global economic recession. This has made Canada the envy of the world and the G8. We will continue to become more competitive as we invest in infrastructure, science, innovation and tax reduction while reducing barriers to trade. We have initiated the most ambitious trade expansion plan in Canadian history. We are strengthening our ties with the U.S., opening trade agreements with India and the European Union, building our growing trade relationship with Asia and much more.
Expanded trade benefits the resource communities I represent and the ones the members opposite want to destroy with their policies. In my constituency, many export crops are grown. Probably the most important is canola. Indeed, my riding is the number one canola-producing constituency in the country. Farmers, jobs and value-added industries depend very strongly on this trade.
This is a government that has continually lowered taxes. It has cut taxes over 140 times. Budget 2012 spends Canadian taxpayer dollars responsibly, with the goal of balancing the budget and ensuring that a strong plan is in place to create jobs.
We are working to strengthen the financial security of workers, businesses and families and to create good jobs and long-term prosperity from coast to coast to coast. To do this, we will extend by one year the hiring tax credit for small business. This has helped many small businesses in my own constituency. Many businesses in my constituency export to the United States and around the world. I hope that the NDP and Liberals opposite do not disregard the importance of these small job creators by continuously attacking the resource sector that works hand in hand with the small businesses that need the oil, gas, lumber and metals they produce to make their goods and fuel their businesses.
We will invest in upgrades to infrastructure to maintain safe rail service, renew the Canadian Coast Guard fleet and improve facilities at our borders. Furthermore, we will increase funding for skills training for students, older workers and Canadians with disabilities. We are also working to reform Canada's immigration system.
In terms of our responsible resource development program, in 2010, Canada's natural resources sectors employed more than 760,000 workers across the country. Right now the mining and energy sectors alone represent 10% of the Canadian economy and 40% of our exports. In the next 10 years, more than 500 new projects, representing over $500 billion in new investment, will be proposed for Canada. The potential for job growth is simply enormous.
Since 2006, our government has been working to streamline the review process. Our efforts have already made a difference, without any negative environmental impact whatsoever. Currently, companies undertaking major projects must navigate a complex maze of regulatory requirements, long approval processes, and most importantly, unpredictability. That is why our government is acting, in Canada's economic action plan 2012, with our plan for responsible resource development.
Responsible resource development streamlines the review process for major economic projects by providing projectable timelines for project approvals. It prevents long delays that kill potential jobs and stall economic growth by putting valuable investment at risk. Responsible resource development will create good, skilled, well-paying jobs in cities and communities across Canada while continuing to maintain the highest possible standards for protecting the environment. Again, emerging economies, such as Asia, are burgeoning markets for our natural resources.
I serve on both the fisheries and the environment committees of the House. I would like to talk a bit more about these two areas and the importance of the sustainable use of our resources and how government can play a productive role working with the conservation community and resource industries.
In terms of fisheries, our government is introducing changes that will focus on fish and fish habitat protection rules. These changes solidify our government's commitment to protecting recreational, commercial and aboriginal fisheries and the habitat that supports them. We are adopting a sensible and practical approach to managing real and significant threats to fisheries and the habitat that supports them while minimizing the restrictions on routine, everyday activities that have little or no impact on the productivity of Canada's fisheries.
The old laws were indiscriminate and meant that all bodies of water where fish live or could possibly live, or might live in another time, are subject to the same rules and evaluation regardless of size and environment, and most importantly, are in line with their contribution to a fishery that people actually use. We have heard Canadians tell us about farmers being prevented from cleaning out their irrigation canals, municipalities being delayed in repairing infrastructure and doing routine maintenance, businesses not being allowed to clear flooded fields and campsites and cottage owners prohibited from keeping up their properties, all because of the existing rules that lack common sense.
The new changes would focus the rules by drawing a distinction between vital waterways that support important fisheries in Canada, and unproductive bodies of water, like drainage ditches and irrigation canals, as well as identifying and managing real threats to the fisheries, including direct impacts on fish, habitat destruction and aquatic invasive species.
The fisheries minister would also have tools to establish clear new and accessible guidelines for Canadians to follow for projects in or near water. Regulatory standards actually do not exist at this time for routine low-risk projects, such as building boat launches or docks. The minister could now identify ecologically significant areas that require enhanced protection. Currently, all areas are treated the same under the law. As a fisheries biologist myself, I agree with focusing our efforts on bodies of water that have fisheries important to people and local communities.
These changes would also allow the government to enforce the conditions associated with Fisheries Act authorizations. At present, DFO cannot enforce the conditions. We would align infractions under the Fisheries Act—
