Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to rise and speak at third and final reading to the jobs and economic growth act, referred to in the House as Bill C-9.
We spent quite a bit of time debating this, and I am almost as happy as most Canadians are to see this debate coming to a close so that we can move it on to the other house and actually implement all of these good measures.
The jobs and economic growth act and budget 2010 are an integral part of Canada's economic action plan. It is a positive and ambitious plan that has been successfully strengthening our economy and helping to create jobs throughout our country.
Recent job gains help illustrate that Canada's economic action plan is indeed working. May represented the eighth month, out of the past 10, of job gains. Since July 2009, Canada has created over 300,000 net new jobs.
What is more, both the OECD and the IMF have predicted that Canada's economic growth will lead the G7 by a wide margin this year. What is more, just recently, the IMF singled out Canada for praise, saying, “Canada entered the global crisis in good shape and thus the exit strategy appears less challenging than elsewhere”.
This reinforces what we have said all along. While not immune from the global recession, Canada's economy entered it from the strongest position, and Canada will exit it in the strongest position. Listen to a Toronto Sun editorial following the great announcement that over 100,000 new jobs were created last April. It said:
Our economy in April produced a record 108,700 jobs...the largest one-month increase ever in raw numbers....[T]he job growth numbers support [the] Prime Minister's contention Canada's economic recovery is among the strongest in the world....What politicians of all stripes on Parliament Hill need to remember is that for average Canadians, the economy is job one.
We agree. We acknowledge that the global recovery remains fragile. That is why our number one priority remains the economy. That is why we have been working, and will continue to, to fully implement Canada's economic action plan, which is a blueprint for creating jobs, lowering taxes, fostering economic growth, and investing in better infrastructure.
Budget 2010 and the jobs and economic growth act is one way our government is doing just that. It is staying focused on job one, the economy.
In the remainder of my time, I want to speak about the constructive and encouraging initiatives in the jobs and economic growth act. However, first I would like to highlight, for the benefit of the chamber and Canadians, how witness after witness at the finance committee, during its consideration of this important act, spoke strongly in favour of these important initiatives They were witnesses like the Canadian Apparel Federation and the 400 Canadian companies and 50,000 workers it represents. The Canadian Apparel Federation spoke glowingly of the jobs and economic growth act and the historic step within it to eliminate all tariffs on manufacturing inputs and machinery and equipment. It understood the importance of this bold move, one that will make Canada the first G20 country to establish itself as a tariff-free zone for manufacturers.
In the words of the Canadian Apparel Federation at the hearing:
[O]ur most important industrial policy issue has been the duties paid on imported raw materials. I am happy today to support the passage of Bill C-9, because it contains the elimination of these duties....In the current economic climate, this is the most effective policy at government's disposal to lower the costs of domestic manufacturing. It eliminates an unnecessary financial burden on domestic manufacturers....
That is a compelling argument.
Witnesses such as the Retail Council of Canada, and the 40,000 Canadian stores and online merchants it represents, strongly urged the committee to pass the jobs and economic growth act, especially the legislative provisions within it to monitor compliance with the code of conduct for the credit and debit card industry and to regulate the industry if necessary.
The Retail Council of Canada stated:
Merchants across Canada are following this issue closely. They commend the minister...for establishing a card payment regulatory framework and for equipping the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada with the tools it needs to monitor and enforce compliance with the code of conduct changes, changes that are both contained in Bill C-9....[W]e...applaud the fact that there are regulations that will allow the minister to in fact regulate the payment system....[T]his may have to happen sooner versus later.
What about witnesses such as the Canadian Cancer Society, which spoke in favour of the initiative in the jobs and economic growth act to help counter illegal contraband through an enhanced stamping regime for tobacco products?
As the Canadian Cancer Society stated at committee:
All members of Parliament are aware of how we have a significant illegal contraband problem in Canada, and we need solutions. We support the enhanced tax stamp regime that will be authorized with this bill....It will assist in preventing counterfeiting.
The finance committee has also heard from witnesses such as Pathways to Education Canada. The jobs and economic growth act provides $20 million for pathways, which is a unique program of early interventions and support for high school students to help them overcome the barriers they may face in pursuing post-secondary education. This community-based, volunteer-supported program provides tutoring, mentoring, counselling, and financial support to disadvantaged youth and their families. It has an established record of reducing high school dropout rates. It has a record of being effective in increasing post-secondary enrollment of students from inner-city high schools.
The $20 million in new support authorized with the passage of the jobs and economic growth act would allow Pathways to grow and would help even more disadvantaged youth.
As David Hughes, president of Pathways to Education Canada, told the committee:
[O]ur program...is lowering dropout rates of at-risk youth and helping them to make the all-important transition to post-secondary education and meaningful employment. This investment will enable Pathways...to expand its program from being a regional program to being a national one, helping us expand to 15 to 20 locations, to seven to eight provinces, and serving over 10,000 students.
The committee also heard from Genome Canada. Genome Canada is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to developing and implementing a national strategy in genomics and proteomics research for the benefit of all Canadians.
The research performed by Genome Canada, such as genomics research, has outcomes in the areas of human health, the environment, and natural resources. Recognizing the work performed by Genome Canada, the jobs and economic growth act would invest $75 million in this organization to launch new research, an investment that Genome Canada is ready to put to work.
Indeed, when Genome Canada appeared before committee, it noted:
[W]e are proud of our track record....[T]he recent federal budget provided $75 million in additional funding to Genome Canada, for which we are thankful....We want to get these funds directly into the hands of the researchers as quickly as possible....Excellence is the only standard that Genome Canada will accept or fund.
Witnesses also appeared before the finance committee to applaud the provisions in the jobs and economic growth act that would enable credit unions to grow and remain competitive by permitting them to incorporate as federal entities, if they so choose.
We all recognize that Canada is home to a strong and vibrant credit union industry that provides financial services to millions of Canadian consumers and small businesses. It has long been argued that allowing credit unions to grow on a national scale would broaden choices for consumers by helping credit unions attract new members and improve services for existing members across provincial borders.
Indeed, that is what we heard at finance committee.
Credit Union Central of Canada presented a very convincing case. It noted that the jobs and economic growth act provided:
a good first step towards the establishment of a useful, attractive, accessible, and distinctive federal charter option for credit unions.
The president of Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, Tracy Redies, added that the act was:
—a historic milestone that will enhance the strength and stability of the credit union sector and financial services industry as a whole....It will give credit unions the chance to develop greater economies of scale and more competitive cost bases while remaining true to cooperative principles. This, in turn, will allow the development of a wider range of enhanced products and services that credit union members now expect.
Increased competition from federal credit unions will provide Canadian consumers more choice, drive innovation, and lower prices.
Finally, the finance committee heard powerful testimony from witnesses praising the government for allowing competition in the outgoing international mail marketplace. We heard evidence that this move would directly save thousands of Canadian jobs. I note that this competition has already been occurring for decades.
Representatives of the Canadian Printing Industries Association, which represents over 7,200 printing establishments that employ some 65,500 Canadians, came to committee to warn of the dire consequences of failing to pass the jobs and economic growth act in a timely manner. They said:
Canadian printers and remail companies have already seen a significant decrease in business given this industry's uncertainty over the past few years. Without this amendment, these companies stand to lose even more business as their customers will simply take their business to another country....No one is going to win: not Canada Post, not our small businesses, and not the Canadian economy.
What about the other quote that we heard from Barry Sikora? This was at committee also. Mr. Sikora is a small businessman and has been involved in the international mail industry for over 30 years. Mr. Sikora came to committee with a simple plea. He said:
—my company employed 31 people. We're not a huge corporation; we're an average business in the printing industry. Now, because of this situation, we're down to 17 employees. Many of our customers have left...they have taken their business to another country. They have forced our industry to lay off long-time employees, and that's not a pleasant thing to do....We're hoping that it will come back, but...If this doesn't pass, I'm out of business.
He is referring to the jobs and economic growth act.
For those in this chamber who would get lost in ideological and procedural debate, I ask them to remember Mr. Sikora and the hard-working Canadians his business employs. I want them to think about these employees, the jobs that would be lost and the families affected if we did not pass this act in a timely manner. We need to always keep that in perspective.
We also need to keep in mind the other positive measures in the jobs and economic growth act. I would be remiss if I did not speak briefly to a few of these measures. For instance, the act provides important tax relief to those Canadian seniors who collect U.S. social security benefits.
For background, before 1996, Canadian seniors, who received U.S. social security benefits, were required to only include 50% of those benefits when calculating their Canadian income tax. In 1996 the then-Liberal government changed the tax law to tax 85% of those social security payments, an unwelcome change for those Canadian seniors on fixed incomes.
Budget 2010 and the jobs and economic growth act reinstates the pre-1996 tax treatment for those Canadian seniors who have been in receipt of these benefits before 1996, as well as their spouses or common-law partners eligible to receive survivor benefits. This important change, which fulfills a promise that our Prime Minister made during the 2008 election campaign, was warmly welcomed. Indeed, listen to what William Thrasher of the Canadians Asking for Social Security Equality told the Windsor Star recently. He said:
We've been fighting for this for 15 years...The tax increase was a "disaster" for seniors. People were thrown out of nursing homes because they couldn't afford to live there...at least seniors will be getting a bigger portion of their social security. It's a major victory.
However, there is more in our jobs and economic growth act. As we all will recall, in 2006 our Conservative government introduced the universal child care benefit. This benefit provides $100 per month for each child under the age of six and gives working families the support and freedom to choose the best child care option for them. The jobs and economic growth act will ensure that single parents are not disadvantaged by allowing single parents to choose to include universal child care benefit payments in the income of a dependant. In most cases the dependant would not be subject to tax.
This change will ensure that single parents are not disadvantaged by their family status and will provide nearly $200 in tax relief for each child a single parent may have. The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada , like most observers, has welcomed this change. It has said:
—the government has recognized that single parent families have been unfairly penalized through an excessive tax clawback of the Universal Child Care Benefit.
There is so much more to applaud in the jobs and economic growth act, like the half a billion dollars in payments to various provinces to support the key health care and social services that they provide by ensuring no decline in their total transfers in 2010-11, money that our provincial partners are counting on receiving in a timely fashion. Indeed they put it in their budgets. There is also the modification to section 116 of the Income Tax Act to better help Canada attract foreign venture capital and the jobs that it will create. In addition, there is the important extension of the mineral exploration tax credit, a move that will help promote employment and investment growth in rural and remote communities throughout Canada.
Clearly the jobs and economic growth act will implement key measures in Canada's economic action plan to help to secure sustained recovery and create jobs. Given the importance of the jobs and economic growth act, I ask all members to give it the support it deserves and to pass this important legislation in a timely manner.
