Speech in the House of Commons
February 26^th, 2003

Budget Debate 2003

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have this opportunity to respond to the Budget and all that it means for Canada and Canadians. As many of you in this House know, my main focus has been on our urban regions and the people who live and work in those communities. So I want to focus my remarks on the ways the Budget will impact in our cities, about programs that will help build a solid economic foundation, and which areas I believe, we still need to address.

Budgets are about investments, about people and about choosing priorities. About balancing the needs of one over another. The choices we make will determine how well and how wisely we build a country for the future. The budget and the work we do in this House is also about nation building, about working together to secure our future and the future of our children and grandchildren.

It is also about the values and principles that we share as a nation and about Canada's place in the world. This Budget very much reflects those values and priorities.

Mr. Speaker: I will begin by thanking the Finance Minister for his reference to the Task Force in his speech last week. His acknowledgement of our work is an indication that the Government is listening to Canadians and I appreciate his acknowledgement of the Prime Minister’s Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues. Out of the 52 recommendations from the Interim Report of the Task Force, 24 are incorporated in some measure in this Budget.

I want to mention how proud my colleagues and I on the Task Force are of the work that we accomplished. The reports have been very well received across the country by Mayors, provincial officials, urban experts and national organizations. And in fact, our reports have become a reference tool for many government and non-government people working in this field.

Many Canadians question the role of a Member of Parliament, but I’d like to tell them, excellent work is being done - and has been done - by Members from all regions, A Member of Parliament has a great opportunity to make a difference and the Task Force and our reports prove that.

Mr. Speaker: there is a clear continued commitment to the urban regions by this Government but perhaps one of the questions we should ask ourselves is: what is the role of the federal government in the cities? After all, we do have a significant presence in terms of programs, services and as an employer. A rudimentary survey by the Task Force showed 55 billion dollars going into ten major urban regions in each year alone. This was a very basic scan. We are the national government and we have responsibilities to work with all orders of government to meet the needs of our citizens in areas that are within our jurisdiction. It is in everyone’s best interest to ensure services and programs meet the needs of our growing populations.

The federal government is an active partner with governments, and the private and voluntary sectors to ensure that Canadians have access to health care, post- secondary education, employment, transportation, safe streets, skills and training, pensions and income support for families. Mr. Speaker, 80% of Canada’s population lives in the urban regions. Do we not have a responsibility to those communities? I would say, yes, without a doubt

As the main engines of the economy, it is vital for our cities to be successful and it is essential that the national government create the economic environment for that to happen, along with the provinces and cities. When the cities do well - the whole of Canada benefits. Let me remind members that only the provinces have the authority to give the cities what they really need: a wider source of tax revenue, more autonomy and a greater share of the wealth that is generated by them.

Yet, the Ontario government continually denies Toronto’s requests for a simple issue like a hotel room tax, or allowing the cities to impose any other kind of support that could ease the strain on the property tax base. To quote the TD Bank Report " It is time to unshackle our cities". In my own City of Toronto, the pressures caused by downloading, amalgamation, rapid growth in population, aging infrastructure — bring social and economic problems and stresses on budgets that affect the quality of life and the ability to be competitive. In other cities too, there are similar concerns. By recognizing those pressures, the federal government continues to work in collaboration with the provinces to relieve the demands on housing, transit, infrastructure, health care, and so on.

The budget covers a range of issues that have an impact on cities: Health care, Infrastructure, Transit/Transportation, Housing, the Environment, Immigration, Urban Aboriginal people, Research and Development, Culture and the Arts and support for poor families. As well, new money for child care will directly benefit the people living in our cities. This Budget commits a total of almost 10 billion dollars to programs that will benefit cities and have a direct impact on Canadians living in urban centres.

Almost two thirds of this budget is going into renewing Canada’s heath care system, one of the finest in the world and one that is extremely important to all of us as Canadians. New money for primary health care, home care, drug coverage, and compassionate and palliative care to help people with dying mothers and fathers and family members. Those will all benefit cities where the pressures of the health care system are felt the most. This is a significant amount of investment, Mr. Speaker,

A sustainable infrastructure program was a key recommendation in our report. The Budget announced an additional 3 billion dollars to the Strategic Infrastructure Program bringing the commitment to this specific fund alone to 5.25 billion dollars. That is targeted, not for every city in Canada but for major projects in Canada’s largest cities. An additional One billion dollars was also set aside for Infrastructure projects in smaller municipalities. This investment is the basis for a 10 - year permanent Infrastructure program that will be continually added to in future budgets. It is worth repeating that the Government has been investing in Infrastructure since 1993. We might ask ourselves: is this enough? Well, Mr. Speaker, not for some cities with major infrastructure problems and with aging Infrastructure in need of repair. But for the first time, there is a real commitment to a long term agenda for Infrastructure that the Mayors and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities were asking for for years.

The message we heard as a Task Force from municipal governments was that they wanted to be able to do long term planning. Now they have a program and they can commence their planning. I would have liked to have seen more funds into the budget and into the area specific for infrastructure. However, I recognize that Budgets are all about balancing priorities between people and the needs of communities.

Since 2000 the total Infrastructure money committed by the federal government is 8.25 billion dollars. With leverage from the private sector we can triple that amount. That is the intent of the Infrastructure program. The Task Force recommended a national transit/transportation program as well. So I was pleased to hear The Minister of Transport yesterday announce a vision for the future of Canada’s transportation system. I see this as a framework for a future national program with dedicated funding for transit and transportation.

We can and must do more to help our urban regions as we are the only country in the G-7 without a national transportation program. And I will continue to press for that as part of an urban strategy for Canada. The Task Force recommended a national affordable housing program. The Budget added 320 million dollars to the Affordable Housing agreement which brings our total commitment to 1 billion dollars. Of course, the Government went ahead and continued to support both the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative and the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program. The RRAP program is very important for seniors and the disabled. In Toronto alone, $53.1 million has been allocated by the federal government to homeless projects since 2000. Altogether, the Government will invest almost 1.2 billion dollars to find solutions to the homelessness problem in Canada. However, more must be done. We must look at some tax changes in order to create the environment to increase the stock of affordable housing.

Mr. Speaker, the increased funding to the urban Aboriginal programs is a significant and welcome investment and I congratulate the government for recognizing the need to strengthen our Aboriginal communities in urban centres.

Environmental issues are a major concern for cities, that threaten the quality of life. Three billion dollars was allocated to promote sustainable development and to create a healthier environment. Also to clean up federal contaminated sites, and to work at improving air quality

2 billion dollars is going into Sustainable Development Technology Canada for sustainable transportation, energy efficiency, and Alternative fuels such as ethanol, wind power and fuel cells that our rural caucus continually reminds us how important that is. I want to point out that this was also a key recommendation of the Task Force. These initiatives will all play a key part in meeting our Kyoto commitments.

Universities and research facilities will benefit from 1.7 billion dollars in increased funding. Canada’s place in the world as an innovative nation can only be assured by investing in education as we move towards a knowledge-based economy and I applaud the Government’s commitment.

Mr. Speaker — an area that we must address is the needs of our rapidly growing seniors population. Estimated to grow to 6.7 million by 2021. I hear from seniors who are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet as The mounting cost of living, especially for those on a fixed income, is very difficult for many of our seniors. There are currently 647,000 seniors across Canada who live below the poverty line. We cannot allow this situation to continue.

Two years ago, there was no urban agenda apart from the Infrastructure Programs established in 1993 for municipalities and provinces. Since then, we have had a Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues, two major reports, a Throne Speech and a Budget. Because of all the attention that has been given to the urban agenda over the past two years, not only by this government but also by municipalities, by the media, non- government organizations, and by provinces. Expectations were clearly raised

However, budgets have to be balanced. Obviously we have to establish priorities, to live within our budget and to ensure that we do not find ourselves going into debt again. As I said, some tax changes are needed in housing, and additional monies in future budgets must be allocated to infrastructure and transit. It means we have to do more in cooperation with our provincial partners, to bring the municipalities in as equal partners and to foster a new era of collaboration and consultation for the 21^st century. I will continue to talk about those pressures and keep the urban agenda moving so that we reach a point where we have a national urban strategy in place.

Nation building involves investments in many areas but is a collective responsibility for all of us in Government to ensure that needs are met in health care, in education, in Kyoto, in supports for families and children and in the quality of life for Canadians. All of these are areas will allow us to express the values in which we believe, how we see ourselves and how we can show ourselves to the rest of the world.

Mr. Speaker: this budget is a continuation of our commitment to developing strong and healthy cities in Canada. The cities agenda is a work in progress. The operative words are IN PROGRESS. Much more needs to be done and we need to be doing that together in cooperation with the provinces and with the cities. Alone we can do little, but together we can do a lot.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.