January 31, 2009
Langley Member of Parliament, Mark Warawa, Speaks at Town Hall meeting
I want to begin by thanking Frank Bucholtz for moderating this meeting. I also want to thank the Langley Times for hosting this event, and everyone who helped made it happen. I met with Frank December 11, just after the crisis in Parliament to discuss what was happening in Ottawa. Our office had been receiving a huge volume of emails and phone calls from you about the Separatist Coalition and I agreed that a Town-hall meeting would be a good idea. So I’m here to explain what had happened in Parliament, to listen to you and to answer your questions.
The timing of this meeting, right after the announcement of Canada’s Economic Action Plan couldn’t be more perfect. You are really getting things “hot off the press!” So again, I’m glad to be home in Langley and again, thank you Frank.
So let’s quickly review 2008, a year of uncertainty. On October 14th, we had a federal election and our Conservative government was re-elected. While our Government is still a minority, we increased our mandate by 19 to 143 seats in the House of Commons. There are 308 seats in the House of Commons, so we would need155 seats or more to have a majority.
Close on the heels of Canada’s federal election was the U.S. federal election on November 4th, with President Obama being elected. His first foreign visit will be to Canada on February 19th. And on November 15th, it was back to the pools for us locally as we held our municipal elections. Congratulations to Mayors Rick Green and Peter Fassbender and their respective Councils on receiving their mandate of Langley’s voters.
But elections weren’t the only 2008 headline-grabbers. The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States caused a financial crisis world-wide. While Canada is well-positioned economically, we braced ourselves for the inevitable global economic backlash.
The domino effect of the growing financial crisis had a terrible effect on the commodities market.
And just as investors, businesses, and Canadians were grappling with the economic downturn, along came the threat of a separatist coalition government, led by the Liberals and NDP, and supported by the Bloc. WOW! What a year it was!
I’d like to briefly review some key moments from last year that led us to prorogue parliament:
On November 19th of last year, the 40th Canadian Parliament began in the traditional way with the Governor General giving the Speech from the Throne.
The next day, November 20th Prime Minister Stephen Harper provided the customary response to the Speech and made it clear that our Government had already taken steps to protect our economy and would take unprecedented measures to hedge against an economic meltdown as we were seeing happen in the US.
At the time, our Prime Minister said, “Our commitment to purchase insured mortgages through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has ensured that our financial institutions would keep lending to individuals and businesses.”
The House of Commons voted and passed the Speech from the Throne, indicating confidence in our government and our plan to guide Canada through these very difficult economic times.
A week later, on November 27th, Finance Minister Flaherty presented to Parliament his Fiscal Update, highlighting the seriousness of the global economic crisis and its impacts on Canada.
Later that same day, the Separatist Coalition was revealed. Suddenly, the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc said they did not have confidence in the government and that they wanted to be the government. Canadians were furious and most did not support the separatist coalition.
On December 3rd, the Prime Minister addressed the nation, saying, “This is no time for backroom deals with the separatists. It is the time for Canada’s government to focus on the economy.” He went on to say, “I pledge to you that Canada’s government will use every legal means at our disposal to protect our democracy, to protect our economy, and to protect Canada.”
The next day, the Prime Minister went to the Governor General and asked that Parliament prorogue until January 26th, giving the government an opportunity to consult business leaders and Canadians, like you, to develop a January 27th budget that would help stimulate the Canadian economy. The Governor General agreed.
During that time, Canadians were very unhappy, but so was the Federal Liberal party. Stéphane Dion was forced, by his party and Caucus, to step down and Michael Ignatiff became the new leader of the Federal Liberal party.
We had to prorogue parliament because we heard from Canadians loud and clear--they did not want their democratic rights be thrown away by a separatist coalition. Just weeks earlier, on Election Day, Canadians had re-elected our Conservative government to lead them through these tough economic times…and the times are tough!
Statistics Canada recently released employment numbers for December showing the economy lost 34,400 jobs as the unemployment rate increased to 6.6 % from 6.3 % in November. This labour market report is further evidence that Canada’s economy is facing enormous challenges as a result of the global economic crisis.
We are seeing the effects on Canadians as demand for goods and services decrease. Jobs have been lost in the manufacturing, services, resource, and technology sectors. Our hearts go out to those Canadians and their families who have lost their jobs. This is an issue that really does preoccupy our government.
That is why, through Service Canada, we are providing worker retraining programs, equipping Canadians so they can start working again.
The Prime Minister said no-one should be under any illusion about what the economic projections mean. Like most of our G20 partners, Canada is expected to be in recession throughout 2009.
That is why our government brought forward an early budget that makes substantial investments to stimulate the economy. It is a comprehensive Economic Action Plan that will deal with economic challenges, as well as economic opportunities.
The media coverage of the economy has been much worse than reality, causing a lot of fear. We know that when people get scared, they stop spending money. One of the main problems we are dealing with is consumer confidence. People aren’t spending as much, so demand for goods and services decreases.
When consumers are encouraged to spend less this adds to the vicious cycle we are in because fear of spending kills the cycle of investment. We need to make sure that the financial machine is restored, and that requires rebuilding consumer confidence.
Canada is in a recession because of the global economic crisis, but we are not the U.S and we do not have the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. We have a different set of rules and regulations acting as guidelines to our financial sector and therefore we have bypassed the U.S. housing crisis. We have been affected and will continue to be affected by the slowdown. But, we are fortunate to be in a position of relative strength as compared to other Countries.
It’s good to know that we have a Prime Minister with an economics background who has been working hard on Canada’s Economic Action Plan.
Our Government completed the most comprehensive and inclusive pre-budget consultation in Canadian history. Our Government has been working non-stop, consulting with business leaders, labour representatives, the Opposition members, and many Canadians like you on actions needed to protect the Canadian economy.
Over the past few months Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been meeting with senior bankers and the Bank of Canada governor, Mark Carney, looking at ways of increasing liquidity to businesses and Canadians.
In the past month we have held pre-budget consultations in Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Toronto and Atlantic Canada. The Prime Minister has also put together an 11-member economic advisory panel, to seek their advice on taxation, credit availability and of course, the types of stimulus needed for the Canadian economy.
This 11-member advisory panel includes of some of Canada’s most prominent leaders such as Jim Pattison and former B.C. finance minister, Carol Taylor.
On Tuesday, January 27th, as promised, our government tabled our ECONOMIC ACTION PLAN for Canada. It’s Canada’s plan to stimulate our economy, to protect Canadians during this global recession, and to invest in our long-term growth.
Budget 2009 will:
- Improve access to financing for consumers and businesses with support of up to $200 billion
- Reduce taxes for Canadians and businesses by more than $20 billion
- It will undertake the most ambitious building project in Canada’s history with almost $12 billion in new infrastructure funding and $7.8 billion to build and renovate housing.
- Create or maintain up to 190,000 jobs for Canadians by the end of 2010 and
- Provide total stimulus equal to 1.9% GDP this year.
We believe that families deserve more tax relief, to meet their needs.
This year and over the next five, personal income tax measures will put about $20 billion back in Canadians’ hands, and back in the Canadian economy.
And seniors will see new support. We are increasing the Age Credit Amount by an additional $1000 per year.
Our plan gives a shot in the arm to the home construction and home renovation industries.
It allows first time homebuyers more flexibility to withdraw from their RRSPs to purchase their home.
Our Economic Action plan also lets Canadians invest in the renovations for their home this year; putting trades’ people to work and giving a boost to businesses that manufacture and sell building products.
This new Home Renovation Tax Credit can save Canadians up to $1350 when they improve their homes this year. I have brochures for this exciting new program.
We are building and renewing our municipal, provincial, and territorial infrastructure, our post-secondary, research and health infrastructure, and our key federal assets.
Earlier this month, Premier Gordon Campbell and Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the start of construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road. It is estimated that this billion dollar project will create 7,000 new jobs in B.C., and will help improve the efficiency of trade through Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor. It will also provide significant economic development opportunities and benefits for British Columbians.
To ensure that projects like this will help boost our current economic situation, the Prime Minister, with the Premiers and Territorial Leaders, endorsed two key amendments to the Agreement on Internal Trade at the First Ministers’ Meeting.
Each amendment marks significant progress towards eliminating internal trade barriers by enhancing labour mobility in Canada.
Also this month, the Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day, announced funding for a variety of new transit vehicles when he was in Vancouver. The addition of these transit vehicles will also provide employment opportunities for British Columbians.
Since 2007, under the Canada-BC-UBCM Agreement on the Transfer of federal Gas Tax revenues, the Gas Tax Fund has delivered infrastructure funding to local governments. We’ve now made the Gas Tax Fund permanent, to be used by local government for capital projects that lead to cleaner air, cleaner water or reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
As your Member of Parliament, I have been working with our local governments, looking at their priorities for water, sewer, and roads in both the Township of Langley and City of Langley.
We leveraged $300 million for rail overpass funding for the Roberts Bank Railway corridor
We funded the restoration of the Storehouse building at Fort Langley National Historic Site.
We funded $3 million towards sewer infrastructure improvements in Aldergrove.
We provided more than $4.1 million in funding under the Canada-BC Affordable Housing Program Agreement for the assisted living units at Evergreen Timbers. This funding allowed for 58 new homes to be built for our seniors.
I met with local seniors and announced changes to the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). The new changes provide an additional $8.1 million in GIS payments to over 13,800 working seniors in British Columbia.
Last week I announced funding in the amount of $4.38 million dollars for the Community Employment Resource Centre and the Youth Employment Zone delivering employment assistance, placement and support services in the Fraser Valley, including Langley.
These projects will help over 13,000 unemployed individuals in Langley and the surrounding area.
And today we announced the funding for the new Nicomekl Bridge.
Even with all the funding and projects we are working on, we have a lot more to do.
In Canada’s Economic Action Plan, we are meeting the challenge of our time.
We are stimulating our economy to protect Canadians during the global recession, to ensure Canada’s long-term prosperity.
We are meeting our short-term needs, while investing in our future.
We are protecting Canadian jobs and businesses.
And we are investing in our communities and our future.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.
