As students return to school and farmers continue working through a difficult harvest, Parliament is reconvening in Ottawa.
I appreciate your making your positions on numerous federal government issues clear to me over the summer months at the many events I attended. As your Member of Parliament, I have always relied on the political input I receive from our Crowfoot riding. This extends to the work I do for you when I am at my desk in the House of Commons. My staff keeps me informed of what my constituents are saying on a daily basis, issue by issue, as our Conservative government pursues our legislative agenda throughout the Parliamentary Session.
Jobs for Canadians, the Canadian economy and crime legislation will be the focus of our Conservative government this Autumn. We will be working to sustain the economic recovery in Canada. Our government’s two-year global-recession fighting Economic Action Plan is entering its final six months. We are presiding over its completion. These ‘economic stimulus’ projects got off the ground very quickly and the good news is that the vast majority of them will be completed, including in our own riding.
In large part, these projects were a partnership between the federal, provincial and local governments. I want to again commend our municipal politicians for their hard work preparing projects that could be implemented to help save and create jobs in our local communities as we battled the effects of the global economic recession at home. I can report that all levels of government worked successfully together on our local front and our accomplishments will serve us for many years to come.
Our Conservative government has already doubled the gas tax revenues returned to the communities where they were raised and we made this annual spending in communities permanent. Our Building Canada Plan continues to roll out across the country. After forming the government in 2006 we implemented our program called Advantage Canada, which allowed us to pay down around $40 billion on Canada’s accumulated national debt. Advantage Canada is an economic plan designed to: reduce taxes; eliminate Canada’s total government net debt in less than a generation; reduce ‘red tape’ obstacles for businesses and increase competition; create the best-educated, most-skilled and most flexible workforce in the world; and continue to provide the modern infrastructure we need. Our government continues to operate with the goals outlined in the Advantage Canada plan (see www.fin.gc.ca).
Our continued emphasis on criminal justice will include, among other things, measures to ensure Canada’s generous refugee system is protected and available to bona-fide people in need who make it onto Canadian soil. We will be standing up to human smuggling operations targeting our country.
Finally, our Conservative Party will continue to push for the long gun registry to be scrapped.
The registry was the Liberals’ failed attempt to reduce the criminal use of firearms. It targets law-abiding responsible firearms owners and users, mostly in remote and rural Canada, and taxes these Canadians with a paperwork nightmare. We believe that Canadians want laws that target criminals and criminal activity.
