Speaking Points for Vic Toews President of the Treasury Board to the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce - Check against delivery

Speaking Points for Vic Toews
        President of the Treasury Board
                     to the
        Manitoba Chamber of Commerce
               January 18th, 2010

Check against delivery

1,600 words/125 wpm = 13 minutes

   • Good morning

   • I would like to thank the Manitoba Chamber of
      Commerce for once again inviting me to be
      here.

   • And thank you to all of you for attending this
      morning.

   • It’s hard to believe that nearly a year has
      passed since I last spoke to the Chamber.

   • As we all know, 2009 was a very challenging
      year.

   • Canada was not immune to the deepest
      global recession since the Second World War.

• Canadian families, workers and businesses
  were affected.

• But we accomplished a lot at a time when
  many other nations were hit very, very hard.

ƒ While global banks were failing or requiring
  taxpayer dollars to survive, Canada's financial
  institutions were being recognized as the
  world's soundest.

ƒ While other countries were trying to manage
  spending and chronic deficits, we went into
  the global downturn with a solid record of
  debt reduction and sound fiscal planning.

ƒ And while other countries now consider tax
  increases to help with their debt loads, we
  actually reduced taxes to support Canadians
  and businesses, before the global downturn,
  in anticipation of tough times ahead

ƒ That this year starts out optimistically is the
  direct result of our Government's response
  when the crisis hit.

Economic Action Plan

• To protect Canadians, we introduced one of
  the most comprehensive stimulus packages
  in the industrialized world, our Economic
  Action Plan.

• And thanks to the leadership of Prime
  Minister Stephen Harper, our Economic
  Action Plan is being implemented and it is
  having the desired effect.

• Consumer and business confidence has
  recovered sharply.

• As has private spending on consumer and
  investment goods.

• The Canadian job market dramatically
  improved. For the second half of 2009,
  Canada gained an average of 7,000 new jobs
  a month.

• And, for the first time in a generation, the U.S.
  unemployment rate is nearly 2 percentage
  points higher than Canada’s.

• We are beginning to see tentative signs of
  better days ahead.

• But I must stress that our recovery remains
  fragile.

Phase II

• That is why our Government intends to see
  this Plan through, to ensure a full recovery
  firmly takes hold.

• Over this next year, our focus will be on
  staying the course and implementing the
  second phase of our Action Plan.

• Just as it was this past year, our priority in
  the next Session of Parliament will continue
  to be rapid and effective implementation of
  Canada’s Economic Action Plan to benefit
  communities, businesses and workers.

• At the same time, we are looking ahead to
  future challenges.

• Make no mistake –we have been hard at work.

• All of the stimulus and budget measures have
   been adopted and are being implemented.

 • To date over 12,000 projects and 97 per cent
   of funds in Canada’s Economic Action Plan
   have been committed.

 • And the economic landscape today is
   fundamentally different than it was a year
   ago.

 • That’s why we are taking time to consult with
   Canadians, and recalibrate our agenda.

Prorogation

 • That was the purpose of prorogation—a
   purpose entirely consistent with the past
   practice of all federal governments.

• Leading up to the Throne Speech and Budget,
   we are meeting with and hearing from
   Canadian families, homeowners, workers,
   business-owners and industries from across
   the country about how best to meet our goals
   for Phase II of our Economic Action Plan.

Returning to Balanced Budgets

 • Canadians understood the short-term need to
   run a deficit in the face of the global
   economic crisis.

 • We had to move at record speed to implement
   our Action plan.

 • To counteract the crisis - we needed to get
   money out the door quickly, when it was
   needed the most.

• The success of our Plan has been largely
  based on that speed – as well as
  collaboration and magnitude.

• But our success is also based on a short
  lifespan.

• Our Plan has always been time-limited.

• And we’ve said that we will return to balanced
  budgets as quickly as possible once the
  economy has recovered.

• Allowing the temporary elements of the
  Action Plan to wind down as scheduled by
  the end of the 2010–11 fiscal year is our first
  step in to return to a balanced budget.

• Speaking of time-limited, I’d also like to
  remind everyone about the looming deadline
  for the Home Renovation Tax Credit. There
  are only a few weeks left to take advantage of
  this popular measure (feb 1st deadline).

• Minister Flaherty will be presenting our
  Government’s next budget at the beginning of
  March.

• Accordingly, Budget 2010 will be “phase II” of
  our two-year Economic Action Plan.

• Our next budget will not include major new
  spending initiatives.

• It will also NOT include tax hikes.

• And it will not include reductions to transfers
  to other levels of government, as was done by
  the previous federal government.

• In fact, federal support for provinces and
  territories is at an all-time high, and will
  continue to grow.

• In 2010-11, Manitoba will receive increased
  support through major federal transfer
  totalling $3.4 billion, an increase of 24% from
  under the previous Liberal government.

• Under our Government, transfer payments
  have been increasing because we understand
  that the provinces need to provide vital
  services.

• Included in the $3.4 billion in federal transfers
  to Manitoba is:

- $1.8 billion through Equalization
      payments

    - $953 million through the Canada Health
      Transfer, and

    - $405 million through the Canada Social
      Transfer.

• Our Government will also be providing
  extraordinary, one-time protection totalling
  $175 million to Manitoba to ensure they
  receive at least as much support this year as
  they did last year.

• This special, one-time protection is an
  extension of our Economic Action Plan that
  will ensure provinces and territories can help
  secure Canada’s economic recovery.

• The Finance Minister has also indicated that
   when the time is right, when the economic
   recovery is clear and entrenched and if it's
   necessary, we will determine the amount of
   spending growth restraint required to balance
   the budget.

Taxes

 • I mentioned taxes a few moments ago – and
   on this issue I’m proud to be able to tell you
   that Canada's overall tax rate on new
   business investment will be the lowest in the
   G7 by 2010 and below the OECD average by
   2012.

 • By 2012, Canada will also have the lowest
   statutory corporate income tax rate in the G7.

• In total, actions taken by this Government
   since 2006 will reduce taxes by $220 billion
   over 2008–09 and the following five fiscal
   years, allowing Canadian individuals, families
   and businesses to keep more of their money
   during tough economic times.

Keeping workers on the job

 • All of our actions, are always taken with a
   view to protecting Canadians and protecting
   their jobs.

 • That’s why during this crisis we extended
   work-sharing agreements, we invested in
   individual sectors, such as expanding
   domestic meatpacking capacity and investing
   in new innovations in the forestry industry.

• For those who have lost their jobs – we
  temporarily extended Employment Insurance
  benefits and are providing enhanced training
  programs to help build a more skilled
  workforce.

• I’d like to expand a bit on this point.

• We have been working closely with our
  academic partners in Manitoba to ensure they
  have the infrastructure necessary to provide
  these enhanced training programs.

• I would like to take a moment to personally
  thank Dr. Lloyd Axworthy at the University of
  Winnipeg, and Dr. Jeff Zabudsky at Red River
  College, for their work and their vision in
  integrating their educational institutions into
  the broader community, addressing long term
  social issues as well as education.

International Action

  • At the international level, our Government is
    continuing to work on opening new markets
    for the benefit of Canadian businesses.

  • Prime Minister Harper recently travelled to
    India and China to help open up new
    opportunities for Canadian businesses.

  • In addition, over the last year we have
    successfully negotiated new free trade
    agreements with the European Free Trade
    Association, which includes Iceland, Norway,
    Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as new
    Free Trade Agreements with Jordan,
    Columbia, Peru and Panama.

  • Our pursuit of free trade agreements and an
    open and fair global economy will open
    markets to Canadian goods and services.

• In fact, I just returned from a success 5-day
   trip to Jordan, Israel and the West Bank,
   where I was able to meet several senior
   government and state officials.

 • I was honoured to make an announcement on
   behalf of the Minister of International
   Cooperation, and to address over 150 experts
   in the fields of water conservation and
   rehabilitation at the Manitoba-Israel Water
   Symposium in Jerusalem.

Conclusion

 • In conclusion, our Government was
   challenged this past year.

 • And we rose to that challenge.

• We fought back with an extraordinary
  response.

• And we did so in record time.

• We honoured our commitments as we faced
  head-on, a global crisis not of our making.

• We are looking forward to working with all of
  you as implement Phase II of our plan.

• A plan that has proven to work.

• And make no mistake, we will emerge from
  the recession stronger than ever.

• Thank you.