Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to say a few words before the end of this debate on the amendment which will be put to the House in a few minutes.
Like all hon. members, on March 23, I had the pleasure of listening to the budget speech by the hon. Minister of Finance. It was his first. After the presentation, I wrote a press release not only to congratulate him for his excellent budget speech, but also—and I am referring to a very important point raised by the hon. member for Beauce—to inform my constituents of the good things included in the budget. It is our duty, as parliamentarians, to highlight the good news in the budget so that every individual, municipality and so on may benefit from the excellent measures it contains.
I will begin with what the municipalities wanted. For a long time now, they had been telling us that the GST refund was important to them. The warden of the Council for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, His Honour Jacques Hétu, mayor of Hawkesbury, whom you know quite well, Mr. Speaker, once told me, at the opening session of the council, “If only you could obtain that for us”. Of course, the finance minister announced the tax relief shortly afterwards and provided further details in the budget.
For the Council of the United Counties of Prescott-Russell—given that the request was made by the councillors—this was an extremely important measure that was included in the budget.
A member opposite just told me that this is not that important in some municipality in his riding. I agree, but I am telling you what the mayors in my area told me. When I called mayor Jacques Hétu to tell him about this good news—as the member for Beauce is suggesting to us, I go back to his excellent and eloquent words—he was very pleased with the agreement. I congratulated him because it is people like him who came to us, as members of Parliament, to make suggestions. We were then able to include—I agree that we cannot always do so—a number of these good suggestions in the government's budget initiatives.
There is another measure that was and still is dear to my heart—it is now a done deal—, that is the $100 million increase in the Canadian Television Fund. I must say that this story was quite sad. There is a fund for television production. I am told that it is about $1 billion. The administration of this fund was such that is was almost impossible to make an application and to receive a positive response if a production in French came from outside of Montreal.
We had a problem. Of course I have nothing against those who live in Montreal. It is a beautiful city and I love going there. However, some of us have decided to live elsewhere for all the good reasons we know. We really would like to see our part of the country pictured in TV productions, mini series or others. This issue does not just affect francophones in Ontario. It certainly does affect them, but even people living elsewhere in Quebec had problems with the program. In our area it was not only very difficult but completely impossible.
I will tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a production, a mini series called Francoeur . It was filmed in Ontario. It told the story of Franco-Ontarians. Francoeur had received money for a first TV mini series. When Francoeur producers tried to get money for a second series they could not get anything because of those new rules.
It is actually thanks to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, her then parliamentary secretary and finally all those who listened to the representations from the Franco-Ontarian community in my riding and also in the Ottawa—Vanier riding, which is represented by the parliamentary secretary and chief government whip, that last year we got emergency funding allowing us to have Francoeur .
From now on, thanks to increased funding provided in the budget, we will no longer have to go through all that. I am told that the rules have been rewritten and that, as a matter of fact, whether productions are from Quebec outside of Montreal, Franco-Ontarian, Franco-Manitoban, Acadian or from anywhere else, they will have better access. I am very happy about that.
I am also happy about the strengthening of the community futures program, which is a good initiative. I am happy about the $1 billion going to agriculture. God knows it is needed. Beef producers in my riding are still suffering. I know that you, Mr. Speaker, went to Washington. Voters in eastern Ontario thank you, as well as the member for Edmonton-Southwest, I believe, and my seatmate.
I myself traveled to Taiwan, one of the fastest growing markets for Canadian beef. I went over there to try to reopen the borders. In the meantime, we at least know that we can rely on the finance minister who kindly provided us with some assistance.
The increase of the weekly loan ceiling for students, the introduction of learning bonds and the $270 million in new financing to expand venture capital are all very important measures. In eastern Ontario, there is a crying need for venture capital and, of course, these budget measures will be quite helpful to our region.
Accelerating the funding of infrastructure projects in our municipalities is also quite extraordinary. The amount that was committed was not changed but it will be spent over 5 years rather than 10, hence doubling the money made available to the municipalities. I have yet to hear members opposite comment on this. I have yet to hear them congratulate the finance minister for this initiative.
Our critics say there is nothing in this budget for the environment. What I heard was that $4 billion was set aside to clean up contaminated sites.
There are $30 million in employment assistance for the disabled. Social economy enterprises will have access to our small business programs and charitable organizations will enjoy better tax treatment.
Lastly, in the area of international aid, as chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas, known as FIPA, I am especially glad about the announced assistance program to Haiti, which really needs it.
Those were all good measures announced in the budget speech. Unfortunately, my time is up, but I will at least have had the opportunity to thank the finance minister and to urge my hon. colleagues to vote against the amendment and for the budget in its entirety.