This page was exported from The Auroran [ http://www.newspapers-online.com/auroran ] Export date:Sun Feb 22 4:37:45 2026 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: OTTAWA REPORT --------------------------------------------------- By Lois Brown, MP Newmarket-Aurora Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, our strong, stable, national majority government has achieved much in our second year. Here are a few of the results: Results on the economy • Helping create over one million net new jobs, the best job creation record among G7 countries • Becoming the only G7 country to have more than fully recovered business investment lost during the recession • Maintaining, alone among the G7, the highest (AAA) credit rating from all major agencies • Keeping Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio the lowest among G7 countries • Supporting Canadian economic growth of 2.5% in the first quarter of 2013, the strongest quarterly growth in nearly two years • Consistently ranking among the top countries in the world to do business according to Forbes • Having Canada's banks, ranked by the World Economic Forum as the best in the world for 5 years in a row Results in creating jobs • Expanding and extending the Hiring Credit for Small Business, allowing businesses to reinvest $225 million back into job creation and economic growth • Creating the Canada Job Grant which puts skills training in the hands of employers and Canadians looking for work, and out of the hands of government • Harmonizing and standardizing requirements for apprentices and supporting their use for federal construction projects • Reforming the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to make sure it is only used as a last resort, not to take a job away from a Canadian •Introducing improvements to the Employment Insurance program so that recipients will receive comprehensive job postings about available jobs in their area • Promoting education in high-demand fields such as science, technology, engineering, math and skilled trades • Improving the on-reserve Income Assistance Program and increasing funding for bursaries and scholarships for Aboriginal people • Connecting youth with job opportunities through the Youth Employment Strategy, a $70 million investment that will create 5,000 paid internships for recent post-secondary graduates. • Investing $30 million in the Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities, a program which highlights the tremendous contribution that Canadians with disabilities can offer employers • Promoting the Canada Summer Jobs Initiative, which is creating 36,000 jobs for Canadian youth in 2013 Using taxpayer dollars efficiently and effectively • Returning Canada to a balanced budget by 2015-2016 by making government more efficient and by closing tax loopholes without cutting funding for health care, education and other important services • Containing costs and bringing spending down to its lowest levels in three years • Investing $1.25 billion for a renewed Public-Private Partnerships Fund that will help make infrastructure projects more efficient and less costly to taxpayers • Reforming the pensions of Members of Parliament to bring them more in line with the private sector • Providing Canadians with an alternative workplace pension saving program through the development of Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs) • Enacting the Expenditure Database to help give Canadians insight as to how taxpayer dollars are being spent • Eliminating nearly 11,000 public sector jobs through a combination of both attrition and under the collectively bargained workforce adjustment • Announcing a new system to make mandatory the evaluation of public service performance to help increase productivity and to ensure all employees pull their weight • Supporting Canadian families and investing in communities • Enhancing the Adoption Expense Tax Credit so that it better recognizes the costs of adopting a child • Providing $76 million in annual tariff relief for goods that families rely on, such as baby clothing and sports equipment, helping reduce the gap in retail prices that Canadians pay versus the U.S. • Introducing the First-Time Donor's Super Credit, helping encourage those who have yet to donate to charity to support a cause they hold dear • Creating the new Building Canada Plan, over $53 billion to build and improve new roads, bridges and other infrastructure that our economy relies on • Renewing the $253 million Investment in Affordable Housing I would like to thank everyone who has generously donated to help our fellow Canadians in Alberta cope with the flooding. It is indeed a terrible tragedy and I extend my condolences, thoughts and prayers to all those affected. Should you wish to donate to the flood relief efforts you may do so at www.redcross.ca. If you would like to contact me on these or any other issue, please call 905.953.7515 or visit my website at www.loisbrown.ca. I look forward to hearing from you. --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2013-07-03 23:26:17 Post date GMT: 2013-07-04 03:26:17 Post modified date: 2013-07-17 16:39:29 Post modified date GMT: 2013-07-17 20:39:29 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com