{"id":22097,"date":"2018-11-01T12:11:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T16:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22097"},"modified":"2018-11-01T12:11:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T16:11:48","slug":"finance-minister-counters-local-mps-comments-on-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/finance-minister-counters-local-mps-comments-on-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance Minister counters local MP\u2019s comments on economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/p>\n

Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leona Alleslev crossed the floor this past September from the Liberal Government to the Conservative Opposition. In doing so, she cited a number of concerns she\u2019d had for the previous few months.
\nIn making her decision, Ms. Alleslev cited changes in international trade, defence and the global economy as factors in looking elsewhere, along with capital investment leaving our borders.
\n\u201cTo have a strong economy and a strong country, we need strong Federal leadership to rebuild our nation\u2019s foundations: tax reform, employment reform, federal infrastructure, a comprehensive foreign policy, and a modernized military to reassure our allies and defend Canada\u2019s interests at home and abroad,\u201d Ms. Alleslev wrote in these pages at the time.
\nLast week, Finance Minister Bill Morneau visited Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill to talk the economy and climate change with local leaders.
\nThe first visit of a Federal cabinet minister to the riding since the first weekend following Ms. Alleslev\u2019s floor crossing, The Auroran asked Mr. Morneau to weigh in on Ms. Alleslev citing the economy as a factor in her decision.
\n\u201cMaybe she should take a look at what is going on in the economy,\u201d he said. In 2017, Canada had the fastest growth among G7 countries. Right now, our rate of unemployment is near the lowest ever recorded since 1976. We are in the best situation we have been in from the standpoint of people actually having jobs than we have been in a very long time. The level of wage growth is the highest it has been in a decade. When you look at all those things, you say this is an economy that is doing very well.
\n\u201cI just came back two weeks ago from International Monetary Fund meetings. Canada, in terms of the global economy, is looking strong. Importantly, the things that are economic challenges, we have been dealing with. We obviously got to an agreement with the United States and Mexico after difficult negotiations to refresh our trade agreement. We realised that it is important that we have a successful oil and gas sector in our country and we found a way to make sure that the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion can happen. In the last few weeks, we had the single biggest private sector investment in Canada\u2019s history, LNG Canada in BC, $40 billion. When you look at economic indicators, things are going very well.\u201d
\nThat being said, Mr. Morneau added there is always more work to do. There is a continued focus on areas of the country that aren\u2019t doing as well and people who \u201cneed to transition to new jobs through getting new skills and training.
\n\u201cMy sense is that in Aurora, just like in the rest of the country, people are better off than they were three years ago,\u201d said Mr. Morneau. \u201cThe changes we\u2019ve put in place with the Canada Child Benefit means that the average family is about $2,000 better off. I think the evidence is there. The economy is doing well. We have found ourselves in a position three years in where growth and employment are in a positive situation. We have dealt with some of the key risks, but the more immediate risks, such as trade with the United States, things like the ability to make sure that our economy can continue to grow, but we do need to think about the long-term things.
\n\u201cWe do need to think about the long-term and you can\u2019t think about the long term without thinking about the environment. It is just not going to be possible to have a successful economy, to have good jobs for the next generation if we don\u2019t deal with that issue, and this is the way we deal with it, in a way that makes sure people make the right decisions and they aren\u2019t impacted by the change because the money is going back to them. We think it is all part of a broader agenda that will make middle class Canadians less anxious about their future.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leona Alleslev crossed the floor this past September from the Liberal Government to the Conservative Opposition. In doing so, she cited a number of concerns she\u2019d had for the previous few months. In making her decision, Ms. Alleslev cited changes in international trade, defence and the global economy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Kp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 05:42:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}