Canadian Club Luncheon

As you also know, one week from today, the government will bring down its budget. For us, this is Budget Number Five. We received a mandate in June to prepare Canada for the next century. That is what the budget next week will be all about.

All you have to do is set your mind back four years ago around this time. Our government had just recently taken office. Unemployment was at 11.4%. The deficit stood at $42 billion - the highest in our history. It had been almost three decades since the government had turned in a balanced budget.

What a difference four years makes!

As 1998 begins, the unemployment rate, although still too high, has fallen to its lowest level in seven years. More than a million new private sector jobs have been created since our first budget four years ago. Inflation is low. Consumer and business confidence are reaching record highs. Short and long term interest rates are lower in Canada than in the United States.

We have gone from the second highest deficit-to-GDP ratio of the G-7 nations to the lowest. The deficit has been reduced from $42 billion in 1993 to $8.9 billion for the fiscal year of 1996-97. And, just as we have beaten our targets every year, I am very hopeful that we will continue setting that record next week. And the OECD recently forecast that Canada will lead the G-7 nations in economic and job growth this year and next.

The Wall Street Journal, just days before our first budget four years ago, called Canada a "candidate for membership in the Third World." Just a few months ago, the Economist of London called Canada a "fiscal virtuoso".

I want to pay tribute to our Minister of Finance, Paul Martin. His accomplishment in cleaning up the fiscal mess is one that has made all Canadians grateful.

And I want to salute the Canadian people themselves. Because, when all is said and done, cleaning our fiscal house has not been the accomplishment of a government -- it has been the accomplishment of a nation, of a people, of the Canadian people. They are the ones who bore the brunt of the cuts.

But they are also the ones who wanted the government to take real action -- and see the job through. We have done that. We have kept faith with Canadians. And they with us.

And today I want to tell them, one week before the next budget, that we will not turn back. This government will never, never allow the finances of the nation to get out of control again. Our aim in cleaning up the books was to do it once and for all. And we will use the same unswerving fiscal discipline in the next budget -- and every budget.

Let me be crystal clear, we will not squander our fiscal dividend on a lot of short term political fixes that are of no lasting benefit. The test of a government is not only how it deals with day-to-day issues. It is how it prepares for the future. We will target specific areas of maximum impact. We will focus on them with single-minded determination. And we will act decisively where we can make a real difference for the long term benefit of Canada.

If getting the finances of the country under control was the challenge of the first mandate, the challenge of this new mandate is to take the steps necessary, to make the investments necessary, so that, once again, Canadians can look forward to steady increases in their standard of living.

Canada cannot take for granted its position as a major player in the global economy. We are not a large nation. And we cannot count on sheer economic might to find our niche in the world economy.

We Canadians have always had a special genius as a people for adapting to new circumstances and new realities. Every time, making the investments necessary to grow and succeed. Every time, expanding opportunities for more and more people.

Just look at the history of our country. Macdonald, investing in a Canadian railway, a great "national dream" to bind the country from sea to sea. Laurier opening the west. King and St. Laurent and C.D. Howe investing in the infrastructure that completed our transformation from an agricultural economy to an industrial nation. Meeting the challenge of each new era. Creating new opportunity and new prosperity for each succeeding generation.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is our challenge today. Just as surely as it was in those earlier times. But now we must help Canadians complete the transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. Where knowledge is the most important commodity. Where technology, not resources, will determine the wealth of nations. Where nations and continents are connected by fibre optic cables, not just steel cables. Where concepts of work and security are both changing.

Education and learning have always been important. They have always been a key to a better future. To greater opportunity and security.

I know first hand. My father worked as a machinist by day and at odd jobs at night so that my brothers, my sisters and I could go to school. Even when I got into a bit of trouble in the schoolroom, or, I have to admit, in the poolroom, my parents never stopped believing that I would have a future only if I got an education. That's why the Chrétien kids from working class Shawinigan became a prominent gynaecologist, a pharmacist, a social worker, nurses, successful business people, an eminent medical researcher, and a prime minister of Canada who may not make as much as the poorest player in the NHL, but who seems to have a lot of people wanting his job.

So access to higher education has always been important. It has always meant greater opportunity. The big difference is that today, access to post-secondary education is not just one key to a better life for people -- it is our only key to ensure continued growth and prosperity in the new century.

When I was young in Shawinigan, many of my friends did not go to college or university. But they did find jobs in the factories that paid well and offered security. Today, many of those factories are gone. And so is the security. And what is true of Shawinigan is true of every city, town and village in Canada.

It is true of every family. Just look at the facts. During the last recession, from 1990 to 1993, for people with only high school degrees, 640,000 jobs were lost. But during the same period, for people with post secondary degrees and diplomas, 450,000 jobs were gained. Since 1981, employment among those with high school diplomas or less has fallen by 2 million. But for people with post- secondary qualifications, it has risen by 5 million.

Recent information shows that people who graduate from universities, community colleges and vocational schools enjoy incomes 45 percent higher than those with high school or less.

And in 1996, the unemployment rate for people with a post-secondary degree was 5% -- about half the national average. For people with a high school diploma or less it was 15%.

These facts illustrate why we must, as a society, do everything we can to ensure greater access for young people to post secondary education. We have already done much in this government to invest in the brains and know-how of young Canadians in this information age. Even while we were cutting back to reduce the deficit, we still spent new money on important initiatives such as the Schoolnet program, which is linking every one of Canada's 16,000 schools and public libraries to the Internet.

Last week, I had the pleasure to deliver computer number 50,000 in the Computers for School Program to a high school in Winnipeg. Under this program, our government with partners in the private sector is delivering refurbished used computers to schools across the country, to help give kids that head start they need.

And in the budget last year, we created the Foundation for Innovation, an arms-length organization, endowed with $800 million to fund research facilities in universities and teaching hospitals across Canada.

At the beginning of the current session of Parliament, I announced the program that makes me proudest of all: the Canada Millennium Scholarship Fund. As you know, this will be funded by a one- time endowment in the coming budget. I will leave the details of the fund for next week. But I can't hide my enthusiasm or pride.

I suppose the reason I am proudest of it is that it will take the fruit of our greatest accomplishment as a government -- the fiscal dividend from our victory over the deficit -- and put it to work creating new opportunities for young Canadians in the new millennium.

Too many Canadians are not able to attend college or university today because they cannot afford it. I do not come from a wealthy background, but I was lucky. My parents were able to help me. But not all kids today have parents who can help as mine did.

For them, society has a collective responsibility to help. And that is what the Millennium Scholarship Fund is all about.

Thanks to the millennium scholarships, tens of thousands of low-income Canadians will be able to attend university or college. It is the kind of millennium project that says something about who we are as Canadians. Not a monument of bricks and mortar. But a living, breathing legacy. That will improve lives, and enrich our nation.

All these initiatives, and others that will be in next week's budget, are about creating opportunity and opening up access for young Canadians. That is the responsibility of all governments -- indeed of every sector in society. To help build a better future for young people. To build a stronger economy and stronger future for our nation.

Incredible as it may seem, some will try to quarrel with that.

Ladies and gentlemen, all we want to do is to prepare young Canadians to enter a new century and take their place in the new economy. And I, for one, refuse to put political games ahead of the future of our young people. They deserve better, far better.

We must work in partnership -- parents, students, the private sector, provincial and federal governments. The global economy, the new-economy, is not about exclusiveness among jurisdictions. It is about marshalling our strengths and working together. And that we will do.

The fact is that our government wants to do everything it can to create the environment that permits young Canadians to realize their dreams and potential. Our government has no interest in managing colleges or universities. It has no interest in matters of curriculum. These responsibilities are constitutional obligations of the provinces. And, in my personal view, properly so.

Our responsibility is to make certain that young Canadians have equality of opportunity and that they have the financial means to be able to go to provincial institutions to acquire the skills and knowledge that improve their standard of living and strengthen the economy of our country. That responsibility has been accepted by every federal government since the Second World War and has made Canada the advanced society it is today. It is what put returning soldiers through university at the end of the war. Our support for medical research, for research in science and engineering, and for the arts and sciences makes us richer in so many ways.

This is our vision of the future. In the budget of next week, in the budgets that will follow; in all that we do; a new century of new opportunity and new prosperity; of a better life for ourselves and our children and grandchildren. It is that ambitious. And that simple.

I have been in public life quite a while. One of the descriptions that I am proudest of is that I am a "practical" politician. I like to think that is someone who gets things done; who seeks solutions. Some think it is no substitute for vision -- whatever they mean by that.

To them I say vision is not political rhetoric; it is a young child in Rankin Inlet connected to the world through Schoolnet learning that others in Toronto, New York and Tokyo are fascinated by his Arctic life. Vision is not political rhetoric; it is a working single mother in Surrey B.C., learning she has won a Millennium Scholarship and will begin a new life. Vision is not political rhetoric; it is a child in downtown Montreal, born healthy because his mother benefitted from a pre-natal nutrition program. Vision is not political rhetoric; it is a child in Brandon going to school well-clothed, with a decent breakfast in his belly, because of the Canada Child Tax Benefit. Vision is not political rhetoric; it is a child in Cambodia or Bosnia, who can now look forward again to playing in an open field, because a country like Canada took the lead in banning landmines. Vision is not political rhetoric; it is a government that cared enough about the future of our children, to permanently lift the burden of deficits that were crushing the hopes and dreams of a whole generation.

Vision, for me, and I think for most Canadians, simply means keeping the incredible promise of Canadian life. Canada kept that promise completely for the Chrétien kids in Shawinigan, and for so many others. My commitment to you is to help keep that promise for young Canadians today. Vision, ladies and gentlemen, is real people doing good things for themselves and their country.

My government's promise to you is to put the spring in their step to let them leap forward and realize their dreams.