Two pre-budget roundtable discussions took place this week in our riding in advance of the government’s upcoming federal budget.

The first was hosted by the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce with special guest Dr. Kellie Leitch, Member of Parliament for Simcoe-Gray(Ontario) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.

The second took place at QHR Technologies with Dr. Leitch and the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage & Official Languages, Senior Minister for British Columbia and MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam in attendance.

The focus of the two roundtables involved two questions:

1. What economic and social priorities and programs are most important for the country’s future in Federal Budget 2012 and beyond?

2. Are there particular local or regional challenges for the Government to be aware of while we plan our budget for sustained economic recovery?

Local stakeholders representing local government, business, education and social service organizations, were clear about what the priorities of the Government should be including addressing ongoing labour shortages through foreign worker programs and trade and skills training, continued focus on science and technology and research and development to support innovation, ongoing infrastructure funding and sustaining social programs and services that support affordable living, among other excellent suggestions.

In fact, as MP Leitch and I sat talking with local stakeholders at the morning session, the Prime Minister was giving a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland laying out how the federal government intends to move forward to improve Canada’s economy.

His speech echoed some of the very same priorities that we heard at our roundtable discussions including the need to sustain our social programs and services, our need to reform our immigration system so that it supports our labour needs while respecting our humanitarian and family reunification responsibilities, a need to cut red tape, to open new trade markets, and a need to make key investments in science and technology with more emphasis on results.

It’s as though he was listening to our roundtable discussions.

In fact, it’s no coincidence.

Since 2006, pre-budget consultations with local people like you have paved the way for this Government and kept us on track to sustaining economic growth, job creation and prosperity.

It’s because of local business, social and academic sectors that our Government made historic investments in infrastructure, put substantial funding into skills training and extending support for workers who lost their jobs, maintained the levels of immigration that our aging labour force of the future will require, continued to pursue new trade agreements and took actions that made Canada, among G20 countries, the first tariff-free zone for manufacturers.

Under your advice, our Economic Action Plan was focussed on timely, targeted and temporary measures without creating permanent new and costly programs.  As a result, our deficit is now falling, our debt to GDP ratio has already peaked, we have succeeded in creating jobs and we do not need to raise taxes.

Budget 2012 will be more of the same.

As our roundtable discussions this week proved, the strongest ideas come from talking to local people about what works and I am confident that if we continue to listen to what local taxpayers have to say and act accordingly, we will keep improving our economic outlook and come out of the global turmoil stronger than ever.

Please note that for those who did not participate in the roundtable discussions there are still a chance to weigh in on Budget 2012.  The government has launched an online pre-budget consultation open to all Canadians at www.fin.gc.ca and I am accepting input from constituents through e-mail at ron@cannan.ca.

I would encourage you to take a few minutes and share some of your thoughts.

Ron Cannan is the Member of Parliament for Kelowna-Lake Country