Dear Constituents, 

I am deeply honoured to have been chosen once again to represent the interests of Northern Albertans in Ottawa.  Thank you for your support and confidence.  Rest assured that I will continue to work hard as your representative and bring forward your concerns on a national level.

Stephen Harper has led our Conservative team with assurance and success. Our previous sessions of Parliament brought some important accomplishments through our economic plan: Advantage Canada.  With this plan we committed to improving quality of life for Canadians through five key advantages:

Tax Advantage: we committed to reducing taxes for all Canadians and establishing the lowest tax rate on new business investment in the G7.  We delivered nearly $200 billion in personal and corporate tax relief through our three Budgets and two Economic Statements.  In addition, we were ahead of the curve on stimulus as we injected more economic stimulus in the form of tax cuts than the U.S. did (for 2008, 1.4 per cent of GDP in Canada, compared to 1.1 per cent in the U.S.).  We did it earlier (October 2007 in Canada, April 2008 in the U.S.) and we made it sustainable for the future.
Fiscal Advantage: we committed to eliminating Canada’s total government net debt in less than a generation. This will generate interest savings for the government and increase credit availability for the entire economy. We have repaid $37 billion in debt over the last two and a half years, putting us well on our way to this objective.
Entrepreneurial Advantage: we committed to reducing unnecessary regulation and red tape and to lowering taxes to unlock business investment. We will have reduced red tape by 20 per cent by November 2008.
Knowledge Advantage: we committed to creating the best-educated, most-skilled and most flexible workforce in the world. We are moving forward on our May 2007 Science and Technology Strategy toward this goal.
Infrastructure Advantage: we committed to building modern, world-class infrastructure through increased investment delivered in new, more efficient ways. Our Building Canada plan created an unprecedented $33 billion infrastructure investment fund and a public-private partnerships office to maximize returns on our investments.
The result is a strong Canadian economy.  These five Advantages are keeping Canada’s economic foundations strong, allowing us to weather economic storms such as those occurring today.

Our measures have taken a well-positioned economy and made it even more resilient. The facts speak for themselves:

Economic growth in July was the highest in four years, exceeding economists’ predictions. 
Canada’s budget surplus in July was $1.7 billion, exceeding expectations.
Canada has created 87,000 net new jobs so far in 2008.

And despite changing global economic conditions, the experts agree that Canada will remain strong for the foreseeable future.

The people have given us a renewed mandate to govern and to work towards positive change. Canada may now continue on a course of stability, strength and prosperity and I am proud to be part of it.  Please continue to write me with your concerns, comments and support as your feedback and opinions are extremely important to me.  Best wishes for a happy and safe autumn.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
 
Brian Jean, MP
Fort McMurray - Athabasca