For Prince George-Peace River MP Bob Zimmer, when it's comes to Federal spending, less is more.
"To be real blunt about it, my priority is that I think our riding expects deficit reduction, and I think the sooner we get to not deficit spending any longer, the better we're going to get as a party and as a country," he said.
"If we can cut, we should cut as much as we can and we should get back to balanced budgets and non-deficit spending."
Zimmer said that he, along with other MPs, have been talking to Finance Minister John Finley about the 2013 Federal budget. While not scheduled to be released until this spring, Zimmer said that he already has some ideas about it, including a meeting last week with business leaders near Prince George.
"We took their input and we actually use a lot of their input to put things into the budget," he said. "If they think it will help our economy, especially our local economy up here in the North, we're willing to have a look at it."
Zimmer also said that he supports the First Nations Aboriginal Accountability Act being placed into the budget, which would require leaders of Metis settlements and First Nations to provide detailed information about the salaries and expenses of their elected chiefs representatives, among other things.
"From some of the comments I've heard especially from the Idle No More movement, and a lot of citizens are concerned about First Nations and aboriginal accountability and we're working on that."
Last December, Idle No More protesters marched to Zimmer's Fort St. John office to ask for a meeting. Much of the protest was related to Bill C-34 and seven other bills that people believed would negatively affect their rights.
The Peace Region could also be affected by other plans in the works.
"There are projects that are going to be forthcoming that I can't speak to right now, just about references to highways and other projects," he said. "I can't speak a whole lot about them to you today, but they are forthcoming."
Zimmer also said that he hoped to continue the PC’s support of research and development for the natural gas sector.
"It helps us in terms of net jobs and people coming back essentially to work."
With the Peace Region facing a worker shortage, many businesses have highlighted a need for skilled labourers.
Zimmer said that he hopes to find ways to improve training in these skills.
"We've already done a lot of things on that front and we know that there's more that needs to be done," he said. "Whether it's tax credits for tools for instance, or those sort of things that could really help the person on the ground, we're looking at those solutions right now."
However, there will also be some cuts that will have to be made.
"In other instances directors of different departments have been asked five to ten per cent of our budget,” Zimmer noted.
"I think it's really a balanced efforts, the things that can afford to be streamlined should be ... there are some things we want to continue to fund because they produce results."
