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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 41

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 4, 2022 10:00AM
  • Mar/4/22 11:23:28 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the member opposite that the federal carbon price is revenue-neutral. In fact, with the climate action incentive, families in the Prairies will get close to $1,000 back. As the Governor of the Bank of Canada reminded us at the finance committee just this week, climate change itself is also causing inflation, something the Conservative Party should not ignore.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:24:28 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to remind the member again that the federal carbon price is revenue-neutral. I am also happy to remind the member that while our government is concerned about inflation, we also understand that this is a global phenomenon. We know that Canada's rate of inflation is lower than that of the United States and the U.K., and lower than the G7, G20 and OECD average. At the same time, we are taking efforts to address affordability, with measures on housing, measures on child care and measures for seniors. These are all measures that the Conservative Party, in fact, votes against.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:28:53 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we care deeply about the issues of affordability, and we also want to make sure that organizations pay their fair share. We have made commitments as such. With regard to affordability, I will remind the member that we lowered taxes on the middle class while increasing them on the top 1%. We created the CCB, which lifted 435,000 children out of poverty. In fact, we implemented a comprehensive poverty strategy that lifted 1.3 million Canadians out of poverty. We are going to continue working with the party opposite and the member opposite to make sure that affordability is top of mind, because it is a priority for our government.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:42:21 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives often accuse us of over-investing in Canadians, but I will remind the member opposite that in the last election the Conservatives actually promised to spend more than what our government is actually investing. At the same time, their promised policies were assessed by experts and were noted to under-deliver on housing, under-deliver on climate change and under-deliver on child care. We have renewed the inflation target of 2% with the Bank of Canada, and we will continue to focus on affordability for Canadian families going forward.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:43:35 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member knows that inflation is in fact a global phenomenon, and anything that affects affordability is important to our government. We know that while inflation in Canada is at 5.1%, it is lower than the U.K.'s, lower than the U.S.'s and lower than the G7 average, as well as that of the G20 and the OECD. Our government is taking measures to make life more affordable. That includes cutting taxes for the middle class. That includes the CCB, which has lifted 435,000 children out of poverty. It includes making tuition more affordable. It includes increasing the OAS and GIS, and indexing those to inflation for seniors. These are all measures that the Conservatives have voted against. If they care about affordability—
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  • Mar/4/22 11:44:52 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, inflation is a problem, and our government is focused on making life more affordable for Canadians. With regard to that particular question, I must remind that member that the carbon price is revenue-neutral. We have rolled out the climate action incentive, and the fact is that climate change also causes inflation. We need to make sure that we continue to make life more affordable but that we also take meaningful action on climate change, which is something that the Conservative Party is not willing to do.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:50:07 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to the success of small businesses. I will remind that member that carbon pricing is revenue neutral federally. I will also remind that member that our government has had business owners' backs throughout the greatest economic shut-off that we have had since the Second World War. That is why there are actually more businesses operating today than there were before the pandemic even started.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:51:13 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we take supporting small businesses seriously. I would remind the member opposite that it was our government that lowered small business taxes from 11% to 9%. We have listened closely to businesses during the pandemic to make sure we had a suite of measures in place. In fact, we focused on a health-based recovery. That has actually helped us have an economic-based recovery. Even though we lost three million jobs during the depths of the recession, we have now recovered 101% of that, while the United States has only recovered 87%.
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  • Mar/4/22 11:53:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government has been focused on affordability issues and issues around inflation. Since taking office, in fact, it was our government that implemented a thorough poverty strategy that lifted 1.3 million Canadians out of poverty. We are investing in programs like child care, which is going to lower the cost of child care in B.C. by 50% by the end of this year. We are investing in the national housing strategy to make sure people can afford a place to live. These are all measures the Conservatives are not supporting, but that we are going to get done.
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