44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 31, 2022 10:00AM
- Mar/31/22 10:01:56 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8)(a), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to seven petitions. These returns will be tabled in an electronic format.
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- Mar/31/22 10:14:24 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 324, 326 to 328 and 330.
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- Mar/31/22 10:14:59 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, furthermore, if the government's responses to Question Nos. 323, 325, 329 and 331 could be made orders for return, these returns would be tabled immediately.
The Speaker: Is that agreed?
Some hon members: Agreed.
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- Mar/31/22 10:14:59 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in addition we ask that the government's response to starred Question No. 332 be printed in Hansard as if read.
The Speaker: Is that agreed?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
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- Mar/31/22 10:15:19 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.
The Speaker: Is that agreed?
Some hon members: Agreed.
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- Mar/31/22 10:26:36 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, how quickly my friend has forgotten. It was not that long ago when we had a national election and the leader of the Conservative Party was going to actually keep a carbon tax. He supported a carbon tax. What the Conservative Party of Canada supported was a price on pollution. Not only did the Conservatives promise that, but in part of their platform they were actually going to spend more money than what we were proposing to spend.
Does my friend opposite not realize that, if we are saying one thing during a national campaign, there is a certain expectation that Canadians might believe what we are saying during the election? Now they are taking a flip-flop not on one or two issues but even on a basic understanding of COVID, as the member said regarding getting vaccinated once or twice and getting a booster. It does not mean that we cannot get infected, but what it does is it minimizes the effects. I am wondering if the member could maybe provide his thoughts on being consistent.
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- Mar/31/22 10:41:58 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, consistently over the last number of years in its budget presentations, the government has been there to support Canadians in very real and tangible ways. Just the other day, we had an announcement here in Ontario that the Province of Ontario was going to join the child care plan. The day care plan is now a truly national program that will enable more people to get into the work force. We have seen very progressive programs implemented.
The concern I have with the Conservatives today is that they say we should reduce the deficit and give tax breaks. In order to accomplish what they suggest, there have to be serious, severe cuts. Will the member opposite be sincere with Canadians and tell us exactly what it is that the Conservative Party of Canada is proposing to cut? We cannot have it all ways.
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- Mar/31/22 11:21:55 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to highlight what the member posed in the form of a question to the Conservative Party. It took many years, but with the change of government in 2015 we were finally able to build a consensus to have CPP contributions increased. As a result of doing that and getting agreement with the provinces, led by the leadership here in Ottawa, when the people who are paying into the CPP retire, they will have more money in their pockets.
The Conservatives consistently call that a tax. Could my friend provide his thoughts on how bizarre it is to call contributions toward a pension for future retirement benefits a tax? It is not fair or just.
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- Mar/31/22 11:36:38 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member spent a great deal of his time on the issue of immigration. If we take a look at what we have seen over the last couple of years, I think that we can be fairly proud of the system while always looking for improvements, of course. For example, I believe it was in 2020, with all of the refugees who settled throughout the world, a third of them settled here in Canada. Last year, we had over a half million. That is over 500,000 immigrants who settled or were granted permanent residency here in Canada.
Yes, there is always room for us to do more. We have seen a very progressive approach to dealing, for example, with Ukraine and the refugees from there. There have been 12,000-plus since the beginning of the new year, and a streamlined system is now being put in place to enhance those numbers going forward.
Can the member provide his thoughts on my comments?
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- Mar/31/22 12:14:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I think gets missed in a lot of the rhetoric we hear from the Conservatives is when they say we should stop spending government dollars on programs. I will use the example of child care. In Canada, for the first time, we now have a national child care plan.
Mr. Speaker, if we look at the impact that has had in your home province of Quebec, it increased the workforce significantly. It is believed the same will happen at the national level, where we will have more people engaged in the workforce. Yes, there is a cost to providing that plan, but there will be many social and economic benefits because there will be more people in the workforce who will be paying taxes.
I wonder if my friend could provide his thoughts on the fact that the government spending money does not necessarily mean it is an absolute cost because often there is revenue that is generated.
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- Mar/31/22 1:50:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to start off, it was only a couple of weeks ago that President Zelenskyy from Ukraine spoke to Canadians virtually through the House of Commons. Just down the hall today, there are a number of Ukrainian members of Parliament shared a very strong message with parliamentarians and Canadians in terms of the need for support with lethal weapons in Ukraine, and the need to continue with sanctions. They talked about the importance of our friendship and the infrastructure needs of Ukraine, not only today but going forward. I believe that unanimously in the chamber, there is a very strong sense of solidarity with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. We will do what we can.
I should mention that I will be sharing my time with the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge.
Having said that, I want to provide a bit of an overview in the time that I have, if it is possible, of what I believe is an opportunity for members to get engaged and talk about budgets and the importance of the budgetary process. It will come as no surprise to members that I have a difficult time with the Conservative Party's approach to dealing with budgets.
Let us look at budgets in general. We have presented budgets since 2015, after the election. Every time the government has presented a budget in the House, the Conservatives have been true to form and voted against it. That includes budgets that provided tax breaks, for example. Members will recall that when the Liberals first became government, we said the priority for the Government of Canada was to support Canada's middle class and those aspiring to be part of it. That was priority one.
In that budget, there was a tax break for Canada's middle class, which the Conservative Party voted against. There was a hike on the tax rate for Canada's wealthiest 1%, which the NDP voted against. Inequality of income was addressed through such things as the reformation of the Canada child benefit program: a program that saw hundreds of millions of dollars go into communities across the country to deliver children from poverty. There was the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars to the poorest seniors in Canada, lifting hundreds and thousands of seniors out of poverty.
Through our budgets, we have consistently provided supports to the provinces and to our infrastructure. Historic amounts of money are being invested in Canada's infrastructure. As we continued to support Canada's middle class prepandemic and were there in very real and tangible ways through legislative and budgetary measures, we saw the Canadian economy grow. In fact, in terms of economic growth, such as employment opportunities, we were able to achieve more in the first four years than Stephen Harper did in 10 years. At the end of the day, I would argue that by investing in Canadians and infrastructure, we were able to build a stronger and healthier economy, because we understand that a healthy middle class is the best way to deliver a stronger economy going forward.
The first number of budgets people saw were heavy on supports for the middle class and building our infrastructure. Then the pandemic hit, and through the pandemic we saw the continuation of a government that recognized the value of being there to support Canadians and small businesses in particular. We saw it in the form of programs such as CERB, which put literally billions of dollars into the pockets of Canadians at a time when they needed that support.
By doing that, we ensured that Canadians were able to pay critical bills that needed to be paid. We supported small businesses, whether with wage subsidy programs that preserved literally thousands of jobs across this country and prevented businesses from going bankrupt, or with loans and other forms of support for small businesses. Our budgets reflected that.
When Canadians needed a government that was going to be there, we were there, not only with words but with legislative and budgetary measures. Throughout, we constantly saw a Conservative opposition more focused on character assassination and flip-flopping on different policies than on recognizing and contributing to the ideas that were flowing to support Canadians and build our economy.
In listening to the Conservative Party, one would think that Canada was in a doomed state when it comes to inflation. Let us compare Canada's inflation rate with that of the United States, or look at Canada's inflation rate compared with those of the G20 countries. If we take a look at the average of the G20 countries and the United States, we find that Canada's inflation rate is less.
My colleague for Kingston and the Islands just made reference to the GDP and how Canada is in a good position to continue to build strength for our economy and to continue to be there for Canadians. Unlike Conservatives, we believe in investing in the people of Canada. A good example of that is what recently happened in the province of Ontario: My Ontario colleagues were very happy the other day when we finally got Doug Ford to recognize the true value of a national child care program. This is a program that now stretches coast to coast to coast. It is a program that is going to enable more people to enter the workforce.
The Conservative Party would look at that program and say that the government was spending money. It would say that all the government does is spend money and that we need revenues. Education 101 is that enabling more people to get engaged in the economy generates more revenue for the Government of Canada. Not only does a national child care program help by providing much-needed child care spaces, but it is good for Canada's economy too. I only wish the Conservatives would recognize that.
When the Conservatives talk about issues of taxation, they are so confused. They do not care about the middle class, because when it came time to increase the CPP, which would benefit the working class of today for tomorrow, they are just as likely to call it a tax and say that it is a bad thing. No. We are thinking about tomorrow's seniors. The working class of today also needs to be protected.
This is a government that is progressive and that understands the importance of being there for Canadians. We will continue to have their backs, as we have demonstrated in the past six years.
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- Mar/31/22 3:33:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I had previously finished commenting on child care, and the last thing I would like to be able to emphasize is that we should remember that it was not that long ago, just a few months back, when we had a national election. One of the big policy issues for the Conservative Party of Canada was a price on pollution. Conservatives actually supported and campaigned on a carbon tax.
It would appear, if we listen to Conservative after Conservative stand up and speak in the House today, that at least the majority of them are now against a price on pollution. I think it is kind of encouraging, to a certain degree, that without a leader, we see that far right coming out and surfacing. It used to be the reformers. Many of them are not very sensitive to our environment and do not recognize the true value and the benefits of sound government programs, which we have seen developed over the last six years, going right up until we had the child care announcement two days ago.
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- Mar/31/22 3:35:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will give the member a couple of facts. When he makes reference to seniors, one of the first actions this government took was to substantially increase the guaranteed income supplement, something that the Conservative Party actually voted against.
Then, once we got into the pandemic, we gave one-time payments to our seniors 65 and over, and for those on the GIS, there were two payments. Again, that is something in which we continue to support seniors through supporting, with literally tens of millions of dollars, non-profit organizations that provide different types of programs for seniors. Those are some of the direct and indirect ways in which we are there for seniors.
Then, we have many of my Liberal colleagues who are also advocating for things such as long-term care standards, financial resources and the issue of mental health. That is not to mention the campaign commitment we made, which we are materializing, of the 10% increase for people 75 and over. The list continues, and I appreciate the question from the member opposite.
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- Mar/31/22 3:37:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in the election, we made a commitment to increase OAS for seniors 75 and over by 10%. I can assure the member, that is not cheap. It is a substantial amount of money. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. At a time when we really need to continue to support seniors, this government has been there. It has demonstrated its presence and support for seniors from virtually day one, as I pointed out, back in late 2015 going into 2016 and to this very day. I look forward to seeing yet another budget and the ways in which we will continue to see a Liberal government supporting the seniors of Canada because we truly care.
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- Mar/31/22 3:39:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the very first things we did was indicate that Canada's 1% wealthiest needed to give a fairer contribution. That is why we had the tax increase on Canada's 1% wealthiest. That was one of the first actions we did back in 2016. Albeit the NDP did not support that motion, but we still moved ahead with it.
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