44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 9, 2022 11:00AM
Madam Speaker, I listened to my Conservative colleague's passionate speech. I found it interesting and stirring, so to speak.
When we talk about Bill C-19, we are also talking about the budget that the government tabled not too long ago. What I really did not like about that budget was the lack of action on climate change. With the approval of the Bay du Nord project, we see that the government is continuing to get more deeply involved in oil.
Could the member who just gave that wonderful speech tell us more about what the government should do to combat climate change and get away from oil?
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Madam Speaker, in fact, two people are disappointed. The first is the member who just asked the question, because, as I stated in my speech, this government has taken no action on climate change. The second is me, because, as I stated in my speech, nothing has been done for the natural resources sector.
Even though I agree with my Bloc colleague, I want to say that we must also take action for the natural resources sector, which is being neglected at present. Therefore, I agree with my colleague, but I am disappointed for another reason.
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Madam Speaker, the member and I work together on the disability inclusion file. I want to ask some questions about the Canada disability benefit.
Could the member for Calgary Midnapore comment around the missing Canada disability benefit in the budget?
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Madam Speaker, I think we need to look at the sincerity and the intentions of the government. I believe that the member would agree with me on this. The government tabled that bill in the last week before we left for the seasonal break, when there was an election about to be called. What does that say about the Liberals' sincerity and about their will in implementing the act?
As strongly as we may feel about this, as much as we need to see something done for Canadians with disabilities, it really starts with the government. The fact that Liberals tabled this in the final week before we left with an election potentially looming, and the fact that they have not brought it back in the recent budget of 2022, speaks volumes.
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Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to join today’s debate on Bill C-19, the budget implementation act. Let me begin by stating something that I have mentioned before about this budget. This is a fiscally prudent budget that is also focused on economic growth. If we are looking for a theme and a direction, here is the theme and here is the direction.
We were able to shift this budget’s focus onto these elements because of how well we have done in recovering from a global pandemic that has exhausted economies around the world.
Starting with jobs, we have recovered 115% of the jobs lost since April 2020, which is equivalent to three million jobs. Just this past Friday, on May 6, Canada’s job numbers were released, and they showed that the labour market has gained over 15,000 jobs in April alone, bringing our unemployment rate to 5.2%, the lowest since 1976. These numbers are not to be taken lightly. They represent the resilience and strength of real people and real Canadians who made effective use of the supports and programs rolled out by our federal government. They worked hard to get back on their feet, stronger than ever.
However, there is more to be done, and that is exactly what the measures in budget 2022, implemented by Bill C-19, set out to do. The budget builds on the progress we have already made, by investing in workers, small businesses, our supply chain and more.
We also need to acknowledge that every success has its ups and downs. Canadians know that our recovery from COVID-19, along with our continued fight against it, has come at a very high price. This global pandemic has had not only health consequences, but also economic ones, as the international phenomenon of inflation has made things more expensive, both in other countries and right here in Canada.
We acknowledge the higher prices of groceries. We acknowledge the high and rising costs of homes, and we also acknowledge that the impacted supply chain has already deeply hurt the pockets of everyday consumers at the checkout counter. We know that the causes can be sourced to the pandemic and the current international conflicts, but we have to do something about it right here at home.
With budget 2022 and Bill C-19, our government is advancing and introducing measures that will address these concerns and help mitigate the rising costs of living for Canadians. The budget is grounded by a focus on housing, the climate, jobs and growth, and affordability, but one key common element in all of these pillars is people.
Our people are the backbone to a strong and growing country, and Bill C-19 ensures that we continue to have their backs through measures for affordable housing, clean and good jobs, and a safe place to live.
Before we get into those overarching categories, let us quickly review the key ways in which the budget implementation act will help Canadians.
On housing, Bill C-19 doubles the maximum for the home accessibility tax credit, and also proposes a two-year ban on foreign investment in Canadian housing that will make housing more affordable.
On health, Bill C-19 proposes $2 billion for the provinces and territories, to reduce backlogs in surgeries and procedures.
On the labour shortage, Bill C-19 introduces a labour mobility deduction that will make travel easier for tradespeople, who will be able to fill the gaps in important projects.
On a cleaner economy that is fuelled by our small businesses, Bill C-19 proposes a reduction by half to the corporate and small business tax rates for businesses that manufacture zero-emissions technologies.
Now that we have gone through some of this overview, let us get into some of the big themes, starting with the most pressing concern in our local communities and in my riding of Richmond Hill, which is housing.
We have never had such an ambitious plan as we do in budget 2022 to address the fundamental issue of housing affordability. Through Bill C-19, we can implement measures that would make housing not only more affordable for our first-time homebuyers, but also more accessible for all.
We know that gaps in supply are leading to increases in costs, which is why budget 2022 indicates our government’s commitment to doubling the number of new homes built over the next 10 years. This budget also includes measures to reduce the barriers for first-time homebuyers who work so hard to save up for a place to call their own. Bill C-19 would prevent foreign investors and commercial enterprises from parking their money in Canada and driving up costs to the point that young buyers can barely afford to enter the housing market.
We talked about youth, but what about seniors or persons with disabilities? They have made significant contributions to Canadian society and deserve homes that are accessible to them and continue to fit their needs. However, renovations can be pricey, and with the rising cost of living, such home improvements are far out of reach for seniors and persons with disabilities.
That is why Bill C-19 proposes to double the home accessibility tax credit’s annual limit to $20,000 to help make significant alterations and renovations more affordable. This would mean an additional $1,500 in tax support, which will in turn make alterations such as the installation of wheelchair ramps, walkers or non-slip flooring more affordable. For members of Richmond Hill's community council on seniors, who are concerned about the costs associated with customizing their homes to their current needs, I know this is going to be a significant aid in helping them age well in the houses they know and love.
We delved into housing affordability, but we know that to be able to purchase or maintain homes, people need good jobs, which is why investing in jobs and growth is a key pillar of budget 2022. Primarily, let us talk about the jobs that need support.
Currently, our economy can absorb nearly one million jobs, 300,000 of which could be fulfilled by the construction trades. Workers in the construction trades often travel to take on temporary jobs, frequently in rural and remote communities, but their associated expenses do not always qualify for existing tax relief. To ensure that we can get the workers where they are needed and address labour shortages in an equitable way, we need to support the mobility of workers within Canada. If they can travel without worrying about associated costs, we will have more workers and more projects will be completed, even some potentially in housing, which will indirectly increase our supply.
Through the labour mobility deduction for tradespeople, Bill C-19 proposes to provide tax relief on eligible travel and temporary relocation expenses. However, it is not just tradespersons who need the support in getting to work.
Lastly, Bill C-19 has measures that will make Canada a cleaner and safer place to live. We are committing to smart climate investments today that will not only be good for the planet, but good for the Canadian economy. Whether it is through the $15-billion investment in the Canada growth fund, the creation of the Canada water agency, the $1.7-billion incentive for zero-emission vehicles or the expansion of the low-carbon economy fund with $2.2 billion over seven years, this budget implementation act will bring to fruition Canada’s global efforts in fighting climate change in a way that is not only planet friendly, but economically friendly.
In closing, I ask all members of the House to join me in supporting this bill.
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Madam Speaker, in March 2020, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions reduced the domestic stability barrier to 1%, thus freeing up an additional $300 billion in capital. The government at the time said that it expected the banks to lend it out, and the banks did loan it out. Mortgage credit has exploded over the last two years of the pandemic, from $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion today.
Should the government have put in place measures to ensure that this additional $300 billion in credit did not all go into the residential mortgage market, thus fuelling the explosion in house prices and the skyrocketing housing prices we have seen over the last 24 months?
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Madam Speaker, the $300 billion was an investment in Canadians, from all aspects, whether it was directly to individuals or to businesses in various sectors, and as I said in my speech, the result is evident now. We are back with 115% job recovery; we are back with over three million jobs. We have shortages of one million jobs, and we have the potential to do much better. As we roll out various programs in Bill C-19, not only will we address the labour shortage, but we will also make sure that people have an affordable place to live and that we can also welcome new Canadians to Canada.
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Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to the member for Richmond Hill's speech, and I noticed he did mention, in addition to seniors, people with disabilities.
In the heart of the pandemic, the member for Elmwood—Transcona and I wrote to the minister, asking for the creation of a federal disability benefit to help lift all people with disabilities out of poverty, as a first step toward a guaranteed livable basic income. I wonder what is happening on the government side when it comes to providing that necessary income support for people with disabilities.
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Madam Speaker, that is a very important question. I have many stakeholders in my riding who are dealing with disabilities. One of the challenges we have is that there are also provincial programs that are being rolled out in conjunction with what we are planning in the federal government. As members know, there is nothing more important than working with provinces and territories to ensure that the programs that are being rolled out are complementary, and that takes some time. We are working very hard to ensure not only that we address the needs of those with disabilities, but also that the funding being given addresses the needs in a very complementary way.
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Madam Speaker, in his speech earlier on Bill C‑19, the member across the way did not mention anything about a topic I very much wanted to hear him talk about. That may be because it is not in the budget either. I am talking about the word “health”.
Almost every province, including Quebec, asked for health transfers. I have been a member of Parliament since 2015, while the Bloc Québécois has been in the House for I do not even know how long, and I cannot recall one year or one week when the Bloc did not talk about the fact that health transfers need to be increased. The federal government's response has been insulting, namely that the government will talk about it once we become more efficient.
On the one hand, who is the federal government to tell the provinces how to run their affairs?
On the other hand, since this is a unanimous request that keeps coming up, how are we unable to come to an agreement on this fundamental need?
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Madam Speaker, I expected that, coming from one of the Bloc members, who always ask us to transfer more funds without any accountability. I am part of the HESA committee, and through a lot of witnesses and through my community councils I have always heard about the fact that we need to make sure that the funds that are being transferred to provinces come with some strings attached, and the strings attached are basically to make sure it is transparent, accountable and delivering the results we are delivering.
I will close with the fact that we are second in the OECD countries in the amount of money we are spending on health, and we will also increase this year's payment by about $4.5 billion, yet on the delivery we are 27th in the world. I would like to ask the member what explains the difference between being second in the amount of help we are sending to the provinces and being 27th in delivering those results.
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-19, the budget implementation act. I will be honest. I found the title of this year's budget quite misleading. The NDP-Liberal government titled this year's budget, “A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable”. If the government really wanted to grow our economy and make life more affordable, it would have looked at Canadian agriculture. Unfortunately, when I looked for Canadian agriculture in the budget, I noticed that not one page was fully dedicated to agri-food or agriculture. The blatant lack of priority for Canadian agriculture would be concerning in any budget, but even more concerning in budget 2022.
We are in a food crisis. There is a global food shortage, and the Canadian government is nowhere to be found. I am going to quote Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor and researcher of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, who has been sounding the alarm on this crisis. He stated, “We need to be clear on the fact that by fall more than 100 million people will experience either famine or severe hunger.” Let us let that statistic sink in: By fall, more than 100 million people will experience either famine or extreme hunger.
Corn and wheat make up 30% of the calories consumed on earth, yet the region responsible for 25% of these exports is at war. That means that the poorer countries will lose access to their food supply and developed countries will pay higher prices to secure their food. Where in the budget was there anything to ramp up the production of export capacity of these commodities? I sure did not find it.
When I read the budget implementation act, I saw things like new taxes on luxury goods and vaping products. These are the types of things that the government has prioritized over Canadian agriculture. This reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: one of the best-known theories in human motivation. This hierarchy is modelled in the shape of a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the need for self-actualization. Beneath that are the need for esteem, the need for love and belonging and the need for safety. At the bottom of the pyramid are the foundational psychological needs, including food, for example. Society does not care about the higher levels of needs if the foundational needs are not met. At a time when the world is in a food crisis, the NDP-Liberal government is more focused on some higher ideological need than on the foundational need of food security.
I am shocked that the government is not focused on replacing the global reduction in food from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Not only could Canada feed the world, but we could also create wealth and jobs for our rural communities. We are one of the few remaining agriculture-exporting nations on earth. I believe we have a role to play in feeding the world. However, when I read the budget, I do not see any priority given to this by the current government.
The government has the mentality that western Canada should be limited to simply producing, harvesting and exporting raw commodities. This means that even if Canadians produced a record crop, we would still have to rely on other countries to process our commodities. This is the wrong mentality. We can do so much more. The government should create the right business environment so industry can create more value in Canadian agriculture products. When we turn our raw commodities into high-quality products such as canola oil, flour and starch products, we not only grow our economy but we also meet the demands of the world.
It was the current government that commissioned the Barton Report. In that report, agriculture was identified as a sector where Canada has the potential for substantial growth and export improvement. The report mentioned global population growth, a rising protein demand in Asia and the need for trusted markets. Canada could and should meet these new global demands, if only the government would let it.
Production and processing capacity is not the only bottleneck in the agriculture value food chain. We must also improve the resilience and reliability of our transportation system. There is no mention of investing in transportation to export our agri-food products faster and more efficiently. I think all members of the House would agree with the notion that our country is too reliant on a few transportation systems.
We saw this last year when the flooding in B.C. completely landlocked our ability to export product. Imagine the drastic consequences of not being able to feed the world because we could not get our agri-food products to tidewater.
I am noticing a consistent theme with this Liberal government. It is more focused on the farming of the past than on the farming of the future. The Liberals try to be visionaries in many areas, but never in agriculture. The lack of thinking is limiting our nation's potential and starving the world. If the Liberals want to grow our economy, I can tell members how: It is through agriculture.
Not only does the budget fail to prioritize increased food production, but it also fails to address the restrictions and regulations that are preventing Canada from becoming an agriculture superpower. We know that this government's carbon tax is restricting our ag industry's competitiveness and driving up the cost of food from the day it is planted until the day it is consumed.
APAS reported that the government's carbon tax would add an additional $12.50 of input costs per acre on wheat by 2030. At the same time, when the world is desperate for wheat, it is absurd that this government is actually making it more expensive to produce such an essential commodity.
The government also appears to be drafting regulations that would restrict fertilizer usage for Canadian farmers in the name of the climate agenda. Any plan to meet fertilizer emissions reductions should not be at the cost of production. Is the government aware that there is a global fertilizer shortage? The less fertilizer that is available, the less food we can grow.
MNP reported that reducing Canadian fertilizer use to achieve 30% emissions reduction would result in yield losses. Corn, for example, would see losses of over 67 bushels per acre per year, which is about 40%.
Where is the investment in creating a more competitive fertilizer industry? Where is the focus on exporting Canadian fertilizer? I did not see that in the budget.
I also learned last week that Health Canada has yet to release its regulations on gene editing. This innovative plant science technology is an important tool in helping Canadian farmers be more productive and efficient. Plant science innovations have been responsible for a 50% increase in crop productivity over the past century. Without these innovations, prices would be 45% higher, on average, for many food staples.
The government should create an investment environment that fuels plant science research and development. There is no reason why Canada cannot have the fastest and most responsible regulatory process in the world. Where was this investment in the budget? I did not see it.
The world is facing a food crisis. Food is becoming unaffordable for millions of people and, for some, food is becoming unavailable. Millions will starve if Canada does not step up to the plate. Instead of focusing on fulfilling the basic needs of society, this government continues to focus on a political agenda. This government's disregard for the food crisis before us is deeply disturbing.
Not one page in the budget is focused on agriculture and agri-food. That should concern every single member of the House. It is time to focus on the future of farming. It is time to make Canada an agricultural superpower, and it is time for Canada to feed the world when the world needs us most.
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Madam Speaker, I sit on the agriculture committee, and all parties work together. We are doing a lot of the things that the member actually said that we were not. I would hope that he would speak to his colleagues, and he is always invited to come and speak to us.
We have programs such as the natural climate solutions fund, the nature smart climate solutions fund, the agricultural climate solutions program, the on-farm climate action fund and the agricultural clean technology program.
Can the member opposite comment on some of those programs, and add to that his opinion?
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Madam Speaker, the problem with all of these programs and all of these things is that they are all based off of the carbon tax, which is a foundational problem for all of us in rural Canada. It is disproportionately applied. As I said in my speech, it is increasing costs by up to $12 an acre for farmers. This Liberal government's approach to this is just basically not acceptable.
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Madam Speaker, there are a lot of problems with the budget, but it also contains measures designed to help people.
Thanks to the agreement that the NDP negotiated with the Liberal minority government, we are going to be able to give the poor and the middle class access to dental care.
Does my colleague not think that it is a positive development for the people in his riding, including children, youth and seniors, to have the opportunity to go to the dentist?
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Madam Speaker, it is a matter of priorities. As a farmer, if I were in eastern Canada, knowing that my government has put a 35% tariff on the fertilizer I need to buy to put in this crop, I would be absolutely horrified and so frustrated. There is no one in the House, except the Conservatives, standing up for farmers across this country.
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Madam Speaker, I could not agree with my hon. colleague more about the importance of focusing more on agriculture. It is important, as farmers are definitely in a position to take a lot of leadership in changing agricultural practices, not only for soil conservation and carbon sequestration in soils, but also for local food security. We learned a lot during COVID about the importance of supply chains and being able to be food secure within Canada. I would like more of the member's comments on that question.
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Madam Speaker, the main concern is the total lack of focus or even mention of this in the budget. That should be very concerning for us. We are in a very pivotal time in our country and in the world. Countries are at war, and 25% of our food supply is in jeopardy. The government is doing absolutely nothing, and I find that just terrible.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member outlined that the Liberal government is going to be forcing farmers to reduce their fertilizer use. In light of his comments, 100 million people may starve to death this fall because of the impacts on agriculture in Ukraine. Now we are hearing from the Liberal government that it is going to force us to reduce our fertilizer use, but we know farmers do not use more fertilizer than they need. The reason they use fertilizer is to increase the food that they create per acre.
If the member could comment on the importance of fertilizer, how it helps Canada feed the world and how detrimental this policy would be to those around the world who depend on Canadian food, I would greatly appreciate it.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for the great work she does in her riding.
Fertilizer is the game-changer for modern-day agriculture. If we did not have nitrogen fertilizer, we would not be feeding the people we are right now on the landscape. If the Canadian government, especially the Liberal government, decides to take that tool away from us, it will have detrimental impacts on not only this year's crop, but also future crops to come.
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