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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 82

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 6, 2022 11:00AM
  • Jun/6/22 12:18:47 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, I would say this move today is hypocritical of the government, but I am not surprised, because we have a Liberal-NDP group that does not want to talk about the economy. The Liberals and New Democrats do not want to talk about inflation and they do not want to talk about the cost of living. They surely do not want to talk about the carbon tax and the price of gas that they are backtalking to their constituents every day, so it is not a surprise that they are trying to ram this budget through. No, we have not had adequate time. At report stage on Friday, we heard from one member from the Conservatives and one member from the Liberals, the member for Winnipeg North, who I always enjoy hearing from, but Liberals do not even want to get up and talk about their own budget. They try to shut the debate down. I do not blame them, given how things are going and how their plan is not working. I want to ask a specific question of the minister about the budget. I will use what the Auditor General agreed with me on in the public accounts committee last week, when she said that this government is spending more and getting less when it comes to results, particularly on customer service levels, particularly when it relates to the timely Auditor General's reports last week. Service levels are absolutely collapsing at airports, Passport Canada, CRA, immigration and Veterans Affairs. NEXUS cards are an absolute disaster. They say they are spending x dollars of more money. We want to know specifically what and when Canadians can expect in getting proper customer service levels back and why we cannot have more time to debate those issues and frustrations that Canadians have.
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  • Jun/6/22 12:27:36 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, it is obvious that this government has become extremely afraid of scrutiny, of accountability, and it is becoming even more evident with this latest backroom partnership with the NDP. One hour of debate on 440 pages of a bill is hardly what Canadians deserve for scrutiny and accountability of the government. Not even the backbench Liberal MPs have been able to speak on any parts of this budget that may benefit their ridings. I have not had a chance to debate the possible $2 billion in lost sales in the auto, aerospace and marine sectors. The implementation of this budget, which is projecting a $53-billion deficit, needs more than the one hour of debate that this government has allowed. We have not even talked about inflation. The minister earlier spoke about temporary inflation; it has recently been in the news that this inflation is now entrenched in Canada. This deserves debate, and I am strongly opposed to this time allocation motion.
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  • Jun/6/22 2:21:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister cannot be serious. Her answer was about dental care and the home buyers' tax credit. Is that the Liberals' solution to the crisis food banks are currently facing? Places like Mégantic—L'Érable have seen a 10% increase in demand over the past few weeks from people who cannot afford to put food on the table. In many other regions, it is as high as 25%. When food bank usage goes up faster than inflation, which has hit a record high, that means Canada has a serious problem. Would the minister please park her theoretical budget and explain to ORAPE how it is supposed to make ends meet and make sure everyone gets enough to eat?
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  • Jun/6/22 2:32:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what do the Federal Reserve, President Biden, treasury secretary Yellen and the Bank of Canada all have in common? They have all taken responsibility for underestimating inflation. Secretary Yellen said she was wrong about inflation and President Biden released a plan to fight inflation just last week. Where is the government's plan to provide immediate relief to Canadians and combat inflation?
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  • Jun/6/22 2:32:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, do we know what all of those countries have in common? In all of those countries, the rate of inflation is higher than it is in Canada. In Canada, the latest inflation number is 6.8%. In the U.S., it is 8.3%. In the U.K., it is 9%, and in Germany, 8.7%. The OECD average is 8.8%. That is what they have in common and that is how they are different from us.
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  • Jun/6/22 2:33:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all of those countries measure inflation differently, and perhaps it would not hurt the government to admit just a little bit of humility instead of being blinded by ideology, and recognize that the facts on the ground have changed and that it needs to change course to provide immediate relief to Canadians. We have heard time and time again that the government is providing zero relief and is actually defending high gas prices. Despite a windfall of revenues, the government refuses to take immediate action. Why?
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  • Jun/6/22 2:36:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, inflation, stagnation, frustration: these are common, everyday, kitchen table words now in Canada. Inflation means higher costs of production for all food. For farmers and producers, as their costs go up, they cannot continue to absorb these losses. Consumers are stressed. Everyone loses. Food banks are overwhelmed. One out of five Canadians reports going hungry at night. When is the government going to get serious, help Canadians and get Canada-created inflation under control?
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  • Jun/6/22 2:37:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians understand very well that inflation is a global phenomenon driven today very much by Vladimir Putin's illegal war in Ukraine. Our government understands that the cost of living is a challenge for Canadians, and that is why we are taking concrete steps. Let me name a few of them: a $500 payment to those facing housing affordability challenges, dental care for Canadian families, doubling support provided through the first-time homebuyers' tax credit and a multi-generational home renovation tax credit.
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  • Jun/6/22 2:49:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government absolutely understands that affordability is a challenge for Canadian families. That is why this budget includes some very strong measures to help Canadians: a $500 payment for Canadians who are facing challenges with housing affordability, dental care. I am glad the member spoke about the CCB, which is indexed to inflation. Thanks to that, a single mother with two children will receive up to $13,666. When it comes to seniors, the OAS is going up by 10%.
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  • Jun/6/22 4:05:19 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, it is nice to be here in the House of Commons. It is also nice to hear about all of these electric vehicles. The funny thing is that in my constituency, I think we have two places to plug in, maybe three, and my constituency is the size of Prince Edward Island times four. Another interesting fact about electric cars is that, for anybody who is ordering one, it takes about 20 months to get it, and then there is no place to plug it in, so it is a really great option if one lives in rural Canada. I rise today to speak to the difficult times Canadians are having, which includes the constituents in my home electoral district of Miramichi—Grand Lake. Food, fuel and every aspect of their daily lives are becoming unaffordable, yet the government puts out a budget that would only exacerbate an already bad situation. I recall that back in September of last year, the government was blaming inflation predominantly on the global pandemic. Sometimes inflation would be blamed on other global phenomena. Recently, the blame seems more pointed towards the war in Ukraine. There is lots of blame to go around, although the war has been with us only for a short time compared to the pandemic itself. Nobody is looking in the mirror. No members on the government side of the floor are willing to look at themselves to see how they could have been adding to this inflation. The pandemic was primarily blamed for supply chain issues, shortages and inflation, and now the war is blamed for those. All the while, economists' warnings fell on deaf ears with the government opposite in the House. Now, with the most recent budget, the government is yet again asleep at the wheel, with a pile of new spending and no revenue to compensate for that. The ill-conceived attempts at revenue generation, like the luxury tax and the excise tax, only serve to devastate the very industries and the very sectors being targeted, causing reduced economic development and job losses. Claiming that inflation is a global phenomenon is truly a cop-out, because we had high inflation long before the war in Ukraine, and it is not all just supply-side issues or caused by the pandemic. The cause of high inflation is monetary, and we know that the current government does not have a monetary policy. It does not even plan for it. Liberals do not agree with it, do not support it, and rarely speak of it, but the cause of high inflation, as we know, continues to be monetary, plain and simple. The government is printing more and more money, driving up the cost of everything. If we couple that with large fiscal deficits, which again get monetized by the central bank, the cash gets shoved out into the system, and what do we have? We have more inflation, more Liberal-induced inflation. To most Canadians, it seems like there is a level of complacency in the government with respect to inflation. The government seems oblivious to the struggles of average Canadians, yet continuously regurgitates all that it is doing to make Canadians' lives more affordable. All the while, it is Canadian citizens making the hard choices between nutritious food in the fridge and gas in their cars to get to work with. Where I live, there are not a lot of electric cars, and the folks who want them, God love them, are waiting a long period of time to get the cars. Then, when they get them, there is no place to plug them in. It is a great idea maybe, and I can imagine that a couple of decades down the road we will all be driving electric cars, but we are nowhere near that level in this country, so it borders on outright hypocrisy that, every day, we have to learn about this agenda, which is not working for my riding. It is not because I am a Conservative member of the House. It is because I live in an area that does not support this concept. It will take many years to have the infrastructure to support such a concept. The government's failed economic policy further drives the divide between the rural and the urban. I witness this in Miramichi—Grand Lake, which, as I said, is very rural. I think my riding is a couple of times the size of P.E.I. It could be three or four times the size, but I usually say it is four, because it is quite a lengthy area to drive around on the weekend. Most people travel a long distance to their jobs, which takes costly fuel, and that fuel is hurting their pocketbooks badly now. It is so bad that they are making choices about whether they can keep their children in sports, which creates a healthy lifestyle, or whether they can take a family vacation, or worse yet, whether the family can eat healthy food or not. These are not the choices that any government should want Canadian citizens to make, but a Liberal member opposite said the high gas prices are positive as more people will buy an electric car or ride a bicycle. Wow. That has to be the statement of the century. Maybe that member should come to Miramichi—Grand Lake and bike some of the distances that people must drive to work. Maybe that member could take a bike from Escuminac to McGivney or from Minto over to Sunny Corner or from Neguac up to Boiestown, and enjoy that ride. It is definitely going to take the member a little while to get there. Trust me when I say that the member had better be in good shape, because I doubt he will make the distance needed, especially on a bicycle. To the member's point on electric cars, as I said earlier, we have very few options for plugging in electric cars. There is one in Doaktown at Tim Hortons. There is one at the McDonald's parking lot in Douglastown. I believe there is one more, although the location is eluding me. I doubt we would have half a dozen options within a driving radius of five or six hours, maybe more. I am trying to picture it. There are three in my head. Could we have a few more outside of that? It is possible. However, charging locations for the public are not great options where I live, or trying to afford an electric car. In my riding, in Northumberland County, for the most part the median income is $34,500 per year. With the cost of electric vehicles, even with subsidies, they remain out of reach for most people. Inflation is one thing. If we add it to the carbon tax, we have the perfect storm to punish Canadians for just trying to live, work and look after their family. The families that I know really cannot make ends meet. Families on fixed incomes or low incomes simply cannot pay their rent or buy food, so we are actually in a real crisis in this country. Even as an opposition member, I am still surprised and very much disappointed that the government does not seem to be more concerned about this and does not immediately move to suspend the carbon tax to give Canadians relief at the pumps. Suspending the carbon tax would give relief across the board and reduce fuel prices for everyone, including transportation costs. We would see the reduction in the costs of goods and services and the reduction in the cost of food. I feel the government is doubling down on the tax right now. Considering that the Liberals have not met any climate change emission targets, doing so shows not only that they are out of touch with their own project, but that they are out of touch with Canadians. Hitting an emission target is something they should have achieved if the country is going to pay this much for it when nobody can afford it. I wanted to be a member Parliament to help the people in Miramichi—Grand Lake. It is my belief that each member in this House is here to do the same. Therefore, I call on all members, including those in the sitting government, to remember why they are here and put partisanship and ideologies aside. There are big differences between rural and urban in this country. We have to recognize those differences, regardless of who is in power, and fight to make the changes urgently needed to help Canadians today. The future of the country depends on it. I will not be supporting the budget.
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  • Jun/6/22 4:14:14 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, it is interesting that the member spent a great deal of his time talking about inflation, but there is something he does not tell people who might be following the debate. Yes, we do have inflation, and no one is denying that, but what the Conservatives fail to say is that we need to compare Canada's inflation to what is happening around the world. The pandemic and the war that is taking place in Europe are very real. Inflation is not affecting only Canada; it is affecting the world. In fact, if we compare Canada's inflation rate to that of other countries, whether the United States or the average of the European Union, Canada is doing reasonably well. Ours is actually lower than theirs. Yes, we need to look at policies, including for our seniors. That is one of the reasons why there is a 10% increase for OAS for people over the age of 75. Government is taking action. The child care program is reducing costs, which enables more people to get engaged. I wonder if the member can provide his thoughts as to why the Conservatives put a spin that tries to—
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  • Jun/6/22 4:15:42 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, what the member opposite fails to realize is that when the government stalls an offshore oil project in Newfoundland, the third-largest oil reserve in the country, it is actually trying to stifle the very energy sector that fuels the entirety of the country. The problem here is that the Liberals are so out of touch with the rest of Canada. They drank so much Kool-Aid that they believe their own bullet points now. That is part of the problem. We have inflation in this country because they printed too much money and spent too much money. They did not develop energy at the rate they should have. They left immigrants trying to get in here for months on end. They have literally ruined this country. Everybody in rural Canada knows it, everybody on this side of the floor knows is, and even their constituents know it.
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  • Jun/6/22 4:36:15 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this afternoon's debate on Bill C‑19, which affects public finances, of course. I will have the opportunity to come back to that in a few seconds. Today being June 6, I would like to begin by honouring the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, to liberate all of humanity from the Nazi menace. We owe them our eternal gratitude. Let us turn to the topic that has been affecting all Canadians for far too long now: inflation. Unfortunately, this problem will not go away overnight. Inflation is affecting everyone to varying degrees, from humble workers to retirees, students and business people. Unfortunately, as economic studies from top universities have found, it is having more of an impact on the least fortunate citizens. Inflation is currently hovering around 8% in Canada. We would have to go back 30 years to find such a high inflation rate. As I was saying earlier, it is the least fortunate citizens who are the primary victims. No one will accuse members of the House of being the least fortunate, to say the least, considering how much we earn a year. If anyone has a problem with that, they should know that there will be 338 positions available in three years. We have to keep the least fortunate citizens in mind, and the government has a duty and a responsibility to do something to soften the blow for many Canadians and Canadian families. The member for Mégantic—L'Érable, the deputy leader of the official opposition, kicked off today's question period brilliantly with the sad fact that according to media reports, 20% of families have chosen to eat less in order to save money because of inflation. This is a G7 country with an abundance of natural resources ready to be developed wisely. We also have an active, intelligent, articulate and healthy population that should be able to curb this inflation. Unfortunately, we are living in the shadow of this government, which is slow to act and curb inflation. Let us not forget that this government got elected in 2015 by saying it would run three small deficits and achieve a zero deficit by 2019. However, during its first mandate, each deficit was more staggering than the last. Then the pandemic started, and it was party time. The chequebook was wide open, and no one was paying attention to how much was being spent. Why am I bringing this up? It is because, in times of economic prosperity like we experienced in 2015, when the budget is balanced, it is the perfect time to set aside any surplus. Canada was in an enviable position. We recovered from the global crisis of 2008, which was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, better and faster than any other G7 country. Our country had the best debt-to-GDP ratio because our economy was strong. The Liberals were elected because they promised to run small deficits, but their deficits were massive. Now we are paying the price. When the government spends freely and operates at a deficit, sooner or later, the piper must be paid. The government injected too much money into the economy, and that sowed the seeds of inflation. When the pandemic struck, we all understood that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. It was a crisis, and we agreed with providing immediate help, lots of help, just like every other country. Nevertheless, we were aware that, when a government prints a lot of money, that money has to be paid back eventually. That is why we constantly reminded the government that what it needed to do was help business owners, businesses and especially families and workers, but that it also had to control spending. That is not even close to what happened. Two years ago, during the first summer of the pandemic, we sounded the alarm about the fact that too much money was being given to people who could have worked. People got $2,000 a month to stay home and do nothing rather than work. During the summer, hardly a day went by when I was not hassled, and rightly so, by entrepreneurs, restaurant owners and people who needed workers, but who were told by young people in their twenties that they had enjoyed working from home the previous summer and did not see why they should go back to work this time when they could get $2,000 and still stay at home. When a government spends too much money, sooner or later it is sowing the seeds of inflation. Now we are paying the price. When the first seeds began to grow in this inflationary soil, we were the first to sound the alarm a year ago. However, the government did not listen to us, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance took far too soft a tone, saying that it was temporary and everything would be okay. Even U.S. President Joe Biden has admitted that he was not quick enough to curb inflation when the first signs appeared. Now Canada is paying the price. Was anyone surprised when, in the midst of the fourth wave of the pandemic, in the middle of an election that Prime Minister had said he would not call, he announced that he did not think about monetary policy? I understand that each of us has our own area of expertise. Even though a prime minister may not necessarily be an expert in every field, he should at least be interested in everything. We cannot help but notice that the Prime Minister's interest was not where we needed it to be today. One of the factors contributing to the brutal rise in inflation is the price of gas. It affects everyone. We need to stop thinking of gas purely as something we put in cars. It is much more than that. Every time we need food, which is an essential good if ever there was one, it does not fall from the sky. Someone grew the plant or fed the animal that ends up on our plate. Genies do not exist. We cannot simply blink our eyes and fold our arms and have food appear. Someone, somewhere had to transport it, probably in a gas-powered vehicle. That is today's reality when it comes to the price of gas. I know that some people are very keen environmentalists, and I commend them for it and have no problem with that. However, not everyone can get around by only using public transit. As my colleague said so well earlier, there are regions where there is no public transit. If people want to get from point A to point B, they have to go by car, which might very well consume gas. This has consequences for everyone. A week ago, this government's former finance minister, the Hon. Bill Morneau, took an indirect shot at his former colleagues when he stated that he was worried about the economy. He believes that the future of the economy is worse now than it was in 2015. This is fitting, because we thought the same thing when he was the finance minister. He believes that the current government has no long-term vision for Canada's economy and is more interested in sharing wealth than acquiring it. Everyone agrees with sharing wealth, provided there is some. The more we have, the better, because we will be able to distribute more. It was fitting that the former Liberal finance minister said that, because that is essentially what we were saying when he was minister. I had the great privilege of being his counterpart as my party's shadow minister for finance under our former leader, the Hon. Rona Ambrose. I touched on how a Bay Street fat cat came to invest in the House of Commons, which I would consider a positive for Canada as a whole, had he proposed the kinds of measures that made him successful on Bay Street, but he did not. To make matters even worse, Mr. Morneau said that Canada's lack of competitiveness was setting us up for difficult decisions in the future. Before I take questions from my colleagues, I want to officially say that Canada's number one priority right now is inflation. The best way that the government can deal with inflation is to limit spending. It must also reduce taxes, not increase them.
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  • Jun/6/22 6:35:02 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-19 
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise to talk about budget 2022, or what the Liberals are calling “A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable”. I thought I would put that audacious claim to the test against reality on the ground. Inflation is at a generational high. House prices are out of reach for most first-time buyers. The price of gas is soaring, at $2.36 a litre in my home in the Lower Mainland. Now interest rates are creeping up, with the promise of more to come as the Bank of Canada seeks to fight inflation. This is hardly a formula for making life more affordable. We are going to hear in a minute about what the current Minister of Finance says, but I want to draw attention to what the former minister of finance has said now that he is no longer tethered to the talking points of the Liberal Party. This is what he said about the government of which he used to be a part: “So much time and energy was spent on finding ways to redistribute Canada's wealth that there was little attention given to the importance of increasing our collective prosperity—let alone developing a disciplined way of thinking and acting on the problem.” There we go. This is what Bill Morneau said recently to the C.D. Howe Institute. The emphasis is on wealth distribution, not on wealth creation. When we talk about dividing the pie, we are not talking about growing the pie. That thinking has led to reduced economic productivity numbers. Let us compare ourselves with our biggest trading partner, the United States. There, the average worker earns $67,000 a year. In Canada it is only $50,000, a 25% lower productivity number. The average American worker pumps $66 per hour worked into the national GDP. In Canada, it is only $50, so again, there is a 20% reduction. This lag in productivity is Canada's Achilles heel, and I am so happy that the current Minister of Finance has acknowledged that in her budget report. I will get to that in a minute, but first I want to talk about housing. We are all happy to hear that the government has finally acknowledged that economic fundamentals are at play, that the free market can help us find solutions and that the federal government can help by leveraging monetary policy in a way that helps private enterprise find solutions. Here is a quote from page vi of the budget report: Over the next ten years, we will double the number of new homes we build. This must become a great national effort, and it will demand a new spirit of collaboration—provinces and territories; cities and towns; the private sector and non-profits all working together with us to build the homes that Canadians need. This sounds very optimistic, but again I want to test this against reality on the ground. My riding of Langley—Aldergrove has been ground zero for Canada's housing affordability crisis, but there is also a housing construction boom going on thanks to the many hard-working men and women in the housing industry who are answering the call to meet the demand for new housing. I want to highlight the work of one company and one man in particular, Mr. Shawn Bouchard, who heads Quadra Homes, one of the bigger builders in the Lower Mainland. He and his business partners stepped up to the Prime Minister's challenge for private enterprise to come up with big ideas to solve the housing affordability crisis. This is what he and his partners have done. They have taken one of their upcoming for-profit market condo projects and want to convert it into an affordable rental housing project. They put in an application with the Township of Langley and the township agreed with them. It has contributed $27 million to the project in the form of forgone fees and charges. Now Mr. Bouchard and his partners are looking to the federal government to come to the table too, in the spirit of collaboration that the Minister of Finance likes to talk about. All they are looking for is a guaranteed long-term, low-interest mortgage commitment from CMHC through the rental construction financing initiative. However, they put in a presentation to the Minister of Housing and are being ignored. I advocated for it. I contacted the minister's office and we are being ignored. I met with Mr. Bouchard on the weekend, and he and his partners have had to make a final investment decision. They are going back to a market condo project. So much for creative thinking; so much for collaboration. Once again, the government gets an A for announcements and an F on delivery. I want to talk about what the minister has been saying about investing in the green transition. She said that climate change is “an existential challenge. That means it is also an economic [reality].” Well, being from the Fraser Valley, I probably know that better than any member of Parliament, with all the flooding that we had recently. I, together with some of my colleagues, all Conservative MPs from the area, met with Mayor Braun six or eight weeks before the flooding happened. He pointed out that what was required to beef up the dike systems protecting his area would be about $1 billion. It sounds like a lot of money, but now that the flooding has happened, and nobody knew it was going to happen or how bad it would be, it is now $5 billion just to do the repairs. That is what is in the budget, but if the Minister of Emergency Preparedness had been paying attention, he would have known that for $1 billion, the problem could have been solved. Now we are just going to repair the damage that has been done, but the dikes still need to be seismically upgraded. Again, it is an A for announcement and an F on delivery. That seems to be the practice of this government. With the couple of minutes I have left, I want to talk about what the Minister of Finance calls Canada's Achilles heel, which is our lagging productivity numbers. Now, we have heard from witnesses in committee that Canada indeed does have a highly educated workforce. We have the best research universities in the country. We have lots of potential to compete with Silicon Valley. However, here is the problem: While we are very good at technology start-up, we are not very good at technology ramping up and scaling up into productive corporations. Investment dollars follow great ideas, and great ideas follow investment dollars. That, unfortunately, is happening in the United States, in the European Union and, sadly, also in China. In an exchange I had with one of the witnesses at committee, I said, “Are you saying that a company like Huawei gives research grants to universities and then walks out the back door with the intellectual property assets?” He said, “Well, there is just one small correction: It walks out the front door with them.” I am very encouraged that the Minister of Finance is now recognizing this as a problem. She said, “This is a well-known Canadian problem—and an insidious one. It is time for Canada to tackle it.... We will encourage small Canadian companies to get bigger. We will help Canadians and Canadian companies to develop new IP—and to turn their new ideas into new businesses and new jobs.” Notably, she does not say “in Canada for Canadians”. I am assuming that was just an oversight, but perhaps not. I want to end on a positive note, because I am a positive kind of person. I am hopeful that, with the Minister of Finance now putting in writing her acknowledgement that Canada has a productivity problem, the government is now going to get serious about solving the problem. Then again, given the well-known emphasis on dividing the pie rather than growing it, I am not holding my breath. I am sorry, but that is as positive as I can be about this budget.
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