44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 29, 2022 10:00AM
- Sep/29/22 10:20:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the motion we are debating today proposes a concrete measure to help Canadians.
Today's measure is a concrete proposal. It is a very simple, straightforward proposal to help Canadians deal with the Liberal-caused inflation. It will allow them to keep more of their hard-earned dollars. The government is devaluing the dollars they are earning, so the very least it can do is to let Canadians keep more of the dollars they have worked so hard for in the first place.
We have to get back to the root cause. It will do Canadians and seniors no good to increase something with the left hand, but with the right hand take away all of that benefit with rising prices. As long as the government continues its vicious circle of increased spending and the borrowing that goes along with it, we will continue to have inflation. It will just make the problem worse. That is why we have to tackle the root cause of inflation.
I should point out that for several months we have had 8% inflation in this country. It is back to school time and I have been helping my daughters with their math, and 8%, I figured out, is just about one-twelfth. That is as if one were to go buy a case of beer, open up the first one and just dump it right down the drain. It just evaporates, or it is like working all month, day in and day out, and at the end of that month one finds out one worked for nothing. That is the effect of 8% inflation. Canadians are tired of working one month out of the year for nothing. The very least the government can do is to let them keep what they have earned the other 11 months.
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- Sep/29/22 10:22:29 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my father has worked very hard ever since he immigrated to this country. He has worked in sawmills and in coal mines in Alberta and B.C., and to this day he continues to drive a taxi, because he just cannot stay at home, so he would rather go out and work. He has always said that in Canada, if people work, they can pay their bills and provide for their families, and if they work hard, they can buy really nice things, too. That is the reason so many people, like my father and many others, have come to this country. They came to Canada for the opportunities and to be able to provide for their families.
However, the Liberal government has created a Canada that many Canadians struggle to recognize now, where working hard no longer means people will be able to pay for fuel, heat their homes or even own a home at all. Affordability is a top concern for Canadians across the country. When asked in a recent survey what issues we should focus on during this parliamentary session, almost every response listed the cost of living as a top concern.
Now in Canada we have college students living in homeless shelters, single mothers who cannot afford to buy nutritious food for their children, and seniors turning to food banks as a last resort. Even in recent reports, those same food banks are saying that they are struggling to even stay open, that they do not have enough food to provide to those who show up for help and support.
We have a generation of young Canadians living in their parents' basements without the hope of ever moving out. Young families who were once saving up for a down payment are now having to use that down payment to buy groceries and pay for gas. Grandparents watch as their adult children struggle to provide for their own children, despite having jobs. There is much pain and struggle among Canadians. They did everything we asked them to do, yet the government is failing them.
When the Prime Minister took office, Canadians were paying 32% of their income, on average, to maintain a mid-size house. Now the average family has to pay 50% of its income just to keep that house. Canadians are putting themselves in debt to cover their basic expenses and repaying this borrowed money at an unpredictable and growing interest rate. The government told Canadians that rates would remain low for a long time, but now we can see interest rates rising every few months and Canadians just cannot keep up. Instead of providing relief to Canadians, the government is increasing taxes on those who are already struggling.
I have heard from many people across my riding, single mothers, small business owners and families in Edmonton Mill Woods, who cannot afford the government's spending agenda, a spending agenda that the government itself cannot afford. As one constituent said to me, we need a government that works for Canadians, not the other way around. I could not agree more.
My riding of Edmonton Mill Woods is very much a multicultural community. Many immigrants have come to this beautiful place to make their lives here. I know many hard-working immigrant families that work long hours, trying to provide a good life for their children, but still fall short of meeting the inflationary demands created by the government.
A constituent of mine, Abdul, is a local business owner and a new immigrant from Nigeria. Like most small business owners, he works a lot more than the usual eight hours per day. This is a person who is driven, hard-working and passionate about his business, yet he struggles to make ends meet. He confided in me that he cannot afford to put his children in hockey or put his daughter in dance. Unlike the government, he cannot spend money he does not have.
Kim, another constituent, is a single mother and the sole provider for her children. She continues to struggle to afford to put gas in her car in order just to get to her job. Unlike the government, she has to save up money in order to spend it on her children. She had to save up just to buy school supplies this year, which, of course, cost more because of the government-created inflation crisis right now. I believe single mothers like Kim and many other Canadians have something to teach the government. It must find a dollar to spend a dollar. It must have the money to spend the money.
Now the government is making things worse for Canadians. The government must scrap its planned tax hikes on Canadian families and Canadian businesses. Canadians cannot keep up with this out-of-control spending, which is driving interest rates and inflation. Instead of just printing more money, we need to produce more things we can buy. We need to produce affordable food, energy and natural resources right here in Canada.
Our farmers are the best in the world. By removing the barriers the government has placed on them, we would increase our food production and make food more affordable. We must scrap these taxes on farmers, scrap the government's plan to reduce the use of fertilizer, and eliminate even the red tape that makes it more expensive for farmers. Let our farmers do what they do best, which is to grow our food.
In fact, if the government would just get out of way, farmers would not only be able to provide more food for Canadians, but could also help in this looming food shortage crisis around the world.
I would also suggest the government go out and speak to Canadians and hear from them. I suggest the government speak to my constituents and other constituents across the country about what is actually happening to them, their families and their businesses. I recently sat down with a group of truckers, and I was astonished to hear that some trucking companies are actually finding it cheaper and saving money by parking their trucks. Diesel and the cost of paying for and finding a driver have become so expensive that they are saving money by not working.
We must ensure Canadians keep more of their paycheques in their pockets and that energy, gas, heating and other costs become more affordable. Instead of importing foreign energy, we must get rid of laws like the ones arising out of Bill C-69 and allow energy to be produced here in Canada. Bill C-69 itself was a major roadblock for bringing new investments and projects into Canada.
Canada currently imports over 130,000 barrels of overseas oil daily, mostly from dictator countries. This is despite the fact we have the third-largest supply of energy right here in Canada, with much of it in Alberta. That is all because the government prefers dirty dictator oil to responsible Canadian energy.
We will repeal the government's anti-energy laws and replace them with laws that protect our environment, consult our first nations and actually get projects done. That will mean more jobs for Canadians and more ethical Canadian energy for the world. This will also help the value of our dollar.
It is never the right time to raise taxes on working Canadians, yet that is exactly what the government is doing. We continue to call on the government to cancel all planned tax hikes, including payroll taxes planned for January 1 and tax hikes on gas, groceries and home heating on April 1. I hope the government and all other members of the House will support our motion today.
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- Sep/29/22 10:35:07 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I could not agree with my colleague more when he raised that we could be spending today talking about more important issues. Here we are, on the eve of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. What do we hear from the Conservatives? We have a rerun of Tuesday. We had the House leader of the official opposition talking about beer.
What are they doing today? They are spending time, and every day this week, delaying getting help to people.
Does my colleague not believe that, today, we should be spending the day talking about the pressing issues that are facing indigenous peoples in this country, putting pressure on the government to fulfill their commitment on the truth and reconciliation calls to action and on the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls calls to justice? Why are they not spending today doing that? Why are we not spending this day doing that, today, right now?
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- Sep/29/22 10:36:09 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are spending the day talking about important issues. We are talking about making life more affordable for all Canadians, including indigenous communities, new Canadians and Canadians who have been here for generations, because this crisis has gotten to a point where Canadians just cannot go on. On top of that, now, the Liberal government is going to make things even more unaffordable.
When we talk to our constituents and they say that they are having a hard time providing food for their families, that they are struggling to even support their families, that is a national crisis that we must deal with. We will continue to discuss this. We will continue to put pressure on the government until they stop increasing taxes on Canadians.
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- Sep/29/22 11:48:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Durham for his kind words. Those are very much appreciated.
I think there is a tension in the Conservative position that manifests even in his question. He is asking about how we can try to reduce input costs, recognizing that part of what has been going on in the economy and with inflation right now has much to do with supply-side pressures, not demand-side pressures. However, what we hear most often from the Conservatives is that this is demand-driven and is about spending. It is all about the government spending too much money, and that is what is driving up prices. There are many factors driving inflation, so I am very glad to hear an acknowledgement of some of the other pressures that are creating inflation outside of government spending.
As the member knows, I think the best way to deal with those is targeted relief with income support for people who really need it, because simply cutting taxes for everyone will allow those who are wealthier to drive inflationary costs with increased demand at a time when we do not need that extra pressure.
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- Sep/29/22 12:19:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the reality is this. The Prime Minister has spent more than every other prime minister combined in Canadian history. That is a consequence of the government's out-of-control spending through budget after budget. It is not just a consequence of the last two years, frankly.
I think Canadians want to see their elected representatives take responsibility for the government's policy agenda, which is making life too expensive and unaffordable, causing Canadians to struggle to make ends meet and causing great anxiety and fear about their futures. It just is mind boggling to me to hear elected representatives from other parties acknowledging the cost-of-living crisis, but taking no responsibility whatsoever and refusing to vote in favour of what is an obvious and immediate tangible measure that could provide relief to every single struggling working and everyday Canadian in every part of the country.
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Madam Speaker, I like to think of what is being proposed by the Conservative Party as another opportunity for us to really express the contrast. What a difference there is between the Conservative Party and the governing party, the Liberal Party of Canada. We have a Prime Minister, ministers and in fact an entire Liberal caucus who are very much focused on ensuring that we have an economy that works for all Canadians. That is our priority.
It should be no surprise that back in 2015 when we formed government, we made a commitment to Canada's middle class and those aspiring to be a part of it. If we take a look at the policies, whether they are budgetary measures or legislative measures, members will find that we have been consistent virtually from day one.
When we had the worldwide pandemic, and I emphasize “worldwide”, we responded by supporting Canadians. We supported them in a big way. For millions of Canadians, small businesses and individuals, we were there. We spent billions of dollars in support, and the Conservatives actually voted in favour of many of those billions of dollars. However, today, they criticize us for spending that money. There is a word in the dictionary that would best describe this but it is unparliamentary so I will not say it. However, I can tell members that the Conservative Party of Canada is all over the map on all sorts of economic and environmental issues. The Conservatives are not consistent.
Last Tuesday, in an emergency debate, they talked about taxes, and they used the example of the price on pollution. Members will remember that Stephen Harper was supportive of a price on pollution, but the Conservatives back then said, “No, we don't support a price on pollution.” They were jumping up and down in opposition saying that it was not a price on pollution but a tax. Then the former Conservative leader, the one before the interim leader, indicated very clearly that he supported the principle of having a price on pollution. That leader was the one who led the entire group, and every Conservative candidate in Canada campaigned on a price on pollution. However, again, we see members of the Conservative Party taking a massive flip. They have changed their policy, even though they campaigned on it, and now they do not support a price on pollution. Now they are talking about other taxes.
We can think of the leadership of the Conservative Party and the need to be consistent. What did the Conservative leader talk about? My colleague from Kingston and the Islands has raised this on a couple of occasions and the Minister of Finance has raised it. Many of us in the Liberal caucus do not understand why the leader of the official opposition today, as a leadership candidate, said to all those who wanted to listen to invest in cryptocurrency. He said that was the way to fight inflation. He encouraged Canadians and his followers to invest in it.
We have to feel for the individuals who followed the advice of the Conservative leader. Who knows? Maybe it was not his personal idea; maybe it was from another Conservative. I do not know. The bottom line is that it was a stupid idea. At the end of the day, how many Canadians lost thousands of dollars because they listened to today's leader of the Conservative Party just a few months back?
We can think of the Bank of Canada, an institution recognized around the world for its independence and good stewardship on the issue of Canada's money supply and the impact it has on our economy. Well, the leader of the Conservative Party had an idea: He would fire the Governor of the Bank of Canada. How bizarre is that?
There were even Conservatives who did not support that. I can recall at least one who was somewhat displaced from the front bench and the role he was playing because he was vocal that this was a dumb idea. He spoke truth to power, many would ultimately argue.
The Conservatives talk about wanting tax relief and wanting to give relief to Canadians because of inflation. There are two things that come to mind. Number one is that they need to take their collective heads out of the sand and recognize that inflation is taking place around the world. In the U.S.A., the inflation rate is higher. In Europe and in England, the inflation rate is higher. It does not mean that Canada should not be doing anything.
We have a progressive government that has consistently, from 2015, been there for Canadians in a very real and tangible way. In fact, we have brought forward two pieces of legislation that would provide virtually immediate relief for Canadians. We all know, in regard to the GST rebate, that Bill C-30 has passed into committee. That was to give 11 million Canadians money in their pockets to assist them in dealing with inflation. Originally, the Conservatives opposed it. That is hard to believe. How do they oppose something when they are saying they want tax breaks and that is what we would be providing? We would be providing cash in people's pockets, and originally the Conservatives opposed it.
I am grateful. I do not want to come across as being ungrateful all the time. I am grateful the Conservatives actually changed their minds again. This time, 11 million Canadians are going to benefit, because of the Conservatives changing their minds and supporting sending the legislation to committee. I am an optimist, with my fingers crossed and all. I am hoping it will go through the committee and get through third reading, and hopefully we will be able to do that in a relatively quick fashion. We have to do it before they change their minds again, but that was an encouraging sight.
We have Bill C-31, which would do two things. One is that it would establish, for the first time in history, here in Canada, an opportunity for parents to collect support for dental care for children under the age of 12. Who would oppose that? At a time when we are experiencing inflation and have children who are going into hospital for emergency services in order to get dental work done because they cannot afford to get it done, and we have a government that is bringing forward legislation that would assist them in doing that, it is hard to believe the Conservatives would oppose that.
Tied into that legislation is additional support for people who are having a difficult time making rent payments. It is hundreds of dollars, and millions across the country, and the Conservatives, again, are indicating they are not going to be supporting Bill C-31. It is unfortunate.
On the one hand, they say to support Canadians. On the other hand, if they are ashamed, we can convince them to make a flip-flop, as with Bill C-30, but we still have a little more work to do to get them convinced that providing a service to our children under the age of 12 to get dental work is a good thing and they should support it, and that the support for rental payments is worthy of support. Hopefully we will see Bill C-31 pass.
There are so many things the Government of Canada is doing to support our economy and the people of Canada. The emphasis is on ensuring that we have an economy that is working for all Canadians. At the same time, we understand the importance of health care, whether it is long-term care, mental health, dental or working with the provinces, and it does not mean being an ATM. What it means is ensuring there is a higher sense of accountability.
Canadians deserve the best quality health care, and this is a government and a minister who are committed to delivering that.
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- Sep/29/22 1:05:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I see the member's passion and I respect that. I have a question for him.
Canadians are spending 43% of their income on taxes and 35.7% on basic necessities. Could the member help me understand something, because I guess I am a bit of a numbers person? Are we giving them all of these benefits to pay for the increase in taxes? Is that how we are helping the individuals who really need our help today?
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- Sep/29/22 1:08:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Chilliwack—Hope.
The residents of my riding, the good people of Miramichi—Grand Lake, are struggling. They want to take control of their lives. They want to take control back from the government, which continues to take it from them.
After the pandemic, after hurricane Fiona and after years of broken Liberal promises to improve the lives of the middle class, folks are done with these Liberal gatekeepers making things worse. The cost of Liberal spending is driving up the cost of living. The GST rebate will provide welcome relief that Conservatives support, but it will not address the real problem. Inflationary deficits and taxes are driving up costs at the fastest rate in nearly 40 years.
A half a trillion dollars of Liberal deficits bid up the cost of the goods we buy and the interest rates we pay. Inflationary Liberal taxes have inflated the cost of making the goods we are buying. The more the Liberals spend, the higher the taxes, and the more things cost is just inflation.
The folks of my riding have racked up mountains of debt. Credit cards, lines of credit and people are so desperate they refinanced their homes, using up the equity they need to retire just to pay for groceries and gas. The cost of living is a total crisis in Canada, and the Liberals caused it and are making it worse.
The carbon tax is going to triple the cost of everything in this country. Do Liberals understand what that means to Atlantic Canadians and to those in my riding of Miramichi—Grand Lake? Heating oil is one of the most common ways we heat our homes in Atlantic Canada. It is delivered by trucks that run on diesel. That is also going up in price. The NDP and the Liberals voted just yesterday to triple the carbon tax.
Enough is enough. It is time for the Liberals to listen to Conservatives: no new taxes on gas, groceries, home heating or paycheques in our country.
Canadians cannot make ends meet as it is, never mind affording a tripling of the carbon tax. Four out of five Canadians have to cut back on food because they cannot afford groceries. It comes at a time when Canadians cannot even fill up their cars or trucks to go to work. This is not a luxury. It is the reality of rural Canada. Because the Prime Minister is so busy jet-setting around the globe, he rarely ever comes to Atlantic Canada. He does not realize we burn furnace oil and still use wood heat and wood pellets.
This is exactly the wrong time to raise taxes on paycheques, gas and other essential goods. Inflation is at a 40-year high, and nine out 10 young people who do not already own a home do not think they ever will. Imagine being in this age bracket in our country and believing it will never be possible to own a home in Canada. I have constituents who feel this way. I take their phone calls and get their emails. I see the struggle of young families in rural Canada every day. Members on this side of the House understand that struggle.
Home prices in New Brunswick skyrocketed in the last couple of years as folks in Ontario and Quebec fled the unaffordable cost of living, putting home ownership further out of reach for young people in places like Miramichi—Grand Lake.
Conservatives are calling on the government to cancel all planned tax increases, including payroll tax hikes planned for January 1 and tax hikes on gas, groceries and home heating on April 1. We are demanding it today.
It has been crickets from the six Liberal MPs from New Brunswick as their government imposed a more punitive carbon tax on New Brunswick than other Atlantic provinces. It has been crickets from the six Liberal MPs when the federal government shut down the proposed iron ore plant in Belledune. Where was the member for Acadie—Bathurst when that was shut down? The Belledune proposal, quite frankly, shows how backward the Liberal approach on the carbon tax has been.
Instead of creating paycheques in New Brunswick, very close to Miramichi, and processing iron ore using modern technology that would reduce global emissions, the Liberals killed the project with their carbon tax. The result is that the iron ore is going to be processed overseas by a higher-polluting plant. We cannot make these things up; they are real, and the people of my region lived it, because those jobs do not exist now.
The Liberals are just not getting it right for Canadians on the cost of carbon tax. The Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that the carbon tax costs 60% of households more than they get back, but I guess that is really the point. Every day, I try to table this report, but I never receive unanimous consent. I wonder why.
The Liberals have repeatedly hiked taxes to pay for their out-of-control spending, but Canadians cannot afford it. The cost of Liberal spending is driving up the cost of living. Who is supporting it? It is the NDP, the very elected officials who were not elected to be the government. They were elected in opposition, like many members of this House. However, the Canadian public now has them in caucus with the Liberals, which it did not want. Nobody voted for it, but believe me, they are going to pay for it. Everybody knows it, and it is so good to know that.
After the Liberal broken promises, the pandemic and now Fiona, I am here on behalf of my constituents, my family and friends, and all the people struggling in one manner or another with the state of the economy right now in Canada. We are all actively involved in our respective regions and see the suffering the cost of living is causing to our fellow Canadians. This, in and of itself, should be a reason to set politics aside and support this motion.
I want every member to think about this when considering how to vote. My electoral district of Miramichi—Grand Lake has the historic county of Northumberland within its boundary. In the most recent StatsCan survey, it was revealed that the average income is less than $40,000 per year. What would it be like to try to pay the utility bills, rent or mortgage, gas and car payments to get to work on that amount of money per year?
I want members to think about that amount of money, then think about tripling the carbon tax and putting up the cost of everything we buy, and then try to picture themselves in that situation. Canadians are living that situation every single day in this country. Members should ask themselves what it would be like to try to feed themselves and possibly their family on that amount of money.
All the while, costs are continuing to rise. If any member in this House is willing to support any additional taxes that pile more stress and suffering onto Canadians who are already having a hard time keeping their heads above water, it would be the opinion of the constituents in my riding that they do not belong in this place.
I will be voting to protect my constituents and all Canadians, as we cannot see the government force new taxes on a struggling Canadian society.
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- Sep/29/22 2:47:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister answers every question with mock bewilderment that we dare question her record levels of spending and the increasing taxes to pay for them. She seems obsessed with Stephen Harper, whose record is clear: In 2015, just seven years after a global economic meltdown, the Liberals inherited a balanced budget.
Our Conservative government had lowered virtually every tax that Canadians could pay and Canada's middle class had become the richest in the world. How things have changed.
Could the minister tell us if Canada's growing affordability crisis is due to just inflation or is it just incompetence?
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- Sep/29/22 4:16:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Lethbridge.
I am happy to be here today supporting our opposition motion, which states:
That, given that the cost of government is driving up inflation, making the price of goods Canadians buy and the interest they pay unaffordable, this House call on the government to commit to no new taxes on gas, groceries, home heating and pay cheques.
I want to bring the voices of my constituents from Kelowna—Lake Country to Ottawa, not the other way around. Over many months this year, I have sent out several surveys to hear how people are struggling with the government's 40-year-high inflation. I had thousands of responses. Robyn in Lake Country said, “People can't afford to eat, to get to work, to take care of the basics for their families in this economy.” Rollie in Kelowna wrote that the government must “slow down on their spending. They're putting people in the poor house. It's a real shame.”
Tax relief is what my constituents are asking for, and the vast majority agree. With the record gas prices we are seeing today in British Columbia, that relief is more desperately needed than ever.
Recently, as a member of the industry committee, I questioned Aaron Wudrick, director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. In response to my questioning about Canada's regulatory burden, high taxes and expensive housing affecting young adults, Mr. Wudrick said, “In short, they're discouraging.”
I agree with his assessment, especially after speaking with many young people in Kelowna—Lake Country and across B.C. over the summer. They feel hopeless. They feel hopeless when seeing the value of their paycheques decline, hopeless in finding the money they need to start a business and hopeless in finding an affordable apartment, let alone ever dreaming of owning a home of their own.
International students often pursue education in high-demand fields. They have lost hope in being able to afford to live in Canada. We have a labour crisis in everything from health care to farming to tourism. The government's high-spend, high-cost agenda will see us lose their ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
A recent Leger poll showed that 46% of young immigrants say they are now less likely to stay in Canada. When asked why they would not recommend Canada to future immigrants, the top two reasons given were the cost of living and the current government.
Higher taxes are not the solution either. How do we know? It is because under the last Conservative government, we oversaw the lowest federal tax burden in over half a century, nobody needed to wait month after month for passport renewals past deadlines and homes were half the price. Furthermore, it should come as no surprise that new taxes, as well as presently automatic tax increases, would have a significant impact on small business owners.
As the shadow minister for small business recovery and growth, I have had the opportunity to speak with numerous workers and owners of small businesses in Kelowna—Lake Country and across the country to hear their perspectives, the challenges facing them and what needs to be done, or not done, by the federal government to allow them not just to survive but to succeed. We have a 40-year-high inflation rate, labour shortages, supply chain issues, increasing business debt and federal tax increases on businesses, and they are already increasing costs at an unmanageable level for small businesses.
Small businesses have been hit particularly hard as a result of the volatile open-and-shut cycle over the last two and a half years, with 54% of businesses still reporting below-normal revenues. About 62% of small businesses are still carrying debt from the pandemic, according to the CFIB. It also notes that small business insolvencies are on the rise, with a reported one in six businesses considering closing their doors. Downtowns and business districts have been hollowed out, with small businesses in those areas struggling to even keep their doors open given limited customers.
I spoke to a BIA organization this week, a business improvement area organization, that often represents main streets. It is saying that now the heart of some of its issues deal with mental health and addiction crises. It also said its members are burdened with debt. They are having a very challenging time.
Many are barely hanging on. It is nothing short of cold-hearted to increase multiple taxes that would further hit their bottom lines. I know what a small business owner is going through, as I have been one myself. Small business owners have not forgotten the 2017 Liberal-proposed tax changes that party attempted to ram through on small businesses, which would have been devastating to entrepreneurship in our country. These tax changes would have had “significant, unintended effects on all SMEs, particularly middle-class, family businesses.” Those are the words that came from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade back in 2018.
Thanks to the advocacy of small businesses, chambers of commerce, BIAs, boards of trades and Conservatives pressing the issue day in and day out, the government finally backed down. This just shows the government's mindset.
What are the main taxes that are going up soon? We have the payroll tax, the excise tax and the carbon tax, which affects the cost of everything. Dan Kelly at the CFIB put it well recently in explaining why a payroll tax is, in fact, a tax. As he put it, “1. They are mandatory, with penalties for not paying. 2. While there are benefits that come back to some of those paying premiums, they are not proportionate to the amount paid. 3. For the business that pays 60% of EI & 50% of CPP costs, they are unquestionably payroll taxes as the benefits are for workers, not employers.”
Regardless of what the government says and tries to obfuscate, even the Prime Minister has called these payroll taxes, and many other Liberals have as well. These taxes are going up every year, hitting the paycheques of workers and the bottom lines of small businesses, and should not be increasing during a time of 40-year-high inflation.
The excise tax is an escalator tax, which is a fancy bureaucratic word for “automatic”. It is a tax that does not have to come to Parliament to increase. It automatically goes up. The excise tax is on beer, wine, ciders and spirits. These industries raise concerns about this every year while the government ignores them, and 95% are small businesses.
Every year these taxes go up automatically, hitting our local producers with more taxes, as well as the retailers and restauranteurs who buy these products and who then have to pass on the price to people who buy them. This ultimately adds further to inflation. As Restaurants Canada said, the government introducing the automatic escalator in 2017 “made an already bad situation worse” for restaurants.
Recently at the industry committee, we heard from Beer Canada, which called excise tax increases “counterproductive and harmful” to their sector, and “simply not sustainable over the long term.” Let us not forget this escalator is tied to the CPI and, therefore, inflation, meaning it will go even higher next year, adding more to inflation. It is set to increase again on April 1.
On the carbon tax, after the government said it would cap it at $50 a tonne, it is now planning to bring it up to $150 a tonne, more than three times what was initially promised and at a rate that small businesses are still disproportionately paying into without the appropriate rebates to offset it. Carbon tax increases make the cost of fuel, food and goods shipped anywhere more expensive.
It is time for the government to recognize that adding taxes only increases costs and inflation. The government has provided no solutions to address inflation itself, and now, on top of 40-year-high inflation and interest rate hikes, small businesses' bottom lines are being further squeezed with higher costs for imported goods due to the Canadian dollar falling to the lowest point in almost two years.
Stop the pain. Stop the tax increases.
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- Sep/29/22 4:34:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, more and more Canadians are struggling to get by because their dollars are valued less and less due to inflation.
Let us talk about charities for a moment. Many charities have filled the gaps we have had in this country, but because Canadians are so hard done by right now, they do not even have enough left at the end of the month to donate where they normally would. This is then leaving an increased gap in social services and the ability to care for one another. That is shameful.
We have an affordability crisis that is actually destroying people's lives, but the government can play a role. It can if it chooses to. It is simple. It needs to axe the tax. It needs to stop its out-of-control spending, and it needs to be a responsible government that brings in investment rather than pushing it out.
There are other things, too. We have an opportunity in the realm of agriculture. We are incredible at producing food. We literally feed the world. My riding of Lethbridge does this incredibly well. The bounty that comes from there should be celebrated, but instead we have a government that wants to put policies in place that would reduce crop yield. We have a government that wants to punish our farmers and producers, those who bring life, rather than celebrate them or give them credit for the incredible superpower they hold.
There is another superpower too: energy. We have the third-largest oil reserve in the world, and we are the fifth-largest producer of natural gas. Just like food, the world needs energy. It is what keeps us going, and Canada has the potential to be the solution to the world's needs in this regard. We could be stepping up and taking our place on the world stage, but instead we are shrinking back. We could displace the reliance, currently in existence, on regimes that we should not be supporting, but instead we continue.
We have an opportunity to be the answer to Europe's need for LNG, as the chancellor of Germany asked us to be, but the Prime Minister responded by saying there is no business case. How is there is no business case? Of course there is a business case. There are people in need of energy, and we have energy. The government should figure out the infrastructure and make it happen. It simply takes political will.
The NDP and the Liberals love to rail against profitable organizations, but in their attempt to foster an environment of hostility and demonize those who would generate wealth, they forget about a few facts. One is that, in the generation of wealth, jobs are created. In the generation of wealth, taxes are paid and, ultimately, those taxes come full circle and help support the very social programs that we value. It is crucial to understand that without the generation of wealth, there is no safety net for those in need.
Let me say that again. Without the generation of wealth, there is no safety net for those in need. Therefore, instead of demonizing the businesses that are producing jobs, generating wealth and helping our country do well, let us celebrate them. I am confident that, if we can get government out of the way to provide the freedom for Canadians to reach their greatest potential, our nation would not only thrive but also be a leader among nations. It just takes a bit of political will.
We have the opportunity to foster an environment of entrepreneurship, to remove unnecessary boundaries and red tape, to scrap excess taxation, and to draw investment into our country. That is what Conservatives are calling on the government to do.
Yesterday, we gave the folks opposite an opportunity to vote with Conservatives and for Canadians. We asked them to do this by halting their plan to triple the carbon tax. Sadly, they chose themselves instead of the Canadian people, so today we are giving them another opportunity to stand with millions of Canadians. Millions of Canadians are struggling to get by. Millions of Canadians are struggling to feed their families, pay their rent, afford their mortgages and fuel their cars. That is real.
The folks across the way can pull out whatever sorts of charts, graphs and “statistics” they want. It is not going to convince Canadians that somehow they are better off just because the Liberals told them so.
Canadians know the reality. They feel the reality, day in and day out, when they have to make hard choices about where they will spend their last dollar.
In the midst of an affordability crisis, we are calling on the government today to stop their planned tax increases on the paycheques of Canadians so they can keep more of the money they earn.
Canadians and Conservatives are hoping that the government will finally demonstrate some compassion, do the right thing and vote in favour of this motion today. It is time to give Canadians back the control of their lives that they always should have had because the potential is within the people. The future of this country is within the people. They are the problem-solvers. They are the solution makers. They are the wealth generators. They are the ones who are going to take us toward a prosperous future. They are the ones who deserve for the government to get out of the way to allow them to move forward in the direction they wish to go.
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- Sep/29/22 6:25:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will begin my remarks by recognizing the freedom-loving, independent-minded and hard-working people who live in Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke.
Never has the threat to democracy in Canada been more in jeopardy than it is with our Prime Minister, who is quick to accuse others of being racist while he enjoys dressing up in costumes and blackface to make fun of other people's cultures and skin colours.
My question to the Prime Minister was specifically related to the amount of $15 billion dollars in the national defence budget that was unaccounted for. The 2022 departmental plan indicates its intent to spend $77 billion between 2022-23 and 2024-25. However, the corresponding numbers in budget 2022 are roughly $23 billion higher. While part of this spending pertains to new policy measures presented in budget 2022, there is no explanation for close to $15 billion.
Surely by coincidence, the Canada growth fund was announced as something in the budget document that would be “initially capitalized at $15 billion over the next five years” from the existing fiscal framework. The only $15 billion parliamentarians are aware of unaccounted for in the budget to be misappropriated is the missing $15 billion identified by the non-partisan Parliamentary Budget Officer.
The objective of the Canada growth fund, Canadians are told, is to close the large gap between what Canada is experiencing between the public and private capital now being spent each year, $15 billion to $25 billion, and the amount that is required to be siphoned from the economy, $125 billion $140 billion, if Canada is to have a net-zero Marxist economy by 2050. This same language was used recently by the defence minister when it was announced that continental defence modernization needs $3 billion from, once again, existing budget 2022 allocations. No new funding was announced for this finally acknowledged threat to Canada and the rules-based international order.
The more sanctions Canada employs against Russia, the more we draw Russia's attention to our borders. Canada’s Arctic sovereignty is at risk. The government House leader, using the usual mannered, evasive response to questions practised by the Prime Minister to irritating extremes, ignores the fact that it was the decision of the Liberal Party to disband, during the decade of darkness at national defence, Canada’s rapid response light brigade. Its role was to defend Canadian Arctic sovereignty.
When Canada lost the capabilities of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, the Liberal Party was in effect inviting other countries, such as China, to take over Canada’s far north. The fact our Arctic sovereignty is at risk was recently recognized by NATO. It is about time the federal government recognized the risk in Canada’s far north. Talk is rarely replaced by the government with action. They over-promise and underperform. It will take a Conservative government to get boots on the ground.
Let us not forget the commitments to Ukraine, which look nice when they are delivered, but come at the detriment to our capabilities. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Canada has sent approximately $394 million U.S. in additional military aid from the Canadian military’s stock of weapons deemed available for donation, which is now largely depleted and will need to be replaced.
Canada’s United Nations standing is diminishing, as evidenced in our lost bid to Ireland in 2020 for a rotating seat on the UN Security Council. We were not invited to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the soon-to-be largest free trade area in the world, nor were we asked to join the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom in AUKUS, a new defence pact aimed at containing the growing military might of China.
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