44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 7, 2022 02:00PM
- Dec/7/22 2:34:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the wasteful spending of the Liberal government knows no bounds. Yesterday we found out that the Liberals paid out billions of dollars in COVID payments to people who were ineligible. Rather than accepting their mistake, they implied that the Auditor General cannot be trusted. However, it is Liberal waste that is causing the cost of living crisis in this country.
When will the Prime Minister take responsibility and stop the inflationary spending so Canadians can put food on their tables and heat their homes?
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- Dec/7/22 2:35:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, everybody in the House agrees that COVID supports were necessary. We are talking about wasteful spending. This is about the abject failure of the government to manage COVID supports and ensure that the people who needed them received them. Instead, the Liberals sent cheques to dead people and to people in prison.
The government has wasted and mismanaged billions of dollars. Now Canadians are footing the bill with inflation and are worried about how they are going to survive.
When will the Liberal government give Canadians a break?
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- Dec/7/22 3:03:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that answer just proves that the Liberals are completely out of touch with reality. The reality is that the vast majority of Canadians will not see a cent from the programs they have announced. We are talking about the basic necessities of life.
Poor Liberal policy and reckless inflationary spending are going to cost Canadians an extra $1,000 on their groceries next year. That is an over 10% increase on food prices. A family of four is going to be paying more than $16,000 next year on groceries alone.
Will the government give Canadians a break and axe the carbon tax?
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- Dec/7/22 3:08:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have seen $52 billion in new inflationary spending and $500 billion in deficits in just two years. Yesterday the Auditor General reported that $32 billion in overpayments and suspicious payments just went out the door. The Governor of the Bank of Canada said that if Liberal spending had been less, inflation would have been lower, and today interest rates went up by another half a per cent.
The Prime Minister's big spending is now hurting Canadians. Will he stop the spending, stop the waste and get inflation under control finally?
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- Dec/7/22 3:09:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the job of the government is to make sure it is affordable for Canadians to pay for the essentials of life.
It is the job of the government to make sure the price of groceries does not rise by $1,100 next year. It is the job of the government to make sure it is not forcing Canadians to make a choice between heating their home and eating. Yesterday we heard the Auditor General talking about $4.6 billion going out to ineligible recipients.
Will the Liberal government stop its inflationary spending so that Canadians can afford to put gas in their tanks and food on their tables, and so they can heat their homes?
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer identified $14.2 billion in unannounced spending in the fall economic statement.
In a complete lack of transparency, the finance minister has refused to say how that money would be spent. Perhaps the member for Scarborough Centre could enlighten us on how $14.2 billion of taxpayers' dollars is going to be spent?
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Mr. Speaker, well, how much Liberal spending preceded that GST? If we want to go back to 1988 or 1993, that is absolutely fine.
With all due respect, obviously, I was not here in that period of time but I am happy to answer the question. The reality is this: I am very proud that we lowered the GST—
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
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Mr. Speaker, I would love the answer the hon. member's question if he would just stop shouting over me. I really would.
I believe in prudent financial spending. If I had my way, we would not be spending such astronomical figures that we actually need the GST. The reality is that the government must have the GST because it is spending so much, and that is being spent on the backs on our children, our grandchildren and future generations.
I fear that their tax payments and their funding of the interest payment for taxes will cripple us in the future.
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Mr. Speaker, there is no question the member works hard, but where he seems to go down the wrong path is the Conservatives do not understand the difference between spending and investing in Canadians.
The member talked a lot about the economy. I would like the member to tell me and all Canadians why he voted against the top-up for housing and the dental plan and why he voted against the child care program. The Conservatives are voting against major initiatives that would help every Canadian right across this great country.
If the member is going to cut, would he please share with the House which programs he would cut? Could he just let us know?
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Madam Speaker, one of the things I liked about my colleague's speech was her reference to the lack of an industrial strategy in the government's plan.
Does my colleague know that the government wants to spend more and more money, money that apparently grows on trees? That is what we see when we look at the government's spending. Is that a good strategy for Canada's future?
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Madam Speaker, this legislation would increase the corporate income tax rates of banks and life insurance groups by 1.5% on taxable income above $100 million. It would eliminate interest on the federal portion of student loans and apprentice loans. Finally, it would enact the framework agreement on the First Nations Land Management Act. All of those are positive steps that are worthy of support in this legislation.
While New Democrats are pleased to see advancement on these measures, we believe there is much more that the fall economic statement should have offered Canadians struggling with the rising cost of living. We know many Canadians are struggling to pay their bills. We also know many corporations are making record profits at the same time. We know inflation is crippling. The price of food, in particular, has skyrocketed across this country. The costs of utilities, insurance and fuels are all up, making it really tough for many Canadians in every corner of this country to make ends meet.
That is why New Democrats would have welcomed a windfall tax, like the one this legislation already applies to banks and life insurers, being expanded to other corporations that are making even higher profits than those sectors are, like food companies, including Loblaws, and like the oil and gas sector. The revenue the government could recoup from applying this tax to big box stores and oil and gas companies alone would total over $4 billion. That is money New Democrats believe would and should be used to help Canadians mitigate the rising costs they are facing, including the cost of heating their homes. New Democrats have long called for the elimination of the GST on home heating in times of struggle like this, particularly as we enter the winter season.
Eliminating the interest on the federal portion of student loans would offer loan holders an average of $4,000 of savings over the lifetime of their loan, and this is important. For years New Democrats have called for the elimination of interest on student debt. We should not be making money off the debt that students are incurring to get an education. Frankly, I have long believed that post-secondary education should be free, at least the first four years, whether it is an apprenticeship, community college or university, whatever it is, so that we encourage and facilitate our younger generation to become more educated. I believe higher-educated societies are more prosperous societies, and it is an investment. Just like public school is free until grade 12, there is no reason we should not extend that to 16 years of public education.
What is not in this legislation is what will have the largest impact on people. It has been estimated that the cost of home heating could go up by as much as 30% in some places in Canada, so eliminating the GST on that would be a simple way to offer Canadians respite in an immediate way.
Food bank usage has drastically increased as the grocery chains that supply Canadian consumers with the food they need to survive are recording profits of $1 million extra a day.
Health care systems across this country are in chaos. There is no new money and no progress after the recent meeting of health ministers for improving health care and ensuring that the federal government increases its share of spending to better approach the fair deal that historically is the underpinning of the Canadian health care system.
The economic policy being used in this legislation is a good start, but it is not broad enough. If we expanded some of these good concepts in a much more broad, targeted and intelligent manner, we could generate billions of dollars that could be used for these very valuable social and economic development programs.
Once again, when we educate our young people, it is not merely good for them. These are people who will generate the ideas, economic activities and professional skills that will generate income into the future, so it is an important economic basis as well.
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- Dec/7/22 7:06:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, if the federal government could come to the table with some dollars, I think that would move mountains in finding these women or, at the very least, dignifying where they rest.
Certainly, I would support money from the federal government. Given that this has been a respectful conversation thus far, I am not looking to wade into serious partisanship, but it is true that this is a Liberal government that has spent more than any other government in history. If it is not going to prioritize this, I think that speaks volumes to the value it is placing on doing this. It has the money. It is spending it. Why not provide some money for this issue that we are specifically talking about today, but also for what the member said, safe spaces for women?
The London Abused Women's Centre specifically supports women who have been sex trafficked and human trafficked generally. I believe it was last year or the year before that the Liberal government did not renew its funding and yet the centre helps thousands of women in the area, which is a highly trafficked area. I do believe that this funding should have been restored.
Within the same moral lens, I think that what the member has asked for is perfectly reasonable, especially in light of the fact that yet again, we are having this conversation.
We need to have a conversation. Certainly, the Liberal government should be coming to the table with some funding to support the efforts to find these women and ensure that their resting places are dignified.
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- Dec/7/22 8:11:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that answer was really insensitive in light of the subject matter at hand.
Quite frankly, the Government of Canada has a major role that it can and should play. It has no problem using its power of spending for a variety of pieces. In fact, just yesterday, the Auditor General came out with a report that showed $30 billion of wasted spending, and yet we still do not see action on the calls for justice. It has taken years just to get to the final report.
All of us in this chamber can agree that this is important, but for the member to get up and say that we need to depoliticize this and that the federal government is doing everything it can, frankly, I do not think that is true.
I would love the member opposite to give me a concrete example of something the federal government has done that saved a woman's life today.
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- Dec/7/22 8:27:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, previous speakers have talked about the lack of efficacy in spending on this issue and have alluded to how the government uses spending as an outcome, when we are in here, once again, six months later, having a debate about a tragedy that we should have prevented.
I am wondering if my colleague could comment on some of the ideas that have been raised about having independent review boards for the monitoring of spending, to ensure that when the government is talking about spending, it is actually getting to the people who need it to prevent these tragedies.
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- Dec/7/22 8:38:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government has said a lot of words over the last seven years, and the government has spent, or claims to have spent, a lot of money, yet here we are. I appreciate the minister's willingness to be non-partisan, but at the end of the day, he is the one who writes the memorandums to cabinet. He is the one who has responsibility for oversight. It is actually his fiduciary responsibility to the country to break down the silos, and here we are.
Would the minister today commit, in light of these murders, to immediately implementing the call for justice that would require an independent oversight body to ensure that the government is actually meeting its spending objectives, as opposed to just making announcements and then, per my colleague from Winnipeg Centre's Order Paper question from earlier this year, spending minimal amounts of money while indigenous women are still being taken, still being murdered and still freezing to death on the streets of Winnipeg?
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