44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 14, 2023 10:00AM
- Feb/14/23 10:16:38 a.m.
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moved:
That, given that,
(i) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, inflation is at a 40-year high,
(ii) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, the cost of groceries is up 11%,
(iii) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, half of Canadians are cutting back on groceries,
(iv) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, 20% of Canadians are skipping meals,
(v) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada’s 10 biggest cities is $2,213 per month, compared to $1,171 per month in 2015,
(vi) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, 45% of variable rate mortgage holders say they will have to sell or vacate their homes in less than nine months due to current interest rate levels,
(vii) after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, average monthly mortgage costs have more than doubled and now cost Canadians over $3,000 per month,
(viii) the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, has said that “inflation in Canada increasingly reflects what’s happening in Canada”,
(ix) the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, has said: “But really now inflation is principally a domestic story”,
(x) former Liberal finance minister, Bill Morneau, has said that the government probably spent too much during COVID,
(xi) former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, John Manley, said that the Liberal Prime Minister’s fiscal policy is making it harder to contain inflation,
the House call on the government to cap spending, cut waste, fire high-priced consultants and eliminate inflationary deficits and taxes that have caused a cost-of-living crisis for Canadians.
He said: Madam Speaker, Biggie Smalls once said, “Mo Money Mo Problems”. With the Liberal government, it seems like the more the Liberals tax, spend and waste Canadians' money, the more problems Canadians have.
After eight years of the incompetent Liberal government and its economic mismanagement, Canadians are feeling the pain. A 40-year high in inflation, high interest rates, and tripling taxes have led to Canadians running out of money.
Even before COVID hit Canada, the Prime Minister was spending record amounts on consultants and his Liberal insider friends. On top of all that, there was $100 billion in deficit spending. Of course, the spending has never ended. During COVID, the government felt good about adding half a trillion to the national debt, 40% of which had nothing to do with COVID spending.
We know now that the Prime Minister's nearly $700-billion spending spree has been more about helping insiders than actually supporting Canadians. Instead of making life better, the Prime Minister spends $15 billion a year on high-priced consultants with whom he has personal connections. Lucrative contracts have gone to companies like SNC-Lavalin and the WE Charity, as well as a company run by former Liberal MP Frank Baylis. He flushed Canadians' money down the toilet each time just to make his friends richer.
The Auditor General has even reported that $32 billion went to subsidizing criminals, foreign nationals and even dead people. Will the government get Canadians' tax dollars back from the people who should not have gotten them? Of course not. Is it going to be knocking on those coffins or tombstones to ask for the money back? The CRA seems more interested in going after law-abiding, living, breathing Canadians than Liberal-friendly corporations and criminals.
No wonder everything feels broken in this country today. Even our health care, airports and trains are a mess, and standard government services like passports or immigration are so backlogged it will take years to undo the damage once the Conservatives take over.
The cost-of-living crisis in this country is only getting worse. Inflation remains three times higher than the Bank of Canada's 2% target. Grocery prices are inflating by 11% every single month, and Canadians cannot afford home heating even if they can afford a home.
The fiscal policies of the Liberal government have left Canadians in a hole. The Prime Minister, who admits he does not think about monetary policy, is clearly not thinking of fiscal policy either. The result of hundreds of billions of dollars being added to the national debt is that the government has created inflation, which has taken the money out of everyday Canadians' pockets. It has taken the food out of Canadians' mouths and the roof from over their head, and the possibility of retirement is now just a dream. Now one in five Canadians is out of money, skipping meals, or accessing charities for help just for basic necessities; 60% of Canadians are cutting back on groceries, while 41% are looking for cheaper, less nutritious options.
Even if people can get their grocery bill down, the Liberal government's inflation is making everything else expensive. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada's 10 biggest cities is $2,213 a month, compared to $1,171 a month in 2015. That is an almost 90% increase in rent. One of the issues complicating the price of renting is the need for more supply. Inflation has made the price of building housing units substantially more expensive while increasing red tape and taxes, disincentivizing builders from creating much-needed units.
Canada is becoming a nation of renters. According to RBC, the number of renters has increased at three times the rate of the number of homeowners in just the past 10 years. It is not only young Canadians who are increasingly turning to rent. The shift to renting is across age groups and geographic areas. RBC is projecting that the rapid growth in renters is not going to slow down, and it is clear that the home affordability crisis plays a significant role in that. The number of new homes completed in a year has increased only by 13% from 2015 to 2022.
I am glad to share my time with the great member for Simcoe North.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says that if the current rates of new construction continue, housing supply will increase only by 2.3 million units between 2021 and 2030. CMHC projects that Canada must construct an additional 3.5 million units by 2030 to restore house price affordability.
What is most concerning to me is the lack of understanding that the government has of Canada's housing supply crisis. Instead, the Liberals continue to blame other factors or people for their own failures. We do not import land, workers or many of the supplies needed to build a house. I was in the homebuilding industry before coming to this place. I know first-hand that houses can be built using Canadian lumber, metal and workers. Russia, Ukraine and China do not play a part in that, yet house prices have doubled and Canada has the fifth-biggest housing bubble.
While home prices have come down from the crazy highs of last year, they are still significantly higher than prepandemic levels. The government's solution is to give tax credits and handouts, which do not address the housing supply issue, and provide more money to drive home prices. Even if homebuilders can meet the need for 5.8 million new units by 2030, Canadians still face high mortgage costs and diminished purchasing power.
Inflation has decimated paycheques and for first-time homebuyers, paying for a new home is daunting. As of 2021, Canadians would have to spend over half of their disposable income to purchase a home, and that number is only growing. Mortgages are now costing Canadians 60% to 70% of their paycheque and, at the same time, banks continue to raise mortgage payments to respond to the eight consecutive rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. Over 80% of homeowners with a variable rate mortgage have hit the point where their mortgage payment is made entirely of just interest and none of that on the principal.
I hear from industry experts and people in the financial sector that they are already seeing a rise in the number of people turning in their keys and defaulting on their mortgages, a sign that we are dangerously close to repeating the Pierre Trudeau era. The ratio of household debt to disposable income is at an all-time high of 183%, proving that Canadians are over-leveraged amidst the Liberals' overspending. Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem is using this as a reason for pausing interest rates, despite him and the current finance minister telling Canadians it was okay to spend and borrow as much as they liked because interest rates were going to be so low for so long.
Now, when Canadians face this affordability crisis and high inflation and interest rates, Governor Macklem and the finance minister seem unconcerned with the potential for a debt default crisis. Instead, the Liberals are so ignorant that they keep spending on inflationary waste like their insider consultant contracts.
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- Feb/14/23 2:19:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this scandal stings taxpayers so much because it comes at a time when housing costs are taking more and more out of Canadian paycheques.
After eight years of Liberal deficits, interest rates have risen, meaning homeowners have to pay more to the banks in interest payments just to stay in their own homes. In fact, after eight years of the Liberal government, the average monthly mortgage cost has more than doubled and the average $600,000 mortgage sees interest costs go from $12,000 a year to over $30,000 a year.
Again, does the minister think it was a good idea for the Prime Minister to bill taxpayers for one night's hotel stay what homeowners pay in two full months on their mortgages?
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- Feb/14/23 4:47:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been in power, has been in that chair, for eight years. For millions of Canadians, things have never been worse than they are right now.
For eight long years, Canadians from coast to coast to coast have been left behind by the Liberal government. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, inflation is at a 40-year high. After eight years, the cost of groceries has sky rocketed.
After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, half of Canadians are cutting back on the groceries they buy. After eight years of the Prime Minister, 20% of Canadians are skipping meals. It is unbelievable that this happens in a country like Canada.
After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada's 10 biggest cities is over $2,000, compared to only $1,100 per month in 2015. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, 45% of variable rate mortgage holders say that they will have to sell or vacate their homes in less than nine months due to the current interest rate levels.
After eight years of the Prime Minister, average monthly mortgage costs have more than doubled, and now Canadians are paying over $3,000 a month. After eight long years of the Prime Minister, everyone seems to be aware of the damage the Liberal government has done, except for the Liberals themselves.
The Governor of the Bank of Canada has said that “inflation in Canada increasingly reflects what's happening in Canada.” The former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said, “inflation is principally a domestic story.” According to bank CEOs, tens of thousands of Canadians could default on mortgages due to these rising rates.
Former Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau has said that the government probably spent too much during COVID. Former Liberal deputy prime minister and finance minister John Manley said that the Liberal Prime Minister's “fiscal policy is making it harder...to contain inflation.”
It is clear that this is a homemade problem. Everyone seems to get it. Canadians, themselves, get it. The experts get it. Even those random Liberals get it, except for the Prime Minister himself. He does not seem to get it.
Our Conservative motion today calls on the government to cap spending, cut waste, fire high-priced consultants and eliminate inflationary deficits and taxes that have caused this cost of living crisis for Canadians. Inflation is at the highest its been in 40 years. Interest rates are the highest in a generation, and home prices and rent are the highest they have ever been.
After eight years of the Liberal government, Canadians are struggling to keep up with the rate at which the government prints and spends money. It has spent more dollars chasing fewer goods. It has created a dire situation, and it is one it will not be able to spend its way out of.
Over half of Canadians are uncertain if they will be able to afford to retire. A recent study by the Bank of Montreal found that Canadians will need $1.7 million to retire, which is up 20% from 2020. Now, someone has to be a millionaire in Canada to retire.
The Liberals' wealthy friends, who they are very fond of handing off lucrative contracts to using Canadian taxpayers dollars, might have no problem with this, but for everyday, hard-working Canadians, this is simply not realistic.
Each day, I receive letters from hard-working Canadians in my riding who feel that many aspects of life in Canada are broken. More Canadians visit food banks just to get by. Half of Canadians are cutting back on their groceries, and one out of five are skipping meals.
A recent poll showed that 60% of Canadians think that the country is broken, and 73% of them feel this way in my home province of Alberta. This is heartbreaking.
We must turn things around instead of making things worse for Canadians. We could start by getting rid of the carbon tax. I have been hearing from Canadians right across the country who are spending hundreds of dollars a month, large portions of their income, just to keep up with this punitive Liberal carbon tax.
I recently heard from a senior who is struggling to afford to heat her home. She now has to pay an additional $73 a month on her bill just for the carbon tax. This is an elderly person on a fixed income whom the government has left behind. She is now considering selling her home because she cannot afford to heat it. This is tragic and unacceptable. Canadians should not be punished for heating their homes or for driving to work. They are already struggling enough as it is.
However, the Liberal insiders have never had it so good. The thousands-of-dollars-a-day consultants at McKinsey are very happy with the Liberals. In fact, the consulting contracts have gone up 100% in the eight years since the Prime Minister has been in power. The lobbyists, whose contracts have also increased by 100%, are also very pleased. It is Canadians who pay for these outrageously expensive contracts with their hard-earned tax dollars whom the government continues to leave behind.
We call on the government to cap spending, cut waste, fire high-priced consultants and eliminate inflationary deficits and taxes that have caused this cost-of-living crisis. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister refuses to take any responsibility for the hurt he has caused so many Canadians.
As Canadians struggle to afford home heating and groceries, the Prime Minister treated himself to a $6,000-a-night hotel room. He then had the officials try to cover it up by redacting relevant information in internal correspondence related to this scandal. The government is out of touch and Canadians cannot afford to pay for the Prime Minister's luxuries.
After eight long years of wasteful spending, the Prime Minister is still finding new, creative ways to spend Canadian tax dollars. His latest inflation plan is to hire more pollsters to poll Canadians for buzzwords on the budget. This madness needs to end.
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