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 10:27:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we will always vote against inflationary measures that will only hurt Canadians further. None of those measures have been working. It is obvious to see when rents have doubled, mortgages have doubled and the house prices in this country have doubled all the way across. That does not make any sense at all.
The government is absolutely great at blaming everyone else for its own inflationary problems. It is kind of like me and the member for Kingston and the Islands blaming other people for being as big as we are. It is like saying the environment is the reason we are the way we are. No, it is because we did that to ourselves, much like the government is the one that spent so much money that it created this inflationary crisis, and random Liberals agree with us.
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- Feb/14/23 11:08:39 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, in her speech, the member mostly talked about low unemployment and 3% GDP growth, basically suggesting Canadians have never had it so good. However, when the Canadians who are watching these proceedings today go to the grocery store, they know that those prices are not going down. If anything, they are still going up, and the problem with inflation is that once those inflationary prices are baked in, they are there to stay. Canadians know that this is going to be a serious, ongoing problem.
The member did mention spending, very briefly, at the end. Given the fact that former Liberal colleagues, finance ministers and governors of the Bank of Canada have said that Liberal government spending is a major contributor to inflation in Canada, how is her government going to actually control spending going forward so we do not have those inflationary pressures anymore?
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- Feb/14/23 11:23:09 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. It is quite refreshing to listen to someone who really knows what she is talking about. As an economist, she spoke in depth about a number of subjects today. She indicated that there were costs, not just because of climate change but also because of the lack of support for the most vulnerable people and populations.
I would like to know whether my colleague agrees with the official opposition, which says that financial supports for the most vulnerable individuals are inflationary measures.
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- Feb/14/23 11:27:46 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Terrebonne for her excellent speech. I also thank the members of the Conservative Party for giving me the opportunity to speak in the House about the difficult conditions in which thousands of people find themselves and to examine some possible solutions that ultimately do not seem to fix much.
Inflation is real, galloping and impacts the cost of everything, from gas, to housing, to food, to cars. It requires far more comprehensive measures than today's populist proposals. I am not surprised by any of the general statements at the beginning of the motion. It is true that inflation can wreak havoc on families' budgets and that it is currently causing the cost of goods and services to skyrocket.
Social housing is a topic that speaks to me. I was just at a meeting this morning with people from the Coop d'habitation Boréale, a housing co-operative in Rouyn-Noranda. As an aside, I would like to say hello to my friend Jean-Philippe. It is his birthday today, and I wish him a happy birthday.
This co-op's model is adapted to our region's reality, with a total of eight entrances. These are duplexes with backyards. This model provides for affordable housing for families. However, it is incredibly difficult to obtain financing for the necessary renovations, both from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, and lenders.
In order to get this money, the co-op is being asked to increase rents to match market pricing. So much for affordability. The government's maze of red tape makes it hard for volunteers, and it takes far too long to get answers. Not so long ago, CMHC employees were able to guide these volunteers. They no longer have the time to provide the same support.
The co-op housing model is a viable option for tackling the housing shortage. It addresses inflation and rising rents. However, this model should not be seen as mere apartment buildings. It should also be seen as the possibility of having duplexes, triplexes and other types of residences that will better suit families. Having a backyard and parking is also a way to improve the quality of life for younger families with less income.
It is important to ensure that co-operative housing developments like these remain in place to continue to provide affordable and accessible housing. CMHC needs to ensure that the co-op model remains an option and adapt its programs to help small co-op models make the necessary repairs.
If the Conservatives really want the government to help people deal with the rising cost of living, we invite them to support the solutions put forward by the Bloc Québécois. These are more equitable solutions to help ensure that prosperity is more equally shared.
Immediate relief must be provided to those hardest hit by inflation. This must be done by increasing the purchasing power of seniors living on essentially fixed incomes, by providing direct financial support to low-income earners, and by creating a program to support those most affected by a sudden spike in fuel prices, to the point of threatening their livelihoods. This includes farmers, taxi drivers and truckers.
We have to make the economy more resilient by tackling the structural weaknesses that cause inflation; reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, whose chronic instability causes price shocks; restoring essential links in the supply chain; and tackling the labour shortage that prevents businesses from offsetting supply shortages by increasing local production. We also have to take care of health, our children's education, and the environment.
The Conservatives' stubborn refusal to think about things, to ground their choices in this new industrial revolution, will cause a rift. In this motion, the Conservatives are repeating previous motions that were all rejected by the House. When they talk about inflationary taxes, they mean cancelling the carbon tax, reducing EI premiums and reducing Quebec pension plan contributions. They talk about cutting spending, but they do not specify what spending. These proposals would help briefly, but they are not real solutions. They will probably just exacerbate our problems.
Let us come up with solutions to deal with the labour shortage. One good way to do that would be to increase people's income. Another would be to encourage older workers to keep working by not clawing back their guaranteed income supplement. Still another would be to make it easier to hire temporary foreign workers in high-demand occupations by transferring responsibility for that to the Government of Quebec, which is already doing the impact studies the federal government requires of business owners. The Standing Committee on Industry and Technology actually just completed a study on this and will be releasing its report in the coming days.
We need to do a better job of protecting what has taken us all these years to build: our expertise in green mining, our hydroelectric capacity, our expertise in heavy-duty electric transportation, and our battery and electric vehicle supply chain. We need to leverage our expertise in quantum technologies and artificial intelligence. We can do even more with centres of excellence on advanced materials and the accelerated commercialization of micro-electronic components.
I could talk at length about Quebec’s capabilities, but my colleagues will be joining the debate shortly to highlight these aspects.
These are the steps that the government could take to address the source and effects of inflation. It is important to understand our approach.
Our monetary policy ensures a balance between supply and demand to keep price increases within a range around 2%. This policy is the responsibility of the Bank of Canada, which makes decisions independently.
The government also has a role to play. Its challenge is threefold: to protect the poorest, especially annuitants and those on fixed incomes, from the effects of inflation; to try to ensure that the inflation we have today, which is essentially due to current circumstances, does not become structural or long-term; and to work to make the economy more resilient and less vulnerable to inflation shocks by addressing its structural weaknesses.
The Bloc Québécois proposes a balanced and responsible approach, namely, targeting support programs for individuals and businesses to help those who need it, without exacerbating the upward pressure on prices, and clearly identifying the drivers of inflation so that we can address it directly.
In terms of solutions, we need to help those who are hardest hit, specifically seniors who live on fixed incomes and their savings, which are losing value at an alarming rate. They are the most affected by the rising cost of living. Before the surge of inflation, Canada was one of the industrialized countries where retirement income replaced the lowest percentage of working income.
The Bloc Québécois proposes to immediately stop reducing the guaranteed income supplement for the poorest seniors who are seeing cuts this year because they received the Canada emergency response benefit or the Canada recovery benefit last year and to increase old age security to protect the purchasing power of seniors who are faced with the rising cost of living.
We need to build more social and community housing. After growing by 6.8% in March, housing costs increased by 7.4% in April over the previous year. This is the steepest increase since June 1983. The housing shortage was already a serious problem, but it was aggravated by pandemic-related factors. Low-income households, which spend a larger share of their earnings on housing, are particularly affected.
Building social housing takes time and requires permanent and predictable programs rather than ad hoc programs, like far too many of the ones we have now. In Quebec, federal intervention has been particularly problematic. Quebec is the only province that provides ongoing funding for the construction of social housing through its AccèsLogis program. Quebec needed an asymmetrical agreement that gave it full control, which the federal government blocked for two years.
The Bloc Québécois proposes to boost the construction of social and community housing. The federal government should permanently allocate 1% of its revenues to Quebec through flexible and predictable transfers, which could provide additional funds for its programs.
We need to safeguard the independence of the central banks and tackle the labour shortage. The Bloc Québécois proposes establishing a tax credit for young graduates in the regions, as well as for immigrants, calling on experienced workers, transferring the temporary foreign worker program, establishing a productivity policy that includes measures such as research and development support based on productivity and support for investments in the empowerment and digital transformation of businesses.
We need to make supply chains stronger and more resilient, which would enable our SMEs to identify weak points in their supply chains, help them connect with domestic suppliers and propose new ways of managing inventory, to make them less vulnerable.
We need to strengthen our competition system through the Competition Act to limit the concentration of corporate ownership and major companies’ ability to abuse their dominant position, which makes prices rise.
We need to limit our dependence on oil. We know that the price of oil rose by 33% between December 2020 and December 2021. We need to accelerate the energy transition to shelter the economy from sudden spikes in the price of fossil fuels. This can be done through the electrification of transportation, energy retrofitting, support for businesses that want to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and redirecting financial flows toward green economic development.
In Ottawa, however, the Liberals downplay the problem and propose waiting for it to resolve itself, while the Conservatives want a more restrictive monetary policy and question the independence of the Bank of Canada.
Then there is the NDP, which is proposing an all-out spending spree that could further fuel inflation.
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- Feb/14/23 12:14:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for South Shore—St. Margarets.
I am always honoured to rise in the House of Commons on behalf of my constituents to speak for individuals, families and communities in New Brunswick Southwest. New Brunswick is a place where people work hard, play by the rules and sacrifice for their kids and grandchildren. In this way, the Maritimes are really just like any other part of this great country.
Today, working hard is just not paying off like it once did. This is because the current federal Liberal government is not upholding its end of the bargain. It is not delivering on its promise to Canadians. Canada is at a difficult crossroads. The economic skies are very dark, and times are hard for Canadians. I remind the members opposite, the MPs who represent the Liberals and the NDP, that federal tax increases, sky-high deficits and out-of-control inflation are all results of deliberate policy choices made by the government, which they have supported for the last eight years.
What are the consequences of botched federal policies?
After eight years of the current Liberal Prime Minister, inflation is at a 40-year high. Since last year, the cost of groceries is up 11%. Half of Canadians are cutting back on groceries. Twenty per cent of Canadians, or one in five, are reducing or skipping meals to control costs and help make ends meet.
After eight years, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada's 10 largest cities has doubled to over $2,200 a month, compared with less than $1,200 per month in 2015.
Nearly half of variable-rate mortgage holders are saying that rising interest rates could force them to sell or vacate their homes by the end of this year. Average monthly mortgage payments have more than doubled; they now cost typical Canadian family households over $3,000 per month.
Canadians are being squeezed by a vice grip of inflation and Bank of Canada mismanagement.
Liberal monetary policy has been a disaster, but this should not be a surprise. The Liberal leader informed Canadians in 2021 that he did not think about monetary policy. I actually thought the PM was boasting about not thinking, but look at the mess Canada is in. Liberal budgets are also moving in the wrong direction. The central philosophy is tax, spend and regulate. When that does not work, the Liberals hit repeat. They tax, spend and regulate.
Reckless Liberal spending, fuelled by easy debt, is the root cause of Canada's soaring inflation. The Government of Canada ballooned our national debt. It has doubled in the last eight years. The government has accumulated more debt than all previous prime ministers combined going back to 1867. This debt binge was encouraged by the Bank of Canada's policy of quantitative easing, and today, Canadians are paying for this entirely predictable effect of policy carelessness. The federal tax bite has worsened over the past eight years. Today, taxes on consumption and everyday living increase every year, while Canadians are falling further behind.
For the past eight years, the federal government has pursued a plan to make our affordable and abundant energy more expensive through regulation and ever-rising taxes. Home heating fuels, electricity and prices at the pump are all more heavily taxed, and the Liberals keep raising those taxes.
Canada can do better.
If we look back to eight years ago, taxes for families, businesses and individuals were lower in this country. If one earned a low income, one actually paid no federal income tax. The GST was cut to help low-income Canadians.
Our manufacturing and natural resources sectors were growing because Canada had a federal government that understood what fuels our economy and shared prosperity. Budgets were in surplus and taxes were cut. This allowed more households to save for the future, because federal government spending was focused on improving services and better outcomes for Canadians. Home ownership was growing, and people were able to afford the basics and save for tomorrow. Canadians, in short, were getting ahead.
Today, it is a completely different story. Inflation is at a 40-year high. Half of households earning less than $40,000 a year are worse off, because we know, should know or have learned that inflation is the price Canadians pay for all the government benefits the Liberals and their NDP coalition partners said would be free. We know that is just not true. Meanwhile, our allies across the globe are making desperate energy deals with dictators to buy oil and gas as Canada ignores requests for help. This is true in Asia and is true in Europe.
None of this happened by accident. It is the result of policy choices supported by the Liberal-NDP coalition. That is why today's motion is so important. It is a motion introduced by the Conservatives to get Canada back on track. It is a necessary course correction. We are calling on the Liberals to cap spending, cut waste, fire high-priced consultants who do not do much and eliminate inflationary deficits and taxes that have caused a cost of living crisis.
Unfortunately, I do not think members opposite will take advantage of this opportunity to fix their mistakes. They are committed to their belief that the federal government's primary role is wealth redistribution. In fact, the previous speaker said the government is about wealth redistribution, instead of what Conservatives believe in, which is expanding opportunity and creating wealth so we have the resources to fund our social programs and ensure Canadians get ahead. The Liberals are also preparing the next blow to our economy with a plan for a so-called just transition away from hydrocarbons.
I am a member of the public accounts committee, and we recently studied the government plan that seeks to shut down natural resource sectors to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The government's planned transition will be so painful that it is being compared to the collapse of the northern cod fishery in Atlantic Canada in the 1990s, which was devastating. I note that the labour minister recently said Canada needs more oil and gas workers, not fewer, and cursed the misleading term “just transition”. That is because the member represents Newfoundland and Labrador and understands the danger the just transition poses to his economy and provincial economies across the country.
The members opposite are so desperate to hide this reality from the public that they are testing new buzzwords. How do they sell job losses? It is by mentioning “a fair economy, a green economy, a progressive economy, an economy that works for all Canadians, and an inclusive economy.” That is nonsense. What is so fair or inclusive about a federal government determined to put Canadians in the unemployment line? When someone is working two jobs just to make ends meet, pay their rent and buy food, as some of my constituents are, how can they possibly save enough to get ahead?
For years, the Conservatives said the carbon tax was a tax on everything. Members opposite scoffed, but today nobody is laughing as families struggle under punishing energy and consumer prices. The Liberals and NDP like to blame the Russians, but in my part of the world, over in the state of Maine next to New Brunswick, a litre of gasoline is 50¢ less after exchange than it is in New Brunswick. The Russians have nothing to do with it. That is tax policy and regulation policy driven by the Canadian government.
Members of the Liberal Party and the NDP are committed to a set of policies that are going to continue to push Canada down the wrong track. Government is about protecting and advancing the interests of Canadian families. The NDP-Liberal coalition has failed to do this. That is why it needs to be replaced so Canadians will not just get by but get ahead.
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- Feb/14/23 12:24:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if we look at inflation throughout the globe and do not look at it just domestically, as the Conservatives like to do, we will recognize that Canada's inflation rate is among the lowest in the G7. Japan has an inflationary rate of 4%, France is at 5.8%, Canada is at 6.3%, the U.S. is at 6.4%, Germany is at 8.5%, the U.K. is at 9.2% and Italy is at 10.1%. When we look at energy specifically, both the U.S. and Canada have a 7.3% inflation rate. The rest of the G7 is anywhere between 15% and 64%. These are January 2023 numbers.
How is it that Conservatives can continually get up in this House and say it is the sole responsibility of the Prime Minister of Canada that we are experiencing the inflation we have? One of two things is happening. One, they are just not paying attention to what is going on in the rest of the world, or two, they think the Prime Minister of Canada is incredibly capable of influencing inflation throughout the world. Which one is it?
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- Feb/14/23 12:29:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal member for Kingston and the Islands got me thinking. I am just reflecting, but I feel like there was a Prime Minister Trudeau before the current government who ran massive inflationary policies that led to economic devastation in the seventies and eighties and massive cuts in the mid- to late nineties to health care, social service and education. I am wondering if my hon. colleague remembers that as well.
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- Feb/14/23 12:31:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to rise in this House to speak to this important motion that our party has put forward on the issue that is of most concern to Canadians today.
I know all of us in the House, and I am sure government members are hearing it as much as we are, receive calls and emails to our offices every day from struggling working people having trouble paying their bills. People who live on fixed incomes are having to make the most difficult choices in life, like the choice between paying for heat, paying for food, paying for medication or paying for gas in the car to go get food. These are the choices that people are making as a result of the actions of the Liberal government after eight years.
We are in an unprecedented situation of a 40-year high in inflation caused by the policies of the government after eight years. After eight years, people are working harder, but they are falling further behind. I know members of the Liberal Party love it when we raise Pierre Trudeau, so I will raise Pierre Trudeau. We have not had inflationary numbers like this since Pierre Trudeau was in government. That was a difficult time in the 1970s and 1980s for people. The sins of the father are now being delivered through the sins of the son.
Housing prices are now twice as high as they were in 2015. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, the cost of groceries is up 11%. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, half of Canadians are cutting back on groceries. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, 20% of Canadians are actually skipping meals. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada in the 10 biggest cities is $2,213 per month, compared to $1,171 per month when the Liberals were elected.
After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, 45% of variable mortgage rate holders say they will have to sell or vacate their homes in less than nine months due to current interest rates. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, the average monthly mortgage costs have more than doubled to now over $3,000 a month.
We can see that these costs are going up and that is why we are getting these calls. I am going to relate it a bit to what we experience in the Maritimes. Mr. Speaker, as a Nova Scotian, I know you are getting calls along these lines. The policies of the government have killed the investment in most industries in Canada. Bill C-69 is affectionately known as the “no pipelines bill”. I call it the “no capital bill” because it has really killed all capital investment.
The result of that is that in Nova Scotia and in New Brunswick, and my predecessor who spoke, the member for New Brunswick Southwest, has the same issue, we have to burn oil from Saudi Arabia to heat our houses. To give members an idea of what that costs, because of the policies of the government, it costs $1,800 to fill a tank of oil. Half that tank will be burned in four weeks.
These are the expenses that are killing people on fixed incomes in my part of the world and making them think about selling their houses. We have good, clean, ethical Canadian oil and natural gas that we could be bringing to Atlantic Canada to reduce our cost of living, but the government has brought in policies to stop that.
Of equal impact on inflation is the fact that the Liberals never saw a tax they did not like. What is the first thing they did? They thought they could put in carbon tax, a tax they thought would stop everything that goes on in the world with regard to weather. Carbon tax is inflationary by its nature. If it were to work, which it does not, the design of it is that it has to make everything much more expensive in order to cause people, theoretically, to change their behaviour.
In my rural riding, we do not have transit. We do not have options for how we get around, how we take our kids to school, how we get to work, how we get groceries, or how we go visit our parents and family members. We have to drive. Transit is not an option that we have. The Liberals believe that imposing a carbon tax would actually change the fact that we have to drive everywhere in rural Canada.
The imposition and tripling of this new tax, which would come into place this year in Nova Scotia, because the Liberals have not had enough of destroying our economies with their taxation, will make fuel cost an extra 40¢ a litre by 2030. For the mom taking her kids to hockey practice or taking her kids to school, this is a huge amount of money, on top of having to burn gasoline produced from oil from Saudi Arabia.
That tax costs families thousands of dollars a year when they are trying to make healthy meals and trying to figure out how to heat their houses. Heating houses, and this may come as a shock to the Liberal government, is not optional in Canada. We actually have to do that, and a tax that makes home heating more expensive for seniors living through our frigid winters is nothing short of cruel.
I am talking about the Liberal carbon tax, the tax on everything, the tax making everything more expensive. If the Prime Minister was serious about making life more affordable for our seniors, workers and families, he would cancel the carbon tax imposition in Nova Scotia, and he would cancel the tripling or quadrupling of the carbon tax that he is planning to do to make life more unaffordable for Canadians.
Instead of freezing that obscene tax, the Liberal government is raising taxes on the people who are struggling to make ends meet. Of course, the Liberals pretend that somehow, magically, in their world of math we could actually get more money back than we pay. That math does not add up in grade 6, but apparently it adds up for the Liberals.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer, in his reports on the carbon tax that exists now, has actually pointed out something the Liberals tend to ignore. I will read from the report: “most households in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario will see a net loss resulting from federal carbon pricing” by 2030. That is a little different from the lines we hear. By then, the carbon tax levy will have increased to $170 a tonne. The moment we decide to decarbonize the economy in a relatively short period of time with a tax, if it were to work, we are talking here less than 10 years to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is clear that there is going to be a cost.
The PBO goes on to report, “Most households...under the backstop will see a net loss resulting from federal carbon pricing under the HEHE plan” in 2030-31. The Parliamentary Budget Officer continues by stating, “Household carbon costs—which now include the federal levy and GST paid...and lower income...—exceed the rebate and the induced reduction in personal income taxes arising from the loss in income.”
In other words, this is not what the Liberals say during question period, that somebody magically pays into taxes to Ottawa and gets more back. I do not think anyone has believed that existed since the temporary imposition of income taxes when they first came in. It is just about as believable.
An additional element of this high-priced system that the Liberals have brought in is that we have fallen behind the U.S. in our per capita economic output. In 2015, we were equal to the United States, and now we are 40% less. That is $100 billion a year lost to the Canadian income, according to the IMF. I know the Liberals like to make up their own numbers, but the IMF says that is $100 billion a year that is lost to our income relative to the United States because of the policies of the government. Up until 2015, we were fairly equal.
I have many more issues, which I am sure I will get to address in the question and answer period, particularly with the member for Kingston and the Islands. I look forward to those questions.
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- Feb/14/23 1:12:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that my friend from Kings—Hants talked about competitiveness. He had some really good ideas. I have heard of the issue with electronic logging devices, as well, when loading and unloading cattle, and some common sense approaches to that, but he did not touch on inflation very much or some of the spending his government has done that has added to that inflationary fire.
I have one simple question: Does he believe the CRA should try to get back some of the $15 billion that it said, by its own numbers, was spent on people in jail, companies that did not need it and even some people who are dead? Should we work hard on that? I know there has been an increase in capacity at the CRA. Why would we not be sure they would do the good work to get those hard-earned taxpayers' dollars back into the pockets of Canadians?
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- Feb/14/23 1:31:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, members are looking at the author. They can vote for this motion, cap spending, fire the high-priced consultants, eliminate inflationary deficits and scrap the taxes that have caused a cost-of-living crisis for Canadians. After eight years of the terrible Liberal government, it is time for a change.
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- Feb/14/23 2:21:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always smart to vote against inflationary deficits that drive up the cost of living.
The Liberals have learned the wrong lesson from this hotel bill scandal. One would think that, after billing taxpayers $6,000 a night for a single room, the lesson learned would be to book a cheaper room next time. Instead, the lesson the Liberals have learned is to cover it up better.
Emails between the PM's staff reveal government officials scheming to cover up the scandal. One even suggested burying these costs in next year's public accounts. The word finally came down from the minister herself to simply stop answering questions altogether, all this at a time when Canadians are paying more just to stay in their own homes.
Why is treating taxpayers' money with respect never the lesson the Liberals learn?
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- Feb/14/23 2:22:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that they think it is normal to pay $6,000 for a night at a hotel. After eight years under this Prime Minister, Canadians are worse off. Inflation is eating away at their wallets. Today we are debating a motion calling on the government to cap its spending, stop wasting resources and eliminate the taxes and deficits that are causing the cost-of-living crisis.
Will the government take the necessary fiscal and budgetary measures to get the country out of this disastrous inflationary crisis?
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- Feb/14/23 4:55:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that inflation has continued to grow under the government. The Governor of the Bank of Canada has said that the government's inflationary policies have contributed to what is happening in Canada. Inflation continuously goes up and almost every day we stand up in this House to ask the government to help Canadians keep the heat on and take the tax off. We have asked it to take the carbon tax off. Instead, what the government is planning to do is triple the carbon tax and add more burden on Canadians. This will cause more inflation, so it actually is the government's policies and actions that are hurting Canadians and making things much worse for them.
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- Feb/14/23 4:56:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the Liberal government has introduced very few budgetary or legislative measures to try to fight inflation. We all agree on that.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the Bank of Canada has had to use the monetary tool at its disposal, that is, increasing interest rates, to try to check this inflationary spiral.
Does my colleague agree that, ultimately, increasing mortgage rates was still the right thing to do?
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- Feb/14/23 4:56:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague makes a very good point, that it was actually the actions of the Liberal government, its inflationary policies and the fact that it spent so much money it really did not have, that caused the inflation we have. The Bank of Canada had no choice and was forced to increase the rates to what we see today. The result of that is that Canadians are paying for it. Mortgage payments have doubled for many Canadians. This is forcing Canadians to consider selling their house. Many Canadians are now saying they will have to sell their house within the next nine months because of how high these rates have gone. These rates are that high today, at record levels today, because of the 40-year inflation the Liberal government has caused. Its inflationary policies have put Canadians in the position they are in today.
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- Feb/14/23 4:59:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, like my colleagues, one of the issues I have with this motion is that it does not place any emphasis at all on the role that corporate profits have in driving up the cost of living in this country. It is quite clear that this is the case.
Another issue I have is with the Conservative orthodox economic thinking that deficits invariably cause inflation. If that were the case, we would have had rampant inflation in this place when the Conservative government of Stephen Harper ran seven consecutive deficits from 2008 to 2015, which did not happen.
I have heard the Conservatives say it is inflationary to spend money on dental care, yet the leader of the Conservative Party has said he would adopt the recently announced health care accord for the next 10 years, which injects an additional $46 billion into the economy. Can my hon. colleague explain how that is not inflationary if other government spending is?
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- Feb/14/23 6:31:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the narrative, although I do not think there was a response at all to my question.
In fact, with respect to the narrative about the Parliamentary Budget Office and how much Canadians are paying, I think he should read that report, because it shows that in my province alone the net fiscal economic effects are over $2,000 on average per family. I encourage him to read it, and to actually read it on the floor of the House of Commons, but I know he will not do that.
I know the narrative here. It is that we are doing better, that we are charging Canadians more, that they are paying more for everything, but that we should not worry about it because it is not the government's fault, but the fault lies somewhere else in the world.
We are moving jobs offshore consistently in this country. The reality that the current government seems to try to skid over here is that carbon taxes, if applied on their own, are designed to be inflationary. They make everything cost more. That is their effect. If the member would like to address how this is the reality versus what the intended outcome is, I would be happy to hear it, but right now the end is meeting exactly what it is supposed to be doing.
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