44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 28, 2023 10:00AM
- Mar/28/23 2:20:35 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I know that the members opposite cannot wait to see the budget. I can assure them that our priority is to help Canadians.
We will be there with targeted measures that will help Canadians with the cost of living. We will be there with health care services and more money for the provinces to provide dental care assistance, which the Conservatives voted against. We will also create jobs for the middle class in a growing green economy.
Those are the government's priorities. We will continue to be there for people.
93 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 2:36:10 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is great to see our colleagues so excited about the budget today. In a short two hours, they will learn everything that is in the budget to support Canadians.
However, I am going to make a prediction. No matter what measures are there to support Canadians through affordability challenges, no matter what is in there to grow an economy that helps everyone, no matter what is in there to position Canada for greatness in the future, the Conservatives, the opposition in this House, will vote against it. It is what they have always done, and it is what they will do again. They will vote against, and we will keep delivering for Canadians.
116 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 2:38:46 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is wonderful to see how excited our colleagues are for today's budget. In two hours, they will know everything that is in our budget.
I will make a prediction. I predict that regardless of what measures are set out in the budget to support Canadians, build the economy or green the economy, the Conservatives, the opposition party, will vote against them.
We are here for Canadians. They are against them. It is our duty to meet our commitments.
82 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 2:47:04 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, according to the “Canada's Food Price Report”, food insecurity is about to get worse for Canadian families. It will now cost a family of four over $16,000 a year to pay for their food, an increase of over $1,000 from last year. Now is not the time to increase taxes on grocery bills.
In today's budget, will the Prime Minister cancel his carbon tax and stop making it harder for Canadians to feed their families?
83 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 2:48:16 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, a family of four now needs to come up with $16,000 a year to pay for basic food, and the Liberal carbon tax hike will make the cost to grow and transport that food even higher, which means record-high grocery bills will be going up by over a thousand dollars this year. While that might not be anything for a Prime Minister who would charge taxpayers $6,000 a night for a luxury hotel with a butler, for many Canadian families it could be the difference between eating and going hungry.
Why does he not just do the right thing and cancel his carbon tax in today's budget?
113 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 2:57:48 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, not only are we listening to small and medium-sized businesses but we proved it during the pandemic, among other times.
I cannot say how many small business owners I have met in my riding and across Quebec who tell me the extent to which we were there for them. It is thanks to programs that we put in place during the pandemic that they were able to retain jobs and, thanks to those jobs, families are now able to pay their rent and buy groceries.
We have always been there for small businesses and for those most in need, and that will still be the case today with this budget.
114 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 4:28:15 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the budget we are being presented with today raises many questions.
First, it bears repeating that, in 2015, this government promised to run only modest deficits before returning to a balanced budget in just four years' time. This is the same Prime Minister who said that, one day, the budgets would balance themselves. This is the same Prime Minister who said that it was time to invest in Canada because interest rates were low and would stay that way.
Today, the Minister of Finance is tabling a budget that follows last year's budget, when she said the following:
On this next point, let me be very clear. We are absolutely determined that our debt-to-GDP ratio must continue to decline and our deficits must continue to be reduced. The pandemic debt we incurred to keep Canadians safe and solvent must [and will] be paid down.... This is our fiscal anchor.
Here is what the minister said in English:
This is our fiscal anchor.
Last year's figure was 42.4. The minister went on to say:
Canada has a proud tradition of fiscal responsibility. It is my duty to maintain it and I will...
This year's projected ratio is 43.5. The projection for next year is 43.2. In its first budget after announcing its fiscal anchor, the government is exceeding its fiscal anchor. It should never be exceeded.
Given everything I have just said, can the Minister of Inflation tell us why Canadians should believe a word of these budget forecasts or trust them?
262 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/28/23 4:34:36 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not mention some of the things in the budget worth commending. They are very familiar items to those of us in the NDP caucus who have been calling for affordability measures such as another doubling of the GST rebate; a Canada-wide dental insurance plan, which is now on the way; real and meaningful labour conditions around federal investments in clean tech to ensure that it is not just companies but workers who would actually benefit from the investments we have to make to launch ourselves into the new energy economy; and meaningful investments for indigenous people living in urban, rural and northern communities who are struggling, as many Canadians are, with the housing market.
However, I have to say the budget also rightly includes warnings of a coming recession, warnings that we are hearing from private sector economists as well. We know that when a recession hits and unemployment goes up, the program that Canadians depend upon to pay the bills is employment insurance. In fact, the employment insurance system was so bad, it had to be completely overhauled during the pandemic because it could not get the job done.
In September of last year, the government let those temporary measures drop. The Liberals have been promising EI modernization for the entire seven, or eight, depending on who one talks to, years they have been in government. They have not delivered. Why is it that, as Canada looks down the barrel of a recession, the government is missing in action on employment insurance reform?
264 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
