44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 17, 2023 11:00AM
- Apr/17/23 1:29:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today to discuss budget 2023, which is, of course, a made-in-Canada plan to build a strong middle class, an affordable economy and a healthier future. In this budget, we are proposing many measures to make life more affordable from coast to coast to coast, to improve service delivery for Canadians, to achieve better tax fairness, to strengthen our health care system and to develop a cleaner economy and invest in clean electricity.
It is nice to be back in the House of Commons after just two weeks back home for Easter, for Vaisakhi, for Passover and for Ramadan. We also celebrated other events in my riding. We raised the flag for Sikh Heritage Month, as well as for World Autism Awareness Day and many other important causes.
I had the opportunity to visit quite a few businesses. I did three school visits, as well as two high school visits set up by two incredible co-op students, Abigail from Milton District High School and Arianna from St. Francis Xavier, and I had the chance to speak to over 400 students at those two visits alone.
I am going to reflect on some of the conversations I had with students in my riding because, as I always say whenever I go into a classroom, auditorium or gymnasium to talk to the young people in Canada, students might not have votes but they do have voices, and I like to be able to bring their voices to the House of Commons because they have the most invested in the future. I think that this really is a budget for the future and a budget designed for that generation.
More specifically, I would like to talk, for the first half of my speech at least, about what we are going through right now and what we are doing to develop a clean economy. In the last couple of weeks, I had the chance to visit two electric companies. These are companies that build components for decarbonization, for electric vehicles and for pretty much all of the things that we do not understand. I am not an electrical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, but the components that Phoenix Contact has been building for the last 80 years, many of them built in Milton, Ontario, really do fuel the electrification future we talk about. If someone were to open up an electric car charger and look inside, a lot of those components would have been made and assembled in Milton, Ontario.
They were really grateful for this budget, primarily because it is clear that we are investing in decarbonization and the green economy of the future and building more good union jobs in places like Milton that are getting us closer and closer to that net-zero future that we know is so necessary in Canada, which is really leading the way in that regard. Canada has demonstrated to countries around the world not only that it is important to invest in a green future but also that one really does not have a plan for the economy of the future unless one has a plan for the environment too. That is true of budget 2023.
The other company I visited is called Eaton Canada, on Industrial Drive. I toured the shop floor with the minister of federal economic development for southern Ontario. We got to walk around and visit with a couple of the workers on the floor and see some of the really incredible innovations happening right there in Milton, building not just components for electric vehicles but also all sorts of components that go into things that run on electricity rather than on fossil fuels. It was really extraordinary. They also reflected on the value of this budget, in particular the investment tax credits for clean electricity, for green technology and for all of the innovations necessary to get us to net zero by 2050.
We also did a couple of visits to small businesses in my riding, reflecting on the measure in budget 2023 to reduce credit card fees. I know hardly anybody who brings cash with them anymore when they are buying something small, such as going in for a coffee and paying $4.50. I always feel a little bit sheepish about pulling out my phone or my credit card and paying for something under five dollars, because I know that the small business has the burden of those credit card fees. I am thrilled that, in budget 2023, we are tackling those head-on. We are going to try to reduce them by 27%, and that will save small businesses across the country upward of $10 billion over the next decade.
That is extraordinary. It improves productivity. It allows them to hire more employees. It increases their profits and allows them to keep prices low, which is an advantage for small businesses like Butcher Bar in Milton, where I went for an espresso with the minister. We sat down and had coffee and discussed some of these measures as people were coming in and out, buying their groceries. I also had the opportunity to discuss with them the rising cost of groceries and why they thought groceries were so expensive.
Constituents in my riding of Milton know that inflation is real. It is hitting them in the pocketbook, and it is hitting them in the shopping cart. They want a little bit of help. They were really grateful that the grocery rebate was also part of budget 2023.
The grocery rebate is going to invest upwards of $467 back into the pockets of Canadian families that are just trying to pay the bills. They just want to be able to go to the grocery store, fill up their carts with good, nutritious food and bring it home to their families without experiencing the rising costs that are definitely the case around the world. Many of my constituents reflected on the fact that they recognize that inflation in Canada is lower than in other places. However, that is cold comfort to families just trying to make ends meet, so the $467 is going to go a really long way to supporting the finances of families in Milton and right across this country.
There is another reflection I made at one of the school visits, at Milton District High School, I think. It was on the fact that, with budget 2023, Canada student loans will be interest-free forever. That includes Canada apprenticeship loans for those who are going to college or doing trade apprenticeships. My youngest constituents, in high school, were thrilled when they heard that. They will never actually know interest on student loans, and that is the best part. They are not going to have to experience that burden.
In fact, there were five or six teachers in the room when I brought this up, and a lot of the students were looking at me like they were going to save a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand dollars. It was the teachers in the room, who all have master's degrees in education, who let out big breaths and thought it was actually a huge thing for young people. The students will never actually know how much money they are saving, because the burden will never be placed on them in the first place. That will allow young people to get their first start when they finish school and go off and get their first job. They will be able to start saving sooner and perhaps invest more quickly into the tax-free first-time homebuyers bank account, which is another measure in this budget that is going to support the futures of young people in Milton.
A couple of questions I received after my speech at St. Francis Xavier were about housing affordability, and today we have heard a couple of reflections on housing affordability. I want to point out that the national housing plan that this government has put forth over the last couple of years still has quite a lot of money to invest across the country. We are still seeing the minister of housing make announcements across the country in various communities, particularly in places like Halton, where I grew up and which I am thrilled to be able to represent.
Halton is, without having to put too fine a point on it, quite wealthy. It is a very fortunate community. When I looked at the rankings of the socio-economic statuses of the various ridings in Canada, Milton was in the top 10, and I want to recognize that, in a lot of other ridings, many communities are not as fortunate as Milton, specifically. However, I grew up in community housing at the Chautauqua Co-op. I will always remember this, and I will never lose sight of the fact that non-market housing solutions are going to move us toward a more affordable housing ecosystem in Canada.
I was reflecting on a couple of speeches from before we went on break, by members from various parties on what they thought of solutions to the housing and affordability crisis in Canada. I always come back to the fact that co-op housing, community housing and quality supportive housing are the direction in which we ought to be going, and I am glad to see $1.5 billion in the previous year's budget. That has not all been spent, thankfully, so there is still lots of work to do. There is plenty of funding left in the housing accelerator fund, which is just coming online now for municipalities like Milton to find some really innovative solutions to housing more people more affordably in their communities.
One of the other visits I was able to do was to a dentist's office. I went by Mill Ridge Family Dental Care to see Dr. Sinan and discuss the government dental plan. Before I get a question from the NDP about this, it is great to see that the dental benefit is working for so many Canadians. It is an example of how Parliament can work together and achieve mutual goals and common objectives.
I spoke to one family with four kids. Both parents are independent contractors, so they are self-employed and do not have benefits. The dental care program is going to make it possible for their kids to see a dentist to get their teeth cleaned, to fill cavities and to make sure their smiles are healthy. It is important to note that, as Dr. Sinan pointed out, dentists do not just do work on teeth; it is also about oral care, oral health and full body health. There are a lot of things that can be diagnosed by looking into a young person's mouth. It was great to see Dr. Sinan. I know the parents are grateful for the dental benefit, and so am I.
I would be happy to take a couple of questions.
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- Apr/17/23 1:40:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to have an opportunity to talk about agriculture and farming, because my community of Milton, being one of the most diverse in the country, has quite a lot of farmers and food producers.
One of the issues that came up at my last agriculture and farming town hall was the cost of fertilizer. I am really glad that was identified as a problem and that solutions were provided in budget 2023 so we can ensure that Canadian farmers are able to produce food, regardless of the market challenges occurring right now due to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the pressures it is putting on various fertilizer markets around the world.
I am always there for farmers across Halton. When my family immigrated from Holland to a community not that far away from my colleague's riding, they farmed apples and tobacco. Every time I take a bite out of an apple, as I did from La Rose when I got a great Honeycrisp the other day, I thank a Canadian farmer.
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- Apr/17/23 1:42:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that was a great question from my colleague from Windsor. I am really grateful for the fact that it was National Dental Hygienists Week when we released the budget. I had the opportunity to sit down with a fairly large group of Canadian hygienists, and we discussed the budget, which was not out at the time, although they were looking forward to it. They were really glad for these investments in dental care, because a lot of things, like the cleanings, the preparation and the lessons young people get on how to floss and brush more effectively, come from dental hygienists.
I appreciate the opportunity to thank dental hygienists today for their extraordinary work and recognize that their working conditions always need to be improved, because they are really the frontline workers for dentists. The member for Windsor West has reminded me that that I am due for a cleaning, so I will make sure to call my dentist after this and book one.
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- Apr/17/23 1:44:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Avalon for bringing up an issue that is very near and dear to my heart. At my constituency office in Milton, which is a very busy place, a lot of seniors call to say the threshold for dental care from the province is far too low. Basically, seniors need to be extraordinarily poor before they can access insurance through the province, and that needs to change.
This year, our government, in budget 2023, is committed to broadening the dental care benefit to seniors as well as kids under 18. I think a lot of 17-year-olds would say they are not kids, so I will say people under 18 whose parents are not insured. A number of seniors who have called my office to say they need root canals or minor surgeries are relying on charitable dentists giving them a good deal. This government is stepping up and saying they do not have to rely on charity; they can rely on us.
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