44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 17, 2023 11:00AM
- Apr/17/23 12:06:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, inflation certainly has been a real problem. That is no secret to anyone in the House, and it is no secret to any Canadian who has been out there trying to buy groceries in the last year or so. It is why another doubling of the GST rebate is important and why I think a larger conversation is important to have around a number of income support programs that were not designed to keep pace with this rate of inflation.
We know that when inflation goes back down to the target level, whenever that is going to happen, whether it is going to be by the end of this year, next year or two years from now, those prices will still be up and will not be going down. This means that for those income support programs, whether it is the GST rebate or others that do not factor inflation in, and there are some of them, we need to have a discussion in this country about how we raise the floor so they recognize that we have suffered a period of incredible inflation and that the household budgets of Canadians have permanently higher costs.
I am glad for what I see as a victory for the New Democrats, who have been pushing for a doubling of the GST rebate, first the initial one and then the second one. We are very much open to and feeling a sense of urgency about having conversations on other programs, including the establishment of the Canada disability benefit. The government has been promising that for a long time, but it has not given details of the idea for it. We know that people living with disabilities in Canada rightly feel an incredible sense of urgency and did so even before the pandemic, let alone this last period of inflation.
Let us get down to work, roll up our sleeves and make sure we are supporting Canadians who need help. This doubling of the GST rebate is only a start. There is a lot more work to do, and the New Democrats stand ready to to do it and to do it expeditiously.
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- Apr/17/23 12:08:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is certainly important. Of course, one of the other places we have seen inflation that has been really meaningful in the Canadian economy is with respect to construction and the cost of inputs for building things. Of course, one of the inputs is the cost of tools. They have not been spared the effects of inflation in a period when supply has been very tight.
I think recognizing for tradespeople that the cost of their inputs has gone up and ensuring that the mechanisms designed to provide some relief for that keep pace with inflation are important. That is why the New Democrats have been proud to also support the trade mobility tax credit, both in the budget bill and in a private member's bill, to make sure that tradespeople are getting some of the same tax treatment that white collar workers get when they run their own business.
It is also why we are very proud to have fought for and won in this budget, and we are looking for the legislation to make it true as well, the measure that working people will be represented on the board of the growth fund, which is going to invest in the new energy economy in Canada. It is really important to have workers' voices at those tables, because the transition has to happen in a way that creates good-paying jobs for Canadian workers right here in Canada. Our efforts to ensure that workers have a voice on the board that will be making decisions about the growth fund is an example of that, as is our insistence to have real conditions about prevailing wages tied to federal investment in clean tech.
There are a number of wins for workers. It is one of the differences that having the New Democrats at the table has made, and we will continue to advocate for benefits like these for workers.
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- Apr/17/23 12:11:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for raising the issue of the housing crisis. Certainly, the people in Elmwood—Transcona are feeling the squeeze in housing, as are people across the country from coast to coast to coast. The feeling is different depending on where one is. The problems manifest in different ways, but there is no question that people across the country are feeling those pressures. That is why it was a very specific focus for me in the budget speech to talk about the housing crisis.
Recently, I was attacked in the National Post for some of the comments I made in this place. I will wear it as a badge of honour, considering some of the positions that paper wants to take on a number of issues, let alone on housing. What I found curious about the criticism was that it said I was misrepresenting the housing crisis in order to defend the Liberals, which could not be further from the truth.
My point was that the Liberals and the Conservatives have far more in common on housing policy than anybody else does. Why is this the case? It is because they fundamentally accept that housing is a commodity and that profit should be the ultimate focus of housing policy. That has been true in this country for over 30 years now since the Liberals originally cut the national housing strategy in 1993. That was my point.
We are not going to get past the housing crisis or get to a point where we finally feel we are making progress if we do not centre housing as a public good in our housing policy, instead of a commodity. My opinion is that as long as we have Liberals and Conservatives running the country, we are not going to get to that point.
Ultimately, they are very concerned about protecting profit-making in the housing industry and reluctant to accept the idea that housing is a public good or human right. While they may want to do that rhetorically, in their policy, they still do not do it. That is why a lot of housing policy is not working, even though the Liberals have done more in the housing policy space than any government since 1993. There is a reason it is not working.
What is capitalism? It is a small number of people owning the means of production and everyone else being exploited. What is happening in our housing market is that a smaller and smaller group of people own the housing, and everyone else is being exploited. Unless we can be critical of capitalism as a model, we are not actually going to fix housing policy in Canada. That was my point, and they are birds of a feather when it comes to that.
I am sorry the National Post column did not get the point originally. I hope it is much clearer now, and I am thankful for the opportunity to make that clarification.
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- Apr/17/23 12:14:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the point I take my colleague to be making there is that if we judge the success of housing policy by how much money developers are making, that is not the same as Canadians getting access to housing they can afford to live in. We need to drop this metric as the principal metric and adopt Canadians actually getting into housing they can afford.
One thing I have not had much of a chance to talk about that I want to mention briefly is employment insurance. When interest rates go up and for-profit building stops, people get laid off. Right now, they do not have an employment insurance system that they can count on to support their mortgage payments, rent or groceries for their families. That is why the Liberals had better act with a sense of urgency that we have not seen.
A major disappointment with this budget is that the Liberals continue to promise employment insurance reform, but it is not coming. They warn of a recession. That is coming; it is why we need the EI system to be fully reformed, and we need it now.
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- Apr/17/23 12:28:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the government has been consulting on changes to the employment insurance system for seven and a half years. In the meantime, we have had a global pandemic where we know, knew and still know that the employment insurance system was inadequate to the task; it had to be completely reimagined and changed for the duration of the pandemic. The government has since cancelled those rules, saying that the pandemic is over and that we do not have a problem.
Then we experienced a period of very high inflation. Now the Bank of Canada, despite fanfare about having a different mandate in the fall of 2021, has actually not changed the mandate at all, as I said at the time. It is still an inflation-targeting mandate. That is what the leader of the Conservative Party wanted; it is what he got. Now we have Bank of Canada leadership who say the unemployment rate is too low and they need to raise it. They will actually continue raising interest rates until unemployment comes up. We have a government that continues to say it is consulting on employment insurance reform, when it has had over seven years and knows very well what needs to be done. When will it do it?
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