44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Châteauguay—Lacolle.
I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to today's debate. I will preface my comments by saying that, based on a former intervention, I will be concentrating on what was mentioned earlier by the member opposite: equity and the opportunities to provide for affordability through the investments that the government is currently making.
At the end of March, our government released budget 2023. Our made-in-Canada plan for a strong middle class, an affordable economy and a healthy future was paramount to the remarks made by the Minister of Finance. It comes at an important moment for our country, concentrating on the business of government versus the business of politics. I am proud to say that it makes investments, for example in public health care, and provides new measures to make life more affordable for Canadians. It makes investments to offset the cost of living and in many other areas, making life more affordable.
In Canada, inflation is coming down, having declined for nine months in a row, and the Bank of Canada predicts that it will drop to just 2.5% by the end of this year. However, we all know that it is still too high, and it is still making it difficult for many Canadians to make ends meet, put food on the table, put gas in the tank and ensure that their little ones have the luxuries that we had when we were growing up.
Groceries are more expensive today and, for many people, higher prices on other essential goods are causing undue stress. Therefore, it is relevant that this government is making investments to offset that affordability crisis. That is why, once again, in budget 2023, we announced new, targeted inflation relief for the most vulnerable Canadians to help support them with the cost of living. This includes the introduction of a one-time grocery rebate, providing $2.5 billion to target inflation. This is relief for 11 million low- and modest-income Canadians and their families. The grocery rebate will provide eligible couples with two children with up to an extra $467, single Canadians without children with up to an extra $234, and seniors with an extra $225 on average.
The grocery rebate is making great legislative progress as we speak. I am glad to report that Bill C-46 passed the House at all stages on April 19 and is now being considered by the Senate. This means we are closer to being able to deliver this much-needed support and affordability for Canadians.
A couple of weeks ago, our government introduced Bill C-47, the budget implementation act. This essential piece of legislation proposes to implement many of the government's key commitments in the budget, including those that will continue to make life more affordable for Canadians.
For example, we are cracking down on predatory lending. Predatory lenders can take advantage of some of the most vulnerable people throughout our communities, including low-income Canadians, newcomers and seniors, often by offering very high-interest-rate loans. With budget 2023 and Bill C-47, our government is taking this challenge very seriously.
Another step our government is taking to support low-income Canadians is through automatic tax filing to ensure that—
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- May/2/23 5:03:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I said in my preface remarks, once again, I am concentrating on the business of government. We are talking, this evening, about home ownership and renting affordability. What I am speaking about is affordability, whereby we are making it more affordable for Canadians to deal with the market conditions that are before them when it comes to housing by investing in other areas that, in fact, will make it more affordable for them to enter into the housing and renting market.
My colleague across the floor should recognize that, as I am sure he does have some business astuteness in terms of offsetting the cost of living with respect to some of the investments that the government is making.
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- May/2/23 5:08:18 p.m.
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I know that I should never assume.
I will move on. Budget 2023 also announced that the federal government will increase the number of Canadians eligible for “auto-fill my return” to two million people by 2025, almost triple the current number.
We are also addressing affordability with our students, our younger generation, preparing them for the next stage in their lives and the adventures they are going to embark on, whether it be through co-ops and apprenticeships or student loans, and ensuring that they have the ability to enter the markets once they are finished with the hard work they are doing at either college or university.
The Canada workers benefit, which we committed to both in the 2022 fall statement and in the 2023 budget, provides up to $714 for single workers and $1,231 for a family, split between three payments, again, allowing for the affordability in some of the challenges that people are actually recognizing with homes, with groceries, with gas, etc., once again concentrating on the business of good government versus the business of good politics. That is our priority.
Regarding health care, I want to be very clear that in exchange for the new funding that we are providing the provinces, in the amount of $198.3 billion over 10 years and $46.2 billion to the provinces and territories, what this is going to do is create more affordability for Canadians when it comes to housing and home rentals, not to mention what it is going to do to provide equitable health care and ensure that the provision is given to all Canadians.
I will give an example. In Niagara, this will ensure that urgent care centres in the town of Fort Erie and the city of Port Colborne stay open to provide equitable services for their residents. This will ensure, once again, keeping, maintaining and enhancing all the services that are currently provided by the urgent care centres in Port Colborne or Fort Erie, as well as the hospital in the city of Welland. This is extremely important for those communities, not only adding equitable access to health care services but also, with the investments being made by the federal government in partnership with the provincial governments, ensuring affordability so that people are receiving these services while at the same time creating equity with respect to offsetting the higher cost of living.
This government is investing in Canadians, and by doing that, with the myriad of different services that we are embarking on today and well into the future, we will, in fact, offset the financial challenges that many of our neighbours and our families have to endure in the market conditions that are before us today.
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- May/2/23 5:09:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think that is a great question from my neighbour in Niagara, specifically because of some of the challenges we are enduring in the Ontario. I will give an example.
At the current time, the Conservative Government of Ontario has now taken away the ability for municipalities to charge full development charges to builders to offset growth-related costs such as fire, police, community services, public health, infrastructure, roads, gutters, sidewalks and the list goes on. They are now defaulting on the property taxpayer or the water bills.
To answer my colleague's question, it is incumbent upon the federal government to not only encourage, but demand that the Conservative Government of Ontario ensure those development-charged dollars go where they belong: to the property taxpayers and water/waste water ratepayers.
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- May/2/23 5:11:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think that is a great point and it is part of the discussion that we are having with those very partners. An example of that is the billions of dollars that we have provided in the budgets, not just budget, in the past two years. We are also working with the indigenous communities to ensure they get equitable access to that funding as well, with respect to the housing needs they have.
My point is the balance that we, as a country, have to have in ensuring that we address this challenge. I think the member is correct. Moving forward, we do have to work with our partners to find different creative ways to meet this challenge because it is bigger than the country. I think we have to come to that realization and we have to find those ways to meet that challenge by working together with our partners.
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- May/2/23 5:13:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, once again, it is the same answer as for the question prior. This is the dialogue we are having.
It is a great question. Of course, I have to confess it was a tough budget this year. The government really tried to strike that balance between fiscal responsibility, especially after what we went through the last three years with the pandemic and of course getting a handle on that, while at the same time hearing what our partners are telling us and really being a part of that dialogue.
To the member, those are some of the options this government will consider moving forward.
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