44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 16, 2023 10:00AM
- May/16/23 2:15:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, certain artists, certain songs take us back in time, maybe even to our youth. There are even some that bring us back to a specific era, perhaps to an important milestone, for example.
I do not need to sing the following lines; it is enough to recite the following:
Quebec's future will be sound,
if it does let itself get pushed around.
We all know how it goes and immediately want to sing, “Quebeckers, we are Quebeckers”.
This takes me back to the 1970s, to the excitement of René Lévesque's first term in office and the Parti Québécois.
That was François Guy.
Although François Guy embodied a past era of Quebec song, he also embodied its future. François Guy was about the Société pour l'avancement de la chanson d'expression française, or SACEF. He was about mentorship and “Ma première Place des Arts” awards. He was about love for the French language and the desire to see a new generation of artists sing in French.
François Guy passed away on Friday. To his family, to his wife, Isabelle Lajeunesse, to all his loved ones and all Quebeckers, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I extend our deepest condolences.
Thank you for the memories, but, more importantly, thank you for mentoring the François Guys of the future.
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- May/16/23 2:17:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians cannot find much comfort at home lately. Rents and mortgages have doubled, and the out-of-touch, jet-setting, climate-crisis hypocrite is out of the country again.
We will soon have a new Conservative prime minister. He will bring home lower prices by ending inflationary deficits and scrapping the carbon tax on heat, gas and groceries. He will bring home powerful paycheques by lowering taxes and clawbacks to reward work again. He will bring homes workers can afford by firing the gatekeepers and freeing up land to build on. He will bring home safety by ending catch-and-release policies for repeat violent criminals. He will bring home freedom from foreign interference and woke government censorship.
Conservatives will fix what the Liberals have broken. For Canadians' home and our home, let us bring it home.
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- May/16/23 2:18:06 p.m.
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Order. I just want to remind the hon. member that calling others names is not parliamentary behaviour. I just want to remind everyone in the chamber of that.
The hon. member for Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook.
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- May/16/23 2:18:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, veterans and their families deserve a safe and affordable place to call home. That is why I am so pleased that the newly announced veteran homelessness program will provide comprehensive support to veterans experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.
A total of $79.1 million in funding will be available by way of two streams. One will provide rent supplements and wraparound services, while the other will support research on veteran homelessness and capacity building. Eligible recipients, including veteran-serving organizations, can apply to either or both funding streams through an online portal on the Infrastructure Canada website. Applications are open until June 23, and I encourage all organizations to make an application.
Canada’s veterans have long served and sacrificed for our country, and it is our duty to support them.
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- May/16/23 2:19:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, not long ago, the Prime Minister told us that inflation was falling, and his finance minister said that deficit spending would simply pour gasoline on the inflationary fire.
A few weeks later, however, she did pour $60 billion of new inflationary fuel on the fire in her budget, at an additional cost of $4,200 to each Canadian family. Today we found out that inflation is rising again.
When is the government going to reverse this Prime Minister's inflationary policies?
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- May/16/23 2:20:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that inflation is going down. Inflation was 8.1% in June and 4.4% in April. That is a big difference.
The Bank of Canada expects inflation to reach 3% this summer and to drop below 3% by the end of the year. As for our economy, our AAA credit rating remains intact.
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- May/16/23 2:20:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, she is the one who said that deficits add to inflation. In fact, she said that inflation and rising interest rates were related to the deficits, the same types of deficits that she was going to introduce a few weeks later in her budget. She added $60 billion of inflationary deficit spending.
In the Prime Minister's city, one in five Montrealers can no longer pay their monthly bills.
Will the Prime Minister finally give Montrealers and Canadians a bit of a break by eliminating these deficits?
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- May/16/23 2:21:41 p.m.
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Once again, the Conservatives do not want to talk about the reality of the Canadian economy.
The reality is that Canada has the strongest economy of all the G7 countries. We also have the strongest fiscal position and the lowest deficit of all the G7 countries.
It is thanks to the work of Canadians that we have a very low level of unemployment. Inflation is dropping—
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- May/16/23 2:22:20 p.m.
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The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- May/16/23 2:22:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, not long ago, the Prime Minister told us that inflation was falling, and his finance minister said that she would avoid deficit spending because that would simply pour gasoline on the inflationary fire. She did pour $60 billion of new inflationary fuel on the fire; as a result, today we see inflation is rising again, led by higher mortgage payments for the average Canadian.
Will the government stop pouring fuel on the fire so that Canadians could afford to pay their bills?
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- May/16/23 2:22:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yet again, despite the best efforts, which actually are not that good, of the Conservatives to mislead Canadians, the Canadian economy is strong. We have the strongest fiscal position in the G7, and our AAA credit rating was reaffirmed after I tabled the budget.
On inflation, I know that the party opposite does not really know too much about the Bank of Canada, but the Bank of Canada follows CPI-trim and CPI-median; those are the core indicators. CPI-median and CPI-trim went down between March and April.
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- May/16/23 2:23:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, actually, when I said two years ago that deficits would cause inflation, that was controversial. Now, everyone agrees that I was right, including the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who now says that inflation is caused by deficits. The finance minister has agreed that I was right, when she said that deficits pour fuel on the inflationary fire. She poured $60 billion of that fuel. That is $4,200 per family.
Canadians cannot afford to eat, heat their homes or house themselves. Will that minister stop pouring the fuel on the fire so Canadians can again pay their bills?
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- May/16/23 2:24:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have another request: Would that ex-minister stop leading Canadians astray, urging them, recklessly, to invest in crypto? That is an area where we actually really do disagree.
I want to talk about the core inflationary measures that the Bank of Canada follows, which determine the path of interest rates. One of them is CPI-trim. CPI-trim peaked at 5.6% in June of last year. It was 4.4% in March, and fell to—
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- May/16/23 2:25:04 p.m.
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The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- May/16/23 2:25:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, actually, the Governor of the Bank of Canada said that his measure of inflation is CPI. CPI is up today, even though she said it would be down. It is up, interestingly, after the $60 billion in new spending that she brought in her budget. What is up the most, though, is mortgage payments, and she can tell us why, because she admitted that deficits “make inflation worse and force rates higher for longer.” They force rates higher for longer, and that is why Canadians are paying 28% more in mortgage payments.
Will she get off the backs of Canadian homebuyers so they can put a roof over their head?
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- May/16/23 2:25:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians know better than to listen to the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to money, because he did, after all, urge them to invest in crypto. They know better than to rely on the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to the Bank of Canada, because his answer is to fire the independent Governor of the Bank of Canada. What the Bank of Canada looks at is CPI-trim and CPI-median. CPI-median peaked at 5.2% in June. It was 4.5% in March and went down to 4.2% in April.
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- May/16/23 2:26:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, they called their gimmick the Century Initiative. It does not translate well, and that is by design. They want everyone to become English. They said—
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- May/16/23 2:26:39 p.m.
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I am going to interrupt the hon. member for Beloeil—Chambly. There are discussions happening between the two sides, and we cannot hear the question. I am going to ask everyone to calm down and take a deep breath.
The hon. member for Beloeil—Chambly may start his question over again.
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- May/16/23 2:27:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government agreed to a gimmick it called the Century Initiative, which we will not bother translating into French. It does not deserve to be translated because, at that point, we would all be speaking English. The Liberals said that they would drop the slogan. That is fine.
Then, the Liberals said that they would abandon the idea of 100 million Canadians by the end of the century because we did not like it. In any case, we will all be dead in 77 years. However, they decided to keep the target of 500,000 new immigrants per year as of 2025. That is what is going to shrink Quebec and bring about its permanent downfall.
Do the Deputy Prime Minister, the voice of reason, and her government really think that Quebeckers are that stupid?
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- May/16/23 2:27:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to be very honest and straightforward with our Bloc Québécois colleagues and all Quebeckers. French in Canada is very important and the Quebec nation is a priority for our government and for me personally. We truly understand how important the linguistic and cultural vitality of the Quebec nation is, and I must say that, as the Minister of Finance—
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