44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 17, 2023 02:00PM
- May/17/23 2:29:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the person unable to answer a simple question is the leader of the Conservatives.
My question is the following: What is his economic plan? Where will he make cuts? Will it be in health transfers? Will it be in the $200 billion that our government will invest in health care? Perhaps it will be in the $30 billion that we will be investing in a national day care system.
[Disturbance in the gallery]
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- May/17/23 2:32:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is someone whom we do not intend to have fired after the 2025 election, someone who I actually think should keep his job as leader of the Conservative opposition. One of the reasons he is going to keep his job is that he cannot answer a simple question for Canadians, and that is, what is his positive plan? What does he actually propose to do for the Canadian economy?
The only thing we know is that he is going to cut. He is going to cut the $200 billion we are investing in our health care system. He is going to cut the $300 billion we are investing in—
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- May/17/23 2:34:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear the Conservative leader actually talking about climate, because the reality is that the biggest challenge our planet faces and the biggest challenge our economy faces is building a clean economy.
That is where the jobs are. That is where the jobs will be. We have invested $120 billion in our green industrial plan. It is creating jobs today. It will create jobs in the future. The Conservatives would wreck all of that.
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- May/17/23 2:35:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader obviously does not understand that what every industrial economy needs is a plan to build the clean economy of the future. However, I will tell members who does understand that: an electrician named Jeff, whom I met in Mississauga in March. I was there to talk with him about the investments we were going to make in electrifying the Canadian economy. He knows that means, for him, jobs. He told me, “I have the skills to pay the bills.” Thanks to our plan, those skills will be put to work, and the Jeffs across the country will pay their bills.
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- May/17/23 2:36:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what I want is for people like Jeff in Mississauga, people who have the skills, to be able to pay their bills today, tomorrow and 10 years from now. Jeff's wife, by the way, is an emergency room nurse, and our investments in health care are helping her pay the bills too. That means investing in a green industrial plan. Our focus is relentlessly on Canadians and jobs, and we have added 900,000 more jobs than we had before the pandemic.
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- May/17/23 2:38:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question.
This is a very serious and difficult issue. As my colleague said yesterday in response to the same question, she is working closely with indigenous leaders.
We know that we need to work with indigenous leaders to resolve this issue, which is very serious and critical.
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- May/17/23 2:39:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with the leader of the Bloc Québécois that this is a serious situation. It is a serious and difficult situation in terms of the environment and safety.
I want to assure the House and all Canadians that my colleague, the minister responsible, and I are working closely with indigenous leaders to resolve the situation.
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- May/17/23 2:40:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a very important issue, and one way that single mother will be able to afford the cost of living more easily is through our investments in early learning and child care. Her fees across Canada have been reduced by 50% this year. So many moms across the country have told me that child care costs are like a second mortgage. We are bringing those costs down. That is real help for real people, and we are glad to be working with provinces and territories to deliver it.
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- May/17/23 2:41:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we agree with the NDP leader that we must help the less well off and do more to make sure that the wealthy pay their fair share. This is exactly what our government is doing.
We invested $2 billion in the one-time grocery rebate that is going to help 11 million Canadians by paying for their groceries, and we introduced a tax on certain luxury goods.
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- May/17/23 2:42:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Jeff is a real person, and he told me how glad he is that the government is investing in a green industrial policy and how glad his wife, Cheryl, is that we are investing in supporting our health care system.
We are making those essential investments while maintaining the strongest fiscal position in the G7. Our AAA rating has been reiterated, and we have the lowest deficit in the G7. That is compassion and responsibility at the same time.
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- May/17/23 2:44:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, instead of believing partisan hacks reading their talking points, I think Canadians should listen to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
When the—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/17/23 2:45:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, instead of listening to partisan hacks reciting their canned talking points, I think Canadians tend to trust the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
In testimony before the finance committee, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said, “When looking at G7 countries, Canada compares very favourably on net debt-to-GDP.” He also said that, having spoken—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/17/23 2:46:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to share with the House that, further on in his testimony before the finance committee, the Parliamentary Budget Officer described a conversation he had had with an individual from the credit rating agency Moody's, who had said that Canada's deficit should make us “quite happy because by European standards that's very low.”
Canada's economy is strong, and our fiscal position is strong. No one should believe the Conservatives when they say otherwise.
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- May/17/23 2:49:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, the Conservatives seem to believe that Canadians are devoid of intelligence. Canadians know that we have a strong economy.
I would like to quote another expert, the former parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page. He said that the 2023 budget has a credible fiscal strategy and that the government's fiscal anchor, the declining ratio, will be maintained.
We are not the ones saying—
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- May/17/23 2:56:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member for Foothills surely knows, Albertans are getting back more than $1,000. That goes directly into the pockets of Alberta families.
I was in Edmonton and Calgary recently and met a great, young woman whose name is Kayla. She teaches people how to weld. She told me that we need a plan, an economic plan, for the green economy. She understands that is where her job is going to be and where the jobs of the apprentices she is training are going to be. Albertans get that. It is only the Conservatives who do not.
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- May/17/23 3:01:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to do so, and I would like to start by thanking the hon. member for Guelph for his advocacy on behalf of his constituents and all Canadians.
The one-time grocery rebate will deliver targeted inflation relief to 11 million low- and medium-income Canadians and families who need it most. That is going to be up to an extra $467 for eligible couples with two children, and people will get that support on July 5 of this year.
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