44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 6, 2023 10:00AM
- Jun/6/23 2:32:35 p.m.
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I am sorry to interrupt the member. I will ask him to repeat his question because there is a bit of noise in the chamber. I do not know where it is coming from. Folks are talking a bit loudly.
I am asking people to whisper if they are going to speak to each other. The noise is starting to creep up again, and I do not want it to get out of hand.
The hon. member for Burnaby South can begin from the top, please.
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- Jun/6/23 2:32:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition wants us to believe that he understands Canadians, while he lives in a residence paid for by the state, and has a cook and a gardener. He is only here to protect the rich who are profiting from this crisis.
Rising interest rates are hurting ordinary Canadians. There is even a rumour that the Bank of Canada is going to raise interest rates again.
Does the government have a plan to limit the disastrous impact these rates will have on the majority of Canadians?
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- Jun/6/23 2:33:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that Canadians are having a hard time paying for their housing. That is why we are taking action on multiple levels. Our plan involves co-operating with the municipalities, particularly by investing $4 billion to speed up residential construction approvals, and by creating 100,000 new homes. It creates a link between infrastructure investment and housing. Our plan helps Canadians save up to buy their first home, offers assistance to low-income renters, a measure the Conservatives are voting against, and converts surplus federal lands to affordable housing.
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- Jun/6/23 2:34:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the finance minister admitted that deficits fuel inflation. It is hard to believe she even understands this concept, as her government piled on more debt on to Canadians than every government before it combined. This led to the highest bank interest rate hikes seen in a decade, and now 63% of Canadians' paycheques go toward monthly mortgage payments alone. After knowing all this, she still threw a $63-billion jerry can of fuel onto the inflationary fire she started with her failed budget, and now a mortgage crisis looms.
Can she tell us on what date she will stop her inflationary spending and balance the budget so interest rates can finally come down?
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- Jun/6/23 2:34:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite represents an Alberta constituency, and I am sure he and his constituents, like me, are proud of Alberta's Ukrainian-Canadian heritage.
I wonder if his constituents know that the Conservatives' blocking tactics are stopping measures in the BIA that would support Ukraine. They are preventing us from withdrawing most favoured nation trading status from Russia and Belarus. That is the practical consequence of the blocking, filibustering and partisan jockeying of the Conservatives.
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- Jun/6/23 2:35:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my constituents, like all Albertans, rejected the Liberal-NDP government and elected a strong Conservative government just last week. She can spare us her Disney+, Mickey Mouse lectures because not all Liberals are as incompetent as the government is. Former Liberal finance minister John Manley said that Liberal spending fuelled inflation. The former Liberal premier of Nova Scotia Stephen McNeil said that governments continuing to spend beyond its means would only increase inflation.
How come random Liberals understand the importance of balancing a budget and the incompetent Liberal government does not?
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- Jun/6/23 2:36:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is worth ensuring that Canadians know the other vital measures that this partisan, posturing Conservative opposition is denying them. The Conservative filibuster is preventing Canadians from getting advance payments of the Canada workers benefit. They are blocking a crackdown on predatory lending. Who would oppose that? They are blocking the extension of seasonal EI.
Again, I would like to know if their MPs from Atlantic Canada are aware of that and support that outrageous, appalling action.
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- Jun/6/23 2:36:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the finance minister recently said, “What Canadians want right now is for inflation to come down and for interest rates to fall. And that is one of our primary goals in this year’s budget: not pour fuel on the fire of inflation”, but that is exactly what the Liberals did. Budget 2023 adds $60 billion of new spending. That is $4,200 for each Canadian family. That is higher cost, higher inflation, higher taxes.
When will they get their budget under control and control their out-of-control spending?
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- Jun/6/23 2:37:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about some facts. When COVID hit, Canada suffered the deepest recession since the Great Depression, but today unemployment is at 5%. Under Stephen Harper, the lowest unemployment got was 6%, a full percentage point higher than it is today. What else? Today, for women in their prime working years, the employment rate is more than 85%. Under Stephen Harper, the highest that ever got was 83%.
Our policies are getting Canadians back to work. That is what they need.
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- Jun/6/23 2:37:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, what their policies have done is doubled rent payments and mortgage payments for Canadians. Most young Canadians have even given up the hope of ever owning a home in Canada, and now Canadians are concerned that the Bank of Canada will have to raise interest rates again just to keep up with their inflationary spending.
Once again, when will they balance the budget and solve this inflation crisis?
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- Jun/6/23 2:38:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I understand why the Conservatives prefer rhetoric over facts, and the reason is that their policies led to such a lacklustre recovery from the 2008 recession, which was much more mild than the COVID recession. It took Canada, after 2008, 110 months to recover to the prerecessionary unemployment rate. After the COVID recession, it took just 24 months.
Things have been hard for Canadians, but thanks to our government's support, people are back at work. That is what matters the most.
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- Jun/6/23 2:39:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, members will perhaps recall one of the most ridiculous statements made in the history of Canadian politics when the Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves.
No one repeated it because it makes no sense. The problem is that, after eight years of Liberal governance, budgets have never balanced themselves. We have had deficit upon deficit.
I will share something. Last November, we thought we saw the light at the end of the tunnel when the Minister of Finance said that we should not throw fuel on the inflationary fire, meaning that spending must be controlled.
Why did she change her mind, with the disastrous results we are seeing today?
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- Jun/6/23 2:39:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Louis‑Saint‑Laurent for his question.
I hope that the Canadians watching today will realize that the Conservative Party is delaying the adoption of a tax credit for clean electricity, a tax credit for the manufacture of clean technologies and a tax credit for clean hydrogen.
Do the Conservatives actually listen to Canadians once in a while?
We are building the economy of tomorrow and seizing generational opportunities, while the Conservative Party is preventing Canada from advancing the economy of the 21st century. That is shameful.
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- Jun/6/23 2:40:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what I find shameful and embarrassing for the Liberal Party is to watch the Minister of Industry prevent the Minister of Finance from answering a question that is 100% under her responsibility.
We can understand that there may be some bickering at play here, because both of them want to become Prime Minister. That is not going to happen any time soon. Maybe the Deputy Prime Minister has also realized that there is many a slip twixt cup and lip, especially when the cup is full of champagne these days. Champagne is expensive.
I have a clear question and I think the Minister of Finance wants to answer it. Things are looking up, she has a smile on her face.
Can the Minister of Finance explain with a straight face why she said that it was fuel on the inflationary fire—
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- Jun/6/23 2:41:06 p.m.
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The hon. Deputy Prime Minister.
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- Jun/6/23 2:41:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when we talk about the economy, it is important to talk about the facts and not use partisan rhetoric. I want to remind Canadians that after the budget was tabled, S&P reaffirmed Canada's AAA credit rating. I also want to remind Canadians that Canada has the lowest deficit of all the G7 countries. Canada also has the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of all the G7 countries. That is the—
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- Jun/6/23 2:41:50 p.m.
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The hon. member for Trois-Rivières.
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- Jun/6/23 2:41:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, during this morning's committee meeting investigating Chinese interference, David Johnston explained why he believes a public inquiry had to be avoided. His reason? In his opinion, an inquiry would be expensive and time-consuming.
Does anyone know what else is expensive and time-consuming? That would be the three months of work in progress since February that we have spent calling for an independent public inquiry, which is supported by everyone except the Liberals and their special rapporteur. The Liberals' resistance to shedding light on this matter is the expensive waste of time. It is damaging public confidence. When can we expect an independent public inquiry?
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- Jun/6/23 2:42:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, how unsurprising to hear that another of my ideas has been branded a waste of time. The Bloc Québécois leader refuses to receive reliable top secret information from our intelligence agencies. Furthermore, Mr. Johnston was invited to appear before a parliamentary committee, which he did, for more than three hours, during which he was asked no questions of substance on foreign interference, but simply grilled on his integrity. In our opinion, that is the real waste of time.
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- Jun/6/23 2:43:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what does Mr. Johnston recommend in lieu of the independent public inquiry that everyone is calling for? Mr. Johnston recommends himself. That is what he is offering us. Mr. Johnston is substituting himself for an inquiry, despite the fact that the House is asking him to step aside. He wants to hold his own hearings that will in no way be independent. David Johnston is the man who dismissed the idea of a public inquiry on the basis of information that he refuses to disclose. David Johnston wants to control what might be discussed in public at his own hearings. It may be less expensive, it may take less time, but it will be less clear.
Is there anyone who would claim that this is not smoke and mirrors?
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