44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 21, 2023 02:00PM
- Jun/21/23 6:48:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed the speech by my colleague from La Prairie. I can easily imagine that he would be a favourite teacher of his students. He is an economist and I can only agree with him. I would like him to tell us, the opposition parties, things we might not understand.
Here it is the month of June and the House is about to adjourn for the summer. We spent all spring being told that we were mistaken. I would like to hear my colleague explain to me what motivated the government's attitude when it said that its plan was working. If we look at the dashboard, Canada cuts a sad figure on the global stage. I would like my colleague to talk about that.
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- Jun/21/23 7:24:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, first of all, I would like to thank my colleague who spoke before me, the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona. I do not share his political opinions and values, but I must point out the effort he made to speak French. I am very pleased to hear more French in the House of Commons. I tip my hat to him.
I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek.
Just over three months ago, on March 28, the Liberal government tabled an irresponsible budget that increases debt and inflation. A few weeks ago, I rose in the House to give a speech on Bill C‑47, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023. I began my speech on this bill on June 6 by criticizing the government, which, in my opinion, is choosing to throw money at everyone and waste money. It is making decisions in its own self-interest to hold on to power, using taxpayer dollars to buy a little bit of support from the NDP. The NDP will probably never have as much power in the future as it has in this Parliament—
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- Jun/21/23 7:26:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I was saying that the current government is a minority government and that, in my opinion, the NDP will probably never again have the power it has right now in this 44th Parliament. It is rather odd and a bit disappointing to us, Canadians, who work hard to save our money and make the best use of it.
This government is reaffirming its commitment to reducing the federal debt and thinks that it will do that by wasting our money. I am asking this question again because here we are near the end of the session before the House adjourns for the summer. That is likely not news. I think that Canadians noticed that it was possibly our last day. I want to take this opportunity to wish a very good summer to the 337 other parliamentarians who worked hard for many hours. I think Canadians should know how many hours we all spend on serving them. I wish my colleagues a very good summer. I hope they take care of themselves and their family and that they come back in September in full form.
I was saying that it is unfortunate to see that nothing has changed on the Liberal side. Canadians are still stretched to the limit with inflation. They are drowning. What is really unfortunate is that it is getting worse because of this government's policy. Six months ago, the Deputy Prime Minister was saying that we should not run deficits or that we should minimize them because they would have a direct impact on inflation. That was six months ago when she tabled the November economic statement. Then she tabled the budget in March.
When I look at this massive budget, unfortunately I do not see an approach or a target date for balancing the budget. That is rather unfortunate. We are caught in a downward spiral. The problem is that the cost of living is going up. Companies need more revenue. Employees need more income. The government is increasing taxes, which means that there is no way out, no escape.
The housing situation is a tragedy. I have before me an article that was updated in today's Journal de Montréal. In Quebec, rent prices have risen by 13.7% in just one year. I am not talking about food or heating or consumer goods. I am talking about something that every Canadian cannot do without, namely housing. Worse still, the increase in some cities is as high as 44%. That is huge.
There was another article posted online whose headline read, “I'm prepared to sleep in the living room: this mom of two teens has 10 days left to find a place to live”. It is tragic. It is no joke. We need to give ourselves the means to be rigorous and to get our public finances in order. The members across the aisle are telling us that everything is fine, that the outlook is good, that they have received a good report card from the international community. Unfortunately, it all depends on how one looks at report cards. I could go on and on about housing statistics, but I will go back to my original text.
Businesses are no longer able to make good deals. Everything costs more. There is a labour shortage. We need to increase wages. At the end of the day, there is only one payer and that is the Canadian taxpayer. It is important to be able to strike the right balance. There is no sign of that from this government, however. As my economist colleague from the Bloc Québécois said, this government has no vision. It is reactive. Foreign interference is one example of the government being reactive.
That went on for quite a while. Because of the situation, the special rapporteur resigned. We do not know whether he resigned willingly or was forced to. We told the government that an independent public inquiry was needed. They played with words about the process, and they might wait until the last minute, when they have no other choice, before they reach that conclusion. We are wasting time. As my grandfather said, time is money.
I was talking about businesses. It is very important to give them the tools they need, which brings me to another topic, the carbon tax. The government has been in power for eight years. It brought in a first tax and took certain measures. Looking at the results after eight years, we see that there have been no reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. I am told that there was a drop at one point, but that was during the pandemic. The pandemic certainly did reduce consumption, but it reduced a lot of other things too. When we look at the projections, we can see that we are going to hit a wall.
The first carbon tax did not work. Now we will wave a magic wand. We will solve the greenhouse gas problem by introducing a second carbon tax.
If the first tax did not work, then the second likely will not either. No one needs to take a university class to understand that. Instead of taking care of the environment, this government is taking money out of taxpayers' pockets and making them even poorer. However, I would like to remind the government that Canadians cannot take any more. They have been bled dry. They are no longer able to pay their bills.
The fact that 1.5 million Canadians have to use food banks is very serious, yet the government is saying that we do not have to worry, that everything is fine and the situation is under control.
I have some data from the OECD. We are being told that Canada is doing well when it comes to the real GDP growth projections for 2023-24 and that we are among the leaders. I do not know about that. I did a search earlier while I was waiting for my turn to speak. In terms of the real GDP growth projection for 2023-24, the average for all countries is 2.7%. The projection for Canada is 1.4%, but the government is saying that things are going well and that everything is under control. We are on the right path, the results are good and we need to trust the government.
For 2024, the real GDP growth projection for all countries is 2.9%. That is an average. The projection for Canada is not 7% or 5.1%. It is 1.4%.
On that note, I want to wish everyone a good summer. I will be pleased to answer my colleagues' questions.
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- Jun/21/23 7:35:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by saluting my colleague, whom I sincerely appreciate. We have the privilege of working together on issues related to the international Francophonie. I had the opportunity to work with him on Bill C‑13.
It is a good thing that he was the Liberal representative for the study on Bill C‑13, because without him, we would have had even less to show for all our efforts. I would like to acknowledge him and thank him for the work that he did, although he could have done more.
Now, as for the situation in 2015, all I can say to my colleague from Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook is that we had a time horizon to balance the budget. We left the books in great shape, whereas this government has run up a deficit larger than the deficits of all prime ministers combined since Trudeau senior.
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- Jun/21/23 7:37:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to salute my colleague from Montcalm. That is definitely a concern for me. As the member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, I am concerned about two things, namely official languages and the environment.
His question contains the answer because, when it comes to the energy transition, we need to take a gradual approach and have a vision. We must not be reactionary. That is what the Liberal government is doing, by always acting at the last minute and improvising.
Yes, we must commit to the energy transition, but we need to do it intelligently. We do not need to get too drastic, we simply need to improve the situation. We need to set a target and create a plan to meet that target. The Liberal carbon tax plan fails to meet any targets. All it does is fill the government's coffers and leave Canadians poorer.
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- Jun/21/23 7:39:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, once again, I salute my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni. I hope he has a great summer too. I appreciate his kind words.
I think it is important to act like a responsible parent. When a parent has a budget to manage, they have to manage it intelligently. If we, as parents, acted like this government, we would all be bankrupt and lining up at food banks. The answer I would give my colleague is that we must do things intelligently.
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