44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 3, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/3/23 3:39:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yet again, these are misleading comments from the Conservatives. The reality is that Canada's AAA rating has been reaffirmed year after year we have been in government. We have the lowest deficit in the G7 and the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio.
We also know that we are a growing country, and a growing country needs to build more homes faster. That is exactly what we are doing by lifting the GST on purpose-built rentals and making more financing available through CMHC, with $20 billion for the financing of new rental construction.
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- Oct/3/23 3:39:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the rating she brags about came at the high cost of one in five Canadians skipping meals and seven million Canadians visiting a food bank in a single month. She is completely out of touch, but she is in line with her incompetent government's legacy. The finance minister was doing victory laps two months ago, saying that she stopped inflation. It went up 43% since then. What did she think was going to happen when she added $1.2 billion of debt in the first quarter of this fiscal year alone?
Will the Prime Minister rein in his inflationary spending, or does he think that this too is not one of his responsibilities?
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- Oct/3/23 3:40:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are hitting new lows in this question period. Not only are they are misleading, they are internally contradictory and incomprehensible.
I think the member opposite just said that our AAA rating is disadvantageous to hard-working Canadians. I beg to differ. Our AAA rating is a foundation for everything our government is doing to build more homes and provide more support to hard-working Canadian middle-class families.
It is time for the Conservatives to get that.
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- Oct/3/23 3:41:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, according to a recent National Payroll Institute survey, almost two out of three workers spend all of their net pay and 30% spend more than their pay. We can help them by rejecting the second carbon tax. That tax applies in Quebec, and the Bloc Québécois supports it.
People are suffering. They are having a hard time putting food on the table. This is a serious issue; it should not be a partisan one.
The Bloc Québécois wants the Prime Minister to radically increase the carbon tax. Will he walk back his pledge to do so?
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- Oct/3/23 3:41:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that, during the last election campaign, his party and Conservative candidates, some of whom are now MPs, campaigned in favour of a clean fuel standard. The difference between us and them is that they talk while we take action. We created that standard, and it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions in Canada and generating over $2 billion in investments across the country. That is the difference between us and them.
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- Oct/3/23 3:42:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when we talk about the government being out of touch with reality, this is exactly what we are talking about. The minister is completely out of touch with the reality of Canadians, people who are currently seeking help from food banks that are overwhelmed. Food banks are so overwhelmed that they are not able to provide food to all those who are asking for it right now. There are families in the minister's riding, in Montreal, who are being turned away by food banks because they cannot meet the demand. It is unprecedented. Unfortunately, even in the face of this crisis, members voted to keep the second carbon tax on June 5, 2023.
Can the Prime Minister and the Bloc Québécois set aside their ideology for once and help people in need?
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- Oct/3/23 3:43:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is out of touch with reality in 2023 is to be a party that hopes to form government but has nothing to say about climate change. Still today, the party's official position is to deny the very existence of climate change, while, this summer, tens of thousands of people across the country were displaced not once, not twice, but three times, in some cases because of record wildfires. There was major flooding across the country, and the Conservative Party has nothing to say about climate change.
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- Oct/3/23 3:43:38 p.m.
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I would simply like to remind members that there can only be one conversation going on at a time. That is very important.
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- Oct/3/23 3:43:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Governor General's dry cleaning bill since 2018 amounts to $117,000. Her laundry must be clean, all right. In addition to this $117,000, we can tack on another $2.7 million in travel, $71,000 in limousines and $130,000 in clothing, all expenses fit for royalty. The cleaning might be dry, but it is raining cash on the Governor General. Dry cleaning is one of the services included with the office. If she needs extra to cover her laundry, she can always dip into her $350,000 annual salary.
When is the Prime Minister going to do something about this situation?
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- Oct/3/23 3:44:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, obviously, every dollar invested must be spent conscientiously and responsibly. We will make the appropriate checks.
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- Oct/3/23 3:45:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a report by Radio-Canada reveals that the RCMP hires unilingual anglophone executives for high-ranking bilingual positions. They do not speak a word of French. They are not taking French lessons. In no way, shape or form are these people qualified for their positions, not today and not any other day. It is a blatant violation of the Official Languages Act, a violation that is so commonplace in Ottawa that even the RCMP—the police, for crying out loud—is in breach of the act.
Will the minister do something?
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- Oct/3/23 3:46:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, congratulations on your election as Speaker. As far as my colleague's question goes, the answer is yes. Our government is constantly taking measures to make sure that federal government agencies meet their obligations under the Official Languages Act. That is what we expect of the RCMP.
I will be meeting with the RCMP commissioner tomorrow. I will definitely raise this important issue with him, because we truly believe in the Official Languages Act.
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- Oct/3/23 3:46:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this new law was supposed to put an end to these cases of contempt for French at the federal level. Every single francophone will be paying close attention to what the new minister does.
This is the first blatant case of a federal agency thinking it is still okay to undermine French since the new Official Languages Act came into effect.
Will the minister demonstrate to the entire public service that those days are over, or will he demonstrate that it is still okay to undermine French?
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- Oct/3/23 3:46:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your new role in the House.
This year we are celebrating the modernization of the Official Languages Act, but we must also set the record straight and talk facts. The principle of bilingualism is a fundamental principle of both our country and our government. We expected the RCMP to live up to these principles and to fill bilingual positions with bilingual personnel.
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- Oct/3/23 3:47:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is hurting hundreds of thousands of families across Canada. TVA recently reported the heartbreaking story of one Lanaudière family: a single mother and her three children who had to leave their home and move into a garage. We are a G7 country. This is outrageous. It is small wonder that the woman said she was living through “hell” at the moment.
Now the government is proposing to introduce a new tax. Even the Bloc Québécois is sold on the idea.
Does anyone think it is right to introduce a new tax when hundreds of thousands of families are struggling?
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- Oct/3/23 3:48:12 p.m.
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The hon. Minister of Housing.
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- Oct/3/23 3:48:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me begin by offering my congratulations and all the success in your new role.
With respect to the hon. member's question, I will not diminish the very serious challenges that families are facing across this country. In order to address Canada's national housing crisis, we are taking a number of different measures. We are investing in affordable housing in a way that no government has over the course of my entire life. In addition, in order to contribute to the ability for builders to build more homes, we are cutting taxes and changing the way that cities build homes through the housing accelerator fund.
When I compare our plan to theirs, members can trust that we will get more homes built, and that has been confirmed by finance officials at committee.
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- Oct/3/23 3:49:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Liberal government, the average house price has doubled. The Prime Minister said, “it wasn't me”. After eight years of this Liberal government, the cost of rent has doubled. This Liberal Prime Minister said, "it wasn't me”. After eight years of this Liberal government, it now takes 25 years to save for a down payment for a home. This Liberal Prime Minister said, “it wasn't me”.
This Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost. If he is not responsible for anything, will he just get out of the way so that Conservatives can fix what he broke?
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- Oct/3/23 3:49:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is telling in the member's question that no ideas on how we can build more homes have been introduced by the Conservatives.
With respect, we are moving forward with a plan that is cutting taxes for home builders. We are moving forward to increase the amount of money that we are going to contribute to help cities change the way that they build homes.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Hon. Sean Fraser: Mr. Speaker, as I hear members opposite yell, “We put a bill forward”, let us dig in on what it actually includes: A plan to raise taxes on home builders and cut funding for homebuilding. That will not lead to more homes getting built.
We have a plan to address the housing crisis. I hope the Conservatives join us.
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- Oct/3/23 3:49:43 p.m.
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I would like to remind members once again that only one member has the floor at a time. If members are patient and wait for their time to ask a question, we will obviously allow members the opportunity to do so.
Even if members look away from the Speaker, I can sort of guess where the voice is coming from.
The hon. member for Dufferin—Caledon.
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