SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mrs. Rosemarie Falk (Battlefords—Lloydminster, CPC)

Oct/17/23 5:09:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, off the top, I note that I will be splitting my time with my colleague, the member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier. The policies and decisions of government have real-life impacts on Canadians. Unfortunately, in the case of the NDP-Liberal coalition, that impact has been truly devastating. After eight years of the Liberal government, Canadians are now faced with a cost of living crisis that is a direct result of failed policies. There are moms and dads across this country who, despite going to work every day to earn a paycheque, are still struggling to put gas in their tanks, put food on the table and keep their family housed. Seniors on a fixed income are being forced to choose between groceries or keeping warm during the winter. With housing costs having more than doubled under the government, more and more Canadians are giving up on the dream of home ownership. That is not okay, but that is the record of the Prime Minister and his government, and the out-of-touch NDP-Liberal government has yet to offer Canadians hope that there is a plan to bring down sky-high costs and mounting interest rates. In fact, not only is this NDP-Liberal coalition failing to bring down inflation and interest rates, but it is actively making it worse, and its high-tax agenda is only further eating away at the paycheques of Canadians. Life is too expensive, and Canadians have never paid so much to bring home so little. This is a difficult time for many Canadians and they simply cannot afford the NDP-Liberal government. The Prime Minister has added more to the national debt than all previous prime ministers combined, and that half a trillion dollars of inflationary deficits has directly led to record inflation highs and repeated hikes to the interest rate. Instead of acknowledging and reversing course, the Prime Minister and his government continue to pour fuel on the inflationary fire at every turn they take. Expert after expert has warned that the Liberal government's spending is driving up the cost of inflation. Even Liberals have told the government that its deficit spending is driving up inflation. We know that Tiff Macklem, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, has said that if governments increase their spending, it makes it more difficult to get inflation on track. Dispelling the often-heard Liberal claim that inflation is a global problem and not a result of the government's own decisions, he has also said that “inflation in Canada increasingly reflects what’s happening in Canada.” We know Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, also said that “inflation is principally a domestic story”. Even former finance minister Bill Morneau has now admitted that his Liberal government put more money into the economy than it needed to. The inflationary results are crushing. To try to get inflation under control, the Bank of Canada has been forced to increase interest rates 10 times in just 19 months. More than half of Canadians are said to be within $200 of not being able to pay their bills. Half of Canadians are already saying that their mortgages are unaffordable, and Canadians already have the highest household debt in the G7. Also, the International Monetary Fund has said that Canada's housing market is the most at risk of any developed country. Behind those statistics and troubling findings, there are real Canadians who are trying and who are barely hanging on. Canadian families are set back further and further in their personal finances every time the Bank of Canada raises interest rates. There are families whose dollars are not going nearly as far as they once were and who are desperate for the cost of living crisis in this country to come to an end. They remember when the Prime Minister told them during the pandemic that the government would take on debt so they would not have to, but there is no comfort in that. It is taxpayers, not the Prime Minister, who took on that debt, and it is that debt that is contributing to high inflation and interest rates. I have been listening to this debate, so I know that some members across the way will try to justify all of their deficit spending by telling us that it was a result of emergency supports to Canadians and businesses. However, in a 2022 report, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has already exposed the fallacy in that argument. That report confirmed that over $200 billion of new spending introduced by the Liberal government during the pandemic had nothing to do with its COVID response. In fact, I will remind those same members that their dangerous and reckless deficit spending habit began long before the pandemic. In 2015, the Liberal government promised Canadians that there would be a tiny, temporary $10-billion deficit. It immediately broke that promise to Canadians, and after that, it has been broken promise after broken promise. The most honest thing the Prime Minister told Canadians was that he does not think about monetary policy. Perhaps the finance minister might think about monetary policy herself, but she has failed to take the fiscal steps necessary to put the country’s finances on solid footing. She told Canadians that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio was her fiscal anchor, that she was committed to ensuring that it continue to be reduced, and that it was a line she would not cross. Then, in budget 2023, she crossed that line. Ahead of that budget, she also acknowledged that bringing down inflation and interest rates was a priority for Canadians and that it was her goal to not pour fuel on the inflationary fire. Then, she introduced $60 billion in new spending, adding fuel to that inflationary fire. Not to be forgotten is that in budget 2023, she also abandoned the government’s path to balanced budgets that she had projected for 2027 just months earlier. Deficit spending drives up inflation and the costs of goods that Canadians are buying, but let us not forget that Canadians are being squeezed from all sides because of the NDP-Liberal government. The money to pay for its spending has to come from somewhere. Not only has the government printed mountains of cash to pay for its spending, but it has also hiked taxes on Canadians. The increased federal tax burden leaves Canadians with fewer dollars in their pockets to spend on their own families' priorities. Payroll taxes have gone up, directly eating into the paycheques of working Canadians. The government's failed carbon tax is adding to the cost of everything, punishing Canadians for basic necessities like gas, groceries and home heating. Of course, now it has added a second carbon tax that will cost Canadians even more, and the plan is to keep increasing those taxes. Canadians need a break. Today’s Conservative motion calling on the government to introduce a fiscal plan that includes a pathway to balanced budgets before the Bank of Canada’s next policy interest rate decision is, I believe, perfectly reasonable and is desperately needed by all Canadians, especially those who are barely hanging on. Balancing the budget to keep inflation and interest rates low is common sense, and the NDP-Liberal coalition needs to get its spending under control before it is too late. It is time we restored hope to Canadians.

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mrs. Rosemarie Falk

Oct/17/23 5:20:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I oppose the government's taxing Canadians literally to death, and that is what the government is doing. The member across the way is very proud to be doing it. I totally support cutting the carbon tax, not just carbon tax 1.0 but also carbon tax 2.0. I have seen the bills of farmers for tens of thousands of dollars, and they do not get a rebate for that. It would be great if the government, when it spends money, actually had results by which to measure its success. We see CMHC taking bonuses like it is nobody's business, but where are the houses being built? They are not.

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mrs. Rosemarie Falk

Oct/17/23 5:22:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague wanted to dismiss the carbon tax. In my province, we can see the federal carbon tax written on our electricity bills and gas bills. To say that it may not be affecting our constituents, Canadians, I do not believe is true. I believe we need to axe the carbon tax because in a riding like mine, it is very common for seniors and students to have to drive half an hour, 45 minutes or even an hour to get to a pharmacy, a doctor or a grocery store. I absolutely think it is important that we have supports for the vulnerable, but we also have to recognize the tax hikes the government has implemented.

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Context: House Hansard - 233 - Oct/17/23

Mrs. Rosemarie Falk

Oct/17/23 5:24:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure whether the member did not hear me, but I am for cutting taxes for Canadians so they have more of their own money in their own pockets to spend on their own families. Why is it for the government to tell families how and where to spend their money?

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