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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 301

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 17, 2024 02:00PM
  • Apr/17/24 2:56:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is something very wrong when a Prime Minister does not have a problem keeping the Conservatives' $60-billion corporate handout but denies indigenous children the dignity of safe housing and decent schools, and denies communities the same access to good roads and clean water. How can the Prime Minister look indigenous people in the eyes after putting the greed of CEOs in front of the needs of indigenous families?
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  • Apr/17/24 2:57:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have continued to step up over the past years for reconciliation and investing in indigenous communities. This budget has put aside a billion more dollars on top of all the investments we have made for indigenous housing. That is part of the $9 billion of investments we are talking about for indigenous communities over the coming years. We know there is always more to do, but we will be there, hand in hand, with indigenous communities and leadership to make sure we are closing the gaps and building the strong future that is part of the journey of reconciliation.
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  • Apr/17/24 2:57:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, too many children are going to school on empty stomachs, and that is not fair. It was our Liberal government who enhanced the Canada child benefit and brought home our $10-a-day child care and many other supports Canadian families rely on. Could the Prime Minister inform the House of the next steps of our plan to support middle-class families in getting ahead?
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  • Apr/17/24 2:58:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Brampton South for her hard work. While the opposition leader is taking cues from his lobbyist entourage on how to make the rich richer, we are investing in programs to help middle-class Canadians. Yesterday's budget includes a national school food program. It is expected to provide meals for more than 400,000 kids a year and save the average family as much as $800 per year in grocery costs. This is what the Conservative leader has already announced he will be voting against.
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  • Apr/17/24 2:58:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years and much spent, there has not been a single meal served. What the Prime Minister has served up is a tax on the food of the very children he claims to want to help. It is a tax that will cost every single middle-class family more than they get back in rebates, according to a scientific study by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. It is a tax he increased by 23%. If he really wants to stop the hunger for one in four kids in schools today, will he axe the tax?
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  • Apr/17/24 2:59:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just this past Monday, millions of Canadians received the Canada carbon rebate in their bank accounts, which puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families across the jurisdictions in which it applies, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That is eight out of 10 families, which are middle-class and lower-income families. However, the Leader of the Opposition chooses to stand once again with the wealthiest families, the ones with big indoor swimming pools and nine big cars. Those are the things the Conservatives are choosing to stand with because we are putting more money back in the pockets of Canadians.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:00:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister thinks anyone who puts gas in their car is rich and needs to be made poor. He thinks any single mother who is not already pouring water in her children's milk is too rich, and he wants to make her poorer. He thinks that families who are heating their homes in big, cold Canada are too rich, and he wants to make them poor. That is a bit rich coming from the guy who stuffed his family fortune in a tax-sheltered trust fund and helps his billionaire island friends avoid paying their bills. Why does he not stop taking from the have-nots and giving to the have-yachts?
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  • Apr/17/24 3:00:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in this budget, we are proposing to ask the ultrawealthy to pay more in taxes to support lower-income Canadians and middle-class Canadians, which is something that the Conservatives are standing against. They choose to stand with the ultrawealthy while we continue to invest in supports for families. We have cut the child poverty rate in half since 2016. We have continued to move forward on investing in supports for families right across the country. With this budget focused on fairness for every generation, we are continuing to do exactly that, despite the opposition of the Conservatives.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:01:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not the opposition from the Conservatives that he needs to worry about. It is the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. He said, “On the carbon tax in particular, the prime minister has tried to bait me at times with certain ad hominems and name-calling, almost. But look, we have a very different opinion on the carbon tax” and “I wish the prime minister would understand that. He's being very sclerotic in his approach on this ideologic marriage that he has to this [carbon tax]”. Will the Prime Minister end his ideological marriage with the carbon tax so that Canadians can eat, heat and house themselves?
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  • Apr/17/24 3:02:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am resolute that I will fight climate change and put more money back in the pockets of Canadians right across the country. Any premier is welcome to come forward with a plan to put a price on pollution that meets the levels required by the federal government instead of complaining, but that is what we will continue to do. We will ensure that a price on pollution that puts more money back in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadians, including in Newfoundland and Labrador, continues to be in place right across the country because that is what Canadians need for a stronger future and for affordability.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:03:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed, in fact, that six out of 10 Canadians pay more in carbon tax than they get back in rebates. One hundred per cent of middle-class or middle-quintile Canadians pay more in tax than they get back, with it being especially bad for rural and suburban Canadians. Now, we have two-year highs in gas prices all across Ontario. Ontarians are being punished because of a 23% carbon tax. They can thank the Prime Minister every time they fill up the tank. Why will he not axe the tax so that Ontarians can afford to drive to work?
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  • Apr/17/24 3:03:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Ontario is an excellent example of a jurisdiction that chose to move forward with its own cap-and-trade system so that it would not be subject to the federal carbon-pricing backstop. It was the choice of a Conservative premier to scrap the carbon-pricing system that they had and to take on the federal carbon-pricing backstop, but that is not all bad because that actually puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 Ontarian families, which is something that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed repeatedly. We are fighting climate change and putting more money back in people's pockets.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:04:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I refuse to believe that the Prime Minister is working hand in hand with Quebec. On the contrary, I believe he has his hand in Quebeckers' pockets. He is blatantly abusing the fiscal imbalance. He is blatantly abusing his spending power. Furthermore, he is racking up an appalling deficit that Quebeckers will be paying off for a long time to come simply to save his government's skin, and his own skin, in the next election. Does he understand that I am condemning this government and this budget as it concerns Quebeckers?
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  • Apr/17/24 3:05:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am shocked, shocked I say, to hear the Bloc Québécois complain about a government in Ottawa. That is its job, after all, and it has been for many decades. We will continue to invest everywhere in Canada, including Quebec, in partnership with the Government of Quebec, to ensure that more housing is built, to invest in health care systems, and to support Quebec's efforts to provide a health care system. We will continue to be there to fund the creation of child care spaces. We are there to be partners in the well-being of Quebeckers and of all Canadians.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:05:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if you have 10 minutes, I would ask you to explain to the Prime Minister what purpose the opposition serves in Parliament, especially since it comes so naturally to a Quebecker. The Prime Minister is interfering in all of Quebec's jurisdictions, and yet the Liberals think it is outrageous for Quebec to want to use a tiny piece of the Constitution, the notwithstanding clause, to protect its own jurisdictions. The Prime Minister is abusing his power at Quebec's expense, and I will continue to speak out against that.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:06:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will continue to fulfill my responsibility, both as a member from Quebec and as the Prime Minister of Canada, to invest in helping Canadians across the country. That includes investing to create housing for Quebeckers, jointly investing in health care, and investing to create more opportunities for Quebeckers in the coming years in good careers and good jobs in a green economy. We are there to invest across the country. The Bloc Québécois is the only one that does not like that.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:07:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, even a former NDP leader has more common sense than the current Prime Minister and the current leader of the NDP. Thomas Mulcair said yesterday that this government is going to spend $54.1 billion on interest on the debt, in other words on bankers. That is exactly how much is collected with the GST. Every penny that Canadians spend on GST is going not toward services, but toward bankers. Does the Prime Minister think that is acceptable?
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  • Apr/17/24 3:07:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to note that, like the Conservative Party, Thomas Mulcair was against increasing taxes on the 1% in order to lower them for the middle class. That is what we did in 2015. We have continued to invest in helping the middle class and young people, while the Conservative Party continues to advocate for austerity and cuts. The Conservatives are siding with the wealthy once again. We will be there to deliver fairness for every generation, including young people, especially young people.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:08:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, austerity is what people are living every day when they cannot afford to eat, heat or house themselves after nine years of the current Prime Minister, but when people pay the GST they assume they are getting something in return. It turns out that they pay $54.1 billion in GST and it costs them $54.1 billion in interest on the national debt. Does the Prime Minister realize that not one penny from the money Canadians pay in GST goes to valuable services? It all goes to pay wealthy bankers.
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  • Apr/17/24 3:09:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again in the face of the challenges Canadians are struggling with every single day, the solution by the Conservatives is for the government to do less, to invest less in supporting Canadians, less for seniors and dental care, less for child care spaces, less for medical supports for health care and less in building more homes. The solution proposed by the Conservatives is for the government to do less for Canadians. We are continuing to invest in people responsibly with the best and lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7. We will continue to do that.
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