44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 29, 2024 11:00AM
- Apr/29/24 1:53:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are two ways to go broke: gradually and suddenly. Canada is not going broke; it is broken.
In the battle for the soul of Canada, we are confronted by two ideologies. There is that of the Liberal and NDP socialism, which is of spending beyond reproach, high crime rates, divide and division, high taxation, an unproductive economy and a monopoly economy, in which housing and food have become unaffordable for so many. On the other side lies the vision of a common-sense Conservative economy, in which government is leaner, taxes are lower, paycheques are bigger, and competition thrives. It is a vision where we prioritize toughness on crime to ensure equal opportunity for all who call Canada home. The problem with socialism is that it eventually runs out of other people's money.
After the government spent $350 billion in deficit spending outside of COVID relief programs, the budget is set to spend another $50 billion while raising taxes. Another $60 billion in spending is projected for next year. That is $460 in deficit spending since 2015 for bigger government and more social programs. The result is that Canadians are worse off.
After nine years, too many young Canadians feel as though the deck is stacked against them. They get a good job and work hard. However, far too often, the reward of a secure, prosperous and comfortable middle class remains out of reach for them. After nine years, we have seniors who have been priced out of their homes and are going to the food bank. Their pensions that once made sense and their fixed incomes that promised a comfortable life are now not enough to cover their basic needs.
After nine years of Liberal governance, too many Canadians feel disheartened seeing their aspiration to live a secure, prosperous life slipping away. They see the effects of big government, suffocating regulations and reckless spending. It is anything but fair.
This generational injustice has 62% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 giving up on owning a home. That number is 73% for those who are 35 to 54 years old. Taxes are going up more than $20 billion. The GST now only covers debt payment interest. It is now the minimum payment. It should probably be called the DST, the debt service charge, at only $50 billion a year.
Grocery prices have risen to a point where most Canadians now buy less food, and food banks are recording record numbers. Crime is at an all-time high. There has been a 300% increase in car thefts in Toronto alone. Child poverty is on the rise in Canada, a G7 nation, with one in five children facing challenges.
More and more Canadians are finding out they cannot even get a doctor. More and more visits to the ER result in hour after hour of wait times.
The carbon tax has gone up 23% this year alone, raising the price of groceries, heat and gas. There is a bureaucracy that is growing with it. There are over 500 employees just to collect a carbon tax. Meanwhile, our productivity, or doing more with what we have, is at an all-time low. We lack skilled trades, education for our youth and business investment.
There is going to be an increase in personal taxes, which means we will be losing companies in Canada to the U.S., which has lower personal taxes. This is coupled with the fact that a home in the U.S. can be bought for half the cost of a home in Canada. Foreign and domestic investors are leaving Canada at record rates. Innovators and doctors say this budget will drive them out of the country.
Countries cry out for Canadian LNG, but the Prime Minister says that the increased jobs are not worth it. Poland, Japan and Germany have all been turned down for liquefied natural gas by the Prime Minister; he says there is no business case. Meanwhile, the U.S. has opened hundreds of wells and provided billions to its economy.
Our monopoly problem means that Canadians are paying the highest rates in the world for cellphones, airlines, banking and groceries. These are all worse, while the government said it has lowered cellphone bills by half. Can anyone believe this? The Prime Minister said he lowered cellphone bills for Canadians, but Canadians know the real answer is that bills have never been higher.
To top it off, high inflation because of high interest rates is driving the costs for Canadians up based on a very simple fact: The government is spending way more than it is taking in. This is not a budget about Canadian fairness; it is a socialist political manoeuvre described as fiscal responsibility, with generational unfairness that will ensure our next generation inherits the national debt. There has been $460 billion in deficit spending, and we can remember that this is over and above COVID-19 programs. Despite this, there is just more government. Canadians are getting less, paying more and being taxed to death for it.
Canadians who pay taxes on every dollar earned, every dollar they spend, every dollar they inherit, every dollar invested, every dollar saved, every dollar in property tax are tired of seeing their hard-earned money wasted on inefficient government programs and bureaucracy. They deserve a government that respects their efforts and works tirelessly to ensure their prosperity and well-being.
Despite $460 billion in deficits, we have no more doctors or hospital beds; no more affordable rent or homes; no better prices at the grocery store for groceries; no better prices for cellphones; no better prices at banks. We have no bigger paycheques and we have more taxes. At the end of the day, we need a government that will look after Canadians, and that is a Conservative government.
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- Apr/29/24 2:12:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for 15 billion taxpayer dollars, one would think Canada would get supply chains for batteries, some vehicles and maybe even some jobs, but not in Windsor at Stellantis, where batteries are being assembled. The battery material comes from China, the cars are manufactured in Alabama and the jobs go to those from overseas.
Of the 2,500 jobs promised at Stellantis, more than 900 have been reported to be foreign jobs and now the union, CBTU, says that Stellantis is still hiring foreign workers for jobs promised to Canadians. Stellantis has even asked its Canadian suppliers to sponsor foreign workers and refugees to perform the work, when there are more than 180 Canadian ironworkers and millwrights sitting at home unemployed.
Canadians deserve a government that will stand up for Canadian workers. Only common-sense Conservatives will ensure Canadian tax dollars are used wisely and that any taxpayer-funded job is given to Canadians, not foreign replacement workers.
The Prime Minister must release all EV battery contracts. It is time to show taxpayers how much we are paying for foreign replacement jobs.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to come back to this debate.
I was debating the battle for the soul of Canada, a battle between, on one side, the left and NDP-Liberal socialism, with its spending problem approach, high crime rates, divided division, high taxation and an unproductive monopolistic economy and, on the other side, the vision for a common-sense Conservative economy, where government is leaner, taxes are lower, paycheques are better and competition thrives. Of course, we also talk about democracy. Democracy works when there is public trust and good fiscal stewardship. We are trying to make the lives of Canadians even better.
Canadians enjoyed a good life in the middle class nine years ago. Canadians, young and old, now see the truth after nine years. They see, now, a government that is, instead of working hard for the middle class and those looking to join it, shutting the door to the middle class and those very Canadians it promised help to nine years ago. To top it all off, we have a monopoly problem and more pain, where people are paying higher fees for airlines, groceries, banking and cell phones.
The government approved, mere months ago, the merger of RBC and HSBC, which was the number one bank buying the number seven bank. One can already see the costs of mergers and acquisitions to those Canadians and to all Canadians across Canada. The five-year variable for HSBC, before the merger, was 6.4%. Now, after the merger, just today, that variable rate is at 7.2% under RBC, meaning that, if those mortgage holders had a $500,000 mortgage, which is pretty low for Canada, they are now paying over $333 a month. The monopoly problem means that we have less competition, and it means that Canadians are paying higher rates.
When we look at open banking as a solution for our problem with banking, we do not get the legislation promised out of this budget. Just like a caterpillar, it says that it is coming soon.
The reality is that legislation on open banking would bring savings to Canadians. In the U.K., introducing open banking brought $400 per family, yet this legislation would just kick it down the road once again, six years after the government promised to introduce it. Another one, called real-time rail, which would bring modern payments and make payments faster between Canadians, has been delayed, deferred and postponed.
There have been no new announcements on grocery prices. The government says that it has done enough with Bill C-59. Of course, Canadians have the highest grocery prices in a whole generation and are buying less food.
We have false statements about halving phone bills. The Prime Minister said that he would halve phone bills. Canadians are paying more and specifically more for data, as Canadians consume more data, especially for doorbell cams, as they are seeing increases of auto theft and they have to monitor their cars. Canadians are using data. Companies, of course, are profiting from that.
Canadians, instead, are broke because capitalism without competition is not capitalism, where prices are freely negotiated. We do not have competition in this monopoly-centred Canada and, what is worse, the budget aims to tax those who stay.
Canadians in Canada are broke, but it does not have to be that way. The state has no money other than the money people earn themselves. If the state wants to spend more, it is only by borrowing from one's savings or taxing one more.
In contrast, Conservatives champion the principles of individual responsibility and limited government, greater revenues and growth. We would have a dollar-for-dollar rule. For every dollar we spend, we must find a dollar in savings, just like a family does.
As Canadians, we must have the conviction to embrace the principles of that conservatism, to reject the false promises of Liberal-NDP socialism and to defend the values of freedom, opportunity and prosperity.
We would fix the budget, build the homes and axe the tax, and we would make sure that we bring Canadians home a capitalist government that would bring home their paycheque and bring back the middle class.
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- Apr/29/24 4:13:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there were a lot of questions there.
When we look at trade agreements, the government just lost a trade agreement with the U.K. It could not get it signed. The EU agreement was signed because of the work done by the previous, Conservative government, which got that rolling. When we talk about foreign direct investment, of course there are records when the government has spent $50 billion of its own money to create subsidies for those companies to come in. However, when we look at growth rates for the OECD, Canada is dead last; right now, its economy is performing with five times less growth compared with the U.S. economy. That growth is buoyed by public spending, which is five times any other spending by the private sector.
Government spending is driving inflation and high interest rates, but more, the higher cost of living. It is hurting Canadians, and we need to change that.
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- Apr/29/24 4:14:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it was a waste of public funds just for the fact that it cost that much to do, when the private sector probably could have done it for about one-fifth of that or 10% on the dollar. Of course everything the Liberal government has touched has been more expensive.
When we talk about the oil and gas sector in Canada, which is still very important, we talk about LNG. This week Poland was asking, screaming, for LNG to help offset the Russian gas that they are buying. I was in Germany last year with the industry minister, and Germany was screaming for that gas. The Green Party of Germany was asking for LNG. They said it was the way they were going to cut their emissions and not rely on coal.
We could do that in Canada. Let us support LNG. Let us support our oil and gas industry.
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- Apr/29/24 4:16:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, no, we do not think we should be interfering in provincial politics.
As a second part of this, I am going to give one stat. When we look at what is coming into Canada, we had 1.3 million immigrants last year. We need immigration. I need immigration big time in Bay of Quinte. When that is related to how many people it is, the U.S. had 3.3 million migrants last year, and if we had the 1.3 million contributors to the U.S., that would be equivalent to 11 million migrants. It is massive.
When we look at 1.3 million Canadians, we only brought 4,300 home builders to this country. No wonder we cannot build homes. We do not have the people. We have to ensure we work with the provinces to get the people we need to those provinces, number one, to build homes and to provide workers. That is going to help productivity in this country.
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