SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 304

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 29, 2024 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 304 - Apr/29/24
Mr. Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, NDP)
  • Apr/29/24 1:06:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, spending on machinery and equipment by businesses in Canada, and on research, development and innovation, has been falling as a share of GDP in Canada for many decades, in fact dating back to the large corporate tax cuts that Paul Martin introduced at the turn of the century. To compare us to the United States, in 2014, investment support per worker in the U.S. was $20,700, and it was $14,400 in Canada. In 2023, the U.S. spending per worker rose to $27,800, and it is only $14,500 in this country. It has gone up $100 in about 10 years. I am wondering whether my hon. colleague would agree with me and the NDP that we need to find ways to have the business sector in this country invest more in machinery and equipment and in technology and innovation, and whether he has any ideas to share with the House as to how we could do that to better support workers and, by doing so, improve Canada's economy.
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Context: House Hansard - 304 - Apr/29/24
Mr. Mario Simard
  • Apr/29/24 1:07:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the first thing we can do is try to diversify our economy, certainly. Today, there are massive investments of public money in something that is doomed to fail, namely carbon capture and storage strategies and efforts to try to make oil cleaner in order to increase production. In the meantime, we are not taking the same direction as the United States with its Inflation Reduction Act. We are not investing in clean technologies and we are not supporting the sectors of the future that are promising and, I must point out, are located mainly in Quebec.
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Context: House Hansard - 304 - Apr/29/24
Mr. Ryan Williams
  • 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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