44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 6, 2024 11:00AM
- May/6/24 12:32:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is another budget bonanza, with $40 billion of new net inflationary spending. That is only going to add to the already doubled debt after nine years of the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister that caused 40-year highs in inflation and the most rapid interest rate hikes, not seen in Canadian history, which put Canadians most at risk in the G7 for a mortgage default crisis.
It is hard to believe that we live in a country where there is going to be more money spent on paying the interest on the debt of the Prime Minister that Canadians are on the hook for, which is going to go to bankers, bondholders and the finance minister's Bay Street buddies, than what is supposed to go to the provinces in health transfers. There is more money for those who are sitting in ivory towers and less for the doctors, nurses and frontline workers who are supposed to be taking care of people in our health care system.
After nine years of the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister, all this debt has accumulated on Canadians that future generations will have to continue to pay for. Who is not affected by any of this at all? It is the Prime Minister's trust fund friends and those Liberal-connected insiders who get the cushy contracts and whose assets get inflated as the Prime Minister caused an inflation crisis that we have not seen in 40 years. They get an increased value in their assets, and Canadians end up paying the price with higher taxes, a higher cost of living and a higher rate of crime, chaos, drugs and disorder in the streets.
Food bank usage is at record highs. There are two million Canadians lining up at food banks in a single month, and a million more are projected this year. The sad part about all of this is that a third of those going to food banks are children.
There are homeless encampments all across the country. People cannot afford housing. After spending $89 billion on housing, the government caused housing prices to double. Mortgages and rents have doubled. It takes double the time to save up for a down payment on a house. We hear stories about students who came here for a better future and have to live under bridges or in tents. We are hearing about nurses and teachers having to live in their cars because they cannot afford to eat and to heat and house themselves.
Crime is ravaging our country.
Back in the day, families like mine were promised something by Canada, that we could leave the countries we came from and experience what was sold as the Canadian dream. It is this illustrious thing that we used to hear about before we came to this country, where people could afford to buy groceries and eat, live in a nice house, and not just live in a nice house but be able to afford to buy a house, and walk down the street without fear of something happening to them.
That was the promise of Canada, that people could run a business and not have the government interfere by putting up more red tape and bureaucracy and taking even more from them, that the government would not kick people while they are down and would give people a hand-up rather than handouts.
That was the promise of this country before, but after nine years of the Liberal-NDP government, that Canadian dream is broken. The dream of home ownership, the dream of owning a business, the dream of having a safe future for our kids and having a place where groceries are affordable, it is all broken. It is an absolute nightmare. This is what we hear all across the country.
This budget did nothing more than give the Liberal-NDP government more opportunities for photo ops and for travelling the country on the taxpayers' dime and taking photos beside projects that are already under construction while taking credit for them. The government's own housing department, the CMHC, has made it clear why there is a housing hell here in Canada. Housing starts will decline this year and next year. In fact, fewer homes will be started this year than in the 1970s, when we had half the population.
The most incompetent immigration minister in history, who is now the housing minister, was told by his own department two years ago that if the government followed through with its policies, the already existing housing crisis would get worse. What did he do? He ignored the department's warning. He ripped it up, ignored it, and housing costs got even more expensive.
Not only that, the promise that people came here for is broken; it is gone. More and more young people, nine out of 10, in fact, have given up on the dream of home ownership. Five million more homes need to be built in the country than what is already projected to be built. However, it is because of the government's gatekeeping that houses are not being built.
I used to be a home builder before this political life, and I do not know any tradesperson or builder who says that they want more government interference, that they want more government red tape and bureaucracy, that they want the government to take more from them and give Canadians a lot less. In fact, in a free market, we should let the market decide what kinds of homes need to be built, and let builders build and let buyers buy.
It is these high interest rates that have been caused by the government, the most rapid that we have seen in Canadian history to fight the inflation that the government created, which is keeping builders from building, developers from developing and buyers from buying. This is the crisis after nine years of the Liberal-NDP government's failed policies. Household debt is the most in the G7, the most we have ever seen. This is from a government that brags about its photo-op slush fund, that it has spent $89 billion to create the crisis we see in Canada.
There is another emerging crisis here, and that is the productivity crisis. In fact, it was a big deal. It is a stark warning by the Bank of Canada's deputy governor, Carolyn Rogers, who said that productivity in our country is a “break glass” crisis. It is a big deal when the Bank of Canada says that. If it is saying that it is raining, there is probably a big storm brewing that will hit Canadian.
With a six consecutive GDP-per-capita decline, we see less growth in our economy success per person, or what we call “GDP-per-capita”, than what it was in 2017. After nine years of making billions of dollars run away from our economy, not having any new investment come in and not letting projects get built, the result is that Canadians are poorer than they have ever been before.
Let me be clear that Canada was not like this before the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister and it will not be like that after he is gone. Under a common-sense Conservative government, led by our Conservative leader, we will bring the Canadian dream, the Canadian hope, back to our country. If people work hard, they will be able to see a better future for themselves, their kids and future generations.
How are we going to do that? We are going to get some of the large-scale projects, green-light green projects and stop getting in the way of our resource sector so we can have more powerful paycheques for our people and not give more dollars for dictators abroad.
We recently saw Japan, Greece and other countries come here for LNG, and the Prime Minister said that there was no business case. Under such a radical, ideological-obsessed government with the carbon tax, of course there is no business case. However, we will bring Canada back on the world stage with our low-carbon, responsible, clean energy sector. We are going to axe the tax.
We are going to bring in four very simple things. A common-sense Conservative government will axe the tax to bring down the cost of gas, groceries and home heating. We are going to build the homes by requiring municipalities to increase their permitting by 15% to get more supply into the market. We are going to fix the budget. We all know now that budgets do not balance themselves. We will bring in a dollar-for-dollar law to cap government spending so that interest rates and inflation can come down and Canadians can stay in their homes. We are also going to stop the crime. We are going to bring in jail, not bail policies, and help those who need treatment to get back on their feet so we can help our brothers and sisters recover from addictions and ensure that we have safer streets in our country once again. We are going to bring home the Canadian dream.
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- May/6/24 2:21:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are making more expensive promises, but this Prime Minister is not worth the cost after nine years.
Worse still, the Bloc Québécois voted to support this Prime Minister's $500 billion in inflationary and centralizing deficits and spending. This has driven up interest rates for Quebeckers who are afraid of losing their homes. In addition, taxpayers are now paying more for interest on the national debt than for health care.
When will the Prime Minister admit that he and the Bloc Québécois are not worth the cost?
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- May/6/24 2:41:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, this Prime Minister, backed by the Bloc Québécois, is not worth the cost that Quebeckers are paying for their mortgages, rent, food, gas and taxes.
Every day, there are moving stories of Quebeckers who have to live in their cars and go without food, or of food banks that can no longer feed the people knocking on their doors. It is all because of this Prime Minister's $500 billion in inflationary spending, which the Bloc Québécois supports.
When will the Prime Minister stop this wasteful spending so that, despite the Bloc Québécois, people can have enough to eat?
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- May/6/24 4:00:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite would know that we are dealing with an inflationary crisis that exists across the world. That makes it incredibly difficult for Canadians.
It does not matter that Canada has one of the lowest rates of inflation in the industrialized world. In fact, we have the second-lowest rate of food inflation in the OECD. It is ridiculous to pretend that that exists in some kind of domestic bubble that only Canada is facing. It ignores the complete reality across the world.
The question is what we do when people are facing hard times in the world. Do we pretend that it only exists domestically and tell people that cuts to government services and programs is somehow going to magically make things better, or do we lean in and help people?
I would say the member for Saskatoon West has an opportunity. He says that people have access to the drugs that they need. That is not the case. That is absolutely not the case. People who have an existing drug plan are going to continue to enjoy the access that they have to their drugs.
The question here is about, for example, a woman who is an abusive relationship and whose insurance overage is through her partner. She would not have the ability to get that medication on her own. That is what this bill is about. If a young woman, whose health coverage is through somebody else, is making a decision about their reproductive future, it is about making sure that that person has access. There are absolutely millions of people who do not have any coverage at all, for whom dollars and cents mean they do not have access to life-saving medicine.
If the member opposite does indeed support the people who do not have access to these medications getting them, there is great news. There is something he could do, and that is vote for this bill.
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