- Member of Parliament
- Minister of Justice
Attorney General of Canada
- Liberal
- Parkdale—High Park
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $120,537.19
- Government Page
- Apr/18/23 3:26:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to participate in the debate on the budget of 2023, as presented by our government, and what it means for my constituents and people right across Canada. I propose to canvas five areas: affordability, health care, climate action, housing, and combatting hate and discrimination.
On the first issue of affordability, what I hear at the doors is very similar to what representatives in this chamber from around the country hear at the doors in their own constituencies. The cost of living has gone up, and there is a direct link to inflation.
Inflation is coming down, thankfully. We heard news just this morning of the ninth consecutive month which inflation has been reduced. It now sits at 4.3% for the month of March. However, the reduction in inflation rates has not been occurring as fast as it needs to, hence our government's proposal in the budget, which we will be voting on shortly, for additional relief targeted at persons with low and modest incomes in this country through what is being called the grocery rebate. This would apply to approximately 11 million Canadians of low and modest income who are already eligible to receive the GST credit. It is a sum of $234 for a single person and as much as $467 for a couple with two children. This would be significant in assisting people with the affordability squeeze they are experiencing right now.
However, the initiatives outlined in the budget do not stop there. There are also initiatives to address students and their needs in times of rising tuition costs and rising expenses while they are pursuing post-secondary education. This budget allocates a 40% increase in Canada student grants, which means full-time students will be able to receive up to $4,200 more per year to pay for their studies, as well as an increase in the limit on the interest-free portion of a Canada student loan.
The second point I hear a lot from my constituents is about health care and the pressures of not having a family doctor. There are also the pressures in our communities of wait-lists for surgeries and wait-lists at hospitals. This budget is a concrete response to those particular concerns. There is voluminous funding in this budget for health care, to the tune of $195 billion over the course of 10 years. That includes $46 billion of new funding, which would help reduce backlogs, expand access to general practitioners and modernize the health system.
For example, the budget allocates $2 billion just to address urgent pressures in ERs, and $1.7 billion is to address personal support workers' wages. By addressing personal support workers, we would help alleviate the stress on hospitals and medical clinics. We are also working hard to ensure, through this budget, that we are helping to empower health professionals to work in more remote areas. There is nearly $46 million allocated in this budget for loan forgiveness for those medical students or nursing students who would like to practise in rural and remote areas and to incentivize them to do exactly that.
The constituents of mine in Parkdale—High Park speak to me repeatedly not just about health care but specifically about mental health. I have heard those concerns and continually advocate for them in this chamber, in committee and within the government caucus. This budget is a firm response to those particular concerns, with $7.8 billion of the funding envelope for health care dedicated to home care, mental health and long-term care. There is a 988 suicide prevention line committed to in this budget, which would be operational by November of this year. There are aspects of this budget that also address the opioid crisis, which has had fatal consequences in my riding, much like it has in every other riding of this nation.
Through this budget, we are addressing issues such as addiction. We are increasing funding to the substance use and addictions program, or SUAP. That program, in particular, supports community-led, not-for-profit organizations in responding to drug and substance use issues across Canada. There is $144 million dedicated to the SUAP, which would result in improved access, harm reduction, treatment services and things such as safer supply.
In my riding of Parkdale—High Park, this would have a specific local impact. The budget allocates $1.27 million to the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in my riding for its safer opioids supply program. That is new funding that would allow the Parkdale centre to continue its very successful work in helping people who are experiencing severe opioid use disorder gain access to pharmaceutical grade medications and offering a wide range of fully wraparound services, such as social programming, case management, mental health supports and trauma counselling.
The approach of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre is focused on harm reduction, and that is an approach we wholeheartedly support as a Liberal government. Stigmatizing and even criminalizing those suffering from addictions does not work. Let me repeat that. There is no point in criminalizing and stigmatizing those who are suffering from mental health or substance use problems and addictions. Addictions are a health problem, not a criminal justice problem. Budget 2023 reflects that direct orientation and commits important funding to mental health care and addictions to help people heal.
The envelope of care with respect to health care includes dental benefits. As members know, we launched the Canada dental benefit for children under 12 last year. Up to now, 240,000 young persons under the age of 12 who were previously uninsured are now receiving dental care that they did not previously receive. That is a monumental change in the landscape for low-income families in this country.
We are taking an already successful pilot and expanding it through the Canadian dental care plan, which is entrenched in this budget. That is what we will be voting on when we vote on budget 2023. It is about whether we should be allocating $13 billion over the coming years to help up to nine million low-income families that are uninsured access dental care as part of their health care. From my perspective, that is something that all of us in the chamber should be supporting.
Third, my constituents speak to me about climate change. They support initiatives we have taken, like the price on pollution and the corresponding climate action rebate, but they ask for more. What this budget does is it responds to the clean economy of the future in a way that keeps pace with what we are seeing with the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States.
Through this budget, we are raising the green economy, green jobs and unionized workers across a number of sectors. One sector I want to highlight is the sector of nuclear energy, which is pivotal to the closure of coal-fired plants in Ontario, the dramatic reduction in pollution in Ontario and the drop in GHG emissions. Today, looking at the lights illuminating this chamber and the lights throughout the province of Ontario, on any given day, up to 60% of the electricity that keeps the lights on in Ontario is based upon energy that is sourced from nuclear energy on Ontario's electrical grid.
The demands on that grid are only growing because of the much-needed electrification of the transport sector in this province and around the country. What this budget would do is it would aggressively support the electrification of that grid by supporting investments in clean electrical generation, through things such non-emitting sources like wind, solar, hydro and nuclear energy. That is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
My constituents talk to me about housing. This budget reflects the need of people who are wanting to purchase their first home and giving them access to do so by launching the tax-free first-home savings account as of April 1, earlier this month.
I just want to finish with the fight against discrimination and working to combat hate. In the wake of the Quebec mosque shooting in 2017, I founded the inclusion network in my riding. The inclusion network tries to build dialogue and understanding amongst communities so that we can promote more dialogue, not just tolerance but actually celebration of diversity.
I have conducted many events in my riding over the past several years with respect to the inclusion network. Two weeks ago, we had an interfaith walk, going from a Tibetan temple to an Orthodox church and then ending at the Jami Mosque, the Friday mosque in my riding. That is meant to promote understanding. Sadly, literally 36 hours after my event, in another part of the GTA, there was an attack on a mosque where someone used a car to try to run down a worshipper. This underscores the work that still needs to be done in this country.
What budget 2023 would do, among many other things, would be to support places of worship and their protection by dedicating $50 million more to the security infrastructure fund, which helps protect places of worship. That is something that all of us need to get behind in this day and age, when we are fighting such penetrating issues as combatting hate.
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- Mar/22/23 8:14:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate contributing to this evening's debate, although we had a bit of a late start.
What is important about today's debate is that it is set in the context of basic issues about affordability, basic issues about rising costs and the cost of living, which is a challenge for families right around the country. It is no different for my riding of Parkdale—High Park and for the 337 other ridings around the country. People feel it every week when they are at the grocery store. It is difficult for many people, and we understand that. That is why we put in place a series of measures to make life more affordable for millions of Canadians.
Our focus on this side of the House throughout this rise in the cost of living has been on Canadians who need the help the most. It is no longer possible to help everyone in Canada, as we did during the pandemic, so we are seeking and have been pursuing, quite diligently, targeted measures. That is really critical, particularly in light of the situation we are facing with inflation, as it currently stands. Our capacity to spend is not unlimited, nor would it be prudent to spend in an unlimited manner. What we are doing is trying to help those who need it the most.
Let me talk specifically about the nature of this evening's debate with regard to the excise duty on alcohol. Let us be very clear that we are not talking about an approximately 6.7% rise in the price of alcohol. What we are talking about is a rise in the excise duty. I can tell members what that translates into if we equate it to the price of a bottle of beer. I will say quite candidly that I am one of those purchasers of bottles of beer. Like many other members of this House, I appreciate a good bottle of beer, including from a microbrewery, such as Henderson's, from just outside my riding, such as Waterloo Dark, such as Upper Canada Lager, and the list goes on. When we translate what this means to a person like me, to a family like mine, to Canadians in this chamber and those watching our proceedings on this Wednesday evening, it translates to less than one cent per can of beer. It is less than one cent. In fact, it is 0.78¢, so not even one full cent per beer is what this price escalator reveals.
Why is it indexed in the manner it is? It is quite simple. We use this as a frequent tool to ensure that, as the cost of producing the goods we put taxation measures on changes and as the cost of living changes, so does the excise tax duty. There is a direct proportionality. That is the basic premise that we are dealing with.
I will be splitting my time with the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge, who is also a lover of finer things. I think he is more fond of wine. I am personally more fond of the great thing that comes from wheat and grain, including a good pint here and there, beer in particular. This is a good segue into wine, which is next in my speaking notes.
What we have been doing to support the sector is that we have implemented a wine sector support program, which provided up to $166.2 million to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2022-23, as it will in the forthcoming fiscal year, to support wineries in adapting to ongoing and emerging challenges. Indeed, the member for Niagara Falls, with whom I serve on the Standing Committee on International Trade, is very fond of promoting, as he should, the excellent wines from the Niagara Region. We are supporting those wines from the Niagara Region.
Small and medium-sized brewers right now also benefit from the currently lower rate of excise duties on the first 75,000 hectolitres. One hectolitre is 100 litres, so that means, with my crude math, that one has to create 7.5 million litres before one hits the level of the higher excise duty applying. Just that simple feature of having a threshold that is hit at 75,000 hectolitres saved brewers up to $851,000 per brewer in 2022. That is significant in terms of supports that are already in place.
What we have also done as a government is repeal the excise duty on non-alcoholic beer. One may be a designated driver or one may not feel the need for alcohol on a given evening or at a given weekend barbecue. Sometimes people pursue non-alcoholic beer. That is a great thing. We have a vibrant non-alcoholic beer industry. What we did is repeal the excise duty on that particular type of beer altogether on July 1, 2022, to encourage growth in that sector.
What I also want to indicate today is that Canadians who are watching need to contextualize this discussion. When we talk about an escalator on the excise duty, when we talk about issues that relate to the cost of living, we have to put that in the context of what we are doing about the cost of living as the Government of Canada.
We are doing a great deal. The targeted measures that we have rolled out over the past several years are vast, and I am going to list some of them. We have implemented changes to the Canada workers benefit. That means eligible low-income and modest-income families can receive up to $2,461 this year alone. Single Canadians, through the Canada workers benefit's improvement, without children, could get up to $1,428. We have provided $2.5 billion to 11 million Canadian individuals and families with low and modest incomes through the GST credit payment.
We are providing tax-free payments of up to $650 per child per year. That is through a phenomenally popular program that covers dental expenses for kids under 12 through the Canada dental benefit, a program, among others, that the members of His Majesty's official opposition had the wisdom to vote against. That program alone has already helped 230,000 children with an aspect of their health care that was not covered previously, absent this new benefit that we have created.
We are offering a tax-free payment of $500 to help low-income renters who are struggling with the cost of housing. My first remarks in the context of this evening's debate were about helping those who need it the most. Our view is that people who already receive the Canada housing benefit are among the lowest-income Canadians who are struggling with the cost of housing and with affording their rent. They are precisely the people who need our help the most, and that is what we have been doing with that top-up. There have been 625,000 applications received for that top-up to the Canada housing benefit, demonstrating the acute need that exists in the economy at present.
We have heard the official opposition rightfully raise the issue of seniors on many occasions. Seniors and seniors in poverty deserve our assistance and they deserve it in a targeted manner. What we did is put a 10% increase on old age security payments for seniors who are 75 or older. That provides over $800 in additional support to full pensioners in their first 12 months.
Thanks to our agreements with provinces and territories, we are reducing child care fees. This is actually quite incredible. I believe the mover of this motion is from the province of Alberta. In his province, fees have already been reduced by 50%, ahead of schedule. By 2026, our Canada-wide early learning and child care plan will bring fees for regulated child care down to $10 a day on average from coast to coast to coast. In fact, the $10-a-day goal has already been achieved by some provinces that were early adopters of our plan. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for my own province of Ontario, which was the very last adopter of this plan. We will not realize the benefits of $10-a-day child care in Ontario as fast as we could have, had there been a bit more earnestness on the part of Premier Ford, but I will leave that discussion for another day.
In terms of the province of the mover of this motion, Alberta, the savings already in effect will be an estimated $8,610 on average per child, per year, for my friend's constituents. If we compare the magnitude of that kind of savings with 0.78¢ per can of beer, I think members can appreciate the priority we are placing and where we are placing it, in terms of Canadians and their true needs. Canadians are facing challenges; there is no doubt.
In these final two minutes, what I would say is that improvements have been occurring. Last month alone, 22,000 jobs were created, more than double what was expected. More than 20 million Canadians now have jobs. That is 830,000 more Canadians employed than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; 126% of the jobs that were lost since the peak of the pandemic have now been recovered. On average, wages have increased 5%. For women, age 25 to 54, the participation rate is now at an all-time high of 85.7%. I will draw a direct linkage between that statistic and the child care policy that I just outlined. By empowering affordable child care, we unlock the potential of women to fully participate in the economy. That is a critical initiative. That is a gender-focused initiative. That is a feminist initiative. That is an initiative I am proud to stand by.
In this final minute, what I will say is that Canadians are here, and on all sides of the House. We promote our wine and our beer industry. It is vital to job growth in this country. It is a vitally proud industry for Canadians of all stripes, from all political backgrounds. What we are not debating is support for that sector. What we are debating is the impact of the excise duty escalator. What I would say to Canadians who are watching tonight is that, yes, the price will go up by 0.78¢, less than one cent per can of beer, but what we are doing is addressing the costs of Canadians by the acute measures that I have outlined. That is important and I think we should all raise a toast to just that kind of initiative.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Joliette for his question and his interest in this very important issue.
Regarding inflation, I mentioned in my speech that all the programs, roughly six of them, are indexed to inflation. In other words, if inflation goes up, the government benefits will also go up.
As far as EI is concerned, that is a very specific issue. Members can see from the mandate letter that the Prime Minister wrote to the minister responsible for this file that we are here to resolve the situation in consultation with all the provinces. We will always be there for employers and workers.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate that housing is a critical feature. It is a critical feature in the province of British Columbia, as it is in my province of Ontario. What we are doing, as I mentioned, are things such as the first-time home buyers' tax credit and the tax-free first home savings account. We have already initiated a national housing strategy. We campaigned in the 2020 election on more housing starts, and we are working co-operatively with many provinces, including my own, to build more housing. I also point to the rapid housing initiative, which has been very targeted in building more housing faster.
In terms of inflation, I hope every member of the chamber appreciates the inflationary pressures Canada is facing are not unique to Canada alone. They are being faced by all of our G7 allies, indeed by all of our allies around the planet. In fact, comparatively, Canada's rate of inflation is lower than the United States and all of our G7 allies, which is an important feature for this debate.
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- Nov/16/22 7:09:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, let me outline some of the measures that we are taking to address supports for restaurants and the tourism industry and in terms of addressing the inflation that is affecting all Canadians, including people outside Canada. It is, indeed, a global phenomenon.
We know that Canadians and Canadian businesses, along with those in countries around the world, are dealing with inflationary pressures and increasing interest rates. Things like high oil prices and global supply chain disruptions are leading to a scarcity of goods and to rising prices. Those are a serious concern for the member who raised this question, and they are a serious concern for the government.
We also understand the important role that restaurants play in communities from coast to coast to coast. In fact, we were there to support them through the pandemic and provided direct support to the hospitality and tourism industry. During the past two and a half years, our government introduced financial support for employees' wages, subsidies for rent, and loans to provide liquidity relief to ensure businesses' survival through the recovery period.
We took those actions because small businesses are indeed the heart of Canadian communities and the engine of Canada's economy. This was highlighted by the member for Spadina—Fort York. Small businesses contribute 55% of Canada's GDP and employ 10.8 million Canadians across the country. That is an astounding number, and that is why they deserve our support.
What budget 2022 outlined was a range of incentives to help small businesses remain strong through the economic uncertainty that was highlighted by the member who raised this question. We have cut the small business tax rate from 11% to 9%, which is essential to support businesses coming out of the pandemic. We are working to deliver lower credit card fees to reduce this burden on small businesses. We have stated quite clearly in the fall economic statement that if a negotiated solution is not reached, we will table legislation to regulate that sector and regulate those fees. We have also enhanced the small business financing program by increasing annual financing to small businesses by an estimated annual $560 million, helping businesses and their owners access liquidity for start-up costs and intangible assets.
Tourism is very vibrant in the riding of Spadina—Fort York. I know this quite well as the member for the riding just adjacent to Spadina—Fort York. We know that virtually all tourism businesses are small businesses themselves, and those tourism businesses employ two million people across this country. Hospitality and tourism is an inclusive industry that provides jobs and opportunities to newcomers, women, youth and indigenous people. These are specific groups that have experienced some of the worst impacts of the global pandemic.
We have been supporting these businesses in their efforts to strive for even greater inclusivity, with things like the women entrepreneurship program, the Black entrepreneurship program, and targeted supports for indigenous businesses. Returning to budget 2022, we outlined a proposal for $20 million over two years to support a new indigenous tourism fund to help indigenous tourism recover from the pandemic and position itself for long-term sustainable growth.
We also announced a commitment to develop a new federal tourism growth strategy focused on recovery and civility and growth in the long term. To further spur the recovery, jobs and growth of small businesses, we have launched the Canada digital adoption program. CDAP is a $4-billion program that will help restaurants grow their online presence and boost online ordering. These are targeted supports to help the small businesses that the member for Spadina—Fort York is outlining.
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