- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Louis-Saint-Laurent
- Quebec
- Voting Attendance: 63%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $128,105.00
- Government Page
- Jan/30/24 2:47:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is no political gain. This is the truth, the reality of Canadians on a daily basis.
What has this government achieved over the past eight years? It has doubled the cost of rent and doubled mortgage payments. We need 3.5 million new houses. We barely got 35,000 last year. Two million Canadians are using food banks. That is not politicking; that is the Liberal record.
When will this government act in the best interest of all Canadians?
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- Jan/30/24 2:45:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the impact of the Liberal housing crisis is devastating.
Yesterday, Radio-Canada reported that university students in Montreal are having to go to Auberges du cœur, a homeless shelter. According to the president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, “This speaks to the magnitude of the crisis. Going there is not a solution. It takes spaces away from people experiencing homelessness.” This kind of thing should not be happening in Montreal. It should not be happening in Canada.
The Bloc Québécois supports the Liberals' economic policies, but when will this government understand that inflationary budgets help nobody?
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- Oct/17/23 2:53:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is precisely the problem. This time last year, they said they were going to eliminate the deficit. That is not true at all. That is why we are very skeptical when they announce such things.
Anxiety is a growing reality among young Canadians. Today's Journal de Québec and Journal de Montréal report that 61% of young people fear they will never be homeowners. Claude Pinard, the head of Centraide of Greater Montreal, has said that many young people are realizing that they will never be able to buy a home, so they are giving up on their dream.
To be young and have your dreams crushed is very un-Canadian. Will this government finally understand that in order to curb inflation, the government must at the very least control its spending?
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- Oct/17/23 2:51:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after years years of irresponsible Liberal governance, inflation rates are rising, and so are mortgage rates.
However, let us remember that almost a year ago today, the Minister of Finance very proudly said that her government would balance the budget in 2028.
Six months ago, when the budget was tabled, that promise was scrapped. It was just not kept. Just last week, the Parliamentary Budget Officer determined that the next deficit will be 16% higher than expected.
Are the Liberals aware that their completely irresponsible management is hurting all Canadians?
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- Oct/17/23 1:22:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to participate in this official opposition day debate on the cost of living, which is having a major impact on all Canadians.
First of all, let me pay my respects to my new colleague from Oxford, who delivered a very great and powerful speech, as everybody does here on this side of the House.
When we talk about inflation, that is a topic that, unfortunately, Canadians are concerned about the most today. Inflation is affecting everyone, but has the biggest impact on the least fortunate among us and on people who earn the least. That is the problem: Inflation affects everyone, but hits the least fortunate the worst. We have also seen that inflation is greedy and it infiltrates everything from housing to food to transportation.
The government has a major role to play in controlling inflation. Yes, inflation is affecting everyone, but it would not be so bad if we were fortunate enough to have a government that acted responsibly and controlled spending, which it has never done in eight years of governing. After eight years of Liberal governance, what do we see in this country? Inflation is too high and the cost of living is very high. Everything is more expensive and unfortunately the government is to blame for that.
We should remember that these fine people were elected in 2015 on a promise to run three small deficits and balance the budget in 2019. Many people thought it was bold to do that, ambitious even. Many people also knew that it would not work. Unfortunately, we were the ones who said that, and we were right because, in eight years, this government has never been able to balance the budget, control spending or keep its promise of zero deficit. This has a direct impact on inflation.
We should also remember that every time she is asked a question about this these days, the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister keeps repeating to wait, that the economic update is coming and that we are going to see measures to control inflation.
I would remind the House that a year ago, almost to the day, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance tabled the economic update. What did she say at that time? Quite a lot, when you quote her. She said, “What all Canadians want right now is for inflation to keep coming down, and interest rates to fall....that is one of our primary goals in this year's budget: not to pour fuel on the fire of inflation”.
What the minister said was ludicrous, to put it politely. A year ago, she said that we would have a balanced budget by 2028, and that anything less would amount to pouring fuel on the fire of inflation. Six months later, unfortunately, we got $60 billion in new spending, $60 billion worth of fuel that she poured on the fire of inflation. Today, we are struggling with that.
A year ago, the Minister of Finance said that the budget would be balanced by 2028. She did not meet that goal. Six months ago, she tabled a budget that not only ran a deficit, but, more importantly, did not include a plan for achieving a balanced budget. Last week, the Parliamentary Budget Officer observed that the deficit was set to exceed $46 billion, 16% more than forecast six months ago.
These people have no management skills. After eight years of a government whose spending is out of control, Canadians are suffering the direct effects of inflation across the board.
Earlier, my colleague from Oxford was talking about food banks. My riding has the great privilege of having extraordinary volunteers, people whose hearts are in the right place and who work hard to help the less fortunate. However, they tell me over and over again, every time I see them, that food is a basic necessity and demand for their services is going up. Two years ago, people were bringing food to our most vulnerable to help them. Today, those same people are going to the food bank for help. It is outrageous that middle-class people in a G7 country have to line up at food banks. That is the reality of Canada after eight years of this government.
Inflation is affecting young people who want to buy a home. Mortgages, down payments and rents have doubled in the eight years this government has been in power. When people cannot afford proper food and a decent home, that means there are some deeply rooted problems. They are very significant problems that are hitting Canadians and Quebeckers who are struggling with inflation.
That is why this government needs to seize the opportunity. Continued overspending will lead to broken dreams for the next generation.
This morning, the Journal de Québec and the Journal de Montréal, issued by the QMI Press Agency, published a survey conducted by Centraide of Greater Montreal, an agency that has been helping people everywhere for decades. This survey is quite worrisome because it reveals that people are experiencing increasingly high levels of financial anxiety. Some 85% of people say they feel anxious when they talk about their personal finances.
The survey reports on the financial anxiety index of Centraide of Greater Montreal and was conducted in collaboration with Leger. Claude Pinard, director of the Centraide of Greater Montreal, said the following:
People in poverty don’t have a cushion, they’re people who live day to day and try to get through the month. However, when you are this tight, your budget items are entirely occupied by housing and food. If you have credit card or other debts, and if they increase, you no longer have the capacity to pay the essentials.
This is increasingly the reality for many Canadians who are currently struggling with inflation and who see, as we do, as everyone does, that the government is doing nothing to curb inflation. As we know, the best thing a government can do to control inflation is to stop its uncontrolled spending.
I was talking about young people. It is unworthy of a G7 country like Canada to let its young people lose their ambitions and dreams. The survey shows that 85% of Quebeckers are experiencing varying degrees of financial stress. One of the fears reported is that young people aged 18 to 34 will never be able to own their own home. Nearly two-thirds of them think that way. Fully 61% of young Quebeckers have given up on the possibility of becoming homeowners one day. What a sad reality. We need to get a handle on this situation.
To quote Mr. Pinard again, “When we know that it takes an annual income of more than $100,000 to buy in Montreal, many young people say to themselves: we will never be able to buy. Many also do not see the suburbs as an option. They must therefore give up their dream”.
This is heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. At the ripe age of 59, I think I can say that we were all young once. We all had ambitions. We all dreamed of owning a home, as beautifully expressed in the song Dégénérations, which was quoted by our leader in his speech at the Conservative Party convention in Quebec City. If young people lose this dream and see that home ownership in Canada has become impossible after eight years of this Liberal government, it means that we, as a country, as a nation, and despite all our pride, have really gone off the rails. We have to get back on track.
That is why today's motion aims to get the government back on track. The government needs to get its head out of the sand. The government needs to realize that after eight years of uncontrolled spending, we are now paying the cost. It is never too late to do the right thing. That is why we are asking the government to do what any manager should do when a crisis hits: Have a game plan for balancing the budget. We are not asking for a miracle. We are simply asking the government to do what it promised in 2015 but then promptly forgot, and that is to balance the budget. It is the very foundation of the economy. It is at the very basis of respecting the promise made in 2015. It is at the very basis of restoring the confidence and hope of young people who one day want to own their own home, but who today are seeing that dream being shattered by the inflationary crisis that has hit the country and by the irresponsibility of this government, which continues to spend, spend, spend.
In good faith and with the best of intentions, I invite the government to pull itself together, get back on track, and introduce a plan to return to a balanced budget, for the good of all Canadians.
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- Oct/16/23 2:51:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Liberal government, what has Canada witnessed? Chronic deficits and out-of-control inflationary spending. The result is a direct impact on inflation and interest rates, which are currently climbing.
According to the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, one in five Quebeckers are having a hard time repaying their debt and are at risk of losing their home.
After eight years of this Liberal government, will the government finally understand that reckless management is costly for all Quebeckers and Canadians?
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- Oct/3/23 3:47:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is hurting hundreds of thousands of families across Canada. TVA recently reported the heartbreaking story of one Lanaudière family: a single mother and her three children who had to leave their home and move into a garage. We are a G7 country. This is outrageous. It is small wonder that the woman said she was living through “hell” at the moment.
Now the government is proposing to introduce a new tax. Even the Bloc Québécois is sold on the idea.
Does anyone think it is right to introduce a new tax when hundreds of thousands of families are struggling?
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- Apr/5/22 2:36:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all young Canadian families dream of owning a home.
Unfortunately, home ownership remains out of reach for these families because this government is doing absolutely nothing to curb inflation. The cost of housing is increasing by over 30% a year here in Canada. That is completely unacceptable. Since the beginning of question period, this government has been bragging that its plan is working. The problem is that it is not working.
Why do the Liberals seem to think this plan is working, when it is actually not working at all?
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