SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Mel Arnold

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • North Okanagan—Shuswap
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 69%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $117,514.07

  • Government Page
  • Apr/11/24 2:16:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister has shamelessly delivered record high deficits, driving up inflation and causing sky-high interest rates. His government has doubled rent, mortgage payments and down payments. Food banks received a record 2 million visits in a single month last year, and a million more are expected to use food banks this year. He has added more to the national debt than all previous prime ministers combined. While life has gotten worse for Canadians, the PM is spending more than ever. Now, a leading economist says that rate cuts may be delayed because of high government spending. We saw that this week, when the Bank of Canada held its rate in efforts to maintain its policy of quantitative tightening. Canadians are seeing that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Will the Prime Minister cap his spending with a dollar-for-dollar rule and bring down interest rates and inflation, or will he continue to make Canadians pay for his failures?
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  • Oct/20/23 11:09:53 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal government knew carbon tax 2 would increase the cost of energy and disproportionately impact low- and middle-income Canadians, yet it is imposing the tax anyway. Carbon taxes 1 and 2 will add 61¢ per litre to the price of fuel, and because of the government's punishing fuel taxes, we are already seeing fuel prices in B.C. at over two dollars per litre. After eight long years of inflationary spending and failing policies, even Liberal MPs are speaking out against the carbon tax. Those Liberal MPs are realizing that when we tax Brad, the farmer who grows the food, tax Rob, who transports the food, and tax Joanne, who has to drive to buy the food, the food becomes too expensive. It is no wonder 60% more Canadians per month are expected to use food banks in 2023. After eight years, it is even more clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
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  • Jun/13/23 2:14:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it has been 40 years since the Trudeau government caused such pain for Canadians with inflationary spending and skyrocketing interest rates. I remember when that Trudeau came through my hometown while on vacation and gave his famous Salmon Arm salute from his private rail car to a group of protesters calling for restraint on government spending. Interest rates would reach record levels and people could not afford to keep up with the soaring cost of living. Now, 40 years later, it is the same out-of-control spending. Sixty billion dollars' worth of fuel poured on the inflationary fire is causing the interest rates to rise 19-fold higher than they were a year ago, and the Prime Minister wants to go on another vacation. While the PM goes on vacation, Conservative members will work through the summer to make things right so that Canadians can afford groceries, the cost of living and homes. For their home, my home, our home, let us bring it home.
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  • Jun/6/23 12:18:56 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-47 
Madam Speaker, there are so many pieces in this massive omnibus bill and there may be portions of it that we could support. However, when it comes to $43 billion in deficit this year, I cannot support that. My colleagues and I cannot support this out-of-control spending that is only going to end up taking more dollars out of the pockets of taxpayers. The government claims it is trying to put dollars in their pockets, but it is just taking more and more from them.
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  • Oct/27/22 10:20:51 a.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-31 
Madam Speaker, the member from Prince Edward Island went to great lengths in his speech this morning to describe how Islanders are paying so much more and receiving so much less from the current government. Has the member ever spoken out publicly about the costly NDP-Liberal coalition and the homegrown inflation caused by their reckless spending habits and policies? Is he another Liberal MP unable to speak out on behalf of his constituents, who are having to pay more and receive less from the government he is a part of?
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  • Oct/26/22 7:06:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I originally posed the question of whether any of the spend-DP-Liberals thought about monetary policy a few weeks ago because the Prime Minister had already admitted he does not spend much time thinking about it. He also thought that budgets balance themselves, inflation was transitory and it was okay to borrow $400 billion because interest rates were low. A few things have changed in those few weeks since I first posed the question. The Liberal-NDP coalition government has been driving up the cost of living. The more the Prime Minister spends, the more things are costing, and it is not just inflation that we are dealing with now, it is people's lives because they are having to consider monetary policy and make a choice between buying groceries or heating their homes. They are having to make the choice between putting fuel in their vehicles to go to work, or not. Interest rates are rising faster than they have in decades. People and families are at risk of losing their homes because they cannot make increasing mortgage payments. It is to the point that over one-half of Canadians are cutting back on groceries to cope with rising prices because of the thing elite Liberals think is just inflation. This means there are situations like the one I heard about just this morning. It came from Lyle, who said that he was shopping yesterday and the elderly person in front of him had to put four apples back as she could not afford them. He said that the increase in carbon taxes are driving up the costs of everything from home heating to food, and that the current government is completely out of touch with Canadians. That is what Lyle said. All this need not be. If the government had been prudent and responsible and considered monetary policy, it would have done things like not wasted $54 million on a punitive ArriveCAN scam and scrapped the $35-billion Infrastructure Bank. Let us not forget the WE scandal, the millions to Loblaws for refrigerators and so much more wasteful spending. On top of that, had Liberals not squandered an extra $200 billion in spending not related to COVID, Canadians would not be feeling the pain they are now, but the government chooses not to pay attention to monetary policy, so now Canadians are receiving the bill for that massive $500-billion deficit. They are seeing typical mortgages go up by $7,000 a year and having to pay so much more attention to their household monetary policy just to put food on the table and keep the heat on. On top of all this, the Liberal-NDP coalition is planning to triple the carbon tax, further increasing and inflating the cost of gas, groceries and home heating, just as we approach winter in Canada, when heating is not a luxury but a necessity. I am sure I am probably going to hear an excuse from the other side about where I am going on this, and we are going to hear back from the government saying that inflation is a global phenomenon. The governor of the Bank of Canada now says that inflation is homegrown. It was grown by the Prime Minister and his cabinet's lack of consideration of economic policy.
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  • Jun/10/22 11:33:59 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, sky-high inflation, now at a 31-year high, is having a disproportionate impact on Canadians. The Prime Minister does not have to buy groceries or fill his own tank. However, Canadians on lower incomes are spending a disproportionately higher percentage of their incomes on necessities like bread, milk and sundries. Gas prices in North Okanagan—Shuswap are at $2.13 a litre. Some cannot afford to drive to work. We know the Prime Minister does not think about monetary policy for Canadians, but do any of the other speNDP-Liberals think about it?
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  • Jun/2/22 6:57:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in the adjournment debate tonight to address concerns raised by constituents in my riding of North Okanagan—Shuswap and shared by Canadians across the country regarding the government's continuing attacks on manufacturing jobs and the tourism sector. The government was asked if the finance minister understands that her high-tax regime will do nothing but kill jobs in the manufacturing and tourism sectors, and the response was, frankly, unacceptable. In his response to the question, the parliamentary secretary stated, “to make sure that we have the resources needed to invest in Canadians and help our economy continue to recover from the pandemic, we are ensuring that the wealthiest pay their fair share.” This shows just how out of touch this government is with reality. The Liberals do not realize that their tax-and-spend policies are killing jobs in small businesses and tourism sectors. The government did not do an impact analysis of its proposed new surtax before it proposed the surtax on vehicles, vessels and aircraft. However, the Parliamentary Budget Officer did undertake such analysis, and he concluded that the proposed new surtax will result in over $2.8 billion in lost sales over the next five years, a 15% reduction, which will devastate Canada's car manufacturing sector, boating sector and aerospace sector. It is not the wealthy who are going to pay for this tax policy; it is the workers in the plants no longer building these products and the rental and charter companies that do not have new vessels coming into their rental fleets. This new surtax will cost Canadian workers in Canada's tourism sector and peripheral sectors and supply chains whose jobs are being put at risk. These are the people who will pay for this government's damaging and short-sighted legislation. As Canadian workers break free from the stranglehold of the pandemic and businesses struggle to recover, only the Liberals would conceive that imposing such a tax on sales that support good manufacturing jobs right here in Canada is the right path forward. This surtax will drive jobs and contracts out of Canada and make purchases more expensive for Canadians, because the new surtax will not just tax specified items, but it will also tax the sales tax on the purchase, another tax on tax by this government. Many charter vessel fleet operators rely on individual purchasers to invest in new vessels to renew their fleets and sustain standards that will attract tourists from across Canada and around the world. If those vessels are not renewed and up to standard, customers from here in Canada and abroad will take their money elsewhere, the U.S. for example, and support tourism, jobs and incomes there. The resultant loss of investment, plus the spinoff loss of rental, tourism and service revenues, will far outweigh any benefits the government thinks it will rake in from this new tax. The government and its new surtax will hurt Canadians who need the jobs the most as Canada recovers and tries to dig itself out of the debt hole of the government's reckless spending abandon. I want to know, and Canadians want to know, this: How can the government be so callous and continue to force this new surtax through Parliament to inflict harm on hard-working Canadians?
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