- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Subcommittee on Review of Parliament’s involvement with associations and recognized Interparliamentary groups
Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council
- Conservative
- Lambton—Kent—Middlesex
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $149,801.69
- Government Page
- Apr/16/24 2:43:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, even the polls tell us that the majority of Canadians are fed up with the Prime Minister overspending, over-promising, under-delivering and failing this country. Over $52 billion will be spent on servicing his debt alone. While Canadians are struggling, he raised the price of gas, groceries and home heating, raising the carbon tax by 23% just two weeks ago. This is punishment, not progress.
In his big-deficit budget later today, will the Prime Minister finally axe the tax on farmers and make food cheaper for Canadians?
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Madam Speaker, it impacts the bill because, every step along the way, families would not need a government program if they could afford to buy food. If it costs more to put inputs into food for farmers, it is going to cost more for families to buy food for their kids. Why are two million people going to a food bank in a month? They should not need to, and it is because of the policies of the government.
We would not need this kind of program if food inflation were not so high and if the carbon tax were not on everything. It is to the point where people cannot afford to live. Canadians cannot afford to buy food. If it costs overhead to heat greenhouses, and it costs farmers overhead to heat their barns, of course the price of food is going to go up. It is going to be hard for families to afford nutritious food because farmers need to make money too when they are trying to sell their crops. They have to pass that on to consumers.
If anybody does not see that the carbon tax increases the production cost of food, they are choosing not to see it. Again, if it costs the farmer more to grow food, and it costs truckers more to ship the food, then it costs families more to buy food. They should be able to buy food with the money in their pockets that they take home with their wages, but the government is making it unaffordable for families. We would not need this government program if families could afford to buy their food.
Families are seeing unaffordable price increases on the food they buy for their loved ones year over year. Almost daily I am hearing in my office from folks, young and old, who are having difficulty getting by. Many do not have enough to buy their groceries or pay their heating bill, their rent or their mortgages, and more families are visiting food banks. Food bank usage hit another record high in 2023 with two million people using a food bank in a single month. Two million people cannot eat and satisfy their hunger with fluff reports or studies.
Canadian consumers face inflation on food at 8% to 9% year over year. Again, 20% of Canadians report skipping a meal each day. What they need is lower grocery prices so they can afford to feed their families. Meanwhile, the government just wants to tax to the max with two carbon taxes plus HST. It is enough. Canadians deserve better than a Prime Minister and a government that just seems to be going through the motions.
The Prime Minister can deny all he wants, but Canadians know that inflation is real. The Governor of the Bank of Canada also said something last Monday at the finance committee about how government spending affects the ability of the Bank of Canada to bring inflation down. The Governor indicated that government spending makes it more difficult for the Bank of Canada to hold the line and bring the inflation rate down. As a result, monthly mortgage payments for Canadian families are rising when they renew their mortgages. Their mortgage interest rates are almost double or more to what the interest rate was to their previous renewal.
High taxes, increased red tape and bureaucracy have driven investment out of Canada, causing our economy to slide each year with a continued low Canadian dollar, making everything bought from our largest trading partner, the U.S., more expensive. Canada is on track to be one of the most unproductive and least prosperous countries in the OECD.
The International Monetary Fund listed Canada as having the sixth-worst misery index out of 35 industrialized countries. Simply put, the higher the score, the worst the economic situation. Canada scores the sixth highest, but the NDP and the Liberal Party do not want to talk about any of this. They want to make it appear as though they are helping, even though the NDP and the Liberals are the cause of unaffordable prices and people's misery.
That is why the Leader of the Opposition, along with those on this side of the House, have been holding the Prime Minister and his government to account for spending and inflation. Can there be any doubt? It is time for a real change from the inflationary, all-too-costly coalition of the NDP-Liberal government.
To sum up, Bill C-322 is better suited to be put forward in a provincial legislature than in the national Parliament. However, if the member for Acadie—Bathurst is truly serious about helping Canadian families afford nutritious food for their tables, he should persuade his colleagues to reduce food costs by axing the carbon tax.
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- Apr/17/23 1:55:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years, Canadians cannot afford to live. It is a tax-and-spend government.
William, a senior in my riding, wrote to me: “The cost of no name chips is $1.33 per bag if you buy 3 at No Frills. Walk into a Shoppers Drug Mart the same bag in the same package is twice the price or more. Walk into a Zehrs that same bag is 1&3/4 more. At Sobey's or Metro, a small plastic cup the size of a small coffee with 8-10 grapes in it you'll spend $7.00. The cost of 6 muffins is now $7.99, a year ago they were 4.99. I'm a pensioner living on $1750 a month. If I didn't own my home, I'd be screwed.”
He is not alone. I am hearing this from people all over this country, from all the people reaching out to my office and from the Canadians I talk to in the places I go. We are billions of dollars in debt, or trillions actually, and future generations are worried about their future because we are not prosperous. The Liberals have driven up inflation. They have driven up the cost of living. Canadians are feeling hopeless, and Conservatives are going to bring back hope for Canadians.
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- Apr/17/23 1:44:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, we are facing some of the most difficult economic times our country has ever seen. In this budget, the Liberals have decided to continue increasing taxes and spending without limit. The budget contains $63 billion in new spending. That is an extra $4,200 of debt per household.
To add insult to injury, on April 1 the Prime Minister's carbon tax increased. The carbon tax now adds 14¢ per litre, which will cost the average Canadian family over $800 this year alone, even after the rebates.
Budget 2023 was an opportunity to give Canadians hope, but instead the Liberals chose to keep their hands in the pockets of Canadians with more inflationary spending and more taxes. The Conservatives cannot support this budget and will be voting against it.
After hundreds of phone calls, in-person visits, contacts and emails with people from Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, it is clear that the Liberal government is completely out of touch with Canadians. The Liberals have had no idea of the sacrifices Canadians have been making day to day since they came to power and cut their secret backroom deal with the NDP. Savings accounts are being depleted, credit cards are being used to purchase everyday items, home ownership is now a pipe dream for future generations and they will be on the hook for the Prime Minister's reckless vanity spending.
After listening to Canadians, the Conservatives had three key demands we wanted included in budget 2023 to restore hope to this country. The first was allowing Canadians to bring home powerful paycheques with lower taxes and scrapping the carbon tax.
With yearly increases to the carbon tax now in play, Canadians who are already in a desperate place are being squeezed again with little left to give. Frances, from Chatham, reached out and shared his family's situation with me. Here are his words: “We eat less, go out less and are stressed.”
A University of Saskatchewan study reports that one in five Canadians is skipping meals, and Second Harvest reports that in 2023 there will be a 60% increase in food bank usage. That is a sombre statistic. Mothers are adding water to their baby formula, and I have heard from people in my own riding, and this is sad, that some seniors are even resorting to eating cat food to survive.
How did Canada, a once prosperous nation, turn into a country where Canadians are going to bed with empty stomachs? This is what happens when we have a Prime Minister who does not pay attention to monetary policy.
The government proudly proclaims that the budget includes a one-time grocery rebate, but news flash, it is all smoke and mirrors. It is the GST rebate branded as a grocery rebate. What the Liberals fail to mention is the rebate disappears thanks to their carbon tax.
The Liberal government gives little and takes more in the same breath and expects people to be thankful for it. Canadians are seeing through this Liberal charade. The Conservatives know that real people deserve a real plan to deal with the cost of living crisis and that no serious plan will be coming until we form government.
Restaurants, bars, wineries, distilleries and breweries are being unduly punished by the Prime Minister's tax plan. The 2% increase to the excise tax this year on alcohol will negatively impact an already struggling industry. The temporary cap on the increase of the excise tax is only for one more year, and we can be certain the tax will increase again after that.
The Conservatives fought to scrap this tax in its entirety. Unfortunately, there is nothing the Liberals will not tax. Hard-working Canadians should be rewarded for their labour. Under a Conservative government, we will make sure this becomes a reality again.
The Conservatives also demanded a budget that would help bring home lower prices by ending the inflationary debt and deficits that drive up inflation and interest rates. Last year, when budget 2022 was tabled, the MP for University—Rosedale said that Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio was Canada's “fiscal anchor” and must decline for the country's finances to be sustainable.
If budget 2023 passes, Canada will be without a fiscal anchor. Let that sink in. There will be no return to a balanced budget and no plan on reducing our debt load. According to a recent Angus Reid poll, nearly half of Canadians want the government to cut spending and present a plan to balance the budget.
The Conservatives agree. Under our leader, the Conservatives would bring in a dollar-for-dollar tax law that would require the government to find a dollar of savings for every dollar of new spending. That would curb spending significantly and bring accountability to government.
The Liberals are always looking for ways to spend more money at the expense of Canadians. They tax, they borrow and then they print more money. The Conservatives understand how hard Canadians work for their money. Budget 2023 continues to tax Canadians to cover for the Prime Minister's out-of-control spending. The taxation needs to stop. The Conservatives will not support this tax-and-spend budget.
The third thing that Canadians were looking for in budget 2023 was a plan to bring homes to Canadians that they can afford by removing government gatekeepers to free up land and speed up building permits. Home ownership has become a remote reality for Canadians wanting to enter the housing market. Nine out of 10 Canadians who do not own a home say they feel they likely never will. Under the Liberals, everything has doubled. Minimum down payments have doubled. Mortgage payments have doubled. Rents have doubled.
The Liberals have taken away what was once a proud milestone in the life of Canadians. Instead of parents visiting their kids' new homes, parents are moving their kids back home to their basement in the house where they grew up. This is what happens when we have a Prime Minister who does not do numbers, who thinks economic growth comes from using a credit card and who does not understand the real impacts of consumer debt. What is the Prime Minister's response? It is to keep drowning Canada. The dream of home ownership has been trampled thanks to the Liberals.
We also have a housing shortage in the country, and according to the CMHC, it is projected that Canada will need 3.5 million new homes to restore affordability. There is no plan in budget 2023 to address Canada's housing crisis. The Liberals have no plan to get homes built. Canada must bring homes people can afford by removing gatekeepers, freeing up land and speeding up building permits. A Conservative government would withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to remove gatekeepers. Affordable housing is not a priority for the Liberal government, and we cannot support a budget that does not address this.
On agriculture, a pillar of the Canadian economy, we see a Liberal government unwavering in its attempt to break the backs of farmers and compromise Canada's food security at home and abroad. The budget does nothing to address the rising cost of fuel, feed, fertilizer, transportation and the energy necessary to grow and produce food.
The sector has also been hit hard with the carbon tax, making food production more expensive and the cost of food even more unaffordable for Canadians. When the carbon tax triples by 2030, it will compromise a farmer's ability to make a profit, leading to bankruptcies and the exit of farmers from the industry. That is already happening. The budget confirms that the Liberals' plan to reduce fertilizer use, which will decrease food production, will jeopardize our food security.
According to a recent report from RBC and the University of Guelph, the industry is set to lose 40% of farm operators to retirement in the next 10 years. With all the farmers retiring and no one entering the business because they cannot afford to, we have a serious problem looming in Canada. Here is an equation I hope the Prime Minister will understand: No farms equals no food. More and more family farms are closing due to the excessive cost of running them.
Reducing fertilizer will surely boost the number of Canadians visiting food banks as their grocery prices continue to jump due to a shortage of food supply. According to a study by MNP, the proposed Liberal reduction in fertilizer targets will cost the Canadian economy $48 billion by 2030. This is what a Canada run by NDP ideology will look like: weak, gutted and hopeless.
I am sure everyone in the House has heard the phrase “actions speak louder than words”. The budget is full of words. How can Canadians trust a government with a long record of waste? We have the $15-billion arrive scam app, the $6,000-a-night hotel room for the Prime Minister, a cabinet minister giving her friend a government contract and $100 million to McKinsey. It does not stop. With government revenue expected to decrease, Canadians can expect a flood of new taxes for years to come under the Liberals.
A constituent reached out to me with her views on what her country has become under the Liberals. Delaney wrote, “We cannot afford our life. I don't spend any money beyond our needs, but it is to a point where I wonder how I will continue to heat my house for my family and provide healthy nutritious meals for my kids. There is something seriously wrong with this country and currently I am not proud to be a Canadian. It is an embarrassment.”
Empty stomachs, unaffordable housing and high taxes are what eight years of the Liberal government have done to Canada, and budget 2023 does little to address the real issues Canadians are facing. I will not support this budget, and I am proudly joining my Conservative colleagues in voting against it.
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- Dec/7/22 3:03:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that answer just proves that the Liberals are completely out of touch with reality. The reality is that the vast majority of Canadians will not see a cent from the programs they have announced. We are talking about the basic necessities of life.
Poor Liberal policy and reckless inflationary spending are going to cost Canadians an extra $1,000 on their groceries next year. That is an over 10% increase on food prices. A family of four is going to be paying more than $16,000 next year on groceries alone.
Will the government give Canadians a break and axe the carbon tax?
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' spending is out of control. They are completely out of touch and do not have a clue about how the vast majority of people in Canada live.
Unlike their elite friends, whom they so fondly dole out tax dollars to in scandal after scandal, most people in this country work hard for what little money they have. The government is spending billions upon billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars on frivolous vanity projects, on initiatives that no one other than their seatmate at the World Economic Forum would really care about. All the while the government is raising payroll taxes, tripling the carbon tax and implementing inflationary policies that weaken the dollar, which prices essential goods out of reach.
The callousness on display, the elitist attitude of cancelling one’s Disney+ subscription to save money coming from the people who are not hurting and who do not struggle to keep food on their tables or heat their homes, has to stop.
After seeing another load of spending and learning about Canada’s national debt of over a trillion dollars, one constituent of mine, Chris, wrote in to say, “I’d like to see them in our shoes that is the middle class or low-income households, with our wages. With high inflation for food, gas, heating, rising Bank of Canada interest rates, the soon to be tripling of the carbon tax, pay our bills, our mortgage, our debts, and see if the budget balances itself. I don’t need a handout of my own taxpayer dollars. I need a government that will fix the real issues behind Canada’s problems.”
My message to this resident of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, and to all Canadians who share this view, is that if we want to see change, we need to vote Conservative in the next election.
Our leader, the member for Carleton, knows the same simple fact that nearly everyone but our Prime Minister understands, that budgets do not balance themselves and that more spending, like what was announced in this fall economic statement, only adds inflationary fuel to the fire.
This is not the only feedback that I have received about waste and misplaced priorities. Recently, a 12-year-old wrote to me with a message that has more common sense in it than this government has displayed in years. This is from Everett.
Everett says, “I have been thinking about why the Prime Minister wants to further tax our hard-working farmers and their families. This tax will dramatically increase the cost of food to the consumer.
“Here is what I would say in Parliament and to the politicians: 'Mr. Speaker, if the federal government continues to enforce laws that control our farmers, there will be widespread criticism to the Liberal government, which has already spent billions of wasted tax dollars. Canadians have already faced difficulties in the beginning of the decade. Forcing our farmers to pay a tax on livestock methane will only lead to farmers who can barely get enough money to pay the ever-increasing carbon tax! It will lead to more bankruptcies in the country. Canadians are fed up!'
“They had already said it in the beginning of 2022. The government silenced them. With inflation, it will make it harder for Canadians to get past this winter. Canadians will be starving and this government will have caused another famine and caused people to starve.
“When will the federal government end the mandates against Canadian farmers?”
Well said, Everett. I thank him for sending that in. I agree. It is true. The government cannot see the forest through the trees, which is funny because they have committed to planting so many of them. I think it was two million trees, and they have planted zero. Is that not another Liberal commitment that has flown by the wayside, just like their promises for accountability and transparency?
It is no wonder that they have to resort to using Conservative ideas to give their fall economic statement any substance.
What ideas could those be? Well, investing in Canadian-made, clean, green technology. That is something we on this side of the House, Conservatives, have been calling for for years.
In fact, making investments in and growing Canadian capacity to be a global leader in clean green tech is exactly what we put forward in our last two platforms. It is an idea, I should add, that creates jobs and helps the environment, which was opposed by the Liberals before.
After learning that their current war against the Canadian energy sector had cost 170,000 Canadian workers’ jobs without a credible plan to back up their big assumptions and magical thinking, it is about time that they saw the light.
We should also note that the first figure is on top of the 180,000 energy jobs that were already destroyed under the Liberal government. That is 350,000 jobs, and counting, killed to satisfy the Liberal government’s imagination. While these Canadians look for work, the government buys the oil and gas we need from dictators instead.
Canadians need more common-sense initiatives, and it should be obvious that it is Conservatives who will give them that. It is Conservatives who will support our domestic resource industries and make positive changes that benefit all, even if the government tries to hide its mistakes and take credit for our ideas.
Do members know that the average before-tax income of a millennial in Canada is under $50,000? Do they know that the average Canadian family pays $39,000 in taxes? For Canadians aged 25 to 40, that means it is nearly impossible to get ahead. It means they will not be able to afford a home until retirement age, and that is if they get to retire. It means every dollar recklessly wasted by this government to grow inflation only puts them further behind. Tripling the carbon tax and increasing payroll taxes so the government can keep spending taxes does not give them hope.
This situation is surprisingly similar to what Canadian seniors currently face. They have sacrificed to save their money. After years of working hard, they gave it all to grow our nation, to make it successful and a great place to live. However, many are telling me they are feeling left behind and abandoned, forgotten by a government that no longer sees them as useful, a Liberal regime that would rather offer them death than sufficient medical or mental health care. They see no hope coming from spending announcements. They only see their bills piling up, groceries getting more expensive and becoming unaffordable, and a winter ahead of them with not enough money to keep the heat on. This is all thanks to the Liberal government's spending and mismanagement of Canada's finances.
From our millennials to our seniors, Canadians are saddened to see this once-prosperous, thriving country with an incredible reputation on the global stage become what it has become today under the government: a tax-and-spend nation that is driving people into poverty and is quickly becoming the laughing stock of the world.
I can see from the faces of those opposite that they do not believe me, but they should pay attention to this next bit of testimony.
A senior from my riding, from Wallaceburg, wrote that they are on ODSP and their cheque has been cut by $500. It's winter right now, they said, and they need that because of the price of heating oil. The senior said it cost $1,800 to fill the tank, and that is what they now get from ODSP.
This Canadian has nothing to live on and no other options.
What do members think about this heartbreaking story from another young mother? She wrote that she had spent the whole day consoling two brothers aged one and three, sick with a bad virus. If she could have given them Tylenol or Advil, she said, they would have had a bad day but they would have survived. Instead, these two very active boys cried and moaned, threw up and begged to be carried. They slept in her arms and were miserable all day.
Instead of acting quickly to see that Canadian children have the medicine they need, the government waited. Instead of working to make certain Canada never faces a similar shortage, it announces boutique spending policies that help no one.
This economic statement does not address the cost of living crisis that the costly NDP-Liberal coalition government has created. Its reckless spending and mounting national debt is simply not fair to future generations.
I have also been hearing from young people that with inflation and the cost of housing, they will be living in their parents' basements until at least the age of 30 and they have given up on their dream of owning a home for their family to live in.
To afford food, to be warm this winter and to give hope to the next generation of Canadians, Conservatives will always stand strong against the Liberal government's reckless spending and fight for common-sense policies.
Finally, here are some questions from average Canadians that no one has been able to answer yet: Where is this carbon tax going? Who gets it? What is it being spent on? No one believes that it is coming back to them, like the Liberals claim. Since the inception of the carbon tax, many have been asking how paying money to the government stops the global temperature from rising. How does money going from their bank account to a slush fund for the Prime Minister's self-glorification clean up the atmosphere, especially when China is the world's biggest polluter by far? How does paying a tax stabilize the weather, when the sun is the biggest influencer of the earth's climate? How does my handing money over to the least transparent, least democratic, most expensive government in our nation's history stop a hurricane from hitting the east coast? It is time to scrap the carbon tax.
Liberal spending is out of control. For the reasons outlined, I cannot support this economic statement.
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- Nov/29/22 3:08:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has created a mess. Everything it touches is broken: the arrive scam app, huge passport backlogs, NEXUS at a standstill and the fact that 1.5 million Canadians used a food bank in a single month. Seniors are telling me they are skipping meals, and they are not alone. One in five Canadians are skipping meals.
This is all thanks to the Liberals' inflationary spending, and it is completely unacceptable. When will the government stop making life hard for Canadians and give them back control of their lives?
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- Nov/1/22 2:50:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 51% of Canadians are struggling to afford food, and those who cannot cut back any further are being driven to their local food banks. However, the government does not care. It is too busy blowing money on $7,000-a-night hotel rooms or the $54-million arrive scam.
To pay for their scandals and secret backroom deals with the NDP, they want to raise taxes, further driving up the cost of basic necessities such as food. Canadians cannot afford this costly coalition. Will the Liberals end their inflationary spending?
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- Apr/8/22 11:33:39 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government asked young people to lock down for two years and they complied. Their reward is a housing market that they cannot buy into and being saddled with a ton of debt to keep them down. Debt is keeping housing unaffordable and the government keeps spending.
Why are millennials being shut out of the housing market for the Prime Minister's vanity projects?
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