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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 14

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 9, 2021 10:00AM
  • Dec/9/21 2:25:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for giving me the opportunity to thank the Auditor General, who plays a fundamental role in our democracy and in Parliament. We greatly appreciate her review, and we will take her perspective and her findings into consideration as we look forward and continue to protect the health and safety of Canadians.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:25:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, travellers go home, take a COVID-19 test, quarantine themselves and wait for the results. After a while, they do not hear back so they assume they do not have COVID-19.They start going out into the community and going to restaurants. If they never hear from the officials, it may be because 14% of those who tested positive were never contacted by the feds. That means 1,156 people had COVID-19 and did not know they had it. I do not even know whether to laugh or cry. How could such a fiasco have happened?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:26:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this gives me the opportunity to remind people that COVID‑19 is not over. Just this morning, we heard the health minister in the United Kingdom say that in the next few weeks or months, there could be one million cases of the omicron variant in that country. In Canada, that would be the equivalent of 20,000 cases of that variant a day, or twice as many as the highest case number we have seen in the past 20 months. That is why we must continue to work together to protect people's health here in Canada.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:26:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget office released a report today, which makes it clear that inequality is growing in Canada. Wealth is being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Workers struggling on lower incomes have fewer and fewer resources, which is not surprising. We also know the pandemic has probably made all of this even worse. As we know, the pandemic has hurt working-class people and lower-income folks more than those at the top. All of this underlines how important it is to have a fair taxation system. Why does the Prime Minister continue to refuse to tax the super wealthy and invest those resources into making life more affordable for people?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:27:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us review some of the ways that we are making life more affordable for Canadians: A single mom with two kids will receive $13,600 from the Canada child benefit; the average family in Saskatchewan will get almost $1,000 back with the carbon price rebate; seniors received $500 this month; we are increasing OAS by 10%; and a student will save more than $3,000 with the changes we made to the program. That is how we are making life more affordable. We will continue to do so.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:28:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that does not change the reality. Inequality is growing in Canada. The Parliamentary Budget Office released a report that clearly shows inequalities are on the rise. It is quite likely that the pandemic has aggravated the situation. This is another reminder of the importance of having fair and equitable taxation. Why is the Prime Minister refusing to bring in taxation that would see the ultrarich pay their fair share, which could be invested in people and make their life more affordable?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:28:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to asking those who prospered during the pandemic to help a little more for those who did not. Our platform committed to raise corporate income taxes on the largest, most profitable banks in the country, as well as insurance companies, and introduced a temporary Canada recovery dividend given that they have recovered faster. We are also working to implement a global minimum tax and 136 OECD/G20 inclusive framework members have signed up.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:29:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, amidst the cost-of-living crisis, hard-working Albertans are being forced to pay more and more for everyday goods. For example, I recently heard from a constituent who had to pay more than $77 for two small cuts of beef, and yet the Liberals seem content to just dismiss the real-life implications of this crisis as simply a global issue, but that does not help my constituents afford the products they need every day. Does the government really believe it is just inflation or is the Prime Minister just incompetent?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:29:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since taking office, this government has been focused on making life more affordable for Canadians. The very first vote I took in this place was to lower taxes on the middle class. We introduced the Canada child benefit to support families. We increased supports for seniors, lowered small business taxes, increased the Canada workers benefit, increased the Canada student grant, all making life more affordable. In Alberta, thanks to the child care deal, Albertans will save thousands of dollars a month starting January 1. Life will be more affordable for Canadians. That is what we will do.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:30:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in my riding, there are entire areas in towns like Canmore where people are living in their vehicles. What does the member say to them? There are parents who have to make a decision about whether they are going to give their kids lunches for school or a Christmas gift. What does he say to them? There are people who cannot afford gas to drive to work. There are seniors who cannot afford to eat. What does he say to them? They do not want to hear about all the money the government can spend. They want to hear about actual results and they are not seeing anything from the Liberal government. What is the government going to do about it?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:31:08 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-2 
Mr. Speaker, we saw through the campaign that the Conservative Party was skilled at flip-flopping, but I find it particularly shocking that the flip-flopping is happening during the same question period. Do they actually want us to invest more or less in Canadians, because if it is more, then they should vote for Bill C-2.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:31:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, according to the latest Canada Food Price Report, families will pay nearly $1,000 more to feed themselves in 2022. The cost of groceries is going up, the cost of gas is going up, the cost of energy is going up and rents are going up. In the meantime, Canadians' purchasing power is going down. Inflation is squeezing the majority of Quebec households. The Liberal government is responsible for this situation. When will it take meaningful action to stop the impoverishment of Quebec families?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:32:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government has always been committed to making life more affordable for Canadians across the country. I would like to provide a few examples: A single mother with two children will receive $13,600 from the Canada child benefit; the average family in Saskatchewan will receive almost $1,000 from the carbon price rebate; seniors received $500 this summer; a student will save an additional $3,000. These are a few examples of how we are making Canadians' lives more affordable.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:32:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government may well wash its hands of the situation. That is not exactly surprising, since it has never assumed its responsibilities. The Liberals have been accumulating deficits since 2015 and are increasing our debt. The government is keeping the prime rate artificially low and printing more and more money, and we have the second biggest housing bubble in the world. This Prime Minister has told us that he does not think about monetary policy. When will he take responsibility and do what is necessary to reduce inflation?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:33:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, each and every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Since 2015, we have invested over $27 billion in affordable housing and introduced Canada's very first national housing strategy. Our plan of more than $72 billion has already helped more than one million Canadians get the housing they need.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:33:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal inflation tax is now hitting grocery stores. Today, a report shows that the average family will have to spend $15,000 on food. That is a $1,000 increase. Canadians and Canadian families do not have $1,000, especially after real estate inflation and with gas prices at $1.50. Yesterday, the Prime Minister admitted, in English, that there is something called “just inflation”. To respect linguistic duality, can he repeat it in French and say that it is just inflation?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:34:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the pressures created by the disruptions in the supply chain and the shift from purchasing services to purchasing goods are real, but they are also transitory. In the meantime, other additional costs are making life unaffordable for Canadian families. That is why our government is so focused on reducing the cost of child care and the cost of housing. We are here to make life more affordable, and that is what we are going to do.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:35:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all the other so-called experts have given up on the term “transitory inflation”, yet the Associate Minister of Finance is trying to resurrect it on the same day we get a report saying that the average family will have to spend another $1,000 just to put nutrients on their kids' tables. We already have the second-worst housing bubble on earth and it is $1.50 a litre for gas. The average family cannot keep up with the cost of living and the minister says it is transitory. If so, how long until all of this price inflation reverses itself and the prices come back down?
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  • Dec/9/21 2:35:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, the other side is trying to paint a story of doom and gloom for Canadians, but Canadians know better. Inflation in Canada in November was 4.5%. In the United States, it was 6.2%. It was 6.2% in Mexico. It was 4.9% in New Zealand. The experts agree that this is not a made-in-Canada phenomenon. The former governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, agreed and even the leader of the Conservative Party has agreed that this is a global phenomenon.
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  • Dec/9/21 2:36:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives seem more concerned about the fact that street gangs used CERB to purchase illegal weapons than the fact that these illegal weapons are now freely circulating in the Montreal area. We agree that CERB should not have been used for such things, but it would be just as bad if the weapons had been purchased with money obtained through fraud, pimping or extortion. The real problem here is that it is too easy to find handguns in the Montreal area. How does the minister plan to stop gangs from accessing handguns?
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