SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 114 - Oct/20/22

Oct/20/22 11:48:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague just asked a good question. As Quebec separatists, of course we want federal taxes like the GST to be as low as possible. I do not see why we would oppose removing the GST from home heating fuel. That would be a good start. However, if the government ever moved forward with that, it would be nice if it applied to Hydro-Québec too. The problem is that the federal government subsidizes oil. It invests billions and billions of dollars in the oil industry, yet Quebec has never received a penny for Hydro-Québec. Even so, when we get our Hydro-Québec bill at the end of the month, it includes a federal tax.

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Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)

Oct/20/22 11:49:02 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have another Conservative opposition day and it is presenting, for the third time, roughly a similar motion. I find that disingenuous for the Canadian public, as Canadians go through so many difficult times right now. We know this because we have seen “greedflation” from the oil and gas industry and from the grocery industry that has raised prices unnecessarily, and I will come back to that in a moment. The fact is that the NDP's motion on Monday had a greater impact on freezing prices than anything the official opposition has done for years in the House. We have seen that as well with “greedflation” in the grocery sector and the rise in food prices. We have also seen it in the banking industry, which has received, under Conservative and Liberal regimes, hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity supports. Canadian families have been left to the side in all of this, as wages stagnate, as prices increase and “greedflation” takes hold, with companies profiting off Canadian families at this critical time. We have seen both Conservative and Liberal governments unwilling and seemingly paralyzed to act. That is why the 25 members of the NDP caucus have gotten to work. The NDP achieved a lot in the previous COVID Parliament. We forced investments that would actually make a difference in people's lives and provided supports. Tens of thousands of people in my riding of New Westminster—Burnaby benefited from the COVID supports that the NDP forced through the House. The NDP also forced through the House supports for small businesses. The NDP and the member for Burnaby South also forced through the House a wide variety of other measures, like supports for people with disabilities, for students, for seniors and sick-leave provisions. All of those things in the past Parliament had a profound impact on the lives of Canadians in a positive way. We went right back to work after the election that was called by the Prime Minister. Rather than dealing with the crisis, he threw it out and as a result of that—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Oct/20/22 11:51:31 a.m.
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I have to interrupt the hon. member because somebody's microphone is on. We have to make sure it is off. I would like to remind those members participating remotely to make sure their microphone is off when they turn their screen on or decide to connect to the virtual network. The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Oct/20/22 11:52:01 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the NDP has gone to work in this Parliament and has pushed the government to put in place supports for dental care, a historic expansion of our health care system, and It is about time. Canadians believe universal health care is our most cherished institution. Our former leader, Tommy Douglas, was instrumental in bringing that about. Now, under the leader from Burnaby South, we have expanded it with dental care this year for children. Right across the length and breadth of our country, parents will be able to provide dental care for their children 12 and under. Inexplicably the Conservatives voted against that measure to help kids. They will have to explain that to their voters whenever the next election is held. We also forced the government to provide supports to nearly two million Canadians renters through the renter supplement, hundreds of dollars that will make a difference to people in my riding. Of course, the member for Burnaby South had been pushing for a number of months to get the doubling of the GST credit. That will mean anywhere from $200 to $500 that will go out in the next few weeks. Thankfully, the Conservatives, after initially opposing this NDP position, rallied. I think they finally understood the importance of providing those supports. As a result, we know those cheques will be on the way soon. Canadians are living in difficult times. They are struggling for affordable housing. They are struggling to pay their health care bills. They are struggling because their wages have not kept up. In this corner of the House, Canadians know they have an NDP leader and an NDP caucus that is resolute about providing supports, and we have the track record to prove it. Over the course of the last two Parliaments, almost every measure that has had a net benefit to Canadian families has come from the NDP caucus, leveraging in a minority Parliament our 25 voices, and 24 voices in the last Parliament, to make a difference for Canadians. The fact that we have one leader in the House who has a laser-like focus, ensuring Canadians benefit from decisions made in Parliament, has made a difference in the lives of so many Canadians, but we have so much more to do, and we are going to continue to push. The reality is that we have had seven years of a Liberal government that has basically been paralyzed when it comes to the important decisions that would make a difference in the lives of people. When we look at the disability benefit, it still does not have any substance behind it. We are going to be pushing, with Bill C-22, to actually have a disability benefit that makes a difference in the lives of people. However, to date, we have not seen the substance or the meat that actually will make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities. These are the kinds of measures the NDP will continue to push. On housing, we were able to force the government, in the last budget, to finally start to reinvest in affordable housing, and over the next couple of years 150,000 new affordable housing units will be built. That is a result of the efforts of the member for Burnaby South and the NDP caucus, again, to leverage our 25 members to make a difference, to push for change for a better life for Canadians. We are pushing to have put into place all the calls to action on truth and reconciliation. We are pushing for measures that would stop the spread of hate and right-wing extremism that we are seeing. We will continue to push all those elements, because we believe fundamentally, as New Democrats and as members of Parliament, that our responsibility is to make a difference in the lives of people. We did not see that in the dismal Harper decade, an incredibly dismal period in Canadian history, or in the seven years of paralysis that we have largely seen from the current government, until, with minority Parliaments, the NDP started to leverage and get things done in Parliament. We saw over the course of the Harper dismal decade a massive expansion of overseas tax havens, valuated by the Parliamentary Budget Officer at $25 billion a year, now over $30 billion a year. This is taxpayer money going off shore. The utlrarich, profitable corporations are taking their money offshore rather than providing those investments that would make a difference in the lives of families, students, youth, children, people with disabilities and seniors. Under both the Conservative regime and the Liberal regime, the immediate thought when a crisis hit, whether it was in 2008 or with COVID in 2020, was what they could do to help the banks. We saw under the Harper government a record $116 billion in liquidity supports given overnight. The Harper government wanted to shore up bank profits. That was its first and foremost priority. It cut pensions and eviscerated a wide variety of services for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities. It cut a whole bunch of important programs, including, inexplicably even today, the crime prevention programs that reduced crime right across the country. For the Harper government or any person connected to the Harper government, like the member for Carleton, to pretend that it took initiatives that reduced the crime rate when it destroyed the crime prevention centres strikes the heart of rampant hypocrisy. It eviscerated the most important tool in fighting back against crime. This was the record of the Harper government: destroying services and ensuring that the banks, the ultrarich and the oil and gas industry had record profits. That was its first and foremost objective. Sadly, the new Liberal government has done the same, continuing those practices. We have gone from $25 billion a year under the Harper government to over $30 billion in overseas tax havens under the new government. In the banking sector, it was $116 billion. We saw the Liberal government, in March 2020, step up in 96 hours with $750 billion in liquidity supports for the banks. This is while people with disabilities were struggling to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table. They are still waiting years later, and we have a bill that does not do anything yet. However, the NDP is going to fight like hell to ensure that it does do something to actually make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities. What we have had over the last couple of decades is a government that has been focused on the needs of the banking sector and bank profits and that has allowed the grocery industry, the big giants of the grocery sector, to profit from Canadian families, without putting any measures in place to restrict that. With the oil and gas sector, of course we have seen the rampant profiteering, with the price going up on old stock as soon as there is any sort of crisis, as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has pointed out so many times. Both at the beginning and at the end of every crisis, the oil and gas sector reaps record profits. These are the decisions we have seen from both Conservative and Liberal governments, but now we have an alternative. I want to point out why it is so important for folks in Canada to recognize that. We have a choice between the current government, the official opposition and the NDP. In the coming election, whenever that is, whether next year, the year after or in 2025, at some point this Parliament will come to an end and Canadians will have a choice to make. We have seen what the Liberals and the Conservatives do. They cater to the wealthy, the ultrarich, the banking sector, grocery chain CEOs and the grocery empires rather than dealing with regular people. The NDP, this week, in our only opposition day of this cycle, brought forward a motion that ultimately forced all parties to support it. It recognized that “Canadian families are struggling with the rising costs of essential purchases” and asked the House to “call on the government to recognize that corporate greed is a significant driver of inflation”, or greedflation, as members know, and to take action, which includes: (a) forcing CEOs and big corporations to pay what they owe, by closing the loopholes that have allowed them to avoid $30 billion in taxes in 2021 alone, resulting in a corporate tax rate that is effectively lower now than when this government was elected This is an important point. It was bad under the Conservatives. It is even worse now under the Liberals. The motion continued: (b) launching an affordable and fair food strategy which tackles corporate greed in the grocery sector including by asking the Competition Bureau to launch an investigation of grocery chain profits, increasing penalties for price-fixing and strengthening competition laws to prohibit companies from abusing their dominant positions in a market to exploit purchasers or agricultural producers; and (c) supporting the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food in investigating high food prices and the role of “greedflation” When we introduced this motion, the CEOs of the big grocery chains and big food immediately stepped up to say they were not going to increase their prices anymore; they were going to freeze prices. The NDP had an impact with that motion. This is an important part of what members of Parliament should be doing. This motion passed unanimously, as members know, because it was good sense that we pushed back as members of Parliament knowing the impact that greedflation has had right across the length and breadth of this country. It has cost Canadians a terrible price. As a result of that, the member for Burnaby South brought forward this motion, which had an immediate impact. I contrast that with the Conservatives, the official opposition. This is the third time now that they have brought forward essentially the same motion. They did it on June 7, they did it on September 28 and they are doing it today. It is for tackling a price on carbon, as if climate change and the climate crisis do not affect Conservatives. It is quite the contrary. We know that climate change is impacting people right across the country. We know that putting a price on pollution actually helps to alleviate that, yet we have this obsession from the Conservatives where on three opposition days in a row they essentially bring forward the same motion. The motion does not deal with the issue of affordability, in the same way that the Conservatives in the House and the sound and fury from the member for Carleton do not in any way help Canadians. In fact, the Conservatives cannot really point to anything they have done over the last few years that has helped Canadians. The NDP can. We can point to dental care. We can point to the housing supplement. We can point to the affordable housing that we forced in the last budget. We can point to the doubling of the GST credit. We can point to all of the COVID supports that we forced in this House. In a minority Parliament situation, we are using the weight of our members of Parliament to make a difference for Canadians. What can the official opposition point to in the last few years? They can point to nothing, nada. It is so much the worse that it is a repudiation of the commitments made by the former Conservative leader in the election before last. It is important to point out that back in 2019, the Conservative leader, to quote the CBC website, made an “election promise to remove GST from home-heating bills”. To quote Global News, he said he would “cut GST from home heating bills as prime minister”. Given the opportunity to actually put that forward, the Conservatives failed, and they brought forward the same motion a third time, as if somehow it is a magical third time. It is that triple, triple, triple of putting together the same motion and putting it out to the House again as a rerun rather than dealing with the fundamentals of removing the GST on home heating, which the Conservatives previously promised to do and did not and which the member for Burnaby South has been promoting. What I am offering today is the opportunity for the official opposition to actually keep a promise. The Conservatives promised in the election campaign that they would take the GST off home heating, so I will be offering an amendment shortly that would do just that. The amendment, which the Conservatives should support because they committed to it, would replace the carbon tax in their opposition motion. Rather than for the third time dealing with the issue of climate change as if it is something that does not exist, we would instead put in place the removal of the GST from home heating. The Conservatives promised that, so they should support this amendment. It would actually have a meaningful impact on Canadians' lives. We know the impact of the GST on home heating, so it would make a fundamental difference. We have seen that the NDP is really making a difference in Canadians' lives. We have seen it with dental care, housing assistance and affordable housing, measures that we forced the government to include in the last budget along with the doubling of the GST credit. All of these are a win for Canadian families. Today, we will give the Conservatives the opportunity to keep their promise to eliminate the GST on home heating. We will propose an amendment that will make a real difference in people's lives. That way, the Conservatives will finally be able to say that they did something to help people, that it was not just talk, that they actually did something. They need to help people instead of just going around in circles. It is therefore with pleasure that I offer the following amendment on behalf of the NDP, and if good sense and good judgment take place, the Conservatives will support it. I move that the motion be amended by deleting the words “from the carbon tax” and substituting the following: “from the goods and services tax”.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Oct/20/22 12:10:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one thing that I think is extremely disingenuous, and I am curious if the member would agree, is that every time the Conservatives talk about the price on pollution, they conveniently neglect to talk about the rebate that Canadians will be getting. They say the price on pollution will triple, triple, triple, but the reality is that the rebate will triple, triple, triple. I wonder if the member for New Westminster—Burnaby could provide his input on whether or not the Conservatives, when making that claim, are being quite disingenuous given the reality of the program.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Oct/20/22 12:10:50 p.m.
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It is my duty to inform hon. members that an amendment to an opposition motion may be moved only with the consent of the sponsor of the motion, or in the case that he or she is not present, consent may be given or denied by the House leader, the deputy House leader, the whip or the deputy whip of the sponsor's party. The hon. member does not have the support of the opposition; therefore, the amendment cannot be accepted. Questions and comments, the hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Oct/20/22 12:11:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, “disingenuous” seems to be the middle name of the Conservatives these days. They should recognize that the price on pollution is reimbursed for lower-income people, but the GST, which they promised to take off home heating if they ever formed a government, has a direct impact on consumers and Atlantic Canadians who are hoping to heat their homes. This is where I note the rejection of the NDP amendment. It would have made the opposition day motion different from the last two reruns and would have fundamentally helped people in Atlantic Canada and right across the country. This is why it is so perplexing. They were given an opportunity and the NDP did all the work. We said we were going to hand it to them on a silver platter, but the Conservatives said no. They just want to make an ideological point and do not want to help anybody.

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Mr. Fraser Tolmie (Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, CPC)

Oct/20/22 12:12:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his revisionist history on the banking crisis of 2008. As I sit here, I see a shell game, a carnival, with the way the carbon tax is being laid out and always being proposed by the Liberal government and the NDP. If it was so good, why wouldn't the government give the refunds ahead of time? While people are struggling to make ends meet, their budgets are going up and people have gone into debt, the Liberals come in afterwards with cheques that do not quite meet the challenges the people of Canada are facing. Yesterday I stood and said that GST was being charged on top of the carbon tax on heating bills and the Prime Minister said that was misinformation. I would ask my colleague if he has looked at his heating bills, if he could confirm or deny that GST is actually being charged on top of the carbon tax and what his thoughts are on that.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Oct/20/22 12:13:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have two answers. First off, why would the Conservatives say no to an amendment that would take the GST off home heating? Why did they do that? They just did that in front of the entire country as witnesses. They said no to taking GST off home heating. I have no idea where the Conservatives are on this at all. I do know that the member for Carleton is rapidly become the Liz Truss of Canada. What we have seen over the course of the last few weeks since he became leader are the despicable ties to— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!

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Mr. Warren Steinley

Oct/20/22 12:14:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is a point of order. It is not debate. The member constantly said that there was no motion put forward by the opposition that involved the GST. I will read from the March 22 Hansard when the opposition motion was, “(i) Canadians are facing severe hardship due to the dramatic escalation in gas prices, (ii) the 5% collected under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), and the Quebec Sales Tax (QST) creates increased revenue for the federal government”. This is not debate, Madam Speaker. This is the actual information. The member from wherever he is from is—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/20/22 12:15:15 p.m.
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This is entering into debate. The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen

Oct/20/22 12:15:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on the same point of order, the member from “wherever he is from” is actually from Burnaby South, just so my Conservative colleague knows. A point of order references the order of procedure. It is to call to the attention of the Chair that the order of procedure did not happen. Clearly the member is debating. He is not bringing forward a point of order.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/20/22 12:15:40 p.m.
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We are entering into debate. The hon. member for Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies.

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Mr. Bob Zimmer

Oct/20/22 12:15:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thought it was unbecoming of the member across the way to correct a Conservative member and incorrectly refer to the member for New Westminster—Burnaby as the member for Burnaby South, so I hope he gets—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/20/22 12:15:59 p.m.
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This is definitely entering into debate. I will allow the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby to finish his answer.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Oct/20/22 12:16:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, for the record, I am very proud to be the member of Parliament for New Westminster—Burnaby and to represent both of our communities proudly. As I was saying before I was interrupted, the member for Carleton is the Liz Truss of Canadian politics. We saw that with the despicable tagging of misogynistic groups on his website. We have seen this with the inexplicable call by Conservatives to stop providing the supports to provide payments around EI and pensions. To cut back on those kinds of supports is unbelievable. Then we saw the disgraceful promotion of Bitcoin. At a time when Canadians were struggling, to say they should invest in something like Bitcoin, and now we know the value has collapsed, was simply irresponsible. I do not know where Conservatives come from. I think they need to come clean. They could have—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/20/22 12:17:08 p.m.
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Order. We must move on to another question. The hon. member for Berthier—Maskinongé.

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Mr. Yves Perron (Berthier—Maskinongé, BQ)

Oct/20/22 12:17:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this morning, I once again find myself in some kind of bad theatrical production where people keep repeating the same lines. They are the only ones who do not realize that this is getting really ridiculous. Everyone is talking, but at the end of the day, they are not talking about the real issue and how to help people deal with inflation right now. The Bloc Québécois has proposed very simple solutions, which include increasing old age security at age 65. We have been saying this for months, but we have yet to hear a response from the government. Can the member explain the government's inaction? Can he explain why the government is turning a blind eye to the fact that, because of inflation, seniors are having a hard time paying for groceries, heating and everything else?

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Mr. Peter Julian

Oct/20/22 12:18:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is why the NDP pushed for the dental care program. It is important. This is going to help seniors starting next year. We know that seniors everywhere, in Quebec, in British Columbia, need access to dental care. The NDP did the work so they could have access to it next year. Then there is the help for renters. In Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, people need more support. The NDP also got that help for seniors who are renters. Also for seniors in Quebec and elsewhere, the GST rebate has been doubled, thanks to the efforts of the member for Burnaby South. This will go a long way toward helping people throughout Quebec and Canada. The reality is that the NDP gets results. That is why next time, the people of Quebec should vote for the NDP instead of the Bloc Québécois.

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Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Oct/20/22 12:19:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague for his tremendous work, particularly around greedflation, which is something the Conservatives are not willing to call out. It is really going on the theme of being disingenuous. Although they are talking about helping people across Canada, every time the NDP puts forward something to help Canadians, such as dental care and doubling the GST credit, they vote against it. The current Conservative Party is not there to help Canadians. I wonder if my colleague agrees with me that one of its biggest failures in this is not being willing to cut the GST on home heating.

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