44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 27, 2023 10:00AM
- Apr/27/23 7:32:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I support Minden's mayor and their call to keep the emergency room at Minden Hospital. I have spent a lot of time in the member's riding. It is a beautiful riding. I have had many summers in Coboconk.
However, I am trying to rationalize the comments that were made earlier. It is a provincial decision. He knocked on doors, likely for the premier and his local member, who sit at Queen's Park where the rally is occurring. How that health care decision to close the Minden emergency ward has anything to do with us after all the resources that we are investing in health care in this budget is beyond me. The member supported the premier who is making the cuts that the member mentioned earlier. How does the member square that?
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- Apr/27/23 7:33:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad my friend across the way could experience summers in Coboconk. It really is a beautiful area.
A few things that the member got completely wrong in that speech include the fact that it was not a provincial decision. It was actually made by the local board of directors. The reason for it was not fiscal, from what we are being told, so he got that wrong. Let us just set the record straight that the decision was made, from what we are being told, because of a staffing issue, with the massive shortage in doctors and nurses right across the country.
I bring it up in this capacity in this chamber because where the government does have responsibility is with foreign-trained doctors and nurses. It can get the provinces to work together and start to develop a standardized test, the blue seal trade program that we are talking about. We can get provinces at the table to agree to a test. It is done in the Red Seal program. It can be done in the blue seal program. We can get them together and get something done, rather than just throwing our hands up.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for his speech.
On the topic of health, the primary role of the federal government is to properly fund health care. In Bill C‑47, there is $2 billion in unconditional transfers to the provinces. The member for Winnipeg North said that the government would try to remove that money from the bill because it is already in Bill C‑46, which was passed by the House.
First, the government is not doing its job properly. It is forgetting to harmonize its own bills. That is not very professional. Second, we believe we need a lot more in health transfers from the federal government. We want this $2 billion to stay in Bill C‑47.
What does my hon. colleague think about that?
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- Apr/27/23 7:35:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am a fan of provincial governments having the jurisdiction to operate within their authority. Health care is one of the jurisdictions that specifically belongs to the provincial government.
An area that my friend brought up and refreshed my memory on is the fact that the government spent hundreds of billions of dollars during the pandemic, only half of which, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said, was related to the pandemic itself. The other half was couched in the language of COVID. If it was truly a health care crisis, why was that money not given to the provinces to deal with health care specifically? Why were we starting to build all these other pet projects of the Liberal government? We should have been addressing that crisis at the time, which was health care, but this is something the government failed to do.
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- Apr/27/23 7:36:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I get a real kick out of the Conservatives. They figure conspiracy theories are the best thing that has ever happened to them, because they can blame gatekeepers for everything.
Let us talk about the gatekeepers that have resulted in the staffing shortages at Minden. They are Doug Ford and the Ontario Conservatives. Remember Bill 124 and its attack on nurses' wages? It was so bad, it was found to be unconstitutional. At a time when nurses were leaving the profession in droves, Doug Ford picked a fight with them. The fact is that Doug Ford under-spent $1.8 billion in health care in Ontario, and it was dead last out of all the provinces.
I think the member has a lot of gall to use the crisis in Minden to promote a conspiracy that there is some kind of bureaucratic gatekeeper when money that is given to the provinces, in Ontario, is not going to frontline health care or to support the nurses who could be doing the work to keep people safe.
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- Apr/27/23 7:37:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure what planet my friend opposite is on.
The member clearly put his fingers in his ears and did not hear a word I said. The decision was made because of a staffing issue, and the staffing issue is all across Canada. It is a global issue. We are talking about health care and the fact that there are tens of thousands of doctors and nurses who are not practising in the field that they are trained in. This is something that should be addressed, yes, by the provinces, as well as the federal government.
Why are we not creating a blue seal program that allows these people to get into the trades they are trained in?
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Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a great pleasure to stand in this place. Tonight I will be speaking to Bill—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Alistair MacGregor: Mr. Speaker, I will just allow members to finish their conversations.
As I was saying, it is a great honour to stand in this place to speak on behalf of the residents of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. Today, of course, we are continuing the debate on Bill C-47, which is the implementation act for the government's recent budget.
I first of all want to acknowledge many of the challenges my constituents and many Canadians from coast to coast to coast are going through. I understand the challenges that are going on with my residents, whose incomes are not keeping pace with the general rate of inflation. I know the pain they are experiencing every time they go to the grocery store, and that is why I, as the agriculture critic for the NDP, along with my caucus colleagues, have been leading the way, not only in getting a unanimous motion passed in the House of Commons to recognize corporate greed in the grocery sector, but also in leading an investigation at the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food to study food price inflation.
I also want to acknowledge that a lot of the anger we see in Canadians when they look at the challenges they are facing has to be juxtaposed with the insane corporate profits we are seeing in so many sectors. The most galling fact of all corporate profits we can see, especially when we compare them to 2019, is in the oil and gas sector. The oil and gas sector, since 2019, has seen a 1,000% increase in its profits. In this place, I continually hear from my Conservative colleagues that Canadians should be jumping up, down and all around about the carbon tax, yet Conservatives make absolutely zero mention of how corporate profits are being raked in off the backs of Canadian families.
During our study on food price inflation, of course a lot of our focus was on grocery profits. We know Loblaws, Empire and Metro and their role. I also had the chance to ask some economists who appeared as witnesses to talk about the role corporate oil and gas profits are playing in driving up food prices, because we know that everything that arrives on grocery store shelves depends on a truck and other modes of transportation.
For a party that likes to single itself out as standing up for working people to completely ignore the elephant in the room is absolutely quite shameful, and I think it is further indication that the oil and gas companies in Canada do not need a lobby group, because they have a political party that is actively working on their behalf and not tackling the massive profits they are making.
We also know interest rates are affecting people's abilities. They are increasing the amount people have to pay on their mortgages, their credit cards and any kind of bank or car loan. These are putting real strains, and I think that with all the economic indicators that are present, our country very much is staring down the barrel of an incoming recession.
Many of these challenges existed when I was re-elected to this place in 2021, and they got worse over the 2022 year. One of the things we have to do as members of Parliament is decide how we are going to use our time and dedicate our efforts to make life better for our constituents, and one of the things that confronted New Democrats after the 2021 election, which was almost a carbon copy of the 2019 results, was how we, as a caucus of 25, could use our percentage of the seats in this place to deliver concrete results.
We can go and criticize the government, and we can keep on stoking the fires of rage that exist. I want to acknowledge that the anger out there is palpable. It is real and it needs to be acknowledged, but the way we respond to the fear, anger and concern of our constituents is not to keep on feeding it and feeding it without any tangible fixes. What we try to do is use our time here to present concrete solutions to the problems people are facing.
I am proud that our caucus of 25 MPs, over the last year and a half, has been able to do just that. We have been able to use our power and our influence in this place to course correct the Liberals on a number of fronts. I want to particularly single out the win that we had in creating Canada's first-ever national dental care program. I understand that the program is not in place. What we have right now are interim payments, but these are in place as we get the program developed.
Last year, it was for children under the age of 12. According to the most recent statistics that we have, the Canada dental benefit has already helped more than 240,000 children, right across the country, receive the oral health care that they need. That program is being expanded this year. It is now going to include children under the age of 18. It is going to include seniors, and it is going to include persons with disabilities.
Again, these are benefits going to people who often find themselves on the margins of our society. They do not have the luxury of finding extra money to go to the dentist. They are the ones who are struggling with the mortgage payments, car payments and putting groceries on the table. For them, just going to a simple check-up is a luxury they cannot afford.
Our philosophy in the NDP has always been that oral care is health care, and it has never made sense to me that one's health care coverage stops at one's tonsils. It is a significant investment because we know that, when one does not get regular check-ups, there can be serious health issues that might be missed. They might be indicators of future cardiovascular disease. They might be indicators that one has diabetes or other very serious health outcomes. If they are not intervened with in an early period, they can result in excessive costs to our health care system.
This is an example of us using our time in this place to really make a significant investment that will make people's lives better. I also want to recognize the fact that we are talking about a budget bill, and it is impossible to cover every last detail in a 10-minute speech, but for the small businesses in my riding, we have managed to get commitments from some of the major credit card companies. Merchant fees for small businesses will be lowered.
I know that for the member for Courtenay—Alberni, my neighbour on Vancouver Island, this has been an issue that he has been raising since the 42nd Parliament, when we were first elected in 2015. It is awesome to see that this is a win that we can bring back to our constituents. It is nice, also, to see that, in recognition of the extra costs many Canadians are facing at the grocery aisle, we now have the GST rebate being doubled.
It is nice to see investments being made in housing. Again, I would have to point out some of the things that we would have done differently because there is a huge deficit in the stock of available, affordable housing in Canada.
I look at my community of Langford. There are no gatekeepers in Langford. We have building projects going on everywhere. In fact, the city skyline in Langford is dotted by construction cranes. Despite all of that private-led investment and the market-driven building that is going on, we still have too many families who cannot afford a place to live. We need to make those serious investments, to make sure that people can have a safe place to put their head at night, to have safe and secure shelter.
That is nowhere more apparent than in Canada's indigenous communities. My riding of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford has a significant indigenous population. I am thinking of Cowichan tribes. Their needs are great when it comes to the housing file. I am proud that we were able to achieve a small win on behalf of indigenous people, but it is obvious that far more is needed.
This is a budget bill where we would have done a lot of things differently. However, with what is in there and what we, as a caucus of 25, were able to achieve and put in there, I am proud to send this off to the finance committee. I will be lending my support, and I am looking forward to going back to my constituents to tell them about the amazing benefits that are going to be offered through the dental care program, which we have been able to achieve.
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- Apr/27/23 7:48:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when I first elected back in 1988, I had two responsibilities. I was the party whip at the time, and I was the housing critic. Now, I say that because I want members to understand that I have a very strong passion on the issue of housing, ever since 1988.
I can tell the member that, if we take a look at the 1990s, we will find that all political parties, including the NDP, Bloc, Liberals and Conservatives, abandoned saying that the federal government had a role to play when it came to housing.
If we take a look in terms of—
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
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- Apr/27/23 7:49:13 p.m.
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Order. I would rather the member stood up to ask a question. I would love to hear it because I can only hear half of what is going on.
The hon. parliamentary secretary can back up a little bit.
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- Apr/27/23 7:49:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the point is that, during the 1990s, federal parties inside the House, all political parties, did not support the national government playing a strong role in housing. Now, for the first time, we have a Prime Minister and a government that are investing literally hundreds of millions, going into billions, of dollars into a national housing strategy, and we have a multitude of programs.
However, the federal government cannot deal with the housing solution all by itself. Provinces, municipalities and stakeholders all have to come to the table, but let us be clear, the federal government is playing a very strong leadership role. Would the member not agree that the other stakeholders equally have to come to the table if we are going to deal with the housing crisis in Canada?
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- Apr/27/23 7:50:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course there are many sectors in our society that have to play a role, but what I do not appreciate about the member's preamble to his question is his revisionist history.
We are still feeling the effects today from the great axe that Paul Martin wielded as finance minister, and to suggest that all parties were behind that is complete revisionism. The Liberals enjoyed a majority government from 1993 to the mid-2000s. They had full control over policy. They need to wear the responsibility for the mess that we are currently in. While the NDP is around, we will make sure that Canadians do not forget about that sorry history on housing.
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- Apr/27/23 7:51:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the speech tonight included the word “profits” many times. I heard the words “massive profits”, and profits were getting bashed around quite bit there. For someone who has been in business for over 25 years and has been involved in businesses that had zero profits, I know that profits are usually a good thing.
I would like to ask my colleague how we differentiate and when we differentiate between good profits and, as he keeps saying, massive and bad profits. Where do we draw the line? How do we decide on that?
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- Apr/27/23 7:51:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would throw the question back to the member. I mean, when we see one industrial sector, such as oil and gas, increase its net profits by over 1,000% since 2019, does he not see a problem in that?
I have yet to hear a Conservative stand up in this place to talk about that, and talk about how unfair it is. I mean, that is a resource that is owned by the people of Canada, the people of Alberta and the people of Saskatchewan, yet they are just standing by and letting corporate overlords walk away with it, not realizing what that natural bounty could be doing for the people in those respective provinces.
I would ask Conservatives to stand up for the people they are representing, take on corporate Canada and realize that an insane increase in profit in three short years is completely unfair, completely out of line and needs to be tackled effectively.
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- Apr/27/23 7:52:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and especially for the answer he gave the government member who suggested that all sides of the House supported the Liberal austerity of the 1990s. Not only did the Liberals completely disengage from social housing, which devastated all of Quebec and Canada, but they also made cuts to health care funding. Since them, health care systems across the country have been struggling, including in Quebec.
The same goes for the financing of social services. Since that time, things have been going badly. I suggest that my colleague read the excellent book Combatting Poverty, which shows that that austerity significantly widened the wealth gap, created huge inequalities and made Canadians much poorer. Quebec picked up the slack for a lot of things, but with half the resources. As a result, there is less poverty and a smaller wealth gap.
Here is my question. Can members imagine what would happen if we had all the necessary means at our disposal?
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Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate my colleague's interventions. I think he and I share very similar thinking on how our taxation system ultimately needs to be reformed.
I do want to say that, in Bill C-47, there are some initial good steps. It is nice to see that the alternative minimum rate is being increased from 15% to 20.5%. That is a step in the right direction, but there is so much more that needs to be done. The member is right. Let us imagine the world we would be in right now if we properly took into account those revenues and applied them to the people who need them.
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- Apr/27/23 7:54:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the people of Barrie—Innisfil, in this case, to speak about the budget. It is not lost on me that game five of the Leafs is on tonight. I understand that the score is 1-1 at the first intermission. I am pretty certain that my mom and everybody in this place are the only ones hearing me speak tonight, because many are watching the game.
With respect to the budget implementation act, it is not going to be a surprise to the other side, and certainly not a surprise to many of the constituents who voted for me, that I will not be supporting the budget. There are many reasons not to, and I am going to highlight just a few tonight, along with how the budget would directly impact the businesses and residents of Barrie—Innisfil.
The sheer magnitude of the numbers speaks volumes about a government whose spending is completely out of control. As a result of the spending, the billions of dollars of deficits and the trillions of dollars of debt being created, future generations are going to be impacted by the decisions that are made today, for many generations to come, including my children. Quite frankly, I am very concerned about their future. I am concerned about the future of many young people in my riding of Barrie—Innisfil, many of whom are becoming despondent. They are angry that they have been lied to and let down by the Prime Minister, who, in 2015, made all these promises, particularly to the younger generation. They are not now finding themselves angry or upset, but despondent, because many of them are not going to be able to afford the types of things that even their parents and grandparents have been able to enjoy. Worse yet, the burden of debt and deficit is something that this generation and future generations will pay for for a long time.
The magnitude of the numbers is just staggering. The numbers are staggering with respect to what this budget sets out, not just as current expenditures but also future expenditures. Cumulative spending for the next five years is at a record $3.1 trillion. If these numbers are to be believed, remembering that in the fall the Liberals promised a balanced budget, and if they do not add in any more spending for the rest of the term, they would add $130 billion to the debt with these projected deficits. The national debt would rise to a record $1.3 trillion, with a debt ceiling, in the Financial Administration Act, that is set at $1.8 trillion. We are rapidly approaching that debt ceiling. I know many members have spoken about this, but the Prime Minister has actually doubled the debt, more than all previous prime ministers combined, as a result of the spending. That is a scary proposition.
We often talk about the interest on the national debt because it has an impact on services that government provides. It is about $44 billion today and will rise to $50 billion in five years if the government's interest rate calculations are correct. This is a government that has not been very good at predicting interest rates. There is the famous video of when the Prime Minister was asked by Glen McGregor of CTV about the potential for rising interest rates. He had almost a stunned look on his face and suggested that interest rates are low and are going to remain low.
We have seen, I believe, eight interest rate increases over the last year, which are having a dramatic effect on affordability for people, whether it is variable-rate loans or mortgages, or mortgages coming up for renewal. We are into a three-year cycle of mortgage renewals and people are going to be awfully shocked when they renew and see how much more those mortgage interest rates are going to cost. In fact, many people are now paying more in interest and not even paying down the principal as a result of renewing, adding to the existing affordability crisis. The projection numbers in this budget are staggering.
I was supposed to make this speech on Monday, but because of some procedural things, here we are on Thursday night. The other day, in preparation for tonight, I had an opportunity to speak with my staff. As members of Parliament, as everyone knows, we are on the ground. We talk to our constituents at events we attend and we see what is happening, but when I am in Ottawa, it is really my constituency people who are receiving the phone calls and getting the emails from seniors and average, middle-class families in Barrie—Innisfil who are concerned.
I asked them what some of the messages were that people were telling them on the phone. They were very similar to what I hear when I am out in public, which is that paycheques are thinner, that people are not making as much as they once were. A lot of that has to do with increased taxation, but it also has to do with payroll tax increases, increases in the CPP and EI for example, which eat it away.
Grocery prices have doubled. Gas bills have tripled, in large part because of the carbon tax. I am going to speak about that in a second. The other thing they said is that hydro rates have gone up. All of that is adding to the affordability crisis for people in Barrie—Innisfil, not just individuals, families and households, but also businesses. We get phone calls from businesses talking about these increased costs, particularly in the agriculture sector, which forms a large part of my constituency in Innisfil. I have talked to producers and wholesalers, who are telling me about the cost of the carbon tax on their gas bills and how it is increasing their production costs. Of course, those costs are going to be passed on, through the wholesalers and producers, to the end consumers, which means that we are going to continue to see increases in grocery prices down the line.
Social agencies are struggling as well. In Innisfil, we had a tremendous, compassionate individual whose name was Troy Scott. Unfortunately, he passed away as a result of COVID. He was the local Foodland owner. After his passing, the Town of Innisfil decided it was going to honour his memory by having Troy Scott community fridges placed strategically around different areas in the municipality. This is how bad the food insecurity crisis is: As soon as those fridges are filled, they are emptied. There are people coming on a daily basis who, because of the food crisis and the fact they cannot afford to buy food, are seeking food from these fridges because it is free. We have a very benevolent community filling up those fridges, but they are being emptied just as quickly. Other social agencies are struggling. There is something structurally wrong in this country right now, a G7 country, when Canadians are feeling an affordability and inflation crunch like never before, particularly as it relates to food insecurity and housing affordability and attainability. It is a big problem that needs to be fixed.
One of the main reasons why I cannot support this is the continuation of the carbon tax that the budget implementation act calls for. We asked the government to deal with this from an affordability crisis perspective and to axe the carbon tax because of the impact it is having on Canadian families, businesses, wholesalers and producers. In 2019, the government ran on a promise of $50 a tonne. A year later, it announced that the carbon tax was going to go up to $170 a tonne by 2030. That is going to increase prices beyond what people can afford in a community like Barrie—Innisfil, with a lack of significant mass transit and connectivity from community to community. We have the GO train, which gets people to Toronto, but most people drive to work. They either drive to work within the GTA or they drive to Barrie. It is costing them money every time they fill up their car or turn on the furnace or the air conditioning in their home. That is adding to the cost of life. Groceries are being impacted by it as well. The government has said it is adding money to the pockets of people, but the PBO has countered that.
The other thing concerns Lake Simcoe. It is mentioned in this budget, but is part of a broader lakes program. We have asked for specific funding. The government, in 2019, stood at the end of Bayfield Street and promised $40 million for the Lake Simcoe fund. It has not sent a dime yet, which is another broken promise. I am not certain that Lake Simcoe is going to be a priority. I hope it is.
This budget adds a lot more pain than gain to Canadian families, particularly those I represent in Barrie—Innisfil. That is just part of the reason why I cannot support the budget.
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- Apr/27/23 8:04:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Volkswagen and the federal government, working with the province of Ontario, made this major announcement that will have such a positive, profound impact on a number of different industries in Ontario, but also beyond Ontario.
However, we have the leader of the Conservative Party, who is challenged in coming up with ideas that will make a difference and get Canadians ahead, who has come out and said that this is a bad deal. The member is from Ontario. I think he is somewhat familiar with the automobile industry and the importance of thinking forward in terms of where the future is going to be.
Does the member agree with his leader in saying that this is a bad deal for the community of St. Thomas and for Canadians, and that the federal government should not have been getting Volkswagen to agree to come to Canada?
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- Apr/27/23 8:05:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure that anybody on this side is saying that it is a bad deal. We want to know what the deal is. The government has invested $13 billion into Volkswagen, a foreign-owned company. We do not know the details of the arrangements that were made. If we are going to spend $13 billion of Canadian taxpayer money, at a minimum, we should know what that deal entails and what we are getting as a result of it.
Members will have to excuse me for being a little cynical because the government made multi-million dollar investments in a vaccine factory that is now gone. There was a very public announcement made.
We have to see the details to determine whether it is the right deal for Canadians. More importantly, they have to be open and transparent about it, which they are anything but on this deal.
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- Apr/27/23 8:06:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. We have been serving together on the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics for some time now, and I tend to really value his judgment.
I would like to ask him the following question. In his opinion, with all the experience he has, is this a good budget or a bad budget?
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- Apr/27/23 8:07:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his question.
I tried to lay out, as best I could, the reasons I cannot support the budget. There are many of them, not the least of which is the carbon tax and the disproportionate effect it has on the people and the businesses I represent in Barrie—Innisfil.
One of the things that is extremely concerning for me, which was not really in the budget, related to the Canada summer jobs program. We saw that cut by a third this year, yet we see contracts, to companies like McKinsey and others, to the tune of $21 billion in total contracts. Why are we taking away from the future and work experience that young people are getting to apply down the line, yet outsourcing and putting a priority on government contracts for friends and connected insiders of the Liberal Party?
I am really disappointed in the Canada summer jobs program and the cut in funding. I know many of those people who would benefit, particular the kids, are really disappointed.
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