44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 27, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, it is always an honour and a privilege to be able to rise in the House of Commons on behalf of the great people from southwest Saskatchewan. I would be remiss if I did not start off by congratulating all the ranchers who have just made it through another calving season, or are at the very end of the season.
I also mention our farmers, who are about to begin their spring plant, with the spring thaw that is going on. We have a bit more moisture this year than we have had in years past. I know a lot of folks are really excited about that and are also more than happy to wait a couple of days to start. I know everyone is anxious to get in the fields back home, so I want to wish everybody a safe and happy spring planting season.
Here we are talking about budget 2023. The budget is a great opportunity for the government to take a step back, have a little self-reflection and really hone in on the needs of Canadians. That is something that has been lacking for the last number of years. Instead, we are seeing a continued coalition with the NDP, who are keeping the Liberals in power and helping them repeat scandal after scandal.
We have seen the NDP bring up some of these scandals from time to time, but at the end of the day, it is still voting for them. We know the NDP will vote for this budget because it has to. We have heard some great comments from NDP members criticizing the government. At the end of the day, it is kind of useless and meaningless because they are just going to prop the Liberals up and vote for it anyway.
The Liberals are running a government that is quick to announce massive amounts of spending without figuring out where the money is going to come from to pay for it. Most recently, we saw the government massively subsidize Volkswagen in Canada. We still do not know the upper reaches of the total compensation of the package, but we do know that it is going to be in excess of $13 billion. We still do not have a lot of information, but that is a ton of money, and it is appropriate for us to be asking a lot of questions about it.
It gets even worse. Volkswagen is the only automaking company in Canada to be charged under CEPA for violations against the environment. There were 60 counts against it. What was its reward for that? It was $13 billion of taxpayers' money. This is from a government that says it prioritizes the environment. However, the only company to actually violate the Canadian Environmental Protection Act gets massive subsidization as a reward for its behaviour.
The Liberals will go out of their way to defend all this spending. They will say they have to spend a lot of money so that we can get a bit out of it. Let us be real. There is no plan to get a complete battery industry here in Canada. We have heard many times in this place, in committee or in meetings with stakeholders, that Canada has all the resources and minerals required to have a very robust battery supply chain. However, we simply do not have the extraction and refining capacity to do what is required. To make matters worse, there is way too much red tape and over-regulation of the sector, preventing private sector investment into our country. Again, we have the raw materials to work with, but they are literally stuck in the ground.
We would think that with all the abundance of natural resources that we have, private companies would be lining up at the door to invest their money in Canada. As it stands right now, if someone does not have massive government subsidies, there is nothing being built or done in this country.
The investments of these companies would bring jobs, service companies and spinoff industries, such as restaurants and service-and-repair shops, not to mention the royalty revenue that builds our communities and invests in our rural communities. It still makes rural Canada a viable place to live.
If it were not for rural Canada, urban Canada would not have all the luxuries it enjoys. If we think of the food that is eaten, it is all grown, harvested and produced in rural Canada. There is all the lumber and building materials required to build the housing that we talk about so much in this country. Where does it come from? It comes from rural Canada. We have to prioritize the rural areas. We are not seeing that from the government.
We should also mention the opportunities that exist for the first nations people of Canada to be able to partner with these private companies, make investments and sign these partnerships. This will bring about opportunities for jobs and education for their people as well. That is missing because of government inaction.
Natural Law Energy is a company from my riding. It tried to partner with TC Energy to invest in Keystone XL, and the government chased that off. That was an opportunity for six or seven partnering first nations to have jobs and opportunities, and the government said no. That is the terrible direction that we have been heading in.
However, it is always possible to change course and direction. Budget 2023 presented the government with such an opportunity, but the government has a shocking level of disrespect for how it is handling Canadians' money.
Here is a straightforward example: On page 223 of the budget book, the Liberals have a graph showing that we will not be on track to balance the budget until 2060. How can they possibly pretend that it is a responsible plan for the national finances to be left like this if it is going to be a few decades before they even have a plan to get it back into fiscal balance? It is a complete mockery of all the people who work hard and pay taxes in this country.
How are they choosing to spend this money, the millions or billions of dollars at a time? The Liberals continue to give massive subsidies, as I mentioned earlier, to such things as a battery plant for giant companies that, quite frankly, could afford to pay for and do this on their own. However, as I said, the Liberals will also decide to spend millions and billions of dollars without worrying where that money is coming from, which is from the taxpayers and ratepayers of this country.
The Liberals' policies are preventing us from developing our natural resources across the board, but they save their worst treatment for demonizing the oil and gas sector here in Canada. In the budget, it says that the government is forecasting the price of oil to be around $82 a barrel. That is actually not too bad. At that price, if the government could choose to support the idea, Canada could balance its budget within a couple of years and not a couple of decades. The Liberals would still be able to invest in all the social programs that Canadians have grown to like, enjoy and appreciate and be able to afford to do so by supporting natural resources development in this country.
We have even had a few countries come to Canada looking for LNG, but the Prime Minister said no, that there is no business case for it. However, other countries around the world continue to beg for our resources. Instead, we are driving them off to other countries, such as Qatar. Therefore, we miss out on those opportunities to grow as a country while making the world a better place because of the high standards that we have here in Canada for human rights and for environmental protection.
I proudly represent a rural riding where we have our own way of life, and the government does not understand it. Rural Canada is far from having the majority of our population, but as I was saying earlier, we produce all the things that people in urban Canada need to have the luxuries that people enjoy there. In return, too often, the Liberal government leaves us behind and forgets about us. Sometimes, the Liberals impose things on rural areas. They will make it harder, if not impossible, to continue to live there.
Has anyone heard of the carbon tax? That is one of the biggest issues that people talk about that is driving up the cost of living in urban Canada, but predominantly in rural Canada, the place hardest hit by the carbon tax.
For right now, the Liberals have been busy talking about a so-called just transition for oil and gas and for coal, even though they are still failing to make a just transition happen, whether they are located in the Prairies or the Maritimes. That is something that we also learned from a recent audit done by the Environment Commissioner. Since then, not much has been moving. We do not even see a budget item yet for the just transition for these communities. We are only seven years away from the end date for some of these coal mines and some of these coal power plants that the government is going to force off coal, and yet the government does not even have a plan or an allocation for how to deal with that. It is shameful.
For the Liberals, it is not on their radar. I asked the minister what he planned to do with the people from coal-producing communities like Coronach and Rockglen in my riding, as well as in the Souris—Moose Mountain riding. As much as the minister tried to sound as if he would support rural areas, his answer and his examples actually suggest that rather than staying in the communities and working where they are, people are going to end up moving to other places, such as Regina, northern Saskatchewan, Calgary, Edmonton or the east coast.
The Liberal minister might think that Regina is part of the rural area, even though it is the capital city of Saskatchewan. Regina is a great place. It is a fantastic place, but that is not where the people from Rockglen, Coronach, Willow Bunch or Assiniboia want to be. They want to stay in the places where they currently are, in their communities. The government is doing absolutely nothing to make sure that happens after it has mandated away the number one industry in their communities.
I will just quickly mention that there is one thing I definitely appreciate in this budget, and that is the tax credit for tradespeople when they purchase their tools. Again, we are talking about a housing crisis in this country. How are we going to get there? We have to build houses. We need more workers. We need to incentivize people to be able to go to trade school and to want to work in these industries. That tax credit is going to help a lot of people as they enter into the trades.
The Liberals also could have supported a Conservative private member's bill, Bill C-241. It has passed this place, but the government could have been proactive and provided that in the budget. However, it did not do that. The Liberals missed an opportunity there.
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- Apr/27/23 9:51:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I heard the word “shameful”. I want to focus on that issue in terms of what is shameful. What I find shameful is that when we make historic investments, whether in housing, the environment, manufacturing or jobs, Conservative members who voted against these initiatives show up to cut ribbons and show up with a shovel for the ceremonies that are taking place in communities across Canada. What I find interesting is that we have heard consistently today that the party opposite is obviously opposed to the historic investment we have made in the Volkswagen facility in St. Thomas. Does the member know whether the member for Elgin—Middlesex—London has shared her opposition to that investment with her constituents?
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- Apr/27/23 9:52:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years, what we continue to see is the Liberals spending record amounts of money to accomplish so little. They value and rate their success by how much they spend, not by how much they have been able to accomplish. They can spend all the money they want on housing, but they have not been able to properly develop housing in this country because they cannot get out of the way to allow developers to get to doing what they do best, which is to build housing for people.
Volkswagen has a lot of money. It could invest in building this battery project without the government dumping $13 billion into it, which my great-grandkids, quite frankly, will be paying for. The Liberals are not spending their money. They are spending the money of my great-grandkids. That is whose money is at stake here. They need to remember that because without taxpayers they do not have any money to spend.
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- Apr/27/23 9:53:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to build on the previous question, if I could. I am going to give a secret away to the Canadian people. Those folks on the other side do not have any money, not a penny. That is taxpayer money. In order to give something, something has to be taken away from someone. The Liberals are taking credit for taking other people's money. That is not cool. Does the member agree?
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- Apr/27/23 9:54:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I absolutely agree. The Liberals are spending the money of future generations. I was talking in my speech about how on page 223 of the budget the Liberals are not even on track to balance the budget until 2060. I will be a grandpa. That is when they will balance this budget, when I am a grandpa. That is absolutely crazy.
We want to make sure we have a plan to develop the economy. That is why we talk so much about natural resources. Our critic from Lakeland does a fantastic job of speaking on behalf of the industry, and my colleagues from across the country do that as well. They know that when companies invest in Canada we are better positioned to be able to invest in our people and our environment, and then we are able to share our riches with the rest of the world. We do that by attracting investment and because the private sector has invested in Canada, not because the government took money away from its citizens to invest in things that are not producing great results for people.
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- Apr/27/23 9:55:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I hear Conservatives expressing concern about inflation. With what is going on at the grocery stores, where is the outrage against Loblaws, Empire and Metro? With what is happening at the gas pumps, where is the outrage against Imperial Oil and Shell, which have seen profits go up by 1,000% since 2019? When people are paying more on interest rates for their mortgages, where is the outrage against CIBC, Toronto Dominion and RBC?
For Conservatives to stand in this place and manufacture this outrage but completely ignore the insane levels of corporate profit, they are just doing a disservice to their constituents.
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- Apr/27/23 9:55:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the things that is really fascinating is that we do not see any outrage from the NDP about the record revenue the government has been bringing in because of the extra taxation. We would think with all that extra money in revenue it is bringing in the government would be able to get results with the money it is spending, but it is not. It is spending insane amounts of money and not getting anything done.
At the end of the day, we want to see businesses investing in Canada, creating jobs and creating investment. That will bring money into government coffers, but it is also going to bring more power to people's paycheques so that people can invest in the goods they want in their homes.
I just want to make one point quickly. If the member wants to talk about transparency at the grocery store, the prices should show how much carbon tax is charged on each item on the shelves. We do not see that. That is why Conservatives continue to advocate to scrap the carbon tax, because it is not marked on every good, yet it is applied to every single good and is paid by every single person multiple times over.
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Madam Speaker, we often talk about budgets as if we are just talking about money, as if it is just a spreadsheet full of cash, but we have to take a step back and ask where that money came from and why it is being spent. The answer to that, of course, is people. The money came from people and is supposedly being spent in support of people. Interestingly enough, it is the same people who pay in as benefit.
When we talk about this, we are talking about the nation of Canada. We are talking about the people who call this place home. The government is entrusted to take their money and spend it on their behalf for things that are supposedly supposed to benefit them, so let us talk about the people.
When I think about the budget, I think about Raelene, one of my constituents. She goes to the University of Lethbridge. She studies really hard, takes a full-course load and works a part-time job. She is optimistic about her future because she is confident in herself. She is confident in her skills and abilities and in her work ethic, but when she thinks about her future in terms of finding a job or being able to purchase a home, she begins to have doubts, because the government has done little to nothing to remove the gatekeepers or to bring down the cost of living that would prevent her from being able to buy that first home.
I think about John, who is a local beef producer in my riding of Lethbridge. He lives in the county and operates with his sons. He hopes to pass his business down to his family and, in the meantime, is looking to not only make ends meet, but hopefully generate a bit of a profit and be able to provide jobs. That is not to mention that he is producing food not only for our area but for the world. When I think about John, I think about the red tape that has been put in place and the language that is used against him as a farmer. I think about the carbon tax and the implications that it has on him and his business. I think about the overall lack of gratitude and the misconceptions that are put toward him.
I think about Tannis. Tannis is a mom to two young children. Tannis just started a new business in the last few months and she is hoping to make a go of it, but she recognizes that the input costs are only going up. She wonders whether or not it is feasible to keep going, but she still dreams of big things and has a fantastic work ethic. She will continue to work hard and hopefully she will make a go of it, but she is worried. She is worried about affordability issues, whether it is putting gas in her car, being able to heat her home or being able to put groceries on the table for her family.
I think about James. James wrote to me with regard to Bill C-11. He is a digital first creator. He wonders about his future and whether or not he can make a go of it. He knows that under Bill C-11, the government is going to look to control what people can see and hear and post online. He knows that this is censorship, that it is a far overreach of the government. James is worried about his future because the government is, in effect, building a firewall around him and preventing him from being able to reach the global audience that he hopes to reach. James wonders about his future.
I think about Marj and John, an elderly couple who came into my constituency office not too long ago with their heating bill in their hands and tears coming down their faces. The image will forever be in my mind. Why? Because Marj and John are people, people who are trying to make ends meet on a fixed income. Marj and John are having to make a choice between filling their prescriptions, heating their home or eating proper meals. That is not a choice someone in their late seventies should have to make when they are supposedly supposed to be enjoying their golden years.
I think about Allan. Allan is a law-abiding firearms owner in my riding who enjoys hunting with his buddies. He enjoys putting deer in his freezer to be able to feed his family and maybe being able to share an elk steak with friends. I think about him and his responsible use of his rifle, and then I think about the government demonizing him, as if he is the criminal. Meanwhile, the government turns a blind eye to our borders and very basic security. I think about the fact that crime has gone up by 32% since the Liberals took government. I think about the fact that street gang murders have gone up by 92%, and yet Allan is the one being treated like a criminal.
These are just a very few of the people and faces that I think about when I consider this budget and its implications for Canada.
Budgets are about people. They are not about a spreadsheet. They are not about a number. They are not about a percentage. They are not about debt. They are not about GDP. Yes, all of those factor in, but at the end of the day, the budget is about people. It is about whether the government understands what is required to support the people of this country.
Imagine we have this wad of cash in our right pocket and someone comes along and takes it out and puts a few nickels and dimes into our left pocket, and they expect to be applauded as if they have just done us a favour when in actuality we are far worse off. Budget 2023 feels a little like that. It feels like the government is wanting accolades for taking a wad of cash out of the pockets of Canadians and replacing it with a few nickels and dimes, as if it has done the Canadian population a big favour.
Meanwhile, the affordability crisis continues. Meanwhile, the housing crisis continues. Meanwhile, crime continues to skyrocket. Meanwhile, business investment is being driven out of our country, yet the government stands back and says, “Applaud us. Look how well we have done.”
The government forgets where that money came from. It forgets it took it out of the right pocket to put it into the left pocket. Of course, not all of it went back into the left pocket; only a few nickels and dimes did. The government forgets the people who entrusted it to govern. In doing that, it has lost sight of the most important things.
In this budget, Canadians were looking for lower taxes. In this budget, Canadians were looking for spending to be reined in. In this budget, Canadians were looking for effective measures around housing prices and affordability. That is what Canadians were looking for in this budget.
Instead, what Canadians received was a government that decided to pour gasoline on a fire, and that fire is called inflation. We already have the highest rates of inflation in 40 years. That has to do with our Prime Minister and the fact he made the determination to incur more debt than every other prime minister combined. In all of Canada's history, all debt combined, our Prime Minister, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, managed to spend more, and so inflation continues to rise. As inflation rises, so does the cost of living, and as the cost of living rises, Canadians become less and less hopeful.
The government likes to brag about its grocery rebate. I suppose some might call it the sexy item of the budget. It is the thing the government was hoping would save it and Canadians would applaud the government for. Again, take a big wad of cash out of one pocket and put a few nickels and dimes into another. “Applaud us, applaud us,” the government says.
Let us talk about the grocery rebate, shall we? Let us talk about the fact that because of inflationary measures groceries are going up by about $1,100 per family this year. Let us talk about that grocery rebate and the fact it is less than $500 for that same family. Do the math. The government is making decisions that is driving up the cost by $1,100 and giving $500. Are Canadian families better off? Absolutely not.
“Applaud us, applaud us,” the government says. “Send accolades our way,” it says, while it takes the wad of cash from the right pocket and puts a few nickels and dimes in the left.
What the government does not understand is a healthy economy, where people are working, thriving and contributing, cannot be replaced with government spending. Canadians deserve so much more. They are the problem solvers, the solution makers and the wealth generators this country needs, and they are the ones—
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- Apr/27/23 10:07:19 p.m.
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Questions and comments, the hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- Apr/27/23 10:07:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, where I agree with the member is that budgets are about people. For example, the grocery rebate is going to assist 11 million Canadians. The dental program has already provided benefits to close to a quarter of a million children under the age of 12, and now it is going to be expanded to include seniors. In many different ways, this budget is all about people, yet we find that the Conservative Party does not want to support people. In fact, we knew how the member was going to vote before the budget was presented, because the leader of the Conservative Party indicated that the Conservative caucus would be voting against the budget. I am wondering if she could explain why it is that the Conservative Party does not support the people of Canada.
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- Apr/27/23 10:08:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, what I am hearing the member saying is that we should applaud the Liberals while they take a wad of cash out of the right pocket and put a few nickels and dimes into the left pocket. They call that support. They call that being for the people.
What is interesting to me about the government is that its measure of success is the number of dollars it spends. It forgets where those dollars came from. They came through taxation because government never has money of its own; it can only take it from the people. Meanwhile, the government applauds itself because it is really good at spending and it likes to use that as its metric, so it spends on this and spends on that, and say to the Canadian public, “Please applaud us.” What is accomplished with that money? What does the government accomplish with all of its spending? Nothing, zero, is what it accomplished. That is the measure that Canadians shall use to know whether the government has been and is effective.
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- Apr/27/23 10:09:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I just have a question about what the Conservatives believe is the right way forward with respect to the dental care plan. When we look at the fact that a quarter of a million children have received benefits from this and the fact that this year we are now going to expand it to seniors, to persons with disabilities and children under the age of 18, will the Conservatives commit to keeping this program in place, or are they going to go back to the status quo that used to exist, where low-income families with no insurance coverage basically had to fend for themselves and it was the law of the jungle with respect to their oral health?
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- Apr/27/23 10:10:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would remind the hon. member where all the money comes from, which, once again, is the Canadian people. I would also remind the hon. member that there is nothing about the supposed dental program that requires the money to be used on dentistry. It is actually just a cheque that gets written should someone want it, so I would have a question for the member with respect to accountability and whether it is actually accomplishing what he wants it to accomplish, or whether it is just cash being piped out. Again, I would remind him that money does not grow on trees. I would also remind the member that the government has no way of generating money of its own. It has only the money that it takes through taxation, so to take a wad of cash from the right pocket and put a few nickels and dimes into the left pocket is absolutely atrocious and never praiseworthy.
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- Apr/27/23 10:11:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the late congressman Tip O'Neill said once that all politics is local politics. That is exactly what we heard in that fantastic speech from my colleague from Lethbridge, giving examples of real people with real problems created by the Liberal government. May I ask the member for Lethbridge to explain to us the impact of the Liberal carbon tax on the farmers in her riding?
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- Apr/27/23 10:11:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have the privilege of representing a fantastic riding where there is a small urban centre and an incredible rural area around it. My constituents are hard-working men and women who are growing food and raising animals in order to feed not only our nation but also the entire world. Unfortunately, there are a few things that the government has done against them. First, it has used language that is incredibly demonizing. Second, it has applied a carbon tax to them, which has driven up their costs. Third, it has put in a slew of red tape, including around fertilizer. It is absolutely atrocious.
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- Apr/27/23 10:12:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, today we are talking about budget 2023, the budget that the Minister of Finance had signalled would be a budget of restraint. Let us take a look at what “restraint” means for our Minister of Finance. This is what it means: $63 billion in new spending. That does not look much like restraint. To put it into a number that people can understand, that works out to about $4,300 per average Canadian family, and I do not think that is what the average Canadian family identifies as being restraint.
The Minister of Finance will tell us that this spending is coming at a time when most of the prepandemic jobs have returned and most Canadians are working. I agree. Unemployment is down to 5%. I think most economists would call that full employment, and that is good news, of course. When people are working, they are paying taxes, and when they are paying taxes, the government is receiving revenue. Therefore, one might think that it is circumstances like these that would present the government with an opportunity to present a balanced budget, or maybe even a surplus budget, to pay off some of that extraordinary national debt we accrued during the COVID pandemic years.
However, if that is what members are looking for, they will be disappointed, because that is wrong. What we have here is another deficit budget, to the tune of $40 billion. Even in times of full employment and good government revenues, the government is still making no effort to balance the budget. So much for restraint; it was nothing but empty words.
When we are talking about the economy, a logical question is whether we can trust the Prime Minister to deliver on his commitments, so let us take a look at his track record. In 2015, when he was the leader of one of the opposition parties and was vying to become the Prime Minister, he promised the Canadian people that, if he became Prime Minister, he would have some small to medium deficits for three years, but in year four of his mandate, 2019, he would deliver a balanced budget. We got the deficits and we got the debt, but we did not get the balance. What we did get was a new concept in economic theory presented by our Prime Minister, which was that we should not worry about the deficit, because budgets balance themselves. He has never explained what that meant. It is still a mystery to us. Maybe it will be in his soon-to-be-released memoirs. I am looking forward to it.
The same Prime Minister also said that, with an extra $20 billion a year in the civil service, his government would be able to deliver better services that Canadians need and rely on. We got the spending, but we did not get the services. What we did get was a very unhappy public service, which is now on strike. There are 155,000 public service workers on strike, fighting for better wages that keep up with the inflation that the government's inflationary spending has caused. The Prime Minister also said that he could build the Trans Mountain pipeline for $7 billion. This is after he scared away private investment money that was quite happy to build a pipeline, but the investors abandoned ship and the Prime Minister had no choice but to pick up the pieces, and the latest estimated cost for completing the project is now at $30 billion.
Therefore, no, we cannot trust the Prime Minister on his commitments. Once again, this year, the Prime Minister gets an A for announcements and an F on delivery.
We cannot separate talking about the 2023 budget from talking about inflation, which is at a 40-year high. People are struggling to pay their bills. Food prices are up over 10%, and one in five Canadians is skipping meals. There are 1.5 million Canadians who are regular food bank users. The average rental rates stand at roughly $2,200 a month, and the average mortgage payments are now at $3,300 a month. These numbers are about twice what they were when the Prime Minister took office eight years ago.
These are not just numbers thrown around by economists; these numbers represent people's lives and the pain people suffer. This is especially true for our young Canadians who are just getting started. Nine out of 10 people under the age of 25 believe that they will never own a house. This has always been the Canadian dream, but it is disappearing. Inflation is also particularly tough on seniors who are on fixed incomes. They cannot go on strike for inflation-adjusted wages.
However, inflation also affects what government can and cannot do. We have an accumulated debt now of over $1.2 trillion, and it is growing, to the tune of $40 billion this year, and that debt needs to be serviced, just like the family mortgage does. As the Bank of Canada hikes up interest rates to combat inflation, the government's mortgage payments go up as well, to about $43 billion this year. That is money that goes to wealthy bondholders and, consequently, is not available for government programs, like dental care, for example.
The government may think that it does not have to worry about deficits, and we are still waiting for the Prime Minister to explain that economic theory. Maybe he does not think that this is a danger, and maybe we will continue with deficit budgets into the future. The inflationary cycle continues.
However, there is hope. A Conservative government would turn all this hurt into hope. It would ensure that Canada's economy works for those who do the work. A Conservative government would demonstrate with actions, not just with words, that future generations, young people and immigrants can realistically hope for a secure future. We would bring common sense back into the budgeting process to ensure that taxpayers get value for their money.
I want to turn back to comments that the Minister of Finance made about a year ago, in relation to the 2022 budget she presented. At that time, she adopted a fiscal anchor: maintain a GDP ratio at a manageable level and keep it shrinking. She noted that our debt-to-GDP ratio is not worse than that of other nations. It is a pretty soft compliment to say that we are not as bad as other people, but she also noted that Canada has a fundamental economic problem: lagging productivity metrics when compared to our major trading partners.
It is a well-known fact that, for every dollar that an American worker pumps into their economy, their Canadian counterpart contributes about 67¢ to our economy. This does not mean that we are not working as hard as Americans; we are probably working harder than they are, but our economy is just not as productive. We do not have the tools, we do not have the scaled-up companies and the efficiencies that go with that, and we have too many gatekeepers. This is not what the Minister of Finance said; this is what our leader has been saying. We have too many gatekeepers, who are getting in the way of productive Canadians and money that is looking for a good place to be invested. They are scaring investment away.
However, the Minister of Finance does acknowledge, at least, that we have a productivity problem. She calls it Canada's Achilles heel. Her predecessor, Bill Morneau, agrees. In his recently published book, he noted his frustration with his boss, the Prime Minister, over his not being interested in economic and fiscal policies and the real challenges that face Canada's economy. Mr. Morneau says of his former boss, the current Prime Minister, “So much time and energy was spent on finding ways to redistribute Canada's wealth that there was little attention given to the importance of increasing our collective prosperity—let alone developing a disciplined way of thinking and acting on the problem”.
When we think about the national debt, it is not sufficient to talk just about the debt-to-GDP ratio. We also need to look at our collective ability as a national economy to create the wealth that will service that debt, that will eventually pay down that debt, to secure Canada's future for future generations. Canada's abilities in that regard are severely challenged due to the Prime Minister's mismanagement of our economy. It is time for a Conservative government to take over the keys and fix what the Prime Minister has broken.
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- Apr/27/23 10:22:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we hear the Conservatives talk in terms of an inflationary budget. What I would like to bring to the member's attention is the fact, which I know he knows, that there was a worldwide situation caused in part by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Inflation rates all over the world have been going up. However, if we compare Canada to the rest of the world, including the U.S. and Germany and many other European countries, Canada's inflation was actually lower than in those nations. Today, after this budget, we have actually seen a decrease in Canada's inflation. Does the member not agree that the Conservatives are being somewhat disingenuous and misrepresenting what the budget actually is? What it is not is an inflationary budget.
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- Apr/27/23 10:22:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on this side of the House, we were pointing out early on, during the pandemic debates about the economy, that inflation was a real threat. The Minister of Finance said, well, no, it is not, that deflation is the bigger threat and that, as a matter of fact, it would be irresponsible for the government not to engage in deficit spending because, after all, money is free or almost free and it would be ridiculous and irresponsible not to spend.
The member for Carleton pointed out time and time again that inflation was a real risk and that there were not new rules for the economy. The economy was functioning on the same rules then as it does now. Inflation needs to be managed, and the government plays a very important role in that.
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- Apr/27/23 10:23:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague, who I appreciate a lot, mentioned the hard-working public servants who are part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. We see them across the length and breadth of the country working hard every day on behalf of Canadians.
We have seen, sadly, from studies that came out just a few days ago, that they really have not had a wage increase since the beginning of the Harper regime, which is nearly 15 years ago. They are still earning the same wages, comparatively, as they did then if we take into account inflation. What they are asking for is very reasonable, but I have yet to see the member for Carleton or any member of the Conservative caucus join in solidarity with those hard-working public servants.
I contrast that vividly with when the convoy took over downtown Ottawa and caused such misery. Families were cut off from being able to sleep, seniors were cut off from their groceries, people with disabilities were cut off from their medications and Conservative MPs were all over that.
The public service and public servants need the support of all members of Parliament. Why have the Conservatives not joined those public servants?
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- Apr/27/23 10:25:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the fact that public service workers feel they have to go on strike to fight for inflation-adjusted wages just goes to show us the insidious harm that inflation can inflict on the people of Canada. That is why it is so important that the government manage the economy in a way that is going to bring inflation down.
It is no answer to say that, well, every other country in the world has a problem too. We are talking to our Prime Minister. We are talking to our government. It is their problem to fix. If they cannot do it, we will happily do it for them.
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