44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 1, 2023 11:00AM
Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the great people of Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, who saw fit to send me here, the House of the common people, and also in my capacity as shadow minister for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. As such, my speech will focus on aspects of the budget that pertain to my role as a fisheries critic and aspects that affect the lives of those living in my riding and all the people in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The budget is a special piece of work. In six out of the seven ridings in my province, the people have no one to speak out against what the Liberal government is doing to their standard of living. The finance minister is getting a free ride from my fellow MPs back home, but not from me.
Speaking of home, the Minister of Finance took full advantage of being able to work from home, even though she did not want to afford the same luxury to those government workers who provide services to us while their government continues to fail us. The minister was working from home so much that when she came back and stood to deliver the budget, I could not remember what she looked like. I looked across the way, and I asked my colleague from Cumberland—Colchester who was over there next to the Prime Minister. She looked so familiar, but I just could not quite place her. Was she at home working on the budget, or was she using up some of the Prime Minister's frequent flyer hotel points jet-setting around the world trying to save the planet from the common people?
Whatever the case may be, she could have put a little more elbow grease into the budget, at least from the perspective of those who rely on the ocean to make a living in an industry I am sure she has heard of by now. We call it “the fishing industry”.
I did some analysis of the budget document, looking for mention of several topics, and I will reveal how many times these topics were mentioned. The first one I thought of, which is very near and dear to my heart, is pinnipeds. Members can guess how many times it was mentioned: zero. Next, it was pinniped predation. How many times was that scourge of our three oceans mentioned in the budget? It was zero.
As I kept gandering through it, I thought I might find the word “salmon” or be extra lucky and find reference to the rollout of the much-awaited and highly esteemed wild Atlantic salmon conservation strategy. How many times do members think it was mentioned? It was zero. The folks of our Pacific coast did not fare much better. I searched and searched for a reference to Pacific salmon. Of special interest to me was the Pacific salmon strategy initiative. This long-awaited and much-needed program to help restore west coast salmon was mentioned zero times.
Members may think some of these things are not high enough in priority to be mentioned in that honourable document, which the Minister of Finance burned the midnight oil to produce, but let us hang on a minute here. Let us see if some other things that fall under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard were mentioned. The Atlantic fisheries fund, a program that supports fisheries innovation, surely should be mentioned. One would think so, but the list of zero continues. There is more. Marine protected areas, small craft harbours, the Canadian Coast Guard and the national shipbuilding strategy were all mentioned zero times.
We have heard a lot of talk about the promised great expansion coming to the blue economy. Is it a pipe dream? Will the Liberal government do a bang-up job, as it did with the green economy? I heard my hon. colleague across the way mention the green economy and how well we are doing with it.
Last night, I was sitting in the airport awaiting my connection to almighty Ottawa. I was feeling curious about all things green, so I googled “lithium production in Canada”. I found that Canada has large hard rock spodumene deposits and brine-based lithium resources, but Canada's lithium production is zero.
The Liberal government, with its lofty targets to have all light vehicles sold in Canada by 2035 be powered by electricity, and given the fact that we do not mine any lithium at the moment and that mines take 10 years to build in this country, is making a mockery of the green economy. We have almost as much lithium as we have red tape. That bit right there was to temper people's expectations and their hunger for electric vehicles. The only thing worse than a banana republic with no bananas is a green banana republic with no lithium to store its coal-generated electricity in. We do not have to look far to see what a pipe dream the green economy has been.
For those wondering about the blue economy, here in Canada, and especially in Atlantic Canada, this budget is nothing but a disappointment. We can guess how many times the blue economy is mentioned in the budget document. Members should hold on to their chairs, because they are in for a shocker: The blue economy is mentioned zero times.
The Fisheries Council of Canada and the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance have identified the opportunity to double the value of our seafood production by 2040. Thirty years ago, Canada was the number one seafood producer in the world. We now sit at number eight. To double our current production from $8.5 billion to $17 billion by 2040 is no small feat. It is a growth opportunity available to few other industries in Canada, but it needs attention now, because 2040 is not far away. Every budget that, like this one, neglects this growth opportunity and reduces our chances of supplying the 7% to 9% yearly increase in demand for seafood in the world, is a failure. Can members imagine? There is increased spending in this budget, $59.5 billion over the next five years, with expectations to grow revenues without even mentioning an industry that could double its contribution to the Canadian economy.
This budget lacks in addressing economic growth opportunities in our coastal region through the blue economy, but it does not lose pace in what the Liberal government is really good at. Members know what I am talking about: increased spending with decreased results.
Last year, the promise was made to balance the budget in the next five years. Now the projection is to have a $14-billion deficit by 2027-28. The Liberal government has doubled our nation's debt since 2015. The cost to Canadians since then has been $3,000 each. Residents of my province of Newfoundland and Labrador are going to pay almost $1,000 a year over the next several years to cover the interest alone on this federal debt.
Due to the inflationary spending, the average family of four in our province is going to pay an extra $1,065 this year alone for food. The grocery credit that is being offered in this budget is simply a joke compared to what the people of Newfoundland and Labrador pay for groceries, and they know it. They also know that the federal carbon tax is going to cost them way more than they will get in the form of rebates.
The Liberals constantly refuted the fact that the carbon tax is going to cost Canadians more than they would receive in rebates. Their own environment minister finally let the cat out of the bag and agreed with the PBO. Households in my province will each pay an extra $1,650 per year in carbon tax by the time it is said and done. The finance minister could have taken real measures, like scrapping the carbon tax and reining in spending to save our people money, but she did not.
The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are hurting. This budget will cause them to hurt more. Therefore, I cannot support the NDP-Liberal coalition's budget. It is not worth the paper it is written on.
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Madam Speaker, I admire my colleague. I work with him on the fisheries committee. One thing we have heard time and time again at the fisheries committee is about the failure of the shipbuilding strategy. We have not had a trial survey of cod, capelin or many other species because the program failed. We have not had a survey of the northern cod since 2019, and that says lots about the shipbuilding strategy.
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Madam Speaker, I do not know what to think of that. That is unbelievable and disgusting. I am glad that once in a while we can agree with the Bloc members a bit. I thank them for one particular time when they did agree with us and voted for my bill, Bill C-251. I really appreciate that.
On another point, they always disagree with me on Bay du Nord, but respectfully, we all try to get along and I thank my hon. colleague for the question.
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Madam Speaker, that national dental program is nothing but washed-out election bait. Fewer than 10% of Canadians are going to be able to take advantage of that program. If they have nothing to eat, they will starve to death anyway.
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Madam Speaker, experts say that if it was not for our oil production and our gas production in Canada, our dollar would be about 35¢. I would ask my hon. colleague how much a head of lettuce would cost if our dollar was 35¢. It is bad enough now, when it is 75¢.
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