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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 201

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 29, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 201 - May/29/23
Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:05:17 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, what is a fact is that it took four months longer for real GDP to recover following the 2008 recession than it took following the COVID recession, even though COVID caused much deeper economic harm. We invested in Canadians, and we are proud of it because it worked.
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Mr. Adam Chambers
  • May/29/23 9:05:36 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, 52% of all of the debt issued in that time frame was for under three years. In fact, only 10% of that debt was issued with 10 years or more maturity. How is it possible that the government says its debt management strategy is fiscally responsible when at the lowest interest rates, it financed most of that debt in the short term, which is all going to roll over in the next two years?
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:06:10 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, the member opposite was a staffer during the failed Harper government that engineered a very slow recovery from the 2008 recession. It took 27 months for jobs to recover. It took only 21 months for jobs to recover following the COVID recession, which was much deeper because of the historic shock of COVID. That is because of a government that did not understand the need to invest and support Canadians. Yes, we took on—
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The Chair
  • May/29/23 9:06:44 p.m.
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The hon. member.
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Mr. Adam Chambers
  • May/29/23 9:06:46 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is obviously clear that the minister is ashamed of the government's record in choosing to issue short-term debt when rates were so low. Could the minister tell the House and Canadians what the average interest rate is that the government expects to pay on the debt that is maturing and rolling over in the next two years?
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:07:08 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the shameful record is of these Conservatives, who still have not learned the lesson of the incredibly slow and painful recovery from 2008. We learned the lesson. We knew we had to invest to support Canadians. Yes, we had to spend money to do it, but the results show it was worth it. It took 110 months—
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The Chair
  • May/29/23 9:07:34 p.m.
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The hon. member.
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Mr. Adam Chambers
  • May/29/23 9:07:35 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is very clear that the Minister of Finance does not want to stand behind her government's record and its choices in issuing debt. Here is another question. How much more will the government have to pay if inflation does not come down and interest rates do not come down, as it is projecting them to come down in its own budget, when it rolls over its debt in the next two years?
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:08:00 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, on the contrary, I am very proud to stand behind our government's record. Canada endured the deepest economic trauma since the Great Depression, and the recovery has been remarkably strong, the strongest in the G7, and incredibly strong compared to the tepid, painful, lacklustre climb out of 2008.
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Mr. Adam Chambers
  • May/29/23 9:08:25 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the minister is obviously not very proud of the government's record. She cannot even answer some very simple questions about how much the government expects to pay on the debt that it issued. Perhaps the government was also misled by the Bank of Canada, which promised Canadians that rates would stay low. The minister says that the government leads the G7 in growth. We are behind a bunch of countries in GDP per capita. The Liberals ran an entire election campaign saying that Harper had low growth. This is what we have here. In GDP per capita, we are behind many countries.
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:09:01 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the Harper government did have low growth. It had a remarkably lacklustre recovery from the 2008 recession. It took four months longer for GDP to recover from the 2008 recession than our recovery took from the COVID recession. It took 27 months for jobs to recover from the 2008 recession, but only 21 months after the much deeper COVID recession, and it was a shocking 110 months for the unemployment rate to—
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The Chair
  • May/29/23 9:09:35 p.m.
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The hon. member for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame.
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Mr. Clifford Small (Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, CPC)
  • May/29/23 9:09:37 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I thank the Minister of Finance for making an appearance here this evening. The four Atlantic premiers, including Premier Furey, a close personal friend of the Prime Minister, wrote a letter to the environment minister in the last couple of days. I would ask the minister if she knows what that letter was addressing.
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Lib.)
  • May/29/23 9:10:04 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the member opposite for the exchange we had in question period about climate action. He, perhaps inadvertently, revealed something very important about the Conservatives. He suggested that it is a guilt trip to believe that we need climate action. That says a lot about the Conservative Party's attitude toward climate—
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The Chair
  • May/29/23 9:10:34 p.m.
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The hon. member.
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Mr. Clifford Small
  • May/29/23 9:10:37 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, does the hon. minister know how much carbon tax 2 will cost Newfoundland families by 2030?
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:10:48 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, of course there is no such thing, and mislabelling something, even doing it 1,000 times, does not make it true. However, what is the case—
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The Chair
  • May/29/23 9:11:02 p.m.
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The hon. member.
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Mr. Clifford Small
  • May/29/23 9:11:03 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am not sure if the minister knows, but the answer is $850 a year, and that is according to the PBO. I would ask the minister if she has faith in the PBO.
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland
  • May/29/23 9:11:21 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I would like to ask the member opposite if he has faith in the party platform he himself ran on. That document states, “We will...progress [so]...carbon prices [can be] on a path to $170/tonne”. Was he telling the truth then or is he telling—
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