So V ote

May/29/23 7:43:56 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the minister confirmed that she supports the ongoing underfunding and that she also borrowed on behalf of the provinces. This is not a gift from the federal government. The money that the federal government sent during the pandemic was borrowed money. Now there is no money for health care, but there is money for a dental plan. This is being done with the help of the federal spending power, which is the instrument of the fiscal imbalance. The federal government is going to expand this program. The Government of Quebec and the Quebec National Assembly are unanimously calling for Quebec to be given the right to opt out with full financial compensation. Will the Liberal government give Quebec the right to opt out with full financial compensation?

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Mr. Jean-Denis Garon

May/29/23 7:49:48 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, indeed, just over $25 billion in additional funding was put into EI during the crisis. That was a small portion of the $250 billion to $300 billion that the Government of Canada spent to help Canadians and Quebeckers during the pandemic. For the other programs, unlike EI, Quebeckers and Canadians have decided to stand in solidarity and band together to cover all of these pandemic-related expenses through the government's consolidated fund. In this case, the government is going to take another $25 billion out of the pockets of businesses and unemployed workers over the next seven years. Does the government not think that it should show solidarity and treat this spending as pandemic spending instead of dipping into people's pockets for the next seven years?

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Mr. Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP)

May/29/23 7:56:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, there has been a lot of debate in this place about the extent to which public spending contributes to inflation. I am wondering if the minister believes that all public spending contributes to inflation, or just certain kinds.

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May/29/23 7:57:12 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, for instance, does the minister believe that the GST rebate, which is targeted at low-income Canadians, was an inflationary spending item?

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May/29/23 7:58:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I believe that the GST rebate and the grocery rebate were spending that was necessary to give help to the people who needed it the most.

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May/29/23 7:58:51 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, whether spending is inflationary depends obviously on the macroeconomic conditions of the moment and on how the programs are designed and delivered.

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May/29/23 7:59:09 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, again, as I know the member for Elmwood—Transcona knows, everything depends on how programs are designed, and everything depends also on the macroeconomic conditions of the moment. If I talk to someone from Japan, they are keen to have inflationary spending, because they have been in a deflationary spiral for a long time.

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May/29/23 7:59:28 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, does over $30 billion in infrastructure spending risk being inflationary?

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May/29/23 7:59:55 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, infrastructure investments are important, but they can also be inflationary. Does the minister recognize that infrastructure spending can be inflationary?

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May/29/23 8:00:04 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, sure, I absolutely recognize that very many different types of spending can be inflationary or not, depending on the overall macroenvironment in a country and in the world and depending on how that spending is structured.

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May/29/23 8:00:22 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the government has been spending over $30 billion on the TMX pipeline. It has a $15-billion growth fund. Does the minister share concern that the $30 billion being spent on a pipeline is going to bid up the cost of projects that the growth fund would invest in?

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May/29/23 8:01:34 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am concerned to know if the minister thinks that the spending on TMX may well bid up the cost of other large infrastructure projects, like those foreseen for the growth fund.

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May/29/23 8:02:55 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the government is spending more than double on the TMX pipeline than it is putting into the growth fund. How much does it expect to get for the pipeline?

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May/29/23 8:07:27 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, how much money is the government spending to reclaim emergency wage subsidy dollars that were taken by companies that did not need it?

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May/29/23 8:07:49 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, well, it applies to Canadians but apparently not corporations. I will ask again, how much money is the government spending on reclaiming emergency wage subsidy dollars from companies that posted profits and paid dividends?

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May/29/23 8:08:18 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I do not know that Canadians think pretending to get money back from the poor and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain the fiction has actually anything to do with fairness or that it is a prudent financial decision. Again, how much is the government willing to spend to chase money it already knows it cannot get back?

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Mr. Jasraj Singh Hallan (Calgary Forest Lawn, CPC)

May/29/23 8:27:23 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I will split my time three ways. The finance minister said that, by exercising fiscal restraint, she would not pour fuel on the fire of inflation. She did a massive flip-flop from November and added an extra $60 billion of spending in her failed budget. Can she tell Canadian families how much that is going to cost each and every household in Canada?

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Mr. Jasraj Singh Hallan

May/29/23 8:28:10 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, can the minister please tell every Canadian household how much her extra $60 billion of spending is going to cost?

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May/29/23 8:28:21 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is a really important point because, as I was walking up here, I was shouted at, which was nothing unusual. It was some Trumpian language, saying that the PM and I should go to jail. However, one of the things that was shouted at me was “You're spending my money”—

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