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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 218

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 21, 2023 02:00PM
  • Jun/21/23 2:26:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the leader of the official opposition were actually taking the housing crisis seriously, he would have supported our investments in that area rather than going after municipalities. Our plan involves working with the municipalities, particularly by investing $4 billion to speed up residential construction approvals and create 100,000 new homes, by tying infrastructure investment to housing, by helping Canadians save money to buy their first home, by providing support for low-income renters and by converting surplus federal lands to affordable housing. We will continue to be there to help with housing.
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  • Jun/21/23 3:02:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has the worst household debt in the G7, by far the worst, and that debt risks blowing up when rates rise. One of the ways the Prime Minister has been wasting money is that he gave $210 million to the Asian infrastructure bank, which is controlled by Beijing and designed to build the infrastructure of Beijing's Communist empire throughout Asia. We warned him five years ago and now some of that bank's own executives are speaking out against it. He claims he is stalling his involvement in the bank, but the real question is this: When will we get our $200 million back?
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  • Jun/21/23 3:02:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has long been involved in investing in infrastructure around the world because we know that it creates growth and opportunity in the global south. It continues to contribute to fighting climate change, as people are building more resilient infrastructure and indeed energy infrastructure. We are part of multilateral development banks all around the world. As the Leader of the Opposition pointed out, we are reviewing our participation in the Asian infrastructure bank, and we will make the decision that is right for Canadians.
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  • Jun/21/23 3:04:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are evaluating our continued participation in this multilateral development bank controlled by Beijing. We continue to look very carefully at how we are having a positive impact around the world with investments in infrastructure and how we are delivering for Canadians in the fight against climate change, in growth around the world that benefits Canadians and in participation in supports for the global south.
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  • Jun/21/23 3:06:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just admitted that the Asian infrastructure bank is “controlled by Beijing”. He says he is not going to get our money back. He is just going to review our participation. While Canadians cannot afford to eat, heat or house themselves, he is forcing them to give almost a quarter-billion dollars to this Beijing-backed bank. I am asking the question: Will the Prime Minister take back our $200 million from this bank, which he admits is controlled by Beijing?
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  • Jun/21/23 3:07:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we remain committed to building infrastructure around the world, particularly in emerging southern nations. We are there for investments, for roads, for power plants and other things across the south, and we will continue to be. Yes, we are in the process of reassessing our participation in this Asian investment bank. We will share our findings with Canadians when we complete the assessment.
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  • Jun/21/23 8:40:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my answer is relatively easy. There are millions of dollars of waste. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been sent to the Asian infrastructure bank. There was $50 million to MasterCard. Millions of dollars went to Loblaws. There was millions of dollars for “arrive scam”. I am confident that when the Conservative Party forms government, we will be able to put in place the savings necessary to maintain the great social safety network we have while being prudent and ensuring our prosperity for years to come. With respect to pipelines, we would have never socialized the pipeline; we would have allowed the private sector to do it. We need Canadian energy because Canadian energy is keeping our economy afloat.
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  • Jun/21/23 8:48:25 p.m.
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That extra $20 billion over two years was supposed to be invested in infrastructure. What happened when the plan met reality? They doubled their deficits and managed not to spend a single dollar on infrastructure. The Prime Minister thought he could snap his fingers and force the public service to get shovels in the ground. When that plan failed, he hired his friends at McKinsey to form a special advisory council, which recommended that the Liberals create an infrastructure bank as a way to leverage pension funds into investing in public infrastructure. In 2017, when the budget was supposed to be balanced, the Liberals announced plans for an infrastructure bank and even bigger deficits. Coincidentally, when the Liberals needed someone to run their expensive new bank, they appointed one of the members from the special advisory council, who just happened to be the head of the pension fund. At this point, Canada had taken on twice as much debt as the Liberals had promised; still, not a single new infrastructure project had been built. Coincidentally, when the fake infrastructure bank finally announced the first project it would be funding, it just so happened that the project was the very same one the head of the bank had previously lobbied for. The Liberals were so impressed that they made the head of the infrastructure bank the deputy finance minister. That would be the same deputy who oversaw this terrible budget, which commits massive subsidies to foreign tech companies and provincial electricity utilities. Coincidentally, that deputy finance minister and former infrastructure bank head has now left Ottawa to head up a provincial electricity utility. It is just truly remarkable how many coincidences pile up around Liberals and tax dollars, as when some advertising agencies all started making large donations to Liberals after receiving large contracts from the Liberals, or when the government ignored warnings about Communist interference, while former communist cabinet minister and defrocked ambassador John McCallum was encouraging the Communists to support the Liberal Party and warning them of the threat posed by a Conservative government. It is all just a coincidence. I can see from the angry faces across the aisle just how much they appreciate hearing the hard truth. I expect one will jump up shortly to ask me when I stopped beating my husband and how much I want to cut from child care and dental care. After eight years, they have become tired and predictable. The spending on child care and dental care is a tiny fraction of the government's massive deficits. The real money is spent on giant foreign corporations and provincial electricity utilities. This is all part of their green grift. This is the Telford and Butts game plan. In Ontario, they brought the Green Energy Act into force. It drove up the cost of electricity. It forced thousands of manufacturers to leave the province and destroyed 60,000 net jobs, according to the Auditor General. They used tax dollars to subsidize green energy corporations, which coincidentally were all run by well-connected Liberals. After that disaster, they packed up their taxpayer-funded moving vans and came to Ottawa to repeat the plan all over again. The federal government has been saddled with massive deficits to pay for massive subsidies to well-connected companies. Eventually, these progressive socialists will run out of other people's money, but it will be too late by then. They will have hopped on a private jet to go surfing in Tofino. Just like in 1984, Conservatives will have to come in and clean up the mess. It took 16 years of Chrétien slashing public sector payrolls to get Canada back to balance after 16 years under Pierre Trudeau. The longer it takes to throw out this costly socialist coalition, the longer it will take to clean up this mess. Conservatives have a saying: If it is not broken, do not fix it. In 2015, Canada was not broken, and we had a balanced budget. We had passport services we could rely on. Crime was continuing on a 25-year decline. However, the Prime Minister saw Canada as a racist oppressor state that needed fixing. Now our country is broken. Our social fabric is frayed, and our democracy is under attack. It does not have to be this way. Conservatives are ready to get to work. We will balance the budget, restore order and get Canada working again.
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