SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 313 - May/10/24

Hon. Pascale St-Onge (Minister of Canadian Heritage, Lib.)

May/10/24 12:21:08 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-69

Mr. Speaker, an agreement could not be reached under the provisions of Standing Order 78(1) or 78(2) with respect to the second reading stage of Bill C‑69, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 16, 2024. Under the provisions of Standing Order 78(3), I give notice that a minister of the Crown will propose at the next sitting a motion to allot a specific number of days or hours for the consideration and disposal of proceedings at the said stage.

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Hon. Pascale St-Onge (Minister of Canadian Heritage, Lib.)

May/10/24 12:22:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I request that the ordinary hour of daily adjournment of the next sitting be 12 midnight, pursuant to an order made on Wednesday, February 28.

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The Acting Speaker (Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie)

May/10/24 12:22:09 p.m.
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Pursuant to an order made Wednesday, February 28, the minister's request to extend the said sitting is deemed adopted.

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Hon. Pascale St-Onge (Minister of Canadian Heritage, Lib.)

May/10/24 12:22:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, with respect to consideration of Government Business No. 39, at the next sitting of the House, a minister of the Crown shall move, pursuant to Standing Order 57, that debate be not further adjourned.

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Ms. Lori Idlout (Nunavut, NDP)

May/10/24 12:22:38 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I do appreciate some of the member's stories that he shared with the health issues in his family. Unfortunately, with the debate on this issue lately, there has been one huge gaping gap when we are talking about health. I wonder if the member can describe for us what the challenges are with the fall economic statement and what was announced in the budget, and what is happening to ensure that indigenous health issues are addressed. They did not seem to be present in the budget.

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Mr. Chandra Arya (Nepean, Lib.)

May/10/24 12:23:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have been focusing on indigenous people's health, their economic security and their requirements since we came to power and over the last nine years. We have taken so many measures that we cannot explain it all, but in this recent budget we have brought in one particular program that I am really proud of, the indigenous loan guarantee program. The economic empowerment of indigenous people leads not just to their economic prosperity but also the additional benefits of having good health and a good society.

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Mr. Greg McLean (Calgary Centre, CPC)

May/10/24 12:24:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the speech from my colleague over there, but can he tell me how his government is getting control of the agenda? In the same week, we are addressing the fall economic statement, something that was delivered in the House six months ago, and we are also debating the budget implementation act for a budget that was delivered three weeks ago. Canadians are a little confused about the legislation being put forward by the government. It suggests what it is going to do, and then it has been taking a long time to put it into actual legislation. This budget implementation act, which was tabled this week, had a whole bunch of legislation from the fall economic statement. This is all very opaque. Can the member tell us when the government is going to get control of the agenda and actually start moving at a pace that Canadians can understand?

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Mr. Chandra Arya

May/10/24 12:25:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the legislative agenda sometimes moves at its own pace, but the key thing is that the measures we have taken since the last fall economic statement and the budget that we announced have already started yielding results. Today, Statistics Canada came out with a report that shows a gain of 60,000 jobs against an expected gain of just 20,000 jobs. The unemployment rate has actually remained steady at 6.1%. As I have been saying for the last 11 to 12 months, the interest rate will start getting reversed about the middle of this year. The Bank of Canada has already indicated that inflation is coming down. I think it is around 2.9%. It is within the Bank of Canada's range. With the economy showing progress, we have achieved a soft landing, which many predicted would not happen. Rather, many had predicted that we would go into a recession, which has not happened. It does not matter when it is getting implemented. The effects of our measures have already started yielding results.

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Ms. Lori Idlout

May/10/24 12:26:45 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, by the time the fall economic statement was presented in November, it was already well known that there was a major first nations, Inuit and Métis infrastructure gap. For first nations only, that gap was reported at $350 billion. It is so unfortunate that the government continues to ignore the plight of indigenous peoples. I wonder if the member can share with the House how he will make sure that indigenous peoples' needs are being met through important announcements like the fall economic statement and the budgets that are later presented.

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Mr. Chandra Arya

May/10/24 12:27:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have made tremendous investments in infrastructure compared to any other government that was in power before we were elected. Obviously, the infrastructure requirements of first nations are important and they, too, are being addressed.

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Mr. Jamil Jivani (Durham, CPC)

May/10/24 12:27:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today in opposition to the Liberal budget. I am confounded by the fact that it has been called “building a strong economy that works for everyone” when the economy is neither strong nor working for everyone. That should be quite obvious to anyone paying attention. In the spirit of my former colleague at the National Post, Rex Murphy, I would like to take some time to speak to the concerns of everyday hard-working Canadians to try to help make sense of how a government can call a budget, at this time and in this economy, strong and working for everyone. I have been in Ottawa now for just over a month. I was sworn in as a member of the House in April. One of my key observations is that we have a Liberal government that is living in an alternate reality from the one I lived in before I was in politics and the one I cling desperately to every time I am here. It seems as though, in this economy, we have Liberal elites experiencing one thing and everybody else experiencing something else. There are some things I would like to share with the Canadian people that I have observed since April when I was sworn in. For the last two weeks, I have heard the Liberal member of Parliament for Whitby defend high grocery bills and make excuses for the fact that it is very expensive for families to purchase the food they need, never mind the healthy food they need. Earlier today, he went on and on about that. Last week, he said, “Mr. Speaker, I know that the member opposite feels that grocery prices are too high, and they have been, certainly. However, the CPI index has shown that food prices are stabilizing in our economy, which is good news for Canadians.” I would like to point out the obvious. Canadians listening to me right now might be asking if it is good that high grocery costs are stabilizing and if the objective of the government should not be to bring down the costs since they are so high. This is a good window into the kind of thinking going on. This is what I mean when I say we have an economy for Liberal elites and one for everybody else. Let us continue exploring this. The day before the Liberal MP for Whitby made the comment that grocery prices are stabilizing, despite being obscenely high, a new food bank opened in Whitby. In his riding, the day before he said in Ottawa that things are going great and he has good news for Canadians, a new food bank opened up down the street from his constituency office. This is an alternate reality. The Liberals are creating some kind of bizarre picture of what is going on in this country, and people deserve to know that. They are saying how dare the Liberals produce a budget and call it “building a strong economy that works for everyone”. Let me share some more observations from what I have seen since coming to Ottawa last month. Yesterday, across the street at the housing committee, Trudeau's housing minister, the member for Central Nova, said something that I had to ask him to repeat just so I could confirm it was even true because I was shocked. I thought I must have misheard him, but no, I heard him correctly. He said that the Liberal government's national housing strategy has exceeded its objectives. How is that possible? How is it possible that in this economy, they are running around Ottawa saying they have exceeded their objectives?

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Mrs. Sherry Romanado

May/10/24 12:32:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I know the member opposite is new, but I would remind him that he is not allowed to use the names of members in the chamber.

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The Acting Speaker (Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie)

May/10/24 12:32:28 p.m.
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The hon. member knows that members' names cannot be used. Rather, they must be referred to by their riding name or title. The hon. member has a little over five minutes to finish his speech.

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Mr. Jamil Jivani

May/10/24 12:32:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I understand the Liberal government is very sensitive when people draw attention to its numerous failings. The Prime Minister's housing minister, across the street, said that his national housing strategy has exceeded its objectives. Maybe the Liberal member opposite is confused as to how he could have said such a thing, but he did. It was on video. He said it to put a positive spin on policies that are obviously failing the people of Canada. While the housing minister is sitting in Ottawa saying that his national housing strategy has exceeded its objectives, in my home community of Durham, the Clarington Municipal Council voted unanimously, calling for urgent action from the federal government and homelessness. In my home community of Durham, just like in many others across this country, there is a growing crisis of people without homes. Consequently, we have a growing crisis of homeless encampments being established so people have somewhere to sleep at night. We are concerned in Clarington about this problem, but we are also concerned because we have seen in our neighbouring community of Oshawa a similar challenge. While the Prime Minister's housing minister is sitting in Ottawa trying to put a positive spin on the government's failed national housing strategy, there was a homeless encampment in Oshawa on fire. Smoke could be seen all across Durham region. In fact, one could see that smoke from Whitby. Maybe some of the Liberal members should be talking to each other about what is going on. Why do we have a growing homelessness problem in Durham? Why are there a growing number of our brothers, sisters, friends and neighbours having a hard time finding an affordable place to live? It is obviously a complicated problem, but one of the contributing factors is that the cost of housing in Toronto, just to the west of us, is skyrocketing to an outrageous degree. I know my friends in Toronto have had a hard time the last couple of weeks. We had to see the Leafs lose. We had to see Drake get trounced by Kendrick Lamar. Now we can go on to see ad listings for housing in Toronto. At the end April, I saw a bunk bed in Toronto for $600 a month. It is not even a full bed. One has somebody sleeping above them, for $600 a month. The listing said that eight or 10 people maximum could fit in that studio apartment in Toronto, and for $600 a month, one does not get hot water, heating, air conditioning, a smoke alarm or a carbon monoxide detector. These ads show the desperate situation in Toronto that many young people are in. This is the disconnect. It is why I say that, in this economy, there are Liberal elites and everybody else. What the Liberals have produced is an obscene situation, where they can come here to Ottawa, put their high-deficit and high-tax budgets forward and claim to be doing good things for people, and meanwhile, every time we go home, we see the consequences of what they are doing here. The last and probably most egregious example is one my buddy Rex Murphy, may he rest in peace, used to write about quite a bit. He used to write extensively about the carbon tax and how it is an exemplary policy of Liberal elitism and bizarre ideology in action. I sit in this chair every day, and I hear Liberals telling us that the carbon tax is helping people, that people are getting more money back and that it is good for our economy, yet I go home to Durham and I hear and see the complete opposite. I knocked on many doors in the by-election campaign before I came here, and one of the recurring themes was the carbon tax. I would go to a family farm and they would produce a tax bill, just like the one that I have in my hand right now, and I would see that family farms are paying thousands and thousands of dollars in carbon taxes and then being charged a tax on top of what they are paying for the carbon tax. That would then increase the cost of food for us in Oshawa, Curtis and Bowmanville. We could see within our own local community how the carbon tax is making it harder and harder for people to pay their bills. When the Liberal government comes here to say that this carbon tax is good for us and good for our economy, that we should continue to pay more taxes and the cost of everything goes up to fill their coffers, it is just the latest example of Liberal elites and everybody else.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)

May/10/24 12:38:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the issue of the carbon tax, I would like to hear what the member's thoughts are specifically as they relate to the over 400 Canadian economists who have signed an open letter stating that more people get back more than they pay, confirming what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said. They state that it is good environmental policy and, most importantly, good economic policy, which one would think the party that purports itself to be the champion of running an economy would agree with. Is the member then suggesting that those 400 Canadian economists are just Liberal elites? Maybe he is, and that is fine, but can he confirm that?

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Mr. Jamil Jivani

May/10/24 12:38:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is what I mean when I say Liberal elites and everybody else. These guys want me to stand here and listen to them quote their buddies from the universities instead of listening to what people on the ground across this country, everyday hard-working families, are experiencing under their rulership. This is exactly what I am talking about. They disregard the evidence from everyday people, who are struggling today, and they want to say, “Well, my friend with a Ph.D. said everything's all right.” Well, I am not here to represent their buddies with a Ph.D. I am here to represent people who are lined up in grocery stores, people who are concerned about making mortgage payments and rental payments after these guys have doubled them. It is also interesting that, earlier today in the debate, their friend, the Liberal MP from Whitby, was quoting Warren Buffett, as though he is an authority on whether we are having a good experience or not. I might need to go back and ask Warren what he thinks.

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Ms. Monique Pauzé (Repentigny, BQ)

May/10/24 12:40:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the commissioner of the environment appeared before the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development yesterday. He has a different perspective with respect to homes and mortgages. Here is an excerpt from his presentation: ...a major lender recently announced that it would no longer accept new mortgages for homes in high-risk flood zones. The consequences of such decisions on the value of residential housing, which for many households is the main asset, could prove quite dire. Although the Conservative Party is always focused on the carbon tax or on what is happening with the environment, it never comes up with any solutions for people who are dealing with floods, droughts and deteriorating health.

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Mr. Jamil Jivani

May/10/24 12:41:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I think our colleague has conflated a couple of things. The carbon tax is not an environmental plan. The carbon tax is a tax plan. We have advocated for, and I am very proud to say this because the riding I represent, Durham, is home to a fantastic nuclear energy facility, is technology and not taxes to respond to environmental concerns across this country. The idea that the carbon tax is somehow going to address the hon. member's concerns seems completely misguided to me, and the idea that middle-class families have to pay more for groceries at the grocery store to respond to these environmental concerns seems like a completely backwards connection between the decisions made in Ottawa and the consequences at home.

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Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

May/10/24 12:42:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we see that corporate landlords are increasing renovictions. Rents are being increased, and corporate landlords are swooping in and buying up affordable homes. However, I do not hear from the Conservatives often about the importance of having rent protections in place. Could the member please share the Conservative stance on making sure that people have an affordable place to live?

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Mr. Jamil Jivani

May/10/24 12:42:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I share the member's concerns about big corporations buying up a bunch of residential properties, being able to control the cost of rents and whether middle-class families can afford a house in this country. The thing I would draw her attention to is that the NDP's partner in the government, the Liberal Party, just approved a merger of Blackstone to purchase Tricon, which would allow an American company to control an insane amount of residential property in Canada.

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