House Hansard - 323

44th Parl. 1st Sess.

June 3, 2024 11:00AM

Mr. Philip Lawrence (Northumberland—Peterborough South, CPC)

Jun/3/24 2:10:47 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, Bill Morneau, John Manley, David Dodge and even future Liberal leader Mark Carney all agree that our lack of economic growth is making Canadians poorer, and things just got worse. Statistics Canada revised Canada's GDP growth for Q4 from 1.0 to 0.1. Further, our GDP per capita fell again 0.7%, marking the eighth quarter of decline. While Canada is just barely avoiding a technical recession, Canadians themselves have been in the longest recession since the Great Depression. Canada's stagnating economy is having a devastating impact on Canadians. Food banks are overwhelmed. Students are living under bridges, and workers are living out of their cars. There is no denying it: After nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, it is not worth the cost.

130 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

Context: House Hansard - 323 - Jun/3/24

Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity, Lib.)

Jun/3/24 9:17:22 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is always nice to be in the House in the evening with my colleague from Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon. I thank him for the opportunity for an adjournment debate on this important issue. Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy, and over the last four or five years, business owners have had a really challenging environment to operate in. Depending on what sector and where they are located, the pandemic has had an outsized impact on a lot of small businesses. However, throughout that tumultuous period, our government was there for small business owners. We paid much of their salaries, and we paid a lot of that rent. We kicked in wherever we could. We provided CEBA loans, and we kept the Canadian economy afloat. We took on some debt so that the business owners would not have to and the result is that, over the last two years, the recession that so many economists, pundits and op-ed writers indicated was on the horizon in Canada has been avoided. It is really worth pointing out that, despite all the gloomy talk of the Conservative Party of Canada, Canada's economy is doing very well compared to our colleagues in the G7 or our partner countries. It is always easy to find a statistic to point out that it is bad here or it is bad there, but overall, Canada's wage growth has caught up to inflation, which is excellent news for workers. We have seen more than one million, the last figure being 1.3 million, new jobs compared to before the pandemic. The member was talking about inflation and accusing this government of contributing to that inflation. He does not really give our government or the institution across the road, the Bank of Canada, too much credit for that inflation coming down. In the last 20 months consecutively, it has come down to a more reasonable rate of somewhere between 2.3% and 2.7%, which is getting really close to the Bank of Canada's target rate of 2%. We are getting there as a country. I am not taking credit, as a member of this side. I want to give credit to Canadian workers, to Canadian innovators, to Canadian small business owners and to people who worked so hard during the pandemic and who took advantage of some of those government programs, which they were entitled to. They have continued to fight through the headwinds. The reason we are not in a recession now, in June 2024, is because of their hard work and ingenuity. As the member rightly pointed out, budget 2024 proposes to invest $2.5 billion to support 600,000 businesses across Canada. For context, the CEBA loans supported Canadian businesses with upward of $45 billion or $50 billion. Our government has been there for small and medium-sized businesses. As we fight climate change and innovate to lower our emissions together, we will continue to serve Canadians, employ Canadians and make sure that Canadians have all of the opportunities they deserve. In the future, we will be there. We will have their backs, and we know that they will continue to do their great work in driving our economy forward to a green future.

553 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

SoVote

House Hansard - 323