44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 11, 2024 10:00AM
- Jun/11/24 2:33:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for the past eight weeks, we have watched the unedifying spectacle of the Conservatives squiggling and squirming, deflecting and evading. However, today the Conservatives have no choice; today, they had to pick a side, and we are now seeing the side they have chosen. The Conservatives are coming out against fairness. They think a nurse or a plumber should pay tax at a higher rate than a multi-millionaire. Canadians are watching. Canadians now see whose side the Conservatives are on.
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- Jun/11/24 2:34:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for nine years, Canadians have suffered from the terrible consequences of Liberal economic policies. Now what are the Liberals doing? For young Canadians struggling to be able to afford to buy their first home, the Liberals are raising taxes on home builders. For families barely able to afford groceries and lined up at food banks, the Liberals are raising taxes on the farmers who produce the food. For thousands of Canadians who have gone years without having a family doctor, the Liberals are chasing even more doctors away with a new tax on medical professions. How is any of that fair?
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- Jun/11/24 2:35:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have been trying so hard to fake it. They have been trying so hard to pretend they actually care about working Canadians. However, today, there is a vote coming; they finally have to pick a side. Today, every single member of the House is going to have to choose: Are they on the side of a nurse, a plumber or a teacher, or are they on the side of a multi-millionaire? The Conservatives are very clear: They are against fairness. They are in favour of the wealthy lobbyists who advise them.
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- Jun/11/24 2:35:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are finding that the harder they work, the more they are punished. The incompetent finance minister wants people to believe that her job-killing taxes impact only the very rich. However, they will impact doctors, farmers and small business owners. They will impact a restaurant owner who has been in the community and leases their building. They will impact tradespeople, such as plumbers and roofers, who reinvest in their businesses and their equipment and eventually want to stop working. The finance minister is raising their taxes in the name of fairness because she spent all the money that she already took from them. How is any of that fair?
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- Jun/11/24 2:36:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that is kind of astonishing is that, after having been mute or, one might want to say, gagged for eight weeks, the Conservatives have finally found some passion around this issue. Is it not astonishing that, when given an actual opportunity to choose to side with a plumber, to side with a nurse or to side with their multi-millionaire lobbyist pals, the Conservatives are choosing to vote against fairness? Canadians are watching.
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- Jun/11/24 2:37:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the answer again proves that the minister does not read her own briefing notes. When a small business owner retires and sells their assets, the minister wants to take a bigger piece of that because she could not control her own spending.
Those are the people whom the Liberals call rich. They are people like my own father. If he were alive today, he would be left high and dry in his retirement years, the years when he needed those earnings the most. He started as a taxi driver in this country and went on to invest in a small business, year after year, in a personal corp because he did not have a pension.
How is any of that fair?
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- Jun/11/24 2:37:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, squiggle and squirm as they might, it is really hard to put lipstick on a pig. That is exactly what the Conservatives are trying to do today.
The Conservatives have found themselves unable, when it really counted, to side with working people. They have been unable to vote for fairness, to vote for the nurse, to vote for the plumber, and now they are evading responsibility for that choice. However, we will not let them. We are in favour of fairness, and they are not.
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- Jun/11/24 2:38:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this fast-and-furious finance minister unveiled her latest job-killing scheme to screw over Canada's middle class to bankroll her incompetency. Newcomers such as my family came here for the Canadian dream, had very little, worked hard, saved money and started a small business. She calls them tax cheats and vilifies their success. This job-killing capital gains tax hike will destroy their life's work. They can save it all by cancelling their Disney+.
Before the minister runs away from the microphone again, does she think her attack on small businesses is actually fair?
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- Jun/11/24 2:39:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for the past eight weeks, the Conservatives have been dithering and delaying and deflecting. They were squirming. They were so uncomfortable because they recognized they had to make a really big choice: Were they actually going to be on the side of working people, Canadians who live paycheque to paycheque, or on the side of multi-millionaires?
Today, we know whose side they are on. We are voting for fairness. The Conservatives are voting against it, as we always knew they would.
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- Jun/11/24 2:39:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister and the leader of the NDP can do as many photo ops with their bikes as they want, but these champagne socialists are taking money from the middle class to give to rich Liberal insiders, their elitist Bay Street buddies and the bloated bureaucracy. This job-killing tax hike vilifies success, punishing small businesses and their workers. That is why GDP per person in Canada is collapsing and Canadians are poor.
Before she spends another billion dollars next week to service her debt, can she tell us if this is fair?
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- Jun/11/24 2:40:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to read a quote from a debate in the House of Commons: “monstrous increases in capital gains [are] making the rich vastly richer and creating a kind of aristocratic feudal economy”. Does anyone know who said that? It was the member for Carleton. Today, he is leading his party in voting to make those gains even more monstrous by voting in favour of that aristocratic feudal economy.
When we vote for fairness, Conservatives vote against it.
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- Jun/11/24 2:42:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Sauvons l'ACIC coalition informed us in an open letter that the NFB has decided to modernize its independent filmmaker assistance program. Modernize should mean improve. Unfortunately, this is far from an improvement.
Previously, to have access to NFB editing rooms, there were two conditions: be a filmmaker and have a project funded by a public institution.
The NFB is set to impose three new conditions, including complying with its editorial policy. When a Crown corporation wants to impose a message, that is called propaganda.
Is the minister going to let this slide?
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- Jun/11/24 2:42:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am well aware that the NFB is currently looking at its program that supports independent filmmakers.
Its mandate is clear: to support a diversity of independent filmmakers, including French-language filmmakers. I will ensure that it continues to fulfill its mandate.
I invite the filmmakers to share their concerns with NFB management, which is independent and will make decisions accordingly.
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- Jun/11/24 2:43:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Pierre Perrault, Norman McLaren, Léa Pool, Micheline Lanctôt, Denys Arcand, Pierre Falardeau and Denis Villeneuve are all Quebec filmmakers who were able to benefit from the NFB, a testing ground for daring independent cinema.
It is a safe bet that none of them would measure up to the NFB's content policies nowadays. More importantly, none of them would agree to submit to them.
We know that the NFB is independent. The minister does not need to remind us of that. However, we were under the impression that our cinema was independent, too.
Can the minister rein in the NFB so that our filmmakers are not hemmed in by its ideological criteria?
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- Jun/11/24 2:43:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have always supported the NFB over the years because we know how important it is to nurture the next generation of Quebec and Canadian filmmakers.
As a matter of fact, all the names my colleague mentioned highlight the level of talent, diversity and quality we have here in Quebec and Canada. We will continue to support them. That is why we have increased virtually all our cultural budgets. We know how important that is.
We do it because we believe in our talent, we believe in the importance of culture. We are going to keep doing it.
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- Jun/11/24 2:44:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada's independent filmmaker assistance program was working just fine. No one was complaining, but it was not quite restrictive enough for the NFB. This seems to be a running theme with Crown corporations.
Letting artists be artists is no longer an option, I guess. The government has to tell them who to be, what to think, how to express themselves and on what topics. They need to adhere to a certain format and fit into certain boxes at all times.
The situation with the NFB is worrisome. It makes sense that the cultural sector is rallying together and rising up.
Whose side will the minister be on? Will she side with the arts or with state propaganda?
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- Jun/11/24 2:45:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I commend the work of the filmmakers in the coalition and of all those in Quebec who continually stand up to ask institutions to give them adequate support.
Our government is listening. We have proven that with budget after budget since 2015 by bringing in new supports, including support for Telefilm Canada. We support the NFB and we have added money to the Canada Media Fund. All of this is to ensure that there is diversity in terms of content and that filmmakers are able to bring their talent to our screens and promote Quebec and Canada around the world.
We will continue to be there for our culture industry.
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- Jun/11/24 2:45:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the average doctor is $300,000 in debt from medical school, and the Ontario Medical Association said that the latest NDP-Liberal tax grab would put “further pressures on the viability and sustainability of a fragile system” and “could force existing physicians out of practice and dissuade new grads from practicing in Canada.”
Canadians are in the midst of a health care crisis. Why is the Minister of Finance making it harder for Canadians to find a family doctor?
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- Jun/11/24 2:46:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the critic for his first question in almost a year on the matter of the health care crisis in this country. I can tell him that it is extremely important that nurses, doctors and everybody pay the same tax rate. We want to make sure it is fair. We have been making critical investments, in every province and every territory, of $200 billion. However, in order to make those investments in our health care system, we need a fair and just tax system. We are making sure we do that precisely so that we can make the investments and not have the cuts we would see with the Conservatives.
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- Jun/11/24 2:47:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, every week I speak to Canadians who do not have a family doctor. How is this fair? The elderly, Canadians with chronic diseases, Canadians with mental health struggles, kids with cancer; none of them can access the health care system. How is this fair? The Canadian Medical Association says things are only going to get worse. They say this tax would jeopardize efforts to recruit and retain doctors.
As physicians leave this country en masse, how many Canadians will go without health care due to this NDP-Liberal tax grab?
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