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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 329

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 11, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 329 - Jun/11/24
Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)
  • Jun/11/24 1:44:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is repeating the same promise he made nine years ago, when he said he could spend uncontrollably and there would be a rich guy on a hill somewhere who would pay the bill. Such was his promise of a more prosperous life for the middle class. Before we debate this repeated promise, let us first take a look at how things are going. As the Prime Minister himself admitted in a video on taxes a few weeks ago, the gap between the rich and everyone else has only grown. According to a chart created by Statistics Canada, the rich have grown twice as rich since the promise was made in 2015. How are things going for the middle class? Nine out of 10 are paying more taxes than they were before this Prime Minister took office. Middle-class young people can no longer own a home, and 76% of them believe they never will. In addition, more people are using food banks than ever before in our history. Canada has had the worst GDP growth of the G7 since 2015, and the decline continues even now. The OECD has calculated that Canada's economic growth will be the worst of nearly 40 advanced economies for this decade and for three decades to come, which means that the quality of life of Canadian youth will drop compared to youth in other countries. In addition, Canada has lost $460 billion in investments to the United States, or $11,500 per person. The Prime Minister's solution is to keep repeating the same election promises he made nine years ago and has since broken. Now he is proposing a new tax that will apply to health care, housing, farmers, and small and medium-sized businesses. A tax on doctors means even fewer doctors when there is already a doctor shortage. A tax on farmers means more expensive food. A tax on small businesses means fewer jobs and fewer opportunities for our young people. A tax on our economy will send more money to the United States and elsewhere. Billionaires will not pay the tax, because the Prime Minister gave them two months' notice so they could get their money out of the country before this tax comes into effect. Who will pay it, then? First, it will be people who are selling or transferring long-term assets on a one-time basis, like a grandmother trying to sell or gift part of her farm to her children so that they can have a home. Next, it will be the 300,000 businesses or, indirectly, their workers. It will simply lead to higher food costs and smaller paycheques, and it will make it harder to find a doctor. Raising taxes will not solve the problem. That is why the Conservatives will be voting against this tax on health care, food and housing. In my first 60 days as prime minister, I will name a task force of entrepreneurs, inventors, farmers and workers, but no lobbyists. This task force will design a tax reform for lower taxes that would, one, bring home hiring and more powerful paycheques to Canada; two, bring home fairness by reducing the share of the tax burden paid by the poor and working class while cracking down on overseas tax havens and tackling government-funded corporate welfare; and, three, bring home 20% less paperwork by simplifying the tax rules. Lower, simpler, fairer. We will make this a country where hard work is rewarded with a bigger paycheque and a bigger pension to buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe communities. That is just plain common sense. Nine years ago, the Prime Minister promised that he would spend like a drunken sailor, but that there would be a rich guy on a hill somewhere who would pay the price and the middle class would prosper. How is that promise playing out? According to his own video two weeks ago, the rich are twice as rich. Their net worth has gone from $6 trillion to $11 trillion. How is the famous middle class, which we do not hear so much about anymore? Well, 76% of people who do not own a home believe they never will. Young people who do not have help from their parents cannot own homes almost anywhere in the country today. One in five Canadians is skipping meals. In Toronto, one in 10 is going to a food bank, a city that now has 256 homeless encampments, 50 of them added in the last six weeks alone. This is the help for middle-class people and those working hard to join it. The rich have gotten richer nine years after the Prime Minister promised that higher taxes, spending and debt would make things fair. Let us look around the country today. The Prime Minister admits life sucks, in his own words. How is that fair? Now his solution is to bring in a giant job-killing tax on health care, homes, farms and small businesses. He wants to tax away doctors when we have a doctor shortage. He wants to tax home builders when we have a housing shortage. He wants to tax farmers when we have a food price crisis, and he wants to tax small businesses when our economy is already shrinking. The results of this approach have already been shown. Our economy is shrinking, and has been shrinking for two years. We have had the worst economic growth in the G7 per capita since the Prime Minister took office, and since 2019, our economy has shrunk 2% while the American economy has grown by 8%. Meanwhile, we have the worst housing price inflation in all of the G7, the second worst in the entire OECD, after the Prime Minister doubled housing costs. This is exactly the opposite of what the Prime Minister promised would happen if he brought in more taxes. Who will pay this new tax? The good news is that billionaires will not pay it. The Prime Minister has given them two full months to sell their assets and get their money out of Canada to build a business south of the border or in some faraway place. Who will be left behind to pay the bills? It will be people selling long-term assets, such as the wonderful grandmother who tried to divide up her farmland so her kids could have a small property to live on and is getting hit with a $40,000 tax bill, or the 300,000 businesses, most of them small businesses, and, indirectly, all of their workers, that will see long-term pay cuts or stalled wages as a result of their owners' inability to invest. Those people, like taxi drivers and others, who have saved up in a company, will pay higher taxes on every single new dollar they invest in our economy. Raising taxes and punishing our health care providers, home builders, small businesses and farmers will only drive wages down and the cost of living up. That is why common-sense Conservatives will do exactly the opposite. Within 60 days of becoming prime minister, my government would name a tax reform task force of entrepreneurs, inventors, farmers and workers, but no lobbyists, to design a bring-it-home tax cut that would, one, bring home production and paycheques with lower taxes on work, hiring and making stuff; two, bring home fairness by reducing the share of the tax burden paid by the poor and working class while cutting back on tax-funded corporate welfare and cracking down on overseas tax havens; and, three, bring home less paperwork by simplifying the tax rules. Conservatives will make this a country where hard work is again rewarded, where those who spend sleepless nights mortgaging their homes and wondering how they will pay the bills will be richly rewarded for their sacrifice in building the economy. It will be a country based on meritocracy not aristocracy, where people get ahead by working hard, not through having a family trust fund, like the Prime Minister. It would be a country where, if one works hard, they would earn a powerful paycheque that would buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe neighbourhoods. That future is for the common sense of the common people, united for our common home, their home, my home, our home. Let us bring it home.
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Context: House Hansard - 329 - Jun/11/24
Mr. Jasraj Singh Hallan (Calgary Forest Lawn, CPC)
  • 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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