SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 331 - Jun/13/24

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

Jun/13/24 2:06:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, business owners across the country are facing unprecedented challenges, including the most anti-business government seen in a generation. The good news is that it was not like this before the Prime Minister, and it will not be like it after. The Conservatives recognize what small business owners are, economic heroes. They start with a dream, a dream to make their communities a little better by sharing their gift with the world. To start their businesses, they often risk everything, putting their life savings, even their family home, up for grabs. They will work 60, 70, even 80 hours a week, all just to turn around and do it all over again. When times are tough like now, they will often do without so that their employees do not have to. Canada will emerge from our lost decade of nearly zero GDP per capita growth and Canada will again become a land of prosperity, as Conservatives recognize business owners for what they are, our economic heroes.

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Context: House Hansard - 331 - Jun/13/24

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

Jun/13/24 7:18:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to start this conversation with a quote from Margaret Thatcher. Of course, the honourable and fabulous Margaret Thatcher said that the problem with socialism is that one eventually “run[s] out of other people's money.” We have hit that point. I think it is official. The government has hit rock bottom. However, it will find a way, just as it has done with ethics scandals, to find a level even below rock bottom. Let us take a look at the facts right now. When we look at the way to balance a budget or to bring a fiscal house in order, a government has three levers. One is economic growth. The more an economy grows, the more production there is, and the more there is to tax. That brings us to the next one, which is revenue. The more revenue there is, the more money is coming in. The higher the taxes are, the more revenue is coming in. The third part is expenditures. We have seen, of course, that this is the money going out the door. We have growth. We have the money coming in the door and going out the door. Let us take a systematic approach. We will start with government expenditures. The reality is that no government has ever spent anywhere near the amount of money the government will be spending this year and what it has forecast in its main estimates. The main estimates present a spending of a total of $449.2 billion; $191.6 billion is to be voted on, and $257.6 billion is statutory. We can take that and look at where we were at the end of 2015, when we were spending about $250 billion. This is nearly a doubling of government expenditures in less than 10 years. That is truly a shocking number. The reality is that this could actually be affordable, potentially, if we had the economic growth to back it up. However, as we will see in a moment, we do not. The reality is that more Canadians are paying more money. Nine out of 10 in the middle class are paying more. We have seen, right from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, that the carbon tax is costing the majority of Canadians money. We saw, actually, just from their own secret report, because of the pushing and prodding of one of my colleagues at finance committee, they admitted that $30 billion in additional funds is coming out of Canadians' pockets just in the form of indirect costs of the carbon tax alone. We have seen that the spending just keeps going. The question we will often hear from the other side of the aisle is this: What would Conservatives change? Here are a couple of things that I will just rattle off: $250 million to the Asian infrastructure bank, $76 million of funding awarded in the green slush fund to brazen conflicts of interest, $12 million in ineligible contracts, $50 million to Mastercard and $12 million to Loblaws for fridges. It just goes on, with $200 million to McKinsey and millions of dollars being wasted by the government. It is truly just a firehose of spending going anywhere and everywhere. We have seen the expenditures increase and increase. Before we talk about the increase in taxes, let us talk a bit about economic growth. The reality is that, if an economy is thriving and doing well, it will benefit everyone, depending on how the wealth gets split up. There are arguments to be had, and those are arguments that are valuable and should be had. If, however, there is no revenue coming in, there is no revenue to redistribute. Often, in worse economic times, the ones who suffer the most are the most vulnerable. Let us look at the government's economic record. Since 2015, we are looking at a nearly flat or a zero growth in GDP per capita. GDP per capita can really be used interchangeably with incomes, because it is a measure of how much every Canadian's economic livelihood is increasing on average. We have had almost no growth when it comes to Canadians. We have also seen record numbers of children now falling into poverty and people going to the food banks, including record numbers of children. We have an economy that is stalled. We have a lost decade here in Canada. It is not just me saying what I am going to say. Members can look to John Manley, former Liberal finance minister; Bill Morneau, former Liberal finance minister; and David Dodge, current Liberal and former governor of the Bank of Canada. These individuals are all saying the same thing: Canada needs to focus more on growth. We need to have our economy grow because, of course, this will help our citizens, and it will also help secure our government. More economic growth means the government can collect more and do more to protect health care and other important social safety nets. Just to sum up, we have actually had record revenue because the current government is obsessed with increasing taxes and increasing the burden on middle-class Canadians. Nine out of 10 people pay more. Of course, the Liberals' most recent cash grab is the capital gains tax. They create the fabrication that it will only affect the ultrarich. Nothing could be further from the truth. LiUNA, a union, recently came out opposing it because its members realize it. Physicians, electricians and mechanics realize it. Canadians who are taking the steps to secure their retirement through a secondary rental property realize it. Parents who are buying a secondary house to invest in their children, because the children cannot afford a house anymore, realize it. This is a cash grab. It is true that there is a limited portion of the population that will realize it in a given year; however, the reality is that although only 1% of Canadians will die in a year, 100% of us will eventually die. Much the same logic applies to capital gains. We have seen the government increase the tax burden on the middle class to pay for the McKinseys and, perhaps worst of all, to pay $54 billion in interest, which goes to wealthy bankers and bondholders. The government is literally robbing the middle class, endangering our most vulnerable in order to help its Liberal-insider buddies. That is the Liberals' story on taxation. We have seen what happened to spending, and the Liberals' growth is equally as bad. What is the result of this? People at the Fraser Institute said that we are in the worst decline in the standard of living in the last 40 years. I am thankful for the Fraser Institute's work, but simply talking to our neighbours and to our constituents will reveal the same thing. It was almost taken as a given, when I was growing up, that we would do better than our parents and that my kids would do better than I did. This was just a reality that was going to happen. Unfortunately, we have seen that reality disappear in front of our very eyes. At this point, to be able to afford a house is beyond the aspirations of many Canadians and many young folks, who are just struggling to barely get by. We are in a place where there are encampments from coast to coast to coast. There are dumpster-diving communities, who need to get food out of garbage cans. Workers are living out of their cars. Students are living underneath bridges. This is not right, and we can quote all the empirical numbers we want, but all we really need to do is go out there and talk to our constituents, and we will hear just the same. I am sure, whether Conservative, Liberal or NDP, we are all hearing the same thing. As I noted when I started my speech, Margaret Thatcher once very wisely said that the problem with socialism is that one eventually “run[s] out of other people's money.” With a debt of over $1.3 trillion, with interest payments of over $54 billion and with a government incapable of doing the most basic of services, such as delivering passports, we have hit rock bottom. I do not want to see what is next in the current Liberal government.

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Context: House Hansard - 331 - Jun/13/24

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Jun/13/24 7:28:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I could go into a policy debate, but the reality is that while the government has been in power for the last nine years, there are 55% more children in poverty. There are 0% GDP rates. People cannot afford houses and they cannot afford food, and there is a child care program that does not deliver child care. The Liberals have a food program that does not deliver food. They only know how to deliver for Liberal insiders.

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Context: House Hansard - 331 - Jun/13/24

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Jun/13/24 7:30:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have absolute agreement with the member on the fact that seniors are not doing well. They suffer the most when we have high rates of inflation. As my colleagues across the way pointed out, the reality is that the rate of inflation has increased, but all the costs in that high inflation are still baked in, and other programs have not kept up with that. The best thing we can do for seniors is to make sure that we have a tight monetary policy to keep inflation under control so that their expenses do not get out of control. We need to bring down housing costs for seniors. We need to look at every possible solution to help those who built this great country.

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Context: House Hansard - 331 - Jun/13/24

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Jun/13/24 7:31:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that history has proven over the last 100 years that socialism fails every time it is tried. We see it here in Canada. We see people going to food banks in record numbers. We see children in record levels of poverty. Canadians have never been poorer. They cannot afford a house. They cannot afford food. What will it take for the member to realize that socialism has failed?

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Context: House Hansard - 331 - Jun/13/24

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Jun/13/24 7:33:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the tough but fair question. I can confirm that the government is both corrupt and incompetent.

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