- Member of Parliament
- House leader of the New Democratic Party
Member of the Board of Internal Economy
- NDP
- New Westminster—Burnaby
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 63%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $138,331.47
- Government Page
- Jun/18/24 7:54:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I like my colleague, but he said that he has never seen a budget with such a negative response. I remember the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad Harper budget of 2012, and my colleague should too. It gutted veteran services, gutted health care, forced seniors to work years longer in their lives and gave tens of billions of dollars in handouts to banks, billionaires, and oil and gas CEOs. Conservative financial management is an oxymoron.
I like my colleague a lot, but how could he possibly not apologize for that extraordinarily bad budget and the terrible financial management of the Harper years?
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- Jun/18/24 1:18:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy listening to my colleague.
If I understand correctly, the Bloc Québécois is going to support the NDP's amendment to set things straight. The election will take place on the originally scheduled date.
We saw this idea of taking voting rights away from a large number of Canadians emerge under the Conservatives, especially the voting rights of low-income and racialized people. We saw how the impact of the Harper government restricted Canadians' right to vote.
Does my colleague agree that what the Harper government did should never happen again? All members should be pushing to ensure that everyone across Canada is able to vote in federal elections.
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- Jun/18/24 11:23:54 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I always enjoy hearing from my colleague, but the reality is that the Harper government was terrible in taking away voting rights from racialized people, from indigenous people, from poor people and from young people. The Harper government and the member for Carleton stripped away voting rights for a whole variety of Canadians they do not seem to like or appreciate. It seems that the Conservatives are in the same frame here with a bill that would enfranchise more people, that would ensure that more people can vote, and Conservatives are opposed to it.
Why are they opposed to more Canadians voting?
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- Jun/17/24 11:04:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we lived under the Harper regime and, of course, the Conservative attempts to ensure that people could not vote, using all kinds of subterfuge and disinformation, trying to attack indigenous peoples, youth and poor people in our communities across the country. The Harper regime was absolutely terrible in trying to reduce the number of Canadians voting. We saw all of the techniques that they used to try to do that. Now, the Republicans in the United States are doing the same thing. They are disenfranchising racialized people. The attempt by the Conservatives and by the Republicans is to have fewer people voting, so they can better control the rest of the population.
I want to ask my colleague, is that why the Conservatives are opposing this legislation, which broadens the vote and makes it easier for Canadians to exercise the fundamental democratic freedom of voting for the government that they choose? Is that why Conservatives are so incredibly opposed to broadening the franchise and letting every Canadian vote?
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- Jun/17/24 9:40:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I like the member, but, gosh, talk about inventing alternative facts. I lived through the Harper regime. We lived through the terrible financial mismanagement of the Harper regime. We saw $116 billion given to Canada's big banks in liquidity supports because the Harper government just wanted to splurge on the banking sector. That resulted in dividend payments and corporate bonuses.
However, the worst part of the Harper financial mismanagement was the infamous Harper tax haven treaties, which the PBO tells us cost us over $30 billion each and every year. That is why the Harper government was always in deficit, It was massive financial mismanagement. In fact, Conservative financial management is an oxymoron. When the Conservatives have such a lamentable financial management record, how could they possibly give lessons to anybody else?
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- Jun/17/24 9:10:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with the comments about the Liberal government; what we have seen is a doubling of housing prices under the Liberal government. There is no doubt. Up until now, until the NDP forced the Liberals to actually make investments in affordable housing, we saw very little action for affordable housing. The problem is, of course, that the Harper government did the same thing. It doubled housing prices and did not construct affordable housing. In fact, it was a disastrous decade for social housing, co-operative housing, and it was probably the worst period in our history.
I wanted to ask my colleague why he thinks the Harper government failed, and why have Conservatives not apologized for their part in the housing affordability crisis?
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- Jun/11/24 1:21:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member for Winnipeg North and I would agree that the Harper regime was absolutely the most ruthless, cruel, terribly incompetent government we have ever seen. It was appalling.
I was in the House during that time. It is unbelievable how cruel Conservatives were to Canadians and how incompetent they were. In terms of financial management, Conservative financial management is an oxymoron. They are terrible when it comes to managing money, terrible at treating Canadians. It was an absolutely abysmal regime. It was nine years of cruelty and nine years of incompetence. It was an appallingly bad government, and it was thrown out because of all those things.
I know Canadians will remember that the next time they go to the polls. The reality is that anything good the Liberals have done has been because of the NDP forcing them to do it, whether it is dental care, anti-scab legislation, pharmacare or affordable housing. It is all thanks to the NDP.
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- Jun/11/24 1:10:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in talking about the last 18 years, it has been the best of times and the worst of times. It is the best of times, as one is well aware, for the billionaires and for profitable corporations in Canada. We saw this under the Harper tax haven treaties, the infamous treaties that cost Canada $30 billion each and every year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. It is the best of times for the oil and gas CEOs, who have received massive subsidies over the last 18 years, nine years of the dismal Harper regime and nine years continuing under the Liberal government.
It has been the best of times for the banks, with $116 billion in liquidity supports under the Harper regime and with $750 billion in liquidity supports under the Liberal government. We have seen that it has been the best of times for the billionaires and the wealthiest among us.
It has been the worst of times for everyone else. We saw, under the Harper regime, how food bank lineups doubled and how the cost of housing doubled. Since many of those policies were continued under the new Liberal government, of course, because they are bad policies, we saw food bank lineups double and housing prices double. Conservatives, unfortunately, just seem to have amnesia about how dismal the nine years of the Harper regime were. It created the conditions for the situation we see today.
However, this speech is not about the Conservatives and their lamentable record, with the most appalling government we have ever had in our history. It is not about the Liberal government not stepping up for Canadians. It is about, really, the hope that the NDP engenders because, being the adults in the room, under the leadership of the member for Burnaby South, the NDP got to work in that situation to ensure that Canadians actually had the wherewithal to put food on their tables and to keep roofs over their heads.
We have talked, in the past months, about many of the NDP initiatives. There was the anti-scab legislation that protects workers, for the first time in the federal regime. It is about workers being protected from replacement workers taking their jobs during strikes or lockouts. We talked about the dental care program. It is important to note that 150,000 seniors, just in the first few weeks of the NDP dental care program, have benefited from getting services. Those are seniors who, many for the first time in their lives or the first time in decades, have access to dental care. That relieves the pressure on our acute health care system because those seniors will no longer have to go to the emergency wards of our hospitals across the country to get emergency dental treatment.
The pharmacare program that the NDP has brought in, which has passed in the House and which hopefully will pass in the other place shortly, will make a difference for six million Canadians with diabetes, who often pay $1,000 or $1,500 a month for their diabetes medications and devices, and for nine million Canadian women who have to look for contraception. Finally, women's reproductive health freedom will be maintained because it will no longer be a question of whether they can afford access to contraception. There will be nine million Canadians benefiting from those measures, as well, from the NDP.
I could go on and on about other pieces of legislation the NDP has brought forward. We are ensuring a transition to clean energy to fight back against the climate crisis, and ensuring protection from food price gouging and gas price gouging by the enhancements that the member for Burnaby South offered to the Competition Bureau. All of those things are going to make a difference in people's lives. There is no doubt about that. The budget is part of this drive by the NDP to actually address what were systemic failures of the Harper regime, sadly continued by the Liberal government rather than putting into place the kind of fair tax system that Canadians do want to see and the structured services that actually benefit Canadians.
Under the Harper regime, we saw how those services were slashed, badly, to allow billionaires to take their money offshore. That was the priority of the dismal, horrible nine years under the Harper regime. It was the worst government in Canadian history and the most unbelievably cruel government in Canadian history.
The former Harper government forced veterans to travel long distances to access whatever services they deigned to allow veterans to continue to access, forced seniors to work years longer before they could even access a pension and slashed services, including health care services, left and right, indiscriminately, so that Mr. Harper and the group around him could give massive handouts to the banks, the billionaires and offshore tax havens. Unfortunately, Liberals continued those practices until the NDP stepped up in a minority parliament, first under COVID, forcing the government to actually put into place measures that would benefit Canadians in getting through the pandemic and now, over the last year or two, ensuring services that actually benefit Canadians. This budget bill is one of those examples.
I will note that Conservatives have had absolutely nothing to offer except nuisance amendments, and they will keep us voting for a number of hours just to basically delete portions of the bill, not in any methodical way, not in any thoughtful way and not to benefit any Canadian, but just to delay House time because that is what Conservatives seem to do. They seem to obstruct and to block. Never has a single Conservative MP stepped up for their constituents in order to make sure that there were better services in place. We saw that under the dental care debate, in the pharmacare debate, and we saw that numerous times. We are seeing that today, with respect to the affordable housing provisions that the NDP has forced the government to add.
In this budget bill, there is funding that includes universal single-payer pharmacare for diabetes, which would help six million Canadians. Just to be clear, we are talking about 18,000 Canadians in each and every Conservative, Liberal, Bloc and NDP riding in the country. Eighteen thousand of our constituents, on average, in each riding in the country, would benefit from the provisions of what the NDP has forced into the budget implementation act. How could a member of Parliament vote against 18,000 of their own constituents? That is something they will have to reconcile with their constituents when they go back home.
There are also NDP provisions around building more affordable housing. Forty years ago, members will recall that the former Liberal government ended the national housing program. Since then, we have seen a steady deterioration in affordable housing. The cost of housing doubled under the dismal, terrible Harper regime, and it has doubled again under the current government. The NDP has forced provisions to ensure that we are actually building more affordable homes and preserving affordable housing. Affordable housing generally is 30% of income. It is not in assuming that Canadians can pay whatever cost the market gives them.
This budget bill also would establish a national school food program for children who are going to school hungry. It would reverse cuts in a number of areas, including the cuts to health care that the Harper regime put in place and the cuts to indigenous services that the Liberal government was proposing. It would establish a dedicated youth mental health fund and would double the volunteer firefighters tax credit. I wanted to praise the member for Courtenay—Alberni, just for a moment, for his good work in bringing that to reality. This would make a big difference for volunteer firefighters right across the country, and search and rescue volunteers, who have not benefited from the tax credits that are in place.
This is not an NDP budget. An NDP budget would actually ensure fair taxation. It would ensure that the billionaires and the wealthy corporations pay their fair share. It does make a number of steps that would make a difference.
I do want to address one critical issue that I know the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam has raised repeatedly in the House of Commons, as has the entire NDP caucus, and that is about a disability benefit that only provides a very small measure of support for people with disabilities. Earlier, I mentioned the massive amounts that have been poured into billionaires and offshore tax havens, banks, and oil and gas CEOs. Both Conservatives and Liberals, over the years, have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the wealthiest and most privileged among us. It is a terrible legacy that the government has refused to put in place an adequate income for people with disabilities. That must change. The NDP will continue to fight for people with disabilities and will continue to fight to put in place an adequate income for people with disabilities.
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- Jun/11/24 11:38:56 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do like my colleague, but we lived through the Harper regime. More Conservative members means more hardship for all Canadians.
We have seen the Conservatives block dental care, despite the fact that hundreds of people in Lévis-Lotbinière are already benefiting from the NDP program. The Conservatives also wanted to block pharmacare. Today we have these foolish amendments moved by the Conservatives, who are blocking measures to ensure affordable housing, food for children, student loan forgiveness and the tax credit for volunteer firefighters.
I have a very simple question: Why are the Conservative members constantly blocking everything that could help Canadians?
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- Jun/4/24 1:24:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am always pleased to hear the eloquence of the member for Edmonton Griesbach. He fights very strongly on behalf of his constituents.
I am wondering why he believes Conservatives have never apologized for the 10-year, decade-long bread price-fixing scandal that started right after Harper was elected and continued right through until after the Harper government was thrown out. That took, on average, $400 out of the pockets of Canadian families, with each family paying $400 more than they should have because the Harper government refused to call the corporations that fixed the price of bread to account.
Can the member tell me why Conservatives have never apologized, never said they are sorry to Canadians for allowing that egregious theft from so many Canadian families?
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- Jun/4/24 12:37:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I wish Conservatives had not tried to disrupt my colleague's inspiring speech with all of their procedural tactics, as they have been doing all day.
The Conservatives, of course, have the most egregious record. We saw them, under the Harper regime, allow bread price fixing that cost the average family $400. It started right after Harper got elected and continued throughout the Harper regime.
Could my colleague tell us why the Conservatives are so afraid of the drive by the NDP to actually end food price gouging? Why are they so concerned when there is a negative impact on the corporate lobbyists who control their party?
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- Jun/4/24 12:05:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to return to the other point in the motion my colleague talked about, which is to “stop Liberal and Conservative corporate handouts to big grocers”. We saw this under the Harper government. They took a hands-off approach, and it cost the average Canadian family $400 for groceries, which they should not have had to pay. As we saw with the Liberals, the total comes to $25 million.
Does my colleague agree with the NDP that all these government subsidies and handouts to the big grocery chains should be terminated, whether the government is Conservative or Liberal?
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- Jun/4/24 11:16:39 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I always enjoy the fantasies of my colleague. The reality is that half of the national executive of the corporate Conservatives are corporate lobbyists. We have seen their national campaign manager and their deputy leader as corporate lobbyists. The member stressed the fact that opposition days are non-binding. That is true. Every single Conservative opposition day is a non-binding opposition day as well, so that is kind of absurd. I know Conservatives are stretching.
My question is very simple. Just a few months after Harper was elected, the price-fixing started. The bread price-fixing scandal cost the average Canadian family hundreds and hundreds of dollars. It continued throughout the Harper regime. Conservatives never lifted a finger to stop that theft. Will the member rise today and solemnly apologize to Canadians for Harper and his government allowing that rip-off to continue for nearly a decade?
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- Jun/4/24 10:39:37 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have the motion before the House. If the Conservatives, after trying to sabotage the debate this morning, are now saying that they are going to support it, then that provides the impetus, with a majority of members of Parliament voting in favour of it, to ensure this happens. However, I recall nothing happening on nutrition north during the Harper regime, even though it was flagged, and has been raised for years. The member for Nunavut has been very articulate and outspoken on the issue of reforming nutrition north.
I will mention a practice that was put in place by the Harper government, continued by the Liberal government, where they take a portion of the subsidy given to lower prices and put it right into their pockets. Nutrition north has been ripping off northerners. It is time that stopped.
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- Jun/4/24 10:37:40 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Conservative Harper government was a terrible financial manager. In fact, Conservative financial management is an oxymoron. The Conservatives are simply incapable of managing the public purse.
My colleague, the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, is absolutely right. We saw massive loopholes open. We saw sweetheart deals, like the $116-billion liquidity support gift to Canada's big banks, as if they needed it, and, of course, the infamous Harper tax haven treaties, $30 billion a year, according to the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer.
What did the Conservatives do once they splurged and used a firehose to shower money on corporate CEOs? They cut money to seniors and forced them to work longer. They cut money in health care and slashed services to our nation's veterans, who put their lives on the line for their country and who were subject to the most immense disrespect from the Harper government. It was a toxic government, it was an incompetent government and it was a corrupt government. That is why the Conservatives were thrown out of office in 2015.
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- Jun/3/24 8:02:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of time for my colleague from Calgary Rocky Ridge, but it is obvious he only listened to half the speech. The other half of the speech, I was deploring the fact that the Liberals continued all the policies that the Harper government developed. That is what we should have been fighting over the years. This includes the massive amounts of overseas tax havens and tax loopholes that were put in place by the Harper government, which were continued by the Liberals.
I would return the question back to the member. If he understood the Harper policies were wrong, if he was willing to fight with me, as we did fight together, to try to change those policies put in place by the Harper government, which have been continued by the Liberals, why is he not still questioning today those bad decisions made by the Harper government?
It seems to me the member knows it was bad. There is $30 billion a year that is still hemorrhaging from our resources, and it is going offshore each and every year. That has not changed. If anything, it has increased. The member understood that was the wrong thing to do when the Harper government brought it in. He was willing to fight with me to try to change the policies of the Liberal government.
Today, he seems to think what the Harper government did was okay. He knows, and I know what the Harper government did was wrong, and it is wrong for the Liberal government to copy what Harper did because the result is a negative impact on Canadians.
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- Jun/3/24 7:41:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to a committee report that was instigated by the NDP. This is the 19th report of the Standing Committee on Finance. I want to read the conclusion of the report into the record because it is important that Canadians know what the NDP has been fighting for.
It states:
Given that the Canadian grocery sector made more than $6 billion in profit in 2023 and that millions of Canadians have reported food insecurity in the last year, the Standing Committee on Finance call on the government to immediately take action by implementing an excess profit tax on large grocery companies that would put money back in the people's pocket with a GST rebate and establish a National School Food Program, and that this motion be reported to the House.
The reason the finance committee ultimately adopted that NDP motion and said that it be reported to the House is for the discussions we are having this evening. I would like to thank the member for Vancouver Kingsway for bringing this forward.
The reality is that it is true that Canadians are living with more food insecurity. The last 20 years have been absolutely dismal. As members know, the dismal decade under the former Harper regime was a terrible time for Canadians. We saw Conservatives in an unbelievably bad government. It was a horrible government from a whole range of perspectives. The cost of housing doubled over the course of that dismal decade. The food bank lineups doubled as well.
Why did that happen? It happened not only because Conservatives were absolutely terrible administrators but also because they were concerned only with communication and not concerned in any way with actively governing in the interests of Canadians. The Harper regime was terrible in that respect. However, it also gave away the store with the infamous Stephen Harper tax haven treaties. At the end of this period, this dismal decade, the food bank lineups were increasing and the cost of housing doubling. The Parliamentary Budget Officer calculated that the net cost every year in taxpayer dollars of the infamous Harper tax haven treaties was $30 billion. Members should think about that. We were giving away $30 billion to the wealthiest of Canadians, to the largest and most-profitable corporations, so that they could simply take their money offshore to tax havens and never pay a cent in tax. That is tax they should have been paying that would have essentially taken care of all these other issues that I have been talking about, such as the doubling of the food bank lineups and the fact that housing costs doubled. The Harper government built no housing at all. It was just a horrible, terrible time.
Then 2015 came along and the Liberals said that they were going to change all that; however, they kept the Harper tax haven treaties and all the sweetheart deals that the Harper government put in place. Nevertheless, with the NDP pushing them, they have done a number of things that certainly make it a better government than what we had in the terrible, horrible 10 years under the Harper regime. Nevertheless, in reality, because they kept the infrastructure of what the Harper government put into place, we see the same results over the last decade. As we know, the food bank lineups have doubled again. They doubled under the Conservatives, and they have now doubled under the Liberals. The cost of housing has doubled again. It doubled under the Conservatives and has doubled under the Liberals.
It is no surprise to members that the NDP takes a different approach. We would not be giving $30 billion a year away to tax havens. We would not be saying to the billionaires and the wealthiest corporations that they could do whatever the hell they want, that there would be no issue there as long as they do not bother us, because some of us would get lobbying jobs and everybody will be happy. That is not how it turned out. As members know, housing is now in a crisis. Conservatives bear 50% of the responsibility and the Liberals the other 50%. For the food bank lineups, Conservatives bear 50% of the responsibility and the Liberals bear the other 50%.
What we have seen consistently over this terrible 20-year period, as well, is that the lobbyist revolving door has made things difficult for many Canadian families. We see this with the Conservatives, with their campaign manager being a Loblaws lobbyist and the deputy leader being a lobbyist. We have seen this under the Liberals as well. The grocery giants that have been gouging Canadians over the course of this period have gotten off with impunity, with $6 billion of profit in 2023.
I will come back, in a moment, to what Canadians' perceptions are of the grocery giants and the impunity that they were equally given by Conservatives and by Liberals. Both sides should take 50% of the burden. One could say that the NDP's initiatives on anti-scab legislation, pharmacare, dental care and housing have helped to address that but not nearly as much as an NDP government would, as we know.
If one thinks that 25 NDP MPs, the worker bees of Parliament, the adults in the room, can make such a difference, to actually start to fight for regular people, just imagine what we would do with 200 MPs. My goodness, we would not be giving tens of billions of dollars to billionaires and to wealthy corporations to take offshore. We would be making sure that seniors are living with an adequate income. We would be making sure that affordable housing is built in this country. We would be making sure that health care covers us from the tops of our heads to the soles of our feet. We would be investing in post-secondary education, job creation and clean energy. It would be a much better country.
For the moment, Canadians gave us 25 members in this Parliament. With that, we have achieved quite a bit, but there is much more to do. The fact that we are seeing these high profits from the grocery giants is one example of that.
The member for Burnaby South presented a bill to increase the abilities of the Competition Bureau to actually crack down on food price gouging. This is a substantial and important initiative. The NDP pushed, as well, to get provisions of those Competition Act changes into the fall economic statement. That is the bill that passed Parliament just a few days ago. Canadians can see the NDP making a difference; the Competition Bureau's enhanced abilities will start to push against the grocery giants, the three big chains, which are continuing to gouge Canadians.
The reality is that we have to do more. That is why this motion has been brought forward. We talk about implementing an excess profits tax on large grocery companies, as well as the national school food program. Let me start with the excess profits tax.
This is not something that is alien to Canada. In fact, during the Second World War, we had to mobilize the entire country to fight hard, to make sure that we were pushing back against Nazism and Fascism. At that time in our history, the government chose to put in place an excess profits tax. It was 75% of excess profits.
It made a big difference. It prevented food price gouging and the kinds of gouging we are seeing today. It was an accepted tool that reined in the biggest companies in Canada so that they would not gouge Canadians. We were successful, both in our fight in the Second World War and in using the benefits of the excess profits tax to ensure, coming out of the war, that we were doing what was important so that our quality of life in Canada grew.
Of course, as we know, for the history books, that meant the construction of highways and sewage treatment plants, education, educational facilities, hospitals and housing. Three million units of affordable housing were built across the country in just over three years, including our home, which is in New Westminster on Glover Avenue. Comfortable homes were built by Canadian craftsmen because the federal government said that we needed to build affordable housing now for our returning men and women in the service. Our home was built in 1948. The houses on the block were all built at the same time.
At that time, we had a government that understood the importance of building affordable housing. Therefore, an excess profits tax is not new or different. It is something that we have used in the past when we have been in crisis.
Surely members would agree with me that, when we have seen a doubling under the Conservatives and then a doubling under the Liberals of the price of housing and food bank lineups, it takes bold solutions. An excess profits tax is one way of achieving that and ensuring that the grocery barons are actually reined in.
Let us take the second part of the motion: establishing a national school food program. This is something the NDP has pushed for and is in the budget. I regret to say that the Conservatives offer pretensions in talking about affordability. The member from Carleton cries crocodile tears and says that, even though Conservatives are 50% responsible for the fact that housing prices and food bank lineups have doubled and doubled again, they truly feel that Canadians are facing an affordability crunch. He says that they are having difficulty putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their head.
The NDP pushed for the school food program to ensure that all students in this country have something to eat at school. Students need to have food to learn. What did the Conservatives do? After all the havoc that they have wreaked, being half responsible for the results for Canadians and the affordability crisis today, the member for Carleton voted against the school lunch program.
Back in December, we saw the Conservatives vote to gut everything, from school lunches to affordable housing; transportation safety; food inspection, so we would actually have food that is edible; health care; the RCMP; national defence; and so on. They voted for 120 cuts. Conservatives, with the member for Carleton leading the charge, wanted to axe and cut all services in this country. They wanted to cut back down to nothing, leaving a stump of a federal government. They would have all the money going to billionaires and big corporations, because that is the Conservative way.
Not only did Conservatives want to cut any attempt to deal with the national school food program back in December, but every Conservative member recently voted to gut the school food program. There is no dissent allowed in the Conservative caucus under the member for Carleton. Conservatives have to follow the line, whether that means gutting women's rights to reproductive freedom and abortion or whether it means voting against Ukraine, as we saw in the Ukraine trade deals.
We expect the member for Carleton to understand the importance of school lunches. However, no, the Conservatives voted unanimously to try to end school lunches for students who are hungry. That is unbelievable to me. They could redeem themselves in the next few days when we vote on this motion by actually voting for a national school food program, having voted against it so many times.
The big three chains are Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro. We have seen so many examples of how they have been trying to gouge Canadians. Most recently, we were involved in this. The NDP have been fighting back and pushing out. Many consumers across the country are speaking out as well. Loblaws wanted to increase the prices on expiring food. Members will recall there was a 50% discount when the food is expiring. It is barely edible, but it was subject to a 50% discount. Loblaws, with its massive profits and its massive executive bonuses, decided that they were going to raise the cost of that expiring food. There was a backlash such as we had never seen; finally, Loblaws backed off.
However, the reality is that when Canadians were polled, right across the country, just a few weeks ago, and were asked if inflationary pressure was an excuse to price gouge, 83% of Canadians said that, yes, the grocery giants are using inflation and are using the cover that is provided by the Conservative opposition and its closeness to all the lobbyists. We certainly see that, with the deputy leader and campaign manager all embroiled with lobbyists for the big grocery chains. The Conservatives have not said a single word, ever, about food price gouging by the big grocery giants. They have not said a single word in this House about it. Not a single Conservative has stood up to say that maybe the grocery giants should not be gouging the public.
Canadians were also polled with respect to what is the major impetus behind the rise in food prices. According to Canadians, the major impetus is food price gouging, and Canadians see it. They see that what is happening in the grocery chains is the lobbyists. The corporate Conservatives and the lobbyist Liberals are allowing the grocery giants to gouge Canadians with impunity. The fact that this was identified as the major factor for the rise in food prices should give everyone pause. Certainly, in the next election campaign, whenever that is, Conservative MPs and Liberal MPs will have to defend against why they did not take action to fight back against food price gouging. We know that grocery prices are higher in Canada than elsewhere. We know that the grocery chains and their concentration have led to abuses, and food price gouging is an abuse.
From the NDP's standpoint, we need to do start using the tools that have worked in the past. An excess profits tax would push the CEOs because then they actually have a business decision to make. There are actually consequences for food price gouging. They end up having to pay a price, and that price would be the excess profits tax that would be returned to Canadians in the form of the GST rebate. The member for Burnaby South and the NDP members in the House, including the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, have pushed the government to include increased GST rebates and the grocery rebates so that Canadians have more money to put food on the table and to keep a roof over their heads. That is vitally important. The excess profits tax would serve to ensure that there is an enhanced GST rebate for 11 million poor Canadians. At the same time, putting in place the national school lunch program would ensure that all kids in this country, regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of their family situation or regardless of how poor their family is, get food at school so that they can have the food they need to fuel their brains and to learn. That is a win-win-win.
It is a good-sense approach by the NDP. We take a different approach than the Conservatives and the Liberals. We have seen, over the last 20 years, what the Conservatives' approach did. It was terrible and lamentable. The Harper regime was the worst government in our entire history. It was mean-spirited, punching down on Canadians, forcing seniors to work longer, cutting veterans' benefits and services, and destroying affordable housing. It was a terrible, dismal government. The Harper government was just a terrible, horrible, no-good government. Unfortunately, the Liberals seem to have taken too much of their inspiration from the Harper government and have not done the things that need to happen, for example, cutting back on the massive money that is poured into overseas tax havens, into oil and gas CEOs, into the banks and into TMX. We believe, in this corner of the House, that supports should go to regular Canadians, and that is why we are here fighting in the House for Canadians.
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- May/30/24 7:58:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am well aware that the member has had a long career and that he lived through the Harper regime, the most expensive regime in Canadian history. Some $116 billion was given to the big banks to increase their profits. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, $30 billion a year went to tax havens thanks to Mr. Harper and his team. Of course, there was also all the money given to CEOs in the oil patch.
The costly Conservatives spent a lot of money on the rich and affluent. However, now we are talking about pharmacare, which will help people in his riding. It will help 18,000 people with diabetes who are struggling every month to pay sometimes up to $1,000 for their medication.
The question I want to ask my friend is very simple. Why are the Conservatives so keen on spending money on billionaires, CEOs and banks, but do not want to give a penny to people struggling to pay for their medication, such as diabetes medication?
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- May/29/24 8:56:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 71% of Canadians use natural health products, and many people felt unfairly blindsided by the Liberals' proposal to regulate them. We remember when Stephen Harper tried to force regulations on natural health products.
Can the minister tell Canadians what he is doing to ensure that people who use natural health products would continue to have access to safe and effective products?
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- May/22/24 9:55:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member opposite.
I would suggest that what the NDP believes in is stimulating investment here at home. This is something we believe very strongly in. It is the partnering of public investment and private investment. This is something we have lost sight of over the last few decades. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has pointed out that the infrastructure deficit in this country is now approaching a quarter of a trillion dollars, for sewage plants, bridges, roads that need to be reconstructed, schools and hospitals.
After the Second World War, there was a fair taxation system that asked the rich to pay their fair share and asked the profitable corporations to pay a certain level of tax. As a result of that, we were able to build a society that had massive infrastructure and allowed us to build schools, roads and hospitals. We have moved away from that. It was eroded by Conservatives, including the Harper Conservatives, and was unfortunately not picked up by the Liberals. After the 2015 election, they should have put in place a fair tax system that would have allowed for the public investments, partnering with private investments, to have allowed our economy to really take off.
These are all reasons why an NDP government would be the best choice for Canada.
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