Madam Speaker, the overall quality of life in Canada is in significant decline under the NDP-Liberal government, and we have the evidence all around us. Government is costing Canadians more while achieving less. Violent crime rates are increasing under the Prime Minister. Food inflation, as has already been said in the House today, is at a 40-year high. The cost of living crisis is ballooning, and basic necessities are becoming more and more out of reach for far too many Canadians. In fact, a record number of Canadians used food banks this past year alone, and reports are telling us that one in five Canadians are skipping meals. Those records are truly shameful.
The fall economic statement was yet another opportunity for the NDP-Liberal government to take meaningful action to tackle inflation. It was an opportunity to course correct and help the growing number of Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet. Instead, this costly coalition is continuing with its out-of-control inflationary spending and activist-driven policies that are hurting Canadians.
At the most, the NDP-Liberal government doled out more platitudes and offered remarkably out-of-touch budgeting tips to Canadians. Unlike this costly coalition that thinks it can keep spending and spending and that the budget will balance itself, Canadians already understand that they have to have a budget. The one in five Canadians skipping meals to help make ends meet certainly do not need advice about cancelling a Disney+ subscription from the out-of-touch finance minister and her government. They need a government that is going to stop pouring fuel on the inflationary fire with endless deficit spending and stop hiking taxes. Canadians need a government that is not going to keep making it harder and harder for them to pay their bills, heat their homes or put food on the table.
The reality is that Canadians are getting hit on all sides. A paycheque is not going nearly as far as it once did. Not only is the value of the dollar in their pockets decreasing as costs of basic necessities soar, but taxes are also going up. In fact, Canadians have never paid more in taxes. Quite frankly, Canadians are out of money.
That is why the Conservatives put forward two clear demands ahead of this fall economic statement: stop the taxes and stop the spending. There should be no new taxes on Canadians. This costly coalition should not be profiting off the empty stomachs of Canadians just so it can spend those dollars on its activist-driven agenda. It needs to keep those dollars in the pockets of Canadians so they can spend it on their own families' priorities.
This costly coalition’s plan to triple the carbon tax is cruel. The cost of home heating is expected to be double this winter, and they want to triple the carbon tax on that bill as well. It is a carbon tax, I might add, that has no meaningful impact on the environment, has failed to help the NDP-Liberal government meet a single one of its climate targets and has only succeeded in hurting Canadians, especially those living in rural and remote areas.
This costly coalition wants to triple the hurt. Cold winter weather has already arrived, and those higher home heating bills are already a reality. Basic necessities like home heating should not be out of reach for Canadians. In a country with an abundance of natural resources, affordable energy should be a reality for all Canadians, but it is far from a reality when we have an NDP-Liberal government that is so dead set on keeping our energy in the ground.
This is the same NDP-Liberal government that seems to have no problem at all importing energy from foreign countries with lower environmental and human rights standards. Only a Conservative government will remove the obstacles that it has put in place to strangle our resource sector. Not only Canada but the world needs more Canadian energy. Never has that been more obvious than in this last year as Putin wages war in Ukraine. Canada's failure to meet its energy potential is actually failing our allies.
Just the same, food insecurity is a growing concern globally. Adding insult to injury, the finance minister had the audacity to stand up in front of Canadians and proudly say that we grow food to feed the world while she knows full well that the government is destroying the viability of our agricultural sector.
Their fertilizer reduction plan not only threatens global food security but also food security here at home in Canada, not to mention its impact on food production and the cost of groceries.
When it comes to their failed carbon tax, our farmers and our producers are some of the hardest hit. Their excessive tax bills are in no way offset by the government’s measly tax credit. It is truly a slap in the face to our farmers, who are not only producing high-quality and nutritious food but are also doing far more to help the environment than the failed NDP-Liberal carbon tax.
There are obvious solutions to reversing the decline in the quality of life in our country, but the NDP-Liberal government cannot keep doing more of the same. To tackle the cost of living crisis that we find ourselves in because of the Prime Minister’s out-of-control spending, we have to bring government spending under control. It is one of the reasons Conservatives called on the government to cap government spending.
We asked the government to commit to matching any new spending with equivalent savings, just as, I am sure, many Canadians have to balance their own household budget. This fall economic statement continues down the path of spending beyond their means, at the expense of Canadian taxpayers and future Canadian taxpayers.
The members on that side of the House will be very quick to stand up in this place and try to tell Canadians that all of their deficit spending was and is necessary, and that they did it to support Canadians. The non-partisan PBO has already said that more than a third of the government’s spending had nothing to do with the pandemic.
The long list of wasteful spending continues to grow. Whether it is the overpriced arrive scam app, luxurious hotel stays exceeding $6,000 a night, CERB cheques that were issued to prisoners or wage subsidies given to corporations paying out dividends, there is obvious wasteful spending under the government’s watch.
The reality is that the NDP-Liberal government’s wasteful spending does nothing to support Canadians, but it does make more Canadians vulnerable and in need of support.
Only Conservatives are committed to stopping the inflationary deficit spending and to stopping the funding of government programs with printed cash. The potential for growth is immense, but we need to cut red tape and remove the gatekeepers that are standing in the way of our economic drivers. Instead of more cash chasing fewer goods, we need more goods.
The Prime Minister will find every and any excuse to lay blame elsewhere for the current cost of living crisis, but his failed and costly policies have directly contributed to the challenges that Canadians are facing today. The bills for his activist-driven policies are due and, unfortunately, it is Canadians who are left to pay for it.
The fall economic statement is inflationary, and it fails to address the challenges that Canadians are facing because of the NDP-Liberal government.
