Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the great constituents of Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations.
Budgets are not just balance sheets. They have consequences, and the consequences of the budget are already visible: higher food prices, fewer full-time jobs, rising debt and record food bank use. This is not theory. It is the lived, sad reality of families who can no longer afford groceries, seniors forced to return to work to cover basic costs, and workers who cannot find full-time hours. The budget did not fix that reality. It locked it in.
When the Prime Minister told Canadians how to judge his government, he said to judge him by “their experience at the grocery store”. Canadians have done exactly that, and what they see is sticker shock where supper used to be.
Today, Canada has one of the weakest growth performances in the G7. Food inflation is double the Bank of Canada's target, with food prices rising nearly 40% faster than in the U.S. and homebuilding predicted to fall by as much as 13%. This is not recovery. This is the cost of the Prime Minister, the costliest the country has ever seen.
Who would have imagined that we would have a hunger crisis in a G7 country? Last week, Feed Ontario released a hunger report that should shock the conscience of every member in the House, reporting 8.7 million food bank visits in Ontario alone and 24,000 visits every single day. One in 16 Ontarians now relies on food bank usage.
Here is the statistic that breaks the Liberal illusion that everything is fine: Nearly one in four food bank users actually has a job. Food Banks Canada puts it bluntly: “Employment is no longer a reliable buffer against poverty.”
That means that people are working but still going hungry. In my community of Brantford, in the past three years, the number of people relying on the food bank in a single year has doubled, from 5,000 to more than 10,000 people. The situation was so bad that the city council had to declare a food insecurity emergency. As the Brantford Food Bank director put it, “In 20 years on this job, I wasn’t sure we’d ever get here, where food security is being taken as an emergency in our community.”
When a Canadian city is forced to declare a food emergency, that is not a trend. It is a warning and a direct indictment of the failures of leadership in the country. More than half of food bank users now cite food prices as a reason they are there. More than a quarter cite housing. This is Canada in 2025, with parents skipping meals for their children, seniors choosing between prescriptions and groceries, and workers lining up at food banks after full-time shifts.
“Canada's Food Price Report” for 2026 confirms the worst: Families will pay nearly $1,000 more per year for food; 86% of Canadians are eating less meat, and beef, chicken and pork are all increasing at once, a devastating trifecta. Canadians are being forced to abandon healthy food because they simply cannot afford it.
Why is this happening? The Prime Minister keeps saying that inflation is global but government costs are very local. Fuel, fertilizer, transport and packaging: Every cost that hits a Canadian farmer now hits a family at the checkout. When Conservatives demanded that the government scrap the hidden taxes on food, namely the industrial carbon tax, the food packaging tax and the fuel standard tax still adding 17¢ per litre, the Liberals voted no. The results speak for themselves.
Under the Prime Minister, Canada now has one of the weakest growth performances in the G7. Productivity is collapsing, and business investment is falling quarter after quarter. Nearly one in five part-time workers wants full-time hours but cannot find them, because the jobs simply are not there. Last month alone, Canada lost 9,400 full-time jobs. At the same time, nearly 30,000 Canadians over the age of 55 were forced into part-time work over the past year, 10,000 of them just in the last month, as rising grocery bills pushed seniors back into the workforce.
This is what an affordability crisis looks like on a pay stub. Canadians do not need accounting tricks. They need paycheques they can live on.
Let us talk about the day care failure. For young families trying to raise children in Canada, the problem gets even worse. The government loves to point out the $10-a-day child care as a flagship success, but for families who cannot find a space or are still paying double that, the branding means nothing. Half of parents now report difficulty finding child care. Nearly one-third of families are on wait lists. Over three-quarters of centres have wait-lists, and 86% cannot find staff. Even the Auditor General confirmed that the $10-a-day promise is not the reality many families experience. Once again, this government announces a photo op and fails to deliver.
The Prime Minister also promised to negotiate a win with the United States, elbows up. Since that promise, tariffs have doubled, negotiations have stalled and foundational industries face collapse. At Algoma Steel, 1,000 workers lost their jobs after $400 million in Liberal subsidies with no job guarantees. At Crofton, 375 workers lost their livelihoods.
Last week, Canadians were also getting a stunning glimpse of how casually this government handles billions of taxpayer dollars, when it was revealed that the Minister of Industry never even read the contract that handed $15 billion in subsidies to Stellantis, a deal she later defended after the company announced 3,000 job cuts. Think about that: There were $15 billion committed and thousands of workers laid off, and the minister responsible never reviewed the agreement. It is complete and utter incompetence. That single moment says everything about this government's approach: no diligence before the cheque is written, no accountability after workers lose their jobs, and no consequences for those who sign away billions without even reading the fine print.
When the government claimed that it was separating operating and capital spending, Canadians were warned that the books were being cooked. The Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed exactly that. Capital investment was inflated by $94 billion. True capital spending is 30% lower than claimed. Corporate subsidies were falsely counted as investment. The operating budget will not balance itself for at least five years. The debt-to-GDP ratio is rising again. The new fiscal anchor has only a 7.5% chance of being met. Even with claimed savings, total new spending still rises to $90 billion, which translates to $5,400 per family. Even Fitch Ratings warned that this budget erodes Canada's fiscal credibility.
The Prime Minister also promised 500,000 new homes per year. The PBO exposed the real truth: Only 5,200 homes per year will be added. Build Canada Homes will construct just over 1,600 units annually. Rents will rise to over $2,000 per month for a two-bedroom unit. Instead of restoring the dream of home ownership, the Liberals are forcing Canadians into permanent renting status.
Before this budget, Conservatives offered a clear, responsible plan and solution: Bring down the deficit to the level the Liberals promised, scrap the hidden taxes on food, end the inflation tax by cutting government waste, and restore housing supply by cutting red tape and development charges. Every single one was rejected.
This is the most expensive Prime Minister this country has ever had, and Canadians are paying the bill at the grocery store, at the rent counter and on their credit cards. Every dollar the Liberals spend comes from Canadian pockets. The more the Liberals spend, the higher food costs rise, the higher rent rises and the higher the interest payment rises. Canadians now spend more on debt interest than on health care transfers.
Conservatives will not and cannot support this costly budget. We will continue to fight for an affordable budget, paycheques that beat inflation, homes that people can buy, food that families can afford and an economy that rewards hard work again. Canadians have simply sacrificed enough after 10 years of failed leadership. It is time to end the Liberals' out-of-control spending and bring home an affordable budget for all Canadians.
