Finance Committee on March 21st, 2024

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I am saying that money is being held for small businesses. Small businesses will have good news soon, because that money is going to be returned to them, as we have committed to doing from day one.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Okay.

You mentioned that Premier—

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

That's true. I want to thank Winnipeg's own Dan Kelly for the work he's been doing with us on that.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Dan Kelly completely disagrees with you.

Aside from that, you mentioned what a great job Premier Kinew is doing. Premier Kinew is an NDP premier and we disagree on many things, but when he got elected, he recognized that Manitobans are suffering with the high cost of living. Do you know the very first thing he did when he got into office? He cut the provincial gas tax by 14¢, and he said it was because Manitobans were having trouble affording the cost of living.

Why are you increasing the carbon tax at the very time Canadians are experiencing an affordability crisis, unlike what Premier Kinew has done?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

There's a lot we disagree on, but I'm glad we can agree that Premier Kinew is off to an excellent start as leader of—

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Will you follow his example, then, and pause the increase in the carbon tax?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

One of the things I admire about his leadership is his commitment to a climate plan for Manitoba, because he knows this is an essential foundation for attracting investment and good jobs in—

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Why won't you follow his example and take the jackboots off the necks of Canadians?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I must say that language is entirely inappropriate when we're talking about a democracy.

I began by talking about Prime Minister Mulroney and the exceptional courage he showed in recognizing Ukrainian independence. There are people in the world right now who have real dictatorships oppressing them, like the people of Ukraine. To use that language to talk about a government policy you disagree with is entirely inappropriate and cheapens our discourse and democracy.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Seven premiers, representing close to 25 million Canadians, have now called on you to stop this tax increase. Premier Ford has also reduced the gas tax in Ontario.

Why are you increasing taxes on Canadians at the very time when they need a break?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Let's be very clear. Your line of questioning helps to highlight this.

The price on pollution is revenue-neutral. Every single—

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

It's not. According to your main estimates, it is not.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Yes, it is. Every single penny goes back to Canadians. The $2 billion you highlighted is money for Canada's small businesses. Canada's small businesses—

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Well, they've been waiting six years for it, Minister.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

—will be getting that money back—

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

When? What day?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

—and I look forward to an announcement in due course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Morantz.

Now we're going to MP Thompson.

[Joanne Thompson, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you.

Welcome to committee, Minister.

Mr. Forbes, it's good to see you back here.

I'd like to begin by asking you what my constituents in St. John's East can expect from Bill C-59 around supports, in particular supports for families and parents.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Daniel, I hope you don't mind my calling you Daniel, especially since it's your last day.

Daniel highlighted one of the measures I am especially pleased that we, together, are able to support. It is for adoptive parents: a 15-week shareable employment insurance adoption benefit. I know that, like me, you're a mom. I'm very glad we're going to be able to support more families once we get this legislation passed, so let's do it.

Something else that means a lot to me and that I was glad we were able to include is new paid leave for federally regulated workers to support women who have miscarried. I think for a long time we didn't talk about miscarriage. We didn't recognize the pain caused to women who miscarry. I know you're a nurse and a mother. I think it is high time for us as a society to recognize how physically hard a miscarriage is, as well as emotionally traumatic.

I'm glad that—again, once we get this legislation passed, so let's do it—we're going to be able to recognize a woman's pain and physical stress from miscarriage and provide her with some support.

[Joanne Thompson, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

You mentioned I'm a nurse. I will stay in that track and lean into acknowledging—

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I bet you've heard from women that we don't support them enough after a miscarriage.

[Joanne Thompson, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you for that. I believe it's quite a big step forward in acknowledging parental leave.

I also want to acknowledge the work the government is doing on health care and the dental plan, which I think is incredibly important, because it acknowledges that oral care is health care. I realize it's for uninsured Canadians, but that includes seniors and vulnerable persons.

Could you speak about the estimated number of persons who will be able to receive dental care through this program?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

For sure, and I just want to offer one more support in the health area, which I touched on in my opening remarks. I know you and I have talked about it, and I know it's important for your constituents. It is lifting the GST/HST on psychotherapy and counselling. It's always helpful for people to have access to psychotherapy and counselling, but we've been through some really hard times recently, so I'm glad that we'll be able to provide that support too.

Thank you for highlighting dental care. I don't know about other people here, but when I travel around the country, it is really striking to me how many people come up to me and say.... I recently had this conversation in a youth council. A young teenaged boy, a young man on my youth council, wanted to know when dental care would be available for his father's age group because he said his dad was suffering. He said, “I'd really like my dad to be able to go to the dentist and get taken care of.” That really brought home to me how many Canadian families are literally in pain because they don't have the money to go to the dentist or have to make difficult choices in their family budget.

There's good news: We're fixing that. So far, more that 400,000 children have been supported. Our estimate is that nine million Canadians will be supported with dental care. As you know, dental care is now being rolled out to seniors, with applications being rolled out to new age cohorts every month.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

I know you want to make a final comment, but we're going to the next member, MP Thompson.