Finance Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2026

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Hold on, but let me finish because—

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

No. I just need—

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Don't you want the answer? I'm trying to answer your question.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

No, I just needed the clarification, Minister.

I have a question.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

There are aspects of it that would support [Inaudible—Editor] investment as well in the structure—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

I'm sorry. Minister and Ms. Cobena, I would ask both of you to pause for a second.

Ms. Cobena, please continue.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Would a family with three children, with both parents earning minimum wage, qualify for this rebate?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I would say the data I have is for a family of two children, which will receive $1,899.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

No. The question was regarding a family earning minimum wage with three children.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

We will provide you with the information. We have to look at the table to be accurate with Canadians.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

The answer is no. I looked at the table published by the Government of Canada. The answer is no. If they are making a minimum wage of $17.50, with both parents working full time and with three children, they don't qualify. They're seeing infant formula go up 13%.

The next question is, would a married couple earning less than $61,000 and living paycheque to paycheque qualify for this rebate?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

We would be happy to look at the table and provide you an answer for that.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Minister, you published the table.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. If you have the table in front of you, you should have the data to be able to answer that.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

The questions are based on the table.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I'm telling you what the benefit is going to be. If you're referring to the table you have, you can quote it. We'll be happy to respond to you.

[Sandra Cobena, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I have the table you published. The answer is no.

Would a single father with two children earning $67,000 a year and facing grocery prices receive this support, yes or no?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

You seem to have the answers. I will let you speak for the record.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Ms. Cobena.

Minister, we'll pause it there. Thank you very much.

We're going to continue with Mr. Leitão for five minutes, please.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Minister, thank you again.

Could you carry on with what you were saying? You were explaining something to our colleague, but you were being constantly interrupted. You were talking about why such a program is needed. Our Conservative friends seemed to be on board, but I agree with you that they now seem a little more reluctant.

Can you remind us why such a program is so important and so necessary?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I hear you. I think people at home are wondering the same thing. I've always said that, in politics, you have to be authentic, humble and empathetic. On the authenticity front, people have questions. The Conservatives voted in favour of the measure, but now, during committee testimony, they seem to be against it. People are a bit surprised by that.

However, as you said, this is a very important measure. That's why we introduced it. People have asked us to help them right now. As I said, they understand that the economy will grow between now and 2030, but they need help right now. That's why we stepped up.

Mr. Leitão, as an economist, you know that we've introduced a series of measures to help Canadians. The first thing we did was lower taxes for 22 million Canadians. This measure will help 12 million Canadians who need help. Many people have applauded this type of measure because it will provide compensation to low-income families.

Our Conservative colleague mentioned some data points. What I presented was the published data for a couple with two children and for a single person. This measure will definitely improve things for several million Canadian families, but I want to emphasize what matters here. Mr. Leitão, you'll understand, because you've been a government member, too. Structural measures are what matter most, but people don't seem to be talking about them, and I don't understand why people aren't asking me questions about them. Making the food supply chain more resilient is a good thing. Ensuring that measures are in place to help Canadian families and the industry at a time like this is important.

Folks at home know what's what. They know that the price of chicken, beef, pork and lettuce has gone up. That's why we need to put measures in place to help people during these harder times. I still think that, at the end of the day, people know what's what. They know that we need to implement temporary measures and that we're also going to be able to implement structural measures to build greater resilience in the country's food supply chain.

[Carlos Leitão, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

That's right, Minister. During discussions about food inflation here and in the House, people have often mentioned rapidly rising meat prices, for example. However, I'm sure everyone is aware of the fact that higher meat prices are essentially a supply issue. There's a meat shortage. Because of climate change and very precarious conditions in recent years, especially in western Canada, herds have shrunk dramatically. What can we do? If there are no cows, there are no cows. Essentially, certain circumstances and elements have a disproportionate impact on the total price.

You mentioned something earlier that I think is very important. When we look at all this, we see that food inflation is largely due to the prices of about four or five products.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

You're absolutely right.

One thing the opposition will never talk about is prices that have gone down. Cellphone prices are down. The cost of child care has come down as well. The opposition will never talk about those things, because they're obviously not the things they want to bring attention to.

You're right that there are structural factors. You're right about beef. Again, Canada is not alone in this.

What matters today is that we are taking action. That's why I find our Conservative colleagues' questions kind of surprising. Instead of criticizing the measure they voted for, they should be telling Canadians that these are good things and that they are supporting the government for once because they know that this measure will help Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Leitão.

We're going to wrap up this hour with two and a half minutes for Mr. Garon.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you that people can't eat cellphones. We're talking about the price of groceries, but I'm glad if that helps.

I feel like we're not at the same committee meeting. You're telling us that no opposition members bothered to ask you about structural measures for the future. However, when it was my turn earlier, I asked you to give me just one more measure you would implement to improve competition in the grocery sector. That was pretty generous of me to ask for just one. You didn't have any ideas then, so try again.