Finance Committee on June 8th, 2026

[Jake Sawatzky, Liberal, New Westminster—Burnaby—Maillardville, BC]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

I'm sorry. I didn't hear that, Mr. Sawatzky.

[Jake Sawatzky, Liberal, New Westminster—Burnaby—Maillardville, BC]

I would like to correct the record.

I didn't say that. When we were talking about this specific clause, I said that they were speaking in very general terms and that we wanted to get more specific so we could actually get something done. That's what I was referring to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Sawatzky.

Mr. Lake.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Leduc—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I appreciate that clarification.

If you take a look at the clause, it talks about—I know I can't read it out—a report on “nominal and inflation-adjusted dollars”.

I remember a time—this was before Mr. Sawatzky's time in the House—when we were talking about the spending we saw ramping up during and beyond COVID. I remember our leader Pierre Poilievre, in the House of Commons, day after day talking about the impact of all that spending on inflation. I remember both the former prime minister and former finance minister Chrystia Freeland laughing that off. In fact, there was a fairly famous exchange between former prime minister Trudeau and I believe Glen McGregor, a reporter. He was asking about the impact of inflation. The former prime minister literally laughed and said that inflation was at a record low. He was laughing it off. It clearly isn't something that is—

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Mr. Turnbull, go ahead on your point of order.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

It's on the relevance of Justin Trudeau and a different government to the argument that the member is making regarding this particular clause, which—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.

I will again ask the member to—

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Hold on for one second, Mr. Kelly.

I will once again ask the member to stick to relevance and the topic at hand, which is subamendment seven to CPC-13. It is on an additional reporting requirement of a report.

Mr. Kelly, do you have a point of order?

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Yes.

It's standard to allow members to correct the record when they've misspoken. I heard Mr. Turnbull say on the record say that this is a new government. This is not a new government. This is a—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you very much, Mr. Kelly. That's debate. Nice try.

Mr. Lake.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

I'm here available for civics lessons anytime.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Kelly.

Mr. Lake has the floor.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Leduc—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I have the benefit of sitting near Mr. Kelly and getting civics lessons every day during question period, so I can attest to the value of that.

I will point out, though, that this subamendment is only four lines long, and I was definitely on topic talking about inflation and the importance of including inflation-adjusted information in reports. I think it's even more relevant because we're dealing with a now 11-year-old government—the current government is much like the old government—and a finance minister who has been in the government for 11 years. It's a government that has just laughed off inflation. It has literally laughed it off if you look back at the clips.

We're talking about a subamendment that says that maybe it would be important for reporting to include inflation-adjusted information, because we're seeing the impacts of inflation. This inflation is directly attributable to the deliberate actions of the government and deliberate steps that the government has done to increase spending to levels we've never seen in this country, to increase debt to levels we've never seen in this country, to ramp up deficits—

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Mr. Lake, please stick to subamendment seven of CPC-13, which I will remind you is on additional reporting for a report on the CPP.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Leduc—Wetaskiwin, AB]

It talks about reporting both nominal and inflation-adjusted dollars. It talks about the impact of inflation.

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

It's going forward.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Leduc—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I'm sorry, Mr.—

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

It's not the past four years, but the next four years—going forward.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Leduc—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I'll allow the Liberal member to weigh in. We'd love to hear what the Liberals think about this, so if—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Please continue, Mr. Lake.

Again, it's been a theme of the day to make sure that we are consistently referring to the subamendment we are on in clause-by-clause, so I will ask you to stick to the topic at hand.