Mrs. Kusie. I'm sorry.
What I was trying to say is that, on the one hand, we have a budget that provides a vision to 2030, with strategic investments to grow the economy, which has been applauded by a former parliamentary budget officer, by the markets, if you look at the bond markets, and by Canadians. Two-thirds of Canadians have said the plan.... They see why. We're rebuilding housing, and this is a key affordability measure. If you can have a home that you can afford, it's less a part of your disposable income.
The fact that we're investing in infrastructure is much-needed. I'll give you a sense of perspective, because I think that's helpful to everyone.
If you look at the largest infrastructure plan in the G7, many were referring to the German plan, which has 500 billion euros over 12 years. If you put that in Canadian dollars, you would be at $800 billion over 12 years for Germany. Compare that to the Canadian plan. On a cash basis, we're at $450 billion over five years, so we have one of the largest infrastructure plans in the G7, and I'm not even adjusting it for the size of the economy. The German economy is twice the size of Canada's.
That's why the G7 realizes and why international institutions have said that if you have the fiscal capacity and have a AAA credit rating.... There are two countries that can afford that: Germany and Canada. These two countries have decided to do smart things in infrastructure, housing, productivity innovation and, in our case, defence. You have the building blocks.
Why did we do the grocery benefit? We did it because it's part of our Canadian values, in a sense. We know families are hurting and it's a tough time, so we looked at the excess food inflation since COVID—$782. We said we were going to give a boost for one year so that people could capture that. We're going to give them a bridge before the economic impacts of our plan are felt in the economy, because it obviously takes time.
We have the Major Projects Office and the one Canadian economy. You saw a report recently that said if we removed all the barriers between the provinces, we would add $210 billion to the Canadian economy.
This is a work in progress. Buy Canadian and the defence industrial strategy are going to be levers to build our country. We can't control what's going on south of the border or anywhere else, but what we can do for ourselves is build the most resilient economy and have the strongest economy in the G7. By the way, we have the second-fastest growing economy in the G7.
When you look at that, I say it's a matter of choice. I respect my colleagues who were asking questions, but if you have the fiscal capacity to help people in a time of need, I think you need to do it.
We know that affordability and food are the key. You have three things. You have rent and the cost of shelter and food. Then you go to cars and car loans, and then you go to student loans. We have been trying to act on all these levers to make housing more affordable and to make sure we can help structurally as well.
My colleagues will appreciate that we talked to farmers. Farmers said to me, “It's good that you helped fund structural improvements.” That's why we put in $500 million for more abattoirs, more cold rooms and better transportation systems. They wanted us to have a national food security strategy and grow more. Canada imports about 30% of its produce. When you get to winter, it's 80% to 90%. There's a reason things spike. It's because we're subject to currency fluctuation, climate change and tariffs, so we need to grow more in Canada.
Not only did we do something for families, but we did something structurally, which will help us have more food security and be more resilient as a nation.
