Debates of Oct. 31st, 2016

Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Speaker, obviously, I am in favour of the Canada child benefit, but under the bill before us, the benefit will not be indexed for four years. That does not create the new day care spaces we need. I was looking at how much it costs to put a child in day care. It can cost from $35 to $73 an hour. This benefit, which is not even indexed, will pay only a fraction of the cost of day care.

In addition to the Canada child benefit, why does the government not also create, as we suggested, day care spaces and affordable day cares that cost $15 a day to help women return to the labour market after having a baby?

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Hochelaga for her question. I really appreciate it.

The family allowance is a very important measure that this government put in place. I am very proud of the fact that we are now sending money to those who need it most. We are going to lift thousands of Canadian children out of poverty.

During the election campaign, the NDP was the one that had a day care plan. The Liberal Party had no such plan. We said that we would rather give that money to the parents of the children and that is what we are doing with the family allowance.

I appreciate my hon. colleague's question.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his wonderful speech. I would suggest that he is a rising star in the House.

The Canada child benefit, the income tested tax-free child benefit, was a promise that effectively became our biggest strength during the campaign. In my riding we have young people who for the first time are involved in sports, in the arts and culture, and dance lessons. This is an incredible policy. Are you seeing the positive effects that I am seeing in your riding, such as food bank usage going down and things like that?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I am not sure if I am seeing the positive effect in his riding, but you need to address the question to the Chair.

The hon. member for Mount Royal, please.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would love to bring you to my riding to show you the positive effects that my colleague from Dartmouth—Cole Harbour speaks of.

Yes, in the poorer sections of my riding where there are many people who really need government help, I have seen more kids involved in those types of programs. I want to thank him for his incredibly kind comments and let me return the favour by saying the same about him.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would first like to thank my colleague opposite for mentioning the sometimes non-partisan work done by both sides of the House. The opposition's role is to acknowledge the government when it does something right. Unfortunately, the opportunity does not present itself very often. However, the government gives us ample opportunity to criticize it for not doing things right. Our job is to make Canadians aware of the government's mistakes, oversights and broken election promises.

We will always gladly collaborate at committee or through parliamentary associations to move issues forward, but sometimes, and people need to understand this, the role of the opposition is to look for things that might be wrong. This role is easier to play when the government gives us a lot of material, like the current Liberal government. Still, I wanted to acknowledge my colleague and his presentation, in which he mentioned the non-partisan work we do in this House.

I would also like to thank our new finance critic, the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent, who has done a great job since his appointment. To be put in charge of a file like a budget implementation bill and have to study it and give a speech on it with only a few days notice is no easy task.

Bill C-29 implements the Liberal government's first budget. Honestly, I think our colleague has done a great job pointing out the inconsistencies in Bill C-29 and, therefore, the inconsistencies in the Liberal government's first budget.

Usually, we expect a bill to implement a newly elected government's first budget to include the new government's plan, the plan promised by the Liberals to Canadians during the last election campaign. After careful consideration of the budget and Bill C-29 which we are discussing today, I find that, instead, Parliament is faced with a glaring example of Liberal void.

I would like to go back in time a little bit. Since the Liberals came into power, the legislative agenda is the lightest it has been in two decades. I can quote one of my colleagues who did some research with the help of the Library of Parliament:

The first few months of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government have been the least productive of any government in over two decades...

I am not making this up. The Library of Parliament looked into the matter.

Ten bills have been passed by Parliament during the first nine months of Mr. Trudeau's tenure. By comparison, the Conservatives passed 18 pieces of legislation, nine of which were passed in their first 23 days. These statistics, which were provided by the hon. member for Durham, speak volumes.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Speaker, pardon me for interrupting the debate, but the Prime Minister's name has been said twice now. I would like to remind my colleague that members' names are not to be used in the House.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I did not hear it, but if the member said the Prime Minister's name or that of any other member of the House, he should take note that names are not to be used.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I did use the Prime Minister's name, and I apologize. I got a little carried away in my fervour, but I will not let that happen again.

Still, I can talk about former prime ministers, including former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin. Internationally, he was seen as indecisive, but he found ways to pass more legislation as he tried to keep his struggling minority government afloat. During his first nine months in government, 36 bills became law.

How about another one? During Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien's first nine months in office, 34 bills received royal assent in 1994, and 38 more were passed after the 1997 election. The current Prime Minister has managed to pass a mere 10 bills.

It is with that in mind that we begin our study of Bill C-29. This being a budget implementation bill, one would expect to find the government's promises in it. It should include massive infrastructure investments, a modest deficit, tax cuts for small businesses, home mail delivery, an agreement on diafiltered milk, a softwood lumber agreement, and plenty more. Unfortunately, none of those things are in Bill C-29.

No one could tell me where those promises came from. From the beginning, the opposition has been reminding everyone and repeating the same thing. I took the time to confirm everything and went back a year in time to see exactly what these infamous Liberal promises were. I found a lot. I do not understand why they have not introduced more legislation, considering all the promises the Liberal Party made during the last election campaign.

First of all, let us talk about modest deficits. On page 11 of the Liberal plan, or what I call the Liberal void, it states:

We will invest now in the projects our country needs and the people who can build them.

They do say “now”, and not in 10 years or five years. Page 12 continues:

We will run modest short-term deficits of less than $10 billion in each of the next two fiscal years to fund historic investments in infrastructure and our middle class.

After the next two fiscal years, the deficit will decline and our investment plan will return Canada to a balanced budget in 2019.

That is one promise the Liberal government has broken. There was another promise about modest deficits. It is worth reading. Page 73 states:

We will be honest about the government of Canada’s fiscal position, and base our projections on the recent report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, instead of April’s outdated budget figures.

If the parliamentary budget officer is so important to the Liberals, why did they refuse, about 50 times, to allow the parliamentary budget officer's reports to be tabled right here, before parliamentarians?

Once again, they say one thing, but then do the exact opposite once they are in power. There is another interesting promise on the same page:

We will run modest deficits for three years so that we can invest in growth for the middle class and credibly offer a plan to balance the budget in 2019.

That is just one more promise the Liberals have broken.

To sum up deficits, I will quote someone who is not an opposition member. A TD Bank representative said:

The federal government’s deficit this fiscal year will be about $5 billion higher than Ottawa predicted in its March budget...

That is what the TD Bank is predicting. It blames the sluggish economy. According to TD Bank:

Over a five-year span, the cumulative deficit is likely to be $16.5 billion higher than forecasted in the last budget.

The forecast in the last budget was not $10 billion. It was not a modest deficit of $10 billion annually, but $30 billion annually. TD Bank tells us it will be even higher:

The higher-than-expected deficit will soak up the $6-billion annual cushion and then some that the government built in to its finances to protect against unforeseen events.

This could go beyond that even. The Liberals promised modest deficits, but I have to say that they did not keep their word.

As such, when it comes to budget implementation, the opposition parties feel quite reticent about trusting the other measures contained in Bill C-29.

Nonetheless, let us move on because there were other promises in the Liberal plan, or the “Liberal void” I should say. The plan says, “As we reduce the small business tax rate to 9 percent from 11 percent...”. Not only did the government not reduce the small business tax rate to 9%, but it imposed a tax on carbon which will greatly hinder small and medium sized businesses in Canada. That is another broken promise.

With regard to agricultural producers, we find this little sentence on page 16: “We will help Canada’s agriculture sector be more innovative, safer, and stronger.” How will they help the agricultural sector be stronger? They will “defend Canadian interests during trade negotiations, including supply management.”

The diafiltered milk problem was an urgent issue and a solution had to be found. The solution was simple, but it lay in the hands of ministers. Unfortunately, despite the numerous promises of the Liberal government and the fact that producers from all over Quebec and Canada came right here, to Ottawa, to practically beg for action on diafiltered milk, there is not even a single measure in the budget on this subject. There we have another broken promise of the Liberal government.

In the softwood lumber file, a file that directly impacts every region of Canada that has trees, those magnificent works of nature that grow and enable us to develop our economy, we were supposed to conclude an agreement. We had one year to try to reach an agreement with the Americans. Unfortunately, Bill C-29 contains absolutely nothing on the possible implementation of a new softwood lumber agreement.

However, the Liberal platform says, “Canada’s economic success relies on strong trade relationships with our closest neighbours: the United States and Mexico.”

Furthermore, the next sentence is really worth quoting: “Unlike the Conservatives’ short-sighted approach, our focus on rebuilding relationships will build a solid foundation for greater trade, stronger growth, and more job creation.”

Here is one last little sentence: “To underscore the importance of the United States to Canada, we will also create a Cabinet committee to oversee and manage our relationship.”

We have no results on the two issues that concern the Americans, softwood lumber and diafiltered milk. Where is this committee? What is it doing? Does it exist? Unfortunately, I must once again say that this is another unkept promise by the Liberals.

I still have many pages of broken promises to mention. Let’s talk a bit about Canada Post. On page 34 of the “Liberal void”, we read: “By ending door-to-door mail delivery, Stephen Harper is asking Canadians to pay more for less service. That is unacceptable.”

One year later, absolutely nothing has changed on mail delivery. The decisions that were made by the Canada Post Corporation, an independent organization, are still the same, and home mail delivery has nowhere been restored. Once again, these are false pretexts and another promise not kept.

This is what they had to say about Iraq: “We will end Canada's combat mission in Iraq.” They withdrew our CF-18s and sent our soldiers to the front, where they are in even greater danger. We had decided to send our jets to protect Canadian soldiers. However, they decided to withdraw our planes, for strictly ideological reasons, and to send our soldiers to the front lines instead, to help the fighters there do their part. Yes, Canada must be involved, but could we have the facts? Could we be told exactly what we are doing in Iraq? This is another promise that was broken by the Liberal government.

Last week, here, in the House, I witnessed some things that impressed me. Some Liberal members introduced very interesting bills that were given the nod by cabinet.

The bill to provide a tax credit for first aid courses was of interest to me. Cabinet members voted against the bill introduced by one of their own members even though we find the following on page 30 of the Liberal platform:

We will make free votes in the House of Commons standard practice.

We will give Canadians a stronger voice in the House of Commons by limiting the circumstances in which Liberal Members of Parliament will be required to vote with Cabinet.

I am convinced that cabinet members did not read these lines because they voted against the bill of one of their own colleagues. It did not happen once or twice, but three times. It is important to mention that the promise to have free votes is, once again, a broken promise.

The Canada child benefit will not give rise to any new administrative costs. It replaces and is based on the structure and success of the Canada child tax benefit.

In Bill C-29, the Liberals confirmed that they are going to index the Canada child benefit to inflation as of January 2020. The parliamentary budget officer estimates that indexing the Canada child benefit will cost $42.5 billion over the next five years. The parliamentary secretary said that they are going to move forward with the measure despite the financial pressure it puts on the public purse. The government did not provide for this indexing in the budget. The parliamentary budget officer showed that it will cost billions of dollars more than predicted per year. Where will the Liberals find that money? The Liberals have shown us where they will get it from the outset. They will find it in Canadians' pockets.

When the Minister of Finance introduced Bill C-29, he spoke about the future. He said that the purpose of the bill was to help Canadians. He spoke about a long-term plan and how things will be tough in the short term. In fact, this is going to cost Canadians a lot of money in the short term.

Let us talk a little bit about the vision of the Minister of Finance. I was shocked to read his comments in the Edmonton Sun this weekend. The article spoke about the Minister of Finance and talked about what young people and not-so-young people would do with all the time they will save as a result of technology. As everyone knows, today's technology allows us to do a lot more than before in much less time. Back in the day, we thought that would give young people more leisure time. However, the reality is quite the opposite. The Minister of Finance was asked some questions. I will read a brief excerpt from what he said, but before I do, I would like to say that I think that all young people should take the time to read this article.

The other day, Finance Minister...told Millennials, the generation most-addicted to high technology and social media, that they had best get used to a series of dead-end jobs and continuous retraining, coupled with bouts of unemployment, and a life where job security is a pipe dream.

That is unbelievable. What kind of message is the government sending our young people?

He called it “job churn,” as in never-ending job losses and job searches, resume rejections, and living day-to-day....

The Liberal plan for youth is to teach them to get fired, get a new job, get fired, get a new job, and so on. Is that the Liberal job-creation plan? Every new hire-and-fire will count as a new job. That creates zero jobs and puts us no further ahead.

The article quoted the Minister of Finance. Is that supposed to make young people feel hopeful?

The Minister of Finance said this:

“We need to think about, How do we train and retrain people as they move from job to job to job?”.... “Because it’s going to happen. We have to accept that.”

No, we do not have to accept that. Our young people have the right to stable jobs. Our young people have the right to work. Like us, they have the right to have a career, to succeed, and to hope for something better than going from job to job to job. The Liberal hire-and-fire plan is not good enough for us.

The economic forecasts are dismal despite the Liberal government's fine promises. The Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and TD Bank all say that the economic situation has not improved under the Liberals despite their fine promises.

I will vote against Bill C-29, and I hope that parliamentarians will vote in favour of the amendment proposed by our finance critic, the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent. His amendment amends the motion considerably, making it significantly more acceptable to Canadian taxpayers.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I take exception to a number of things the member has said. I have often talked about a number of concerns. Conservative members give the impression that when they lost governance a number of months ago, there was an actual financial surplus. They are not going to fool Canadians. Canadians know the Liberal government inherited a deficit. When Stephen Harper became prime minister, the Conservative Party inherited a multi-billion dollar surplus and turned it into a deficit of over $150 billion.

The Liberal Party has taken Canada out of deficits and into surpluses. It has provided surpluses in the past to Conservative regimes that have blown those surpluses. Could the member explain to Canadians, or at the very least explain to the House, why he believes the government should take any advice with respect to surpluses from a Conservative Party that has never really delivered a surplus?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, I recognize the talents of my colleague from Winnipeg North, who somehow managed to tiptoe his way around the fact that the parliamentary budget officer confirmed many times over the past year that the Conservatives left a surplus in the last fiscal year.

What I do not understand is why the government continues refusing to allow us to table the parliamentary budget officer's reports in the House, so that all Canadians can read them. The member needs to explain this rather puzzling decision.

How can the Conservatives be blamed for a surplus which the Liberals deny when these same Liberals prevent us from tabling unbiased proof from someone who is not affiliated with any party in the House of Commons?

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure I understood correctly.

A Conservative member told the Liberals that they broke their promise to restore home mail delivery. If I remember correctly, during the previous Parliament, it was the Conservative government that made all those cuts and reductions to Canada Post's services.

Does this mean that the Conservatives now support restoring home mail delivery? If so, I say bravo.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, I understand why my NDP colleague is a bit confused given all of the Liberals' broken promises. Eventually, it becomes difficult to know who said what and who promised what.

We never promised to bring back home mail delivery service. There is a simple reason for that. Canada Post is an independent corporation. The Conservatives did not decide to put an end to home mail delivery. It was Canada Post that made that decision.

However, the Liberal government promised to interfere in the management of Canada Post. How much is that going to cost Canadians?

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, new members of Parliament have come in as a result of the last election, and that member is one we are pleased with. I can assure his constituents that they are being well represented.

In regard to the Liberal question that was just posed, my colleague said that his government tried to table the facts. The truth of the matter is that last week the Liberal government tabled three big volumes called the Public Accounts of Canada. Those very documents show that we had a $1.9 billion surplus and that the books were balanced.

The Liberal member also mentioned how his party always brought forward balanced budgets under Paul Martin. Perhaps he could remind the House of how Paul Martin did that. He cut transfers in health care to the provinces. He cut back every transfer and balanced the budget on the back of provincial governments in all provinces.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when such a well-posed question receives a worthwhile answer, all I can do is build on what was said.

Good Conservative management practices yielded good results. During the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Canada had the best job creation record and the best economic growth in the G7.

We cut taxes to the lowest they have been in 50 years, such that a typical family of four saved over $7,000 a year. We did all that while working to balance the budget so that our children would not have to pay the price later.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Madam Speaker, I will get to it a little more quickly this time.

The member said that the role of the opposition, on the other side of the room, was to criticize the government. That implies criticizing for the sake of criticizing.

Does the member not think that the job of the official opposition should be to work with the folks on this side to come up with better policy on behalf of Canadians?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, that is exactly what we are doing. The problem is that the Liberals are not listening. We are working very hard to show them the problems that their policies will cause for our children. We are showing them the problems that they will cause for our small and medium-sized businesses and for job creation. Unfortunately, no matter what tone we use or how, they never listen to give them the right answers.

The role of the opposition is to emphasize the government's small problems to ensure that it takes into account the opposition's excellent suggestion and amends its bills in order improve them.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his excellent speech, which was very topical and honest.

During the election campaign, we heard some promises. We then saw the sunny ways, here, in the House. We saw the Liberal Party break its promises one after the other. My colleague tore up almost the entire book; there is not much left to tear up.

Our children were told that they will have precarious jobs. My colleague said it very well: our children and our seniors deserve to have a better life.

Could he tell me a little about the pension bill? Will it impoverish our seniors?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, once again, I know the page number of the Liberal promise concerning the Canada pension plan. During an election campaign, when a party sends its candidates out to campaign door-to-door in order to tell people that it is going to improve the Canada Pension plan, a 75-year-old might hear that and think that if the government is elected, their pension will increase the following day. People of that age do not think medium term or long term. In fact, at age 75, the long term and the medium term take on another meaning. Unfortunately, that is what the Liberals promised and that is what they are going to do. The enhancements will be felt in 40 years, and there is absolutely nothing for seniors now.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Before we continue, I would remind the hon. member for Mégantic—L'Érable and all hon. members in the House today that when you have reference documents in hand you are not to tear them up.

I checked in the House of Commons Procedure and Practice and on page 612, chapter 13, it says:

Members may hold notes in their hands, but they will be interrupted and reprimanded by the Speaker if they use papers, documents or other objects to illustrate their remarks.

There was a decision from the Deputy Speaker on May 7, 1999. The Deputy Speaker at the time indicated that:

The hon. member for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys is an experienced and capable member of this House and he knows it is quite wrong to use props. Tearing up bills and other papers in the course of his speech is surely using the document as a prop. I know that he is excited about the subject....

I just want to say that I understand that the member is very passionate about it, but that the House will not tolerate having papers ripped up and I assume that the member will be picking it all up and not leaving it for the pages.

Resuming debate. The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I was thinking of taking those very same papers and putting on them a piece of tape that said, “Promise kept.” Unfortunately, I will not be able to do that because it would be a prop and adding to what the member has cited.

What a privilege it is to stand in the chamber and talk about yet another very important piece of legislation that the government has tabled. Of course, it is all about the budget. When we think about the budget, we know it is all about priorities.

One of the things that today's Prime Minister stated a number of years ago when I was sitting in opposition with the then leader of the Liberal Party along with my colleagues at the time, was that there was an expectation. The expectation was that we as caucus members would go out and consult with Canadians and listen to what Canadians had to say about a wide spectrum of issues. I can say that virtually since our Prime Minister took on the role of leading our party he has been consistent on that very important issue that we need to work with Canadians, listen to what Canadians are saying, and then reflect what we are doing in this privileged House to ensure that Canadians are getting what they want the government to accomplish.

I would like to use an example. I have a constituent, Kourosh Doustshenas, who raised an important issue with me. It was dealing with budgetary types of measures. He raised the issue and I suggested that he maybe go out and do a petition on it, to try to show me and show the government some additional support. I want to provide this petition to the Minister of Finance because he and a few others, in particular members of the Winnipeg Real Estate Board and Manitoba Real Estate Association, had taken interest in doing that.

Let me share with the members of the House what that petition stated. Since 1992, the homebuyers' plan, the HBP, has helped over 2.8 million Canadians achieve their dream of home ownership. Also, the petition goes on to say that due to inflation the HBP has lost about $5,200 in purchasing power compared to 1992. It goes further to say that purchases resulted in over $2.9 billion in spinoff benefits and more than 22,000 jobs. The petition is calling for us to consider indexing the HBP to preserve its purchasing power and allow more Canadians to use it due to significant life changes.

I thank my constituents and I thank those who were involved. Most important, the reason I bring it up is because I truly believe that this government, more than many governments before it, is very genuine when it says that it wants input from Canadians. If we look at what the Minister of Finance has been able to accomplish in the last 11 months, it is overwhelming. I am going to do a year in review momentarily, but hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been reached out to by departments.

If I reflect on my colleagues within the Liberal caucus, I know there have been dozens if not hundreds of town hall meetings. In virtually every region of this great country, we have had MPs hosting or participating in town halls with the single purpose of trying to better understand what Canadians would like to see us as a government put in as priorities. I am proud to say that this government has delivered in many different ways.

That is unlike the Conservative Party, which lost touch with what Canadians wanted. I would suggest that had the Conservatives not lost touch, they might have done a bit better in the last election. Because they lost touch with real Canadians, we were provided an opportunity to form government. As the Prime Minister clearly indicated not only during the election but prior to the election, we can always do better. This is reinforced by this Prime Minister. In fact, many of my caucus colleagues genuinely believe that, and our efforts are in order to be able to achieve that.

When I look at this budget, I say it is all about priorities. What sorts of priorities have we seen from this government in the last year?

The first piece of legislation was a significant decrease in taxes for Canada's middle class. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars being put into the pockets of more than nine million Canadians.

We will often hear from the opposition benches, “What about small businesses? Give small businesses a break”. Let me tell members that what drives Canada's economy is Canada's middle class. The healthier the middle class of Canada is the healthier our economy will be. If we put money in the pockets of the middle class, we will find that, generally speaking, the middle class will spend that money, which helps the economy.

That was the very first initiative. That was a promise given by the Prime Minister, and that was a promise that was kept.

I was very proud when the Prime Minister indicated that we were going to have a public inquiry with respect to the 1,200-plus murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, many of whom actually used to call Winnipeg North their home. This is an area I was truly concerned about. I believe that Manitobans and in fact all Canadians care passionately about this issue. Within a couple of months, we saw a commitment to have that public inquiry. I think it was long overdue. I had petitioned the government in the past. Many members of this chamber had asked the prime minister for that to take place.

These are but a couple of the initiatives that were taken right out of the gate.

The other day we were talking about gender equity and how important it is. We saw a Prime Minister, for the first time in Canadian history, introduce a cabinet with gender equity. I think that sends a very strong message. Not only do we have a better cabinet as a result; it demonstrates leadership from a Prime Minister that truly believes in gender equity.

We have seen a government that responded to what was taking place in Alberta. We are all concerned about the plight of many Albertans. For many years, Alberta, as a province, was contributing immensely to our nation. Many people would go to Alberta to generate income and would often go back to their home regions to continue to support families and so forth. Alberta is an important province. This has been demonstrated by numerous ministries. We have seen literally hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the province of Alberta, because we recognize how important it is to be there for that province.

We have seen employment insurance changes that have enabled individuals who are suffering hardship the opportunity to have a bit more money. Where we can help, we have offered additional stability. We hope, and we know, that it is only a question of time before Alberta is back in the role of providing that strong leadership.

There have been many issues since those first three months. Where do I start? How do I try to encapsulate the many different things that have taken place?

I do not know how many speeches I have given inside the House dealing with seniors. Seniors are such an important policy matter for all members of this House. I am so proud of how much we have done in such a short period of time.

I could talk about the fear factor of Stephen Harper, when he said that there was a crisis looming and we had to raise the age of retirement from 65 to 67. Many of my colleagues will recall that.

Within months of taking office, we reversed that decision. We know that Canada, as a nation, can in fact afford to allow individuals to retire at age 65. That is something I think sent a very positive message with respect to our seniors.

However, that is not all. We also introduced substantial increases to our guaranteed income supplement program. That one hits home for me because of the many doors I knocked on, and we all knocked on doors. Imagine the seniors who we talk to, the poorest, the most vulnerable of our seniors, telling us they do not know if they can afford to buy their medication because they have to put food on the table, or they say no to food, or go to food banks because they have to buy medication?

This is a very real issue for many of our seniors. With the increase to the GIS, the poorest and the most vulnerable of all our seniors will receive up to $900-plus additional a year. When they make $12,000 or $13,000 a year, that really helps. That is something of great substance we are giving to our seniors.

Many Canadians, and I have produced petitions on this, have argued the importance of our three seniors programs, those social programs that are fundamental, that make us feel good about being Canadian. I have talked about two of them. I will now talk about the third one, and that is our Canada pension program.

For years we sat in opposition and asked the Government of Canada, led by Stephen Harper, to do something about CPP. For years he turned his head and ignored the issue. There was no will at all from the former Conservative government to deal with the need to increase CPP into the future.

Just months ago, we were able to come to a historical agreement. Individuals who are working today will have more money in their pockets when it comes time to retire because of the leadership demonstrated by this government and its ability to work with the provinces.

Even though the Conservatives today oppose what we are doing with CPP, I should remind them that all the provinces had to agree. All that Ottawa could do was demonstrate the leadership, which we did, and encourage it. We had to get the support of other governments.

It pleases me to indicate very clearly to Canadians and to the House that we achieved that agreement. Because of that, many individuals will retire with more money. On the one hand, the GIS is lifting people out of poverty. On the other hand, the CPP will prevent future seniors from living in poverty. Seniors are important for the Liberal Party and the government.

Let us talk about the other end. We often hear New Democrats being somewhat critical. I think they are just looking for excuses for voting against this progressive budget. They often mention Canada's poor or those who do not make more than $35,000 a year. The Canada child benefit program has been greatly enhanced. That increase will allow literally tens of thousands of children to be lifted out of poverty. It will be based on a scale of affordability. We do not need to give multi-millionaires the same money we give a single parent who has two or three children and is finding it difficult to make ends meet. There is more fairness in the Liberals' Canada child benefit.

I would challenge my New Democratic friends, who saw fit to vote against the budget, to show me a budget in the last 20 or 30 years where they have seen such a redistribution of Canada's wealth, where there has been more of a will to try to assist those in need.

Think of indigenous people and the level of commitment that is there in a tangible way. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. However, it is not just the money. We are seeing a new era of recognizing the value of the many different stakeholders.

There is nothing more important, and the Prime Minister himself has said this, than the relationship with indigenous people and a nation-to-nation attitude. Does that mean we will be able to resolve every problem, such as foster care? Trust me, I know the issue of foster care well. I represent Manitoba, which has the highest per capita number of children in foster care, and that is not a good thing. There are a lot of wonderful things. I will talk a lot about the positive things in Manitoba, but when it comes to foster care, the answer is no.

Many of the issues correlated with indigenous people have become so problematic over the years that it might take some time, but I believe that we have started off on the right foot. That is because we have seen the level of interest in this government in working with others.

We saw another achievement here today. A big part of this government's agenda is jobs. We recognize the value of jobs. In fact, I suggest that if we were to do a comparison, we would find that past governments did exceptionally well. I am thinking of former prime minister Jean Chrétien and some of the policy initiatives he brought in. We can contrast that with the last 10 years, when we saw a government that took a back seat and said it did not want to get involved. We now have a government that genuinely cares and is prepared to get involved.

The CETA agreement was signed yesterday, and I applaud the Minister of International Trade and her efforts. I know the immense amount of commitment, time, and energy she personally put into that agreement. As the Prime Minister and she herself acknowledged, we appreciate the efforts of the previous government. The signing of that agreement has fantastic potential for Canada's economy, manufacturing, and jobs. We are a trading nation. The Liberal Party is very much aware of that.

The last time Liberals were in power, there was a multi-billion dollar trade surplus. We understand the importance of trade surpluses and are actively trying to reverse the hole the Conservatives put us into. When they inherited that multi-billion dollar trade surplus, they turned it into a multi-billion dollar trade deficit. It might take us some time to do that.

I only have one minute remaining, but I have so much more to say. We have helped students pay for their educations. We have ratified the Paris Agreement. I could speak for half an hour on the historic investments we have made in infrastructure. We introduced a new teacher and early childhood educator school supply tax credit. We have invested in innovation at Canada's post-secondary institutions. We have built new business relationships abroad. There is so much more. I have not even talked about immigration.

I will leave it at that. I hope there will be questions.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his comments. Many of us on this side wanted to ask some questions, but I got the luck of the draw tonight.

We are doing a study right now on poverty and poverty reduction strategies in the human resources committee. One thing we found particularly strange was how many departments had not actually costed the CPP increases, and also a carbon tax.

As was also mentioned by the minister, how are Canadians going to be able to afford the increases from a carbon tax, considering that they have tight budgets? Kraft Dinner is something that a lot of Canadians eat at the end of the pay period because they simply cannot afford anything more. Now we are going to put a carbon tax on top of it, plus a CPP increase. The CPP increase can be upwards of $3,000, and a carbon tax could be $3,000 as well.

The member talks about what the Liberal government is giving back to Canadians. What are you taking from Canadians?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I am not taking anything from Canadians, but I will certainly redirect the question.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, that question demonstrates very clearly why the Conservatives are so out of touch with what Canadians really want and expect of their government.

Both of the examples that the member referenced were not just something that the national government had to put into place. We actually had to work with the different provincial counterparts, whether on CPP or the carbon pricing issue.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!