House of Commons Hansard #426 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was seniors.

Topics

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:20 p.m.

Liberal

Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to represent the riding of Edmonton Centre. When I go door to door and I see a small pair of shoes or a bike outside, I ask people how the Canada child benefit is benefiting them. They tell me they do not have to choose anymore between food and rent. They say their kids are in music or a sports club.

I asked for the numbers. In April 2019 alone, 7,250 payments were made to 12,300 kids, with an average payment of $630. About $4.6 million is going to families in Edmonton Centre every month. That is transformative to their lives, to how they run their households, to the economy of Edmonton Centre and, in fact, to the economy of the city of Edmonton.

A magical thing happens across a country, including small communities, when we take the country from 13% poverty to 9%. The economy does better, communities are healthier, families are happier and everybody benefits. That is what this government has done.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:20 p.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

Mr. Speaker, the member for Edmonton Centre brings such passion to this. It was so good to hear the story he shared of Ethan regarding the impact of bullying and what we need to do to support mental health among all our citizens, but particularly the young people in our communities.

I would like to ask the member about homelessness and the effect of homelessness in his community. He mentioned some numbers from Edmonton Centre. In Guelph, 13,150 payments have gone to 23,290 children, and $7.2 million per month is coming into our community to help people in poverty.

Could he comment on the impact that could have on homelessness in his community or my community?

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:20 p.m.

Liberal

Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development is doing exceptional work on the issue of housing. Right now, we are having an active conversation with him and the Minister of Natural Resources about how we can solve this issue for the city of Edmonton with a portfolio-based approach and focus on the 900 hardest-to-house people and their permanent supportive housing. When we have support from ministers who want to do right by the people in our communities, we can make a difference.

Edmonton leads this country in ending homelessness. About 8,000 people have been housed over the last seven years, with 5,000 more to go, 900 of whom are hard to house. When we get these 900 permanent supportive units done, we can get to the other 4,000 people. We will be the first city of our size in this country where the government will have helped to end homelessness.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:25 p.m.

Québec Québec

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Families

Mr. Speaker, of course, we are all listening very attentively to the member for Edmonton Centre.

I am curious to know whether he believes that our investments in the middle class and in helping more Canadians join the middle class explain the following facts: first, a million new jobs since 2015; second, the lowest unemployment rate since 1976; third, one of the fastest growth rates among all developed economies; fourth, a debt relative to the economy that is falling and will soon be at the lowest level in four decades; fifth, a typical middle-class family in 2019 having $2,000 more than in 2015; and finally, the lowest level of child poverty ever seen in our country.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:25 p.m.

Liberal

Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB

Mr. Speaker, I might be wise and just recap what the minister said to answer his question, because it was so well phrased.

Just this week, the IMF finally debunked trickle-down economics forever. Trickle-down economics does not work, full stop. What works is investing in people. What works is putting money in the hands of middle-class people so they can decide what is best for their families at the local level. When we combine that with making sure that families are better off by $2,000 because of tax changes and making sure there are well-paying jobs from coast to coast to coast, our economy will perform at the top of the G7.

As the minister and I both know, we are not fully through the recovery process in Alberta. However, promising signals are there. Of the 100,000 jobs created in the last month, 20% were in Alberta, where 12% of the population lives. That means jobs are coming back to Alberta, and our government will help bring even more of them to the people there.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:25 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, I want to go over some things in this budget that would benefit Yukon, in particular, and then some general things that would help the Yukon, as well as all Canadians.

First, as I said earlier tonight, Canada is the only Arctic country in the world, of the eight Arctic nations, that does not have a university north of 60. This budget is historic for Canada because of the $26 million going to Yukon College to build a science building, one of the key items that are needed. Next year, Yukon College will become Yukon university and Canada will be in line with the rest of the nations. The first course, which is not offered anywhere else and is also historic, will be a bachelor of indigenous governance. Because there are over 600 first nations in Canada, and Inuit, there will be a huge take-up on that particular course alone.

The territorial government has to deliver on education, health care, all of the things that provinces have to deliver, and there are great increases: $47.2 million for territorial financing, $2.3 million for health transfer and $0.6 million for social transfer, for a total of $50 million. Just to put that in perspective, Yukon is 1/1000th of the population, so if that were the same across the country, that would be $50 billion. It shows strong support for the territorial government. From what I remember, the other two territories will receive even more than that.

Before I go any further, I meant to start with something unrelated to the north. I am also the chair of the Northern and Prairie Caucus, and I want to mention another very innovative thing in the budget, the money for a water institution or program in the Prairies, which is hugely forward-thinking because it affects so much. The PFRA, one of the most popular institutions in Canada, was closed a number of years ago. The Liberal member from Saskatchewan brought this idea forward, and the Minister of Finance is financing a study to look at water, which is so important in the Prairies, including flooding, drought, the glaciers being reduced, water supply, irrigation, all of those things. This is a very forward-thinking item in the budget, and I thank the member from Saskatchewan.

I also have an ask for a women's centre in Watson Lake. I know those members are in Ottawa today.

In the north, the equivalent of western diversification or the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is called CanNor. Once again, it is receiving a great increase. We lobbied hard for this. It will receive $75 million over five years for a diversification program. There was an increase for tourism in the north of $5.1 million over two years. Tourism is Yukon's biggest private sector employer. The two biggest industries are tourism and mining. I treat tourism like a lost sector in Ottawa. It is much bigger than many other sectors, but over the decades, it has not nearly gotten the attention or support that it should have. We have a tremendous tourism minister now, with a new tourism strategy and great funding. I will mention more later in my speech.

I will talk about the northern trade corridors. I talked about how big $50 million was, but the north has been assigned $400 million in the trade corridors program, which is a massive amount. It is far more than in other parts of Canada. I apologize to other MPs here, but, as everyone in the House knows, that infrastructure is needed in the north for a small population that is spread out over more than third of Canada.

There is another huge win in the budget for the north. As I said, the biggest sector for Yukon's GDP is mining, and the mineral exploration tax credit was increased for the first time ever for five years, which everyone in rural Canada will appreciate. It has always been yearly, which made it hard for exploration companies to plan. This is so instrumental in their programs because the vast majority of them need this tax credit to do their work, as there is no good reason to invest otherwise.

Another huge item that affects us more in the north than others, but also affects a number of areas in Canada, is loan repayments for the negotiations of first nations self-government and land claim agreements for modern treaties. The way it used to work in the Yukon was they took 30 years to negotiate. The first nations that were negotiating did not have the money to hire lawyers and negotiators so we loaned them the money. By the time they got their land claims, they already owed a good percentage back because we had loaned them the money for the negotiators. Therefore, this budget has made a historic move of committing to reimburse the first nations that have already paid the money or pay that money for the first nations that have not yet done so. Hopefully, that will encourage more first nations in Canada to become the success stories of the modern treaties. There are a number of them across Canada, but the biggest number is in the Yukon, in my riding.

There is one other thing with respect to the north, which I do not think anyone in this House would know. In fact, very few people in my riding would know this, only scientists, but it shows the finance minister's attention to value. There is no political gain in this. Very few people know about it, but it is very important. It is called the polar continental shelf program. When people research in the north, like other university researchers, they can get the money to do the research. However, to get to the north, it costs a huge amount of money. I remember going a small distance, approximately the distance most members would travel to get here to Ottawa, which would perhaps take a couple of hours, and it cost $5,000. Therefore, these researchers need the money to get to their location and cover what other scientists do. That is what the polar continental shelf program does. I give big kudos to the minister for that because very few people know about it.

The general items that would help Yukoners the way they help everyone else are as follows.

The first is more money for homes and businesses to be more energy efficient. A lot of people have suggested that. It would be done through the FCM program.

Another is the increase for seniors. We have seniors projects right across Yukon and in the rural communities in Whitehorse, and we have press conferences that are so moving. The seniors benefit so much and have so much fun. It keeps them healthy and reduces the costs to government.

I said I was going to get back to tourism. For years, there has not been nearly enough money for tourism in Canada in the lost sectors. There is an increase of $60 million this year in this budget for tourism marketing, added to the increases in previous years. That is great for me because, other than P.E.I., which is a little ahead of us, the biggest private sector proportion of our economy in the north is tourism. Therefore, that helps us more than everywhere else, but of course everywhere else in the country would benefit.

Another item a lot of people might not know about is that we can make Canada bigger. Most people think we are set at where we are at. However, we can expand the area of the continental shelf we are responsible for, but we have to do a lot of geological explorations and discovery, as well as scientific work, to determine that, which costs money. Canada, Denmark and Russia are all doing this in the same area, so we will have competition. If we did not have the science, we would not be able to compete or increase the area we have responsibility over.

In closing, because I am running out of time, there is a big increase in indigenous languages. In 2017, I think it was somewhere around $5 million and it has been increasing every year. By 2023 or 2024, it will be up to $116 million. Therefore, the increase from $5 million to $116 million really shows our commitment to how important that is to the life, strength and foundation of the culture of first nations people.

I am sorry I could not get to the environment and the 50 programs we have there, but I will leave that for the next speech.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:35 p.m.

Conservative

Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for the speech he gave, which was kind of a summary of what is going on in his riding, as we are all expected to do on behalf of our constituents, asking what the budget has for our constituencies.

I noticed that he failed to mention some of the darker clouds in the budget, especially on the deficit and debt numbers as they are right now. I wonder if the member could comment on his comfort level with the government accumulating well over $100 billion of new debt in the next few years. We are at $705 billion right now, as the national debt stands. If we add in Crown corporation debt, we are at about $1 trillion.

One of the most interesting things is that when the government proceeds to borrow large amounts of money on the public market, the central bank, the Bank of Canada, reaches the point where it has now started to buy mortgage bonds, widely traded mortgage bonds on the market to fill up the balance sheet. It is unique. It is the first time in the history of Canada.

I would like to hear if the member has any concerns over the out-of-control spending, the out-of-control debt or the $1 trillion of debt, combining the Crown corporations and the Government of Canada.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to get that question.

First of all, I would like to say that I really appreciate the member. I have been on committee with him. He has a very positive input and I like that. I also love it when the Conservatives ask about debt, because for a majority of the years they were in power, they increased that national debt. I do not know why Conservatives keep asking about things in Parliament that they did such a terrible job at. If they are against debt, hopefully they will start convincing themselves.

The other thing the member did not mention was that because of all these investments, and the finance minister always calls them investments, there is $20 billion more to pay down that debt from revenues, because the economy is booming.

I am being cut off, so I cannot talk about more good news and things we have done. I have a long list.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:35 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague from Yukon. He touched on something that is very important to the people in my riding and people right across this country, and that is indigenous languages. The member talked about the money that the Liberals are rolling out, and the scale of the rollout, gradually building to $116 million.

The Province of B.C. stepped in and invested $50 million to save languages, because of the delays from the federal government to invest in languages. In fact, we are losing many native language speakers, month by month, especially the Nuu-chah-nulth people who have made it very clear that they cannot deliver the language, and extend that knowledge in that language, which helps identify who they are as a people, that is how important it is, without funding. They are looking for funding.

I was just meeting with Tla-o-qui-aht chief and council. Councillor Anna Masso says that they need money to be able to save the languages of their culture.

Will the government commit to accelerating getting that money out the door, so that we do not lose those languages from those native language speakers right now?

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, obviously I cannot speak to specifics, but I really thank the member for that. He expressed very well the need for this and the support for this.

I want to say two things, and the member will really appreciate this. We had a group of aboriginal youth, and the idea was that if they do well in school and everything, then they could spend time to build their culture with our investments, doing that later. Of course that is what a lot of people said to the youth.

However, a tremendous young aboriginal lady said, “No, it is the foundation, the language, the culture. When you have confidence in yourself built from the support for our own language, our own culture, that is what catapults you into success in your life.”

I appreciate the member's support for that.

The other thing is congratulations to everyone in this House. In this Parliament, we passed the motion from our committee to have simultaneous translation of aboriginal language in this House and in committees, which is historic. It shows young aboriginal people, who see their language in the centre of democracy for Canada, that they can go anywhere with their language and they should be proud of it.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:40 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, people in Vancouver East expect their government to make life affordable, sustainable and fair for all Canadians. They expect their government to be on their side.

In Vancouver East, I have heard from my constituents time and time again that we need real measures to make life affordable for Canadians, that we need immediate and urgent actions to protect our climate and environment. On behalf of the constituents of Vancouver East, I have been strongly advocating for measures such as affordable housing, public universal pharmacare, environmental protections, climate action and tax fairness. Instead, we now have a country faced with many crises.

We have a climate crisis, where if we do not take immediate action our planet will not be inhabitable for our future generations. We have a housing crisis, where people are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and getting priced out of their own communities. We have a criminal crisis, where billions of dollars in profits from criminal acts were laundered last year in Canada. We have an opioid crisis, where Canadians are dying every day.

We have a humanitarian crisis, where so many indigenous women and girls have gone missing and are murdered. The impact of colonialism is so deep and so rooted in systemic racism and failures that the national inquiry on the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls has declared that is a genocide.

It was deeply disappointing to see how budget 2019 failed to meaningfully address our many crises, never mind the many other challenges faced by Canadians.

For many constituents of Vancouver East, the number one issue facing our generation is our climate and environmental emergency. To meet our goals under the Paris Agreement, Canada has to lower its emissions to 325 million tonnes by 2030. According to the government's own performance report, we will only get down to 500 million tonnes, which means we are not even close.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report stated last year that we have 12 years to avert climate disaster through a drastic overhaul of all our current economic systems. We now have only 11 years left to achieve this. As the clock ticks, people have been demonstrating persistently for immediate action for climate protection and the preservation of natural resources from our leaders, especially our youth, who will be most affected by the consequences of our inaction. The government has a responsibility to create the systems and frameworks to protect our environment and our future generations.

Many scientists have stated that the technology already exists that can maintain quality of life without further impacting our climate and environment. We simply need the political will and courage to change. And yet here we are, buying leaky pipelines and adopting the previous Conservative government's weak carbon emissions target, as if we do not have a climate crisis at our door.

On another critical issue, we are still waiting on government action to address our housing affordability crisis.

Housing has long been declared a basic right by the United Nations, and Canada has signed and ratified a number of international human rights treaties that identify the right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right.

In our national housing strategy, most of the funding in that new strategy had been announced years earlier and most of that funding, a full 90% of what was announced in budget 2017, has been off-loaded for spending after the next election. Even at that, the vast majority of that funding will not flow until 2024. It is a cynical communications strategy that plays politics with people's real struggles.

The government, in an attempt to inflate the result of its limited housing programs, has even resorted to double-counting the results for “rhetorical advantage”. Instead of playing numbers games, what we need is for the government to make real investments now. To that end, the NDP is calling for a commitment of 500,000 units of affordable housing across Canada.

In addition, despite decades of promising a national pharmacare program, after being lobbied by big pharma 680 times, the government has once again let big pharma win the day.

I recently met an individual who told me that she is taking her daily medication every other day in an effort to save money. This is wrong. No more excuses. Canadians need and deserve comprehensive public universal pharmacare coverage now.

On a related matter, we also need accountability for the opioid crisis. While the U.S. has successfully taken on big pharma for misbranding OxyContin with the intent of defrauding and misleading, here in Canada, the government is refusing to take action. Instead, budget 2019 continues with the blanket tax break for the richest corporations.

Tax havens are still in place and will continue to take over $16 billion every year from much needed programs for all Canadians, and of course, big oil continues to receive subsidies. In fact, the “2019 Spring Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development” was highly critical of the government's accounting of tax and non-tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

As we now know, 47 billion dollars' worth of profits from criminal acts was laundered last year in Canada. It is extremely disturbing that money laundering has so extensively permeated the country. Equally disturbing is the fact that the report by Dr. Peter German, in B.C., revealed that no federal resources are being used to tackle money laundering. Literally, in the federal money laundering unit, no one is working on the issue of money laundering. This explains why there are so few prosecutions and convictions in money laundering cases.

During last year's statutory review by the finance committee of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, numerous expert witnesses agreed that to combat tax evasion and money laundering, the federal government needed to work with the provinces to establish a central public registry that would provide the identity of the beneficial owners of corporations and trusts. The Honourable David Eby, Attorney General of B.C., argued that this kind of registry is needed, in part by citing a study from Transparency International Canada. The study showed that it is impossible to determine the true owners of more than half the real estate properties for sale.

Denis Howlett, of Canadians for Tax Fairness, emphasized that the registry must be “in an open, searchable format”. Barrister and solicitor Mora Johnson added that a transparent public register would enable those searching the database to track the most common methods taxpayers use to avoid paying their fair share of taxes and to find individuals involved in money laundering. However, when all was said and done, the Liberals and Conservatives chose to join forces and ignore the recommendation of the majority of witnesses that a public register be established.

I also strongly believe that we need to increase oversight of home sales to ensure that sellers are not falsely reporting their secondary investment properties as primary residences, as this rule-skirting allows people to avoid paying capital tax gains.

I raised this issue when I was still the MLA for Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant. One way to address this is to ensure that proof of residency through income tax filing is provided at the completion of the sale transaction. With increased oversight and crackdowns on this behaviour, the increased tax revenue could be set aside in an earmarked fund dedicated to increasing the affordable housing stock in Canada.

Canada needs to put significant resources and effort into law enforcement, prosecution and adjudication to effectively tackle this problem. We can do this. We need to do this.

I have gone on also about the immigration issues that call for the government to not jam through the refugee determination process in this budget omnibus budget bill. The Liberals refuse to listen and are going ahead with it. Experts have already called on the government to stop this now. It would put people at risk, and most particularly, it would put women and girls at risk. For a feminist government, this is not acceptable. It still has a chance to do that. I hope that the government will listen to the experts.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

Mr. Speaker, in her speech, the member talked about housing and how some of it was a future-focused investment. Within my riding, we have four projects I am currently working on. One is a seniors housing project as a co-investment. It is part of the $40-billion, 10-year plan. In my community, we are looking at a $36-million project, 85% of which could be funded through the co-investment fund. We are working through city council and with our counties on this exciting project. Also, there are another eight homeless units going above a shelter downtown. We just finished financing a study on that and are moving through city council with that as well.

Could the hon. member mention how important it is to work with our local municipal councils and our federal government to get these important projects going in our communities?

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:50 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, in the province of British Columbia, the NDP B.C. government is doing its best to actually invest in affordable housing, unlike its predecessor, the Liberal government. In 16 years in government, it did not produce the necessary housing to address the housing crisis we face in British Columbia.

Of course, the federal Liberal government pulled out of the national affordable housing program back in 1993. This country lost more than half a million units of affordable housing as a result of that. This program the current government has introduced will barely catch up.

On the eight units of shelter the member mentioned, I have to tell members that I do not even have to walk one block in my community to find eight people who are homeless right now, today. It is insufficient for what is happening.

The government members can pat themselves on the back, but the truth is, if they walk down the streets in my community, they will see the crisis every day, and they will feel the urgency that we need to take action now. Local governments and the City of Vancouver want to act. Mayor Kennedy Stewart has already put that on the record and has welcomed the federal government to come to the table, put real money on the table and get it done.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleague sits on the immigration committee, and she made comments in her speech about some of the immigration sections that were kind of snuck into this large omnibus budget bill. I would like to ask her about one aspect of those changes.

One thing I hear from people I talk to about immigration, whether I am in Brampton, in my own riding or in other parts of the country, is concern about shoddy immigration consultants. I know that my colleagues from Brampton North and Brampton West just love it when I visit their ridings.

When people receive advice from shoddy immigration consultants, there is a concern about the impact that has on their lives if they act on that advice and it has negative consequences for them.

There is some discussion in the budget about changing the process of regulation, but what we heard at committee was that those changes really are a rebranding of an existing body and that there are some big gaps there that I think the opposition members share concerns about.

I wonder if the member can talk a little more about the failure of the government to actually address this issue of shoddy advice from some immigration consultants.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:55 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. Our committee on immigration actually studied this issue at length. It is the only study that produced a report where all parties unanimously supported the recommendations.

There was a recommendation to say that there needs to be government regulation of consultants in the immigration sector and that the time for self-regulation has come to an end, precisely because of the many problems that exist. People are ripped off, and they have no recourse. They are afraid to go forward with a complaint, because they are afraid it will impact their immigration application process, yet the government refused to accept the recommendation from the committee. It was a unanimous recommendation.

The government has now jammed into the budget bill this new regulatory process. It basically used the same people who had been doing this work, gave it a new name as a college, expanded its powers and said, “Here you go.”

I fear that this is not going to be sufficient to address the issue. I fear that the people who are going to be hurt are the very people who need the government to take action to protect them.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

8:55 p.m.

Liberal

Judy Sgro Liberal Humber River—Black Creek, ON

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have a few minutes to join in this debate tonight and to talk about the issues that matter to my community and to all Canadians.

I must say to my colleague from Vancouver East that the reason Canada now will have a national housing strategy and that the government is investing millions of dollars, in co-operation with other communities and other partners, is the very issue of housing my colleague mentioned. It is a serious issue across Canada. We are not just talking about the homeless. We are talking about seniors who cannot sell their houses because they have nowhere to go, and they are struggling as it is. There are a lot of people who are struggling and looking for housing. I hope that the way we are doing it, under our new national housing strategy, is going to help decrease the number of homeless people. More important, it is to help people find alternative forms of housing compared to what they currently have.

As we all know, Canadians made a choice in the last election. We all worked hard. We provided a platform that provided hope, hard work and opportunity. Canadians gave us the trust and the opportunity. I believe we have worked extremely hard over the last three and a half, almost four, years to make a difference. We have created over a million jobs. Canadians are working.

I can remember how many times I would be canvassing and door-knocking in the last many years and listening to people who were out of work. There were no employment opportunities for them. We have the lowest unemployment rate since the 1970s. That is a great thing. Sure we take credit for it. Maybe others could take credit for it too. All I know is that I am happy to know that Canadians are working. They are feeling successful. They have money they are able to invest in housing. They are able to invest in their children's education, and that is an important thing for all of us. That is why we are parliamentarians and why we come here. We want to invest in our country, and we want to see the government producing policies that matter to people.

The first-time homebuyer incentive will certainly help a lot of young people in their mid-thirties who are having significant difficulty just getting into the housing market. Once they can get into the housing market and stay employed, they will have lots of opportunity to build equity in that house and then can later on move into a larger house as their family grows.

Another way we are looking at helping people is with the Canada training benefit, to help working Canadians find the time to change careers. I have lots of people in the riding of Humber River—Black Creek who are in jobs they are not particularly happy in. The Canada training benefit we have introduced in this budget would give people the opportunity to change jobs and get into something they truly believe in and really want to do.

As we continue to invest in people, we are investing in full-time private jobs. That is what people have, and that is what we want to see.

When we talk about Humber River—Black Creek, we can talk about the over 300,000 children who are no longer in poverty and the thousands of seniors who now have other opportunities before them. If they choose to work, they can earn more money without it being taxed back. That is an important part of it.

Trying to find a house, trying to get a home and trying to get a job are all critically important as we move forward in this new world we live in. A more flexible and increased homebuyers plan will mean that Canadians can withdraw an additional $10,000 from their RRSPs. Before this budget, it was $25,000. Now people can withdraw $35,000 to use as a down payment.

By cracking down on the people who break the rules, we are trying to make housing affordable for everyone else. The increased funding for a rental construction financing initiative would help build thousands of new rental units all across the country.

We talk about seniors and the fact that we are maintaining the age of retirement at age 65. We are also encouraging our seniors to remain active by investing in a variety of programs, such as new horizons.

One of the great things we did in this term of Parliament was establish a Minister of Seniors. She is doing a wonderful job making sure that the issues of seniors are front and centre for all of us in the House, not just on this side of the House. Seniors will benefit all across our cities.

I appreciate having a moment or two to speak to this very important budget. I look forward to having another opportunity in the days to come.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Conservative

Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would like to correct the record from earlier to include the name Lily Mesh in my speech in thanking my staff. I obviously had a moment of forgetfulness.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

It may not be what we consider a valid point of order, but it is an important point to make.

It being 9 p.m., pursuant to order made earlier today it is my duty to interrupt the proceedings and put forthwith every question necessary to dispose of the report stage of the bill now before the House.

The question is on Motion No. 1. A vote on this motion also applies to Motions Nos. 2 to 17. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

All those opposed will please say nay.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

In my opinion the yeas have it.

And five or more members having risen:

The recorded division on the motion stands deferred. The recorded division on this motion will also apply to Motions Nos. 2 to 17.

The question is on Motion No. 18. A vote on this motion also applies to Motions Nos. 19 to 33. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1Government Orders

9 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.