Madam Speaker, I do not think members on the other side expect I will be glowing in my commentary regarding their budget. If they are, I am sorry to disappoint them.
I was in the House when the Minister of Finance presented the budget, and I was taken aback at one point when she seemed to be very proud, in fact she mentioned it twice, that the Liberals only spent $354.2 billion. She said that they restrained themselves by not spending an extra $30 billion that were in their projections. She repeated it twice and I thought to myself “$354 billion”.
The fact is that when the Liberals won the election in 2015, despite having fewer people voting for them, but that is our first past the post system which is fine, they were given a surplus. They said that they would run a deficit of $10 billion and never came through with that projection. They never came through on any of their projections as far as the deficit goes.
Last year's spending, 2020 to 2021, was 35 times more than the deficit they projected when they first came into power. It as if the Liberals have lost the sense of the worth of money, of fiscal prudence. If Larry and Martha, or any other small business owner or Canadian, were to borrow money and spend all their savings as the Liberals have, they would be in an extremely precarious state, probably evicted from their home. The Liberals are taking us down this risky path and they seem to be quite nonchalant about that.
The government does not seem to feel that what has happened to nations across the world and throughout history applies to Canada. We are Canadians. The laws and principles of the natural world of science, which Liberals like to affirm, also apply to economics. If people step over a cliff, they will go down, even if they are wearing a Canadian flag on their t-shirt.
I think of Argentina, a large and beautiful country. I have not been there but have read about it. It has many natural resources and a large immigrant population. A large European population went there during the late 1800s and early 1900s. For decades in the 20th century, it outgrew Canada and Australia in population growth and per capita growth, and was one of the 10 richest nations in the world. However, it made some poor economic choices and ended up defaulting nine times on its economy. Its inflation was in the double digits, and up to 5,000%, which wiped out the prosperity of the middle class. In the 1970s, it had a few years of sound economic policies, but then it started to go further and further into deficits and its external debt tripled in three years. People lost their savings.
Let us go a few thousand kilometres north to Venezuela. Venezuela is another story. It has the largest reserves of oil in the world. It was the wealthiest nation in South America. In 1998, President Chavez was elected, and his vision was to greatly expand social services, take people out of poverty and implement his socialist agenda. We know now how that fared. Five million people have fled that nation. People have gone hungry. The average weight of individuals has gone down many pounds, or kilograms. There are real shortages of any basic supplies, gasoline, everything. It is a disaster. It is harassing the press and has closed down independent outlets. It has taken over hundreds of private businesses. It has increased money supplies, and borrowing is out of control.
I can hear people saying that I am being an alarmist and that we should not be so ridiculous. I ask them to open their eyes to what is happening in Canada today.
How many rights and freedoms have been sidelined in our society because of COVID, and responding to medical needs and safety? Who would have believed we would be in the situation we are in right now a year and a bit ago? I do not think anybody would have. Borders are virtually closed. In British Columbia, and I am a member of Parliament from there, people are not supposed to travel outside their health authority. Places of worship have been closed. People are unable to see family, to attend funerals and weddings. People are dying alone. There are suicides. People are afraid.
I personally know a lot of people who have COVID. I had an uncle who passed from it. I am not saying that this is not real; it is very real. However, who would have imagined we would be in this situation? I would have imagined being in the House speaking. Now a few people are here and a few are in the virtual world. Who would have imagined this situation?
Why am I talking about this right now? It is because I am talking about the budget. I am talking about the problems that could happen to Canada. A year and a half ago we could not have imagined losing the freedoms we have lost right now. I do not think the other nations, which were doing so well, could have possibly imagined that their economies would collapse. That could happen in Canada. Let us not kid ourselves; this is serious business.
The Fraser Institute says that only 12% of the budget will go to directly support COVID measures. The rest or a lot of it is pre-election pandering. I know there is some really good stuff in the budget that sound really good, for example, the child care provisions. The only thing with the child care provisions is that they have been promised since 1993, under Chrétien and Martin. The Liberals have always promised it, but it does not show up. I have no doubt the Liberals will get a bottle of wine to celebrate the opening a few spots for child care.
I was talking to a member of Parliament a year ago. I said that we should not be surprised to be meeting in a few months. I was actually thinking it would be a few weeks. I was watching what was happening with COVID. He looked at me like I was crazy. I phoned my kids to talk about buying a place. I told them not to tell anybody, but I recommended they stock up.
Let me speak about a nation a little closer to home. How about Canada? Let us talk about Canada. Let us talk about Prime Minister Trudeau.