Debates of April 26th, 2021

Financial Statement of Minister of Finance

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Madam Speaker, we are in an unprecedented situation. We are facing a terrible pandemic. Concerning the spending, can we ask parents how much money they would pay to save the life of their child at the hospital? Can we ask a firefighter why they used too much water to put out a fire and save the country?

We are investing in this country because we would like every single Canadian family to have bread on the table. We have to support all Canadians, from coast to coast to coast, and this necessarily means spending. We should spend to help children, students, families, vulnerable communities and all elements of society so they are able to fight the pandemic and get back to a normal life—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

It is time for the next question.

The hon. member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Madam Speaker, my colleague was saying that concrete action needs to be taken. Right now, in Quebec, housing is an area in which concrete action really needs to be taken.

I am pleased that my colleague is from Quebec. Every day, we see articles in the paper about the housing crisis in Quebec.

Two weeks ago, in Verdun, people were lining up to see an apartment. Right now, in Quebec, 450,000 households are in urgent need of housing, 250,000 households spend more than 50% of their income on housing and 82,000 households spend more than 80% of their income on housing. That is outrageous.

The government announced a $1.5-billion investment in the rapid housing initiative. That is not a bad thing, but the Federation of Canadian Municipalities was calling for a $7-billion investment in that program. There are 40,000 households waiting for low-income housing in Quebec.

Is it not time for a real, meaningful program to put an end to the pandemic housing crisis in Canada and in Quebec?

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

I doubt anyone realizes just how proud I am to be a Canadian MP from Quebec.

I can tell my colleague that the government is giving the Province of Quebec all the tools and funding it needs to advance.

We just announced a high-speed Internet access project. Here in my riding, we announced several million dollars to build affordable housing units. We also invested in major green infrastructure projects.

The government is giving Quebec everything it needs to get to work, create jobs and grow its economy. That is what we—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

Order. I will allow another brief question.

The hon. member for Vancouver East.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Madam Speaker, students are faced with crushing debt loads. Nearly half a million Canadian students turn to student loans each year to cover their student costs. An average undergrad student's debt is over $30,000.

The offer of waiving the interest is not enough. Would the member support forgiving at least part of the loan, say $20,000 per student?

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Madam Speaker, no previous government has given students the help this government has. We are supporting students. We are supporting post-secondary students. We are supporting students who are children. We created a child benefits program to support students who have to stay home to take care of seniors.

We have been there for students, and we will continue to be because we in this government believe that students are the future of Canada. Students who are better educated and receive more help will be better able to build a better Canada. As the Prime Minister said, better is always possible.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

Before I resume debate, I want to remind members to pay attention to the signals we are giving them. That way, we will not need to cut off the questions and answers. We should be able to get in at least three questions during questions and comments.

Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to budget 2021 today.

In 2019, our government was elected for a second time, with the commitment to invest in the things that matter most to Canadians: healthcare, child care, affordable housing, creating good well-paying jobs, support for seniors and families, and protecting the environment. Budget 2021 makes important investments to deliver on our commitment and continue to build on the work we have done to support Canadians during the pandemic.

This past year has been an extraordinarily difficult time for Canadians and people around the world. COVID-19 has changed the way we do everything, including how the House of Commons operates. Over the last year, there has been a historic flow of federal aid to brace the financial foundations of businesses and households across Canada. Budget 2021 lays the groundwork for a strong post-pandemic recovery and outlines spending for critical measures aimed at getting our country through the third wave of the pandemic and stimulating the economy.

Canada entered the global pandemic in a strong fiscal position, which has allowed our government to provide unprecedented support for Canadians. Budget 2021 is a progressive budget that lays out a clear plan to ensure that Canada builds back better by focusing on three main fundamental challenges: keeping Canadians safe, recovering from immediate pain and rebuilding for the long term. I cannot possibly speak about all the investments in the budget, so I will highlight just a few.

Our government has been there to support Canadians through the pandemic from day one, and we know there is a need for more immediate spending to address the third wave of COVID-19, which is hitting hard. This will be done through the extension of key subsidy programs. With variants of concern spreading and COVID-19 case counts on the rise, budget 2021 includes a three-month extension of the federal wage and rent subsidies. Set to expire in June, the supports will now be available through September, at a cost of approximately $12 billion.

The pandemic has been called a “she-cession” because women have been disproportionately impacted. It has shone a light on the need for safe, affordable child care and early learning. This need is not new. We have known since 50 years ago that the number one thing holding women back in the workforce is access to child care. In the last Parliament, as vice-chair of the status of women committee, I too recognized that child care would allow women to participate fully in the economy.

Thirty-one years ago, when my son was born, I had three months of maternity leave. I worked in real estate investment banking, and when it came time to return to work, I realized the cost of child care was too expensive to make it worthwhile. I called my boss and told him that while I wanted to return to work, it did not make financial sense. He said he would double my salary to start and told me that I could take whatever time I needed if my son was sick. I recognize that I was incredibly privileged to have a boss that was willing to do that, and even though he was incredibly generous over the years and was always true to his word about time off work, child care was a constant worry. That is why our investments in early learning and child care are so important to me.

As part of a feminist economic policy, budget 2021 proposes to provide $30 billion over five years, and $8.3 billion per year thereafter, to build a high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child care system across Canada. This funding will allow for a 50% reduction in average fees for regulated early learning and child care in all provinces outside of Quebec, to be delivered by the end of 2022. It will also ensure annual growth in quality and affordable child care spaces across the country, ensuring high-quality early learning and child care, for an average of $10 a day. This is social infrastructure that will drive jobs and growth. It is feminist economic policy. It is smart economic policy that will increase Canada’s GDP by 1.2%, allowing more women to return to the workforce.

Cancer is a leading cause of disease-related death in Canadian children. More targeted research is needed to help save lives. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $30 million over two years to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to fund pediatric cancer research that can lead to better outcomes and healthier lives for these young patients. The funding will support promising research projects with the greatest potential for fighting pediatric cancer. I know too many children like Ayverie Caster, Carson Clapham and Teagan Walsh, who were lost to this terrible disease. I am so proud of the work being done at SickKids by Dr. David Malkin, who is fighting childhood cancer, and look forward to what he and others can do with this new funding.

A recommendation that came out of the Halton round tables on youth vaping I have hosted over the last two years was the need for a tax on vaping products. Budget 2021 proposes to introduce a new taxation framework for the imposition of excise duties on vaping products in 2022. The federal government will work with any province and territory that may be interested in a federally coordinated approach to taxing these products.

I have had the pleasure of working with Diabetes Canada and Mike Swartz from my riding to advance the need for investments in a national framework for diabetes. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $25 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, to Health Canada for additional investments for research on diabetes, including in juvenile diabetes, surveillance, prevention and to work toward the development of a national framework.

Budget 2021 also proposes to provide $10 million over five years for a new diabetes challenge prize. This initiative will help surface novel approaches to diabetes prevention and promote the development and testing of new interventions to reduce the risks associated with type 2 diabetes.

As Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services, I am pleased to see the historic investments for indigenous peoples and their businesses included in budget 2021. Through this budget, we are proposing historic new investments of over $18 billion over the next five years to improve the quality of life and create new opportunities for people living in indigenous communities. Working with indigenous partners, these investments would make significant strides in closing gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples; support healthy, safe and prosperous indigenous communities; and advance meaningful reconciliation with first nations, Inuit and the Métis nation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for Canada’s seniors. Many have spent the past 13 months isolated from family and friends. For far too many seniors who live in long-term care, this year has been tragic: They have been the overwhelming casualties of the pandemic. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $3 billion over five years to Health Canada to support provinces and territories in ensuring standards for long-term care are applied and permanent changes are made.

To keep seniors safe and improve their quality of life, the federal government will work collaboratively with provinces and territories, while respecting their jurisdiction over health care, including long-term care. This work will ensure seniors and those in care live in safe and dignified conditions. The budget also proposes to increase old age security by 10% for seniors 75 and over, beginning in 2022.

Budget 2021 builds on Canada’s investments in youth, with over $5.7 billion over five years to help young Canadians pursue and complete their education, to provide additional relief from student loan debt for young graduates, and to create 215,000 new job skills development and work opportunities. To ensure youth and students can access valuable job skills and experience, budget 2021 is proposing to invest $721 million in the next two years to help connect them with employers and provide them with quality job opportunities.

This budget mentions Black Canadians an unprecedented 122 times. I heard from individuals in my riding like Colin Lynch and Evangeline Chima about the need for investments in Black communities and businesses. The budget proposes $200 million to endow a philanthropic fund dedicated to supporting Black-led charities and organizations serving youth and social initiatives, as well as $100 million for the supporting Black Canadian communities initiative. It also proposes to invest an additional $51 million for the Black entrepreneurship program.

Budget 2021 takes on reasonable and sustainable debt. Not only can we afford these investments, it would be short-sighted of us not to make them. There is so much in this budget: a national autism strategy, funding to support our efforts to tackle climate change and so much more. Budget 2021 will continue to support Canadians, help Canada to build back better and grow our economy safely for years to come.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for the work she does to support indigenous communities across the country, which is a very important issue for me and many in my riding.

One of the things she mentioned was child care. The Liberals have committed $30 billion over five years for child care in the budget, as I understand. Also, as I understand, we would be paying nearly $40 billion a year on interest payments on the debt, which represents $40 billion that could be going toward many other programs.

I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary would agree that in future budgets we should be working to reduce our deficit and paying down our debt so we can provide more services for future generations?

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would like to commend the hon. member for his work. I had the pleasure of working with him on the indigenous and northern affairs committee and I know he is quite passionate about the indigenous communities in his riding.

Now is not the time for an austerity budget. It is important to recognize the good fiscal shape that Canada is in. I had the pleasure of recently sitting in on the finance committee when the OECD appeared. It said:

Your public debt burden is relatively low compared to many other OECD countries, and borrowing costs are fairly low. In a way, this is partly why in good times, it's good to be aiming for creating that kind of fiscal space. It's to deal with situations such as this one so that you can, for instance, increase your debt-to-GDP ratio in a short space of time... You can do it, and you still haven't got an astronomical debt burden.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for her speech.

This is lavish spending at a time when we are accumulating hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit. Does my colleague not think that there are things missing from the budget, such as the health transfers, money for seniors as of age 65, and the agriculture sector?

My question for the parliamentary secretary has to do with that last point in particular, but it might take me a minute to get there.

A few hundred million dollars in compensation is on the table for processors. That is not a lot. As far as foreign workers are concerned, the biggest investment is in inspections. That is not what the sector needs. It needs support. The government should be increasing money for foreign workers, rather than decreasing it starting in June.

That brings me to farm succession planning. Since we are talking about the future, economic recovery and ensuring food security in this country, can my colleague explain why the government put absolutely nothing in the budget about transferring farms or transferring small businesses in general, even as it seems to be getting ready to vote against Bill C-208?

I would like her to say a few words about that.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Madam Speaker, I think it is important to recognize that what the government did with this budget was to focus on the sectors that have been hard hit. I commend the finance minister for the work that she had done to make sure that we are supporting businesses and Canadians who need it most, as we see our way through this. I know I have received overwhelmingly positive support for this budget, recognizing that mine is an urban riding. The finance minister did an excellent job of putting forward a budget that will do a tremendous amount of good for Canadians, for Canadian business and for farmers.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

We have time for a brief question.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned both being on the finance committee and also the importance of having a feminist budgetary approach. She would know from finance committee what we have seen repeatedly is people coming before finance committee talking about the importance of having public universal pharmacare in place. Women are disproportionately impacted by the fact that we do not have universal pharmacare in place now. Particularly, with COVID-19, we are seeing more and more women who do not have access to a drug program and cannot pay for their medication. We had the Liberals vote against the Canada Pharmacare Act and we see a complete abandoning of public universal—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

I did ask for a brief question.

I will allow the parliamentary secretary to respond with a brief answer.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is difficult to give a brief answer when talking about pharmacare because it is a very complicated issue. While the member had a private member's bill in front of the House talking about pharmacare, the hard work is negotiating with the provinces and making sure that they are the ones delivering health care. Our commitment to pharmacare was in the throne speech. He is absolutely right, it does disproportionately impact women and we remain committed to pharmacare. There was funding in the budget for a rare diseases strategy. I will wrap it up there.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to say, in appreciation, that I am speaking to the House today virtually from the traditional territory of the Qayqayt first nation and the Coast Salish peoples. I am honoured to share my time with the terrific member of Parliament for London—Fanshawe.

I want to start by talking, sadly, about the appalling loss of life we have seen through COVID-19. Today we passed a sad milestone of 24,000 Canadians who have died as a result of COVID-19. We will underscore later in the day, in the House, the death of Emily Victoria Viegas, 13 years of age, who died on April 22 from COVID-19. That death toll of 24,000 is climbing as the third wave hits across this country.

Many industrialized countries were able to put in place both vaccine distribution and measures that lowered their death rates remarkably. Canada, sadly, as we see the death toll climb, has not been putting into place the measures that are so essential to ensure that we try to avoid as many deaths as possible during this appalling pandemic.

The question around the budget really is what does the budget do to match the size and scope of the pandemic, a crisis that we have not seen in scale, size and scope since the Second World War? How does the budget put in place the important provisions for building as Canadians, hopefully in the coming months and years, will come out of this pandemic?

The instruction of the Spanish flu pandemic is something that we must all heed. The Spanish Flu pandemic, which lasted well over a year and a half, had financial and economic ramifications that took over a decade to attenuate. When we are talking about COVID-19, we are talking about measures that not only must work in the coming months as we struggle with this third wave, as frontline workers struggle with this third wave, as health care workers and first responders with all their bravery and courage, often unvaccinated, struggle to save as many lives as possible.

As we go through this, we also need to underscore the importance of having policies in place that are sustainable in the coming years to provide supports for Canadians. Sadly, this budget does not do that. It is tragic to us. The member for Burnaby South, the NDP leader, and members of the NDP caucus repeatedly raised a clear direction that would have made a huge difference in terms of putting into place that infrastructure, that ability to invest to help Canadians both through this pandemic and afterward.

We talked about a wealth tax. We talked about putting in place a pandemic profits tax, in the same way that during the Second World War we were all in this together and there was an excess profits tax that assured not only the battle to be won against fascism and Nazism, but also the rebuilding afterward; the hundreds of thousands of housing units, hospitals; education and transportation, all built because we had put into place measures that meant that we were all in this together.

Sadly, this budget fails miserably in this regard. There is no wealth tax. There is no pandemic profits tax. There are no meaningful measures that actually combat the offshore tax havens that suck $25 billion every year out of our country, $25 billion that could be put into place for housing, vaccination, education, improving our health care sector and ensuring that all Canadians across the country have the wherewithal to go through the pandemic. The government chose not to put in place any of those measures, despite the fact that the revenue that is lost or the revenue that is taken overseas is substantial. What we see in this budget is a free ride given to the ultrarich in this country. What about the COVID measures?

Sadly, the Prime Minister and the government seem to be saying “Mission accomplished,” when we know that this is far from the case, as this third wave crashes on our shores, as we see ICUs and emergency wards filled with Canadians.

Instead of putting into place measures that will continue to extend throughout the summer, in a few weeks' time the government will start slashing emergency response benefits and supports that were given to small businesses. The government will say that it put in place a measure for all those large businesses, which used the wage subsidy for dividend payments, for executive bonuses and stock buybacks. It will close that barn door in July, but it will not ask for any repayment. However, if they use the wage subsidy in the final waning weeks of when it is available, then there may be consequences.

At a time when so many Canadians are struggling, this is absolutely unacceptable that we are wrapping up all the programs, starting in weeks, that would serve to provide support as the third wave hits our shores.

There is nothing in the budget that addresses what people with disabilities across the length and breadth of the country have been facing for well over a year now. The NDP fought, and we fought vigorously, half a dozen times to push the government to finally implement a partial payment to some people with disabilities. Of the many struggles that the NDP caucus has undertaken over the course of the past year, it was probably the one where the government was most resistant, most refusing to provide support to people with disabilities.

We know that within days of the pandemic hitting, the Liberal government was willing to basically unleash cash, $750 billion given to Canada's big banks, and liquidity supports within days. Contrast that $750 billion, an unprecedented amount that pales other supports ever handed to the banking sector and pales in comparison to what we have seen from the government in this pandemic, to people with disabilities who have struggled for a one-time $600 payment that only went to some people with disabilities, by no means all. Then we are being told in the budget that the government is going to study the question in the next three years. Maybe, eventually, there will be some supports given to Canadians with disabilities.

The NDP member for Winnipeg Centre brought forward a guaranteed livable basic income proposal that the Liberals voted against. Now the Liberals are saying to Canadians with disabilities, who compose half of the people who are lining up at food banks to make ends meet, and the growing number of homeless in our country that they have to wait three years and maybe they will do something for them.

Students are being forced to pay back student loans, while the banks get $750 billion in liquidity supports. The homeless are being offered a scant number of housing units, yet we know, from the Second World War and the instruction of having in place measures that made sure we were all in this together, that the federal government was capable of building 300,000 units of affordable housing within three years of the conclusion of World War II. In this budget, there is scant provision for the homeless in our country.

There is also the pharmacare program. At a time when 10 million Canadians have no wherewithal to pay for their medication, at a time when health care should be top of mind, the Liberals killed the Canada pharmacare bill. They have abandoned any commitment to putting in place public universal pharmacare with this budget.

What the Liberals have decided to do is basically copy part of Thomas Mulcair's 2015 election platform. They are promising child care, which is significant, but we do not know whether they will keep their word. They are also promising to introduce a federal minimum wage.

We know that these promises, like all the promises the Liberals have made over the past six years, will probably not be kept.

This is a rhetorical question for my Liberal colleagues. Why do they always put the interests of banks and billionaires before those of all other Canadians?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I listened to the member's intervention today. What I find especially confusing is how he started it off. I wrote it down because I thought it was odd to hear him say that Canada sadly did not put in place measures to reduce the death rate. Canada's death rate is the second lowest in the G7. We put in place incredible measures back at the beginning of this to encourage people to stay home. We drove up the unemployment rate, to the criticism of the Conservatives, because we wanted to keep people at home and we helped them do that through the CERB and other programs like that.

Could the member explain why he thinks that? Not one more death is ever good and we want to keep that as low as humanely possible, but among our counterparts we are the second lowest.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am saddened by the member's comments. He does not acknowledge the 24,000 Canadians who passed away so far in the pandemic or the incredible frustration we see from front-line health care workers across the country as ICUs and emergency wards fill up. People in his home province of Ontario are now dying at home. For the member and the Liberal government not to acknowledge the slowness of the acquisition of vaccines and that they should have put in place domestic vaccine production capability a year ago saddens me. It tells me that they have not learned the lessons for which so many Canadians have paid such a horrible price.

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Madam Speaker, I share some of the frustrations my colleague has with the Liberal government. In speaking with business owners, workers and people across my riding of Kenora, there are a lot of concerns about the slow pace of the vaccine rollout and the government's mishandling of the procurement process. We were hoping to see more details on that in the budget, but it is very short on those. I wonder if the member has any comments with respect to that.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, we know that paid sick leave would make a phenomenal difference right now. Workplace infection rates are the biggest concern. Yes, the NDP caucus forced the Liberal government to adopt legislation around paid sick leave and, although it had the regulatory ability to make that work, it chose not to. On the regulations, which is the government's purview, it basically gutted a paid sick leave program, which the NDP continues to propose and which is absolutely essential.

These are the kinds of measures that would make such a difference to save more lives in Canada, yet the Prime Minister and the government seem to want to do a victory lap, which is simply inappropriate when we see the size, scale and amplitude of this deadly third wave now crossing our country.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Madam Speaker, I share my colleague's dismay about the spending and where it is going.

I am also concerned about the fact that this budget could be summed up in one word: intrusion—intrusion into Quebec and provincial jurisdictions.

I would like to hear my colleague comment on these intrusions.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, the issue is health care funding. I know my colleague agrees with the NDP on this.

Health care spending has been cut. For years now, the federal government has been giving less and less, taking into account the increased needs in the health sector. The government needs to immediately bring in measures like a wealth tax in order to adequately fund our health sector.

It is a matter of life and death.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, the people of London have gotten a bad deal through years of Liberal and Conservative governments. Well before the pandemic, many neighbourhoods in London—Fanshawe were left behind by government policies. We would hear about rising GDP and economic prosperity, but many in my community did not see that directly. That is only because the ultra-wealthy, the 1% of Canada, do not live on Hamilton or Southdale Roads, Dundas Street or Jalna Boulevard. Many in my community have been directly impacted, of course, by COVID-19, and the people I have spoken with in London—Fanshawe are worried that they will again be left behind in the recovery.

During the pandemic, the Liberal government offered Canadians the least help possible. The NDP had to force it to do better. This budget is no different. The Prime Minister has chosen to continue to give his rich friends a free ride. He has chosen to continue to fail young people who are facing crushing debt. He has chosen to continue to protect the profits of big pharmaceutical companies and for-profit, long-term care providers, and he has not addressed the housing crisis.

My constituency office staff and I have tried every day to do our best to help the thousands of people who have reached out for help. The challenges and supports offered by the government are inconsistent for different people and are consistently being scaled back. This budget will leave many more still struggling, struggling with rising bills and how unaffordable everything has become, and that includes housing and drug coverage.

For two decades, Canadians struggling with the cost of medication have been promised a pharmacare program. Instead of taking bold action, the Liberals keep breaking their promises and making people wait. Millions of Canadians are without affordable prescription drug coverage. Even more people have lost their jobs and benefits because of COVID-19, including tens of thousands of people in London. At a time when the need is so great, it is inexcusable that the Liberals refuse to give Canadians the affordable, life-saving medicines they so desperately need.

The New Democrats have repeatedly asked the federal government to establish a public drug manufacturer in Canada to address the vaccine shortage, but the Liberals continue to put the interests of multinational pharmaceutical companies and foreign governments ahead of the health of Canadians.

As a third wave of the pandemic rages on, Canadians, including Londoners, are depending on public health care as never before. COVID-19 case counts approach record highs in the London-Middlesex region, with ICUs now setting record case counts. COVID-19 has revealed serious gaps and long-standing problems in our health care system that budget 2021 does not address.

Following the budget, I have heard about the unfair treatment from people living on fixed incomes, specifically seniors and people living with disabilities in my riding. They, too, have been hit by this pandemic financially. They have seen a rise in the cost of prescriptions, food, food delivery and housing.

This summer, seniors received an addition $1.50 as a result of indexing; wow. Now only those over the age of 75 will get a one-time payment of $500 and small increases thereafter. I have constituents aged 65 to 74 telling me that they do not feel the government cares about them, that they do not matter. That is tragic.

People living with disabilities also got nothing. During the debate on Bill C-7, people living with disabilities made it very clear that they were on the brink. They have been ignored for too long, pushed to extreme poverty and disparity and without the choices that others have. Instead of direct assistance, they will also get a task force. Again, my constituents have told me that they cannot pay their bills or buy food with a task force. They cannot afford skyrocketing rent with a task force.

As the NDP's critic for women and gender equality, like so many of my colleagues have, I want to acknowledge that this is the first federal budget presented by a woman. This is an excellent step, there is no doubt, and it is about time.

What is also about time is the delivery of a universal, affordable, early-learning and child care system. Of course, after having sat on the Standing Committee for the Status Women and hearing 99% of the witnesses from all different sectors talk about the need for child care; after repeatedly hearing the statistics that women had been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, not being able to return to work in staggering numbers because they could not access safe and affordable child care; and after being a member of a political party who has fought for child care for longer than the Liberals have promised to create it, I was pleased to hear the minister's plans to create that national system. Of course, fool me once, shame on you, fool me for 28 years, that is another story. Suffice it to say that I will watch, with scrutiny, what is presented on child care from this government. However, I am more than willing to work with the government to ensure that the wait it over. We must create that universal and affordable system.

I will insist that this system be publicly funded. I also sincerely hope that child care will not share the same fate as electoral reform or pharmacare. We have too often heard promises of task forces, committees or focus groups, or whatever the Liberal term of the day is, and there is an election with more promises. Then there is a new government that will come forward with a new mandate that cannot possibly move ahead with child care.

As a New Democrat, I come to this place with a lot of hope, but as a Canadian woman I have watched for decades and seen the Liberals' shell game in action. If there is a way to make child care a reality, let us work together and get it done because it is about time.

Child care is not the only thing women need to help them recover from the pandemic, so I was happy to see the recognition and funding for gender-based violence organizations. However, again, despite the evidence showing how vital core operational-based funding is, the government has still only provided two years of funding to these organizations and only five years of funding to a secretariat for the national action plan to end gender-based violence and to crisis hotlines for gender-based violence.

I will also note that the Minister for Women and Gender Equality still has not come forward with an actual national action plan to end gender-based violence. I think that is a bit odd, but it has only been six years. It has not been 28, so I suppose women will continue to wait.

Another group I consistently hear from is young people, who have been among the hardest hit by COVID. They had to make fundamental shifts in their education, employment and financial situations. However, instead of helping young people during the first wave of the pandemic, the government rushed to give almost $1 billion to its well connected friends at WE, and the money still has not made it to students.

Despite the second and third waves, the government will not extend the Canada emergency student benefit. During their studies, students are the ones working in the restaurants and the service sector. They hold retail jobs too. However, these businesses are still closed, and because of the poor vaccine rollout, they are unable to open. Students were also unable to collect the hours, although reduced by the government, required to obtain supports like the recovery benefit. This budget could have taken a New Democratic lead, and we could have put forward a very bold plan to ensure that students thrive instead of being buried in debt.

We believe the federal government must work with the provinces and territories to create tuition-free post-secondary education. We want to ensure that the federal government stops profiting from student debt, by permanently removing interest on all federal student loans and by giving new graduates a five-year head start without having to repay any federal student loans. Let us let them get ahead in their careers by cancelling up to $20,000 per student of federal student loan debt.

These are the ways that a federal government can show leadership. They are tangible ways to invest in people, who then invest in the long-term viability of our economy.

There is so much more to say about housing, the environment and the end of the recovery benefit, but I know that I am at the end of my time, so I will conclude with this. Governing is about choices. This budget was about choices, and the government has made some choices that only help some people. However, it is not too late. The choices that bring people together and raise up all people equally are the choices we must make now and together.