Debates of Oct. 31st, 2022

The Economy

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we understand that times are tough for Canadians and that is why the government, since entering office in 2015, has lifted two million people out of poverty. We know it is not enough. We know there is more to do.

That begs the question: Why did the Conservatives vote against vulnerable kids who just wanted to get their teeth looked at? Why did they vote against people who need a $500 top-up on their housing? Why did they vote against child care? We know they cannot wait to rip it up. We are always going to stand on the side of Canadians.

Taxation

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, according to a Nanos poll for Bloomberg, the largest share of Canadians in recorded history say they are worse off than a year ago. What did the NDP do as a solution to that? It voted to raise home heating bills. Yes, the NDP, along with its costly coalition partners in the Liberal Party, voted twice to make home heating more expensive by tripling the carbon tax.

The Liberals understand that the purpose of the carbon tax is to make home heating more expensive. Will the Liberals tell the NDP that it is, in fact, the plan?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I can tell everyone it is nice to take a question from my friend opposite once again, but as an Atlantic Canadian it really burns me to hear this line of questioning. We are dealing with neighbours who have lost over six figures in corn crops and are trying to feed their cattle. We have seen silos come down. We have seen wharves damaged. We know that when we put a price on pollution, it puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadian families.

If the Conservatives want to be laggards when it come to climate action, they are free to do so, but they should not be so committed to taking money from my neighbours while they do it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the carbon tax is not a climate plan. It is a tax plan. The Liberals have not hit a single climate change target since they took office, and now they want to not double down, but triple down on their failure by tripling the carbon tax as we go into winter.

When analysts expect that heating costs will go up more than 100% for families in the member's riding who heat their homes with oil, will the costly coalition, including the NDP, finally reverse itself so Canadians can keep the heat on?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the allegation that our plan to put a price on pollution is a tax on Canadian households, the member knows it is bogus. Year after year, he has been making this point in the House of Commons and year after year, it is proven to him that Canadians actually receive more of a dividend than they put out on pricing. The reality is that this is one among many measures of our climate plan.

We know it is the right thing to do, and we are seeing it in my community. Right now, it is very clear that the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of taking action. We are going to do the right thing both by the environment and the bottom line of Canadian households.

Health

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, the Toronto Star revealed the federal government's health transfer strategy and confirmed our worst fears.

The Prime Minister is refusing to meet with his Quebec and provincial counterparts as long as they continue to unanimously ask for a $28‑billion increase and 6% escalator. He wants to break them. He wants to negotiate one-on-one with the provinces that are likely to give in, to force them to give up on their demand for $28 billion in health transfers and accept his conditions. His strategy is to divide and conquer.

At a time when hospitals are bursting at the seams, why is the government plotting behind the scenes to deprive them of funding?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is talking about divisions, but in fact, we are all united.

My fellow health ministers and I are all ministers of health. We are all working for the same citizens with the same dollars. We will all make investments to support our health workers, who really need help because of their difficult working conditions, among other things. We will take care of all Canadians, no matter where they live in this country.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we know why they are plotting, because they were so arrogant as to tell reporters. They are plotting because they want to isolate Quebec. They want to break the provinces and force them to back down and give up on the $28 billion they need for health care. They want to leave them nothing but crumbs.

The goal is to then go to Quebec and say, “Here is the agreement. Take it or leave it”. That is the predatory federalism we know and love.

Are the Liberals aware that that is called blackmail and that sick patients are paying the price for their blackmail?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we all agree on the importance of taking action for our workers and the patients who need their help. The Government of Canada has to do its share, which it has done in recent years by investing $72 billion on top of other health care transfers during COVID‑19.

We are also still investing in rapid tests, vaccines, Paxlovid and PPE for all Canadians. That is still happening because COVID‑19 is still happening. We are also investing $2 billion to reduce surgical and diagnostic wait times. I could go on and on.

The Economy

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, while CEOs of grocery store chains fill their pockets, ordinary people are being forced to choose between paying rent or buying groceries. One in five people are skipping one meal a day to lower their grocery bill, and demand for food banks is through the roof. That is what it has come to.

The Liberals have allowed corporate greed to force families to make impossible choices. People are hungry, but the CEOs do not care.

In their economic statement, will the Liberals finally make wealthy CEOs pay what they owe to the public, or do they also not care?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.

My colleague knows full well what we have done, and he does not need to politicize this issue. Everyone here in the House wants to make life more affordable for Canadians. My colleague knows full well that our interest in this is not new.

I wrote to the Competition Bureau in May, asking it to do everything in its power to ensure that there are no unfair practices going on in this country. Last week, I called for an investigation, and I talked to the CEOs of many of these grocery giants nationwide to ask them to make an effort. Everyone has to do their part to help families.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, prices are now so bad that 20% of Canadian families are skipping meals to cut down on food costs. As interest rates continue to rise, Canadians need their government to act to reduce costs.

In the fall economic statement, the government has an opportunity to do that. It can make it easier to prosecute grocery price fixers. It can implement a windfall profit tax to ensure big companies are not using inflation as an excuse for highway robbery.

It took the government six months to take the NDP's advice to double the GST tax credit. How long is it going to take this time for the Liberals to see the light and implement these simple, helpful measures?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, there is no need to bring politics into something that concerns all Canadians. Everyone in the House wants to do their part to bring prices down for Canadians.

I wrote to the Competition Bureau back in May of this year, asking it to use all the tools at its disposal to make sure that there were no unlawful practices in the market, and more recently I asked for an investigation. I spoke to the CEOs of a number of these chains around the country.

Everyone needs to do their part to help Canadian families in times like these.

Taxation

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Liberal inflation has one in five Canadians skipping or cutting back on meals, with more families pushed to food banks. The Liberals will punish Canadians further by tripling the carbon tax on home heating, groceries and gas.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister sings in luxurious hotels abroad and spends in four nights what an average family spends in a whole year on rent.

Canadians cannot afford this costly coalition anymore. When will the Liberals stop piledriving Canadians deeper into debt, stop inflationary spending and stop raising taxes?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we know that, with the rebates that Canadians get, eight out of 10 Canadians get more money back. In my own home province of Alberta, almost $1,100 a year comes back to them.

That is why our plan on affordability, building on all the work we did in the spring, continues here into the fall: dental supports for half a million kids, doubling the GST and $500 in rental supports.

We voted with Canadians. Conservatives voted against.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, if things are as great as the Liberals say they are, then why are almost 50% of Canadians saying that their finances have not been this bad in a decade? A 40-year high in Liberal homegrown inflation caused by the costly coalition is pushing more seniors, more children and more workers to food banks and skipping meals.

Even future Liberal leader candidate Mark Carney does not believe the Liberals who say inflation is a global issue. He knows that it is a Liberal-made issue.

Will the Liberals do the right thing, stop the pain, stop the empty words, stop the spending and stop raising taxes?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Minister of Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, we recognize the challenges that Canadians and seniors are facing with paying their bills and for their groceries. That is precisely why we have been there for them. That is why we have doubled the GST credit, putting more money into the pockets of Canadians. That is exactly why we are helping them with rent and dental support. That is why we actually increased the old age security by 10% for those 75 and over.

On this side of the House, we will continue to deliver for all Canadians.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, how many more Canadian families have to visit food banks in our country? How many more young couples will have to give back their keys because they cannot pay their mortgages? How many seniors will have to cut back on the necessity of heating their homes before those Liberals and their costly coalition partnership with the NDP wake up to what is going on in Canada?

Will they stop the taxes? Will they stop punishing Canadians? Will they commit to stopping their planned tax increases and their tripling of the carbon tax?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the Conservative record on taxes. In 2015, when we lowered taxes on the middle class, the Conservatives voted against. When we voted for the child care benefit, the Conservatives voted against. When we created the Canada worker benefit, the Conservatives voted against. When we lowered taxes on small businesses, how did the Conservatives vote? They voted against.

What did they do last week? Instead of supporting Canadians who needed the help the most, the Conservative bench voted against.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the inflationary spending is the cause of the pain for almost every Canadian, while the Liberals pretend that everything is fine.

Remember that the Liberals told Canadians that interest rates would stay low. They told Canadians that the problem would be deflation, not inflation. We were told then that all of this was temporary so the government could continue to spend and spend. They told us that they would take on the debt so Canadians would not have to.

What else are the Liberals going to get wrong?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we need to roll the tape back in the House to the time when the House was discussing, in a hybrid Parliament, how this government, this Parliament would support Canadians in the worst pandemic in 100 years. This government had bold proposals to make sure there would be wage subsidies and individual subsidies so people would be able to keep their homes. How did the Conservatives vote? They voted with us.

Are they now saying that they wished they would have taken those votes back and not have the CERB and not have kept businesses afloat?

The Conservatives need to tell Canadians what their plan is, because we certainly have one.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance contradicted her Prime Minister when she said that the government would have to tighten its belt and rein in spending. Even Mark Carney, the man who wants to replace the Prime Minister, contradicted him when he said that inflation in Canada is a Liberal-made issue. Although the finance minister wants to rein in spending, she is being pressured by the NDP and the Liberals, who are working together to continue the inflationary spending.

Will the minister commit to not raising taxes and to stopping the inflationary spending?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. Here is the Conservatives' record when it comes to taxing Canadians. When we lowered taxes for Canadians in 2015, the Conservatives voted against it. When we introduced the Canada child benefit, the Conservatives voted against it. When we brought in a plan for workers, the Conservatives once again voted against it. Last week, the Conservatives voted against our bill yet again. Their plan is to vote against Canadians. Our plan is to vote for Canadians.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we will always vote for what is best for Canadians. Every time the Liberals present measures that create economic problems, as we are seeing now, inflation rears its head. Interest rates have had to be raised because of the inflation created by the Liberals' spending in various areas. The Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed that of the $500 billion spent in two years, $200 billion had nothing to do with the pandemic. The Liberals talk all the time, but when it is time to really take action for Canada's economy, they are out in left field.

When will the government take responsibility and stop its inflationary spending?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that our plan during the pandemic helped Canadians get through the worst pandemic in 100 years. The Conservatives voted with us. Now they want to rewrite history to their own liking.

On this side, we know that current inflation is a real concern for Canadians, so we are providing $500 in assistance for housing, a dental care plan for children, and double the GST credit. The Conservatives are not interested in that, but Canadians are. That is why we are taking action on this side of the House.