Debates of Dec. 12th, 2023

Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

That is not a point of order. The hon. member has unlimited time on this.

The hon. member for Jonquière.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am sad to see what is happening with my NDP colleagues.

I want to hear the leader of the official opposition tell us about cryptocurrencies. I would like to hear his thoughts on that. Cryptocurrency is very interesting. It is probably in this documentary.

I would like him to share his simplistic reasoning—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

That is also a matter of debate.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition has unlimited time to make his presentation. At 5:42 p.m. we will proceed to the next item.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is no limit to my speaking time, just like there is no limit to Canada's potential, if only we had some common sense.

The reality is that when we create $600 billion of cash and we flood it into the financial system, that money is then lent out to those who have connections to that system, and those people bid up the cost for everybody else. That is why, in the early months of the pandemic when everything was crashing, the billionaires were suddenly getting richer.

Why were they getting richer? The economy was crashing. Well, of course, all of their asset values were being inflated by insane money printing supported by every party in the House except for ours. Ours was the only one that worried that this crazy money printing would do exactly what it has done every single time it has been tried.

When I produced the evidence of this in the documentary, all of the “bought and paid for” media said, “Oh, this is an outrageous explanation”, but they have not once provided a shred of evidence that it is not true. Look at the graphs the Bank of Canada itself produced. It demonstrates there was a massive flooding of cash into the real estate market through the vector of the same financial institutions that had profited off of quantitative easing.

I find it interesting that the NDP, which claims to be so concerned about the gap between rich and poor, saw absolutely no problem with the government creating all of this cash and pumping it into a select group of financial institutions, which happen to have the privilege of being members of Payments Canada. They had been eligible to receive the cash before anyone else and before it lost its value, and saw all of their net worth explode all of the stock values artificially pumped up. Then the resulting consumer price inflation chewed up the paycheques of the working poor. It was a direct transfer of wealth from the have-nots to the have-yachts, and the NDP supported it 100%.

NDP members talk about these little, itty-bitty wealth taxes that they claim to want to bring in that amount to $100 million here and $1 billion there when we are talking about $600 billion that was flooded into the financial system to the benefit of the wealthiest—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

There is a point of order from the hon. member for Kings—Hants.

[Kody Blois, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am looking for some clarification. I have sat here intently, hoping to ask the leader of the official opposition a question.

I will get to the point. There has been a lot of actual points of order that have delayed the time for the leader of the official opposition to continue his unlimited time. However, does that time continue and extend out? When does Private Members' Business actually start?

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

As I said before, at 5:42 p.m., Private Members' Business will start, but the length of speeches pursuant to Standing Orders 43 and 74 have the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition with unlimited time.

The hon. leader of the official opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, every time I get interrupted, I think of something else to say. It just prolongs my remarks. In fairness, maybe that is the goal of the members across the way who seem to be, in fairness and I appreciate it, quite enjoying the presentation. I thank them for being part of this today.

As I was saying, I find it incredible that the NDP, which claims always to be so concerned about the gap between rich and poor, has expressed zero concern with the central bank ballooning the asset values and the net worth of the super-rich by creating cash and burning the purchasing power of our working-class people. Taking money from wage earners to give to billionaire asset owners is not exactly what we would expect in the name of a working-class party.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

We have a point of order from the hon. member for Mirabel.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Madam Speaker, on the point of order, we know that Private Members' Business will begin at 5:42 p.m. If the leader of the official opposition continues until 5:42 p.m., I would like to know if he could come back tomorrow morning to answer questions.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

It is up to the Leader of the Opposition to decide whether to continue his intervention tomorrow when the House reconvenes.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Madam Speaker, the NDP was happy to see all these financial institutions and billionaires increase their wealth, not because of the invention of any new, great product, but because they had the government shovelling printed cash into their vaults.

We believe in entrepreneurial capitalism where someone can make money by producing goods and services that make other people better off. They believe in the state crony capitalism where someone gets rich by favours from the state. We believe that people should be able to make money. They believe that people should be able to take money. We want businesses that get ahead by having the best product. They want businesses that get ahead by having the best lobbyist. We want businesses that are obsessed with consumers. They want businesses obsessed with—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

We have a point of order from the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona.

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

Madam Speaker, I noticed the leader of the Conservative Party does not want to answer questions. He has ditched his glasses. His hair is getting more voluminous. Is he trying to replace the Prime Minister?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The member has unlimited time and it is his right.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Madam Speaker, I can understand why the NDP is so sensitive, because their betrayal of the working-class people they have so long claimed to represent is becoming more clear the longer I speak, and they are desperate to silence that voice. Everywhere I go, I meet working-class New Democrats, people who voted for the NDP their whole lives, who say that they have been betrayed and that is why they are now standing with the common-sense Conservatives.

The reality is that when $600 billion of cash is created, is funnelled through the financial system and is lent out to wealthy investors, they are obviously going to bid up land and housing costs, which they did. One of the critiques, of the bought-and-paid-for Liberal press gallery, of my documentary is to claim that it was COVID that caused housing prices to go up. First of all, that does not explain why they went up so much more in Canada than in all the other countries in the world, where they also had COVID.

Second, it does not make any sense. All of the phenomena related to COVID should have brought house prices down. Immigration was ground to a halt. Wages dropped. Job losses occurred. A recession happened. All of those things are typically associated with declining house prices, not rising house prices. Do not just take my word for it, CMHC predicted, in the spring of 2020, that these COVID phenomena would lead to a 32% drop in house prices. What caused the market to reverse what otherwise would have been such a serious drop and instead turned into a 50% increase in two years in house prices? Obviously, it was the massive flood of new cash into the financial system, which was lent out. We need to have accountability for that.

Why does this matter, given that the quantitative easing program seems to be over for now? We have to elect a government that would never use the central bank as a personal ATM, to print cash, to inflate costs and to destroy the purchasing power of the working class. When I am Prime Minister, we will get the central bank back to its core mandate of stable, low prices, not paying off politicians' spending. That is common sense.

What we are really talking about here is common sense. I am proposing common-sense measures that are attracting the support of Canadians across the political spectrum and in every corner of the country. Let us start with my first priority of common sense, which is to bring home lower prices. How are we going to do that? We are going to start by axing the tax.

Everything the Prime Minister said about the carbon tax has proven false. First, he said the tax would never go above $50 a tonne. Well, it has gone above that already, and he admits he is going to quadruple it. It is going to go up to $170 a tonne, plus there will be a second carbon tax caked on top of it, which would have the effect of quadrupling the current tax from roughly, depending on the province, 15¢ or 16¢ a litre, up to 61¢ a litre. That is his radical and insane plan, fully supported by the NDP. The NDP wants to raise taxes on working-class Canadians for the crime of heating their homes, gassing their trucks or feeding their family food grown on a farm.

That is the choice in the next election. We are going to have a carbon tax election. The Prime Minister could try to avoid it—

[Kody Blois, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I would like to seek unanimous consent to ask the member opposite a question specific to what he is talking about right now.

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am glad that member stood up. I know the question he was going to ask. He was going to say—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Madam Speaker, I am confused. The Leader of the Opposition just said that the next election would be a carbon tax election, but I would like to know what will happen in Quebec, since the carbon tax does not apply to Quebec.

I want to know what—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

I am sorry, but that is a point of debate.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Madam Speaker, I know the member for Kings—Hants was going to ask me about the monstrous axe the tax rally I held in his community. Roughly 1,000 people crammed into that room. If I could pay the member a compliment, he represents some great people. They are wonderful, common-sense people, but I am afraid they are very unhappy with the member.

I am told that what happened is he found out about the size of the rally and the number of people who were going and had a total meltdown. He burst into tears. He called the PMO and said that, when he was growing up, he was told he would always be somebody. He was going to be an important guy, and now he was on the verge of losing his seat. He said that if the PMO did not give him a pause on the carbon tax, he was going to march out of the caucus. He then whipped up a group of Atlantic MPs, and they marched over to the Prime Minister's Office and began banging on the door and said—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The member for Kings—Hants is rising on a point of order.

[Kody Blois, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to ask the member a question.