Debates of May 29th, 2023

Department of Finance—Main Estimates, 2023-24

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Madam Chair, I will set the issue of security aside and instead talk about the fact that the Prime Minister said that Trans Mountain's profits would be invested in the fight against climate change. That is like asking a firefighter to light a fire to justify his job. That being said, when the Prime Minister made those comments, the cost was $7.4 billion, but it is now $30.9 billion. This will not be profitable, and the taxpayers are footing the bill.

In terms of the government's climate commitments, how can she explain this Trans Mountain venture now that it is clear to everyone that it will not be making any profits?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, as I said before, economic sovereignty is very important to us. It is important that Canada have control over its own resources. That will not happen without Trans Mountain.

I think that the members from Quebec and the Bloc can and must understand the importance of a sovereign and strong position for our country, for Canada. With regard to the project, we are hopeful that there will be a lot of interest on the investor side, and we must not—

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Repentigny.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Madam Chair, earlier the minister spoke at length about the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

That legislation sets out that the American government confirms the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. Does the minister seriously believe that, by investing in grey hydrogen and in carbon capture and storage techniques that have never proven effective, she is helping to counter this existential threat?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, yes, I think so. Our government has done more to fight climate change than any previous Canadian government.

The member opposite cited American legislation. I think that, relative to American policy, all Canadians can be very proud of our Canadian policy. We have a price on pollution, as the Conservatives have talked a lot about, and we now have a clean industrial strategy.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Madam Chair, there are a number of things we do not agree on entirely.

There have been a lot of meetings. Some 1,300 meetings were held for the entire oil lobby in Canada in 2022. The department hosted 104 meetings, most of them with senior officials, and the minister has held 30 meetings in the last five months.

Was the budget designed and concocted in collaboration with the oil and gas industry? Were these meetings held to discuss net-zero emissions, for example, or to ask for more public funding?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, as the Minister of Finance, I meet with representatives of all Canadian industries, including the oil industry. I also meet with Canadians from other sectors of society.

It was the unions that mainly influenced the creation of the budget. We spoke at length with workers and they gave us some good ideas about new tax credits and the need—

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Repentigny.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Madam Chair, concerning everything we spoke about, the minister told us that things are going in the right direction.

I would like to remind her that about 10 days ago, the UN released a report on the melting of glaciers, which is breaking records and is irreversible. It would seem like a business opportunity for the government because in the last budget there were millions of dollars.

Why are you courting disaster with these policies?

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I would remind the hon. member to address the chair.

The minister has the floor. There is not a lot of time left.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, we understand the importance of fighting climate change. Our budget proves it. The reality is that Canada's emissions are going down. That is good news. It is very important and it is thanks to the work we are doing together.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport]

Madam Chair, it is nice to be here this evening to talk about these important issues related to the budget and the business of supply.

I thank very much the Minister of Finance for being with us here tonight to answer all of our important questions. I would like to take a moment to thank her personally for her extraordinary work and for being such an incredible Deputy Prime Minister and also the first-ever woman finance minister in Canada.

I want to highlight the difference that has made, and I would like to do that through the lens of my constituents this evening. I have an opportunity to do that, because for the last 10 days or so we have been in our ridings, and I have had opportunities to knock on doors, to host youth summits and to get out there and talk to my constituents. It is not just my constituents either. I have had the occasion to knock on doors in both Woodstock and Montreal, as there are by-elections in both of those areas, and I wanted to relay some of the messages that I heard from those Canadians as well, because I think they are very pertinent.

I think budget 2023, as with the previous budget in 2022, addresses a lot of the concerns that I heard at the doors. When Canadians ask a very specific question, like what we are doing to help their kids buy a home one day, what we are doing to fight inflation or what we are doing to combat climate change, having a direct answer with an investment that our government made proves not only that our government is listening to Canadians, but also that we are meeting Canadians where they are in the moment and ensuring that we are building an economy that works for everyone.

In terms of the generational impacts that Canada's first-ever female finance minister has had, I point to a couple of things. Obviously number one is child care. Right now in Canada, women are punching farther above their weight in the economy than ever before, and that is because they have the opportunity to work without the burden and overly expensive cost of child care. I do not think it is a coincidence that we have a gender-balanced cabinet, a female finance minister and a feminist economic policy. They go hand in hand. I want to thank the minister for bringing these forward.

There are other things our government has done that have had a really profound impact on a lot of the single parents I have spoken with. I just mentioned that many single parents, although not all, are women, so creating policies that support single parents is feminist economic policy as well.

One of those policies is dental care. I can point to a couple of people in my riding whom I have met with recently. They did not previously have access to dental care, and now their kids do have access to dental care. They did not have to make tough financial decisions about whether or not their kids' teeth should get a cleaning this year. It was not a matter of whether food goes on the table, the rent gets paid or they get their cavity fixed. It was an easier decision this year. Thankfully, our government was there to support that with the dental benefit. In future years, there will be a more comprehensive plan for kids under 18 and for seniors as well. I think that is really profound and important to point out.

More than that, there is also the Canada child benefit, which has had a tremendous impact on ridings like mine. There are a huge number of children in Milton. Milton is one of the youngest communities from a demographics perspective. I think the average age is among the lowest in all ridings across Canada. I looked at the numbers recently, and last year, $106 million in Canada child benefit payments came to Milton, to the parents of Milton.

I would also like to point out that Milton is a fairly well-to-do community. In the last 10 years, our national ranking for median income has gone from about 21st in Canada all the way to sixth, so Milton is doing very well financially. Despite that, given the Canada child benefit is a means-tested program so more money goes to families who need it, the tremendous number of kids means we are still on the higher end as a recipient community for the Canada child benefit.

I would also like to point to two other things that I think are really true to form in a feminist economic policy. One of those is the restart to our co-op housing strategy in budget 2022. I grew up in co-op housing. The Chautauqua Co-op was my home. It still is my home in many respects, as my mom still lives there. My mom also runs co-ops. Co-ops are a theme that I have spoken to many times in this House, and I know that the Minister of Finance and I share a profound respect for them and an interest in ensuring that Canada builds more co-ops in the future.

I also want to reference the Minister of Finance's support for a children's health strategy. We have talked about children's health before, and we know that despite the fact that we have seen massive reductions in children's poverty in Canada, children's health has yet to catch up. We have some work to do, and I know that investments in this budget and past budgets are in respect of that.

On the conversations that I had with some of my constituents, I had an opportunity to take part in a UN model summit at St. Francis Xavier Secondary School. It was organized by those in grades 10 and 11, and there were even some seventh and eighth graders present. I spoke for about 15 minutes and then took about 25 minutes of questions. It was fantastic.

I always tell young people that they might not have a vote in an election but they do have a voice, and they deserve to have it amplified in places like this, in the House of Commons. Young people in Canada have the most to lose in Canada if we make bad decisions as a Parliament, which reflects most profoundly on young people and their lives. The most at stake is what kids have in their future, and I think their voices really matter.

Young people are smart, they know what they want and they know what they need. It might take a little bit of extra time, patience and effort, given that they do not necessarily email or call our office constantly and fill our inboxes with insight. Sometimes we have to wait a little bit of time, and sometimes we have to wait for them to ask the first questions, but it is always worth it.

I will go through some of the themes and come back to them in the form of a question afterwards. If the Minister of Finance would like a preview on what some of the themes will be in my questions, then here they are.

The first few are a bit of a combination of the youth summit, which was organized by my two awesome co-op students, one from St. FX and one from Milton District High School, Arianna and Abigail. I thank them both for their extraordinary efforts over the last couple of months. They are great co-op students, and one of the two is probably going to be a member of Parliament one day, or maybe the prime minister. I will not give away who, but they are both really excellent students. One is going off to university next year and one will be in grade 12. They are incredible young people, and they have added so much to my office. I want to thank them for their hard work.

Organizing this youth summit took quite a lot of effort, but it was really great. Nine students arrived at the office last Thursday. We called it “Pizza and Politics”, and we had two hours together. Everybody was asked to either bring a private member's bill; an S.O. 31-style, 60-second speech; or an issue that they wanted me to raise here on the floor of the House of Commons. I have the opportunity now to raise some of those issues.

Issue number one was affordable housing. Young people want to know how they are ever going to be able to afford a home in this country. There is a lot of doom and gloom about home ownership in Canada, despite the fact that Canada has one of the highest home ownership rates in the world. However, Canadians continue to be concerned about rising home costs.

In that context, I was able to share a story from a local business in Milton. The company is not only active in Milton but also throughout southwestern Ontario. It is a mid-sized engineering company that mostly builds residential real estate, but it has done something extremely innovative. I am looking to amplify this, because I think it is something that can be packaged up, remodelled and sent right across this country.

Crozier engineering has taken the first-time home buyers' plan and offered to put $20,000 into one of those accounts for new employees who are eligible for a first-time home purchase, which is sort of an advance on their three-year contract. If they sign a contract for three years, $20,000 goes into an account. After 90 days on the job, they are allowed to withdraw it, and it can go towards their down payment. The company is looking to do the same thing with the first home savings account, which was recently announced.

These are two examples of one company in my riding really taking the initiative to look at what is available out there in the homebuyer ecosystem and finding a way to repurpose it into something really appealing. It works for retention. It works for recruitment for employees, and it attracts a lot of young talent to Crozier Engineering.

I want to congratulate Crozier engineering. When I mentioned that to the students at my youth summit, a few of them said that they might be looking to get into engineering as a result because they wanted to take advantage of such an extraordinary program.

Second on the agenda at the youth summit was foreign affairs. I would like to talk to the Minister of Finance a little bit about something that she is, unfortunately, all too familiar with, and that is specifically the war in Ukraine, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and our investments to ensure that Ukraine wins that war.

Third, I would like to touch on the cost of living. I would like to talk to the Minister of Finance about the grocery rebate and how that is going to impact 11 million Canadian families across our country. I would also like to touch on green infrastructure and protecting the green belt in my riding.

If we have time, I would also like to talk about emergency preparedness, because Caden brought that up at my town hall. I thought it was an extremely important issue to bring up considering the recent fires across the country, which seem to be more persistent as a result of climate change.

Madam Chair, am I getting to the point where I have to start asking questions?

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

We are at the five-minute mark, so the hon. member has to pose a question for the minister.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Madam Chair, I would first like to ask the Minister of Finance if she could reflect on Crozier Consulting Engineers' very innovative approach of using the first-time homebuyers' plan to provide its employees with a $20,000 bonus up front for a down payment toward their first home and how we can encourage more businesses to do something similar.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Madam Chair, I want to take this opportunity to thank the member for Milton for being such a great connected constituency MP. There are a lot of great constituency MPs on this side of the House, but it is hard to name one who is better than the member for Milton. I also want to thank him for the work he has done on housing. He spoke about his personal knowledge of the value that co-ops bring to family lives. I have that life experience too. He played a big role in designing our support for co-ops in the 2022 budget.

The measure that the member for Milton has described is excellent. It would be great to see more employers doing it. Our first-time homebuyers savings account, tax-free in and tax-free out, is a way that young people can take that money from an employer, really make it work for them and buy a home sooner.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Madam Chair, I am trying to be as quick as possible, but I also want to give the Minister of Finance some time to answer this question because I know it is a very important one.

Our government is proud of our investments to support Ukraine through the most challenging time of its life. I want to highlight that this past weekend in Poland, at a World Cup that I used to go to every year, the Ukrainian men's K4, which is a four-person kayak, won in a race. It was a really nice moment at the regatta. I only got to watch on Instagram, but everybody was really excited for them. Watching a team do so well in the face of such adversity was profoundly heartwarming and exciting. It was a moment when sport brought people together in a really conscientious way. Nobody was bummed that day to lose to Ukraine.

I would ask the minister to elaborate a bit on our investments to support Ukraine during these challenging times.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for Milton for his very strong and personal support for Ukraine.

We have all seen that the extreme right in the United States and Europe has been seeking to undermine public support for Ukraine and has been openly supporting Putin. I really do believe that my colleagues in the official opposition support Ukraine and I hope they will join me in being very clear that statements like the one we have seen from some UCP candidates supporting Putin and echoing his talking points are unacceptable in the Canadian political discourse. I am being very sincere. It is really important for us all to be clear about that.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Madam Chair, I hope there is an opportunity for all members of this House to come together and collectively renounce those comments.

I had opportunities to talk to constituents in Woodstock, Montreal and Milton, and the issue that arose in Woodstock is our support for seniors. In Montreal, it was about electric buses. As I was knocking on doors, kids were returning home from schools, and federal investments in green infrastructure for schools allowed them to purchase an all-electric school bus fleet. I thought that was amazing. Environmental protection is top of mind in Montreal.

In Milton, it was child care. I spoke with Teddy on the street. Teddy was pushing his little guy in a little car, who thought he was driving the car. It was very cute. Our support for women in the economy goes without saying, but because of our support for families like Teddy's, they now have double incomes and are able to get back to work sooner.

I would ask the Minister of Finance if she would not mind elaborating on any of those three topics.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, investment in electric buses is very important. I was recently at an announcement of our federal government's support for electrification of the buses of the TTC in my community of Toronto and, of course, for early learning and child care. It is a triple win. It is great for the economy because it increases the labour force, it is great for affordability for families and it is great above all for the youngest Canadians, who are getting great early learning and a great start in life.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Madam Chair, I will be sharing my time with two colleagues.

On November 3, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said that Canada would return to a balanced budget in 2027.

Today, could the Minister of Finance say when and in what year Canada will return to a balanced budget?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Madam Chair, what I can say is that our government understands that the economic policies of the Harper government failed.

We had a response to the 2008 recession that was not—

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Madam Chair, when will there be a return to a balanced budget?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Madam Chair, we learned from that example that it was necessary to invest—

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent.