Madam Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to take part in this debate today.
Our government is relentlessly focused on building an economy with stable prices, steady growth and abundant, good middle-class jobs. The last three years have been difficult, which has increased the financial pressure on Canadians. First the country was slammed by the COVID pandemic, then came the COVID recession, supply chain bottlenecks, labour shortages, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, wildfires and hurricanes.
Fortunately, the Canadian economy has remained resilient, and in many ways, we are performing much better than our international peers. There are nearly one million more Canadians in the job market today than before the pandemic, and the OECD predicts next year Canada will experience the strongest economic growth among all G7 countries.
Since 2015, our government has been making significant investments to support Canadians and make life more affordable through actions that are making a real impact and putting more money in the pockets of Canadians. For example, the government is supporting about 3.5 million families annually through the tax-free Canada child benefit, with families receiving up to $7,400 per child under the age of six, which is an increase of $440 from last year. In fact, the latest payment was issued to Canadian families just last week.
Over the past seven years, the Canada child benefit has helped lift 435,000 children out of poverty and provides real, meaningful support to middle-class families every single month.
Our government has also increased old age security benefits for seniors aged 75 and older by 10% as of July 2022, which is providing more than $800 in additional support to full pensioners. This is in addition to strengthening the Canada pension plan, which will eventually raise the maximum retirement benefit by up to 50%. Increases to the guaranteed income supplement for the lowest income single seniors has raised benefits for nearly 900,000 low-income seniors. Our government has also enhanced and expanded the Canada workers benefit to better support millions of low- and modest-income Canadian workers.
In 2021, the latest year we have data for from Statistics Canada, there were close to 2.3 million fewer Canadians living in poverty compared to 2015. In other words, in 2021, 7.4% of Canadians lived in poverty, which is down from 14.5% in 2015. Our government remains committed to reaching its goal of a 50% reduction in poverty by 2030 based on 2015 levels.
Through measures and programs like the ones I have just highlighted, we have strengthened the social safety net millions of Canadians count on, all the while ensuring Canada maintains the lowest deficit and net debt-to-GDP ratio of G7 countries.
In the past year, we have supported Canadians through global inflation by introducing a suite of targeted measures to help the Canadians who needed it most to help them pay their bills. This included a one-time inflation relief payment last fall to 11 million low- and modest-income Canadians, which was worth up to $467 for a couple with two children and up to $234 for a single Canadian without children. It also included direct tax-free payments of up to $1,300 per child over two years to eligible families to cover dental expenses for their children under the age of 12 while we continue to work on implementing the new Canadian dental care plan.
Since 2015, it has been obvious that our priority is to build a strong middle class so that everyone can succeed, and it will continue to be like this. That is why, at the beginning of this fall session, our government tabled an important bill, the affordable housing and grocery act, which would eliminate the GST on new apartment construction projects, in addition to helping to stabilize grocery prices for Canadians. These are foundational investments that continue to make a real difference in the lives of Canadians.
Even the pillar of our climate action plan, a price on carbon, is providing more money for most Canadians than it costs them. Climate change is a threat to Canadians and the entire world, and carbon pricing is an essential tool to address it. We know that Canada, like the rest of the world, needs to transition our economy as quickly as possible to clean sources of energy, so we can eliminate carbon pollution, which is changing the climate.
In 2008, in my own home province of British Columbia, the government implemented North America’s first broad-based carbon tax, which applies to the purchase and use of fossil fuels and covers approximately 70% of provincial greenhouse gas emissions. The Conservatives may think it was a joint NDP and government bill, but it was the free enterprise premier at that time, Mr. Gordon Campbell, who was the one who brought in this leadership when it came to the carbon tax.
In 2016, when we announced the pan-Canadian approach to pricing carbon pollution, some provinces, including British Columbia, were already leading the charge on pollution pricing and were seen as global leaders. The pan-Canadian approach was designed to leave provinces and territories the flexibility to continue to lead with their own pollution pricing systems, while setting minimum national standards that ensured carbon pollution pricing would be in place across the country.
Canada’s carbon pollution pricing policy is designed to be affordable for Canadians while growing a clean economy. All of the direct proceeds from the federal carbon pricing system are returned to the jurisdictions where they were collected. If we do not act, we will face a world of ever-increasing costs and instability due to natural disasters, such as forest fires, flooding and crop failures. This summer’s wildfires and natural disasters throughout Canada was a reminder that we must take serious action, as fast as possible.
In conclusion, our relentless focus as a government is on investing in Canadians, restoring middle-class prosperity and building a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. The members opposite are calling for action and, frankly, we are doing just that.