The right hon. Prime Minister, from the top.
House of Commons Hansard #372 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was documents.
House of Commons Hansard #372 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was documents.
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, these little performances that the Leader of the Opposition puts on are not fooling anyone. The only thing he is interested in is his own interests, his own quest for power. He is asking his MPs to not be strong voices for their communities, including in communities that are relying on the investments in their housing so they can respond to growing populations and housing pressures caused by increasing population. These are the things we are busy solving, but he would rather muzzle his MPs in order to look good when he is doing his little show.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not helping us find the bad actor. It is like there has been someone else running the country for the last nine years while the system has come crumbling down. He claims that he cares about housing, but on that subject, maybe we will ask him this question: Who was the head of the government that was warned by its public service three years ago that increasing population growth by 300% would cause the massive housing shortages we see today?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Again, Mr. Speaker, with the little performances. What the Leader of the Opposition would rather not admit is that when he was Stephen Harper's failed housing minister, he created a total of six affordable housing units across the country. He was part of a government that completely pulled back from any investments in housing. Yes, as a government we have had to step up and make record investments, but even as we are making record investments to accelerate the construction of housing in Conservative ridings across the country, he is preventing his Conservative MPs from standing up for their communities to solve this housing crisis.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, when I was housing minister, we had one home built for every 1.5 people added to the population, which meant we were adding houses faster than we needed to and we were providing affordable homes at half the cost of today. Last year, the Liberals added one home for every five new people, the biggest housing deficit in history. So, once again, who was the bad actor running the government that was warned by its officials that all of this out-of-control population increase would cause a housing shortage?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the government in which the Leader of the Opposition was the failed housing minister deliberately chose to get out of the business of housing, which meant we needed to step up with a national housing strategy in 2017, and with record investments, not just to create more housing but to change the way housing is built in communities across this country. That is money put into the pockets of municipalities to invest, to densify and to accelerate permitting, money that he is promising to take away and that his MPs are trying to speak out to defend.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, when I was the housing minister, housing was half the cost. When I was the jobs minister, I actually cut down the number of temporary foreign workers to make sure that Canadians got the jobs.
However, the bad actor he is referring to is the same head of government who allowed 211% more study permits for people who were not supposed to be working. He allowed 154% more temporary foreign workers while Canadians were looking for jobs and 726% more refugees. If he wants to know who the bad actor is who broke the immigration system, why does he not do what he loves to do the most? He should look in the mirror.
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the irony of this is that the Leader of the Opposition likes to rhyme off facts and figures, but he will not even take a briefing that will allow him to understand the security threats facing this country. For some strange reason that he will not admit to, he has refused to get a security clearance. He has refused to take the briefings necessary to keep Canadians safe. Therefore, any time he chooses to rhyme off facts and figures, we know that he is not actually caring about Canadians; he is caring about himself.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, now we know the difference. We want to axe the tax; he wants to axe the facts.
After nine years, it is clear that the immigration system is completely broken, but the Prime Minister likes to blame bad actors for the problem.
Will he look at who was the head of the government that increased population growth by 300%, that issued 211% more permits for international students, and that increased the number of refugees by 700%?
If he wants bad actors, why does he not do what he loves doing the most, which is looking in the mirror?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, Canada enjoyed the fastest economic recovery among our peers after the pandemic. This was partly because we decided to welcome people to address the labour shortage we were experiencing across the country.
Now we are in a different situation. We are fixing the problem and adjusting our immigration targets, adjusting the number of temporary workers coming in and adjusting the number of international students.
Those are things a responsible government must do to ensure appropriate growth for our country.
Yves-François Blanchet Bloc Beloeil—Chambly, QC
Mr. Speaker, what will Quebeckers say if the government fails to protect supply management? What will they say about the Senate? What will they say about the government? What will they say about the Prime Minister's leadership and this inconsistency? While the United States is about to become more protectionist than ever, Canada is about to give up its agriculture.
Are Canada and its Senate the worst negotiators in history or will they defend supply management?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, we have always been very clear. As a government, we will protect supply management in any present or future free trade negotiations.
As such, we support the Bloc Québécois's bill to protect supply management. In the event that the bill fails in the Senate and if we do not manage to pass it here because the Conservatives will vote against it, we will be there to protect supply management, even if we have to take government action to do so.
We are here to protect supply management, period.
Yves-François Blanchet Bloc Beloeil—Chambly, QC
Mr. Speaker, we are going to protect it with legislation.
It is ironic that while the Senate of Canada or certain senators of Canada want to sacrifice Quebec, it is the Bloc Québécois that is working for all farmers in Quebec and Canada.
Do people understand that this is not about the Bloc Québécois? This is about the quality of the food we eat. It is about fair and predictable pricing. It is about the environmental impact of farming practices.
I invite the Prime Minister to accompany me to my meeting with senators this afternoon.
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, I welcome the Bloc Québécois leader's choice to go meet with senators.
We regularly work with senators to get good legislation and good bills passed for Canadians.
As I said, we will protect supply management. We completely agree with our Bloc Québécois colleagues on the importance of protecting supply management and our farmers.
That is why we acted accordingly. That is why we are committed as a government to never undermine supply management in any future free trade negotiation.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister was just off on another bonanza of high-flying, high-carbon, high-taxing hypocrisy, this time on a trip to Brazil. He dripped with condescension for Canadians who are struggling to pay their bills. He said, “It is really, really easy, when you are in a short-term survive, I gotta be able to pay the rent this month, I've gotta be able to buy groceries for my kids, to say, OK, let’s put climate change as a slightly lower priority.” This is the Prime Minister who burns 100 tonnes of jet fuel and releases 100 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
When will he stop the high-tax hypocrisy?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are facing global challenges right now. As much as the Leader of the Opposition would love to bury his head in the sand, global inflation and climate change, which is impacting everyone around the world, require us to be working together.
Standing up for peace and justice on the world stage, standing up for women's rights or standing up for opportunities for the middle class requires us to work together, something the Leader of the Opposition cannot do. He cannot even work with his own MPs. He has to muzzle them. He is not letting them be voices of their communities in Ottawa. Those are the real colours of the Leader of the Opposition.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
A quarter of his caucus members want to fire him, Mr. Speaker, and we know why. Food prices have risen 36% faster in Canada than in the U.S., a gap that opened up as the carbon tax came into force. The Prime Minister just goes on trying to tell Canadians that their mentality is off. He says, “There’s a sense that affordability is in direct contrast with our moral responsibility to protect the planet”, trying to shame Canadians for opposing his ineffective, job-killing, inflationary carbon tax.
Will he stop lecturing Canadians and call a carbon tax election?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, I invite Canadians to actually watch the remarks I made down south, where I was talking exactly about the importance of putting affordability first for Canadians, even as we are fighting against climate change.
The Leader of the Opposition can invent things that he thinks I might have said. That is not what I said. What I pointed out was that even as we are fighting climate change, even as we are creating incentives to grow our economy in cleaner, greener ways, we are putting more money back in the pockets of eight out of 10 Canadians with the Canada carbon rebate, a fact that he's busy gaslighting Canadians against.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
I am going to ask all colleagues, including the hon. member for Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, to please not take the floor unless recognized by the Chair.
The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gaslit Canadians so much that Environment Canada has to do a recalculation of the carbon emissions that have come from the lamp. He is the Prime Minister who tells Canadians they should not believe their eyes when the Parliamentary Budget Officer's data shows that 100% of middle-class people pay more in carbon tax than they get back in rebates, that they should not believe their eyes when they see that grocery prices are rising 36% faster in Canada than in the U.S.
Instead of trying to gaslight Canadians, why not call a carbon tax election?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, once again, the Leader of the Opposition is just not telling the truth. The reality is that the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that eight out of 10 Canadians get more money back from the price on pollution than it actually costs them in paying that price on pollution. The cost of inaction on climate change is astronomical. That is exactly what he is proposing.
The Leader of the Opposition should stop misleading Canadians and actually understand that we cannot fight for affordability and we cannot fight against climate change unless we are investing in Canadians.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
I know that certain comments cause a disturbance in the House, but I will ask all members to be careful about the language they use.
The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, his quadrupling carbon tax is all financial pain and no environmental gain. Today we learned that, after nine years under the Prime Minister, Canada now ranks 62nd out of 67 countries for the climate change performance index. The Prime Minister says that Canadians starving or lined up at food banks should congratulate themselves on the fact that his tax has made us 62nd. He says we are 62nd, and he pumps his fist into the air.
Why does the Prime Minister make Canadians pay such high taxes to achieve such terrible results?