House of Commons Hansard #378 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was businesses.
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Mr. Speaker, I was taking some notes while the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge was speaking, and I find it quite ironic because we hear the same crap. Can I use that word?
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am sorry. We hear the same lies over and over—
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Mr. Speaker, oh, my goodness, I cannot say that word either.
The member is gaslighting all his constituents with everything he is saying there. I have proof. The member for Lakeland was with me this weekend. We went to those restaurants. We went to those neighbours. They said they want the Liberals out. They want the Conservatives to get in to fix everything they have broken.
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Mr. Speaker, at this moment in time, in the city of Vaughan, 50,000 children benefit from the Canada child benefit, to the tune of $200 million. There are 22,000 seniors now on the Canada dental care plan. We will continue the progress for the Canadians who voted us in and believed in us.
I do not believe in slogans. I do not believe in any of that stuff. I believe in good, solid policy that moves us forward. We will continue to do that, and we will continue to always have the backs of our businesses and our hard-working labour union members. We will always have the backs of everyone, all our residents. Canadians will know who to place their trust in several months from now. The arrogance is showing on the other side, and it is disgusting.
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Mr. Speaker, I heard the member talk about supporting communities. The NDP proposed giving a tax break permanently on essential items.
Why did the Liberals not choose to give a permanent tax break to communities that are desperate for help, and why did they leave out home heating?
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Mr. Speaker, I would like to answer these questions from the hon. member for Vancouver East because I was born and raised in British Columbia. At the time, the member of Parliament who represented me, who is no longer with us in this world, was Jim Fulton and I had a great degree of respect for him.
If any party has an idea at any time to reduce the burden of taxes on any Canadian, I, as a member of Parliament, am always open to hearing about it and receiving it.
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Mr. Speaker, on the price for carbon, we remit all of it back to Canadians in those provinces that have a backstop, and we will continue to do so. It has no impact on inflation or on any cost. That is a fact. Go to Trevor Tombe's website, and look at the studies that are out there.
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Mr. Speaker, it may be late, but that does not mean my colleagues cannot behave themselves. If they cannot, they should go to bed. They can vote electronically.
I would like to know if, early on, the Liberals thought about the impact on businesses, which will have to make this very temporary change and implement it very quickly. Were the Liberals aware of the impact?
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. It is very important to support small businesses across the country. We must always support them.
I understand that small businesses do face short timelines to convert their SKUs, as I believe they were called in back in the day, to make this change.
I have to work on improving my French.
The tax cut is benefiting Canadians and is putting more money in their pockets. I am all about helping middle-class and hard-working Canadians in my riding. When they buy diapers in a few weeks or when they take their kids to a restaurant, whether it is McDonald's or Tim Hortons or anywhere, they are going to get a tax break. It is $1.7 billion in the province of Ontario. I was glad to see the Government of Ontario join us in providing tax relief to its residents. All Canadians are going to benefit. It is 13% in Ontario. Those are real savings for the hard-working Canadians we all represent in the House.
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Mr. Speaker, what happened to Canada? Everyone we talk to across this country ask the same thing. Canada is not Canada anymore, because after nine years of the weak and incompetent Prime Minister and an incompetent Liberal-NDP government, they have caused the worst cost of living crisis in Canadian history.
The incompetent Prime Minister has been supported by the leader of the NDP, who has nothing but greed for his $2.2-million pension. He has put his pension over Canadians and country. He helped the Prime Minister add more debt to Canadians than did every single prime minister before him combined, which has resulted in the cost of living crisis for Canadians and has increased food bank usage. Food bank usage has doubled since 2019. Now, more than two million Canadians are visiting a food bank in a single month in this country, a third of whom are children.
One in four Canadians has started skipping meals, and one in five children is living in poverty now. We never used to hear about this stuff; it has been only in the last nine years. What changed? What happened nine years ago? We got an incompetent, weak Prime Minister who has been propped up by a weak leader of the NDP. That is what happened to this country.
The Liberals have doubled housing costs, doubled food bank usage and doubled the national debt; that is why Canadians are suffering more than ever before. That is why there are tent cities all across the country. There is crime, chaos, drugs and disorder all over our communities because of soft-on-crime policies and bail policies that are savaging our streets right now. It is hard for the police to keep up. This is what incompetence looks like.
Whether someone was born here and grew up here or they immigrated here like my family, the common theme is that Canada is not Canada anymore. People just want their Canada back, the one they once knew and still love, the one where they put in hard work and earned a powerful paycheque and the one where they could afford their rent or mortgage payment and go to the grocery store and afford groceries again.
That is the kind of Canada people want back, but there is only one way to get that Canada back: It will happen in a carbon tax election when Canadians fire the incompetent Liberal-NDP government with the weak Prime Minister and replace him with the member for Carleton and a common-sense Conservative government. That will restore the Canada we all once knew.
To cover up all the incompetence and all the pain and suffering the Liberal-NDP government has spread throughout Canada over the last nine years, it has now put forward a temporary, two-month, tax trick. It would rather take pennies off Pringles, chump change off chocolate and cents off Skittles than axe the tax to actually bring down the cost of groceries.
The government has driven investment out and driven food prices up. In fact, Canada's food prices are 37% higher than those of the U.S. Do members know what the U.S. does not have? It does not have a carbon tax scam, and it has lower prices. Can members believe that? It is able to build more. It can get more energy projects built. It can get more business. It has more powerful paycheques and better jobs for its workers.
What is sad is that over the last nine years, almost a half a trillion dollars of the investment in the U.S. came from Canada. That is what the incompetent, weak Prime Minister did. He drove our jobs, our business and our investment to the U.S., and now he somehow says that Canadians are just in a vibecession; they are not vibing. That is the problem. It is the fault of Canadians, as they just do not feel it.
The Liberals' fix for the vibecession is to take pennies off Pringles and cheese puffs. That is their solution. It is almost as bad as saying we should just cancel our Disney+ service or stop driving around and use a bike.
This is what incompetence looks like in the Liberal-NDP government. It has been on full display for the last nine years.
The Liberals came out with this inflationary temporary tax trick. The member for Vaughan—Woodbridge was bragging that somehow it is going to create all this new business. Here is the reality: A report that came out said only a mere “4% of small business owners believe they will have stronger sales as a result” of this tax trick, and “75% say it will be costly and complicated to implement”. We are hearing from businesses that the minimum cost will be anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 because they will have to change their POS system not once, but twice. The government is doing it at the worst time possible. This is one of the busiest weeks for businesses. It is Black Friday tomorrow, and this is the time they chose to do it. This is pure incompetence on full display.
A majority of businesses say that “there is not enough time to implement [it]”. A majority of businesses say that “it will be difficult to determine which items are temporarily tax-exempt”. Most “retailers of goods subject to the holiday report consumers will delay purchases”, messing with business projections and stock. A large majority says it will benefit the “big businesses and online giants”, meaning more money for Liberal-NDP friends, such as Galen Weston's family, and pain with no gain for small businesses. This is the reality.
It does nothing for the productivity crisis the Prime Minister created, in which we are seeing our investments flee to the U.S. Canadian workers are now $32,000 poorer than U.S. workers. If the incompetent government had just kept pace with the golden plate former prime minister Stephen Harper left in 2015, workers would be $4,200 richer in Canada. Instead, they are much poorer. It is clear to see.
The population growth created a worse housing crisis. Now students are living under bridges. Teachers and people with good jobs are living in cars. People who used to donate their time at food banks are now standing in line at food banks. There are husbands and wives at home, both earning good paycheques, who are going there. It is not just us saying this; proud Liberals such as David Dodge, a former Bank of Canada governor, has said that this is not the right package. It is a little candy today for pain down the road. I would say that this pain did not start today, but nine years ago. Our kids, their kids, their kids' kids and even their kids will be paying for this absolute incompetence.
However, we can put an end to this today. It was not like this before the incompetent Liberal-NDP government came in, and it will not be like that after it is gone. Can it find the courage to call a carbon tax election so that Canadians can fire the government? If so, a common-sense Conservative government will bring real relief. We are going to axe the tax immediately. We are going to bring down the cost of gas, groceries and home heating. We are going to axe the sales tax on newly built homes under $1 million so that 30,000 new homes can be built a year. People will save on their mortgages and the cost of homes.
We are going to fix this Liberal-made productivity crisis by unleashing our economy and our energy sector, which is keeping the government from bringing Canada into a recession. That is the sector it keeps attacking with its ridiculous policies, such as the oil and gas cap, which is actually a production cap that is chasing our resources, money and jobs out of Canada. We are going to unleash the economy once again so that Canada can become the Canada we once knew and still love. We are going to bring that home under a common-sense Conservative government.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, we are going to unveil the hypocrisy within the Conservative Party. Imagine, the Conservatives know no shame. They actually campaigned in the last election, every one of them, to have a GST tax break for the holiday season. Their leader actually endorsed it by retweeting what Erin O'Toole tweeted. Then, when it comes time to actually vote in favour of a tax cut for Canadians, what are they going to do? Let us wait and see. My money says that they are going to vote against it. How do we define hypocrisy? I say that they need to reflect and look in the mirror on this issue.
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Mr. Speaker, this Liberal-NDP government is the king of hypocrisy.
The member wants to talk about hypocrisy. Let us not forget, this is the Prime Minister who said that he would not run deficits over $10 billion. He blew right through that after the first year, and we still have not had a balanced budget. Do members know why? It is because he does not think about monetary policy, and he thinks that budgets balance themselves. This is the same guy who said that our government is “open by default”. Yet, this is the most corrupt government, propped up by the corrupt NDP all because of greed over a pension. The Prime Minister has had more ethics violations than all the prime ministers before him combined. This is the guy who said he has a feminist government, yet fired a strong, indigenous woman who was a cabinet minister because she stood up to his corruption. Let us not forget the racist, blackface-wearing Prime Minister.
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Speaker, I remember when the Conservatives were for tax cuts, but maybe it is because it is the Conservatives who brought in the GST that makes them so sensitive to cutting it.
It is funny, my hon. colleague talked about pennies for cheese puffs, and he called it chump change. However, this is what the proposed GST cut will be on: children's clothing, footwear and diapers; children's car seats; food and beverages and groceries; restaurants; children's toys; and print newspapers and printed books. It is estimated that the average family will spend $2,000 on qualified goods, and if they live in Ontario or Atlantic Canada where the HST will also be removed, they will save about $360 over the two-month period.
Does my colleague say that saving people $360 is chump change? Is that what he is telling families, that $360 means so little that it is chump change to him—
Jasraj Singh Hallan Conservative Calgary Forest Lawn, AB
Mr. Speaker, this is not a tax cut; this is an inflationary tax trick. It would temporarily take the tax off things like cheese puffs and take pennies off Pringles. Does the member really have the courage to face Canadians for once instead of the NDP members propping up this corrupt Prime Minister because of the greed of their leader for a $2.2-million pension? They should put Canadians over their leader's pension. Call a carbon tax election now so common-sense Conservatives can fire all these clowns and we can replace them with a common-sense Conservative government that will axe the tax for good.
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, calling parliamentarians “clowns” in this place is unparliamentary, and it is unbecoming of him. I would ask him to withdraw that comment immediately.
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Mr. Speaker, on the same point of order, I would say that it is offensive to clowns to be compared to the NDP.
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Mr. Speaker, on the same point of order, an apology is warranted, considering the comments by the colleague from Perth—Wellington.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
The hon. member for Calgary Forest Lawn used language not conducive to making sure that a debate can happen here. Because it was not directed at a particular member, usually there is a lot of latitude in terms of the language used, and so we are going to move on.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
The hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam is rising on a point of order.