Mr. Speaker, that member should get on the list to speak tonight. He has probably already done three speeches about the previous thing on the agenda. If he wants to speak, he can ask me a question. I hope he would learn to wait for his time. If he wants to speak, he has to get a tie. He is going to sit in the back row and complain.
There are things we can do to help Canadians. The Conservatives have been talking about lowering taxes since the member for Carleton has been the leader. He has said it every single day. We have introduced a measure to lower taxes for Canadians and they are all going to vote against it. The irony and the hypocrisy are not lost on me, but it is also ironic that the Conservatives like to consider themselves the economic stewards, the stewards of the economic purse. That is absolute horse crap. It is not true. That is clear because at a time when inflation was going up, they wanted to do a GST cut, and now that inflation has abated and is on its way down, they do not. That is just basic Economics 101.
The Conservatives have demonstrated time and time again that they do not know how to manage an economy. It was clear when Harper was the prime minister. It was clear when the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle was their failed leader. They always put forward economic policies that will not help Canadians, but this will. A two-month break on GST and HST between the Christmas holidays and Valentine's Day is going to help Canadians. We are going to give them a little bit of a break because they deserve it, because they have worked really hard.
A lot of Canadians right now do not feel like their hard work is paying off. It is a really challenging thing to go into work every day, similar to going to the gym, and not see that work paying off. We want to see the hard work that Canadians are putting forward pay off. We want to make sure they have a great holiday. If that means they want to go out to dinner with their family and their friends, 13% off of that bill is going to help. Restaurants Canada has come out and said this is great and we will see more people in restaurants. They are going to see a bit of a bump. That is something our economy could use right now.
As the holiday season approaches, a time when people spend a little more on quality time, with some time off from school or work, whether they are sharing meals with loved ones, buying gifts for the kids or just ordering some takeout and chilling out, they deserve a break and our government is there for them.
Canadians deserve this quality time, after the tough years they have been through. Our goal with this bill is to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from it. As the holiday season draws near, people need a helping hand. We want to give them that help. In fact, we are giving them two helping hands.
First, there is the tax holiday for all Canadians. In concrete terms, what we are proposing is a nationwide exemption from the GST and HST on certain products. It would start on December 14 and last two months. That would mean not paying tax on the purchase of clothing, shoes, children's toys, diapers, prepared foods and snacks. There would also be no tax on restaurant meals, beer, wine and Christmas trees.
The purpose of this tax break is to make the holiday season more affordable, especially for families who find this time of year difficult because of the extra expenses that come with it. The GST and HST holiday will make the holiday season more enjoyable for these families. That is the first helping hand, which is included in this bill.
The second helping hand we are proposing is a $250 rebate for millions of Canadians. We will have time to debate that rebate in due course. The tax holiday is what is more pressing right now.
We know that the holiday season is the most expensive time of year for Canadians and that the new year does not always get off to a good start once people have paid off all the holiday spending.
I would also like to point out that we, as a country, can afford to offer this help to Canadians. Canada's net debt-to-GDP ratio is well below that of our G7 peers. The Conservatives suggest Canada has a balance sheet they would like to change. We all want to make sure that we are paying down our debt, that our debt-to-GDP ratio is going down and that our deficit is reduced, but the Conservatives did not do that when they were in power. Mr. Harper saw inflationary deficits and added to our debt without experiencing a global pandemic.
Liberals are good stewards of the Canadian economy, and our recovery is evidence of that. We are one of only two G7 nations with a AAA rating by at least two of the three major global credit rating agencies. That is good news for Canadians. This has been achieved through a responsible economic plan that has put Canada in a really strong fiscal position.
It is also time to put that to work for Canadians. Removing the GST from these qualifying goods for two months will provide an estimated $1.6 billion in federal tax relief. That means $1.6 billion is going to stay in the pockets of the people who earned that money, Canadians, hard-working Canadian families. When they earn that money, it is their money. They will not be spending that money on taxes on goods, and we should debate in the House whether these are things that should ever be taxed, like prepared food in grocery stores or diapers, whether for babies or for adults. That is a debatable topic. We should talk about whether or not those are essential items and perhaps this bill will provide us the opportunity to talk about some of those things.
Budget 2024 removed the GST on psychotherapy and mental health counselling. That was a good move. We should have done that, and we did it. It is a breath of fresh air to talk about a bill like this in the House of Commons. It is a good opportunity to discuss those and more issues.