Debates of Dec. 13th, 2024

Finance

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. parliamentary secretary has the floor.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, the member talks about people at food banks. We are not insensitive to that. Canadians have had a hard time. What has this government done? We have supported them through the pandemic. We continue to show support. The Conservatives want to cut Canadians' pensions; they want to cut employment insurance. We have a school food program that is supporting no fewer than 400,000 kids in four different provinces. The Conservatives voted against that too. With the Canada child benefit, today parents will see a direct deposit put into their account. The Conservatives are also against that. They do not care.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, “deficit” is a short word with only three syllables. It is easy to pronounce. Not only do the Liberals seem incapable of saying it, but they are afraid to even talk about it, because they have lost control. The Minister of Finance said she put in a guardrail to ensure that the deficit did not exceed $40 billion.

Why did the Prime Minister choose to listen to the advice of his old chum, Mark Carney, and force Canada's first female finance minister to break her promise and her $40-billion guardrail?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, we see that Scrooge is in town.

Tomorrow morning, Canadians and Quebeckers will have a GST holiday. That is good news.

After hammering away for a year about us needing to lower taxes, what did the Conservatives say? They just stayed in their seats.

We have stepped up. Tomorrow morning, people will have a GST holiday on diapers. They will be able to go to a restaurant and save money. That is what it means to side with Canadians. That is affordability.

The Conservatives have nothing to say about it.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I did not hear the word “deficit”. My question is about the deficit. That should not be too hard to grasp.

Why did the Prime Minister force Canada's first female Minister of Finance to go over her $40-billion guardrail, dragging all Canadians down with her, while he and his friend Mark Carney stood by and watched her fall? What hypocrisy from a Prime Minister who said, just this week, “I want you to know that I am, and always will be, a proud feminist.”

Let me try this again. Does the Prime Minister have the courage to say the word “deficit”, and why is he forcing the finance minister to break her promise?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I have read the Conservative Party's economic statement. Their plan is to fix the budget, and then it is a big blank page. The Conservatives have nothing to say about the economy.

Quebeckers and Canadians across the country are getting a GST holiday as of tomorrow morning. That is good news. My colleague had a chance to stand up for his constituents. What did he do? He just sat there. As a result, he will have to tell his constituents that, instead of voting for a GST break, he stood up to keep their taxes higher. That is shameful.

International Trade

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, again yesterday, senators conspired to delay a crucial vote on Bill C-282, which would protect supply management. They have been working against our farmers for 18 months by putting off passing this one-clause bill.

Rather than respecting the will of elected members of all parties, unelected senators are filibustering. Ironically, the delay tactics that senators used yesterday consisted in stopping work by taking four hours of paid breaks.

Will the government condemn that sorry spectacle?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with the member opposite. It is shameful what Conservative members did in the House. It is important to remember that nearly 50% of Conservative members voted against Bill C-282. Now, the House has spoken. We support Bill C-282. We did our job.

We have made many calls to senators, and I encourage the member to continue making calls to the other chamber, because we expect Bill C-282 to be passed.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I appeal to all the party leaders. Every one of them voted to protect supply management in trade agreements. Today, they have a duty to ask senators to respect the will of elected members. They must tell the senators, who are not elected, that they are not being paid to take a break, that they have a job to do no matter how superfluous it may be.

The Senate overlords are sitting again next week. Will all the leaders, starting with the Prime Minister, ask them to pass Bill C-282 before the holidays?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, for several months now, I have heard the Prime Minister repeatedly encourage the other place to pass Bill C-282.

However, I have not heard that from the leader of the Conservative Party. I understand the reason: The issue is a divisive one on the other side of the House. Almost 50% of Conservatives voted against supply management. Every member on our side of the House voted for it. We expect the other chamber to respect the decision of the House of Commons.

Housing

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer revealed yesterday that over two million Canadians do not have access to adequate or affordable housing. This is no surprise. Average rents now in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia for a one-bedroom are over $2,500 a month. It is staggering. Liberals have simply been too weak to take on the corporate greed that is fuelling housing prices and Conservatives, of course, will just make their corporate landlord buddies and developer buddies richer.

When will the government take on the corporate greed that is fuelling housing prices, so that all Canadians can have a roof over their head?

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, in fact, what the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer's report revealed is that this federal government, for the first time in decades, is back in housing, making it a serious priority, reversing decades of cuts from previous governments; in particular, with all due respect, from Conservative governments.

The reality is that we have more work to do. However, we have seen through vital programs, which would be cut by that party, like the reaching home program, that 87,000 people have been lifted off the street and almost 150,000 people who would be homeless are not homeless because of our strategy on that. We will continue.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, temperatures are plunging in northern Canada and the ongoing housing crisis on northern reserves is putting families and children at serious risk. Carol-Ann Ballantyne lives in a mouldy trailer with three children in Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan. For years she has pleaded just for a simple home to keep her children safe and warm, but to the Liberals, she is just another name on an ever-growing backlog of heartbreak and homelessness in the north, a crisis they continue to ignore.

I have simple question: Why is the government refusing to help this family? Why is it refusing to step up and deal with this crisis?

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Minister of Northern Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we have been working since 2015 on creating partnerships with provinces, territories and indigenous leaders to get more houses built all over the north. Several years ago, we invested $4 billion in distinctions-based housing to get construction done. Last year, there was another $4 billion for an urban-rural northern housing reserve. We are going in the right direction and there is still lots of work to do.

Finance

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, carbon tax Carney's Canadian comeback fuelled a fiscal feud for this furious finance minister. The Prime Minister forced the finance minister to crash through the $40-billion deficit guardrail promise. The PBO says it will be at least over $6 billion. Now that the Prime Minister is done using her, he will dump her for carbon tax Carney.

Will the Prime Minister confirm, once he fires his finance minister, that the deficit will not be a penny over $46 billion?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, while that member practises on things that rhyme with F-words, our minister actually renegotiated NAFTA with Trump. Our minister introduced supports during a global pandemic to keep businesses and people going. Our minister, tomorrow, will see GST tax breaks for Canadians.

So, while Conservatives practise their rhymes, we are delivering real supports for Canadians.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' minister is the reason that Canada's economy is crapping out. Just to take dimes off Doritos, they will crash the deficit guardrail, taking Canada's finances off a cliff. The Prime Minister forced the finance minister to implement it. The PBO confirmed that they are already $6 billion past that fiscal guardrail.

Canadians want to know how bad carbon tax Carney and the Prime Minister will smash through the $40-billion deficit guardrail. How bad is it? What is the deficit number?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty clear that when the Conservatives have no real argument or debate, they just insult people.

On this side of the House, our finance minister has a record of helping people in some of the hardest times this country has ever faced: a global pandemic, global inflation. We saw another interest rate cut just this week, and tomorrow we will see more tax breaks for Canadians, something Conservatives promised they would do, but were not able to.

So, what is it? Is it the fact that it is our plan that we are actually implementing, or that they cannot stand a woman doing it?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

Order. We made it to 12 questions before we got too much noise in here, which is not bad. It is a record, I am sure.

The hon. member for Northumberland—Peterborough South.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the consensus among economists, experts and even the Parliamentary Budget Officer is that this government has exceeded all of its fiscal anchors. The only question is: How badly has it failed?

Can the government confirm whether the Minister of Finance has gone way past the guardrail, or completely off the cliff, with a $46-billion deficit?

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, the member should expand beyond the Fraser Institute and look to, for example, what the International Monetary Fund has said, what other lead financial authorities have said in the business press and elsewhere, as well as the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which is that Canada has a very sustainable fiscal situation, with the lowest debt in the G7, the lowest deficit in the G7 and an AAA credit rating.

What do we see on the Conservative side? It is a plan to make cuts, including a plan to cut $10 million for housing in Peterborough, the member's community. What does he have to say to that?

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let us return to the facts here. The current and former governors of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem and Stephen Poloz, agree: The Canadian economy is in big trouble. The phantom finance minister's economic plan is failing Canadians. The sad part is that these Liberals do not even know how badly. Can someone go behind the curtain on the other side and simply ask carbon tax Carney what the deficit is?

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, I know that this member is an honourable member, and I know that he cares about his community. A few weeks ago, I spoke with Peterborough's Mayor Jeff Leal, who is a good man. He cares about his community and is doing a great job in that city. I told him of the government's plan to invest over $10 million, through the housing accelerator fund, to build more housing. The Conservatives want to cut that investment, among others. Will the member join the other Conservative MPs who are advocating for the accelerator fund to ensure that more homes get built? I hope that he does; the mayor is asking.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has lost control of his spending and his cabinet. The PBO says that this year's budget deficit could be as high as $46 billion, smashing the $40-billion guardrail promised by the finance minister. Like so many ministers before her, the finance minister's time might be limited, simply for standing up to the Prime Minister and his radical agenda.

Will the Prime Minister confirm that he is ignoring his finance minister's $40-billion guardrail promise and tell us whether the deficit will exceed $46 billion?