Debates of Dec. 16th, 2024

Finance

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for the member for Louis‑Saint‑Laurent. As my colleague indicated, we are presenting an economic statement later today. This is an economic statement that will be there for families, an economic statement that will be there for workers, an economic statement that will be there for industry, but also it is also an important economic statement. We expect the Conservatives to support it because this economic statement will be there to prepare Canada to deal with the next U.S. administration.

Canadians expect better than slogans. Canadians expect action. Will the Conservatives have the courage to defend Canada and vote with the government to prepare the country for the future?

Canada Post Corporation

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have heard that Liberals are a shiver looking for a spine to crawl up.

We are seeing this play out in real time as they have let postal workers and in fact all workers down. At this time, when Canada Post CEOs got bonus after bonus while denying fair wages to its workers, the government continues to betray people and cave to corporate interests. As the former deputy prime minister said, Canadians know when their government is not working for them but working for itself.

New Democrats know where we stand. We stand up for workers every single day. When will the government do the same?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, Canada went through a four-week postal strike where letter carriers, who we do thank for their service to Canadians and who I know we all have deep affinity for, were out for a very long time. Not only the government but the Canada Industrial Relations Board has judged there to be a fundamental impasse in the negotiations. We have found an imaginative way forward, a way to get a collective agreement for Canada Post and its hard-working letter carriers.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Mr. Speaker, they are not listening. The former deputy prime minister said it best today: Canadians know whether the government is working for them or for itself.

The Liberals have made it clear where their focus lies. The Minister of Labour's out-of-touch response last week to postal workers is a slap in the face. They deserve safety at work and livable wages. People are tired of the Liberals and Conservatives siding with rich CEOs at their expense.

Now Canadians want to know, will the Minister of Labour be the next to resign?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, as that member well knows, postal workers and Canada Post were struggling to find a path forward at the negotiating table. It had gone on for four weeks. Canadians were, quite rightly, whether they were indigenous or in remote communities, whether they were small business persons or whether they were people expecting medicines, pressing us to act. We found an imaginative way forward with an industrial inquiry commission.

We will ensure that Canada Post operates for the holidays, and we are glad that we did.

Persons with Disabilities

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about something that is on everybody's mind, and that is the Canadian dental care plan. One out of four Canadians skipped a visit to the dentist because of the cost, but thanks to the Canadian dental care plan, more than one million Canadians now receive that care, and every day that number continues to grow. Applications for the Canadian dental care plan opened for adults with a valid disability tax credit earlier this year.

Can the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities please tell us how persons with disabilities are being helped by this important plan?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Minister of Diversity]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian dental care plan is already saving Canadians an average of more than $730 per year. This will help almost 200,000 persons living with disabilities access dental care. We know this is making a huge difference in the lives of people on the ground. We also know dental care is health care, and we will continue to make sure Canadians are getting the support that they need.

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, this weak Prime Minister has lost control. Carbon tax Carney wrote the fiscal update and filled it with poison pills, so he could blame the former finance minister, pushing her off the fiscal cliff, so he can take her job and eventually the Prime Minister's job.

The finance minister figured out the plan, and she resigned in protest. She said that she no longer has confidence in this weak Prime Minister and carbon tax Carney's plan. If the Prime Minister's own caucus and cabinet do not have confidence in him, even though the leader of the NDP does, why should Canadians?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, in a moment where Canadians are looking for leadership, the Conservative asking the question can only come up with names to lob toward his political opponents—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Colleagues, it is very important for us to hear the question and the answer.

The hon. minister, from the start.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the very best that the Conservatives can offer to this conversation is name-calling and mudslinging, not solutions to the problems that Canadians are facing.

When I talk to people at home, they want their governments to be focusing on creating good jobs to make sure people can afford to put food on the table. They want to make sure that governments are advancing policies to invest in health care and housing. They want to make sure we are doing more to protect the environment. Every time we put policies on the table to accomplish these ends, the Conservatives throw their hands up in the air, vote against and just sling mud at their opponents. That is not what people in my community want. It is not what Canadians deserve.

We are going to advance solutions that introduce real and meaningful changes that will benefit people who live in this country.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am going to ask the hon. member for Dufferin—Caledon to please hold off on making comments while other people have the floor.

The hon. member for Calgary Forest Lawn.

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

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the incompetent minister and the Prime Minister, Canadians are looking for leadership. Carbon tax Carney's Canadian comeback fuelled a fiscal feud for the former finance minister. Carney wrote the fiscal update, pushed insane inflationary spending and brought in the two-month tax trick; he did this while trying to blame the former finance minister for running Canada's finances off a cliff.

Will the Prime Minister stop passing the blame on to women in his caucus and call a carbon tax election now so that common-sense Conservatives can give the power back to Canadians?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, I was wrong before when I said all they had was name-calling. Apparently, they have alliteration as well, but that is not going to put food on the table for people who need it in my community or in his. It is not going to put a roof over the head of people who are vulnerable in this country.

If the member wants to make this argument about whether women will be supported, I wonder if he has ever approached the leader of the Conservative Party about using hashtags to specifically attract the attention of men who hate women to support him online. I wonder if he has asked questions about why he has cancelled the investigation as to who was behind it; perhaps he has not, because he knows it was the Conservative leader himself.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, everything is out of control: Home prices have doubled, and food banks are seeing two million users in a single month. Meanwhile, the real fiscal adviser to the Prime Minister wrote the financial update for this afternoon. He included a temporary two-month tax trick and is set to smash through the massive $40-billion deficit promise that was made by the former finance minister. When the Liberals tried to blame the economic vandalism on her, she quit, saying that she does not have confidence in the Prime Minister.

The Liberals cannot tell us how much they have spent; they cannot tell us who is in charge. How can anyone have confidence in the Prime Minister?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. They do not see value in investing in child care, which has not only reduced costs for families but also led to the largest increase in women's participation in the labour force in the history of this country. They do not seem to believe there is value in investing in social housing, in public housing and in affordable housing so that everyone in this country can have a roof over their head. They do not believe in the value of the Canada child benefit, which is ensuring that middle-class families in this country can put food on the table.

Before the member continues to sling mud and arrows on this side of the House, he should perhaps look inward and ask why he is not even allowed to advocate on behalf of his community. It is because his leader has said that is just not in order.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yes, we talk about having confidence. However, that just came from a minister who said today that he is not going to continue to serve in the cabinet of that Prime Minister. This is just like the former finance minister who said she does not have confidence, the seven other ministers over there or the one in five Liberal MPs who said they do not have confidence in the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister. He broke housing and immigration; he broke our finances in this country. The Liberals talk about costs, but they have absolutely no idea how much they have spent. No government has ever spent so much to achieve as little as the current government has.

We know why the NDP leader has confidence in the Prime Minister. It is for his pension. However, why should Canadians?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Housing]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is right about one thing. I did announce this morning that I am not going to be seeking re-election. However, if he thinks it is a matter of confidence, I can tell him I have confidence that I am going to be the best father to my kids that I could possibly be for the rest of my life. That is what is most important to me.

While I have the floor, I should say thanks for the opportunity to engage in the tête-à-tête over the years. This may be one of the last opportunities I have, and I want to use it to make this point: Canadians want governments to invest to increase the quality of life they get to enjoy. We do not seem to be able to agree on that basic tenet. On this side of the House, we will put measures in place to support families, not advocate cuts that will—

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will quote the former deputy prime minister: “[Canadians] know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves.” She is right. Seventy-one per cent of Quebeckers think that the GST tax break and the Prime Minister's cheques are vote-buying measures. Democracy as a whole loses when so many citizens believe that a prime minister is trying to buy them off.

Does the Prime Minister finally realize that there is a limit to putting Liberal priorities ahead of the common good?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from the Bloc Québécois.

If the Bloc Québécois were truly there for Quebeckers, it would vote in favour of Quebeckers. For months now, the Bloc Québécois has been contributing to the Conservative tactic of blocking Parliament and not advancing bills that would move Quebec forward.

Instead of stirring up controversy today, can the Bloc Québécois rise above it and be there for Quebeckers by allowing this Parliament to function? Quebeckers expect better from the Bloc Québécois. On this side of the House, we will always be there to defend Quebeckers.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the former deputy prime minister's resignation confirms that the Prime Minister went too far in pursuing Liberal interests at all costs. It confirms that he no longer has the confidence of his closest colleagues. It confirms that the Prime Minister no longer has the moral authority to present an economic update without a minister to take responsibility for it. It confirms that the Prime Minister no longer has the moral authority to continue governing without a new mandate from the people. I would remind the House that the former deputy prime minister has confirmed all of this.

Will the Prime Minister call an election?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, it is customary in the House for the Bloc members to dismiss the government's economic plans out of hand, before even reading them. That is why they voted against the Canada child benefit. That is why they refused to support the dental plan for Canadians, which benefits many Quebeckers. They voted against the guaranteed income supplement. They consistently vote against many measures that will help Quebeckers. It should therefore come as no surprise today that the Bloc Québécois is once again rejecting out of hand measures that will help Canadians.

Finance

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, carbon tax Carney is the Prime Minister's official economic adviser, and his plan was always to push out the finance minister and take her place. Let us look at his advice so far. He forced her to bring in the GST tax trick. Carney also forced through insane inflationary spending, smashing through that $40-billion guardrail. Carney's economic plan is so bad the finance minister resigned in protest rather than humiliate herself into reading his homework. Now nobody knows who the finance minister is.

Enough is enough. Why will the Prime Minister not do the only honourable thing left and let Canadians decide for themselves in a carbon tax election?