Debates of Dec. 4th, 2024

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I guess “diversity of opinions” means the opinion that he should not be Prime Minister. That is the predominant opinion among Liberals across the country.

On the front page of The New York Times, we would think the foreign minister would be fighting Trump's tariffs. Instead, she is fighting for her boss's job, where she is described in the headline as a “possible successor” after she sat down for a photo shoot and made the case. This is on top of a Liberal leader in Ontario who is against the Prime Minister's quadrupling carbon tax and a Liberal Premier in Newfoundland who opposes his job-killing energy cap.

Why will the Prime Minister not get the point? His party does not want him anymore.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about standing up for Canada. One of the things we have seen throughout our history is that, when Canada is threatened, when it is challenged with a crisis and when people want ill of Canadians, Canadians pull together across partisan stripes, across backgrounds and across the country to stand up for our neighbours and to stand up for Canadians. That is certainly what we were able to do as a country eight years ago.

Unfortunately, this basic Canadian attribute seems unavailable to the Leader of the Opposition, who cannot help playing politics with Canadians' well-being.

Taxation

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is from a Prime Minister who is helping Donald Trump take away our jobs. We can just imagine the President-elect in the Oval Office calling our businesses to say, “Hey, I saw that you have a quadrupling carbon tax north of the border. Why not come south of the border where there's no carbon tax and other taxes are falling?” How about the latest electricity tax the Prime Minister is bringing in that will drive factories south of the border, or his energy cap that will drive away our resource companies?

I understand why President Trump wants to take Canadian jobs, but why is the Prime Minister trying to help him do it?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the problem for the Leader of the Opposition is that Canadians increasingly see through his shallow partisan games. If he actually cared about helping Canadians and cutting taxes, he would not have voted against taking off the sales tax for Canadians for the next few months.

However, the Leader of the Opposition wants Canadians to continue to struggle, because it benefits him politically perhaps, instead of actually being there to solve the challenges that Canadians are facing. That is why he voted against dental care for seniors. That is why he voted against a school food program. That is why he is voting against a sales tax break for Canadians for the next few months. That is not on.

Justice

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec's National Assembly has unanimously adopted a motion calling on the federal Parliament to end the religious exception for hate propaganda. At one time or another, everyone here has voted in favour of eliminating the religious exception. Obviously, everyone has already voted for this, which is both the right and necessary thing to do.

Is the Prime Minister now ready to go ahead and eliminate the religious exception for inciting hatred or violence?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the Bloc Québécois really cared about tackling hate crimes, it would be open to stopping or preventing the Conservative filibuster here in the House so we could debate the bill he is talking about and so we could debate our bill about online safety for children.

There are measures we would like to debate with the Bloc Québécois members in order to better protect Canadians and reduce hate speech, but, unfortunately, they are not putting an end to the Conservative antics that are paralyzing the House's work.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, what a clear answer.

In war, there are only victims, and they are often civilians. Here, however, anti-Semitic speech is seen as perfectly acceptable. Fixing this would be easy, and 75% of Quebeckers and 66% of Canadians support the idea.

Is the government willing to remove two sections of the Criminal Code that recognize the religious exception? Will it put its money where its mouth is?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I wish we were debating these important issues in the House. Far too many Canadians face hate and discrimination these days. That is why Parliament should be able to debate the matter and move forward with bills to resolve this challenge that too many people are facing.

Unfortunately, the Conservatives continue to obstruct the work of this Parliament, and the Bloc Québécois is not stopping them.

Taxation

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives showed us who they really are. They voted against tax relief for the working class, and the Liberals want to jack up taxes on February 15. New Democrats believe the working class needs permanent relief. Will the Prime Minister permanently exempt the GST on daily essentials, like a kid's winter jacket?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are actually moving forward to suspend the sales tax for Canadians so they can afford the basic necessities they will need. Whether it is fresh-made produce, sorry, products at the grocery store, or whether it is dinner at a restaurant or even at a fast-food place for the family, these are things that Canadians will find less expensive over the coming months.

Unfortunately the Conservatives continue to vote against measures that will help Canadians. They stand against the tax break for all Canadians, like they stand against dental care, school food programs and many other things to help Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, why are the Conservatives chirping so much? They have proven that they are bootlickers for billionaires.

Families will still need to eat after February 15. On February 15, however, the Prime Minister is going to put the GST right back where it was. That is yet another disappointment courtesy of the Liberals.

Why does the Prime Minister think that people should keep paying GST on diapers and children's clothing?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our tax holiday over the next few months will help families across the country buy groceries, because all groceries will be tax-free. All the things that people are going to spend money on in the coming months, like eating out at restaurants or enjoying wine and beer, are going to cost less.

It is a way to tell Canadians that we see how hard they are struggling, but we are here to invest and to lend them a hand, unlike the Conservatives who keep voting against help for Canadians, against tax holidays, and against dental care.s

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister claims he is taking taxes off fresh-made produce. He really does think that food comes from the grocery store, not from the farmers who actually grow the produce. That is why he, I guess, thinks he can carbon tax those farmers without taxing the food. Then there is his friend, the Maserati Marxist. He wants to tax their gas. They are both out of touch. Canadians are out of money.

How about a carbon tax election?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition had the opportunity to axe the sales tax for Canadians. He voted against it and forced his MPs to do exactly the same. He is only interested in his own political self-interest; he is not interested in helping Canadians with a tax break for the next few months, with dental care for vulnerable seniors across the country, or with more school food programs that will help kids and will help parents afford their groceries.

These are the kinds of things we are doing. These are exactly the things the Leader of the Opposition is blocking.

Finance

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says he is going to leave the economy to bankers. He says that he does not think much about monetary policy, that budgets balance themselves and that he is not very good with numbers, but he did get one thing right: He said that deficits cause inflation, as did his finance minister right before she introduced his budget, saying that there would be no deficit above $40 billion.

This is a straight-up question: Will the Prime Minister keep his word and cap the inflationary deficit below $40 billion?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I know that the Leader of the Opposition is eager for our fall economic statement. If he really wants to see it, he could perhaps stop the obstruction of Parliament to allow us to move forward on dealing with Canadians and the challenges they are facing.

However, it is interesting that he brought up inflation once again. He stopped talking about inflation after years of railing about it because we did the work to actually bring it down. We invested in programs that were there to support Canadians but that did not contribute to inflation. Inflation is now back down in the target range. Interest rates are coming down. That is why we can give a tax break to Canadians. That is why we are there for them.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am going to ask colleagues to please not take the floor unless recognized by the Speaker, so we can hear and so people who use interpretation can hear the answers to the questions.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, inflation is on the rise as a result of this Prime Minister's inflationary spending. In fact, the four measures of inflation are higher than the Bank of Canada target, and this election-minded, inflationary spending is making it harder for the Bank of Canada to reduce interest rates for Canadians who are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

I will repeat my question. The Prime Minister promised to cap the inflationary deficit at $40 billion. Will he do that?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, over the past few years, we have invested in measures to help Canadians who are struggling, whether it be the dental care program, the program to create more child care spaces or the school food program. All of these investments are aimed at helping Canadians, but they still made it possible to lower inflation and bring it back in the Bank of Canada's target zone.

Now, we are moving forward with a tax holiday for all Canadian families, for all Canadians, and the Conservative Party is voting against direct help for Canadians because they are just here to play politics.

Mental Health and Addictions

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the results are in on the Prime Minister's radical liberalization of hard drugs. He teamed up with the BC NDP to decriminalize fentanyl, crack and heroin, he lowered jail sentences for mass producers of deadly fentanyl, and 80% of the fentanyl made in Canada is done so using ingredients that are not even regulated and come right into our country where they are cooked into poison, which is now threatening our trade relationship with the U.S.

Will the Prime Minister reverse his radical liberal drug agenda to save lives and jobs?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately we have seen that the Conservative leader's answer to the terrible tragedy fighting so many Canadians with the toxic drug epidemic is to stand for photo ops in front of encampments and try to use them for cheap votes. Exploiting Canadians is not the way to move forward.

We have anchored ourselves in science, working in partnership with municipalities, frontline workers and provinces; working with the United States on precursor chemicals; and working to invest in wraparound supports including housing for people suffering from homelessness and from the drug crisis. We will continue to be there for people.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the results are in: The Prime Minister's radical liberalization of hard drugs has led to a 200% increase in overdose deaths; 47,000 people have died, and the worst deaths have been in NDP-controlled B.C., where the liberalization has been the most extreme. Worse, he is allowing 80% of the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl come in unregulated and legally over our border, to be used by criminals who get out because he softened the sentences. Now our trade relationship is threatened over it.

Will the Prime Minister reverse the disastrous experiment to save the jobs and the lives of Canadians?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, what has become increasingly clear through the Leader of the Opposition's little performances is that he does not actually care about Canadians and about people suffering. He is there for a clip and he is there for a photo op, but he is not there to do the work of delivering based on science, based on compassion or based on a public health approach on dealing with the toxic drug epidemic. He is instead continuing to try to score cheap political points on the backs of the most vulnerable. That is not serious. That is not responsible.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, what is not responsible is allowing 80% of the chemicals used in fentanyl manufacturing to come in unregulated and legally. What is not responsible is decriminalizing crack, heroin and fentanyl, and then, after seeing that it leads to a massive increase in deaths, two weeks ago, he, the Bloc and the NDP all voted in favour of a committee report to decriminalize fentanyl right across the country.

At a time when Canadians are dying and our border could be closed, will the Prime Minister confirm that he has reversed himself and now opposes decriminalization of fentanyl?