Debates of Dec. 9th, 2024

Tax Relief

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we all know that, when the Conservatives hit the campaign trail, they talk a line of tax savings, but when it comes right down to it, what are their actions on the floor of the House? When it came time to give a tax break to Canada's middle class, they voted no.

Let me pose a question. How would one define hypocrisy? The Conservatives all campaigned on giving a GST holiday in the last election, including the leader of the Conservative Party. When we brought forward a tax holiday on the GST, what did members of the Conservative Party do? They voted against tax relief for the holiday season. Talk about the leader being a grinch.

At the end of the day, we cannot trust the Conservatives. If people want a tax break, they need to vote for the Liberal Party.

Finance

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, just before Christmas, under a blanket of snow, the minister is finally going to present her economic update. She will do so after this Prime Minister has doubled the national debt, adding more debt than all other previous prime ministers combined. He has doubled the cost of housing and created more bureaucracy, which prevents housing construction. He has doubled the number of people using food banks because of taxes on food.

We are asking for just one thing: stop raising taxes, stop the inflationary spending and stop putting Canadians in debt.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, we are very proud of our economic record, which we will present to the House next week, on December 16. We will be presenting our economic record. The inflation rate has remained within the Bank of Canada's target range for several months now. The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate four times in a row to date.

That is our economic record, and we are very proud of it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he is so proud of an update that his government wants to bury in the snow.

We want the government to stop taxing people. Eliminating the GST on new homes would be one way to end the inflationary taxes that have driven up the cost of living.

We also want the government to keep its promises. The minister said that the deficit would not exceed $40 billion. Will she keep that promise?

[Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, we know that housing is too expensive. That is why we eliminated the sales tax on new apartment complexes.

Today, Canada is building housing faster than it ever has. We are building more homes than they did when the Conservative leader was the minister responsible for housing. We are seeing the results: Rents have come down this year in big cities like Montreal. The Conservative leader wants to bring back the tax on building rental properties. His plan would drive up the cost of housing.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, after doubling the debt with inflationary spending, doubling the cost of housing with more bureaucracy that blocks building, doubling the number of people using food banks with carbon taxes on farmers and truckers who bring us our food, finally the Liberals are planning a fall update but will do it in the snow on December 16. Our message is “stop”: Stop the inflationary spending; stop the tax increases on food and homes; stop indebting Canadians. Will they please just stop?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, on December 16, we will present our economic record in this chamber and we will talk about the fall economic statement. I anticipate that we are going to hear a lot about the economic record that we have amassed. One thing I anticipate we will hear about is what we have done with respect to child care. With respect to child care and the economic affordability model, we have brought it down to $10 a day in eight provinces. That has resulted in 110,000 women joining the workplace. What is that record? Eighty-five per cent of women are now participating in the workforce in Canada. That is a record high. That is what we stand behind on this side of the House.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, what the Liberals have amassed is a lot of debt. In fact, they have doubled the debt. This Prime Minister has added more debt than all prior prime ministers combined, which has caused the worst inflation in 40 years, and is now rising as the debt is rising. The finance minister said that she had a guardrail for the deficit; it would not go beyond $40 billion. If the Liberals go up to $40 billion, that means they have hit the guardrail. If they go higher than $40 billion, they have gone through the guardrail. What is on the other side of a guardrail? It is a cliff. Is this minister leading us off a cliff?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the spending that our government is doing. Let us talk about what observers are observing. Tiff Macklem, and I am pretty sure the Leader of the Opposition knows who that is, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, says, “We're no longer trying to get inflation down. Government spending is not pushing against us getting inflation down, we've got it down.” Let us talk about David Dodge, the former Bank of Canada governor, who was in place when that member was in cabinet. He said that “because it was obsessively focused on reducing the federal deficit over fiscal years 2011-12 through 2015-16, the Harper government unnecessarily contributed to a slower, rather more muted recovery....” We are not going to follow that playbook, because it did not work.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of non-partisanship, we have put forward a motion inspired by the leader of the NDP. He has said that the Prime Minister is “weak”, greedy, “selfish and...beholden to corporate interests”. He has pointed out that the Prime Minister has violated the rights of workers. We took the NDP leader's words and put them in a motion that includes non-confidence.

Will the Prime Minister allow the NDP leader a free vote so that he can vote non-confidence?

[The Speaker, Greg Fergus]

That is stretching the limits of questions dealing with the administration of government, but I see that the hon. government House leader is on her feet.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, one thing we know is that the Leader of the Opposition certainly does not allow any free votes for his members of Parliament. We also know that he does not allow them to speak for themselves. What we do know is that when they try to advocate for their communities, what does he say? “No, do not do that, because I do not think it is politically expedient for me.”

He muzzles his own MPs, does not allow them to have free votes and keeps them from standing up for their communities.

Justice

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Saint‑Maxime school has made the news with prayers in class, homophobic comments and students resisting sex education.

The Government of Quebec has had enough of attacks on secularism. It is calling on Ottawa to repeal the religious exemption in the Criminal Code and wants to strengthen Bill 21 on secularism.

In Ottawa, it is the exact opposite. The federal government is challenging Bill 21. It is waffling when it comes to the religious exemption. First it is going to get rid of it, and then it is not going to get rid of it. Ottawa is doing nothing at all to defend state secularism.

When will the government stop undermining secularism in Quebec?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, as our colleague likely knows, education falls under provincial jurisdiction.

If he wants to talk about education and how to protect children in the Quebec school system, then he should talk to the Government of Quebec. The House of Commons is not really the proper forum for talking about such issues.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec is a welcoming society that opens its arms to those who choose to integrate.

Successful integration is dependent on everyone sharing values that unite us and bring us closer together, such as gender equality, separation of religion and state, French as a common language and the right to love whoever we want.

Canadian multiculturalism preaches the opposite: no need to integrate, no need to adhere to any values, no need to change.

Does the federal government realize that multiculturalism hinders the integration of new Quebeckers and our ability to live together in harmony in Quebec?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, unity and connection are exactly what the Canadian federation encourages. That is why in Canada, including Quebec, we are proud to be part of a united country that defends the right and freedom of each and every person to do what they think is best for them.

Once again, the Quebec government has jurisdiction over education. I invite our colleague to ask good questions not here, but at the Quebec National Assembly.

The Economy

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, imagine this: a woman in her seventies has worked her whole life, raised her kids and done everything right. Now she is retired and her pension does not go far enough and she has to skip meals.

The Prime Minister believes that someone earning $140,000 a year deserves a cheque of $250, but she does not. Why?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, we are going to stand by our record of defending seniors. On multiple occasions in this chamber over the last nine years, we have done things like change the retirement age from 67, as proposed by the Harper Conservatives, back down to 65; made targeted investments to improve old age security for those over the age of 75; most recently, we have put in place a dental care plan for seniors that has had, despite assertions by the Conservatives that it does not even exist, two million people sign up and over one million people actually receive services for the first time in decades. That is a record of serving seniors, assisting seniors and meeting them where they are. We will stand by that record.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want seniors to pay attention to the fact that the minister did not answer the question as to why they do not deserve cheques of $250.

Imagine someone else, someone with a disability or someone unable to make ends meet. The Prime Minister does not think this person deserves a helping hand.

Will the Prime Minister finally see the light and include these people on the list of recipients of his $250 cheque?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the measures that we, on this side of the House, are taking target poverty and people with disabilities.

As far as people with disabilities are concerned, we have introduced a benefit specifically for them already. In the past few weeks, we made a change to the GST that impacts all Canadians.

We are always going to fight poverty. The numbers show our success when it comes to the poverty rate. It was fairly high under the Conservatives, but dropped over the past nine years with us.

Government Priorities

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

Mr. Speaker, today, the NDP leader has a chance to prove he did not sell out Canadian workers for his own pension. He famously promised Canadians that he ripped up his coalition with the Liberals, saying they were “too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people”. Conservatives agree and Canadians want a carbon tax election.

Will the Prime Minister allow the NDP leader to vote for his own words or did the PM whip the NDP vote to block a carbon tax election?

[The Speaker, Greg Fergus]

I am afraid that question does not, again, meet the relevance of the administration of government. I do see the government House leader rising to answer.

Colleagues, I will point out a couple of things. First, let us make sure that, when someone has the floor, no one else is taking the floor. Second, I would hate for us to repeat what went on on Friday.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, as mentioned, there was actually no question for the government there. If the member opposite wants to talk about pensions, he could talk about the pension of the leader of the opposition, which, because he has been here for two decades, is estimated at being about $2 million. If he wants to talk about muzzling of members of Parliament, he should probably pose the question to the leader of his own party, who does not like MPs who do not ask the questions he wants them to ask. In fact, we see all of them around the outskirts of the Conservative area in the House of Commons.

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

Mr. Speaker, it looks like the Prime Minister has lost control of everything, except his control over the NDP. According to the NDP leader's own words, “You're never going to count on us if you're going to take away the rights of the workers. Never.” We have seen that the Prime Minister has done just that, ordering binding arbitration.

What has the Prime Minister promised to the NDP in exchange for their support for his failing government and his failed carbon tax?

[The Speaker, Greg Fergus]

Again, that is not relevant to the administration of government. The Chair will have something to say about this at the end of question period. I do see that the hon. minister is rising; I do not know if he wants to respond.