Debates of June 11th, 2024

Taxation

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, budget 2024 is rooted in the priority to deliver fairness for every generation. It is about asking the wealthiest Canadians to pay a bit more when they sell their extremely profitable investments. We will use that to invest in more housing for young people, more dental care for seniors and more child care spaces for young families.

We are here to help those who need it, but the Conservative Party just announced that it will side with the wealthiest Canadians. It will not be there to help the middle class and those working hard to join it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what he said nine years ago, and the result, according to his own data published on his Twitter account, is that since he came to power, the wealth of the richest Canadians has doubled, along with the taxes paid by the middle class. The cost of housing has also doubled. Why is it that every time he promises to raise taxes on the rich, it is the poor and middle class who end up footing the bill?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this is the same kind of justification the Conservative Party gave in 2015 when it voted against increasing taxes for the top 1% to lower them for the middle class. It is the same kind of argument it gave to vote against the Canada child benefit, which has lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.

The situation is no different today. It is defending benefits for the wealthiest in this country, while we are asking for a little more to help with housing for young people, to help seniors with dental care and many other things.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, nine years ago, the Prime Minister promised he could spend uncontrollably and there would be a rich guy on a hill somewhere who would pay the bill. The middle class would not have to pay.

What is the result? According to the Prime Minister, the total net worth of the richest Canadians has doubled since he took office. Meanwhile, nine in 10 middle-class Canadians are paying more tax. Housing costs have doubled, so 76% of middle class youth believe they will never afford a home. Two million people line up at a food bank because they cannot afford to eat on a middle-class salary.

Given that the Prime Minister already broke this exact same promise over nine years, why should we believe him this time?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if it did not have real-world impacts on Canadians, it would almost be amusing to watch the Conservative leader tie himself in knots to try to justify voting in favour of advantages for wealthy Canadians when they sell really profitable investments.

We are asking them to pay a little more so we can invest more in housing for young people to be able to have the same kinds of opportunities previous generations did. We have delivered dental care for over 200,000 seniors in just the last six weeks. We are delivering more spaces in child care.

We are stepping up for Canadians. The Conservatives are stepping up for the rich.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, real-world impacts are what we have today after nine years of the Prime Minister's promising to tax, borrow and spend us into fairness.

According to the StatsCan data he put out himself, since he became Prime Minister, the net worth of the wealthiest Canadians has doubled. Why? It is because the taxes he puts always land on the middle class. Nine in 10 middle-class people are paying higher taxes. The vast majority of Canadians and 100% of the middle class are paying higher carbon tax. His last round of small business tax hikes hit plumbers and electricians, not the rich.

Why is it that every time Prime Minister mentions the middle class, they get poorer?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our price on pollution delivers more money to eight out of 10 Canadians right across the country with the Canada carbon rebate, and today there is an opportunity for everyone in the House to stand up and ask the wealthiest Canadians to pay a little more when they sell extremely profitable investments. We are doing that on this side of the House.

The Conservatives will be protecting the advantage that is there for the wealthiest Canadians, while we invest more in housing, while we invest more in dental care and while we invest more in Canadians who need it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, if someone is a small business owner and has even one dollar of investment gain, they pay the higher tax that the Prime Minister is promising, because there is no exemption inside the 300,000 small businesses.

It is incredible that during a housing shortage, he wants to tax home builders. During a health care shortage, he wants to tax away our doctors. During a food crisis, he wants to tax our farmers, and while our economy is shrinking more than any other economy in the G7, he wants to tax our small business job creator.

Is this not the definition of insanity?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, for eight weeks, since we put our budget forward, the Conservatives have been incredibly careful not to say a thing about the capital gains rate we are raising. They did not want to talk about it for two full months, and today, when they are choosing to vote with the wealthiest Canadians and against young Canadians who need more housing, young Canadians who need a better break and seniors who need dental care, they are all trying to spin it in nine different ways. The reality is they have an opportunity to vote with middle-class Canadians, and they are choosing to vote against them.

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not really in the habit of listening to or reading the RCMP's suggestions. This time, the RCMP is saying that it does not have the tools it needs to deal with the threat that hate speech poses to security and social harmony. The RCMP does not have the tools it needs to do its job.

The religious exemption in the Criminal Code enables people to engage in verbal abuse and openly invite violence, and obviously that is a valuable tool for people who do in fact want to incite violence.

Will the Prime Minister agree to repeal the religious exemption from the Criminal Code?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, hate speech and anti-Semitism have no place in Canada.

Our government is fighting racism and hatred like no other government has before by introducing the online harms act, with funding to strengthen measures to protect mosques, synagogues and places of worship, and with our plan to criminalize Holocaust denial.

We recognize that more needs to be done. We will continue to work with our police forces and to strengthen the necessary laws to keep everyone in this country safe.

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

Mr. Speaker, that is how to waste 35 precious seconds.

The streets of Montreal and other cities in Quebec and Canada are the site of demonstrations and open incitements to hatred, if not outright violence. Demonstrators are even calling for the extermination of the people of Israel.

What will it take for this Prime Minister to start protecting the people he is responsible for?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have been investing in more protection for mosques, synagogues, places of worship, and community centres for years. We are going to keep working with police forces across the country to protect people. At the same time, we are going to underscore how important it is that all Canadians remember our values of respect, openness, tolerance and acceptance.

We will continue to be there to allow people to protest lawfully and peacefully, but also to counter hate speech and calls for violence.

Taxation

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Liberals finally woke up. They realized that it is unfair for nurses and carpenters to pay more taxes than billionaires. Well, clearly they did not have a problem with that for the past eight years.

Why did the Prime Minister let carpenters and nurses pay more taxes than billionaires for eight straight budgets in a row?

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am just going to ask the hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George to please not take the floor unless he is recognized by the Chair.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, one of the very first things we did in 2015 was to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% and lower them for the middle class. I will recall that the NDP, at that time, actually voted against that measure. However, right now, we are putting forward a measure to ask the wealthiest Canadians, who make a tremendous amount of profits when they sell extremely profitable investments, to actually pay a bit more on those profits. That way, we can invest in more housing, in more supports for seniors and in a range of things to create fairness for every generation. The Conservatives are choosing to vote against that, and they are standing with the wealthiest once again.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister could have done this eight years ago.

Yesterday, the Liberals came back to planet earth. They realized that it was unfair for nurses to pay more tax than millionaires, although the Liberals did not have a problem with that for the past eight years.

Why did the Prime Minister force nurses to pay more taxes than millionaires over eight consecutive budgets?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I would remind the House that, in 2015, we raised taxes on the wealthiest 1% and lowered them for the middle class. At the time, the NDP voted against those measures.

We are always fighting for the middle class and those working hard to join it. That is why we are asking the wealthy, people who make huge profits selling their investments, to pay a little more so that we can provide housing, dental care and more child care spaces for Canadians who need them.

Unfortunately, the Conservatives are once again siding with the wealthy and against middle-class Canadians.

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

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister is about to impose another job-killing, wage-cutting, price-hiking tax on Canadians, and she wants us to believe the latest fairy tale that, somehow, we will all be better off if the Prime Minister just raises taxes again. We have heard this for nine years. Let us take a look at the result.

Canada is on track for the worst decline in living standards in four decades. Nine out of 10 middle-class families now pay more in income taxes, and Statistics Canada officials say that Liberal policies since 2015 have cost Canadians $4,200 in lost wages per worker.

The Liberals have made the middle class worse off with their last eight budgets. Why should anyone believe that the ninth time is the charm?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, for the past eight weeks, we have watched the unedifying spectacle of the Conservatives squiggling and squirming, deflecting and evading. However, today the Conservatives have no choice; today, they had to pick a side, and we are now seeing the side they have chosen. The Conservatives are coming out against fairness. They think a nurse or a plumber should pay tax at a higher rate than a multi-millionaire. Canadians are watching. Canadians now see whose side the Conservatives are on.

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

Mr. Speaker, for nine years, Canadians have suffered from the terrible consequences of Liberal economic policies. Now what are the Liberals doing? For young Canadians struggling to be able to afford to buy their first home, the Liberals are raising taxes on home builders. For families barely able to afford groceries and lined up at food banks, the Liberals are raising taxes on the farmers who produce the food. For thousands of Canadians who have gone years without having a family doctor, the Liberals are chasing even more doctors away with a new tax on medical professions. How is any of that fair?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have been trying so hard to fake it. They have been trying so hard to pretend they actually care about working Canadians. However, today, there is a vote coming; they finally have to pick a side. Today, every single member of the House is going to have to choose: Are they on the side of a nurse, a plumber or a teacher, or are they on the side of a multi-millionaire? The Conservatives are very clear: They are against fairness. They are in favour of the wealthy lobbyists who advise them.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are finding that the harder they work, the more they are punished. The incompetent finance minister wants people to believe that her job-killing taxes impact only the very rich. However, they will impact doctors, farmers and small business owners. They will impact a restaurant owner who has been in the community and leases their building. They will impact tradespeople, such as plumbers and roofers, who reinvest in their businesses and their equipment and eventually want to stop working. The finance minister is raising their taxes in the name of fairness because she spent all the money that she already took from them. How is any of that fair?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, one thing that is kind of astonishing is that, after having been mute or, one might want to say, gagged for eight weeks, the Conservatives have finally found some passion around this issue. Is it not astonishing that, when given an actual opportunity to choose to side with a plumber, to side with a nurse or to side with their multi-millionaire lobbyist pals, the Conservatives are choosing to vote against fairness? Canadians are watching.