Mr. Speaker, the motion before us today talks about the importance of investments, the cost of living and the economy. This is timely because Canadians gave our new government a strong mandate in the spring. They trusted us to build a strong economy that works for everyone. When we talk about an economy that works for everyone, we are talking about having measures in place to help Canadians deal with the cost of living.
On this side of the House, when we say that affordability is an important issue, we follow up with concrete action. One of the first things we did when we came back to Parliament in the spring was pass a tax cut for over 22 million Canadians that will give them more purchasing power. It is a concrete measure that shows we are serious. When we say we are going to help people, we take action.
If we look at the Liberal record over the past few years, we see several examples of measures that were introduced to help the public, but which our Conservative colleagues opposed. I am thinking in particular of the Canadian dental care plan. During the election campaign, people told me that they needed dental care but could not afford it. The expansion announced last spring allows people who did not have access to these basic services to access them at an affordable cost. This is a real change for the public. Last week, the Minister of Health announced that more than five million people are now enrolled in this program.
The Canada child benefit is a flagship measure that transfers money directly into parents' pockets to help them provide for their children. Since 2016, this measure has lifted more than 600,000 children out of poverty. In my region alone, more than $40 million a year is transferred to parents in my riding of Madawaska—Restigouche to help them provide for their children.
Since 2021, more than 900,000 children have secured affordable child care spaces through our program. We understand that if we want to build a strong economy and a strong Canada, we need strong families. We need to enable parents, especially women, to be fully active in the workforce, and that means providing access to child care spaces. The opposition voted against this program, which is not surprising. When we look at the record of the leader of the official opposition, he has been against funding child care spaces for 20 years. If we delve into the House of Commons archives, we will see that one of his first speeches in 2005 was to oppose federal funding for a national child care program.
I am also thinking of the national school food program, which my official opposition colleagues also opposed. This program ensures that children go to school with full bellies. Some 400,000 children across the country are better off because of this program. We will be investing $11 million over the next three years to make this program available to more than 57,000 children in my province, New Brunswick. That is a big deal. We know the cost of living can be high sometimes, but children should never have to go to school on an empty stomach. That is why we are there for Canadians, there for children and there to provide them with healthy meals.
If we want to hang onto measures like these that make a big difference in people's lives, we need a strong economy. Our position is already strong according to economic statistics. Canada is the only G7 country other than Germany with a AAA credit rating. We have the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio of any G7 country.
In addition, the government is working to further strengthen the Canadian economy. I am thinking in particular of last June, when we passed the One Canadian Economy Act. This act removes federal barriers to interprovincial trade. We really want to unleash the potential of our domestic market and work to build one Canadian economy out of 13. This act also established the Major Projects Office. In fact, a whole list of projects was announced recently, and more are on the way. When these projects meet our stringent criteria, the question is not whether we will build, but how. We want to stimulate investment in the country because we know that when we stimulate investment, we create jobs and help Canadian businesses.
Then there is the important work being done by the Treasury Board. It is conducting a red tape review that has identified more than 500 superfluous regulations that are no longer needed and that actually hinder productivity and limit economic growth. We are going to get rid of those regulations. The review will continue because we want to demonstrate that Canada is a place where people can invest. That is another way we are stimulating the economy.
Our new buy Canadian policy also comes to mind. The Government of Canada is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the country. We have immense purchasing power, and we want to use it to support Canadian businesses. We will be providing the details of this policy in the coming months, but the idea is to prioritize Canadian goods and services wherever possible. It is about spending money here in Canada to stimulate our economy.
We are also here for workers across Canada. We recognize that the economic situation may be difficult for some people right now. That is why we have announced various measures related to the employment insurance program. For example, we waived the one-week waiting period for claiming EI benefits. People who need benefits will no longer have to wait a week before they can receive them. We also announced that we will allow people to keep their severance pay without affecting the amount of their benefits. For people who want to retrain, we have also announced various measures to support retraining for people who unfortunately lose their jobs and want to change sectors. Once again, these are concrete measures to help Canadian workers.
I would say that the motion before us today lacks substance. It seems less like the product of rigorous work and more like something designed to get clicks on social media. While the official opposition wastes time on an unserious motion, we are over here working away.
The Minister of Finance and National Revenue is working on an ambitious budget that will be tabled in the House on November 4. With this budget, we will seize a generational opportunity to transform the Canadian economy through ambitious investments and careful management of our public finances.
When I say ambitious investments, I am thinking of housing in particular. We announced the new Build Canada Homes agency, and we plan to invest in housing at a rate never before seen in Canada. We understand that people really need this. During the last election campaign, when I talked to people in my riding, they often told me that housing construction was a priority. When I sit down with the mayors in my riding of Madawaska—Restigouche, they tell me that we need to build housing more quickly in the communities.
Millions of dollars in federal funding has already been invested back home in places like Edmundston, Campbellton, Saint-Quentin, the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation and the Eel River Bar First Nation.
The federal government has invested millions of dollars in building housing. Some housing has already been built, and there are people in my riding living in housing that was funded with federal money. More sites are under construction. I will be visiting some of them next week. This is just the beginning. With the investments in the budget, we are going to increase the pace of residential construction. We are going to incentivize public-private partnerships in the housing sector. We are going to support the construction of affordable housing across the country because we know that it is a priority for Canadians, and they expect us to deliver.
At the same time, these investments will allow us to stimulate the economy by prioritizing the use of Canadian products, like softwood lumber and steel.
We have also announced historic investments in defence. Starting this year, will meet our 2% of GDP target to honour our commitments to NATO. With these historic investments in defence, we are also going to stimulate our economy. We are going to identify Canadian companies that can help us procure defence-related goods and services.
In conclusion, if my official opposition colleagues truly care about affordability and building a strong economy that benefits everyone, I hope they will support our efforts to pass the budget that will be tabled on November 4. As I said, this will be a generational opportunity to transform our Canadian economy. I sincerely hope that our opposition colleagues will work with us to achieve that.