Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by saying that I will be sharing my time with the member for Calgary East.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have presented a reckless and irresponsible deficit budget. To be clear, I cannot support this budget as it now stands. Canadians deserve an affordable budget for an affordable life. Unfortunately, there is nothing for ordinary Canadians in this budget.
The Liberals decided to continue to rack up debt for future generations to pay off. They are continuing to spend with a deficit of more than $78 billion. That is going to cost $1,900 per Canadian. To be clear, this deficit is unacceptable.
In the December 2024 economic statement, the Liberals projected a $43.2‑billion deficit. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister promised that the deficit would not exceed $62 billion. The day before yesterday, the Liberals broke their promise. The Prime Minister broke his promise. Who will pay the price? Future generations. It is important to point out to Canadians how much the Liberals will add to the national debt in the coming years.
This year, 2025-26, they will add $78 billion. They have already forecast a deficit of $65 billion for 2026-27, $64 billion for 2027-28, $58 billion for 2028-29, and $57 billion for 2029-30. That means a total of $322 billion will be added to Canada's debt over the next five years. Our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have to pay off this debt. I have to say that I would not be surprised if this deficit increases even more.
That is the legacy the Liberals want to leave our children. That is the legacy they want to leave our grandchildren. This is their idea of a generational budget? It is disgraceful. They are basically maxing out four, five or six credit cards and leaving the bill for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pay off, yet they have the nerve to call this a generational budget.
We cannot allow the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to throw dust in our eyes. They can divide the deficit into as many columns as they wish, be it two, three, four, five or six columns, but no matter how many times they divide it, at the end of the day, the columns get added up and produce one big deficit. That is what we have here.
Members will recall that when the Liberals came to power, Canada's deficit was $700 billion. It has now ballooned to almost $1.400 trillion, and it will keep growing over the next five years by more than $300 billion. Our party has been talking quite a lot about the fact that the current deficit means costs and sacrifices for future generations. After 10 years of Justin Trudeau's deficits, Canadians are paying the price, and the current Prime Minister's government is still the same government.
Now let us look at the interest on the debt. It will be $55.6 billion for fiscal year 2025-26, and it will only continue to grow as hundreds of billions of dollars are added to the national debt over the next few years. The interest on the debt will be $60 billion in 2026-27, $66.2 billion in 2027-28, $71.4 billion in 2028-29, and in excess of $76 billion in 2029-30. At this point, I am certain that it will keep rising and it will be even more catastrophic.
Allow me to put this into context. Interest on the debt currently sits at $55.6 billion and now exceeds the amount the government spends on the Canada health transfer for all provinces, which is $54.7 billion. Interest payments on the debt are costing more than all the money given to health care systems across the country. The government would rather take that money, throw it away and give it to the big bankers instead of investing it in our health care. The health care system is very important to my constituents, and I am certain that all Canadians feel the same way. Unfortunately, the government is spending less money on the health care system than it is on interest payments on the debt.
It gets even crazier. On Thursdays, Canadians pay taxes on their paycheques, and every time they make a purchase, they pay more taxes, such as the GST. The total amount of GST collected across the country in one year is $54.4 billion. This means that the total amount Canadians pay in GST across the country each year is not even equal to what is paid in interest on the debt.
We cannot support a budget like this. The government keeps leading Canada down a path where taxpayers will have to hand over billions of dollars to bankers for decades. Over the past two days, I have spent about 10 hours studying this budget. I noticed that the government has announced about 12 new programs. It is one thing to come up with new programs, but I want to know which ineffective programs will be cut. Programs are being added, another layer is being added, but nothing is ever taken away. That is the Liberals for you. The government is adding programs, adding spending, adding bureaucracy and adding waste. Eventually, Canadian taxpayers always get stuck with the bill. We have to eliminate Liberal waste and clean house. That is what we are proposing, yet the Liberals persist in adding new programs and new structures.
Take, for example, Build Canada Homes, a new development structure that was added. That is great. How many more public servants are being hired? Also, if we divide the total amount by the number of units the Liberals announced in their budget, we get a cost of $3.2 million per unit. At a price like the one proposed under the new Build Canada Homes program, I have no doubt that entrepreneurs will be lining up in Richmond—Arthabaska to offer their services. It is completely disproportionate. What concerns me is the continued waste and recklessness.
The Liberal government has abandoned even its weak fiscal anchors. Maintaining a declining debt-to-GDP ratio is no longer a priority for this government. The debt-to-GDP ratio continues to rise at a rate of almost 2%. This is simply irresponsible.
The Liberal government no longer has any fiscal anchors. This is not a serious budget. We cannot live with such huge deficits. On our side of the House, we made proposals to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue, but he turned a deaf ear. For instance, we hoped to see the hidden taxes on food scrapped, the taxes on jobs reduced, housing built, money invested in energy, and the inflationary taxes eliminated. None of that is in the Liberals' 2025 budget. We asked the government to limit its deficit to $42 billion, as set out in its last budget update. It was not us who proposed that figure; the government put it in its last budget update. It said it would be no more than $42 billion. Now it is $78 billion. The government is still spending recklessly.
Rest assured, Mr. Speaker, that I will continue to analyze this budget and the public finances and that I will always be there for the people of Richmond—Arthabaska and for all Canadians.