Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Richmond Centre—Marpole.
I rise today as the member elected by the citizens of Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, and I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank those constituents for the trust they have vested in me. Representing constituents is central to the work of all members. Through all the many demands and distractions we face as elected members, we must never forget that Canadians have vested their trust in us and chosen us to come to this place to be their advocates.
I was first elected to the House on October 19, 2015, some 10 years and 18 days ago. Who is counting, though? Suffice it to say that since then, much has changed for all of us and for Canada, but as it has been said, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
My first budget speech was on April 14, 2016 and I would like to share with the House some of the points from that budget speech, because they are indeed as relevant today to this debate as they were then. On that day nearly 500 weeks ago, I stood in the House and pressed the Liberal government on its broken promise of balancing the federal budget. Imagine that. In 2015, the Liberals campaigned on a promise to “return Canada to a balanced budget in [2019]”. It is a true story. It is on the public record. It was their 2015 election platform. It was a Liberal promise.
On April 14, 2016, I stood in the House and stated that budget 2016 was “completely silent on this promise and [was] vacant of any vision of returning our nation to a balanced budget. Surely, if the Liberals had a plan to deliver on their promise of a balanced budget in 2019, they would have put at least one line in their 269-page budget [2016]”.
However, they did not, and unfortunately for every Canadian paying taxes today and for decades to come, the Liberals' promise to balance the budget by 2019 was one of the first of many promises made to Canadians that was broken by the Liberals.
In my budget 2016 speech, I stated:
Sadly, the government appears to be dodging another promise it made to Canadians and has no plan on how to pay back this out-of-control borrowing and spending. The people of Canada want results from their government. The hard-working women and men of this nation, who go off to their jobs day in and day out, and their children are the ones who are now on the hook to repay this Liberal deficit.
Here we are, nine and a half years later, and my speech of 2016 is eerily relevant to today’s debate of budget 2025. The more things change, the more things remain the same.
Some of the hard-working men and women who went off to work at their jobs day in and day out, whom I spoke of in 2016, have transitioned to retirement, but others have not because they cannot afford to because of Liberal inflation. The children of those hard-working women and men who went off to their jobs day in and day out, whom I spoke of in 2016, have also been directly affected by Liberal failures.
Some of the children I spoke of in 2016 have lost their lives to the opioid crisis that has ravaged this nation, from big cities to small rural communities, because the Liberal government failed to cut off the illegal flow of narcotics and narcotic precursors into Canada. However, these government failures that allowed lives in Canada to be extinguished by illicit narcotics did not occur during times of scarce government funding.
No, the Liberal government failed to protect Canadians with better border inspection services and law enforcement, during a decade in which the Liberals spent more deficit dollars than all previous deficit dollars spent since Confederation. That is right: There has been more deficit in the last 10 years than there was in the previous 150 years.
Today, the same children of those hard-working women and men whom I spoke of in 2016 are facing housing scarcity and, again, it is not for lack of concurrent massive government spending. Budget 2025 is the 10th consecutive deficit budget from the Liberals, and every Liberal deficit budget over the past decade has contained allocations aimed at increasing housing for Canadians. However, the self-evident reality is that Liberal deficit budgets have collectively failed to unleash homebuilding in Canada.
As I stated in 2016, the hard-working women and men of this nation, who walk to their jobs day in and day out, and their children are now on the hook to repay this Liberal deficit. The reality is that, when the federal government spends, Canadians pay. Sadly, regardless of whether government allocations and investments pay off, ordinary and extraordinary Canadians still pay. Therefore, once again, the hard-working women and men of this nation and their children are the ones who are on the hook to repay another Liberal deficit.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my speech, we, as members of Parliament, must never forget that Canadians have vested their trust in us and chosen us to come to this place to be their advocates. When Canadians vest their trust in us, they expect a return on investment, and they deserve a return on investment. Canadians deserve value for their trust and value for the tax dollars that they have no choice but to pay, and it becomes increasingly difficult for Canadians to make the money they need to live and to pay the taxes to pay down the Liberal national debt.
In 2016, Trudeau's darling finance minister told Canadians to get used to so-called job churn, which is short-term employment and several career changes in a person's life. Well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn from time to time, and in this instance the Liberal government was being honest with Canadians. Secure, stable, well-paying jobs are quickly disappearing across Canada, leaving Canadians to search for new careers, stalled in building nest eggs for retirement, delayed in buying a home and to only dream of one day being able to retire. This is the opposite of delivering citizens value for their investment of trust.
In my budget 2016 speech, I stated the following:
There is no plan for the government for balancing the budget, no plan for job creation, just a murky commitment and increasing public debt. The sad reality is that the budget falls short of the need for leadership that this nation requires.
Whether they are managing the finances of their households or businesses, Canadians understand and desire the values and notion of living within their means, handling their debt with prudence, and being disciplined and decisive in their spending. Unfortunately, the government is out of touch with Canadians in those regards.
My words from 2016 ring true today because the Liberal government has failed to connect unprecedented amounts of government spending with the plans and actions required to protect Canadians and communities from the threats and challenges that have only worsened and grown in number over the past decade. There is no shortage of pain and suffering across our nation today, so let us roll up our sleeves to get down to business to deliver results for the people who have vested their trust in us and in our ability to do so. We must be honest about what we are doing in this place, how it affects others and how it will affect them for decades. They are our fellow Canadians and communities who have vested their trust in each one of us.
Last, I would also be remiss if I did not mention that I now represent a riding with nearly 550 kilometres of Trans-Canada Highway. People travel this route daily for their jobs, and millions of dollars worth of goods pass through the mountain passes every day. Some parts of this highway have not seen major improvement since the Rogers Pass was completed in 1962, over 63 years ago today. The word “highway” is only mentioned three times in this budget: twice in historical context and once in reference to the north.
Canadians who have vested their trust in us and chosen us to come to this place to be their advocates deserve better. We cannot let them down.