Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of sharing my time with my friend, the chief whip of the Bloc Québécois and member for Berthier—Maskinongé.
Before I begin my speech, I would like to take a moment to congratulate the 25 mayors in my riding who had the pleasure of being elected or re-elected. I would also like to congratulate all the municipal councillors who were elected on November 2 in Quebec's municipal elections. I want to assure them of my collaboration, as always. Together, we can achieve big changes and transform the world.
I am pleased to speak to the budget. As I was saying to one of my colleagues, I have no problem voting against the budget. In my riding, throughout the election, the voice of seniors was heard. In the riding of Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, seniors aged 65 and over represent nearly 20% of the population. I can confirm that seniors got their message across. People who receive OAS and GIS get a little less than $2,000 a month.
I do not know what the situation is like in my colleagues' ridings, but in my riding, there is virtually no housing available for less than $1,100 or $1,200 per month. I would say that is a major obstacle for our seniors. That is what people talked to me about during the election campaign. They were saying how outrageous the situation had become. They asked me why our voices were not being heard when it comes to increasing OAS. We know that the Liberal government continues to discriminate against seniors between the ages of 65 and 74, whose pensions did not increase. Every year, their purchasing power diminishes because the cost of everything is going up, while their income remains the same. I find that unacceptable.
I often say that I spent my career helping seniors as a social worker and housing manager for seniors. I can say that there is absolutely nothing in this budget to support seniors so that they can get through the difficult times we are currently experiencing. There is nothing except the New Horizons for Seniors program. It is insulting to see that this is the only budget measure specifically for seniors. I find that really shameful.
Tax incentives could have been offered so that healthy seniors who want to work would not have to work for peanuts. If a senior wants to work, their income should increase, not decrease. Those who receive the GIS, who work and earn a certain income, have to pay taxes. That does not necessarily improve their living conditions. The tax rate is high for people who earn an income in addition to receiving the GIS. There is nothing for seniors and it really bothers me to see how insensitive the government is toward seniors, both in the Trudeau era and now.
The government also lacks sensitivity when it comes to infrastructure. Provincial finance ministers had requested $100 billion over 10 years to do major work on infrastructure related to health and social services and municipal infrastructure such as water and sewer systems.
Infrastructure is what allows municipalities to deliver more density in housing. It provides access to water and ensures proper water treatment, for example. That is expensive. There is a lot of catching up to do when it comes to all this municipal infrastructure. It was an important request, yet what do we see in the budget? It looks like there is an investment of $50 billion when we first read the budget, but then we realize that it is not really $50 billion in new money. Instead, it is about $9 billion.
I do not know if people are aware of this, but a hospital is being built in Vaudreuil, in my riding. Building a hospital costs at least $4 billion or $5 billion dollars. That is for a single hospital, so it is understandable that the provincial leaders are extremely disappointed with the budget. Quebec, for one, had high hopes of receiving at least a few billion dollars a year to be able to meet its significant infrastructure demands. Now, the Minister of Finance is telling us that Quebec will be getting approximately $375 million a year. To give an idea of the scale, Quebec spends about $19 billion on infrastructure each year. What they are offering is peanuts. It is not nearly enough to enable municipalities and provinces to meet the challenges of modernizing their infrastructure as well as meet infrastructure requirements for schools, hospitals and long-term care facilities.
What the budget tells Quebec and the provinces is that the federal government is going to aggravate their public finance crisis. That is extremely serious because we send part of our taxes to the federal government and Ottawa is supposed to redistribute them. What we are seeing is that the government is keeping that money for itself and choosing what it wants to invest in. The choices it is making are not in the best interests of Quebec and Quebeckers. I think that the Minister of Finance made that quite clear.
Members know that health transfers are something that I care a lot about. As I said, I worked in health and social services in Quebec, in both the independent community system and the public system, and I can tell you one thing: Right now, everyone is stretched thin because they are trying to do more with less and meet the desperate needs of citizens. They have less with which to respond to those needs because the money is in Ottawa. I heard the Minister of Industry say that the government increased health transfers in the budget, but if we look carefully, we see that it is not a real increase because the system costs are higher. They are at 6%. There is a 5% increase, but if we look at the fine print, we see that some programs will be done away with as of 2028 and that funding will be cut.
That is unacceptable. If the government is aware of the Quebec communities' needs, then it is aware that we need a massive injection of money. I think that Quebec is now on its sixth health and social services reform because we are trying everything we can to better meet the health and social services needs of Quebeckers with the money that we have, so I am sure the government will understand why I am so disappointed.
What also surprised me was how the small business sector reacted. I read that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has said that, no matter how much its members read, they could not find anything for SMEs. Everything is going to the oil companies. There is loads of money for oil companies, but nothing really meaningful for our SMEs in terms of tax relief or support, especially for companies that are being hit hard by the tariff war with the United States. I am talking about small businesses involved in the secondary processing of aluminum, for example. There is very little on the table for them, or at least that is what the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is saying. It is the oil companies that really hit the jackpot with this budget. Oil companies are getting more than $100 billion in renewed and increased tax credits.
When I am sitting across from a vulnerable senior, I have to try to explain why this government decided to spoil the oil companies, which are already very well supported and have plenty of money. Directing those funds to oil companies means two things. It means the government is turning its back on seniors, municipalities and the provinces. It also means it is giving up on the fight against climate change. We in the Bloc Québécois are calling it climate capitulation. Everything related to climate change has been dropped, and I think that is shameful.
