Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley.
According to the CIBC's most recent economic flash, Canadian GDP is abysmal. The bank expected a modest acceleration in GDP growth to 1% in the final quarter of the year, but the lack of momentum toward the end of the quarter suggests that not even this anemic goal will be met. This kind of thing has become a standard economic warning bell in Canada these days, with increasing blame for the economic malaise in Canada being put not on sector-specific tariffs by the Americans, but on Canadian government policy.
It is no wonder the Liberals want a Christmas election. They know they cannot keep the bait and switch going with Canadians for very much longer. They want an election before the full weight of their disastrous policies comes crashing down.
We Conservatives consistently try to explain to the Liberals that Canadians want and need jobs and an affordable life. We constantly try to explain that massive deficits, high taxation, onerous regulation and irresponsible spending are at the root of our economic problems, not Donald Trump. Incredibly, the Liberals' response is to boast about government handouts and more bureaucracy. They seem to think that it is quite acceptable to tax and regulate us all into poverty as long as they dribble a little back to some of us. They have the gall to ignore pleas for jobs and answer with boasts about better handouts, and they apparently cannot see the logic of self-sufficiency.
This budget is part of a problem: the Liberal belief that more government, more regulation and more free programs somehow equal prosperity. There is nothing free about any of this. Every free thing the government offers has a cost behind it, every cost has a tax behind it and every new layer of bureaucracy not only costs more, but squeezes the very people who create value in this country.
The Liberals talk about affordability while quietly making everything Canadians buy, build or grow more expensive. They call it compassion; I call it economic vandalism. Now Liberal MPs are publicly mocking the very idea that parents want to be able to afford to feed their own kids rather than accept free handouts from the government. One asked last week where the logic was. Seriously? Where is the logic in wanting to be able to feed our own kids? Where is the logic in wanting to stand proudly self-sufficient instead of relying on Liberal handouts? What is next, soup lines for parents?
This does not sound like a vision for the strongest economy in the G7; it sounds dystopian. It sounds like bread crumbs for the masses while the Prime Minister's rich friends belly up to the Canadian tax trough.
There seems to be a real disconnect between the Liberals and Canadians. Hard-working Canadians want jobs and a thriving economy so they can look after their families, support their communities and help those who truly need it, like seniors on fixed incomes or single parents working two jobs just to stay afloat. I believe that Canadians want government to keep the country safe from outside threats, build conditions for prosperity at home, keep the streets safe and make sure Canadians can walk downtown without fear of harassment. Hard-working Canadians do not mind paying taxes for those things. What they do mind paying for is massive, wasteful bureaucracies built on vote-buying handouts. What they do mind paying for is over-regulation that feeds bureaucrats more than it helps Canadians.
Let us look at what is actually happening on the ground. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, small firms are suffocating under the cost of Liberal policy. CFIB's most recent research shows that business-operating costs are up 26% since 2017. Everything is more expensive: fuel, energy, insurance and shipping. Two-thirds of small business owners say that rising costs are their top concern. When the people who provide 60% of private sector jobs in this country cannot afford to stay open, that is not just a business problem; it is a national problem.
CFIB also reports that small firms spend about 735 hours a year just on regulator compliance. That is 32 working days, a month and a half, lost to red tape. Here is the kicker: CFIB estimates that $18 billion of that red tape could vanish tomorrow and no one would even notice. That is enough to pay for safer streets, stronger border enforcement or better health care infrastructure, unless, of course, it disappears into Bermuda.
Into this environment of record costs, ballooning debt and economic uncertainty, the government has brought forward the behemoth of budgets, a budget that makes even Justin Trudeau look like a miser. The new federal budget represents a direct hit on the affordability of life for Canadians. Despite promises of restraint and fiscal responsibility, the government's spending spree is fuelling inflation and driving up prices across the board. Families already struggling to afford groceries, rent and mortgage payments now face even greater pressure as inflationary spending adds $5,400 per household per year. By running a $78-billion deficit, far above the $62-billion pledge, the government has made everyday essentials more expensive, leaving ordinary Canadians to shoulder the burden of its broken promises.
In this budget, hidden food taxes, like the industrial carbon tax, still increase the cost of everything at every stage of production. The energy to grow, harvest, process and transport food is taxed at every step of the way. That means the price increases every step of the way until it reaches the ridiculous price we consumers are used to paying at the checkout stand, or trying to.
While our neighbours to the south embark on aggressive tax restructuring to become competitive, the Liberals are dragging on our economy with hidden taxes and stifling red tape. While the Americans are rapidly reindustrializing, the Liberals are still chasing industries out of Canada with punitive taxation, onerous red tape and accusations of greed whenever a company does manage to succeed in this hostile environment.
While the world is changing before our eyes and other countries are quickly adapting, the Liberal government seems to be stuck in 2015, leisurely taking half-steps and clinging to old ideologies. This budget is just more evidence of the same thing.
The Liberals and their friends, the NDP, blame high prices on corporate greed, but in reality, businesses are simply passing on government greed. When things cost more to make and transport, they cost more at the checkout stand. This is called inflation, and it is caused in part by the industrial gas tax and other hidden taxes like it. It is made worse by the explosion of the expensive bureaucracy the Liberals have embarked on.
Every time the government pats itself on the back for protecting workers but drives employers out of business, it is not helping labour; it is destroying jobs, futures and, in many cases, families. Canadians do not want to be wards of the state. They want the dignity of earning their own way. Young people do not want a low-wage rental economy. They want to own a home someday, like their parents, once they have good jobs and can build an affordable life. They want to know that if they work hard, they can afford to buy a home, start a business and feed their families without waiting for a government cheque.
Conservatives are offering a better path forward: an affordable budget for an affordable life. That means ending hidden taxes that quietly drain household budgets, cutting wasteful government spending and removing the bureaucratic roadblocks that prevent homes from being built. By opening the country to opportunity and rewarding hard work, we can restore hope to families barely getting by. It is time to turn away from generational debt and toward common sense.
Let me return to the question a Liberal MP mockingly asked last week: Where is the logic? Where is the logic in a government that taxes work, punishes success and calls dependency progress? Where is the logic in driving businesses to the brink of insolvency, and then bragging about new programs for the unemployed? Where is the logic in claiming to fight for the middle class while making it impossible for the middle class to even exist?
The Conservatives will continue to fight for real affordability, for policies that empower Canadians to feed their own kids, build their own businesses and stand proudly self-sufficient in a country that rewards work, not dependency.