Debates of Dec. 2nd, 2025

Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am 100% hearing the same thing in northern Alberta. Life is getting unaffordable under the Liberals.

It is baffling to me that even after the Liberals cut the carbon tax, which was totally inflation-inducing, they brought in a massive deficit that is also going to continue to increase inflation, all the while driving our dollar value down, which also causes inflation.

Most of our food comes from around the world. We need to ensure that the trucks that bring it in are not subject to extra tax. We need to make sure our dollar is strong enough that we can afford things. The bananas we buy do not come from Canada; they come from somewhere else, and our dollar is buying them.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, does the member find any hypocrisy within the Conservative Party with respect to the Leader of the Conservative Party's having been in the Conservative caucus in 2009, when the Conservatives in fact had the highest deficit relative to the value of the dollar?

Does the member hear any hypocrisy in any of the speeches the Conservatives are delivering?

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I outright reject the premise. Nonetheless, I would point out that I think the dollar value when Mr. Harper was in power hit $1.13 American. This increased our buying power. It was a great time to live in Canada because we could afford to live.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the recent Liberal budget, which actually came down late this year, on November 4, and about Bill C-15, the budget implementation act.

The Liberals promised to keep the deficit at roughly $62 billion. They lost a finance minister last December over that number, and now it has escalated to $78 billion. They promised to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio; instead it is up, and inflation is up. They promised to spend less, but they are spending $90 billion more, which is $5,400 more inflationary spending per family in this country.

We hear daily from colleagues across the floor about how they are creating programs to help struggling Canadians from coast to coast. Canadians, though, want well-paying jobs and financial security, not higher deficits and more taxes, and certainly not more handouts. Canadian workers and businesses are paying the price for the Liberal government's out-of-control spending.

In fact the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the PBO, told us that the Liberals' spending was unsustainable. This was backed up by the PBO's latest report, which found that the government even broke past Trudeau's fiscal guardrails when the deficit increased to $68.5 billion. It is an additional $20 billion or so in spending that has not even been included in the outlook of the Liberal platform. It is unsustainable; there is no question about it.

Those of us who manage a family budget know exactly those numbers and what they mean. The government is simply maxing out the credit card for future generations to pay off with interest. This costly credit card budget is gambling away this country's future. It means that Canadians will now be spending more money on servicing the debt than we spend on health care in each province and territory in this country.

The debt is so large that it eclipses the spending on major government initiatives. At least 10¢ of every dollar sent to Ottawa is now spent servicing the out-of-control debt by the Liberal government. Interest payments will reach $54 billion, which is 10.8% of total federal revenues.

Conservatives have presented amendments to boost take-home pay and deliver affordable homes and food by ending the hidden taxes, to cut wasteful spending, to open our country up to opportunity, and, for heaven's sake, to get rid of the bureaucracy in order to build affordable homes. We call on the Prime Minister to work with us on this side of the House to support a positive, hopeful and affordable future for all Canadians.

We know that Canadians are hard-working and very generous. They deserve better than the government has produced. Today is national day of giving in this country. I do not know if members knew this, but it was created in 2012. It is a simple idea: a day that encourages people in this country to do good things in their communities.

I remember working at a radio station in Saskatoon when the morning man, Denny Carr, started a program in our city called Secret Santa Campaign. That was way back in 1983. Denny had a vision of ensuring that all Saskatoon children would receive a new toy at Christmas. People stopped by our station with unwrapped toys every week in advance of Christmas. Then Saskatoon City Hall got involved; it had an area set aside dedicated for people to drop off unwrapped toys. Then the Saskatoon Fire Department, whose members are here today in Ottawa, would go around our community singing Christmas carols, just to get people into the spirit.

Yesterday, people gathered in my city at the traditional wieners and beans lunch to kick off the Secret Santa Campaign. I have to thank Rachael Steinke and her staff at the Saskatoon Community Foundation for a part of this tradition. I remember Denny starting this in 1983. Yesterday's event marked the 41st year of Secret Santa. Thousands of people in our community have given their time and donations, in memory of Denny Carr, to his Secret Santa Campaign. Today, in my city, over 100,000 children and 55,000 families in need have been assisted with toys, books and food hampers.

I should add that, in 1999, Denny Carr was honoured with Canada's highest honour, the Order of Canada. Denny's belief was that one person could make a difference.

Saskatoon has always punched above its weight when it comes to philanthropy. In 1997, a Saskatoon Progress Club member by the name of Ted Merriman, along with then B'nai Brith president Sid Katzman, started a care and share program to feed inner-city school students. I want to thank executive director Sandi Meldru, who organized this event. They have over 20 schools that they visit in the month of December. They partner with various businesses in Saskatoon, serving up a turkey Christmas meal with all the fixings. Staff members from each of the donating businesses also come out to dish out the food and clean up after the event, so the education staff can also enjoy a sit-down meal with the kids they teach.

When I was a member of the board of education in Saskatoon as a trustee, it was always a highlight to volunteer at these schools over the lunch hour. They are supporting Christmas now in my city and others, but supporting Christmas in my city started with Saskatoon's the Star Phoenix newspaper, which gives much-needed funds to the Salvation Army's Christmas hamper program. Every week the Star Phoenix newspaper names people who have donated money. They are recognized in the newspaper.

What a wonderful way to remember our loved ones, of whom many have given us enjoyment on our ball diamonds, ice facilities, football fields and other sport facilities. It is just a wonderful idea by Kevin Mitchell and I thank Saskatoon's The Star Phoenix for continuing this tradition.

I salute Rawlco Radio, which has a campaign to adopt a family and is also helping out the Salvation Army. That was started in 1988. Through its hamper program, families receive food and grocery gift cards to ensure that no child will go without a Christmas meal. I thank Derek and Angela Kerr from the Salvation Army and their dedicated team.

I should mention also the kettle campaign, for which many volunteer in every community in this country. They stand there, ring the bell and hopefully get some donations.

The YMCA Saskatoon is raising funds all this month for its summer camps and child care spaces. The YMCA is the largest provider of child care in our city. We thank Tina and Jerry Grandey for matching donations this month of up to $40,000.

I should mention our food bank, which has been taking donations at a very busy time, and Laurie O'Connor, the executive director. There have been 23,000 visits now per month in Saskatoon. That is a record demand in a province that is known for feeding the world with our agriculture community.

I want to give a shout-out to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association. I joined them two weeks ago on a food bank drive in my riding in Rosewood. We went door to door collecting donations for the food bank. The need is great in our community. Donations for the Friendship Inn are coming in as well. It is open 365 days a year and serves over 500,000 meals. The campaign is called, “Hunger is happening. Fill the Plate”.

The Blades will hold a teddy bear toss night. Fans are asked to bring a plush toy and throw it onto the ice when the team scores. Those teddies will then be collected and brought to the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital.

Canadians are generous. The government needs to back off and let Canadians do the work.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member that Canadians are generous. They very much have a caring attitude filled with love. We see a lot of that demonstrated in the month of December, and even beyond December. It is appropriate to thank all the volunteers and organizations that do fantastic work in providing wonderful meals at Christmas and, at times, throughout the year. I appreciate the member's speech in that respect.

Would the member not agree that maybe we should pass legislation, in the Christmas spirit, such as that on bail reform, which Canadians want to see?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is Giving Tuesday. Let us think about this from coast to coast. Those who have access to extra money give back to each and every community. That is what makes our communities. I know better what is happening in my community than the government does. Each of us, when we go back home, has a pretty good idea of what is happening because we go to events and listen to people.

This is a way to get government out of the way. Once government and its bureaucracy are out of the way, then we can make a real difference in our communities.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the member comes from a generous community, and we can hear in his voice how much he loves the community he represents.

How does he feel when he hears that $150 million would be going to Eurovision, which is a complete waste when people are starving and will not have Christmas presents under their trees? What are his thoughts, and how does he feel about that?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is not only that $150 million. How about the $150 million the government is giving to the public CBC network for no reason whatsoever? Private institutions in this country are struggling, yet $1.4 billion is going to the CBC. It is part of Google now and gets a portion of that, and the Prime Minister decided during the campaign that was not enough and that the government was going to give another $150 million to the CBC. It is better spent in our communities.

Canadians are standing up today, because it is Giving Tuesday, to make the decisions in their communities that they know are best.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for showcasing the giving spirit in Saskatoon and how, if the government got out of the way, lots of private companies and benefactors would fill the void and help the less fortunate in our society.

With all the money the Liberal government is spending and giving to their friends, insiders, Brookfield, bondholders and bankers, does the member believe it cut $98 million from the RCMP in this budget go-round?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Regina—Lewvan and I love the depot in Regina. The government has talked about moving that depot out of Saskatchewan to Quebec. There is enough nonsense about this. We have worked hard for the RCMP museum to get responsible funding so it can combine the indigenous story along with the story of the RCMP.

In our province now, we have started a marshal program because the numbers are down on members of the RCMP. The Liberals have not done any recruiting whatsoever. They talk a good game, saying they are going to this or that and have border security, but where are the numbers? The number of members are down at the RCMP depot and at border security. The government talks a good game, but it does little.

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as we get into the details of the budget implementation act, it is important to take a step back to assess the philosophy that has informed the budget itself. The big picture of the budget rests on a single question: Is the government a player or a referee in the arena we know as Canada? Of course, this arena is not hosting a game of hockey or soccer. This is a game of factions. This is a game of competing private interests.

The government, as a referee, would take no sides. The referee gets out of the way. He draws the lines of the arena, and lays down the rules that allow the best players and teams to win. This is the North Star of the Conservative world view. Unfortunately, the red Liberal government sees itself as a player. It is picking winners and losers through that age-old enemy of human progress, central planning interventionism.

As the Liberals see themselves as a player, they have always stacked the game in their favour. They are team asset inflation. They are team rentier economy. They are team feudalism. The Liberals do not believe in a productive economy that works for hard-working Canadians. One of the chief ways team feudalism has empowered its rentier economy with unending asset inflation is through immigration. The immigration file has been noticeably absent from the debate on the budget and its implementation, so I will ask members to please allow me to give it some floor time.

Affordability for Canadians is a core Conservative focus. As a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, I have learned over the past several months how the immigration file is deeply affecting housing, health care and employment for everyday Canadians. The Liberals admit, on page 95 of the budget, that, “the pace of arrivals began to exceed Canada’s capacity to absorb and support newcomers”. On the same page, the Liberals further admit, “In 2018, 3.3 per cent of Canada’s population were temporary residents. By 2024, that number had more than doubled to 7.5 per cent, an unprecedented rate of growth that put pressure on housing supply [and] the healthcare system”.

These expressions in percentages do not do the raw numbers justice. Let me take one of the most devastating years on record, that is 2023, and repeat the figures. We issued over 681,000 study permits to international students, 761,000 work permits through the international mobility program and over 183,000 work permits through the temporary foreign worker program.

I grant there is some overlap between these categories, as a single person can be counted under two categories. Nonetheless, we are in a situation where our economy has been flooded with at least an extra million foreigners in any given year. The rapid growth of temporary residents overall in 2022 and 2023 contributed to Canada having the highest annual population growth rate since 1957. These figures are madness when we realize that only 30 years ago, we used to admit around 30,000 international students per year.

Team feudalism across the aisle knows what game it is playing. Just as it engages in deficit spending to map more units of currency to a stagnant suite of goods and services, team feudalism has flooded an increasing number of people into Canada against a roughly steady state housing and jobs situation. What does team feudalism produce in both situations? It produces its time-honoured goal of asset inflation under a rentier model.

The Liberals have used both the temporary foreign worker program and the international mobility program as a business model to keep wages artificially low, to keep paper profits high and to price Canadians out of the job market. The interventionist red Liberals pick their winners, and they have chosen to give a discretionary government subsidy to unproductive rentier businesses that can only function on the modern equivalent of slave labour.

I wish this were the end of my immigration critique, but there is another unfortunate layer. I do not know whether this is a tragedy or a comedy. We know, for instance, that nearly 50,000 holders of foreign student visas were not studying at any Canadian university or college, but rather working and attempting to settle here. This finding is confusing unless we realize that we have not been matching our international student intake to our labour market needs.

The main field of choice for international students has been business studies and, at the college level, nearly 50% of all international students are enrolled in business programs. In the 2022-23 academic year, there were over 90,000 international students enrolled in college business programs and close to 60,000 international students in university business programs. This is not the labour force we need to build Canada strong. A promise was made to many of these students that this would put them on the immigration track in Canada, when the simple fact was that there were not enough permanent resident slots to accommodate the huge volume of students we let into the country.

What conclusion are we now led to? Team feudalism used international students not as a value added to our skills mix, but as a form of quantitative easing to inflate the assets of its rentier economy. It just needed more bodies in the country to boost up rent and housing prices, while suppressing the wages of hard-working Canadians. The Liberals do not represent team Canada. They do not represent the average hard-working Canadian. They represent the most ancient of feudalisms with a fake paper economy bolstered by something that very nearly approximates a slave system.

While over two million Canadians visit food banks each month and 700,000 of those are kids, the Liberals work every day to inflate asset prices, whether through deficit spending or by letting any warm body pass into the country to keep those rents sky-high. Team feudalism has the audacity to run a $78-billion deficit with over $90 billion in new spending, which equates to over $5,000 per Canadian household, yet still says they wish to build Canada strong.

The question is, strong for whom? The Liberals have not been playing as a referee in the great game of factions. They have chosen to play for team asset inflation and they have made us all poorer for this decision. Young Canadians cannot get the jobs they need, the housing they deserve or the health care services they are entitled to. With money printers working overdrive, what future does Canada have under the Liberal feudal regime? I do not see a future here, and it worries me.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, just to pick up on the immigration comments, I wonder if the member is aware that the leader of the Conservative Party today was a part of the Harper team that, back in January 2014, proposed and put into place a system that would see 450,000 international researchers and students come to Canada on an annual basis by 2022. Does the member believe that the Harper regime and his current leader were wrong in increasing the numbers to the degree that they proposed? Remember, following 2021, we had the pandemic coming up.

Was the member's leader wrong?

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the Liberal government that it had 10 years to fix any such problem. It had 10 years to address it. Look where we are today. As I said in my speech, the numbers I provided show that it has actually gotten worse. Let us not go back through history to see who did what when. We are talking about how the current Liberal government is unable to resolve this problem to make Canada strong and make Canada better.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are so happy to have the hon. member for Markham—Unionville on our team.

I recently spoke to Carole from the Seniors Tin Cup and she quoted these numbers. She said that the poverty line in Canada is $25,252, and that 28% of senior women are living in poverty through no fault of their own. The government has nothing in the budget for seniors. Single seniors are struggling every single day.

What comments do you have to give to the government, which does not respect the people who built this country?

[The Deputy Speaker, Tom Kmiec]

Before I recognize the member, questions should be addressed through the Chair.

I have no comments, but I invite the member for Markham—Unionville to share his.

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, with this budget, we are not helping Canadians who have contributed to the Canadian economy and to building Canada strong throughout their lifetimes in Canada. We are not taking care of them when they need it now. It is shameful that a lot of seniors have to line up at food banks and so forth. We need to do more for seniors who helped bring this country to this point. We need to enable them to live gracefully.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to seniors, his leader was part of a former government that gave nothing in terms of increases. Contrast that to how we gave the largest increase to seniors on GIS and a 10% substantial increase to OAS for seniors, 75 years and older. As well, those programs have been getting annual increases based on inflation.

If we just talk about those social programs alone, which are all encapsulated in the budget to support seniors, does the member not believe this is what we should be doing and vote in favour of these types of programs?

[Michael Ma, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that, as I said, there are more seniors lining up at food banks than in previous years. That means whatever the Liberal government is doing it is not enough to address the challenges our seniors are facing.

After the pandemic, inflation and food costs rose significantly, yet the government has not really addressed that inflation to help our seniors live with grace.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this place on behalf of the residents of Portage—Lisgar, those who proudly call south central Manitoba home.

I would like to start today with a glaring example of Liberal incompetence buried in the budget implementation act. The government is sheepishly backtracking on its so-called anti-greenwashing rules in the Competition Act, rules that it rammed through the House just last year in Bill C-59. Do members remember those?

In their ideological zeal to police every environmental claim, the Liberals demanded businesses back up statements with “internationally recognized methodology”, imposing rigid tests that invited frivolous lawsuits. What happened? Reality happened, and it hit hard.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board rolled back its own net-zero portfolio commitment, with experts linking it to these changes. The Royal Bank of Canada ditched its $500-billion sustainable finance pledge and stopped disclosing key green metrics, fearing penalties. The rules created a chilling effect as businesses halted legitimate green claims to avoid the red tape nightmare. Even the Competition Bureau's guidelines could not save this mess, as industry feedback poured in about the unworkable burden.

Now the Liberals are quietly relaxing it to “adequate and proper substantiation” and banning private lawsuits, admitting their overreach without any apology. We were yet again handed another policy straight from the activist ivory tower, which was so divorced from real-world consequences that it is quietly getting tossed in this bill.

The worst part is that these are not harmless daydreams. Every time government chases one of these activist-crafted fantasies, real people are the ones paying the price. While the activists congratulate themselves for a job well done, Canadians are left to deal with higher costs, fewer choices and a government that seems allergic to anything resembling common sense.

Personally, as a strong proponent of getting big projects built in this country, a place where it unfortunately has become next to impossible to get anything done, I am quite upset there were no changes in this legislation to the broken impact assessment process the Liberals created in the first place. Instead of fixing their mess, the Liberals have created a new bureaucracy with the Major Projects Office. It is still too early to tell if this office will succeed in any way, and so far it has only announced projects that basically have already been approved or are already under construction. Out of those 11 projects, the office thinks only two will be deemed projects in the national interest.

At its core, what this office is doing is providing a “concierge” service for the cherry-picked projects the Prime Minister has decided to move forward on. The mere fact that the Liberals need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hire countless new bureaucrats and probably a bunch of consultants to shepherd projects through this maze of regulations is indicative of how bad things have become in this country.

Make no mistake: The government is picking winners and losers. Whoever has the best lobbyists or friends in the PMO can get their project referred to the Major Projects Office and get it sent to the front of the line. It is basically the Air Canada super elite program, where a select few stroll down the red carpet, breeze through their own priority security line and sail past check-in, while everyone else gets bumped, stranded on the terminal floor and stuck on hold for hours hoping somebody, anybody, just picks up. This is because the Liberals have made it so impossible to get projects built.

If we step back for a second, we will quickly see that hundreds of billions of dollars or over half a trillion dollars of investment has fled the country over the past 10 years. The outflow of capital is simply remarkable and sad. We saw how the Liberals' ill-thought-out emissions cap, which was very much a production cap, was abandoned. We saw their ludicrous EV mandate get put on ice to buy them some time to figure out how to get themselves out of that mess. We have seen ideology trump reality time and time again.

Now we see a Liberal caucus that seems to be ripping apart at the seams as its members struggle to reorient themselves. I will admit that it has been something to watch former Liberal environment ministers get a little hot and bothered as their once-sacred flagship policies are quietly tossed overboard. To be fair, the one who just resigned at least had the decency to walk away from the chauffeured car and the extra salary instead of twisting himself into a pretzel trying to defend all the recent backflips.

Just yesterday, I asked the new Minister of Environment a straightforward question. I asked her if they have given up on meeting their emissions reduction target. Her answer was pure bureaucratic gibberish that was so tangled that members would need a map and compass to navigate their way out of it. She could not bring herself to say what everybody already knows: After a decade of failed policies, they are nowhere near hitting these targets. It has been all pain for no gain.

Members do not have to take my word for it. The environment commissioner himself said that the Liberals now boast the worst record in the entire G7. Just as the Liberals have chased away hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, and nickelled and dimed families for heating their homes and filling up their cars, their policies still fail spectactularly.

Now, the new minister tells us that they will unveil new measures to meet the targets sometime next month. Forgive me for not popping the champagne on this one. We have all seen this movie before, and the sequel is never better than the original. Chances are that this will be yet another round of environmental policies destined for the same shelf, where all their other failures go to die. Let us be honest. When a government this far behind suddenly insists it is still on track, what it is really signalling is a whole heap of new regulations and taxes so heavy-handed that they could bring our economy to a halt.

We know about one of the ideas the Liberals support: the UN's new net-zero carbon tax on shipping. The Liberal Minister of the Environment insisted just yesterday that imposing this UN-backed net-zero shipping tax, potentially hitting $500 per tonne, will not drive up the cost of everyday items for Canadians. Think about that in a Canadian context, where we were not even at $100 per tonne. I live in the real world where businesses do not just eat these taxes out of the goodness of their hearts. They pass them straight down to every Canadian.

If I were expected to take the minister at her word that the Liberals have not abandoned their 2030 targets, whatever else they are cooking up must be an absolute doozy because, my goodness, they have a lot of ground to make up. I ask this not rhetorically but earnestly: What is the point of having a Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act when absolutely no minister, department or government will ever be held accountable for any of their failures?

To move on from the environmental failures of this government, equally important is what has been excluded from this legislation. Fortunately, the Liberal government decided not to proceed with its disastrous idea to strip faith-based organizations of their charitable status. That this idea was even proposed is extremely concerning. I have had hundreds of my constituents write to me and agree with the idea that the government should never be stripping faith-based organizations of their charitable status. These charities support the most vulnerable in our society, filling a crucial gap the state simply cannot. The economic benefit is clear. Cardus Institute research shows that, for every dollar a congregation spends, the local community receives $3.39 in economic benefit. Why even raise the prospect of revoking their charitable status? It is clearly not for fiscal reasons.

The best explanation seems to be that the Liberals want to divide Canadians for political gain. This has become an extremely common trend under this government, and it is happening in real time. Just this week, we learned the Liberals have secured the Bloc's support for their proposed combatting hate act, which is yet another attempt to police the thoughts of Canadians. What is the deal they struck in making amendments to criminalize sections of sacred texts? This is completely unnecessary. The government already has the tools it needs to prosecute those who promote violence and genocide. Adding insult to injury, the same member who proposed policing biblical verses was just now made the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture.

I say this to my Liberal colleagues: Stop attacking our inheritance from our ancestors for their political gain. Canadians are tired of it. Whether it be the Liberals' tacit support of tearing down statues and belittling symbols of national importance or the general pursuit of shaming our heritage, Canadians do not want a government that wages war on their values, their faith and their heritage. They want a government that supports the vulnerable, respects the contributions of charities and unites Canadians rather than dividing them. They want a responsible government that acts with common sense. They are not getting it with the Liberal government. Canadians deserve better.

[Will Greaves, Liberal, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I was greatly encouraged to hear the member refer to the need for us to maintain robust and effective climate and environmental policies in this country. I could not agree more. I think it is fair to say that many Canadians, at least for the last 35 years or so, have not associated the Conservative Party with a strong environmental record, although there is a rich lineage of Conservative environmental policy going back before that.

Could the member share with the House what his party supports in terms of measures to support a clean environment, reduce our emissions and improve the health of Canadians?

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the root word in “Conservative”: “conserve”. We are conservationists at our core. What we believe in is taking care of our natural landscapes. People in polling consistently care about clean air, clean water and protecting our natural landscapes. I represent a whole bunch of people who live, work and play on the land. They are the best conservationists and the true environmentalists, and I will always fight back against some concrete-jungle, ivory-tower policy idea trying to be imposed on the people I represent. As it turns out, as evidenced by the environment commissioner's own report, these are not working.

The Liberal government's policies have been an abysmal failure. They have been all pain and absolutely no gain.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance was bragging about investing $115 billion over five years in his budget. However, if we take a close look at the numbers, we realize that, in fact, there will be only $9 billion in new funding over five years for all of the provinces from coast to coast to coast, including $5 billion earmarked to build hospitals and clinics. That means that the 10 provinces and three territories will receive $4 billion over five years for infrastructure.

I would like to know whether my colleague thinks that is enough or whether he supports the provinces' request to invest $100 billion over 10 years. I would also like him to tell me why he thinks there is such a big discrepancy between the Department of Finance's made-up numbers and the reality on the ground.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, a nearly $80-billion deficit is most definitely enough. I also have real questions about where the government is spending its money because, clearly, it is not reaching the people it needs to.

I am a firm believer in investing in local infrastructure. In my rural communities, we have much aging infrastructure in need of renewal. Too often, though, as with everything else from the Liberal government, the Liberals decide to pick winners and losers. It is often the forgotten rural communities, which people like me and many other colleagues across and on this side of the aisle represent, that get so frustrated when the government decides to put crazy ideas as strings attached to any sort of funding.

At the end of the day, we need to let our local governments decide how best to spend the money. The federal government needs to get out of the way and let local communities decide.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague to respond to this: The government has indicated it is going to increase spending in national defence and give us the armed forces we should have.

However, at the very same time, it is cutting in every department. In this moment, those of us studying suicide in veterans' lives have found out they are stressed to the nth degree because they thought this is where the Liberals were going. Sure enough, our veterans are facing the largest cut: $4 billion, which is more than every other department.

Do you see this as a good method of increasing recruiting?

[The Deputy Speaker, Tom Kmiec]

Before I recognize the member for Portage—Lisgar, a member cannot speak to another member directly by using “you” but goes through the Chair. The Chair has no views.

I invite the member for Portage—Lisgar to comment.