Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House and speak on behalf of the citizens of Saskatoon West, the greatest riding in all of Canada, I have to say. I know there are other members who may not quite agree with me, especially the one sitting beside me, but I am very proud to represent Saskatoon as a whole and Saskatoon West specifically.
We are talking about the budget today, and I have to say that the budget implementation act is a very large document. It is an omnibus bill of 600-plus pages, with all kinds of things in it. I can say right off the start that I will not be supporting the budget.
It is not that there are not a few good things in the budget. There is a small tax cut, and that is always good, but as the Parliamentary Budget Officer said, it will amount to about $280 a year for the average family in Canada. That is great, and I would never deny that to somebody in Canada, but honestly it is not a generational, massive, amazing, incredible thing. It is just a very small amount, but every little bit helps. The budget also has the largest deficit we have had outside COVID, $78 billion, while there is a cost of living crisis in Saskatoon and right across this country that is very real.
First I want to talk about debt. This is a very serious problem in our country. The amount of debt being racked up is really unconscionable. I think some Canadians, in the last election, thought they were getting a good money manager, a banker, somebody who really knew how to handle money. Remember that a banker's main job is to make money, and by that I mean physically print money. They actually make money. They want money to be loaned and flowing, and I think that is exactly what we are getting from the Prime Minister right now.
Let us look at the numbers. The deficit from the previous prime minister, Trudeau, which we all thought was crazy big, was $36 billion. That was a huge number, especially compared to previous deficits, at least in normal times. Of course during COVID it was a bit different. Everybody talks about Stephen Harper's having to run some small deficits. He got panned for a $10-billion deficit. We are talking $36 billion. The new Prime Minister has no problem doubling that to $78 billion.
The deficit is massive. Yes, it is going to come down a bit over the five-year period that is in the budget that was presented, but it will come down to $57 billion, which is still significantly higher than the $36 billion, which in turn is significantly higher than any numbers we have ever had before.
If we add all that up over the six-year time horizon that is in the budget document, it is $360 billion of deficits over just six years. If we look at the interest payments on that, we see that right now they are at about $53 billion a year. It climbs up to $76 billion five years from now. If we add that up, it is $382 billion in six years, just in interest. That is money thrown away, given to bankers. It is the same amount of money that we spend on health care and the same amount of money that all of us pay in GST. Whenever we buy something, we can think of the 5% GST that we pay going specifically to pay the interest on our debt. It is terrible.
Speaking of the debt, in 2015, the total debt of the country was $600 billion, and by that I mean it took literally 150 years, the entire length of our confederation, to grow that debt to $600 billion. By the end of the time horizon five years from now, it will be at $1.6 trillion; it will have gone from $0.6 trillion to $1.6 trillion. That will be $1 trillion of debt added by the government if it continues for the five-year period. That is totally unbelievable and unconscionable.
I want to talk a little about housing prices, because they have gone way up. They have climbed and are very expensive. Even in Saskatoon, where housing is not as expensive as in Toronto or Vancouver, rent has gone up about 25% over the last five years. Instead of paying $1,000, people are paying $1,200 or $1,300. It is really crazy. At the same time, over the same period in the last three years, median incomes in Saskatoon have dropped, actually gone down, so while rent is going up, incomes are dropping, making it very difficult for people to make ends meet. With a 25% rent increase versus a 9% wage increase over a five-year period, it is very difficult. No one can buy clothes or groceries.
Speaking of groceries, food inflation is running extremely high right now: 34% over five years. Food banks in Saskatchewan are now serving 55,000 people per month. In Saskatoon, 23,000 people use the food bank every month, which is up from roughly 17,000 per month in 2019. That is an increase of about 35% in five years.
Christmas dinner is going to be more expensive for everyone right now. If we think about what makes a great time at Christmas, it is getting together with family and friends and eating turkey, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, ham, Brussels sprouts, pumpkin pie, perogies, sausages and all the wonderful things that really make that time a lot of fun. Brussels sprouts can't be right; scratch that.
I will quickly go through a list of increases we see right now. Beef ribs are up 114%; beef strip loin is up 74%; beef top sirloin is up 62%; chicken breast is up 52%; a dozen eggs is up 54%; my wife's favourite, coffee, is up 76%; olive oil is up 120%; margarine is up 67%; cheddar cheese is up 59%; butter is up 57%; pasta is up 50%; and baby formula is up 71%. Baby formula is now almost always the most-stolen item in stores, because young moms and dads cannot afford to buy it. This is causing hardship for everyone. Parents should not be stressed about buying food for their kids.
I cannot support the budget. Canadians need real solutions to handle the cost of living crisis they are seeing right now. They cannot afford the government and the moves it is making. We need to actually do things to increase the wages of our people. We need to have meaningful projects that actually create jobs and increase the wages and earnings of our people so Canadians can afford to feed themselves, clothe themselves, buy housing and live the way they are intended to.