Mr. Speaker, today we are analyzing the 10th Liberal budget, the most expensive budget in Canadian history, costing $16 billion more than the Prime Minister promised on the campaign trail.
I will begin by saying that there is nothing in this budget to address the problems facing families who are already struggling to make ends meet, nothing for young people who are contemplating their future with utter despair, convinced that they will never be able to afford a home. In fact, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said today that the Liberals will not be able to fulfill their promise of building 250,000 homes in five years. In reality, it will be 26,000 homes, or 10 times less.
There is nothing for small and medium-sized businesses. I would like to remind members that 99% of businesses in Canada are small and medium-sized businesses. There is nothing in there for them. It has been 10 years of broken promises. During my election campaign, I said that history gets written just once. Well, I want us all to take a look at the current situation after 10 years of Liberal governance, because that will give us some idea of what the future holds. When we look at what has happened, when we look at our history, we can predict where we are headed. Year after year, the Liberals have run deficits. They prioritize ideology over facts, and there is a very worrying tendency to always try to please everyone, as though the bank account is bottomless. The sole aim is to make people happy today in order to get their vote in the future. I believe this seriously undermines Canada's economy and our future.
In fact, recently, in the context of the budget, the Liberals did not negotiate with us. They did not sit down with us, even though they are a minority government. They completely ignored the requests and proposals of the opposition parties. They were willing to spend over $600 million to trigger an election to win a few seats and get a majority. That is the Liberal way: spending money to promote their ideas and points of view and disregarding the public. Of course, they would have blamed the Conservatives. They would have said that it was the Conservatives who wanted to trigger an election before Christmas. All we were asking for was an affordable budget so that Canadians could have access to a promising future, not a future with debt for generations to come. The answer we got was that the situation we were in was the fault of the United States and Donald Trump.
When a government is not properly prepared, when it runs up debt year after year, when it spends recklessly and ends up in a bad situation and a bad position, can it really blame that on someone else? Should the government not look in the mirror and admit that it should have done more to prevent this situation? The reality is that there is no world where there will never be tough times. However, the Liberals do not seem to see that. They want to live in a fantasyland. Would a smoker really be surprised to learn they have lung cancer? I doubt it. Would someone who gets no physical activity and overeats regularly say that there was no way to see it coming when they have a heart attack? I think we all know the answer, and that answer is no. When a government relies on an ideology that assumes that it can spend endlessly and live in a world that is out of touch with the reality of taxpayers, it puts itself in a position where, when times are tough, it has no financial cushion and the situation is precarious.
As I said earlier, history gets written just once. I would like us to look at our Prime Minister's past. Before he became Prime Minister, he was the head of Brookfield, a Canadian company. When things started getting tense with the United States, he moved the company's head office to New York for his own benefit. During the election campaign, the prospective prime minister was asked a question. He was told that Brookfield was Canada's biggest corporate tax evader, owing $6.5 billion in unpaid taxes in Canada. He was asked whether he would fix this problem if he became prime minister. He replied that he would ensure that businesses pay their taxes in Canada. So far, he has done nothing.
When he became Prime Minister, he was asked to cut ties with Brookfield. Well, last week, Brookfield's chief operating officer came and told us that he had no problem coming to Canada for coffee with the Prime Minister and spending half a day in his office. When he announces Canadian investments abroad, Brookfield is always there a day early or a day later in the same sectors.
Last week, our Prime Minister was in Alberta where he announced plans for pipelines, carbon capture, nuclear energy, data centres and power lines. Just a little bit of research shows that Brookfield is heavily involved in all these sectors. That is the reality now. Canadians are starting to question this much-talked-about budget that spends their money in sectors that seem to greatly benefit our Prime Minister. When we cry scandal here, we are told that we are conspiracy theorists, so I will look at other facts.
The Liberals promised to keep the deficit at $62 billion, which is already far too high, but now the budget is projecting a deficit of $78 billion. They said that they would reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, but that ratio has increased. They promised to lower inflation, but it has gone up. They promised to reduce spending, but it has increased by $90 billion. They promised to help municipalities by cutting their taxes on new housing construction in half, but that is another broken promise.
The budget asks Canadians to spend more on interest on the debt than on health transfers to the provinces. That is huge. We are getting so deep into debt that we are paying more in interest than we are investing in something as crucial as health care. The Liberals are patting themselves on the back for creating more social programs and telling themselves that they are responding to demand and that Canadians need those programs. The problem is precisely that: Demand is growing, and the Liberals are congratulating themselves because it is growing.
There are needs in our communities, and there are children who are going hungry. Everyone would agree that children should be able to eat their fill. No one is against that. However, there is nothing to be proud of when this trend is on the rise, there are more and more children going to food banks, and more and more families struggling to make ends meet. I have been speaking with food bank representatives, and they told me recently that the face of poverty is changing. In the past, it was people who were unemployed, perhaps even newly arrived immigrants. Today, it is Canadian and Quebec families. Parents who are both employed have to choose between eating, having a roof over their heads, and having a car to get to work. That is the reality, but the government pats itself on the back for doing a good job and creating more and more programs year after year. That is the problem.
Einstein said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. I will leave it to my colleagues to decide for themselves whether that accurately describes the situation.
I mentioned health transfers earlier. Something in the budget that really stood out to me is the total lack of investment in prevention, and the total lack of investment in sports and physical activity.
Let us take a look at the leading causes of mortality in Canada, and hear what the associations dealing with these conditions have to say. The cancer association says that the cornerstone of cancer prevention is to promote physical activity, reduce the amount of time spent sitting, and educate people about the benefits of physical activity. Heart disease is the second-leading cause of death in Canada. Regular physical activity significantly reduces the risk of stroke. In addition, 90% of cases of type 2 diabetes can be eliminated with physical activity. Physical activity also reduces degeneration and lowers the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
The prevention of illness should be a major focus for governments at the municipal, provincial and federal level. To improve health, we have to acknowledge that the solution is not to wait until illness strikes before we take action. Reactionary budgets are always deficit budgets.
My colleague asked a question last week about the government's $500-million investment in the European Space Agency site. The answer really caught my attention. We were told that every dollar invested generates $3 in Canada. I like that kind of answer, because when you invest in physical activity, every dollar invested generates a return of somewhere between $3 and $20, with a recognized average of $13. It is the best return on investment when it comes to physical health, mental health and community health. That would be a generational investment, but there is nothing about that in the budget. As a result, our population is becoming poorer in terms of health, and we will all be forced to pay the price.
The Liberal government has divided its budget into two categories: investments and spending. I wish it would do the same for the health of Canadians by investing in prevention and focusing on healing, because it needs to invest more money in that area.