Madam Speaker, the holidays are just around the corner, so I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that it is always an honour for me to rise in the House on behalf of the people of Mégantic—L'Érable—Lotbinière, whom I am very proud of, especially after a passionate speech like the one from my colleague. It is clear that members who come from a rural area are close to the community.
We are close to our community, and we know just how hard times are these days. We know how tough it is for people to make ends meet at the end of the month. Unfortunately, the latest figures indicate that after 10 years under the Liberal government, more and more people simply cannot afford to pay their bills.
The big media fundraising drive is happening today. The Liberals do not seem to care about what is happening in the House right now. We are talking about the cost of living and about how people are struggling to pay their bills at the end of the month, but the Liberals are not interested in that. They are not listening to the debates. That is not surprising, because they do not want to hear the truth. They do not want to hear anything about what is really going on in the lives of the people we see every day in our ridings, at the grocery store, at the post office and so on.
Today, the big media fundraising drive will help those who are struggling the most. People are collecting donations everywhere across Quebec. Despite the cold weather setting in everywhere, people will reach out to help the most vulnerable. Some people will do so tonight, while for others, it has been going on all day. It will also be happening tomorrow. These food drives and events are more than just a kind gesture. They have become necessary. They have become essential. Without these events, some individuals would have nothing to get through Christmas.
In May, when his cabinet members were being sworn in, the Prime Minister decided to make one issue his own personal crusade. He declared that Canadians would judge him by their experience at the grocery store. That is one way of putting it. He could have also said that Canadians would judge him on the cost of groceries. In either case, the Prime Minister decided that his priority was to make food more affordable for all Canadians. His report card came out today.
The 2026 edition of Canada's Food Price Report states: “If 2025 was difficult for Canadian households, 2026 is unlikely to be any easier.” People are going to judge the Prime Minister by their experience at the grocery store. Unfortunately, more and more people can no longer even afford to go to the grocery store. The report concludes that food prices are expected to rise even more sharply. Groceries will cost $1,000 more in 2026.
Let us take a look back at the damage caused by the Liberals since 2015. In 2015, it cost $8,286 to buy a year's worth of groceries. That is for a whole year. If we divide that by 52, it comes to $159 per week. Today, the cost of that same grocery list has risen to $17,500. That is $340 per week, or double what it cost in 2015.
People will say that wages have increased. Wages have not doubled since 2015. At least, the wages of the people I see every day have not doubled. Minimum wage has increased a little bit—by a few percentage points, that is true—but it has not doubled. If groceries now cost $340 per week and wages have not kept pace, how can people afford the same groceries? People are not going to pay $340. They are going to have to choose. They are going to make choices. What are people going to buy? They are going to buy less meat, less meat of any kind, because all meat has gone up in price at the same time.
They are going to buy fewer nutritious products, because those are the products that cost the most. How they shop for groceries will depend on their budget and how much money they have left to spend. That is not to mention that the cost of housing has doubled in the past 10 years as well. That is the reality that the Liberals want to avoid. The Liberals claim that everything in Canada is just fine and dandy. However, when visit our riding, when we go to the grocery store, when we see the options, when we look at people's grocery baskets, we realize that something is wrong.
Today, the figures prove it: People are eating less. The recently published HungerCount clearly shows us that more and more people are using food banks. Workers, people who work, who have a salary, are relying more and more on food banks to stock their refrigerators. That is the reality. This is not coming from a Conservative. This is coming from two reports, HungerCount and Canada's food price report produced by Dalhousie University. It says that 85% of Canadians reported that the cost of food was their number one financial concern. Who would have thought that possible in Canada? Who would have thought that, one day, in Canada, almost everyone would be concerned about what they can afford to put in their grocery carts? Who would have thought that would be their main concern? That is unacceptable.
Food inflation is double the Bank of Canada's inflation target. They say the inflation rate is going down, but food prices have doubled. That changes Canadians' lives. It changes the lives of Canadians and everyone who lives in Canada. They say that it is a global phenomenon. Why has the price of food gone up 48% faster in Canada than in the United States? The reason is the government's attitude. It keeps acting like everything is fine and spending lavishly, as though it found a credit card with no limit and simultaneously realized that it and the members of its cabinet will never have to pay off the balance. They will not have to pay it off; those next in line will take care of it. They are going to max out that card and pass it on with a $78-billion deficit.
It is not for nothing that I want to talk about an article published in the Journal de Québec the day after the budget. Michel Girard is an economist who everyone knows and who is very credible in Quebec. The title of his article was “[The Prime Minister] does the impossible: spending more than Trudeau”. What? Well, yes, that is it. I want to emphasize the word “spending”. I would like to share a few figures on this budget. Michel Girard wrote the following:
For the five fiscal years from 2025‑26 to 2029‑30, the accumulated deficits will reach $322 [billion dollars]....That is $168 [billion dollars] more than the five deficits that the former Trudeau government had projected for the same five fiscal years....
We have a banker Prime Minister who promised to spend less. Not only is he spending, but he is spending more than the prime minister who spent more than all the other prime ministers before him. Personally, I remember Justin Trudeau's promise that he would run small deficits: $10 billion, $10 billion, $6 billion, almost nothing, and then zero. He said that the government would get back to a balanced budget. I think we can all forget about the Liberals balancing a budget. A balanced budget means absolutely nothing to them anymore.
For Canadians who are struggling and suffering, we are here. Conservatives are here. We know that what people need is more money in their pockets to pay for their own expenses. We can do this by eliminating the taxes that are driving up the cost of food. With a Conservative government, Canadians will have more in their pockets and more in their grocery carts.