Debates of Dec. 9th, 2025

The Economy

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, sitting just a few feet away from me, has made this personal. He told Canadians that they should judge him by the price of groceries. No matter what excuses all the other Liberals come up with today, the Prime Minister was the one who set the bar on how to judge him. Not only has he failed miserably, but next year's grocery bill is going to cost the average family $1,000 more.

Why is the Prime Minister misleading Canadians as they line up at food banks in growing numbers because of his inflationary spending?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Minister of Government Transformation]

Mr. Speaker, after expending so much energy to get elected to the House of Commons, it is sad to see members come here day after day and simply repeat the same talking points written by the Leader of the Opposition.

To answer his question, it is even sadder to see my colleague vote against measures like the Canada child benefit or the national school food program, which is saving the most vulnerable families $800. He votes against affordable housing and against the Canadian dental care plan.

I would like him to tell me what he is thinking of when he talks about inflationary spending.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am thinking of the consultants, the bureaucracy, the corporate welfare. Not a single one of those members is standing up to defend the words of the Prime Minister, who told Canadians they would judge him on the cost of groceries. Those were his words. Now 36% of Quebeckers are experiencing food insecurity. The food banks in Quebec are receiving three million visits a month. The Prime Minister's wealthy friends do not have to worry because they do not have to skip any meals. They get to eat their fill.

He promised to lower the cost of food. He misled Canadians.

Will he finally keep his word and stop spending so much money so that everyone can eat?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Minister of Government Transformation]

Mr. Speaker, in my previous answer, I listed everything the Conservatives have voted against. These are measures that directly support the people in my colleague's riding and Quebeckers and Canadians across the country.

We were elected to provide opportunities to young Quebeckers and to Canadians from coast to coast to coast. That is exactly what we are doing. In November, 54,000 jobs were created. In October, 67,000 jobs were created. In September, 60,000 jobs were created. The unemployment rate is falling and so is the inflation rate because on this side of the House, we are building the strongest economy in the G7.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said that we should judge him by the cost of groceries. Eight months later, grocery prices are skyrocketing and families are struggling to put food on the table. Canada's Food Price Report 2026 shows that the situation is only going to get worse.

Back home in Saguenay, the Corporation de développement communautaire du Roc, which is made up of 70 community organizations that provide food aid, says that demand is growing faster than resources.

When will the Liberals stop their inflationary spending so that Canadians can finally have enough to eat?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge and commend my esteemed colleague for the great job he did coaching the Chicoutimi Saguenéens.

What he may not realize is that no one in Saguenay is asking the government to eliminate the school food program, support for organizations and volunteers, the Canada child benefit or support for housing. No one in Saguenay is asking for that.

I would like the member to vote with us to keep these support measures for people in Saguenay and across the country.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals need to stop burying their heads in the sand and look at what is happening on the ground. The majority of requests now come from families where both parents work. It is not just single parents anymore. This is alarming. The annual food price report predicts every family will be paying an additional $1,000 per year for food. This is one of the largest increases ever seen.

When will the government let Canadians eat properly?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, asked a very important question earlier: What exactly is inflationary spending?

We keep asking this question month after month, day after day, and week after week in this chamber. Is it support for aluminum workers? Is it support for school food? Is it the dental care program? Is it health transfers?

After all these months, can someone tell us what inflationary spending means?

Regional Economic Development

[Ben Carr, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, in my father's dying days, he mustered the courage to stand in this chamber to fight for the passage of his private member's bill, which set out a vision for the prairie provinces to continue playing their prominent role in our federation. That vision was realized with the passage of the Building a Green Prairie Economy Act, which received royal assent shortly after his passing, on December 12, 2022.

Can the Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada share how the newly announced prairie partnership initiative enhances this vision and establishes new opportunities for growth across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba?

[Eleanor Olszewski, Liberal, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Winnipeg South Centre for his continued support as we advance the legacy his father set in motion for a stronger prairie economy.

The prairie partnership initiative is a new, coordinated approach that gives significant prairie projects a clear pathway through the federal system so that they can move from ambition to action. By aligning federal expertise with prairie priorities, the PPI will help meet this critical moment by positioning the Prairies at the—

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The hon. member for Middlesex—London.

The Economy

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told Canadians he should be judged by prices at the grocery store. Well, Canadians have judged, and they are angry. When the Liberals came into office in 2015, the Canadian grocery bill was $159 a week. After 10 years, it has more than doubled, to $338. Greg from Komoka wrote to me to say he is sick of the “rules for you and not for me” attitude. Families cannot afford meat, and they are lining up at food banks while the Liberals continue to feast at the public's expense. Why does the Prime Minister think he deserves luxury when Canadians cannot afford lunch?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Secretary of State (Sport)]

Mr. Speaker, watching the leader of the Conservative Party lose in slow motion today has been a little amusing, but what is more interesting is watching him do it with a big grin on his face, because he is so proud of himself. He is proud to vote against child care; he is proud to vote against school food programs, and he is so proud to vote against affordable housing. What else is he proud of today? He is proud to call climate change just “weather”, and he is proud to refer to indigenous people with a possessive pronoun; they are not ours.

He seems very proud of himself, but do members know what Canadians are proud of? They are proud of our institutions; they are proud of programs that support them, and they are proud of this side, of this government: We are supporting them.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Speaker, people are starving, and this member is making fun of things.

I say that the Liberals should all be judged by the prices at the grocery store. Bad Liberal policies are what is driving up the cost of food by $1,000 next year.

Katelyn from Thames Centre says that the government is driving us into systemic destruction as the cost of food, fuel and groceries soar. Alber from Strathroy asks why the Prime Minister promised cheaper groceries, safer streets and more homes, but after seven months, all he has delivered is higher prices, higher crime and less for hard-working Canadians.

Do the Liberals even care that there are over 2.2 million visits to food banks, or are they just here to help Brookfield line the Prime Minister's pocket?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Secretary of State (Sport)]

Mr. Speaker, first, there is no tax on groceries. There is no tax on food. There will never be taxes on groceries, and there will never be taxes on food. That member is a farmer; she should know better. She should know that the industrial carbon price has absolutely no impact on the cost of groceries.

The Conservatives keep talking about things like the price of coffee. Maybe they should stand up and talk about how industrial carbon prices in Canada affect the Colombian price of coffee. It is absurd.

Conservatives are very proud to vote against all the programs that support Canadians, but they could provide Canadians with just one solution to help them at the grocery store over this holiday season.

Merry Christmas.

Carbon Pricing

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told Canadians he should be judged by prices at the grocery store. I have a better idea: He should come to my food bank. There are 23,000 visits a month at the Saskatoon Food Bank. Better yet, we have a resurgence of scurvy in northern Saskatchewan. “Canada's Food Price Report” confirms that an additional $1,000 will be needed next year to feed a family of four.

Is the Prime Minister ready to remove the industrial carbon tax?

[Buckley Belanger, Liberal, Secretary of State (Rural Development)]

Mr. Speaker, let us see what this tired, old opposition has accomplished in the last 10 years. As for addressing food affordability, there is zero achievement. As for addressing housing needs, there is zero achievement. As for building major projects, there is zero achievement. As for addressing the challenge of tariffs, there is zero achievement.

However, their negative attitude towards Canada must stop, because if the Conservatives do not stop attacking Canada, I am saying today that I am going to take every single one of them off my Christmas card list.

The Economy

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey Newton, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the President of the Treasury Board held and co-hosted a summit on reduction of red tape, bringing together leaders from across the country. Could the president update the House on what came out of this summit and how this work will help cut red tape, speed up approvals and strengthen Canada's economy?

[Shafqat Ali, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the summit was an important step forward, building on the 60-day red tape review we launched in July. We recently announced a new series of horizontal reviews. These reviews look across government to eliminate regulatory barriers and deliver faster and more reliable services so that we can grow our economy faster, build Canada strong and build the strongest economy in the G7.

Carbon Pricing

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told Canadians that he should be judged by prices at the grocery store. Well, eight months later, those prices have skyrocketed. I have heard countless horror stories in Edmonton of families struggling to afford food. I have even heard of single moms selling their furniture online to pay for rent and groceries. Just this week, Miranda from North Edmonton told me she honestly does not know how people are getting by; it is heat or eat.

When will the Liberals cut their inflationary spending and gas the industrial carbon tax so that Canadians can afford to eat?

[Stephanie McLean, Liberal, Secretary of State (Seniors)]

Mr. Speaker, as 2025 winds down and we are reviewing our Spotify wrapped, let us look at the Conservatives' 2025 wrapped.

In 2025, the Conservatives lost their fourth election in a row, spent Alberta's money on a by-election so they could say they created at least one job, invented imaginary taxes and presented a platform with no plan to support seniors or families. Conservatives need to work on their playlist, because they are not listening to the same tunes as Canadians.

Natural Resources

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the former Liberal environment minister says this government approved a bitumen pipeline that abandons Canada's climate goals and risks B.C.'s coast.

In the House, the Prime Minister said that British Columbia and impacted first nations must agree to this project. In B.C., the energy minister claimed that free, prior and informed consent would be required, but the MOU signed between Ottawa and Alberta says no such thing.

The Liberals are telling one story here, another in B.C., and yet another in Alberta. Canadians deserve to know, is consent for this pipeline required or not?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister was very clear in the House. He said that the agreement requires agreement from British Columbia and the agreement of first nations. That has been said in the House, and we stand by that, right here, right now. We will continue to.

The Budget

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, one section of the enormous Bill C-15, in the over 600 pages of an omnibus budget bill, has not yet been even mentioned in this place and was not mentioned in the budget either.

The idea that the budget implementation act just implements things in the budget is belied by pages 301 to 304, which would exempt the application of Canadian law to any entity, which could be people or corporations, at the discretion of the minister, with no public oversight.

Can anyone here, particularly the Minister of Finance, explain this?

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue and to the Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member that the budget bill is full of really great measures for this country.

One thing we can all acknowledge is that Canada has world-class innovators and entrepreneurs, those of whom will help us build the strongest economy in the G7. As part of that process, we are reducing red tape to broaden the use of something called regulatory sandboxes to help foster and spur research and development and innovation.

We will do this in a responsible way and in a forward-looking way. In a temporary way, these will be authorizations that are limited, but they will help us keep up with the speed of innovation in this country.