Mr. Speaker, it is great to see you in the chair. Keep your stick on the ice. I should have had a footnote for that comment.
It is an honour to rise today as the member of Parliament for New Tecumseth—Gwillimbury and to be given the opportunity to stand up for the communities of Bradford West Gwillimbury, the soup and salad bowl of Canada; East Gwillimbury, home to the Sharon Temple and the birthplace of responsible government; and Alliston, Beeton, Tottenham, home to the Beeton Fall Fair, Honda of Canada manufacturing and the best potatoes this side of P.E.I.
This is the beginning of a new Parliament, and with it heightened expectations from Canadians, who voted for hope and change and the belief that things will get better for families, seniors, workers and young people in this great country.
We have heard from the Prime Minister and his new Liberal government, who have tried to emphasize that there would be change. The Speech from the Throne promised new alliances, a new economy, a new era of economic growth, a new housing industry, new fiscal discipline and so on. Polished words and the suggestion that the current government is at all new ring hollow for Canadians struggling with the realities of day-to-day life. For them, life is even harder. They do not have any hope that change will come. Their grocery bills keep climbing, unemployment lines keep growing and communities continue to fracture under the weight of poverty, rising crime and a deepening sense of hopelessness. If everyday life keeps getting worse for Canadians, it is fair to question whether the so-called new direction is any direction at all.
At this critical time, our country needs a bold vision for the future, but without a serious course correction, calling this a “new” Liberal government is no different than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: same disaster, just a different view. We have already seen what this new direction looks like under the current Prime Minister with the Liberal government's approach to the rural top-up on the carbon tax. In recent weeks, Canadians from rural and remote communities in ridings like mine, New Tecumseth—Gwillimbury, have received angry letters from the Canada Revenue Agency, better known as the CRA—never answer those 613 numbers—demanding they repay thousands of dollars in carbon tax rebates that they were led to believe they were entitled to. These Canadians live far from urban centres, in areas where the carbon tax disproportionately affected their everyday lives, yet the Liberals chose to classify them as part of the Toronto census metropolitan area, better known as Toronto. As a result, they were denied the rural top-up they deserved. I raised this dozens of times in the last Parliament.
The Liberal government finally acknowledged this unfairness, in budget 2024 and again in the fall economic statement, but nothing was done. No actions were taken. At the same time, the current Liberal government is boasting about cancelling the carbon tax. It has begun to aggressively call back money from rural Canadians who were already struggling to get by. This is not change. This is another example of the Liberal government repeating many of the same mistakes and failures we saw over the past decade, a decade that led to so much decline and hopelessness across Canada. It is also more of the rural-urban divide we have seen time and again.
Therefore, we can see why so many Canadians are skeptical about the supposed new direction of the Prime Minister and his party.
After all, the government refused to release a budget during the spring session and provided no comprehensive plan for how it intends on addressing the cost of living crisis facing Canadians right now. The main estimates released yesterday make this even worse, with more spending than Trudeau and a massive increase in consultants, bureaucracy and the overall cost of government.
A throne speech is not a plan. It is aspirational and lacks any details and clarity needed at this critical time for our nation. There is no costing. What is the deficit? What about government spending? How much will all the promises in the speech cost? We do not have the answers to this, at a time when Canadians sorely need these answers.
We can also see, with the Liberals' approach to housing, a crisis they seem content to just make worse. We have a new Liberal housing minister, who said he has no intent to lower the prices of homes in a market that has become the most unaffordable in the G7. This is the real message the Liberals are sending to young people priced out of owning a home and all the dreams and opportunities that come along with it: Nothing will change, and it will not get any better.
The throne speech made this even more evident, as the Liberals boasted of the creation of another government agency, “build Canada homes”. That is just what Canadians who cannot afford a home need: more bureaucracy, more red tape, more delays and more barriers to getting homes built. I really think that Liberal members need to remember to touch the grass.
When I was out knocking on doors in the election, I heard from a 27-year-old man living in Bradford who told me that he was voting Conservative because he needs hope. This first-generation Canadian was the son of parents who immigrated to Canada in the early 1990s. His father drove tractor-trailers for over 30 years and actually became an owner-operator and bought a small home. His son is inspired to follow in his father's footsteps, but, sadly, he told me that he has been doing long-haul trucking seven days a week, 10 hours a day, and he just cannot climb out of his parents' basement. He just cannot get ahead.
Canada has become a country where hard work no longer pays, and where the most fundamental of dreams, like starting a business, owning a home or raising a family, are no longer attainable for too many people. The formula we used to have, that a job plus hard work would lead to a good paycheque, to save and put toward the future, is no longer working. I understand why Canadians feel like the hope and change they voted for are just not coming. How can they, when the throne speech and the earliest actions of the supposedly “new” Liberal government all point to the continuation of failures we have become accustomed to?
As a member of His Majesty's loyal opposition, I look forward to doing my job in this place in holding the government accountable to Canadians. In providing opposition to the government, we ensure that Canadians are well represented and, in doing so, we are making sure that the government can be the best it can be, often despite itself.
As Parliament gets under way, remember that no one has a monopoly on a good idea. Enthusiasm is free, and it is good to see the Liberals finally realizing that. After all, it has been the Conservatives leading the charge to axe the carbon tax, remove the GST from new homes and lower income taxes for working Canadians. We will keep fighting for all Canadians. Conservatives will be putting forward reasonable proposals in the coming days to ensure that the formula for a good life in Canada works for all Canadians once more.