Debates of June 10th, 2025

Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates (A), 2025-26

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister see the government's taxation revenue growing by 10% per year?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Finance, I always want to see revenues grow because revenues allow us to deliver services to Canadians. Obviously, we will continue to be fiscally prudent but, at the same time, look at ways to support Canadians.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, given this, does the minister understand that he has inherited a debt spiral from his Liberal predecessors in finance?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we inherited what we all have as Canadians. We have a country that has a AAA credit rating and the lowest debt-to-GDP. We should be very proud.

I was at the G7 meeting, and next time I might invite the member. He will see how G7 colleagues appreciate Canada—

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The hon. member for Calgary Centre.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, is it the minister's plan to kick this debt spiral problem down the road?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the member is talking about the G7. I intend to continue as the chair of the G7 finance ministers' meeting with central bank governors. We continue to provide leadership. We even came out with a communiqué in Banff. It was more than people had expected. We came out with a communiqué.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, is it the minister's plan to masquerade Canada's debt problem with the reclassification of debt announced by the Prime Minister?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, again, the member should take comfort in his heart that Canada, with its AAA credit rating, is the only country, with Germany, in the G7 that has that fiscal position. That is a very strong position, and that is why he should be happy to have a finance minister with fiscal discipline.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the ministers on their appointments to cabinet.

I will start with a simple question. Does the minister not find it a little strange that we are here in this committee of the whole, but we still do not have the departmental plans?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Finance and National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I am here at the behest of the members. Members voted for us to be here at 9:55 p.m. I am making myself available to the House to answer members' questions, especially questions from my Bloc Québécois colleagues, whom I hold in high esteem.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that the supply vote will take place next week, if I am not mistaken. We still do not have the departmental plans. It says on the website that we will get them sometime in June.

Can the minister tell us when we will get them?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that my colleague is going to like this, since he is a numbers guy. In the spending plan for the Department of Finance, 99% of planned expenditures are statutory expenditures. Less than 1% of these expenditures are departmental operating expenditures.

I think my colleague can see that the Department of Finance budgets are really transfers to the provinces, including Quebec.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I can ask my question again. When will we see the departmental plans?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I get my colleague's enthusiasm. I know him. He is an enthusiastic guy, and he wants to see things right away. I am sure my colleague will have an opportunity to read the plans as soon as they are available. The important thing is that he already has the financial framework, which he saw in the main estimates. That alone gives him a good overview of the government's priorities.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are really looking forward to that.

I am going to ask a question about international trade. The person who is now the Minister of International Trade was once a fellow member of the Standing Committee on International Trade. Trade agreements include safeguard measures that are defined as emergency actions. These measures are taken when there are increased imports of particular products that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the domestic industry. They can allow for quantitative import restrictions or duty increases to higher than bound rates.

The tariff war with the United States is threatening our steel and aluminum industries. Does the government plan to use these measures to limit steel and aluminum imports from Asia to protect our market?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent question. He is a very well-informed man. Obviously, he knows or he will know that we are discussing with the aluminum and steel industry to take the appropriate measures to defend our industries and protect our Canadian industries, while encouraging Canadian procurement to support our steel and aluminum industries.

I can confirm that we are working closely with people in the steel and aluminum sector.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that option is therefore not off the table. Can we safely assume that?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we need to look at every possible measure to support the steel and aluminum sector. That is why we are having intense discussions with our colleagues. Both he and I want the same thing. I know him, and I know that he, too, wants to stand up for workers in the industry. We have the same goal. That is why we are working hand in hand with the industry.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us get back to the retaliatory measures we have been talking about. We know that the Minister of Finance challenged the study conducted by Oxford Economics. If I am not mistaken, he mentioned that earlier. How many billions of dollars were we at? Can he just remind me of the figure that was given a little earlier—

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The hon. Minister of Finance.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have shared several numbers tonight. To date, we have raised $1.7 billion from the retaliatory measures.

It is important to note that we have imposed tariffs on $95 billion worth of goods imported from the United States. We have implemented historic measures to protect our industries and respond to this American threat to Canadian industry.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we were expecting $20 billion. How is the government planning to get the remaining $18.3 billion?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am a Quebecker, and I think that Quebeckers and the Bloc Québécois members want the tariffs gone. The main thing we want is no tariffs. Then there would be no retaliatory measures.

That is why our priority is to fight the tariffs and protect our sectors, our industry and our workers as we build one Canadian economy.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I heard the minister's press conference too. He was disputing the 97.5% figure from Oxford Economics. On social media, he said that 70% of the retaliatory tariffs that Canada has imposed on the United States since the beginning are still in place. Can we get the most official figures available this evening?