Mr. Speaker, it is said that inflation is cooling, but families are not feeling it. That is because the real cost of living is not measured on spreadsheets. It is measured at the grocery store, the gas station and the dinner table.
Everywhere I go, I hear about it. The price of groceries has soared. Homes are out of reach. Mortgage renewals have doubled. Rents are breaking records. Families are living with constant anxiety, counting dollars, skipping meals and giving up on dreams. These are not statistics. These are real people with real struggles.
During the election last month, a man in my community said he had never cared about politics, but this election was different for him because he needed a break. He felt like he was treading water and needed something to change. He is not alone. According to H&R Block Canada, 85% of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque. That is up from 60% just a year ago. That is not just economic pressure; that is a national emergency.
This is what happens when a government spends without discipline, borrows without limits and governs without a plan. The legacy of Liberal policy is not progress. It is the slow undoing of a family’s dignity. This year alone, the average Canadian family will pay $800 more to buy the same amount of food. It is not better food or more food, but just the same. Food costs continue to outpace inflation, and every grocery trip feels more painful.
When I visited the Newmarket Food Pantry, I saw the shelves were being emptied just as fast as they were being restocked. The beautiful thing was that there were a lot of donations from the community, but when I was speaking to the staff, they shared that they do their record keeping at month-end, and every month is a record month. That is the trend.
It is not just the people we might expect using the food pantry. It is families, seniors and young people. In fact, young people are disproportionately represented among those using the Newmarket Food Pantry because they cannot afford food. It has revealed a quiet crisis gripping Newmarket—Aurora and other communities across the country. People from all walks of life are facing food insecurity. The Newmarket community has responded with generosity, but the demand keeps growing. The reality is that kindness is not enough.
Affordability is the number one concern I hear about from my neighbours, and we must urgently bring down food costs, not make them worse through inflationary spending. When a government floods the economy with borrowed money, it weakens our dollar. When our dollar is weak, everything is more expensive, including food. It is basic economics, and Canadians are paying the price every day at the checkout lines.
What have the Liberals done? They have refused to table a budget. They have refused to show a path forward. Now they are asking Parliament to approve even more spending than the last government, with more spending announcements expected in the months ahead. Today, for example, there was another announcement for an increase in military spending, with no budget and without a single plan to balance the books. Let us call this what it is: It is not just mismanagement; it is economic negligence. The government has gone from saying the budget will balance itself to the budget will not be balanced to there will be no budget at all.
By refusing to present a budget until the fall, the Liberals will have gone over a full year without a federal budget, which would be the longest stretch since the 1960s, outside of the pandemic. What makes this even more insulting is that, while Canadian families are being crushed by an affordability and housing crisis, and communities are facing rising crime, the Liberal government sees no problem shutting the government down for the summer and walking away while Canadian families continue to struggle.
There was once a time, under both Liberal and Conservative governments, when fiscal responsibility was a shared national value. It was on that consensus that Canada built its prosperity. However, under Justin Trudeau, that consensus was shredded, and this Liberal government is taking it one step further. It is now not only continuing with the spending but also refusing to deliver a budget.
Yes, it is nice to see the Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc and the Greens finally catch up to ideas that Pierre Poilievre put forward years ago, such as lowering income taxes, eliminating the carbon tax and removing the GST on homebuilding, but let us be honest. The Liberals are showing up late and going only halfway. Pierre did not just talk about affordability, he also led with bold proposals. Therefore, if the Liberals now agree with Pierre, why have they not gone all the way? Why are Canadians still being crushed by a crisis the Liberals now admit exists but still refuse to address?
It is a moment for leadership, and leadership starts with a plan backed by numbers. It is called a budget. We must renew the generational contract, the idea that, if people work hard, play by the rules and give back, they can still get ahead. We cannot settle for timid consensus. We cannot govern with what makes the best headlines. We must act boldly and lead with principle.
The Liberals must do the right thing and deliver a budget, not in the fall, and not after another spending spree, but now. Let us build a Canada where no one fears the future, where food is affordable, where Canadian families can breathe again and where hope is not a luxury but a lived reality. I urge the government to stop the excuses, stop the delays and table a budget now.