Mr. Speaker, I know a lot of members are sticking around because they are excited for the speeches after question period. I look forward to engaging in today's opposition day motion, presented by the hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot.
I would like to recognize that I will splitting my time this afternoon with my hon. colleague from LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. He is an exceptional member, and I look forward to his remarks after mine.
This is an opposition day motion that the Conservatives have put forward calling for legislation to be called the Canada sovereignty act, and then laying out a series of considerations they would like to see in that said act. It is important for Canadians to understand at home, though, that the Conservatives have not done their homework. They have not come to Parliament prepared. They have not shown up in the House of Commons to actually introduce a piece of legislation. They have, on a piece of paper, put together a few thoughts, and I would argue a number of those thoughts are actually not comprehensive to the work that is expected not only of parliamentarians but of major political parties here in Canada.
I want to start by recognizing that this is not legislation. We heard questions in the House today from opposition members who were talking about legislation they had put before the House. There is nothing of the like, so it is important that we start with that premise. The Conservatives do have a little bit of work to do to sharpen their pencils and show up in this place with actual legislation in place and not just half-baked ideas.
Second, let us take a look at what they have put on paper. There are areas where I will give them some credit and some areas where they are just blatantly missing very important elements. First of all, I think many Canadians would agree that in this environment, economic sovereignty is absolutely connected to defence and defence sovereignty.
I have behind me the former minister of defence, the current Minister of Global Affairs. She would tell the House, having been experienced in that role, that we absolutely have to invest in the Canadian Armed Forces. She was a great champion in her time on that portfolio. She continues to support the Minister of National Defence and is continuing to do that work globally today.
This is exactly why we are spending $81 billion over the next five years to rebuild our Canadian Armed Forces. My hon. colleague from Oakville East grew up in Kentville, but she also spent time at 14 Wing Greenwood. I know she would agree with me that when we think about the men and women who serve in our Canadian Armed Forces, in the Royal Canadian Air Force, those investments that matter for our men and women in uniform are absolutely crucial. There is not one mention in the Conservative opposition day motion about the importance of defence as part of our economic sovereignty.
That is a blatant error that the Conservatives have not really thought through. It is something that we have moved on. We are increasing long-overdue pay increases for the Canadian Armed Forces. This matters at Aldershot; it matters at 14 Wing Greenwood. The hon. member for Acadie—Annapolis and I are working with the Minister of National Defence on identifying additional housing in the Annapolis Valley. We think this is important not only for our Canadian Armed Forces members but also the broader community in the Annapolis Valley. It is something we will have more to say on.
How about trade diversification? Again, the Minister of International Trade, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the entire government have had a deep focus on building international trade. There is not one single mention of this in the Conservative opposition day motion.
We recognize fully that the partnership we have established with the United States, with the economic co-operation we have had for many decades, has been beneficial to both countries. We will continue in earnest to make that case to the U.S. administration, in order to make sure we can secure a continental economic free trade agreement.
Make no mistake that Canadians elected this government to build trade relationships around the world, and that is what the Prime Minister and his ministry have been doing. Our Liberal team has been building trade relationships around the world. I can point to the United Arab Emirates and 70 billion dollars' worth of a sovereign wealth fund that is going to be focused on investing here in Canada.
I keep referencing my hon. colleague behind me, but she has ties to Nova Scotia. She is heading to India in a few weeks, which is one of the largest consumer markets in the world. It is a democracy. Notwithstanding it is a country that we have not always had agreement with fully, the government believes we have to focus on the pragmatic and co-operative elements of enhancing our trade relationships.
We were also in China in the new year to establish a trade arrangement. This is not a free trade agreement, of course not, but it is to resolve existing tariffs to make sure Canadian farmers and seafood harvesters in Atlantic Canada have access to that market. There has not been a single word from the Conservatives about that this week. They do not really want to talk about how important that is to the five billion dollars' worth of export markets for Canadian farmers, particularly for canola in the prairie provinces, for the re-establishment of beef market access and for Canadian farmers to export their peas, which is almost $600 million a year to the Chinese market.
In fact, I asked Conservative members earlier today whether they even support the government's work to remove those tariffs. There was no response. They are not making clear what their position is. Our position is very clear. Part of our economic sovereignty in this country has to be to diversify our trading relationships. That is what we are doing. There is not a single word about this in the Conservative opposition day motion. Again, it is not a bill before the House but a few lines on a piece of paper. The member for Battle River—Crowfoot has not done his work.
However, let us talk about farmers. We heard a lot of questions in the House about farmers, but I am going to remind my hon. colleagues from the opposition that they had their moment in April to talk about farmers. In fact, the hon. member from Kelowna mentioned farmers three times in a question. That is three times more than what the Conservatives had in their own platform in April. They had an opportunity to concretely put forward what their vision was for farmers in this country, and there has not been a single word.
I will remind farmers in Kings—Hants and farmers across this country that the Liberal platform was comprehensive. We included measures around increasing business risk management tools such as AgriMarketing, for example. I would like to highlight the $224,000 that the government is supporting the Nova Scotia fruit growers with to help establish markets around the world. This is but some examples of what we are doing to work concretely.
In addition to what I just talked about around the trade arrangement with China, it is absolutely fundamental to Canadian farmers. Conservatives love to beat their chests on this, but there is not a whole lot of actual pen to paper about what their policies would be. Rather, they continue to talk about any type of environmental policy as just being problematic in the country instead of highlighting, for example, what the Minister of the Environment did in question period around the biofuel policy in this country actually being good for Canadian canola farmers.
The members of Parliament who represent these areas in western provinces and who are actively arguing against policies that support their own communities have to ask themselves why they are doing this. Why are they acting against the interests of their farmers and their own communities when this is an environmental policy that actually benefits rural Canada? This is what I find perplexing.
However, I do have some good news for my Conservative colleagues. On the elements they are talking about around reducing red tape, fast-tracking national projects and focusing on building a resilient Canadian economy focused on tools to drive additional investment in this country, we have a plan for that. In fact, it is before the House. It is called the budget, Bill C-15, which is the budget implementation act.
There are a lot of very important measures there, including what is called the superdeduction. This is around businesses being able to expense capital expenditures in a year as opposed to multiple years, which is an important tax measure to drive productivity. We are focused on putting the lowest marginal effective tax rate in the G7 into place. This is all residing in legislation that is before the House.
The Conservatives and, frankly, all members on the opposition side have to ask themselves why they are slowing down this progress when the government has measures to drive the economy forward and do some of the things the Conservatives, among the few elements they have, would agree with the government on. Let us get to it. Let us move forward and focus on that.
I will finish with this. We have an MOU with Alberta to focus on driving natural resource development and working on reducing red tape. This would also make sure that these are done in conjunction with indigenous people, that we have commitments around industrial carbon pricing to reduce emissions and that we have a competitive lens in terms of what we are doing.
There is no mention of artificial intelligence. Again, we want to talk about what is going to be revolutionary in the global economy. The expectation is that, by 2035, artificial intelligence will contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy. There is not a single mention in the Conservatives' economic plan about how the government harnesses that opportunity.