House of Commons Hansard #90 of the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was veterans.
This summary is computer-generated. Usually it’s accurate, but every now and then it’ll contain inaccuracies or total fabrications.
Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1 Third reading of Bill C-15. The bill, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget, is debated in the House of Commons. Discussions highlight the bill's 603-page length and its amendments to 49 statutes, with concerns raised about its "omnibus" nature. Members discuss the budget's projected $78.3 billion deficit and its implications for national debt and affordability. Key measures include a high-speed rail network and tax credits for carbon capture, while opposition members criticize cuts to veterans' benefits and agricultural research. 40200 words, 4 hours in 2 segments: 1 2.
Criminal Code Second reading of Bill S-228. The bill aims to strengthen the Criminal Code by explicitly clarifying that forced or coerced sterilization constitutes aggravated assault. This survivor-centred, Indigenous-led legislation addresses a profound injustice disproportionately affecting Indigenous, disabled, and racialized women, which continues today. It seeks to deter the practice, ensure accountability, and provide survivors with legal recognition, while not restricting access to voluntary sterilization. 7200 words, 1 hour.
Jennifer McKelvie LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, our government cares deeply about affordability for young Canadians. That is why we have the first-time homebuyer GST relief before the House. It is also why we are improving the cost of housing. We are bringing it down by investing in housing-enabling infrastructure and by investing in modern methods of construction. Importantly, this is going to create good-paying, highly trained, skilled jobs for young Canadians.
We are going to build careers, and we are going to build homes.
Tamara Jansen Conservative Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Mr. Speaker, when I look at my grandchildren, I think about the life they should be able to build: going to university, buying a first home, raising a family of their own and believing that hard work will allow them to get ahead. However, today their parents are struggling just to cover everyday costs, and saving for their own future is slipping out of reach, with household debt now at $2.6 trillion.
How can the Liberal government justify spending today in ways that will fundamentally limit the future of our grandchildren?
Jennifer McKelvie LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, Conservatives claim they care about young people, yet they voted against the national housing strategy. They voted against the home savings account. They voted against expanding mortgage criteria. They are voting against the GST cut. They are voting against Bill C-227 to establish a national strategy for housing for young Canadians.
A vote against these measures is a vote against young Canadians.
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Mr. Speaker, young Canadians face rising food costs, rising debt and rising house prices. What else is rising? Their fears about their future are. The Liberal government provides only more excuses, more deficits and more broken promises.
In my hometown of Steinbach, the price of a single-family home has gone up 8% this past year. This generation should be building wealth, but instead they are falling further behind despite everything they are doing.
With millennials squeezed between rising costs and their desire for home ownership, when will the Liberal government finally lower the costs and make living in Canada affordable again?
Adam van Koeverden LiberalSecretary of State (Sport)
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are sick and tired of the alternative Conservative facts from the opposition.
We all know that food costs too much, but instead of exploiting the challenges that are facing Canadians right now, the Conservatives should do a little bit of reading and look into why food costs too much. All the research indicates that 85% of food inflation is due to imported factors like war, tariffs and extreme weather due to climate change, something Conservatives refuse to acknowledge and do not believe in.
The groceries and essentials benefit will help 12.6 million Canadians. Why will the Conservatives not get on board and help a Canadian for a change?
Kerry Diotte Conservative Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Mr. Speaker, there is reckless government spending, hidden carbon taxes and red tape.
After 11 years of the Liberals, there is an affordability crisis. Household debt alone is now a record $2.6 trillion. A recent poll found that 57% of millennials are nearly broke after paying monthly bills. A generation that should be building wealth is draining savings. This week, several university students told me they fear they will never afford a home.
It is a Canadian dream to own a home, but under the Liberals, it is now just a pipe dream. Why is that?
Peter Fragiskatos LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration
Mr. Speaker, it is quite something to hear the Conservatives talk about household debt and the real concerns of middle-income and low-income Canadians but, at the same time call for, over the years, and I think it is still their position, the Canada child benefit to be eliminated and say that the school food program has no place in Canada. They do not want child care for kids. The list goes on and on, including dental care and pharmacare. This is not a serious approach.
What we do have on this side is exactly that: an opportunities agenda seized with jobs in this country, building the country up, making sure we get our resources to market and building the infrastructure to do it. That is what we need.
Jason Groleau Conservative Beauce, QC
Mr. Speaker, a recent RBC survey reveals that 64% of millennials are anxious about their future, and that four in 10 millennials fear they will never be able to pay off their debts. Meanwhile, TransUnion has confirmed that Canadian household debt has reached an all-time high of $2.6 trillion. After years of Liberal inflationary deficits, young Canadians are going into debt just to survive.
How many more failures will it take for the Liberals to admit that they have destroyed affordability in Canada?
Caroline Desrochers LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, we have a plan on this side of the House to help families and young Canadians buy their first home. Build Canada Homes will increase the supply of housing and help reduce pressure on the market.
I have to say that it is ironic to hear the Conservatives talk about this when they voted against the tax credit for first-time home buyers, against the first home savings account, against expanding mortgage eligibility criteria and against all the affordability measures we are implementing to help young Canadians and put money back in their pockets.
On our side of the House, we are in problem-solving mode. That side of the House is offering nothing but obstruction.
Jean-Denis Garon Bloc Mirabel, QC
Mr. Speaker, Ottawa promised to apologize to the expropriated residents of Mirabel, but it also promised to never again carry out abusive expropriations.
In Bill C-15, the Liberals, with help from the Conservatives, are giving Alto exceptional expropriation powers for the high-speed train. They are doing away with the right to be heard by a hearing officer. They are doing away with community impact studies. They are preventing a farmer who has suffered a disaster from rebuilding. There is not a single other citizen in Canada who is subject to this.
Why are the people from the north shore being treated like second-class citizens by the federal government?
Steven MacKinnon LiberalMinister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, we note the objection, even opposition, from the Bloc Québécois to the major project that is the high-speed train between Quebec City and Toronto, a project that is eagerly awaited and coveted by all Canadians.
We will be diligent about this project. We will show respect for elected officials, respect for farmers, respect for the people who live along the route. This high-speed train is for all Canadians, and we will deliver it with the utmost sensitivity.
Jean-Denis Garon Bloc Mirabel, QC
Mr. Speaker, whether the minister likes it or not, the Liberals are not going to get their high-speed train built by giving Alto abusive expropriation powers. It will require social licence. For now, it almost seems as though the Liberals are deliberately trying not to get it. The towns of Mirabel, Mascouche and Terrebonne want to have their say on the route. The region wants economic benefits. Farmers and communities feel that they are not being respected.
When will the Liberals go back to the drawing board with all the local stakeholders to ensure that they have social licence?
Steven MacKinnon LiberalMinister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, Alto is mandated to hold consultations on the ground with people and to listen to their ideas, demands and concerns about the entire corridor. That is what Alto did this week, and that is what they did in Mirabel.
We will continue to listen, to be sensitive and to champion this great national project. Will the Bloc Québécois do the same?
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Mr. Speaker, the government told Canadians its new benefit software program would cost $1.75 billion and that it would not be launched without conditions of success being met. Estimates have the actual cost at almost three times as much, $6.6 billion, and reports confirm that the government's own service standards are not being met. In fact, last month there was a backlog of 85,000 new benefit applications. These are Canadians who need these benefits for basic essentials like food and shelter.
Can the minister explain to seniors who are forced to pay the price of yet another failed Liberal program why it is way over budget?
Patty Hajdu LiberalMinister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario
Mr. Speaker, let us start with the difference between an estimate and an expenditure. An estimate is what things might cost. In fact, we are way under the estimate as it stands, and we have just started. We have transformed a very old system, 60 years old.
I would point out that this is something the Conservatives let decay during their 10 years of government. We took action early on, in 2017, to modernize a system that Canadians depend on day in and day out. In fact, the caseload backlog is going down. We have dedicated staff working day and night. Finally—
Public Services and ProcurementOral Questions
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Mr. Speaker, the minister should do her research. She should be well aware that the Auditor General confirmed in 2023 and 2025 that program costs had increased significantly and would continue to rise. A review by the Treasury Board in 2022 came to the same conclusions, and her own department had to push back the OAS migration three times. In fact, three years ago, her bureaucrats admitted that the costs had already doubled for the new program, even though no benefits had yet moved to the new system.
Can the minister explain to seniors who are forced to pay the price why yet another failed Liberal program is way over budget?
Patty Hajdu LiberalMinister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario
Mr. Speaker, if 7.7 million migrations to a new system is a failure compared to 85,000 cases with missing information on paper applications, I am not sure how the Conservatives are doing accounting. Quite frankly, Canadians expect modernization of legacy systems that serve them every day, day in and day out. We will not tolerate the risk of aging systems failing and creating a disaster for seniors. This is why we are taking action, and we are seeing success.
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Mr. Speaker, the Cúram software has cost Canadians $5 billion more than what was originally budgeted. To add insult to injury, hundreds of seniors have been delayed in receiving their benefits. An overdue update to an outdated technology has turned into a nightmare for Canadians, with tens of thousands of cases backlogged.
Why is it that Liberal programs always massively exceed their projected costs, and why are seniors forced to pay the price for the Liberals' incompetence and yet another failed federal software system?
Stephanie McLean LiberalSecretary of State (Seniors)
Mr. Speaker, the government is taking action on a critical software program. It is a program that was launched in 1966. Let us wrap our heads around that for a moment. My mother was 10 years old. Many of the members on the other side had not been born yet. That is what the Conservatives are suggesting the government move forward with: a system that the Auditor General flagged as a high risk for failure.
We need to modernize our systems. This system has already brought 7.7 million seniors on board, and more will come.
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals continue to deny that there are any cost overruns for Cúram, even though the Auditor General herself reported four in 2025. Canadian seniors deserve better than denial.
I will ask the same question, and I would like a serious answer from the minister. Why can the Liberals not stay on budget, and why are seniors being forced to pay the price for yet another Liberal failure?
Stephanie McLean LiberalSecretary of State (Seniors)
Mr. Speaker, it would be nice to be asked a serious question, one rooted in facts or one rooted in numbers. To date, $1.5 billion has been spent. I do not know where the Conservatives' numbers are coming from. Perhaps it is la-la land.
However, let us stay in reality here. This benefit system is modernizing something from 1966. We have 7.7 million seniors who are better serviced today. We are modernizing it and bringing it online, things the Conservatives do not give a crud about.
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Mr. Speaker, the system meant to help our seniors has become another expensive disaster. The government continues to hire incompetent consultants that massively overrun their budgets, in this case by $5 billion. The president of the public service criticized the government and said, “If the system had been designed by public servants...it would have been easier to maintain and understand, as the experts would have been in-house.”
Why does the government not trust our public servants to do a better job than the rich consultants?
Stephanie McLean LiberalSecretary of State (Seniors)
Mr. Speaker, I just cannot tolerate the Conservatives talking down the good work of our public servants. Our public servants are overseeing the management of a specialized software program.
I know that the Conservatives might not have any interest or desire to know about IT systems, but this requires specialized training and expertise. These are not jobs that last forever in the government. These are jobs we need to procure for specific reasons. That is what we are doing to make sure that Canadians' dollars are well spent, spent on ensuring we—
Public Services and ProcurementOral Questions
