Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Calgary East not only for his great intervention but also for the work he does to hold the Liberal government accountable on finances.
The member is right. This update was a chance to give Canadians some hope. It was a chance for the government to lay out a plan that would show Canadians that the Liberals have their backs, that they care about the work they do and that they care about the sacrifices they make. They had an opportunity to reduce the deficit, but instead we got the opposite. We have a record number for the deficit, which has real consequences for Canadians.
When we have rising deficits, when we spend more than we bring in, when we send money outside the country, when we wastefully spend it on insiders and Liberal lobbyists, what happens? Canadians pay the price with inflation. Our country has one of the highest inflations in the G7.
Canadians are now struggling to put food on the table. We have single parents who are skipping meals just so their kids can have some decent food. We have seniors who are choosing between buying medicine, filling their gas tanks and paying their bills. We have farmers who are sacrificing so much every single day in our riding, yet barely getting any return for the yields. We have workers who are picking up extra shifts, working extra hard, staying away from their families, abandoning their vacations, staying away from their children and their friends and literally just working constantly to put food on the table for their families. There are IT professionals and young Canadians who actually have decent jobs and go to work with a decent income, but they still cannot make ends meet. The working poor is now a thing. They work harder and harder, but are barely getting by.
The Liberals had a chance to send a clear signal to Canadians, but it did not happen. What did we get as a result? We are now paying almost $60 billion every single year to finance their debt. Interest payments alone are $60 billion, which is more than what we pay for health care transfers in our country. That interest money goes to bondholders and bankers, and Canadians get the bill, again and again.
That money could be used to invest in our health care. In Oxford County, we have a shortage of doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses working in our health care sector. We have almost 8,000 residents who do not have a family doctor in our community. It would be amazing if that money was taken away from these bankers and bondholders and actually invested in rural communities. That money could be used to build up our infrastructure or maybe even to keep the Snowbirds going, which is a great heritage and a historic part of our country, but no, the Liberals want to keep wasting money.
If we look at the economic update, it is more of the same, while the Prime Minister promised to be different. He said he is different. He said he would get a deal. He said that he is a fiscal manager, but we are getting a lot worse, even worse than Justin Trudeau.
Who is getting rich? Who is making the money? It is not Canadians. Brookfield is getting contracts. We are seeing over $20 billion sent to external consultants and lobbyists, and there are billions of dollars for foreign aid that is connected to the government. That money should be brought back to Canada. The Liberals need to put Canadians first, lower the deficit and bring down inflation.
We should not have a situation where seniors are now starving to death. We should not have a situation where parents are not putting their kids in summer camps or sports, but we are seeing that.
Small businesses make so many sacrifices. They take the risks, try to give back to their communities and want to help out, but the government continues to kick them down at every moment. Our vision is very different. Our Conservative vision is about giving control back to Canadians, back to our workers, farmers and seniors, so that if they work hard in this country, make the sacrifices and follow the rules, they should be able to achieve their God-given potential.
Canadians used to be happy. Canada used to rank as one of the happiest places in the world. When we look at the rankings, we see that is changing. We can look around in our communities to see this. In Oxford County, if we walk down Dundas Street, we will see that some businesses are starting to close their doors. We will see the tents of homelessness popping up.
We see signs right across this country of a country that is heading in the wrong direction, but Canadians are resilient people. Canadians do not give up. Despite no support from the government, they still believe in our country. Conservatives believe in our country. We believe in our people, who are hard-working and talented.
We believe in the farmers who wake up before sunrise to plant in the fields and who look forward to the fall for a great harvest. We believe in them. We believe in the waitress who works a double shift, who washes dishes and makes sure she is serving customers with a smile on her face just so she can feed her children. We believe in her. We believe in the auto workers and the workers who work hard on our floor shops to make great Canadian products. We believe in our seniors who have sacrificed their whole lives. They have made the sacrifices, and all they want to do is retire in peace and with dignity. We believe in them.
We believe in Canada's potential. Canada has unlimited potential with its natural resources and our different industries, such as our auto industry and agriculture. There is so much going on in our country. We should be one of the richest countries in the world. We obviously believe in Canada's promise that people, whether they have come to this country, were born here or have been here for generations, who work hard, play by the rules, take a chance, give back to their community, integrate into our society and help their neighbours can achieve their potential.
What is missing now is that vision. That is why Conservatives believe in a smaller government. Smaller governments make for bigger citizens. We wanted to see a plan from the Liberals that would cut red tape. We did not see that. Red tape went up. There is more bureaucracy, more departments and more organizations monitoring other organizations. It is always something; it is always red tape. There are always these new bureaucracies being set up, which costs millions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
We wanted to see the Liberals lower taxes. We did not see that. On the gas tax, right now Canadians are being crushed. They are being crushed at the pump stations. We said we had a great plan to take all federal taxes off gas, which would save the average family almost $1,200 a year by cutting 25¢ cents a litre. Those are big savings. For an average family, it is big savings. Instead of taking the whole idea and giving Canadians relief, the Liberals put in half measures of only 10¢ per litre.
Canadians cannot survive like this, but on this side of the House, every single day we will stand for hard-working Canadians. We will push back against Liberal insiders, and we will make sure that Canada is a country for the workers who have sacrificed so much to build our country. We will make sure we hold the Liberal government accountable every step of the way.