Madam Speaker, it is always my great pleasure and honour to rise on behalf of the people of Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, who, like all Canadians right now, are grappling with an affordability crisis.
The cost of food has gone up. The cost of fuel has gone up. The cost of rent has gone up. The cost of housing has gone up, and yes, the cost of the Liberal government continues to go up. This is not just an abstract national issue; this is something we see particularly in the London economic region, which includes St. Thomas and Elgin. London unemployment is the highest in the country, at over 9%. This is a massive problem for people. We see youth unemployment pushing up against 15%.
When I asked in the House, in question period, whether the government would commit to a very real and tangible measure to make one aspect of life more affordable, to cut all federal taxes on fuel until the end of the year, all I got from the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources was bluster. I believe “hot air” was the comment I may have made in my original attempt at getting a response.
In the opposition, we are about solutions. We continue to hold the government to account and offer ideas for things that will make life more affordable. As our leader has said time and time again, and as I have said, we welcome when the government steals our ideas. We wish it would go further and steal the whole idea, because Canadians need relief.
When we asked the government to take all federal taxes off fuel for the entirety of the year, as a starting point, because it would save Canadians 28¢ a litre at the pumps, what did the Liberals do? They said, “Okay, we will tell you what we can do: We will take a third of the taxes off for a third of the year.” Something is better than nothing, but it is not nearly enough.
I look at the challenges that have been aggravated now that we have learned Canada is in a recession, two quarters of negative growth. We hear, of course, from the defenders of the Liberal government and the media that it is just a little technicality; a technical recession, they call it. I believe a technical recession is what the media calls it when a Liberal government is responsible for it. That is what $2 billion of taxpayer money will buy in terms of coverage.
However, it is not theoretical or merely technical when we talk to Canadians who cannot afford to fill up their gas tank, when we talk to Canadians who are skipping meals, as I have heard of several constituents doing, when we talk to Canadians who are using a food bank now for the first time in their life, or when we talk to people at the food banks who say they are struggling to keep enough food on the shelves.
Canada lost 112,300 jobs just in the last three months. We are seeing a couple of conflicting narratives from the government on this. They say it is just a technicality in numbers, and on the other hand they say the recession we are in right now is the fault of the U.S. That does not explain why we are the only G7 country to be facing this. All countries around the world are dealing with the same global instability, the same tariffs and the same trade threats, but only Canada is in a recession.
Why is the Liberal government not taking seriously measures that it has within its authority to do, at a minimum dropping all federal taxes on fuel for the duration of the year, but far beyond that, stopping the inflationary spending that is driving life more and more unaffordable for Canadians?