Debates of June 15th, 2026

Indo-Caribbean Multicultural Event

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Indo-Caribbean Organization of Ottawa is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its annual multicultural event. This special occasion is a celebration of the culture, heritage and identity of the Indo-Caribbean community. It is an opportunity to recognize the many valuable contributions the Indo-Caribbean community has made to Canada, particularly in the national capital region.

I want to congratulate my friend Peter Maharaj, who is here on the Hill, for his hard work and dedication in organizing this wonderful event over the years. I send much gratitude to all of the volunteers in our community for assisting in the success of this multicultural event year after year.

Congratulations. Here is to 25 more years of celebrating Canada's Indo-Caribbean community.

The Economy

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today, the Prime Minister arrives at the G7 as the only leader who has driven his own country into a recession. While he flies around the world in style with nearly $1 million in luxury inflight catering, Canadians are being driven out of their homes and into food banks. Two in five Canadians are struggling to put food on the table, and many families are skipping meals, living in RVs and losing sleep over how they will pay their bills.

Will the Prime Minister reverse his costly Liberal policies that have caused this crisis so that Canadians can afford to live and have hope again?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, every time we propose something to help the very people the member speaks of, she rises on her leader's orders and votes against it, such as the groceries and essentials benefit, the Canada child benefit, aid for seniors and aid for dental care.

We will not apologize for the Prime Minister's going to other countries, signing trade deals, bringing back billions in investment and creating jobs and opportunities for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are seeing through the illusions. The Liberals keep rolling out more programs and calling them progress. If we need more government supports just to get by, that is not success. It is an admission of failure.

All of the G7 countries face the same global pressures, yet only one has managed to turn these shared challenges into a recession at home. That is our Canada under the Liberal Prime Minister. Since the same global pressures are affecting everyone, why is Canada the only G7 country in a recession, while others have managed to avoid it?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, let me tell the member and her entire bench what success looks like. Success looks like creating twice as many jobs per capita as the United States. Success looks like diversifying our trade. Success looks like Contrecœur. Success looks like high‑speed rail in Ontario and Quebec, which her party is against. Success looks like an MOU with the Province of Alberta. Success looks like economic development from one coast to another.

We are going to keep getting success, notwithstanding the opposition of these guys.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie South—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if we talk to anyone on the street or to businesses suffering from 11 years of failed Liberal policies, they will tell us that Canada is in a recession, no matter how the Liberals or the media try to spin it, and that things are not getting any better. Families, seniors and young people are anxious about their finances and their future. The worst of all scenarios have crept into the minds of Canadian business: doubt and uncertainty.

The Liberal Prime Minister has the distinction of walking into the G7 meetings as the only leader to push their country into recession. Will he rethink his costly policies, which have caused this recession?

[Tim Hodgson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, while the opposition talks Canada down, we are building. We are building with $8 billion in Goose Bay. We are building new wind farms in Nova Scotia. We are building new nuclear plants in Ontario. We are building new pipelines in British Columbia and Alberta.

All they do is talk us down. We are building.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie South—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's decline did not start last April. It was catalyzed six years ago, when the current Prime Minister was Trudeau's economic adviser. The Prime Minister's fingerprints are all over the failed policies that have caused Canada to be the only G7 country in a recession. While well‑connected Liberals and corporate buddies are doing well, the crumbs the Liberals feed to families, seniors and young people cannot mask the fact that 60% of Canadians feel anxious about their finances, 40% are losing sleep, 38% have food insecurity and 2.2 million Canadians visited food banks last year.

Does that sound like everything is working well?

[Tim Hodgson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, I know they want to go back six years and re-fight an election from six years ago. Unfortunately, it is today, which is good for Canada.

What we hear is the Premier of Alberta saying she has never been as optimistic about the country. We hear that from all of the premiers. They want to build with the government.

Instead of talking us down, why do the Conservatives not get on board and help build this country?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister will attend the G7 summit today as the only leader to have led his country into a recession.

Full-time workers are living in RVs because they can no longer afford housing. According to United Way, 60% of Canadians are anxious about their finances, and 38% are food insecure, yet the Liberal Prime Minister finds a way to spend $1 million on luxury inflight meals.

Will the Liberal Prime Minister finally put an end to the inflationary spending, bureaucracy and policies that created this Canadian cost-of-living crisis?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Minister of Government Transformation]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the economy, forecasts indicate that Canada will have the second-fastest growth among G7 countries.

Wages have been rising faster than inflation for 38 months, but we recognize that challenges remain. That is why, on this side of the House, we are working tirelessly to deliver major projects, create jobs and generate wealth across the country. However, when I see the Conservatives come in every day, hand on heart, with all the empathy in the world, when they voted against measures that have helped millions of Canadians—whether it is the Canada groceries and essentials benefit, the Canadian dental care plan, or the Canada child benefit—I want to urge them to take a step back and start walking the talk.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, they want us to applaud them for putting a bandage over a wound they created. That is the issue.

I have a message for the Prime Minister, who is at the G7. I also have a message for this minister. Rogelio Rigor, a Quebec father working two jobs, told La Presse, “I was just barely surviving.” He had to file a consumer proposal.

This is the Liberal Prime Minister's real economic record. Instead of spending nearly $1 million on luxury meals while travelling, is the Liberal Prime Minister prepared to give up his smoked salmon, considering that Rogelio has sacrificed everything as a result of Liberal inflation?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Minister of Government Transformation]

Mr. Speaker, I do not have their names, but there are 13,586 families in his riding who are getting their share of the $101 million from the Canada child benefit, which he voted against. I do not have their names, but there are 13,500 families who depend on it.

I do not have their names, but there are 39,000 people in his riding who benefit from the Canadian dental care plan.

I do not have their names, but tens of thousands of his constituents are benefiting from the new Canada groceries and essentials benefit.

I urge him to stop making grand speeches in the House and start voting for his people.

Government Priorities

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister talks a good game. After Davos, where he called for middle powers to stand together, on Saturday he said at the G7 that the strands of a new world order could be woven together. The problem is that it is all talk.

In real life, the Prime Minister is breaking with Europe by scrapping the digital services tax. He is distancing himself from the European Union by scrapping the levies on online broadcasters. He is leaving the climate fight to the Europeans so his government can build pipelines to benefit the Americans who own the oil companies.

Why is he spending his time abandoning the middle powers just to please Donald Trump?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, Europe has something else that is trendy: high-speed rail. It has been adopted by just about every country in Europe, and now by the Kingdom of Morocco as well.

Canada wants to develop this technology. It is an environmentally responsible solution, a transportation revolution and a piece of infrastructure capable of moving millions of Quebeckers and Canadians every year and making a difference in how we get around.

Why has the Bloc Québécois changed its mind on high-speed rail?

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I did not even mention the Keystone XL pipeline, which is good for the U.S. but bad for all the countries working to fight climate change.

I did not even mention Bill C‑30, which would allow previously banned pesticides to be approved. That will be good for the U.S. factories that manufacture Monsanto products, but it will be bad for our trade relations with Europe, which operates by stricter standards.

The Prime Minister talks a good game, but his actions are moving him further away from our European allies and closer to Donald Trump. He writes fine speeches, but why do his actions always contradict his words?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, why is the Bloc Québécois attacking the Quebec factories, Quebec SMEs and Quebec workers that would be involved in building this vast infrastructure project, the high-speed train? I am talking about SMEs in Louiseville, workshops in Old Montreal, businesses in Gatineau and marketing companies in Quebec City.

This is a revolutionary project that will create 51,000 jobs and add $35 billion to our GDP. It is a transportation revolution. Why is the Bloc Québécois, led by the member for Repentigny, giving up?

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that is zero for two. Let us give him another chance.

The Prime Minister keeps saying that Canada needs to partner with middle powers to stand up to the United States. However, he is breaking with the 17 European countries and Australia, which impose digital services taxes on tech giants. He is breaking with the European Union, which imposes levies on streaming services such as Netflix.

The fight for the diversity of cultural expression will be waged and perhaps won by middle powers. Canada is pulling out. It is weakening the global consensus and threatening the future of Quebec culture. Is selling one's soul not a rather high price to pay just to please Donald Trump?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Minister of Government Transformation]

Mr. Speaker, that party is talking about threats to Quebec culture, but when it came time to make budget requests, it did not say a word about Quebec culture. When it came time to vote on the last budget, which contained $700 million for culture, including Quebec culture, not a single Bloc Québécois member voted for it.

It is astounding to hear them talk and falsely accuse others about threats to culture. Now the Bloc members are talking about closer ties with Europe. No one, apart from the Bloc Québécois, believes that Canada is not rapidly becoming closer to Europe.

The Economy

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, in just 14 trips, the Prime Minister spent nearly $1 million on inflight catering at taxpayers' expense. Meanwhile, two in five Canadians struggle to put food on the table and a record 2.2 million Canadians rely on the food bank in a single month.

Liberal inflationary spending, red tape and antidevelopment policies are driving up costs and weakening our economy. It is always Canadians who are left paying for Liberal waste. Will the Prime Minister reverse his costly policies that caused this crisis, so Canadians can afford to live again?

[Buckley Belanger, Liberal, Secretary of State (Rural Development)]

Mr. Speaker, I am uncertain where that member has been over the last number of years, but I want to give them one good example of how this government stood up for Saskatchewan when 14 of them sat on their hands for 10 long years. I am talking to the Saskatchewan Conservative MP caucus.

Why did you not defend this canola deal? Why did you not stand up—

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I am not involved in the canola deal.

Again, a reminder to go through the Chair. The member may continue.

[Buckley Belanger, Liberal, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, why did they not stand up for Saskatchewan and the canola deal that brought billions to Saskatchewan producers? Again, they sat on their hands doing nothing.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, food affordability is so terrible that there is scurvy in that member's riding.

We cannot forget that this Prime Minister is the one who said affordability is the best that it has been in over a decade. He is showing up at the G7 as the only leader who has caused a recession in his own country. That is his Liberal government's record: inflationary spending, red tape and antidevelopment policies that are driving up costs. It is not global factors; it is the Liberal choices that Canadians cannot afford.

When will this government stop making life more expensive for Canadians?

[Buckley Belanger, Liberal, Secretary of State (Rural Development)]

Mr. Speaker, it would be really nice if I saw one Conservative visit northern Saskatchewan to deal with the issues that we are struggling with.

Now, I would point out that every time we have an opportunity to help my riding, and many other ridings across this country, whether it is on food and essential benefits, the $10-a-day child care or the food program for the schools, every single time we make initiatives, they vote against them.

We will take no lessons on helping any region in Saskatchewan that feels underserved. We will represent all Canadians and stand up for them forever.