Debates of June 8th, 2026

Opposition Motion—The Government's Fiscal Policies

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Calgary Crowfoot.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, Canada is in a recession, but the Liberals, and even some of their apologists among the punditry, say that it is only a technical recession. Allow me to get technical for a few moments. Technically, economic growth is shrinking, and that is how we measure the strength of a national economy. Technically, 40,000 more Canadians are out of work so far this year. Technically, the cost of living has left millions of Canadians unable to afford basic necessities, like food. Technically, under the Liberals, Canadian families are the most indebted in the world, which means they are tapped out, and cannot lead the way out of a recession through increased consumption.

Technically, young Canadians are giving up on the dream of home ownership, and with it, the dream of starting their own families, because Canadians technically have the most unaffordable housing among peer countries. Technically, over the last 11 years, the Liberals have passed a series of laws and ministerial orders that have prevented Canada from bringing its resource wealth to world markets and provide high-paying jobs for Canadians. Technically, the Liberal finance minister would make Chrystia Freeland and Bill Morneau blush over the fire hose of new spending and federal debt that young Canadians know they are going to be on the hook for. Technically, the PBO said the finance minister misled Canadians in his budget.

Today, we are having a debate about the recession that the Liberals are responsible for and we demand specific actions in response. I can already hear the howls of protest from the Liberals saying things like, “What about the tariffs? What about the war in Ukraine? What about the war in Iran?” These global events affect every other economy in the world. Let me say something before I hear even more howls from the Liberals claiming, “Do the Conservatives not know that Canada is more vulnerable because we are more trade dependent on the United States than those other countries are?” They are the same Liberals who claimed that their leader would have a trade deal with the United States by summer 2025. They are the same Liberals who spent the last 11 years actively preventing Canada from diversifying its export markets by systematically preventing the construction of the energy infrastructure necessary to export Canadian energy to the world.

Canadian oil and gas is by far Canada's most valuable export. It dwarfs everything else. Oil and gas exports are worth $160 billion a year. The Prime Minister said that he had the experience for this moment and assured Canadians that he would be successful in defending Canada's interests by negotiating a deal with the Americans while diversifying our trade. What has the Prime Minister done? He teased Canadians by saying it was time to get things built. He teased Canadians by claiming that his government would see that major projects would be built at speeds thought unimaginable. I thought that might mean that a year after he made these claims, there would be some kind of approval on the horizon for a pipeline project. I could easily imagine that.

In fact, I could imagine maybe one like the Pacific north coast pipeline that the previous Conservative government approved and that the Liberals cancelled only a few days after they were sworn in, in November 2015, a decision endorsed by the current Prime Minister at an energy committee meeting in 2021. He said then, five years ago, that he supported cancelling northern gateway, and now all of a sudden, he is scratching his head saying, “Yeah, maybe we should build some major projects,” but the projects are not being built.

The northern gateway pipeline that the government cancelled and the Prime Minister opposed did not get built. If it had been built, it would be carrying 525,000 barrels a day today to world markets. At today's prices, that would bring about $20 billion per year to the Canadian economy. Would we be in a recession today, if the Canadian economy had another 525,000 barrels a day in exported production? I do not know, but it would be better than what we have now. What if Canada had built an east coast pipeline too? Let us think of what that would mean for world energy security and what it would mean for the Canadian economy. The opportunities squandered by the Liberals contribute to the recession we are in now. They have prevented Canada from being part of the international solution to world markets that are cut off from the Middle East and from those that want to defund Putin's war machine.

So far, all the government has done is create a so-called Major Projects Office that will have incredible sweeping powers of exemption from Canadian law. It was set up nearly a full year ago and there are no major projects.

On top of the economic self-harm the Liberals have imposed on Canada, 11 years of incessant debt, deficits and money printing have left Canadians deeply in debt and unable to afford necessities. As bad as Bill Morneau and Chrystia Freeland were, the current finance minister is even worse. He might end up challenging Allan MacEachen and Marc Lalonde as perhaps the worst finance minister in Canadian history. Do members remember those guys? They ran up deficits in the eighties that were so big that by the time the Liberals were defeated in 1984, Canada was literally kiting interest payments by issuing new debt just to cover the interest on the existing debt. That disastrous time under the Liberals took successive governments, Conservative, Liberal and Conservative, to restore sanity to Canada's finances. Now the current government is threatening to take us back to those dark times. After Pierre Trudeau, there was a consensus that balanced budgets matter and ought to be every government's goal. The Liberals have blown it, despite their 2015 promise.

Last week, there was a series of terrible reports that challenged the very credibility of the government and the finance minister. The Parliamentary Budget Officer published a report that said that the deficit would be billions of dollars higher than the finance minister said in his budget. It would be higher this year, higher next year and every year in the projection.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer said that spending would be higher. She said that borrowing would be higher. She said expected income tax revenues would be lower because she expects Canadians will have less income than the finance minister projects. She said that, based on the government's stress tests, which, “draws on decades of Canadian economic and fiscal history, including, recessions, financial crises, oil price crashes, and runs thousands of combinations to show the range of possibilities....that the likelihood that the deficit-to-GDP ratio will decline...is less than 1 per cent.”

That was the Liberals' latest fiscal anchor, the one they came up with when their last fiscal anchor was cut loose. They said that the deficit would decline as a percentage of GDP every year through 2031. The PBO said that the odds of that happening are less than 1%. After 11 years, they have made promise after promise about fiscal anchors and guardrails and have broken every single one of them.

The finance minister is like a sailor who forgets to connect the anchor chain to the boat, then drops the anchor in the water and has to go back to the chandlery to get a new one while everybody on the dock laughs at him. I can only imagine what next year's fiscal anchor is going to be. This latest anchor, the one that is already on the bottom of the ocean with no chain allowing the budget to drift toward the rocks, was never even a good anchor to start with. In fact, the PBO notes that the IMF thinks Canada would be better off with its old anchor of a declining debt-to-GDP ratio, but that anchor is also overboard on the bottom of the ocean. It has been dumped overboard without a chain I do not know how many times.

Canadians are increasingly asking why the Liberals cannot table a plan to return to the balanced budget they started with in 2015. Many witnesses at the finance committee have called upon them to do so. However, the minister, in his arrogance and hubris, refuses and lectures those who ask him to simply do what his government promised to do way back in 2015. It is not just the PBO, not just the finance committee witnesses and not just Conservatives challenging the wisdom and credibility of the government's budgets; two of Canada's major banks have dropped reports downgrading their forecasts for the Canadian economy to below 1%.

Given the fact that Canada is in a recession and the government's budget outlook is deteriorating and lacks credibility, Conservatives ask this House to call on the government to reverse its 11 years of continued deficits and broken fiscal promises, and rein in its spending and borrowing before things really do spiral out of its control.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, the member mentioned Liberal pundits at the beginning of his speech. Here is something a pundit said, “it's dangerous politics to be going out here claiming the sky is falling when in a month's time or two month's time, when the next numbers come out, it shows that it isn't. It was a week later.... The job numbers are better than they were last quarter. We have the C.D. Howe Institute coming out and arguing, another economist saying it's not a recession.”

Does the House know which pundit that is? It is Fred DeLorey, the former Conservative campaign manager for Erin O'Toole, who said that on the CBC.

Would the member like to comment on the comments of his Conservative friend's punditry?

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, here we go again. Another Liberal, who would tell Canadians they have never had it so good and will deny that they are in recession, deny that the PBO and private sector economists have downgraded their growth projections and deny that they are misleading the House in their budgets.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Madam Speaker, the Conservatives keep saying that investments are needed in fossil fuels. They are in favour of approving a new pipeline project in western Canada.

As members will recall, the Trudeau government purchased a pipeline that cost $34 billion, and if the government were to sell it tomorrow, it would ultimately lose money.

I wonder if my colleague thinks that using public funds to buy a new pipeline should be regarded as inflationary spending.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, the member brings up the Trans Mountain pipeline and, again, Conservatives were not calling upon the government to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and build it themselves. They were calling upon the government to stop moving the goalposts on their approval process so that Kinder Morgan would commit and build it at its own expense.

Conservatives do not believe in the public sector taking over and intruding on that which should be left to private investors. Let us just get the government out of the way, so that actual private investors, with their own money, will invest in Canada's energy infrastructure and allow our production to increase. This is not about subsidizing anything. This is about getting the government out of the way.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Madam Speaker, this Liberal government keeps telling us how good we have it.

I am here to say that 2.2 million people have been using the food bank, and 8.3% of those clients are seniors, up from 6.9%. Can the member please address this House as to why the Liberals do not care about seniors anymore?

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, the Liberal government simply seems oblivious to the struggle of real Canadians, whether they are seniors, young people or really anybody.

The Liberal government seems more focused on these large bureaucratic structures, giving itself more power to use public money to interfere in what would normally be private investment decisions. I can only imagine where its sovereign wealth fund is going to take us in the world of corporate welfare and insider enrichment. I do not believe that the Liberals are in touch with what is going on on the ground.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Madam Speaker, anyone who has ever been a teacher knows that repetition is a teaching tool, so I am going to repeat the question my colleague from Rimouski—La Matapédia asked. Is spending $34 billion of public funds on a pipeline inflationary? Is spending $34 billion of public funds on a pipeline inflationary? Is spending $34 billion of public funds on a pipeline inflationary? Is spending $34 billion of public money on a pipeline inflationary? I know the Chair can sometimes lose patience with us, so I will not repeat it a fifth time.

The question is clear. Is spending $34 billion of public money on a pipeline inflationary, yes or no?

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, I do not know, it probably is.

We did not ask the federal government to borrow public money to build that pipeline. We asked it to get out of the way, so that a private business would invest its money without a hit to the public treasury and allow the thing to get built on its own.

I do not know why the Bloc seems keen to call on Conservatives to defend that decision. We never defended that decision.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue and to the Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions)]

Madam Speaker, I cannot believe I was away from the House for a whole weekend. It is great to be back.

I will be sharing my time with the member for Beauport—Limoilou, my hon. colleague.

It is a pleasure to participate in today's debate and speak about the government's plan to maintain fiscal sustainability in Canada's outperforming economy.

On Friday, Canadians woke up to good news on two fronts. First, the May labour force survey results showed that our plan, one that will build a strong and resilient economy and create good-paying jobs for Canadians, is working. Last week's labour force survey, despite the Conservatives' not wanting to talk about this, reinforces the fact that the Canadian economy is stronger than expected.

With 88,000 net new jobs created, far higher than market expectations, which was 10,000 jobs, the Canadian economy performed in May at almost nine times the expectation. That means that on a year-over-year basis, Canada has created 147,000 new jobs, all in the face of historic economic uncertainty, trade tensions and geopolitical volatility. Since December 2024, in fact, Canada has added more jobs per capita than the United States has, creating 2.8 jobs per 1,000 people, nearly double the rate of the United States.

The second piece of good news is that 12 million Canadians woke up to having received the first instalment of the new Canada groceries and essentials benefit on Friday, which boosted the GST rebate by 50% this year, delivering almost $1,900 to the average family of four, and which will continue for another four years at an increase of 25%. This provides significant support for the people who need it the most, at a time when many families are struggling to afford the high cost of food and essentials.

None of this, of course, will make its way into today's Conservative opposition day motion. It will not make it into the Conservatives' petty slogans. We will hear no mention, in their social media clips or their fundraising emails, of Canadian job gains or support for groceries, because we know that what is good news for Canadian families, industries and workers is bad news for Conservative politicians, who have, honestly, nothing to offer in the House but tired, insulting and repetitive rhetoric that Canada is broken.

In fact, the bottom fell out of the Conservatives' narrative at the end of last week. They could not even support that narrative for longer than a single week. They jumped on calling something a “technical recession” that clearly was not.

I am not sure how Canadians can take Conservatives seriously when the Conservatives stand up in the House every day and say that they are empathetic towards what Canadian families are going through, but then they come skipping into the House with jubilation, clicking their heels, ready to pounce on any sign of bad news that the Canadian economy is struggling. They even do it prematurely, which they did last week when job numbers exceeded expectations by over eight times. It just shows us where the Conservative Party of today is at, looking for anything negative to support its narrative.

While Conservatives talk down Canadian businesses, Canadian innovators and Canadian workers at every opportunity, we will take today's opposition day motion as an opportunity to set the record straight. Let me reassure the hon. member that the government's fiscal plan remains rooted in fiscal responsibility, not for its own sake but to create capacity to invest in long-term economic strength and greater self-reliance.

Consistent with this approach, the recent spring economic update 2026 is the government's next step in our plan to build a stronger, more independent and resilient Canada for all Canadians. It advances our progress of building more affordable homes and the major infrastructure that transforms and connects our economy and helps us get goods to foreign markets, while bringing down costs to help Canadians get ahead. We are providing a clear and transparent account of how Canada's economy is performing in an increasingly uncertain world.

We are advancing major projects that connect and transform our nation, turbocharging housing construction, catalyzing an entirely new housing industry and forging new economic and security partnerships. We are acting decisively to protect our economic sovereignty, strengthen our strategic industries and position Canada for long-term growth. It is a principled and pragmatic approach that is moving Canada's economy from reliance to resilience.

However, some of the biggest long-term payoffs of this transformation will of course take time to be felt. To ensure that Canadians have the support they need right now, the government is providing a boost today and a bridge to a better tomorrow.

For over a year, Canada's new government has been relentlessly focused on making life more affordable for Canadians. Nearly 22 million Canadians are keeping more of their hard-earned money with the middle-class tax cut that will save two-income families up to $840 this year. First-time homebuyers are saving up to $50,000 with the removal or reduction of the GST on new homes. With the deal that we signed with Ontario, that number goes up to 13%, up to about $130,000 of savings on a new home purchase, plus a 50% reduction in development charges. That could be estimated at up to $200,000 off the price of a first home purchase.

We have also removed the consumer carbon price, driving gas prices down by about 18¢ per litre across most provinces and territories. We have reduced Canadians' bills at the gas station by up to 10¢ per litre on regular gasoline and 4¢ on diesel, by suspending the fuel excise tax over the summer. In addition, last week, more than 12 million Canadians began receiving hundreds of dollars more in their bank account through the new Canada groceries and essentials benefit.

These are important measures for serious times. In a world of geopolitical instability, governments need to rethink how they respond to the headwinds we face and to build resilience for the future. From a fiscal perspective, economic resilience, bolstered by government policies to respond to immediate challenges through temporary supports, is delivering an $11.5-billion improvement in the projections of the budgetary balance in 2025-26. That is $11.5 billion less of a deficit than was projected, due to the Canadian economy's being more resilient.

This strength carries into future years, improving the budgetary balance, relative to budget 2025, by an average of $10.7 billion per year from 2026-27 to 2029-30 before new measures. This fiscal room allows the government to improve affordability and raise Canadians' standard of living through targeted and responsible policy measures, particularly in the areas of fuel, food and housing affordability. This move to invest more in Canadians started with budget 2025. It marked a strategic shift in the government's management of public finances, focused on expanding federal capital spending to mobilize investment, while maintaining fiscal responsibility.

With significant investments to support infrastructure, innovation and productivity and to develop our domestic industrial capabilities, budget 2025 set out a clear plan to build the strongest economy in the G7.

The government also remains committed to the disciplined implementation of budget 2025's efficiency measures. This includes the comprehensive expenditure review, which will save Canadians $60 billion over five years. With implementation well under way, the focus is now turning toward targeted, ongoing horizontal reviews, beginning with efforts to rein in spending on external management and other consulting services.

These are challenging times, but these are necessary actions, and we will continue to support our objectives of spending less and investing more in Canadians. Canadians are navigating a rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented world. The global economy is more than a year into a profound rupture. Economic security, industrial policy and geopolitical competition are increasingly shaping investment, trade and financial decisions. The conflict in the Middle East, which has disrupted key shipping routes and damaged energy security, has pushed energy prices higher, underscoring the fragility of global supply chains and adding to already elevated uncertainty.

Canada is obviously dealing with this by diversifying trade. We have signed 20 new trade and security agreements in the last year, and we will continue that work as we move forward to diversify and strengthen the Canadian economy.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Madam Speaker, I just want to bring up to the member across the way that his government has been in power for the last 11 years, and the Northwest Territories should be one of the powerful cylinders in our economic engine, but it is seriously misfiring. The Northwest Territories was in a recession in six of the years since the Liberals formed government: 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025, after job-killing Liberal policies were enacted by the previous prime minister and the current Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister does not seem to be wanting to fix it either. He just turned 30% of the Northwest Territories into a park.

My question for the member is this: Is the Northwest Territories in recession, yes or no?

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Madam Speaker, we have heard from the banks, the C.D. Howe Institute and Desjardins. The Conservatives seem to love to talk down the Canadian economy and Canadian workers, and to jump prematurely into a narrative that they then, by the end of the week, find out is untrue. However, the Bank of Montreal has said that the solid May jobs report “should silence the recession crowd”. RBC has said there are still signs that labour markets are broadly improving. The C.D. Howe Institute says the latest job figures show that it is too soon to use that label based solely on a pair of small quarterly contractions in the economy. Desjardins says, “according to our analysis, the Canadian economy"—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question was about the Northwest Territories—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

That is debatable.

We will go back to the hon. parliamentary secretary to finish the answer.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Madam Speaker, I was answering the hon. member's question. It pertained to the opposition day motion, which is claiming a number of things that are completely untrue. I am sure the member opposite is actually concerned with facts and figures given by Canadian financial institutions that do economics reports.

[Emma Harrison, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Madam Speaker, I was hoping that my colleague could further elaborate on the Canadian grocery and essentials benefit. How many people qualify for that, and what does it mean for Canadians from coast to coast to coast in this time of uncertainty?

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Madam Speaker, that is a great question, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk more about the affordability measures the government has put forward.

Obviously, we have cut back and have found optimization within the federal public service. We have reduced operational spending by $60 billion over five years, creating fiscal room both to make generational investments and to offer tax deductions and tax cuts, but we have also protected and, in fact, added federal benefits.

We added the groceries and essentials benefit, which went out last Friday to 12 million Canadian families. This is good news. I have heard anecdotally from residents of my riding that they have received upward of $500 in their bank accounts. That is going to help. It is short-term, temporary, targeted support, which is exactly what the Governor of the Bank of Canada said at committee is needed, in a time of crisis when we do not know how long the oil price shock is going to last.

We know that Canadian families are struggling. That is why we keep stepping up with affordability measures that will help them get through the challenging times, while we are building a stronger, more resilient economy, making the investments that are needed, attracting private investment and ensuring that we have growth for generations to come.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is a wonder the way the member is talking, making it sound as though everything is just fine and there is nothing to see here. He suggests that our government is doing all the things and that everyone is getting everything they need. It is more gaslighting from a narcissistic partner than I have ever heard in my life.

The member clearly is not living in the real world. Perhaps he needs to come down from the clouds and talk to constituents in his riding. I know it has been a while, maybe, since he was there. I am pretty sure he does not live there anymore. Perhaps he should talk to them and to folks in Whitby, Clarington and Oshawa about what they are really struggling with, because the day-to-day reality is harder than what he is gaslighting them to make them think it is.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

I would invite the hon. member to be careful with her language.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Madam Speaker, this gives me the opportunity to point out many of the announcements I have happened to make in the member's riding. We have helped women's shelters in her riding. She was nowhere to be found—

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

That is not true. That is a lie.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Madam Speaker, her party voted against the national housing strategy. It did not support those organizations.

What about the national school food program? Our government put in $1 billion over five years and then made that program permanent. I have gone and seen that program deliver food to kids who badly need it in her riding—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. chief government whip has a point of order.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am sure you heard it. In that exchange, the member for Oshawa yelled, “That is a lie.”

I am sorry. The neighbouring member for York—Durham thinks that is funny.

The member for Oshawa yelled, “That is a lie.” She should know that is unparliamentary. I would respectfully request that you ask her to withdraw that comment.