Andrew Scheer

[The Economy, December 17th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are so proud of that fall budget that they tabled it in the House and then ran and hid for the rest of the day. Let us recap. The Prime Minister announced $250 cheques and then had to cancel them. He announced a two-month GST tax trick that businesses say they will not implement and that the Prime Minister now says is optional. We have a broken immigration system. Parliament is seized with a $400-million corruption scandal. All the while, there are 2 million food bank visits, doubled housing costs and record-high consumer debt. The dollar is below 70¢ U.S., and the Prime Minister is raising prices by quadrupling the carbon tax.

Again, why not let Canadians decide their future by calling a carbon tax election?

[The Economy, December 17th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the new finance minister for being the fourth finance minister in a 24-hour period, but it is the same old talking points. What the Liberals did yesterday was smash through that $40-billion guardrail. What does that mean? It means Canadians have to pay back all that money with interest, and 43¢ of every dollar they earn now has to go to pay the tax burden. It means more money to bankers and bondholders. In fact, the government is now spending more on the interest on that debt than on health care, but the Prime Minister does not care. He does not worry about where the money comes from. He has never had to worry about that.

Why not let Canadians decide their future by calling a carbon tax election?

[The Economy, December 17th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, what a mess. Yesterday was a gong show at the bottom of a dumpster fire, wrapped up in a cluster. The former finance minister resigned and the Prime Minister hid all day, and then he had to beg his MPs not to fire him, but the worst news, buried underneath it all, was a devastating gut punch to Canadian taxpayers: a $62-billion deficit smashing through the already insane $40-billion guardrail.

Canada is a serious G7 NATO partner, staring down the threat of 25% tariffs. We deserve a strong leader with a new mandate. Why not let Canadians decide by calling a carbon tax election?

[Points of Order, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I just want to remind you that the order that the House adopted was very specific. It states:

That, notwithstanding any Standing Order, special order, or usual practice of the House, at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, December 16, 2024, the Speaker shall interrupt the proceedings to permit the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance to make a statement followed by a period of up to 10 minutes for questions and comments; after the statement, a Member from each recognized opposition party, and a Member of the Green Party, may reply for a period approximately equivalent to the time taken by the Minister's statement....

A minister of the Crown just came in and made a statement. Her statement was that she was tabling the fall economic update. That is the statement. At the very least, there should now be a 10-minute period of questions and comments. The government House leader chose to have a very short statement. There is nothing we can do about that. She came in, tabled it and then ran out before there could be any accountability or scrutiny.

I believe the most logical thing for the Chair to do would be to accept that as the statement that it was, which I would say is a perfect statement on the state of the Liberal government right now, and, at the very least, allow opposition parties and opposition members to ask questions of the government as to what was in the fall economic update.

[Points of Order, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I want to go over the facts of this case.

Last week, a few days ago, the government House leader negotiated in good faith, with all the opposition parties, a process by which the fall economic update could be tabled in the House. We all agreed on that. That was not something that was going to happen automatically. It took the participation of all parliamentary parties to allow that to happen. We agreed in good faith. We expected it to happen.

Everything that has happened today has been entirely of the government's own making. Parliamentarians should not be deprived of the information as to what the fiscal situation is here in Canada. Canadians are facing an unprecedented crisis on housing, inflation, debt and deficits. The Liberal government has a statutory obligation to table these documents by the end of the year. This is the second last sitting day, and you have just denied a request for an emergency debate on this very same issue.

There is no other opportunity for parliamentarians to find out just how bad the books are. I go back to the point as to the fact that the government itself initiated this agreement. The government committed to opposition parties that it would happen today.

I ask you this, Mr. Speaker. The fact that it is in chaos is not the problem of parliamentarians. It is a problem for Canadians, but it is not a problem caused by Canadians, and they have a right to know exactly what is happening with their tax dollars. For the government to come in at literally the last minute and pull the carpet out from under an economic update is unbelievable. It is not the actions of a serious G7, NATO partner country.

At the very least, Mr. Speaker, I ask that you find the government in contempt of the House order that was passed by all members of this place.

[Request for Emergency Debate, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I have been in this place now for over 20 years. I have never seen a situation like this before. Today is the day the government waited until to table the fall economic update where it would publish the true deficit numbers that Canadians will be on the hook for.

As the House knows, the former finance minister resigned this morning. Things are unclear; there are some media reports indicating that there may be a replacement now, but at the time of the writing of her letter, it was not even clear who the finance minister was.

All this is at a time when Canadians are facing an emergency situation. They are facing the fastest rate of inflation in over a generation with food inflation; food prices are rising 37% faster here in Canada than in the United States. They are facing a housing crisis that the Prime Minister caused by doubling housing costs with mortgage and rent payments. Two million Canadians are lining up at food banks. There is crime and chaos on our streets, and now the government is in shambles.

By waiting until the second-last day of the December sitting, the government was hoping to table the fall economic update and then run and hide for six weeks in the snow, depriving parliamentarians of holding the government to account, the very thing Parliament exists for: to oversee government spending.

Because of the situation, we find ourselves in an unprecedented case where some new person is going to table the fall economic update, we believe. It is still unclear, according to media reports. It is unclear how the economic update will be presented, and it is unclear whether or not any parliamentarians will be able to participate in any kind of questioning of whichever minister ends up delivering it or tabling it, if one actually does. Then the House will rise at the end of the day tomorrow for six weeks.

Because of this unprecedented and emergency situation, I believe that the best thing you, Mr. Speaker, can do to uphold the integrity of Parliament as an institution that exists to oversee, scrutinize and approve government taxation and spending is to grant an emergency debate. That is what my letter to you outlines.

When we look at the situation facing Canada, including threats from abroad; 25% tariffs; staring down the barrel of a gun pointed at us by a U.S. President-elect with a strong and fresh new mandate, who can smell weakness from a mile away; and a cabinet in chaos, with one-fifth of the government caucus demanding that the Prime Minister resign, we believe that it is now time for you, Mr. Speaker, to grant the House at least the opportunity to question the government for a few hours this evening on what should be its fall economic presentation.

The former finance minister herself said that going past the $40-billion guardrail would plunge the country into another round of nightmarish inflation and interest rate hikes. Media reports are speculating as to how high the deficit will go.

I know that there are precedents and guidelines you, Mr. Speaker, might look to as to whether you should approve an emergency debate. However, given the fact that there is really no other opportunity for parliamentarians to debate the issues, to scrutinize the economic update that is scheduled to happen this afternoon, I believe it is incumbent upon you now, Mr. Speaker to consider the rights of individual MPs and the House as a collective to be the representatives of Canadian taxpayers and to hold the government to account for its economic update later on today.

[Finance, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the attacks on the government's economic record are coming from inside the Liberals' own cabinet, and it looks more and more as though carbon tax Carney's plan to push out the Prime Minister is working as well. For carbon tax Carney, it has always been profits over people. We can look at his record: Since he became the top economic adviser to the PM, he has moved his own company's headquarters to New York City, and he has been caught unethically lobbying the U.K. government. His firm, Brookfield, is now looking for $10 billion in taxpayers' money for a new investment fund, which would be managed by Brookfield, his own company.

Canadians deserve better than the government in shambles. Why not call a carbon tax election and let Canadians decide for themselves?

[Finance, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, carbon tax Carney is the Prime Minister's official economic adviser, and his plan was always to push out the finance minister and take her place. Let us look at his advice so far. He forced her to bring in the GST tax trick. Carney also forced through insane inflationary spending, smashing through that $40-billion guardrail. Carney's economic plan is so bad the finance minister resigned in protest rather than humiliate herself into reading his homework. Now nobody knows who the finance minister is.

Enough is enough. Why will the Prime Minister not do the only honourable thing left and let Canadians decide for themselves in a carbon tax election?

[Business of the House, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, it is time for the highlight of many people's week: the Thursday question.

However, before I move to that, as this is the last Thursday before we rise for the Christmas adjournment and we will all be back home in our ridings meeting with our constituents and providing them assistance with all sorts of issues, I just want to take this opportunity to wish all my colleagues, on all sides of the House, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

I am thankful for the excellent work that is done in the House to support members in their work. I offer a special tribute to the pages, many of whom are away from home going to school, and I know that many of them will be returning home as well; and to the House of Commons support staff, who make sure that we are served at a most excellent level of professionalism so we can carry out the work on behalf of our constituents.

We are about to enter the period of time when the days stop getting shorter and start getting longer again, which is of course a beautiful metaphor for what Christmas is all about: the light of our saviour, Jesus Christ, coming to redeem mankind. For those people who celebrate other holidays, especially Hanukkah, there is a similar metaphor with the light that comes with the lighting of the menorah over that period of time as well.

I want to wish all Canadians who happen to have tuned in just in time for the Thursday question a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I wish the same especially to my government counterpart across the way. Maybe she could take this opportunity to tell us and all Canadians what the business of the House will be for the rest of this week and into next week as well.

[Finance, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, if the minister had just read a little further, he would have read that this is not because of anything the government has been doing, except causing our economy to slow down and underperform. That is why the bank has taken this step.

A guardrail is something we are supposed to stay far away from. If we even brush up against it, that is a sign we are way off track. If we smash through it, we go flying off a cliff. Now, even Liberal MPs are terrified and are ringing the bell, trying to get off before they smash through the guardrail. One of them said, “I think that if we state that we have a $40-billion guardrail, we [better] stay within those numbers”, and another is begging for a fiscally responsible framework.

Will the Prime Minister allow a free vote, or will he force his Liberal MPs to stay on that bus as it goes—