Bill Morneau

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague, along with my colleagues the member for Yukon and the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, for advocating on this issue.

Canadians expect their governments to work together. We have collaborated with the three territories to make the territorial funding formula more stable and predictable over time.

Today I am pleased to announce that I will be introducing an amendment to the formula. It will enable the government to recalculate the 2016-17 payments, which will provide an additional $67 million to territories compared to the amounts calculated in December.

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the hon. member that we were elected on a plan to actually grow the economy. Canadians understand that after 10 years of weak growth it is time to grow the economy. We are going to make investments in the short term that are going to help our economy, but we are going to focus on investments that over the long term will ensure a more productive Canada. That will help Canadians today and Canadians tomorrow and will get us, over the long term, back into budget balance.

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we plan to keep our promise to invest in order to grow the economy while following three principles. This is very important for future generations. We will work to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio throughout our term. We will be disciplined in our spending. We still want to achieve a balanced budget, but we also recognize that it is not going to be easy in this economy.

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by saying that Canadians elected us on a promise that we would focus on how we can actually help the middle class and those most vulnerable.

We have already moved forward on the promise to help the middle class. We have reduced taxes for nine million Canadians. We are going to move forward on helping those most vulnerable with the Canada child benefit. I can confirm that that is money that will go to the most vulnerable to help them to lead better lives.

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we believe that the right question to ask is what we are going to do in order to improve the economy for all Canadians.

We were elected on a plan to grow the economy in order to help those Canadians who are struggling, who are most vulnerable, and those middle-class Canadians to do better. We have already moved forward on a tax cut for nine million Canadians. We will be moving forward not only with the Canada child benefit, but also with significant investments in infrastructure to improve the state of our economy.

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to confirm to the House and again to the hon. member that we are working diligently with provinces and territories across this country in order to improve the Canada pension plan, to enhance it so that Canadians can retire in dignity.

We also made important commitments to those Canadians who are most vulnerable, who are seniors, and those are commitments that we intend on moving forward on.

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for bringing this issue up.

Just this past weekend, we worked together with the Government of Ontario to reconfirm its commitment to working together with the federal government towards a Canada pension plan enhancement.

Our goal is to work together with all provinces and territories to get to a Canada pension plan enhancement, and our aim is to do that in a collaborative way this calendar year.

[Taxation, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians elected a new government on October 19. They recognized that we had a plan. We had a plan to deal with low growth through bringing forward a new approach. We reduced taxes on the middle class, which will stimulate the economy while helping nine million Canadians. We are going to help the most vulnerable people in this country by giving them a Canada child benefit. We are going to stimulate the economy through infrastructure investments that can make a real long-term difference in productivity for this country.

[Taxation, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say how much I appreciate the question from the hon. member, because it provides me with an opportunity to remind all the people here that we actually lowered taxes on nine million Canadians. As of January 1 this year, nine million Canadians have more money in their pockets.

It is true that we raised taxes on a very small proportion of Canadians, whom perhaps the hon. member is talking about. We recognize that we have helped the vast majority of people in this country.

[Finance, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is particularly ironic that members from a party that inherited a $13 billion surplus from a Liberal government in 2006 and then added $150 billion in debt to Canadians are talking to us about this. On top of that, they did it while creating the lowest rate of growth since the Great Depression, maybe because they spent the money on things like gazebos.

We have a different plan. We are going to spend on productive assets that can help our country to do better in the future.