Madam Speaker, on the occasion of the 2024 fall economic statement, it is clear that Canada is at a crossroads. Many Canadians are struggling and uncertain about their and their families' futures. We are facing multiple, overlapping crises that require immediate and decisive action from the federal government, yet we are watching a Liberal government in complete disarray, out of ideas, flailing with gimmickry and unable to implement a coherent, effective plan to address these challenges.
We are also seeing a Conservative opposition that has reduced these complex issues to nursery rhymes, able to only muster bumper-sticker slogans to the most challenging problems facing Canadians. They are proposing outdated policies that not only will not work but caused many of the structural problems we are seeing today in the first place. They will cut the services Canadians need, reward their corporate backers and create untold damage to working and middle-class Canadians.
Let us review the major crises facing Canadians as a result of successive Conservative and Liberal governments. The cost of living crisis continues to escalate, with millions of people struggling to make ends meet. The cost of essentials such as rent and food have increased by over 20% and 21% over the last three years. Fully half of all Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque, and one in four parents have cut back on their own food consumption to ensure their children have enough to eat. The rising costs of staples such as home heating, telecommunications and transportation are straining household budgets, making it virtually impossible for families to save for the future or handle unexpected expenses.
Eighty per cent of Canadians now believe that owning a home in Canada is only for the rich. Among those who do not own a home, over 70% have given up on ever owning one. In major cities across Canada, tenants are regularly paying over 50% of their income on shelter, which is a crippling and unsustainable burden.
Income inequality in Canada has hit the highest level ever recorded. The top 20% of Canadians hold more than two-thirds of the country's wealth, averaging $3.4 million per household. By comparison, the bottom 40% of Canadians own only 2.8% of our country's wealth. At the same time, the top 5% of income earners paid a lower overall tax rate in 2022 than the bottom 95%, with the top 1% paying an even lower rate. Welcome to Conservative and Liberal tax policy.
After decades of federal underfunding, Canada's health care system is under serious strain with long wait times, inadequate access to essential services and high levels of burnout among health care workers. Millions of Canadians do not have a family doctor, which is critical to accessing our health care system. I remember campaigning with Jack Layton in 2008 when he pointed out that five million Canadians had no family doctor. We then saw, for the next seven years, a Conservative government under Stephen Harper, and here we are, nine years after that, under the current Prime Minister, and there are more Canadians today who do not have a family doctor after those decades of Conservative and Liberal government in this country.
Thousands of Canadians continue to be harmed by the toxic drug crisis without timely access to publicly funded treatment facilities and other life-saving services. Canada is facing a serious mental health care shortage, with wait times for mental health services especially long for children and youth.
The urgency of climate action cannot be overstated. By 2025, the previous 10 years of climate change will have reduced Canada's GDP by an estimated $25 billion. Without concerted action, by 2030 GDP will be an estimated $35 billion lower than it would have been otherwise, and by 2055 it will be an estimated $100 billion lower. When the Conservatives come talking about the price of the carbon tax, we should ask them what the cost of inaction in dealing with the climate crisis is. It is multiple billions more than the action to deal with it.
Moreover, when governments are forced to cover the costs of climate change by rebuilding damaged infrastructure, paying for increased health care costs and fixing damages from weather-related disasters, including compensating farmers for lost agricultural products, capital is diverted from activities that would drive additional growth.
Youth unemployment in Canada hit 14.5% in August. That is the highest level since 2012, outside the COVID-19 pandemic. Some one million Canadians under 29 are without jobs or training today, as we speak. That is an issue of intergenerational inequity that Deloitte estimates will cost our economy $18.5 billion over the next decade, never mind the cost in broken dreams and shattered lives.
Enhancing productivity is vital for economic growth and competitiveness. However, spending on machinery and equipment by businesses, and on research, development, innovation and training, has been falling as a share of Canada's GDP for decades. Actually, it has been since 2000, and this is despite the large corporate tax cuts introduced at the turn of the century and promoted by both Conservative and Liberal governments. With rapid job creation and population growth, business capital investment has not kept up.
Despite its commitments, the federal government is failing to achieve reconciliation with indigenous peoples. Indigenous housing, water and infrastructure are in perilous conditions. The lack of progress on nation-to-nation governance and the stripping of wealth from indigenous territories have resulted in poverty rates and incarceration levels among indigenous people that are nothing short of shameful. The government has failed to fully implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls for action and the calls for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
New Democrats believe that these crises and other priorities demand urgent and comprehensive action to ensure a prosperous, fair and sustainable future for all Canadians. However, this fall's economic statement has demonstrated once again that the Liberals are out of touch and unable to respond to the realities that Canadians are experiencing. What they have offered today is totally unresponsive to the crises facing our country. They are simply too weak, too self-interested, too full of infighting and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people.
On the other hand, the Conservatives offer no solutions, only a discredited agenda of cuts to the services people rely on, and tax breaks for their friends and the ultrawealthy. They are happy to reinforce disingenuous and insulting characterizations of our country from foreign leaders like Donald Trump, while ignoring the real needs and challenges faced by Canadians. The Conservative approach undermines our values and fails to provide the support and investment required to build a fairer, more prosperous society.
When he was senator, Joe Biden famously said, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” Liberal and Conservative values are very clear to Canadians who have been paying attention to the federal government for the last 25 years. They continually, consistently prioritize the interests of the wealthy and corporate sector over the interests of working and middle-class Canadians. New Democrats say that is wrong, and there is a better way.
For our part, New Democrats are proposing a robust set of policies designed to tackle these challenges head-on. Let us review some of the key NDP proposals that ought to have been included in the fall economic statement.
With millions of Canadians struggling to make ends meet, the NDP pledged to permanently remove the GST from daily essentials and monthly bills, such as all grocery store items; Internet, home phone and cellphone bills; home heating; and diapers and children's clothing. We believe that Canadians deserve a tax cut that will bring immediate and permanent relief.
The GST is a structurally regressive tax that puts a burden on many Canadian households, particularly those who do not receive any rebate. By making it permanent, the NDP knows that Canadians can count on a predictable reduction in costs of 5% on the bills they face every month and cannot avoid, with a measure that businesses can easily administer.
Unfortunately, last week, both the Conservatives and the Liberals voted no to the NDP's motion to permanently scrap the GST on daily essentials and monthly bills. Axe the tax indeed. It seems the only tax the Conservatives want to axe is when it is given to the corporate sector, but when there is a tax cut proposed by the NDP for working and middle-class Canadians, they vote no. That is a shame. This is a prime illustration of what Senator Biden, now President Biden, meant and of where Liberal and Conservative priorities really lie and where their values really are.
New Democrats believe that a youth climate corps would help address both the climate emergency and Canada's youth employment crisis by providing young people with the skills and job experience they need. The NDP's youth climate corps would provide participants with a decent wage and practical training while they engage in work across three critical areas: first, emergency response in the face of extreme weather events such as wildfires, flooding and heat domes; second, strengthening community and environmental resilience to climate change by enhancing natural ecosystems, improving local infrastructure and strengthening community supports in anticipation of climate disruptions; and third, building infrastructure that drives down greenhouse gas emissions. This measure will be of particular assistance in Canada's rural and remote areas, places that especially need our support and development.
New Democrats believe that the federal government should accelerate and expand the Canada public transit fund to enhance public transportation infrastructure across the country. We also have proposed the establishment of a Crown corporation to enhance and make sure that people in rural and remote areas have regular intercity bus service between their communities and major urban centres, because they deserve public transportation as well. By investing in public transit, we can reduce traffic congestion, lower greenhouse gas emissions and provide Canadians with reliable and affordable transportation options.
After decades of neglect, the federal government must support the construction of non-market housing of all types, including community, non-profit and co-operative housing, at the scale and speed needed to meaningfully address the housing crisis. I am shocked to not see profound investment in this area in the fall economic statement.
New Democrats believe we should begin by doubling the percentage of Canada's non-market housing stock to meet the OECD average, which, shockingly, we fall significantly below. By increasing the availability of affordable housing, we can alleviate the burden on low- and middle-income families, reduce homelessness and ensure that all Canadians have access to safe and stable housing. By substantially increasing the amount of non-market housing stock, we can also reduce demand in the market supply, which will reduce market prices and make home ownership available to more Canadians.
The federal government must also take immediate steps to end the financialization of housing, such as by ending the tax exemption for real estate investment trusts. This measure will help curb speculative investments in the housing market, ensuring that homes are treated as places to live, rather than commodities to make money from.
It is trite to say that a healthy population is essential for economic success. The federal government must take strong action to protect our public health care system by enhancing patient care, reversing privatization and addressing the health human resources crisis. Federal funding transfers must be tied to the public delivery of health care services, and the Canada Health Act must be robustly enforced in the face of attacks from Conservative premiers who want to gut public services and privatize delivery, both of which will make health care more expensive and less available to all.
The federal government should also fulfill its commitment to establish a dedicated mental health transfer and provide targeted funding to expand desperately needed mental health services across the country. Mental health is as vital as is physical health. It is also essential to expand access to public addictions treatment and other life-saving services, addressing the urgent needs of those affected by the toxic drug crisis and other substance-use disorders.
On the revenue side, New Democrats believe fair taxation is essential to providing revenue for the services Canadians depend on and to ensuring a sustainable fiscal framework. We note that the former finance minister blew through two of her three so-called financial guardrails, both last year and this year, and likely next year as well. This is because Liberals refuse to address fair taxation in this country.
A key component of this is an excess profits tax on large corporations that have abused their monopoly positions in the marketplace and taken advantage of Canadians. Since 2021, increased corporate profit margins have significantly contributed to high levels of inflation and growing income inequality across the country. Despite the normalization of supply chains and easing of shortages today, Canadian corporations have maintained stratospheric profit levels and sky-high prices on everything from food to energy and rent.
To add insult to injury, inflated profits have not translated into increased investment in the Canadian economy. Instead, they have largely been used for share repurchases and dividends, without contributing to wage growth or productive investment. Despite large corporate tax cuts and other corporate-friendly policies, Canadian businesses have demonstrably failed to invest in the machinery, equipment, innovation and training that are so needed to set the basis for increased Canadian productivity. New Democrats believe it is time we tied all corporate incentivization programs to clear commitments to invest in the Canadian economy.
Advancing indigenous reconciliation is both a moral and economic imperative. According to a recent report from the Assembly of First Nations and Indigenous Services Canada, it will cost $349 billion to close the indigenous infrastructure gap by 2030. However, the report also found that closing that infrastructure gap could generate $635 billion in economic output over the next seven years.
Increased funding for education, health care, housing, infrastructure and clean water in indigenous communities, supporting indigenous land rights and self-governance and implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls' calls for justice will help us unlock the potential that exists in Canada's indigenous communities.
Recent developments in the United States make it clear that Canada needs a comprehensive green industrial policy and a resilient trade strategy to secure our long-term economic prosperity and sustainability. This shift will not only help Canada meet its climate goals but also create high-quality jobs and stimulate economic growth. A renewed trade policy would protect Canadian industries from the volatility of international shock and external pressures, making Canada more self-reliant.
As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted, Canada currently lacks the capacity to produce essential items during a time of crisis, such as masks, ventilators and vaccines, underscoring the need for greater self-sufficiency to critical sectors. The recent comments from the president-elect south of the border provided us with a historic opportunity to diversify our trade markets, including in Europe and Asia-Pacific, taking better advantage of CETA and trade agreements that include Asian tigers like Japan and South Korea.
They also should compel us to embark on a serious made-in-Canada policy, using government procurement measures and incentives geared to national self-sufficiency in key areas. If the United States can have a buy America program, so should Canada have a buy Canadian program.
The crises we face are daunting, but they are not insurmountable. With bold, progressive and forward-thinking policies, we can build a stronger, fairer economy that benefits all Canadians. New Democrats believe in a Canada where everyone can thrive, where science and compassion are at the heart of our policies and where we invest in our future to build an equitable, sustainable society.
We are ready to lead with a vision that puts people first.
