Justin Trudeau

[Indigenous Affairs, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to end boil water advisories across the country. When we took office in 2015, there were 109 long-term boil water advisories. We have now lifted about 135 or 140, perhaps even a few more. We are going to continue to lift long-term boil water advisories in ways that are building infrastructure, supporting communities and solving this generations-long problem.

We are here to continue to work with indigenous communities on solving these problems, in true partnership, in building for the long-term future every Canadian and indigenous person deserves.

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, thanks to our sound fiscal management, inflation is coming down and is back in the Bank of Canada's target zone. Interest rates will also begin to fall in the months ahead, we are almost certain of it.

The reality is that the Leader of the Opposition is conflating two things: the government's very strong fiscal position and the situation of families who need more help.

I suggest using the government's strong position to help families. The Conservative leader, in contrast, says that the government should cut services to Canadians. He is wrong.

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we clearly see the fundamental choice Canadians are facing in the next election.

Should a government put its fiscal position in service of Canadians to invest in communities and invest in housing, or should it make cuts to programs to further improve its fiscal position, which is already the best in the G7?

The Conservative leader wants ideology-driven austerity and cuts. We want to make investments for Canadians.

I know what Canadians are going to choose.

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, as people are well aware, it takes years for investments in housing to have an impact.

When he was the minister responsible for housing and his former government was in power, they spent virtually nothing on housing. They made no investments in housing for 10 years. Then the Conservatives were surprised to see a housing crisis beginning in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Of course that was because the Conservative government had underinvested in housing for so long.

We have been there to invest in communities and to help Canadians.

[Housing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we have invested $900 million in Quebec alone through the housing accelerator fund. It has been so well received by Quebeckers that the Quebec government chose to add $900 million to the federal investment, because it knew the program would deliver housing across Quebec.

We are here to work in partnership with municipalities and provinces to invest in more housing, while the ideologically driven Leader of the Opposition calls for austerity and cuts, saying that if the government spent less, people would have more homes.

That is not true. He is wrong.

[Official Languages, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I would be delighted to be able to work with the Bloc Québécois to defend francophone communities across the country, but if French starts doing better and better in Canada, that it will be bad for their dream of separatism. That is why they do not care about the fate of French outside Quebec. They want to show that Quebec is the only place where French can be protected.

We need to protect French in Quebec and that is why we are investing to do just that, but we will also protect French everywhere in Canada.

[Official Languages, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the member apologized and withdrew the offensive word.

We will continue to be there to defend French and the francophonie around the world and across Canada. Unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois cannot say the same after attacking a Franco-Ontarian and minority language communities across the country.

We are always going to be there. We will be there to defend French in Quebec, with billions of dollars in investments, and we will be there for minority communities across the country, as we have always been.

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer and far many more experts and economists have clearly demonstrated that the money that returns to Canadians through the Canada carbon rebate four times a year is greater than eight out of 10 Canadians pay every year with the price on pollution. Those are the simple facts. We will continue to invest in Canadians. We will continue to support with affordability. We will continue to put the best balance sheet in the G7 in the service of Canadians through investments and support, unlike the cuts he is proposing.

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, as opposed to the Leader of the Opposition's campaign to simply axe the facts, we are going to continue to stand with the science, the evidence, the research and the economists, who have all pointed out, including the Parliamentary Budget Officer, that the Canada carbon rebate puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 families in the jurisdictions across the country in which it is and is effective in bringing down our emissions while creating economic growth as we invest in cleaner technology and good jobs and careers for the future. We have a plan for the economy and the environment. He does not.

[Carbon Pricing, May 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, eight out of 10 Canadians, middle-income and lower-income Canadians primarily, do better with the Canada carbon rebate that lands in their bank accounts four times a year because of the price on pollution.

If the leader opposite actually cared about affordability and supporting vulnerable Canadians, he would be standing up to support our measure on dental care, which has now delivered dental care to 30,000 vulnerable seniors across this country already, in just a few weeks. He would be supporting our initiatives to help families. He would be supporting our initiatives to help with child care.