Lisa Raitt

[Finance, February 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, that was a selective reading of his campaign promises.

Nonetheless, the minister's mandate letter goes on to say the following as well: “It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we fulfill our promises, while living within our fiscal plan.”

My question is again for the Minister of Finance. Is a $30 billion deficit living within his fiscal plan?

[Finance, February 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, a minister's fundamental job is to fulfill his or her mandate letter, and the Minister of Finance's letter tells him that he has to implement campaign promises.

What do we have so far? So far, we have discovered that the Liberals' tax scheme would cost Canadian taxpayers a billion dollars. We know that they have blown through their deficit cap of $10 billion. We also know now that they have no plan to return to a balanced budget, ever. Those are three broken campaign promises, and the minister is not fulfilling his mandate letter.

My question is simple. Is the minister just making this up as he goes along, or is he actually going to execute on the letter from the Prime Minister?

[Finance, February 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we look forward to the budget of 2016 as well, because we will actually get a sense as to what the Liberals are going to be doing to the country to not put it on the right track.

We began pre-budget consultations yesterday in committee. That is important because for the first time ever the Canadian public is hearing the costs associated with Liberal platform promises for spending. Spoiler alert: it is in the billions, and it is a big-ticket item.

Again for the Minister of Finance, how much of his $30 billion deficit is actually going to be in these spending promises made in their Liberal platform?

[Finance, February 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, tax changes that do not cost taxpayers a dime, $10 billion deficit caps, and a balanced budget at the end of the mandate; what are these three things? They are broken Liberal promises, straight out of the platform. It is actually breathtaking to see how quickly these platform promises have been broken in the last 100 days.

Canadians care about balanced budgets, and they care about deficits, because they pay for them at the end of the day through loss of jobs and higher taxes. Therefore, let us ask the Minister of Finance again today. Could he please level with Canadians, because they do care, and tell us how much the deficit is going to be? Is it going to be $30 billion, as we are reading in the reports?

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would give some advice to the Minister of Finance, that when he is making serious promises to serious families with respect to middle income and how much money they are going to have at the end of the day, they better fulfill them, because families are counting on them.

On the Canada child benefit, I have a very specific question for the minister. Now that the government is planning on it being tax-free, can the minister confirm for us that the provinces will not be adversely affected by the tax treatment changes to this cheque?

[Finance, February 16th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, to do a little recap now that we are back in the House, there were three major promises made by the Liberals before they became government.

One was that any tax changes would be revenue neutral. We know that is not true. Two was that there would be a $10 billion deficit, a modest one. We think that will not be true. Three, they said they would balance the budget by the end of their mandate, which we understand from press clippings this week is not the case. The Prime Minister told the press agent that, indeed, it would not be going back to balance.

My question for the Minister of Finance is this. Can he at least tell us what the deficit cap will be in the budget?

[Business of Supply, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, most recently in New Brunswick, the minister of finance and government there had to change their income tax rates as a result of changes that were made by the Liberal government to its income tax rates, regarding taxing higher tax brackets. I would like the parliamentary secretary to guarantee for me in the House that, when the Liberals introduce their new child benefit, which will be tax-free, they will not be detrimentally affecting the finances of our provinces.

[Finance, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I found that really funny. It is going to be hard after that. It is kind of weird.

One of the things I did note in committee today, in all fairness, is that we do not want pre-budget consultations at the committee to hold up the budget. Canadians want a budget. They want a plan. They want to know what is going on.

My question to the Minister of Finance is pretty simple. Does he feel he has the ability to actually make a decision and tell us when the budget will be?

[Finance, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, at the first finance committee meeting today, on our suggestion, it was agreed that we do some pre-budget consultations, bringing in witnesses from across Canada.

A suggestion was made as well that the Minister of Finance appear at the committee.

My question for the minister is this. Will he take the invitation and appear before the committee for pre-budget consultations?

[Business of Supply, February 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, in my eight years as minister, I enjoyed great relationships with all my departments, and indeed my deputy ministers, and I can count them as friends as I go through my life. I know the respect that the previous government had for them, regardless of what the hon. members says across respecting it.

Finance officials will know that they can be proud of the fact that they helped steer us through the great recession. They were the ones who helped us become number one in the G7. They helped to create one million net new jobs. They helped support the best finance minister in the world, which, I would daresay, is a title that we will not be seeing in a long time with respect to the current government.

I have three questions for the minister. If he could answer them, it would be great.

When is the budget? How much is the deficit? How is he going to get back to his surplus?