House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 50% of the vote.
Business of Supply December 9th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, you went out of your way before the vote to point out that members are not allowed to come and go during the vote. I did note that the NDP leader came in right in the middle of the vote, having missed the fact that the vote was on his own words.
Would you please call the NDP leader to order for having had his team vote against his own words?
Finance December 9th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of non-partisanship, we have put forward a motion inspired by the leader of the NDP. He has said that the Prime Minister is “weak”, greedy, “selfish and...beholden to corporate interests”. He has pointed out that the Prime Minister has violated the rights of workers. We took the NDP leader's words and put them in a motion that includes non-confidence.
Will the Prime Minister allow the NDP leader a free vote so that he can vote non-confidence?
Finance December 9th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, what the Liberals have amassed is a lot of debt. In fact, they have doubled the debt. This Prime Minister has added more debt than all prior prime ministers combined, which has caused the worst inflation in 40 years, and is now rising as the debt is rising. The finance minister said that she had a guardrail for the deficit; it would not go beyond $40 billion. If the Liberals go up to $40 billion, that means they have hit the guardrail. If they go higher than $40 billion, they have gone through the guardrail. What is on the other side of a guardrail? It is a cliff. Is this minister leading us off a cliff?
Finance December 9th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, after doubling the debt with inflationary spending, doubling the cost of housing with more bureaucracy that blocks building, doubling the number of people using food banks with carbon taxes on farmers and truckers who bring us our food, finally the Liberals are planning a fall update but will do it in the snow on December 16. Our message is “stop”: Stop the inflationary spending; stop the tax increases on food and homes; stop indebting Canadians. Will they please just stop?
Finance December 9th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, he is so proud of an update that his government wants to bury in the snow.
We want the government to stop taxing people. Eliminating the GST on new homes would be one way to end the inflationary taxes that have driven up the cost of living.
We also want the government to keep its promises. The minister said that the deficit would not exceed $40 billion. Will she keep that promise?
Finance December 9th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, just before Christmas, under a blanket of snow, the minister is finally going to present her economic update. She will do so after this Prime Minister has doubled the national debt, adding more debt than all other previous prime ministers combined. He has doubled the cost of housing and created more bureaucracy, which prevents housing construction. He has doubled the number of people using food banks because of taxes on food.
We are asking for just one thing: stop raising taxes, stop the inflationary spending and stop putting Canadians in debt.
Business of Supply December 9th, 2024
Madam Speaker, I will answer the member's questions very directly. We are not going to be bringing in a right-to-work law.
The second question is whether we will stand with the New Democrats for unions. That is exactly what I am asking him to do today. We have a motion in the House of Commons today that condemns the government for robbing workers of the right to strike and votes non-confidence in the government that the NDP leader has said is greedy, corporate-driven and anti-worker.
We are ready to stand up today on that vote. The question is whether the NDP will stand by its own words, stand by workers, or will it sell out once again for the Prime Minister?
Business of Supply December 9th, 2024
Madam Speaker, he says that eliminating the GST on apartments has not yet reduced the cost of houses.
That is because houses are not apartments. There is a difference between an apartment and a house. Eliminating taxes on apartments is about reducing the cost of apartments. Eliminating the GST on houses is about reducing the cost of houses.
Does that help the member?
Business of Supply December 9th, 2024
Madam Speaker, I do not know the member's mayor, so I cannot comment on that, but I know that his mayor's MP is incompetent. We know that because since he became the MP, housing costs have doubled in Saint John. He was not able to get the Energy East pipeline approved. He squeals away that he does not like the carbon tax but then votes to quadruple that same tax. I do not know if that is duplicity or incompetence, but it is probably a combination of the two.
One mayor was complaining the other day. The mayor in Aurora said he wants me to give the GST from new homes to him. Can members imagine that? He said to do away with this idea of axing the GST on new homes and just give him the money. Every time someone buys a home in Aurora, the GST would go to the mayor instead.
If that was going to help build homes, it already would have. His revenues are up 192% while population growth and inflation have been 62% in the last 15 years. What has that done? It has driven up housing costs. We need less money for politicians and fewer taxes for home buyers.
Business of Supply December 9th, 2024
Madam Speaker, we just learned that the Minister of Finance will finally present her economic statement on December 16. This will be the first time in the history of our country that the fall economic statement is presented so late. The government dragged its feet because it wants to avoid revealing that this Prime Minister is weak and has lost control of spending, deficits, taxes and the cost of living.
We have one message. We are asking for only one thing in this economic statement. We want the government to stop its inflationary spending that is driving up the cost of living, stop its job-killing tax hikes, stop putting Canadians in debt and stop threatening our social programs by making irresponsible decisions. That is what the Conservatives are asking for.
We rise today to call on the government to eliminate the taxes on houses and condos. The bulk of housing costs for Canadians are not incurred to pay carpenters, materials or land. It is the taxes and red tape from all three levels of government that increase housing costs and make it impossible for young people to purchase a home. That is why common-sense Conservatives will get rid of the GST on new homes and save Quebec families up to $50,000 when they buy a nice home.
This is where we differ from the other parties. They believe that the government should take the money and give it to next level of government, which would give it to yet another level of government, which would, in turn, give it to the bureaucrats, who, in the end, would approve the housing. We feel that there is a faster route between two points, and that is a straight line. That is why we propose putting the money straight into the pockets of homebuyers by lowering their taxes.
Based on the data published by the government about the GST exemption for rental property, we estimate that our proposed measure would help build 30,000 more homes per year. Lower taxes on housing means more home construction. This is the solution that will really deliver results for ordinary Canadians.
The part I am most proud of is that we will do away with the housing accelerator fund, because this program actually slows down the construction of housing. I am very proud to announce that we will eliminate this program and save the $8 billion the Liberal government is planning to pump into it, because this Liberal program will only increase bureaucracy and give more money to greedy politicians. I find it a bit pathetic that the Minister of Housing is calling mayors to tell them he has sent them big cheques. He is telling them they must send a letter asking for his program to remain in place, even though it has slowed down housing construction. Obviously, these politicians are agreeing to this because they want taxpayer money. Politicians want money, but we are not here to work for other politicians. We are here to work for taxpayers and for young people who want to buy a home.
That is why I will be very proud to cut these programs. That is not because these programs do not help. It would be incorrect to say that, because, in fact, the programs actually cause harm. Every time that bureaucracies receive money, the problem is not that they do not help. The problem is that they cause harm. Multi-layered bureaucracies prevent the building of new homes. We know this because, in the past 20 years, municipal revenues have ballooned twice as fast as inflation and population growth combined. If giving more money to municipalities was enough to speed up the construction of affordable homes, we would have the most affordable housing in the world. That is not the solution.
The solution is to get rid of the bureaucracy, cut taxes and leave money in the pockets of the people actually doing the building and buying the homes. That is what we intend to do by cutting the GST on new homes sold, which will help every Canadian family save up to $50,000.
We now learn that the Minister of Finance is finally going to introduce her fall economic update on December 16. She calls it a “fall update”. Santa Claus will already have been preparing to lift off from the North Pole and the snow will have been falling. The leaves have long disappeared into the earth, they have disintegrated and biodegraded because it has been so long since those leaves fell, yet we are waiting until December 16 because she wants to hide that the weak Prime Minister has lost control of deficits, spending and our economy. We will see if she keeps her solemn commitment to a $40-billion deficit or if that promise will also go by the wayside.
That is why we have only one request: stop, just stop, in the name of God. The Liberals can stop the inflationary spending, stop doubling debt and stop driving up taxes on starving Canadians. They can stop everything they are doing until we have a carbon tax election, at which time common-sense Conservatives can axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. Also, they can stop taxing new homes. That is why common-sense Conservatives are proposing to get rid of the GST on new homes to save up to $50,000 on a home for a young family trying to start out. After the Liberal government doubled the cost, it is the least we could do.
Liberals would rather have the money go to bureaucrats. They believe in trickle-down government. They take from the people and give it to one government, which gives it to another government that gives it to a third government that gives it to some bureaucrats. These bureaucrats, apparently, are going to start shuffling papers more quickly to eventually approve some homes. It is not that the housing accelerator program, which I plan, with delight, to get rid of, has not helped; it is that it has made the problem so much worse. When more money is given to bureaucrats, it is not that they do not do helpful things; it is that they stand in the way and cause even more harm.
One developer said just the other day, “Over the last 10 years, the list of application requirements has increased exponentially, and so has the number of bureaucrats looking at your application. And there’s often a pattern of staff waiting till the last day — say on Day 29 of 30 — they write back with a comment (pertaining to) something minor, which triggers another cycle. Imagine three or four such review cycles.”
The more of these bureaucrats, the more layers and the more delay. By getting rid of this program alone and doing nothing else, we will speed up housing construction. Yes, there will be greedy, fat-cat, big-city politicians who will whine and complain because they had expected to have that money to build their empires. My message to them is, “Go on whining and complaining because I am not here to build your empire. I am here to build homes for Canadians.”
That will be the choice in a housing tax election: either the NDP-Liberals, who fund local bureaucracies, or common-sense Conservatives, who axe the tax to build the homes.