Mr. Speaker, I am thankful to have the opportunity to speak to the budget implementation act and the impact, or lack thereof, that it will have on my constituents in Souris—Moose Mountain.
After two long years without a federal budget, the longest period without a budget in Canadian history, the Liberals have put forward this massive 700-page document that does very little to benefit those living in rural Saskatchewan. To say that I was appalled at the amount of unnecessary spending contained in the budget would be a gross understatement.
Under the government, Canada's deficit in 2020-21 has reached an astounding $354 billion, and just this week, the parliamentary budget officer announced that his analysis actually showed a deficit of $370.8 billion. Furthermore, the budget proposes over $101 billion in new spending over the next three years, over and above the usual amount needed to run the country. This is being done under the guise of helping Canada recover from the pandemic, yet the fact that there is no plan to pay this money back and return to balance shows just how short-sighted this budget truly is.
Another huge area of concern is the fact that both the Prime Minister in his most recent mandate letter to the Minister of Finance as well a report from the parliamentary budget officer indicated last fall that they expected the minister to come up with a new fiscal anchor. This was not done, and there is nothing in the budget indicating that such an anchor has been established. This sets Canada up for further long-term debt.
When it comes to our national debt, the situation is just as bleak. In two years, the Prime Minister will have added half a trillion dollars to our national debt. In six years, he will have almost doubled the $612 billion debt that was in place when he came into power. In fact, by next year, the Prime Minister will have added more to Canada's debt than all previous prime ministers combined. I wish I were exaggerating, but unfortunately the numbers do not lie.
The question that I and many other Canadians have is, who will be paying this back? In her budget speech, the Minister of Finance often spoke about families and their need for support in the short term, but what about the long term? At this rate, my great grandchildren will be paying the price for the government's financial mismanagement, and yet the Liberals continue to spend, spend, spend with no regard for future generations. Not my generation, not my problem seems to be the government's mantra when it comes to fiscal planning.
Speaking of rates, what happens when the interest rates go up? Let us think about that. What the government has presented is an election budget, yet other countries around the world have focused their pandemic budgets on job creation. The United Kingdom has tailored its budget toward funding for infrastructure as well as a super-investor tax credit which creates good jobs and actually gets some boots on the ground. France and Germany are both cutting taxes. These are G7 nations that have lower unemployment rates than we do, yet they create real jobs while we spend money on empty promises.
When I look at this budget through a local lens, it becomes obvious that this election budget was not intended to benefit southeast Saskatchewan. I do recognize that with the pandemic, we need to help those who have been affected by these new challenges, and there are some ways the budget does that. Measures like the suite of emergency financial support programs are essential since the downturn of the oil and gas market over the past seven years coupled with the pandemic has resulted in thousands of lost jobs in the energy industry and to small businesses. However, the non-existent support from the government for our natural resources industry further compounds our challenges.
One area that I was expecting greater support for was the agriculture industry and our Canadian farmers and ranchers. These hard-working people work tirelessly to provide Canada and the world with some of the highest quality produce available. Farmers are essential to our food security, yet the Liberal government has continued to make their lives more difficult and more expensive, especially through the measures like the carbon tax. As of April 1, it was increased to $40 per tonne and will go up to $170 per tonne by 2030.
In the budget, support for our farmers is as usual too little too late. One promise is that the government will provide $50 million for the purchase of more efficient grain dryers. Many will know that a large part of the issue with the Liberal carbon tax is that farmers are being charged huge sums just to dry their grain to get it ready for market. This is a necessary part for farming, and wet weather conditions are not something within a farmer's control. This is not a new issue. As soon as the carbon tax came into effect, and certainly following the harvest from hell, farmers were vocal about their need for greater government support. It has taken two years for anything to be done on this.
At any point during this time, the Liberals could have rectified this issue behind closed doors, but they let farmers suffer while waiting for a long overdue budget to make a flashy announcement in advance of an election. In fact, the Prime Minister 's cabinet appointed Prairies representative, the member for Winnipeg South Centre, recently stated that the added energy costs for farmers, notably for grain drying, had been a serious irritant in the farming community for a number of years. If he knew this, why has it taken so long and not fixed?
It is obvious that the Liberals are simply trying to placate Canadian farmers in advance of an election, but as I said, it is too little, too late.
When I ask Canadians where their food comes from, they unfortunately say the grocery store. I would like people to understand and appreciate the great land stewardship of the farmers who are actually producing that food. Prairie grain farmers adopted zero-till farming techniques decades ago and do not get any recognition for the great work they do in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. According to data released by the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, grain farmers in Canada are already a net-zero industry.
I have heard from many of my farmers who are seeding right now, and we look forward to seeing the crop in the ground, and also during past harvests about the big challenges they have using their energy efficient, carbon-reducing technology and equipment because they do not have proper access to broadband Internet.
Following the presentation of the budget, Ms. Jolly-Nagel, the Saskatchewan director and past president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers stated: “I have trouble downloading software for my equipment now and cannot wait for Earth observation satellites to be designed and sent into space. The federal government has stated it wants a 30% reduction in GHG by limiting nitrogen fertilizer use but has never consulted industry or farmers if this is even achievable.” If the government wants farmers to do more to reduce GHGs, they need to listen to them and understand what rural Canada and rural Saskatchewan really means.
Another area that is important to my riding and to me personally is the use of carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS, to reduce emissions in Canada. Since I became an MP, I have spent much time championing the incredible work that has been done in my riding at the Boundary Dam Power Station, the world’s first large-scale CCUS project. While I am pleased that there is some recognition of CCUS in the budget, the devil is always in the details, or in this case, a lack of detail.
The budget announces $319 million to support research, development and demonstrations that would improve the commercial viability of CCUS technology, but this is already being done. The Shand CCS feasibility study by the International CCS Knowledge Centre indicated that retrofitting their facility with CCUS could be done at 60% of the cost of Boundary Dam Unit 3 CCS and would make the Shand energy source carbon neutral, and some people say carbon negative with the fly ash that they ship to cement companies. Once again, the Liberals prefer to waste time and money on studies that have already been done rather than getting boots on the ground.
There is no indication as to when this money will be available, how it will be available and who will be eligible to receive it. We have seen this with Liberal programs before, such as the clean coal transition initiative, where communities are still struggling today to secure funds under ever-changing rules years after its inception.
The other measure regarding CCUS is an investment tax credit. This is another case of the devil being in the details, as further reading shows that this tax credit will not apply to enhanced oil recovery. By excluding EOR from this tax credit, the Liberal government is creating hurdles for new projects that might have otherwise qualified. The American version of this tax credit, the 45Q, includes enhanced oil recovery, and because of this, Canada will now be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to incentivizing private corporate investment in the energy sector.
In closing, I think that most Canadians can see that this budget is an election budget that is big on idealistic spending without any promise of follow through. It spends taxpayer dollars at an alarming rate while using the pandemic as an excuse to do so. This indiscriminate spending needs to end so that we can work to create a secure Canada for future generations.
The finance minister listed in a number of her “sunny ways” things that were coming. Here is what is not coming: a balanced budget is not coming; lower interest rates are not coming; a reasonable debt and deficit are not coming. What is coming is a future where our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are paying off the debt.
