Madam Speaker, it is a privilege for me to stand here this morning to speak on behalf of the many hard-working constituents in Provencher, my riding, to address this budget implementation act.
A government is judged by the condition of its people. Our Prime Minister stated that he should be judged by the prices at the grocery store. As of today, that would be a failing grade. After only eight months, the Prime Minister is already a failure by his own measure. After ten years of Liberal promises, Canadians are poorer, families are struggling to feed themselves, the young cannot start their lives and the old cannot finish their lives in peace.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer called the government's path “stupefying”, “shocking” and “unsustainable”, and said, “if you don't change, this is done.”
The warning could not be clearer, and it reminds me of an old urban legend. This is a transcript of a radio conversation of a U.S. naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995, and the radio conversation was released by the chief of naval operations on October 10, 1995.
The Americans, in their first radio transmission, asked the Canadians to please divert their course 15° to the north to avoid a collision.
The Canadians said that they recommend that the Americans divert their course 15° to the south to avoid a collision. The captain of the U.S. naval ship responded, saying that he is the captain of a U.S. Navy ship, so he would again advise the Canadians to divert their course. The Canadians say again that the Americans should divert their course.
The Americans responded that they are the American carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic fleet, and that they were accompanied by destroyers, cruisers and support vessels. They demanded that the Canadians change their course 15° north.
The Canadians responded that they were in a lighthouse, so it was the Americans' call.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer is our lighthouse, and the Liberals have abandoned all of their previous fiscal anchors. It does not matter how large the Prime Minister's ego is, how global his resume is, how many so-called expert bureaucrats he surrounds himself with, or how loudly he insists that the laws of economics will divert 15° any which way to his will. Reality does not move.
The collision course is set, and the warning light is fixed, but the government is refusing to turn. The Prime Minister's capital budgeting framework hides debt by counting spending as an investment. The Prime Minister spent his career on Bay Street, so maybe it is no surprise that he is still cooking books. In the private sector, he called it creative finance. In government, he calls it capital budgeting.
Conservatives know what it is. It is a credit card budget. Canada now has the fastest-shrinking economy in the G7, a $78.3-billion deficit and interest costs of $55.6 billion annually, which is more than the Canada health transfer and more than the government collects in GST.
Canadians were promised expert prudence. They got more debt. They asked only for honesty and for a government that lives within its means and tells the truth about the books. The Prime Minister campaigned on the promise that we would do things previously thought impossible at speeds we have not seen in generations, but now he warns young Canadians that, because of his failures, we will not transform our economy easily or in a few months, and it will cost sacrifices and take time.
The Prime Minister promised to make life more affordable. Every sign shows the opposite. Food prices are rising nearly 40% faster in Canada than in the U.S. Over 2.1 million Canadians use food banks each and every month, and nearly one in five visitors are employed but still unable to afford food. A few days ago, a friend of mine and his wife went to the grocery store. They set a limit of $200. As they filled their cart, he kept his iPhone calculator in hand, adding up the price of every item. By the time they reached $200, the cart was still nearly empty. It was a few basics, no luxuries, and the bill was already full.
That is the reality for families across the country today. Not long ago, that same $200 would have filled the cart to the top. Most Canadians remember it well, before the Liberal lost decade hollowed out the dollar and drove up the cost of everything. While Canadians count every dollar in the checkout line, the Prime Minister pretends to understand their struggle. He may stage his photo ops in grocery aisles, but let us be honest: He is not the one doing the shopping. The global elite, as he refers to himself, do not push their own carts or calculate the cost of milk.
This budget would make food even more expensive. The industrial carbon tax hits farmers and agri-food on fertilizer, machinery and manufacturing costs. The Liberal fuel standard adds a 17¢-per-litre cost to the price of diesel and gasoline. The Liberal packaging tax adds billions throughout the food supply chain. Food inflation is now so severe that Food Banks Canada gave the Prime Minister an F on poverty and food insecurity. Canadians do not need to settle for this. They remember a time when a fair wage meant a full grocery cart, when the government lived within its means and when ordinary people could afford an ordinary life.
The government said it would build more homes and bring prices down. Instead, housing starts have collapsed 17%, mortgage payments are up two-thirds since 2020, builders are cutting staff and young Canadians with full-time jobs are being told to rent for life.
Canada is expected to rank second worst in the OECD for per capita growth from 2025 to 2030. Investment per worker has fallen 10%, while in the United States, it has risen by 22%.
The Prime Minister said he would spend less and invest more, but what did we get? We got higher spending, lower investment and a larger deficit. Families now pay the price each time they buy food, renew a mortgage or watch their children give up on home ownership dreams.
The new capital budgeting framework was sold as innovation, but was called “overly expansive” and referred to as exceeding international practice by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. It counts subsidies and housing programs as assets. Imagine that. It turns spending into investment and shrinks the deficit on paper, while our deficit and debt keep rising. This pattern defines the government's record.
The Prime Minister promised discipline, but has increased spending by 8% since taking office. He promised transparency, but delayed the public accounts past its legal deadline. He promised a falling debt-to-GDP ratio, yet the PBO confirms it is climbing for the first time in 30 years.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer has done his duty and warned that this path cannot continue. It is Parliament's responsibility to divert its course.
Behind every number is a life that's made harder. The over two million food bank visits in March are not statistics; they are families choosing between groceries and rent, seniors skipping meals for medicine and parents working extra shifts so their children can eat.
Housing shows the same decline. The government's own agency warns that homebuilding will drop 13% over the next three years. Mortgage rates have reached heights not seen in recent years, builders are cutting staff and couples who might have built families are being forced to wait.
Farmers who feed the nation carry the industrial carbon tax on fertilizer and machinery, the 17¢ Liberal fuel standard and the billion-dollar packaging tax that adds billions to the food chain. These measures have made Canadian food unaffordable.
Canadians deserve a government that treats public money as a trust. The Conservative vision begins with restraint and the discipline to live within our means and spend for the good of everyday Canadians. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has already warned the government that its fiscal path is unsustainable, and that borrowing will exceed statutory limits by year-end 2026‑27. No government has the right to hand a country steeped in debt to its children and grandchildren.
The Conservative plan begins with one rule: Every new dollar of spending must be matched by a dollar saved. Waste in bureaucracy, consultants and corporate welfare must end before new promises are made.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer reported $53.9 billion in lost investments since the government took office. We will bring that investment home by rewarding production, by lowering taxes on work, homebuilding and energy, and by unlocking resource development instead of delaying it.
Taxation must again be fair. Families should not bear the cost of a government that spends for political gains. Ending the industrial carbon tax, the Liberal clean fuel standard of 17¢ a litre and the $1-billion packaging tax will lift the burden on farmers, manufacturers, families and, ultimately, all Canadian households. If the government will not divert its course, the opposition will.
A budget that puts Canadians first by telling the truth and respecting taxpayers is not an ambition; it is our responsibility to the Canadian people.