Human Resources committee  For many years, there has not been growth in purpose-built rentals in Canada, and the RCFI program was developed specifically to provide new rental housing for middle-class Canadians versus people at lower income levels. I know that when you're actually looking at the rents that are being charged for RCFI projects, it's important to compare the rents not to the market in general but to the rents for new buildings that are being constructed.

Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1  As someone who has prepared thousands of tax returns over the last 30 years, the vast majority of them for middle-class Canadians, I can assure this House that this is simply not true. I could provide example after example of people whose personal income taxes have in fact increased substantially since 2015.

The Budget  It is about meeting the urgent needs of today and about building for the long term. It is a budget focused on middle-class Canadians and on pulling more Canadians up into the middle class. It is a plan that embraces this moment of global transformation to a green, clean economy. This budget addresses three fundamental challenges.

Finance committee  Bill C-30 is an essential piece of legislation that, once enacted, will allow us to implement our plan to finish the fight against COVID, create jobs and a swift recovery from the COVID recession and lay a foundation for robust, inclusive, green, long-term economic growth. This budget is about helping middle-class Canadians, helping workers and helping more Canadians to join the middle class. It is about embracing this moment of global transformation to a greener, cleaner economy. It is a plan that will help Canadians and Canadian businesses heal the wounds of COVID and come roaring back.

COVID-19 Emergency Response  I feel this is a tremendous disrespect to Canadian taxpayers because we are seeing regular hard-working middle-class Canadians struggling through yet another wave of lockdowns, and they will be the ones who will pay for all this Liberal borrowed debt through tax hikes. Why is the minister sticking hard-working Canadians with the bill and allowing rich money managers to make millions on taxpayers?

Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1  The budget I presented to the House on April 19 contains further details about the plan. The budget focuses on middle-class Canadians and seeks to help more Canadians join the middle class. It is also in line with the global shift to a green, clean economy. This plan will help Canadians and Canadian businesses heal the wounds left by COVID-19 and come back stronger than ever.

The Economy  We have put, through CERB, direct income supports into the pockets of nine million middle-class Canadians. We have, from the very beginning, been supporting Canadians with programs, and not just CERB. If we go back several years, there was the Canada child benefit, which stopped child care cheques from being sent to millionaires, so we could leave nine out of 10 families better off.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm also a past president of some other national farmer associations, providing about $3 billion in GDP and 30,000 jobs to middle-class Canadians. The workforce needs in Canada's agriculture industry are something that CAHRC has been examining for more than 10 years. Through our focused labour market intelligence research, it's clear that the industry cannot continue to produce healthy, safe and affordable food for Canadians and for global consumers without ensuring that workers are secured and in place to do their jobs.

The Budget  When reviewing this document, it is absolutely staggering to think that each of us owes a federal debt share of over $33,000. The government members cannot argue that they are supporting middle-class Canadians when they put the middle class and those suffering in poverty this much into debt. The government members also cannot argue that they are supporting future generations when they are spending the very savings of those generations on Liberal priorities of the day, right now and in the near future.

The Budget  Budget 2021 addresses two fundamental challenges and includes measures that will benefit my constituents in Pontiac, middle-class Canadians, as well as science, research and innovation in Canada. The first challenge is definitely to finish the fight against COVID-19. That means buying vaccines and supporting provincial health care systems, among other critical health priorities.

The Budget  Since day one, this government has made consistent efforts to support the middle class. Early in both of our mandates, we cut taxes for middle-class Canadians. Millions of Canadians are benefiting from these measures and the reason for them is quite simple. We cannot have a strong economy without a strong middle class. It is a matter of fairness.

Taxation  Any suggestion otherwise is false. In fact, we have been working hard to make home ownership more affordable for middle-class Canadians with our first-time home buyer incentive. The Conservatives, time and again, try to suggest otherwise, but they are engaging in falsehoods.

The Economy  Speaker, with great respect to my hon. colleague, the line of questioning he just launched is absolutely ludicrous. From day one, we have made it a priority to support middle-class Canadians and have not been afraid to ask the wealthiest Canadians to pay more. The very first thing we did when we came into office was to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% and cut them for the middle class.

Housing  As part of the national housing strategy, we introduced the first-time home buyer incentive, which will help middle-class Canadians achieve their dream of owning a home by lowering their monthly mortgage payments without increasing the down payments. In the fall economic statement, we committed to expand the program to be more reflective of the financial realities of first-time home buyers in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria.

International Trade  If a full buy American exemption is not granted to Canada, what is the Liberals' plan to stop good-paying, middle-class Canadian manufacturing jobs from packing up and moving south of the border?