This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 12 wordsI am splitting my time today with my hon. colleague from Regina—Lewvan.Procedure Claims · 17 wordsI first heard the announcement on Monday morning that the government was starting a sovereign wealth fund. Positioning · 35 wordsThe first thing I thought, I have to admit, was that the government was putting up a big smokescreen because it was going to have a miserable day the next day with the budget announcements.Positioning Claims · 78 wordsYes, the budget is still at a $67 billion deficit for this year.1 It is still the highest budget, and double what Justin Trudeau, the previous prime minister, indicated we would have at this point in time.2 The government sees no reason not to continue the fiscal expansion and to continue debt upon debt for Canadians, and this, as I have come to realize over the last few days, is something the Liberals are actually somewhat serious about, Positioning · 15 wordsbut the seriousness of it has to be questioned, as far as Parliament is concerned.Positioning Procedure · 30 wordsThat is why we are here today: to ask what they are talking about and how they actually mean to structure this and to give them some background on this.Procedure Claims · 11 wordsAs I am sure members know, I used to manage funds. Procedure · 24 wordsHopefully, we can understand the basics of funds here. I do not mean this to be a tutorial for my colleagues across the way, ProcedureClaims · 40 wordsbut there are a whole bunch of gaps in what they are talking about here. There is this whole notion of “announce-ology” that the Liberal government seems to continue to go through, where they are going to do big things. Positioning · 10 wordsWell, what do the details of those things look like?Positioning Claims · 47 wordsThere are a lot of great sovereign wealth funds around the world, across a whole bunch of jurisdictions, including Norway, which we have talked about here a lot, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and other gulf states that are amassing money from surpluses. Those surpluses are often resource-based surpluses. Positioning · 25 wordsWhy do we not have that in Canada? It is because we have been held back on our resource development by a narrow-minded, prejudiced government.Positioning Claims · 18 wordsIt does not like hydrocarbons. It has made that very clear several times in the House of Commons. Positioning · 5 wordsNow, that is a problem.Positioning Procedure · 12 wordsWe take a look at what is happening in the gulf region, ProcedureClaims · 29 wordsand the gulf is full of money. It is buying the patrimony of Europe, buying all kinds of assets in Asia and buying all kinds of assets in Canada. Positioning · 5 wordsWhere is the Canadian wealth?Positioning Claims · 13 wordsIt is going offshore because it does not see the opportunities in Canada. Procedure · 27 wordsLet us get back to the basics here of what we are talking about. What are the definitions of actually getting a sovereign wealth fund in Canada?Procedure Claims · 25 wordsIt is nice to have, if we actually had some money to buy it, but this government thinks, “Don’t worry.3 We’ll just borrow the money.” Positioning · 10 wordsDid anybody notice any borrowing for this in the budget?Positioning Claims · 131 wordsWell, it actually was there. It is actually in the cash flow statement at the end. People think Canada has $1.4 trillion in debt, 4which is an embarrassing number considering where we were a decade ago. We have more than doubled the number over the last decade.5 It is a shame that, on that side of the House, the government would risk Canadians’ money so much that it doubled the debt, and it is continuing on that path. Recently, in March of this year, the Liberals came back and added more space for borrowing for the government, from $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion, 6and so $2.5 trillion is the space it has. Canadians think the government is $1.4 trillion in debt, but its borrowings are actually almost $2 trillion right now.7 Positioning · 10 wordsWhat is the difference between $1.4 trillion and $2 trillion?Positioning Claims · 42 wordsIt is all the money the Liberals are plowing into the Crown corporations, such as the Bank of Canada. Nobody sees the deficit and the debt incurred by the Bank of Canada because it continues to float. It has assets and liabilities, Positioning · 13 wordsand who knows what it is worth until one actually writes it off?Positioning Claims · 13 wordsWell, it is actually almost $900 million in debt, 8or almost $1 billion. Procedure · 5 wordsMembers can think about that.Procedure Claims · 45 wordsIt is nowhere on the government’s balance sheet, except in the cash flow statement, the amount of money it is borrowing from foreign institutions, which we have to pay Canadian taxpayers’ money to in order to get that money to float the way government operates. Positioning · 3 wordsIt is embarrassing.Positioning Claims · 99 wordsWe have to make sure we understand exactly how broke this government is making Canada and how dependent we are on foreign wealth already. Doubling down, as the Liberals continue to do, there is this $25 billion extra they are talking about, which is going to add to that balance sheet, but members will notice, again, that it did not show up in the budget, except for the $6 million they were going to spend to stand up the office, to hire a bunch of people to go through the effort of what this looks like along the way.9 Positioning · 15 wordsIt is an embarrassing amount of money to have to spend to establish a fund.Positioning Reasoning · 25 wordsWe can ask any fund manager why, if they got a captive $25 billion, it would take them $6 million to stand up that fund. Claims · 26 wordsIt effectively means structure. Most of those structures are pretty well known. It should cost almost nothing. If it costs $1 million, they have drastically overspent; Positioning · 28 words$6 million is an embarrassment. I know where that money is going to go because the government over there has a lot of pockets it needs to fill, PositioningClaims · 19 wordsand that is part of the problem of why we are in such a debt predicament in this country. Procedure · 26 wordsLet us go into definitions, because of the definition of a sovereign wealth fund, which we have already heard from many people along the way here.Procedure Reasoning · 26 wordsWe invest surplus funds in other places. We do not want to invest in our own economy, because we would create what is called Dutch disease. Positioning · 12 wordsI know my colleagues across the way would not know about this, PositioningClaims · 93 wordsbut Holland, in the Netherlands, actually had a problem where it had too much revenue coming in and being cycled through one sector of its economy, and that starved the rest of its economy. It is called Dutch disease for a reason.10 Every country uses that example now and makes sure they do not double down on one sector in any economy and make it too prevalent in their total economy. However, step one in setting up a sovereign wealth fund is to get a surplus, not a $67-billion deficit like this year’s. Reasoning · 95 wordsWe actually have to get back to balance and start creating a surplus and then probably pay off our Canadian government debt before we start sinking a surplus into new spending vehicles. The best wealth is when we do not lose money. The number one rule for making money is to not lose money. If someone is a fund manager, they should not lose money, but be cautious and prudent with other people’s money. It is one of the first things we learn in finance. Funds start with one thing, and that is fiscal discipline. Claims · 16 wordsThe government does not have any fiscal discipline. We have seen that in so many ways, Promise · 24 wordsand we will have more egregious examples to show in the next few weeks in Parliament of how the government will be spending willy-nilly. Claims · 7 wordsIt has been spending willy-nilly and unaccountably, Positioning · 9 wordsand making sure it gets all its fish fed.Positioning Procedure · 10 wordsI know that is a funny way to put it, ProcedureClaims · 9 wordsbut that is the way Liberals actually say it. Positioning · 7 wordsIt is time to feed the fishes.Positioning Claims · 44 wordsAll the little people who support the Liberals with all their narratives along the way give them money, and those little people get the narrative back. It is a circular economy, as they call it. We already have a lot of funds in Canada. Procedure · 39 wordsI brought a list of them here. I know I am not going to get midway through my speech, because I have a lot to say here, but let us look at all the funds the government already has.Procedure Claims · 33 wordsThere are a bunch of them. I think when the government put this one forward, all it did was cut and paste from a bunch of the other funds it had put together, Positioning · 6 wordswhere it is wasting Canadians’ money.Positioning Claims · 8 wordsThere is the Canada Development Investment Corporation, CDEV.11 Positioning · 12 wordsWho do they think put the money into the Trans Mountain pipeline?12Positioning Claims · 77 wordsIt came through CDEV. The Trans Mountain pipeline cost $35 billion.13 There are a whole bunch of other investments in CDEV. I think about how big that fund is and why we need another fund now for the benefit of Canadians. It is a wealth fund. It is not a wealth fund; it is a way to tap into a whole bunch more debt and make money less relevant for Canadians. Next is the Canada Growth Fund.14 Positioning · 3 wordsWhat a joke.Positioning Claims · 79 wordsIt is a way of financial manipulation, but again, it is billions upon billions of dollars. The government allocates another silo of Canadians’ money that it is trying to take and actually borrow against. We talked about that balance sheet to borrow and pay money on, because the government wants to pick certain things in the economy that are going to move its people forward. The Canada Infrastructure Bank is an example.15 The Canada Infrastructure Bank was set up. Positioning · 5 wordsIt is a joke, frankly.Positioning Claims · 92 wordsIt was set up and there were a whole bunch of infrastructure funds in Canada that wanted to invest in Canada. I think about our investment deficit at this point in time. A whole bunch of funds were set up to invest in infrastructure in Canada and then suddenly the government put together a fund and all those funds had to pay their investors back or invest outside Canada, because the government does not know what it is doing on infrastructure. The government does not know what it is doing on debt. Positioning · 3 wordsIt was terrible.Positioning Procedure · 16 wordsI am only going to get partway through this list, because it is a long list.Procedure Claims · 83 wordsWe have the Export Development Canada.16 We have Canada account by EDC, 17which is another account. There are two accounts in one organization. We have FinDev Canada, 18which has billions of dollars to invest.19 We have the Business Development Bank of Canada, with over $55 billion.20 We have the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 21which has billions of dollars that it invests on behalf of Canadians.22 There is Farm Credit Canada.23 The Canada Strong fund is a new one.24 They cut and paste, Procedure · 3 wordsas I say.Procedure Positioning · 12 wordsIt is a wonderful way to do something without any principles whatsoever.Positioning Claims · 53 wordsThere are a bunch of other ones like the strategic investment fund, another replication the Liberals are going to have to go through here. There was the sustainable development technology fund. I remember the $400-million boondoggle where the government was caught shovelling a whole bunch of money into the pockets of its friends.25 Positioning · 4 wordsThis is another boondoggle.Positioning Procedure · 41 wordsI know I am going to run out of time here very quickly, and I want to get to the conclusion of my speech, because I am not going to get to too much else. I had a lot to say, ProcedureAside · 15 wordsso if anyone wants to hear from me again, they can just let me know.Aside Positioning · 18 wordsThe fact is that setting up this fund is one of the worst things the government can do.Positioning Claims · 15 wordsThe government is borrowing tens of billions of dollars to create another state-directed investment vehicle.26 Procedure · 11 wordsParliament must first answer the very question that frames today’s debate: ProcedureThe question · 10 wordsIs this truly the most responsible path forward for Canadians?
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