Kevin Lamoureux

“Mr. Speaker, to conclude my earlier speech on Bill C-30, the Liberals brag about $37 billion in spending, but they should walk into any grocery store in Long Range Mountains and ask families how they are managing. They do not want to hear about billions for international conferences. They want to know how they can afford to drive their kids to hockey or keep food on the table. Seniors on fixed incomes are falling behind. Entrepreneurs are wondering how to make payroll instead of how to grow. At a time when we should be bringing costs down, this bill proposes a sovereign wealth fund with no wealth behind it, only borrowed money. The cost of servicing the Liberal debt will reach $59 billion this year. That is more than the federal government transfers for health care, and it costs every Canadian family $3,400 just to cover the interest. Despite this unprecedented spending, our economic fundamentals are weakening. We face some of the worst indicators in the G7: high debt, unaffordable housing and weak productivity. Newfoundland and Labrador has the resource potential to be a global energy superpower, but we have been held back by a Liberal wall of regulatory bottlenecks and a punishing industrial carbon price. Conservatives believe Canada can do better. We believe in fiscal responsibility, lower taxes and unlocking our natural resources so that Canadians benefit from our country’s wealth. We have enormous resource potential, but we need the government to get out of the way so Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can do what we have always done: work hard and provide for our families. Canadians are not asking for more Liberal empty announcements. They are asking for a government that understands the pressures they face and their realities. The people of Long Range Mountains are resilient. We have survived the hardest winters and the toughest seas, but we should not have to survive the Liberal government’s costly credit card economic policies. Bill C-30 fails to provide relief or a sustainable path forward. Therefore, I cannot support this legislation.”