“Madam Speaker, it is great to be here tonight to answer my colleague’s question. Let us put this in perspective. Canada has the strongest fiscal position in the G7. It has the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio. It has a AAA credit rating, which only one other country in the G7 enjoys, which is Germany. This gives it a relatively low debt service cost. The IMF has confirmed that Canada is projected to have the second-strongest growth in the G7. When the current government came into power under the Prime Minister’s leadership, we launched a comprehensive expenditure review, which found $60 billion in savings in terms of optimizing operational budgets and looking for ways to optimize the way the government operates. It was a significant savings exercise. We are focused on a capital budgeting framework, which we developed, and capital formation in the economy is really why the government has moved forward with generational investments in housing, infrastructure and defence, as well as innovation- and productivity-boosting tax measures. This is all to create a virtuous circle within the economy of investment, higher growth and additional tax revenues, which can move us down the path toward reducing our deficit. An “investment supercycle” is what TD Bank has called it recently. I think RBC also called it the same, which is a positive feedback loop of additional investment. We are seeing that working. Canada has added 217,000 jobs, which is twice the rate of the United States. We have had 3.3% second-quarter growth of GDP, the fastest in the G7. Per capita GDP grew by 3.9% in Q2 as real GDP increased and population continued to decline in Canada. Business investment grew at 8.9%, and foreign direct investment is at a nearly 20-year high at $97 billion. We also saw, out of the Prime Minister’s investment summit just recently, that our government attracted from domestic investors, our major financial institutions and pension plans, commitments of almost $500 billion of new investment. Obviously now we have to work to ensure that there is a project pipeline of viable, bankable projects that can be financed by domestic and global investors, but these signs are good news. At the investment summit, as I am sure the member opposite can agree, the Prime Minister announced that we are reducing, cutting in half, our marginal effective tax rate on new business investment, making Canada the most tax-competitive advanced economy in the entire world. That is from a 13% marginal effective tax rate to a 6.4% marginal effective tax rate. That is 10% lower than in the United States, one-third of the OECD average and one-quarter of the G7 average, and it now will apply from 15% of capital assets to 65% of capital assets in our economy. That is going to bring more investment into this country and allow, again, that investment supercycle in Canada to take place. This is responsible fiscal management from our government. I understand the member opposite’s concerns, but I think we have this.”
Statement grade
A–
The average of Signal, Relevance, Respect and Clarity is 89. The grade is held to 85, 30 above Signal.
85 / 100, held down by Signal
A score under 50 is red. Choose a measurement to see where it lost points and why; choose it again to clear.
This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Madam Speaker, Thanks · 13 wordsI thank my colleague for the numbers he is putting on the table.ThanksReasoning · 6 wordsWe do need to address this.Positioning · 58 wordsI know that the government has been very good at always pointing out that it has to do something because there is a crisis.The crisis happens because its members have not paid attention to what is in front of them.They are always responding to what has happened behind them.This is something that has already happened.PositioningClaims · 17 wordsTwenty-nine per cent of our debt has to be refinanced at the Canadian government level this year.1Reasoning · 25 wordsIt is going to have huge impacts upon Canadians writ large.The amount of interest going out the door is going to continue to mount.Claims · 12 wordsThe government continues to run deficits as if there is no tomorrow.Reasoning · 7 wordsWe have to get ahead of this.The ask · 28 wordsThis is my putting on the table for the government, “Address this now before it becomes a crisis and you have to do something in the rearview mirror.”Claims · 22 wordsThis was faced by the Chrétien-Martin government way back when.2The result was, of course, to cut health care funding for Canadians.3Promise · 13 wordsWe want to make sure the government is ahead of it this time.
