Tako Van Popta

“Madam Speaker, I want to start off by answering a question that was thrown from across the way in the form of a heckle. The Conservatives were asking why we did it, trying to imply it was the Conservative Party that ultimately led the government of the day to bring forward Bill C-38. I would like to share with the House my interpretation of why we are here today debating Bill C-38. All we have to do is take a look at what took place in the last federal election. We had a Prime Minister who worked extensively with candidates and, through that, came up with a policy position that dealt with an issue that was close to his heart: the issue of affordability. The Prime Minister made this very clear when he became the leader of the Liberal Party, and thereby the Prime Minister of Canada, when the first decision he made was to get rid of the carbon tax. He believed it was important to give that tax break to Canadians. That was 17¢ a litre, and even more for diesel. I believe that from day one to today, we have seen a Prime Minister who is committed to the issue of affordability and making life more affordable for Canadians as much as possible. It is as simple as that. Today, the Conservatives talk about the tax break on gasoline, saying it is their idea. If that makes them sleep better at night, they should go ahead, but I can tell the House that after the last provincial election, Wab Kinew did the same thing. He got rid of the tax on gas, the excise tax, to give Manitobans a break on the price of gas, dealing with the issue of affordability. I guess the Conservatives might have borrowed or stolen the idea from Wab Kinew, a New Democrat premier. I say that because I truly believe and can promise every member opposite that the Prime Minister and all Liberal members of Parliament understand the issue of affordability. This is one of the reasons we are not only suggesting that we need to pass Bill C-38, but why we have seen many initiatives, with the leadership of this Prime Minister, being brought forward to support Canadians at a time when we believe it is necessary. Affordability is an issue that goes even beyond Canadian borders. Not all governments are actually taking the types of actions this government has taken. I would suggest that individuals who are following the debate tonight, in particular my Conservative friends across the way, take a look at the broader picture and take a look at the types of actions this government has actually taken since the last federal election. If we stick strictly to the issue of affordability, it takes place in many different ways and I would like to refer to a few of those ways. We can talk about the fuel excise tax suspension that was put into place during our spring economic update, which provided tax relief. Then, as we approached Labour Day weekend, it was decided that we would once again extend that suspension. We were looking at a number of factors when the decision was ultimately made that it would be in the best interests of all of us to extend that suspension. That is, in fact, what Bill C-38 would do. It would put money in the pockets of Canadians because of the price of gas, something that no one inside this chamber actually controls. None of us controls the world price on gas. It is not like we can click our heels and the war in the Middle East or in Europe will come to an end. These are things that are having a profound impact on the world price of oil. We do not know when they are going to come to an end. We do not know how the price is going to be impacted over the coming months, yet I have seen some Conservative MPs, in a very irresponsible way, stand up to say they are going to abolish it completely, forever. That is what they imply in their comments. Then there are some Conservative MPs who say they would suspend it until Canada Day. They are developing policy on the fly. There is no consistent plan coming out of the Conservative Party. There is no change coming from the leadership and actions that we witness by members of the Conservative Party. It is unfortunate, because I believe that Canadians were very clear in the last federal election. They saw a detailed Liberal election commitment or platform, and Bill C-38, the bill we are debating this evening, is one piece of legislation that reflects what we told Canadians we would do. We could take a look at other measures that have taken place. I could talk about an initiative that took place after getting rid of the carbon tax. It was a tax break for 22 million Canadians. More than 22 million Canadians benefited from a reduction of, I believe, 13% to 14%. It was a significant amount of money. A significant number of Canadians directly benefited from that particular program. One of the issues recognized by the Liberal caucus was grocery prices. That is why we came up with the Canada groceries benefit program. We converted the GST rebate program by enhancing it greatly and providing one-time support to form a new program that helps millions of Canadians, especially those in the lower- to middle-class group. It puts more money in the pockets of millions. One of the programs the Prime Minister made a commitment to make permanent is a program that I thought everyone inside this chamber would have gotten behind. It is the national school program, which puts food into our schools, to the benefit of 400,000 children in every region of our nation. We listened to what the Conservatives said about that and affordability. I think it went beyond affordability, quite frankly. Despite the benefits of that program, think about what the Conservatives said. We had eight Conservative members say it is a garbage program. We had others say it was not delivering food, that no food was being delivered in our school programs, even though every member has schools that are benefiting directly from that program. Even to this day, Conservatives give the impression and state that they are going to get rid of that particular program. Before I leave that, I want to remind members, as I have done in the past, about Sharon Carstairs, who was the leader of the Liberal Party back in 1988, elected to the Manitoba legislature. That is when I was first elected to the Manitoba legislature. She talked about children not being able to learn on an empty stomach, and that was back in 1988. It is a generational problem. It does not just deal with the issue of affordability. The Prime Minister understood that and has made it a permanent program. Not only does it help with the issue of affordability in a very real and tangible way, but it helps tens of thousands of children while they go to school. In total, it helps 400,000 children. Another program that we continue to support is the dental care program. Imagine the thousands of seniors benefiting. It is amazing that a Conservative member will stand in their place and say that we are not giving enough to seniors, yet they vote against and would take away the dental program. Who do they think is one of the major beneficiaries of the dental program? It is the seniors on fixed incomes across Canada, in every region of our nation. By having a program of this nature, we are seeing more seniors getting dental work done, which is so very important. If they did not get it done, they would end up in our hospitals to get the dental work done. It would happen far too often. For those using the program, it helps on the issue of affordability. I think of the break the government, led by the Prime Minister, gave in regard to the purchase of a first home, exempting the GST. Let us think about that. There are two real benefits, I would argue, to that particular program. First, the individual purchasing a home is saving literally thousands of dollars. It makes it more affordable. As an aside, the cost of homes in general has been going down in many regions of our country. The first-time homebuyer program that exempts the GST on, I believe, homes under $1 million is saving a massive amount of money for a lot of Canadians. That is one benefit through the program. Another benefit is that it increases Canada’s housing stock. Increasing Canada’s housing stock is a good thing that leads to more Canadian lumber being used, more Canadian steel being used and more Canadians working to build. That has been a common theme for this Prime Minister, this government and every Liberal member of Parliament. We are looking at not only indirect benefits, like giving money through tax breaks and providing programs like the dental program and the school food program, but also indirect benefits. Let us think about jobs. Jobs matter. We hear from the Conservatives that in X month jobs went down, in Y month jobs went down and in Z month jobs went down. However, it is important to look at the net number of jobs since we have had our new Prime Minister. It is tens of thousands of jobs. It is over 150,000 net new jobs. This is at a time when we are being challenged by trade and tariff issues from Trump, the President of the United States, not to mention the pressures coming outside of that. At the same time as that has been going on, we have been able to increase the number of net jobs in Canada. Arguably, on a per capita basis, we are doing better than the United States. The Conservatives often talk about the issue of youth unemployment, saying that youth unemployment is high. I agree that it is high. It is not as high as it was back in 2012 when Stephen Harper was the prime minister and the leader of the Conservative Party sat around the cabinet table. It was over 14% back in 2012, compared to last year, when we had just under 14%. It is not just about recognizing the stats. It is about looking at what the government is doing to support our young people by ensuring they can get jobs. I said that there have been 150,000-plus new jobs created in Canada since the new Prime Minister was elected with a new Liberal government. On indirectly creating jobs for young people, we can take a look at the Red Seal program. The Red Seal program, with the certification of it, is an incredible program, and the biggest beneficiaries are the young people of Canada. We are investing in that program to the extent that between 80,000 and 100,000 people will enter the program over the next number of years. They are being supported in a very real and tangible way in the form of a $5,000 grant upon completion, thereby making things like it more affordable. Unlike what Stephen Harper would have done back in the day when he had higher youth unemployment and the Conservatives cut the summer youth program, this government continues to reinforce and support the Canada summer youth program, which often provides Canadians a first job. It often gives them experience. It often gives them the referrals and opportunity to grow and get jobs. What it shows is that the government is very much aware of the issue of affordability and the issue of unemployment, and we continue to push the envelope in growing our economy. On the issue of groceries, I get just as frustrated as most. I want to see more accountability on grocery prices, and we will continue to push for that. I thank the farmers of Canada for the quality product they take out of the fields and barns, and so much more. We not only feed Canadians through our farmers, but also feed the world. As a government, we continue to look at ways in which we can enhance food production here in Canada to become even more sovereign, like promoting, encouraging and supporting things like greenhouses. Imagine more vegetables growing year-round in Canada because of a government initiative. These are the types of actions we have taken in a very short period of time, along with numerous more, but I do not have unlimited time to talk about them. I would love to talk about issues of trade. I would love to be able to talk about issues like building and capital investment funds or a national sovereignty fund. There is so much there because we as a government understand that to build a stronger and healthier Canada, we have to be prepared to invest. We have had budgets invest in Canadians to encourage Canada to continue to be the best country in the world to call home.”