Ziad Aboultaif

“Madam Speaker, it is good to be here this morning to combat the misinformation from the Conservatives. I do not know how many falsehoods the former member for Carleton can jam into one opposition day motion, but the Conservatives seem to have outdone themselves this time. No matter how many falsehoods they put together, they cannot constitute a truth, and that is what we see in this opposition day motion. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion. It gives me the opportunity to speak to our government’s plan for building a stronger Canadian economy while maintaining fiscal responsibility. It is an important debate at a time when events beyond our borders are having real impacts on economies and households around the world. The global economy is changing rapidly, and we all know that. Long-standing trading relationships are shifting. Uncertainty remains very high, and countries around the world are competing for investment, jobs and opportunities. In that environment, Canada must be both ambitious and disciplined. We begin from a position of fiscal strength, and we cannot understate this. It is really important that Canada, as a country, starts from one of the strongest positions, certainly in the G7. Many of our agencies internationally that look at and compare economies around the world say that Canada has one of the strongest fiscal positions in the world, including the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7. Our responsibility, I would say, is to protect that advantage while putting it to work to build a more productive, resilient and self-reliant economy. That means making deliberate choices about where government spends, where it saves, and where we invest today so that we can deliver prosperity for tomorrow. Budget 2025 marked an important shift in how we manage federal finances. Rather than allowing the cost of government to continue growing, we are shifting resources toward investments that can expand Canada’s economic capacity. In short, we have shifted from government operations to boosting productivity. We are spending less on running government so we can invest more in building Canada. Our fiscal anchors remain very clear: balancing day-to-day operating spending with revenues by year 2028-29 and maintaining a declining deficit-to-GDP ratio, and we are making progress. Despite what the Conservatives say, despite how much they talk down the Canadian economy, we are making significant progress in this country. The government is now on track to balance the operating budget in 2027-28, which is one year ahead of schedule. Let us not forget that in the spring economic update, we reported $11 billion less of a deficit than was previously projected. At the same time, we are following through on the efficiency measures set out in budget 2025. That includes the comprehensive expenditure review, which, alongside other measures identified in the budget, will deliver $60 billion in savings and revenues over the next five years. We are also reducing the size of government. We are rightsizing the public service to a more sustainable level through attrition, workforce adjustment and early retirement incentives. As that work advances, we are turning our attention to additional areas where government can operate more efficiently, including targeted horizontal reviews and efforts to rein in spending on external management and consulting services. We recognize that rising debt servicing costs reinforce the very importance of maintaining sound public finances. That is precisely why we are taking action to constrain the growth of day-to-day operating spending, to find savings across government and to maintain clear fiscal anchors. However, we will not strengthen Canada’s finances by weakening Canada’s economy. We know the opposite is actually the truth, but that method is what the Conservatives propose over and over again. The Conservatives propose to cut back and not invest strategically in the economy, which would really weaken the Canadian economy. This would not improve the public finances of the country at all. In fact, we know that if we make strategic investments, building a stronger economy will continue to strengthen Canada’s public finances over time. That is the sustainable path forward. It is disciplined spending combined with strategic investments that expand our productive capacity and support stronger economic growth. This is exactly what we are seeing in the economy today. We have seen the GDP up in the last quarter, Q2. It was up by 3.3%, exceeding expectations. It was the fastest growth in the G7. We saw GDP per capita up to 3.9%. Wages have been outpacing inflation, and we see new business investment on the rise at 8.9%, almost 9%. This is significant, especially when we look at the headwinds the country and the global economy are facing due to wars, conflicts and the oil price shocks associated with those, not to mention, obviously, the trading relationship with our southern neighbours, which has been strained and is affecting the Canadian economy. This is where our approach differs from one presented by the opposition. Fiscal discipline is necessary, but cutting for the sake of cutting is not an economic strategy. Conservatives are known for that. They would cut indiscriminately in ways that do not make sense, that do not select the areas where government operating expenses can be improved or where government operations themselves can be optimized. Our approach to spend less on operations of government means we can invest more in building Canada’s economy. The purpose of that discipline is not simply to spend less, but it is also to create the capacity or the fiscal room to invest more in the things that make Canada stronger and more productive. Those are capital investments in productive, revenue-generating assets that will return dividends to the taxpayer in the future. Yes, it will take time to grow the economy and see those investments realize themselves in the Canadian economy, but we are seeing that progress already being made. This means making government work better, removing barriers to investment and creating the conditions for more capital to flow into the Canadian economy. One way we are doing that is through the new productivity mega deduction, which is one of the most significant changes to Canada’s business tax system in half a century. I have talked to business owners all across my riding and in my region, and let me tell the House, they love this measure. They think this measure is really sound support from the government at a time where uncertainty is really the thing they are most grappling with. This measure creates long-term certainty. It allows businesses of all sizes to immediately deduct the full cost of a much broader range of investments, giving them a powerful incentive to build, expand and create good jobs in Canadian communities. This includes investments in everything from fibre optic networks, software, research and development, to mines, pipelines, railways, bridges and roads. We are also making immediate expensing permanent. This is significant, because we know that when those policy signals from the government change, they can really disrupt investment flows and disrupt industries, because they are planning ahead for many years to come. Their capital investment plans are things that are very sensitive to those swings and changes. Giving them long-term certainty is the number one thing we hear from the industries and the business community across Canada. I have done two pre-budget consultations over two summers now, and one of the themes that comes out of those conversations every single time is how businesses need long-term certainty, how capital needs long-term certainty in order to flow. This is how they make better management and investment decisions, and they need those clear and crisp policy signals that give them long-term certainty. This is exactly what we are doing with this measure. We have made immediate expensing permanent. This measure will increase the share of assets eligible for immediate expensing from roughly 15% to more than 65% of capital assets, while lowering the marginal effective tax rate on new business investment from roughly 13% to 6.4%. We are cutting it in half. This makes Canada the most tax-competitive advanced economy in the world. It is significantly lower than the United States. It is 10% lower than the United States, and it is one-third of the OECD average. This is significant in terms of incentivizing new business investment into Canada. Creating the conditions for investment is only one part of the equation. We also need to get projects built and built faster. That is exactly why the government stood up the Major Projects Office, to advance projects of national interest designed to connect our economy, diversify Canadian industries and trade, and create high-paying careers. Since September 2025, 18 projects and 10 transformative strategies have been referred to the Major Projects Office, representing more than $126 billion of investment in Canada’s economy. These are investments with the potential to transform Canada’s economy, investments in critical minerals that the world needs, energy infrastructure that can help Canadian resources reach new markets, transportation infrastructure that can help move Canadian products faster and more efficiently across Canada into those global markets, and major projects that can create good jobs, strengthen our economic security and unlock new opportunities across the country. I am particularly proud of the Darlington new nuclear project, just next door to my riding. It is significant, as it is the first deployment of small modular reactors as a major project. It got $2 billion of investment from the Canada Growth Fund, a fund that our government set up and capitalized with $15 billion a few years back. That Darlington new nuclear site is creating 18,000 construction jobs and 3,700 operational jobs in my region, in Durham region. That is significant employment and far outweighs the job losses that we have experienced since the trade war started with the United States. It is 10 times greater, in fact, than the job losses. Those are significant employment opportunities in my region. I am very proud of that work, of the Canada Growth Fund’s investment, the private capital that was associated with that investment and the many job opportunities, the good, high-paying careers at OPG in Durham region. This is what spending less to invest more looks like in practice: a more efficient government, a more competitive investment environment and more major projects getting built across Canada. It is not just in my riding. There are all kinds of projects right across the country, the northwest transmission line in B.C., Churchill Falls, which was announced and is a massive clean energy project, Contrecoeur in Quebec and many more. There are quite a few critical mineral projects that are really exciting to see come online. The measures we have put in place are the signs of a responsible government. It is not simply about how much we spend. It is about the investments we are making that deliver results for Canadians. Canada has everything it needs to succeed: the resources, the talent, the ambition. We now need to put them to work. That means spending less, again, on running government and creating more room for investment. It means attracting capital, getting major projects built and creating good jobs in communities across the country. Above all else, it means making choices today that will strengthen Canada’s economy for generations to come. Canadians expect their government to be careful with their money. They also expect us to have a plan for the future. Those objectives are not in conflict. They actually complement one another. We can control government spending while investing in growth. We can protect Canada’s fiscal strength while building the infrastructure our economy needs. We can attract investment and create opportunities while making Canada more resilient and more self-reliant. Those are the choices our government is making every day. That work will continue. Next week, our government will introduce budget 2026, building on the progress already under way to strengthen our economy and create many new opportunities for Canadians. We have an opportunity at this juncture to build a stronger Canada and our government is determined to seize that opportunity to make Canada the strongest economy in the G7. I think we have been very clear and very consistent with that message and are staying true to it, with our compass pointed at true north, which is to build a stronger country, create more self-reliance and to ensure that we do so in a fiscally responsible manner that creates good-paying jobs for Canadians. Canadians, above all else, want a highly productive economy. They want to see their standard of living increase over time. They want to feel like they are getting ahead. They want good incomes that outpace inflation. They want the extra income so that they can afford to feed their family, go on vacation and have a high quality of life. That is what Canadians are known for, and that is what Canada is known for, so that is exactly what our government is focused on every single day, creating that prosperous economy where Canadians can feel like they are getting ahead.”