Sandra Cobena

Madam Speaker, Procedure · 26 wordsI will be splitting my time with the member for Cloverdale—Langley City. Today we are speaking about a motion before the House that is quite timely, ProcedureClaims · 81 wordsbecause the Prime Minister’s government is projected to borrow $733 billion in five years.¹ That is more than the total debt accumulated by every prime minister in Canadian history before Justin Trudeau.² It is also more than the debt added during Prime Minister Trudeau’s ten years in government, years that included a once-in-a-century global pandemic.³ What took generations of prime ministers to accumulate, the current Prime Minister plans to borrow in just five years. This is an extraordinary pace of borrowing, Positioning · 22 wordsand it is mortgaging our children’s future, but what do Canadians have to show for all this borrowing and all this spending?Positioning Claims · 69 wordsOur economic growth forecast has been downgraded to just 0.9% this year.⁴ We have a record 2.4 million visits at food banks in a single month, ⁵and one in three is for a child.⁶ Millions of Canadians are struggling to afford the most basic necessities. Meanwhile, the fastest-growing expense for the federal government is not defence, not infrastructure and not health care. It is interest on the national debt.⁷ Positioning · 4 wordsHow sad is that?Positioning Claims · 38 wordsThere are billions of dollars that cannot be spent on health care, infrastructure or lowering taxes for hard-working Canadians. By 2030, the government is projected to spend approximately $83 billion a year just to service the national debt.⁸ Positioning · 10 wordsWhat is the government’s plan to bring this under control?Positioning Claims · 23 wordsThere is no plan. In fact, the Parliamentary Budget Officer projects that the federal debt-to-GDP ratio will rise over the next five years.⁹ Reasoning · 11 wordsThat means that our debt burden is growing rather than shrinking, Claims · 12 wordsand it is in fact growing faster than our economy is growing. The ask · 22 wordsThat is why we are calling on the Prime Minister to appear before the finance committee to answer a very simple question: The question · 25 wordsWhat is his plan to reduce the deficit spending, bring debt interest under control, deliver tax relief for Canadians and bring the debt under control? Procedure · 5 wordsLet me ask a question.Procedure Positioning · 72 wordsWhat would we do if our household debt were spiralling out of control? Would we change the way we measure our debt? Would we start calling our everyday expenses investments? Would we move some of our borrowing onto another credit card and tell our family that our finances were improving? No, of course we would not, but that is precisely the kind of fiscal manipulation we are seeing from the Prime Minister.Positioning Claims · 21 wordsHe built his reputation on his financial credentials. Canadians were told they could trust him to manage our country’s finances responsibly, Procedure · 6 wordsbut look at what has happened.Procedure Claims · 92 wordsThe debt-to-GDP ratio is no longer the government’s primary fiscal anchor.¹⁰ Every other serious country around the world uses this fiscal anchor, but the Prime Minister has shredded it and made up one of his own. He redefined operating expenses under a broader capital investment framework, allowing spending traditionally treated as operating expenses to be treated as capital investments.¹¹ There is the borrowing, hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, Crown corporation financing and other financial transactions, that adds to federal borrowing requirements without increasing the reported deficit by the same amount. Reasoning · 25 wordsIn other words, the Prime Minister can borrow as much as he would like, and the fiscal anchor he has chosen will never be tripped. Claims · 19 wordsThen, the government turns around and tells Canadians that it is on the path to balancing the operating budget.¹² Positioning · 4 wordsIs that not convenient?Positioning Procedure · 7 wordsHere is what Canadians need to understand.Procedure Claims · 99 wordsAccording to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, over five years, the government is projected to run $333 billion in deficits, ¹³but borrow $733 billion. That is a difference of $400 billion.¹⁴ Much of that difference relates to loans, Crown corporation financing and other financial assets. Loans are recorded as assets because there is an expectation that those loans will, of course, be repaid. Let us take the example of Canada Post, a Crown corporation that has loans given by the federal government. It has not reported an annual profit since 2017, ¹⁵and it has accumulated billions of dollars in losses.¹⁶ Procedure · 6 wordsThat raises a very obvious question: ProcedureThe question · 13 wordsHow confident can taxpayers be that all government loans will be fully repaid? The ask · 31 wordsWith the government expanding its use of Crown corporations and other financing vehicles for defence, housing and investment initiatives, Canadians deserve full transparency about the borrowing, liabilities and financial risk involved. Claims · 17 wordsMoving borrowing into a different part of the government’s accounts does not make the financial obligations disappear. Procedure · 8 wordsHere is what makes this even more concerning.Procedure Claims · 35 wordsThe International Monetary Fund has called for greater clarity and independent verification of the government’s fiscal framework.¹⁷ The Parliamentary Budget Officer has warned that the government’s new fiscal anchors provide very little discipline on borrowing.¹⁸ Procedure · 8 wordsThe PBO has made one thing absolutely clear: ProcedureClaims · 45 wordsBalancing the operating budget does not mean that the government’s finances are balanced.¹⁹ Here we have a Prime Minister who built his reputation on financial expertise, asking Canadians to trust him while adopting fiscal measures that provide an incomplete picture of our growing borrowing requirements. Reasoning · 38 wordsFiscal responsibility is not about how we cleverly present the numbers. It is about whether we can actually control the debt and spending. Changing the accounting does not change the bill that Canadians will ultimately have to pay. Claims · 36 wordsOn that note, $83 billion in interest means $6,000 per Canadian household just to service the debt. That is $6,000 in taxes just to service the debt. That does not include the repayment of the debt. The ask · 42 wordsThat is why the Prime Minister must come before committee, answer these questions, explain how he intends to restore fiscal discipline, and present a credible plan for the repayment of the debt so we can bring this amount of debt under control. Procedure · 31 wordsWhat concerns me even more than the debt is what all the government spending has actually delivered for Canadians. I judge the success of a government by a very simple measure.Procedure Reasoning · 50 wordsCan Canadians build a good life for themselves and their families? Can a young couple afford their first home? Can parents afford to raise their children? Can seniors retire with dignity? Can an honest day’s work still provide a decent standard of living? That is how we should measure success. Claims · 29 wordsToday, millions of Canadians are struggling to do precisely those things. We have a record of 2.4 million food bank visits in a single month, and one-third involve children. Procedure · 14 wordsLet us think about what that says about the state of our country’s finances.Procedure Claims · 35 wordsThis is Canada, one of the wealthiest, most resource-rich nations on earth, yet we have parents working hard, sometimes at multiple jobs, who still cannot afford to put food on the table for their children. Reasoning · 56 wordsWe have a moral obligation to help those in need, of course. When someone falls on hard times, when a family faces hardships or when a senior cannot make ends meet, we should stand with them.Partly on point However, we also have a moral obligation to ask why so many Canadians need that assistance in the first place. Positioning · 20 wordsWhy are millions struggling to afford basic groceries? This is not normal, and we must never accept it as normal.Positioning Claims · 30 wordsWhat troubles me is that the Liberals seem to celebrate the number of people receiving government benefits as evidence of their success. I believe they are measuring the wrong thing. Reasoning · 24 wordsI do not want to celebrate how many Canadians depend on government assistance. I want to celebrate how many Canadians no longer need it.