Carol Anstey

“Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to take part in today’s debate on Bill C-31, the budget 2025 implementation act, no. 2. To dispel some of the myths that have been going around the House this morning, budget implementation acts are almost always omnibus, and they are almost always followed by a second BIA. It is very common for governments to have multiple technical changes that have to be consulted on after a budget comes out and that are split between two different BIAs. It is very common. It is not a big surprise. It is not the government dragging its feet, as the Conservatives have suggested. It is quite the contrary. As we all know, budget 2026 is only a few days away. While we all will find out the details of the next federal budget in due course, I feel very confident in saying in the House that it will build on our plan to create a stronger and more resilient Canadian economy. It is a plan that, in many ways, was first shaped by budget 2025. In budget 2025, our government laid out a clear plan to build a stronger Canada. Since then, we have been moving very quickly to turn that plan into action. We are building the infrastructure, the homes and the industries that will grow our economy and create lasting prosperity. We can think of energy, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, AI, defence, quantum and more. We are empowering Canadians as well with better careers and a more affordable life. We can think of cutting income tax for 22 million Canadians, cutting taxes on new home purchases, suspending the fuel excise tax, and now extending that, as well as cutting taxes on new business investment. Those are tangible examples. We are protecting our communities, our borders and our way of life, which we value so deeply here in Canada. We can think of jail and sentencing reform, the stronger borders act, protecting victims and combatting hate legislation. All of those things have been advanced by our government over the past 18 months. Bill C-31 builds on this momentum by introducing measures to make life more affordable and build a fairer, more integrated and more self-reliant economy, one that creates lasting value for Canadians and stays resilient to global shocks, which we know are coming up more furiously and frequently. Most importantly, it would ensure that government support reaches those who need it most. To begin, I would like to take a moment to speak to several key measures in this important legislation that demonstrate our government’s commitment to fairness, economic resilience and opportunity for Canadians at every stage of life. Our government knows that Canada is strongest when we look after one another and ensure that everyone has a fair chance to succeed. That is why we are taking action to make everyday life more affordable. In January, the government announced the new groceries and essentials benefit to put more money back in the pockets of Canadians. The benefit is helping more than 12 million low- and modest-income Canadians afford everyday essentials. It replaced the existing GST credit while providing more generous support. First, we boosted it by 25% for five years, starting in July 2026. Then we boosted it again for one year, a one-time payment, for this year, which is equivalent to a 50% increase to the current benefit. Together, these enhancements will provide substantial support to those most affected by rising food prices and essentials. For example, a person living alone who is eligible for the GST credit could previously receive a maximum of $543. With the June 2026 one-time payment and the 25% increase combined, that person will receive approximately $950 total, which is $400 more than they would have previously received. For a couple with two children, total support will increase from about $1,086 to $1,890, which is an $800-plus increase to that benefit and a significant support to Canadians. It is not the only thing we are doing, of course. It is one of a number of affordability measures, but it is significant support. These increases will make a meaningful difference for households facing higher costs. The benefit is also indexed to inflation, ensuring that payments rise each year with the cost of living. We are taking these steps, because helping Canadians afford everyday essentials is the right thing to do. The groceries and essentials benefit is part of a broader package of measures to ease grocery cost pressures across Canada. Canada’s first-ever national food security strategy will address food insecurity, support producers and strengthen our supply chains to help lower prices for Canadians. This strategy is backed by $3.2 billion in investments over 10 years, and it includes a $1-billion investment in food infrastructure, including food terminals and food hubs, to help independent grocers buy and move competitively priced products more easily. This strategy also includes a $1-billion investment fund through Farm Credit Canada and a $150-million food security fund to help Canadian businesses grow, produce and process more food in Canada. A further $750 million would go to expanding year-round Canadian fruit and vegetable production in climate-controlled agriculture. These measures would help address some of the root causes of food insecurity in our country by strengthening domestic food production and improving access to affordable, nutritious food. Let me talk for a moment about the fact that the government is aware that millions of lower-income Canadians do not file their taxes, either because they do not have the resources to do so or because their incomes are too low to owe any taxes at all. This means that people who most need benefits often do not receive them, causing some Canadians to miss out on things like the Canada groceries and essentials benefit, the Canada child benefit or the Canada’s worker benefit, along with many others they would be entitled to. That is why Bill C-31 proposes to allow the CRA to file a tax return on behalf of certain eligible individuals with lower incomes in simple tax situations who do not owe any taxes and do not file them themselves. This measure would ensure that support reaches those who need it most. When Canadians keep more of their hard-earned money, they can benefit better, and we are able to better support their families, invest in their communities and build the future that we all want to see. Similarly, the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of creating opportunities through education. Bill C-31 proposes to implement consequential changes to the tax rules that apply to registered education savings plans to support the implementation of automatic enrolment in the Canada learning bond. The Canada learning bond provides direct federal contributions to help children from low- and modest-income families build savings for post-secondary education, yet too many eligible families miss out, not because they choose to, but because of administrative and awareness barriers. Auto-enrolment was introduced because it would remove those barriers. By automatically enrolling eligible children, we would ensure that support reaches those it is intended to help early in life when it can make the greatest difference. Another measure in Bill C-31, among a number of others that I could focus on, is one that I am particularly passionate about that would help our businesses across the country. It is the productivity superdeduction, which was announced in budget 2025. It is a deduction for businesses on new business investment in a number of different categories. This measure would be extended, through BIA 2, to real estate assets that are purchased for the purposes of manufacturing and processing. From time to time in the House, we have all asked why Canada does not take some of its raw material and process it here at home. That is something we can do. We could build the capacity to do that here at home to get higher value for our industries, create more jobs and ensure that we are not shipping our raw goods and materials to other countries that process it and then ship it back to us for us to buy it at a premium. Instead, we could capture more of that value in the supply chain here in Canada if we were to develop the capacity to manufacture and process more of those goods here in Canada. That is exactly what this measure would do. It would support businesses out there that, say, have money they are putting away for their taxes at the end of the year. With this measure, they could immediately expense a purchase of a real estate asset to expand their operations to process or manufacture more goods here in Canada. That would be significant support at a time when uncertainty is at an all-time high. In closing, Bill C-31 reflects our government’s focus on fairness, modernization and resilience. Together, these measures advance a single vision for the Canadian economy, one rooted in confidence in Canadians and the belief that generational investments today can build lasting prosperity for tomorrow.”