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Frank Caputo

Conservative on Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 2 2026-11-03

Replying to Luc Thériault (Bloc Québécois)

“Mr. Speaker, everyone knows that the oil companies are not making huge profits these days and are struggling to make ends meet, just like the people who put gas in their cars. However, the government continues to fund them through subsidies to the tune of nearly $26 billion. With that money, we could put an end to the discrimination against seniors and even lock in a 6% health transfer escalator, which is the level it should be. Otherwise, it will drop back down to 3%. What does my Conservative colleague think about the government’s insistence on continuing to subsidize oil companies when people are struggling to make ends meet? Furthermore, the government has decided to lower taxes at the pump, but we know full well that, in the end, many experts will tell us that the oil companies are pocketing the savings.”

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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. The hon. member talks about subsidies and things like that. In a lot of ways, he is talking about government spending. We may not always agree, but I think one place we may agree, and we may part company in some regard on this point, is on the nature of government spending. We constantly hear the Liberals stand up and ask where we would cut. I do not know. Maybe we would cut the consultants. I was looking at a plan, a budget, for a jail that is being built. The government budgeted $5 million for lawyers, external counsel. Five million does not sound like much, but it is a lot of money. In this country, we have something called the Department of Justice. Do members know who it employs? It employs lawyers. Why are we spending $5 million on lawyers when we have government lawyers? I was a government lawyer. This is where we are spending our money. This is why we are in a massive deficit. We are not even looking after the pennies or the dollars, the hundreds of millions of dollars. It all just goes into a big pool, and we are told that we have never had it so good.