Discussion · Government Orders
Gérard Deltell Conservative
“The government is mismanaging Canada's money. After 11 years of Liberal rule, we went from a surplus to a huge deficit, and the national debt has more than doubled to $1.5 trillion. Instead of spending billions on consultants, business subsidies, and an overpriced rail project, the government should cut taxes and remove all federal taxes on fuel.”
“Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this debate today and to celebrate your birthday. I wish you a happy birthday today, November 3. I would also like to congratulate my niece, Anne‑Audrey, who is also celebrating her birthday today. She was born on November 3, 1988, and was my parents’ first granddaughter and first grandchild. Obviously, it was a momentous occasion. I remember it like it was yesterday. I wish a happy birthday to Anne‑Audrey and to everyone else born on November 3. What we are witnessing today is rather peculiar. The bill we are debating right now, which is at the report stage following a committee study, deals with the implementation of tax measures. We are just hours away from the next budget being tabled, yet we are still debating the previous budget. I think that my colleagues on the government side, who are now in charge of leading Canada with a majority secured due to floor crossers, should perhaps do a better job of adjusting their parliamentary agenda. Nevertheless, this give us an opportunity to debate Canada’s current fiscal situation and its future prospects. I would like begin by reminding the House of the commitments that we made and that we want the government to make when it tables its budget in a few hours, which basically boil down to leaving more money in the pockets of Canadian taxpayers. Canadian taxpayers know how to manage their own money better than the government, which takes their money and doles it out to those it deems to be the most deserving. That is not the right approach. Our Conservative approach involves lower taxes and more money in Canadians’ pockets. That way Canadians can make their own choices, rather than the government doing it for them. That is our vision. The same goes for the management of public funds. If the government does not have the money to cover all of its spending, then what happens? We end up with deficits and debt. What is debt? Debt is a bill that we are passing on to our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, who have not been born yet, but who will have to pay because the public finances are being mismanaged today. I will come back to this a little later. Let us review the principles that guide Conservatives when making budget choices. Leaving more money in people’s pockets means lowering taxes. According to a recent report from the Governor of the Bank of Canada, inflation is being driven in part by rising transportation costs. Obviously, the best way to help bring those costs down is to eliminate taxes. That is what we proposed a few months ago. The government borrowed elements of the Conservative proposal. We hope that it will once again draw on our ideas but that this time, it will implement them properly and in full for Canadian families by eliminating all federal taxes on gas and diesel, suspending the GST on fuel all the way until next summer, and putting more money into the pockets of Canadians, who will put it to good use. The principle is sound, as evidenced by the fact that the Liberal government has already drawn inspiration from it. We believe that the government should go even further and implement our proposal to eliminate federal fuel taxes in its entirety. Now, the government also needs to be vigilant when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money left, right and centre. We must always bear in mind that there is a big difference between a subsidy and a tax credit. With a subsidy, the government takes money from all Canadian workers and businesses, through taxes and the GST, and redistributes it to the people it chooses. It is the government that picks the winners. That is what a subsidy is. Sometimes it can work. Too often, it does not. That is why we believe that the best way to help the economy is to cut taxes and also to reduce subsidies, because as our leader often says, corporate welfare has no place in Canada. When it comes to cutting unnecessary spending, consultants are still one of the areas that come to mind. It is shocking that the number of public service employees has increased while contracts awarded to consultants have more than doubled. It should be one or the other, not both. The government has also committed to a massive project, the Alto high-speed train, that could cost as much as $100 billion. We are not the ones saying this; it is the Parliamentary Budget Officer. She says the cost could climb to $100 billion, if not more. That said, I am not opposed to this type of project in principle, but we still need to know where we are headed, and right now we are headed in entirely the wrong direction. Worse still, the government has gotten it wrong from the very beginning of this project. It began by expropriating land in Mirabel, which is arguably the region of Canada that is the most sensitive on the subject of expropriation. Do not forget that, for three years, the current leaders led Canadians to believe that this would be a high-frequency rail project. Then, only days before leaving office, the outgoing prime minister announced that it would instead be a high-speed rail project. They completely turned this project on its head. Anyone with even a basic understanding of rail infrastructure knows that the difference between high-frequency rail and high-speed rail goes far beyond a few different letters in the names. There is a world of difference, and the cost is different, too. We hope that the government and the Prime Minister, who has committed to maintaining both the debt-to-GDP ratio and the deficit-to-GDP ratio at acceptable levels, will act on our request, particularly as the Prime Minister himself once raised this issue. This leads me to compare the situation as it stood 11 years ago and the situation as it stands today. Why am I talking about the situation 11 years ago? It is because, yes, 11 years and a few days ago, an election was held that brought the Liberals to power. What kind of financial situation is Canada in after 11 years of Liberal governance? I would remind members that there was no deficit and a $1.4-billion surplus in 2015. The deficit is now somewhere between $78 billion and $80 billion. I unfortunately have to add that, just two years ago, the deficit was expected to be around $40 billion, which was unbelievable at the time. Now, 18 months later, the deficit has doubled. I say this with all due respect, because anyone who sits in the House deserves respect, but who would have thought that the Prime Minister, who is recognized around the globe as a world-class banker, would perform worse than the drama teacher? That is the reality. Everyone thought Justin Trudeau was an irresponsible steward of public funds. Now this internationally renowned banker is doing even worse than Mr. Trudeau, with a deficit that is twice as large. Then there is the debt. Eleven years ago, the debt stood at roughly $616 billion. That was already high, obviously, but today it has climbed to $1,500 billion, pushing it into trillion territory. The debt now stands at $1.5 trillion. Those are the kinds of numbers that would have Captain Haddock shouting “billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles”, but in our case, it would be trillions. That is how big the debt is now. The problem is that debt is a bill that we pass on to our great-grandchildren. The government takes pride in having a Prime Minister with an outstanding international reputation when it comes to finance, yet Canadians are seeing little benefit from that experience. In closing, I have a question for the Canadians who are tuning in: Has their financial situation improved? Over the past 18 months, when Canadians shop at the grocery store, do they feel they are getting enough for their money? What about those who have children and who want to buy a home? They are facing higher interest rates than before, especially since the Bank of Canada recently announced that inflation and the key interest rate will go up. We are talking about 3% inflation. That is my question for the Canadians tuning in: Do they feel their financial situation has improved? When they go to the market, when they are looking to buy a home or when they are shopping, do they feel they are getting more for their money? I know very well that most of those Canadians, if not the majority or all Canadians, will reply that, no, their situation has not improved. That is why we want the government to change course with the upcoming budget.”
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this debate today and to celebrate your birthday. I wish you a happy birthday today, November 3. I would also like to congratulate my niece, Anne‑Audrey, who is also celebrating her birthday today. She was born on November 3, 1988, and was my parents’ first granddaughter and first grandchild. Obviously, it was a momentous occasion. I remember it like it was yesterday. I wish a happy birthday to Anne‑Audrey and to everyone else born on November 3. What we are witnessing today is rather peculiar. The bill we are debating right now, which is at the report stage following a committee study, deals with the implementation of tax measures. We are just hours away from the next budget being tabled, yet we are still debating the previous budget. I think that my colleagues on the government side, who are now in charge of leading Canada with a majority secured due to floor crossers, should perhaps do a better job of adjusting their parliamentary agenda. Nevertheless, this give us an opportunity to debate Canada’s current fiscal situation and its future prospects. I would like begin by reminding the House of the commitments that we made and that we want the government to make when it tables its budget in a few hours, which basically boil down to leaving more money in the pockets of Canadian taxpayers. Canadian taxpayers know how to manage their own money better than the government, which takes their money and doles it out to those it deems to be the most deserving. That is not the right approach. Our Conservative approach involves lower taxes and more money in Canadians’ pockets. That way Canadians can make their own choices, rather than the government doing it for them. That is our vision. The same goes for the management of public funds. If the government does not have the money to cover all of its spending, then what happens? We end up with deficits and debt. What is debt? Debt is a bill that we are passing on to our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, who have not been born yet, but who will have to pay because the public finances are being mismanaged today. I will come back to this a little later. Let us review the principles that guide Conservatives when making budget choices. Leaving more money in people’s pockets means lowering taxes. According to a recent report from the Governor of the Bank of Canada, inflation is being driven in part by rising transportation costs. Obviously, the best way to help bring those costs down is to eliminate taxes. That is what we proposed a few months ago. The government borrowed elements of the Conservative proposal. We hope that it will once again draw on our ideas but that this time, it will implement them properly and in full for Canadian families by eliminating all federal taxes on gas and diesel, suspending the GST on fuel all the way until next summer, and putting more money into the pockets of Canadians, who will put it to good use. The principle is sound, as evidenced by the fact that the Liberal government has already drawn inspiration from it. We believe that the government should go even further and implement our proposal to eliminate federal fuel taxes in its entirety. Now, the government also needs to be vigilant when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money left, right and centre. We must always bear in mind that there is a big difference between a subsidy and a tax credit. With a subsidy, the government takes money from all Canadian workers and businesses, through taxes and the GST, and redistributes it to the people it chooses. It is the government that picks the winners. That is what a subsidy is. Sometimes it can work. Too often, it does not. That is why we believe that the best way to help the economy is to cut taxes and also to reduce subsidies, because as our leader often says, corporate welfare has no place in Canada. When it comes to cutting unnecessary spending, consultants are still one of the areas that come to mind. It is shocking that the number of public service employees has increased while contracts awarded to consultants have more than doubled. It should be one or the other, not both. The government has also committed to a massive project, the Alto high-speed train, that could cost as much as $100 billion. We are not the ones saying this; it is the Parliamentary Budget Officer. She says the cost could climb to $100 billion, if not more. That said, I am not opposed to this type of project in principle, but we still need to know where we are headed, and right now we are headed in entirely the wrong direction. Worse still, the government has gotten it wrong from the very beginning of this project. It began by expropriating land in Mirabel, which is arguably the region of Canada that is the most sensitive on the subject of expropriation. Do not forget that, for three years, the current leaders led Canadians to believe that this would be a high-frequency rail project. Then, only days before leaving office, the outgoing prime minister announced that it would instead be a high-speed rail project. They completely turned this project on its head. Anyone with even a basic understanding of rail infrastructure knows that the difference between high-frequency rail and high-speed rail goes far beyond a few different letters in the names. There is a world of difference, and the cost is different, too. We hope that the government and the Prime Minister, who has committed to maintaining both the debt-to-GDP ratio and the deficit-to-GDP ratio at acceptable levels, will act on our request, particularly as the Prime Minister himself once raised this issue. This leads me to compare the situation as it stood 11 years ago and the situation as it stands today. Why am I talking about the situation 11 years ago? It is because, yes, 11 years and a few days ago, an election was held that brought the Liberals to power. What kind of financial situation is Canada in after 11 years of Liberal governance? I would remind members that there was no deficit and a $1.4-billion surplus in 2015. The deficit is now somewhere between $78 billion and $80 billion. I unfortunately have to add that, just two years ago, the deficit was expected to be around $40 billion, which was unbelievable at the time. Now, 18 months later, the deficit has doubled. I say this with all due respect, because anyone who sits in the House deserves respect, but who would have thought that the Prime Minister, who is recognized around the globe as a world-class banker, would perform worse than the drama teacher? That is the reality. Everyone thought Justin Trudeau was an irresponsible steward of public funds. Now this internationally renowned banker is doing even worse than Mr. Trudeau, with a deficit that is twice as large. Then there is the debt. Eleven years ago, the debt stood at roughly $616 billion. That was already high, obviously, but today it has climbed to $1,500 billion, pushing it into trillion territory. The debt now stands at $1.5 trillion. Those are the kinds of numbers that would have Captain Haddock shouting “billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles”, but in our case, it would be trillions. That is how big the debt is now. The problem is that debt is a bill that we pass on to our great-grandchildren. The government takes pride in having a Prime Minister with an outstanding international reputation when it comes to finance, yet Canadians are seeing little benefit from that experience. In closing, I have a question for the Canadians who are tuning in: Has their financial situation improved? Over the past 18 months, when Canadians shop at the grocery store, do they feel they are getting enough for their money? What about those who have children and who want to buy a home? They are facing higher interest rates than before, especially since the Bank of Canada recently announced that inflation and the key interest rate will go up. We are talking about 3% inflation. That is my question for the Canadians tuning in: Do they feel their financial situation has improved? When they go to the market, when they are looking to buy a home or when they are shopping, do they feel they are getting more for their money? I know very well that most of those Canadians, if not the majority or all Canadians, will reply that, no, their situation has not improved. That is why we want the government to change course with the upcoming budget.