“I'm glad I knew the common price of an item. That could have been embarrassing.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
Recent debates
8 latest topics
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
57 statements
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
19 statements
Arab Heritage Month Act
5 statements
The Economy
15 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Housing
12 statements
The Environment
2 statements
Government Orders
Business of Supply
A wide-ranging bill to implement the Spring 2026 Economic Update, touching on everything from tax deductions for tradespeople to aviation fuel taxes to beer excise duty rates. In 5 hours of debate, MPs mostly grilled the Finance Minister on unrelated topics like ride-sharing regulation, StatsCan data collection, and election promises from 2015. Some substantive questions were asked about domestic investment levels and the bill's housing provisions, but mostly talk went in circles without many direct answers.
“Where does the minister shop? Butter at my local store is way more expensive than he says. And what about the price of milk?”
“I want to joke around and avoid your question about grocery prices.”
“I want to compliment you for being well prepared. Do you agree with the Prime Minister that affordability has been bad for over ten years?”
“You and I both come from rural communities. I'm filling time by saying I care about affordability. My real point is to remind you that our government gave Canadians money during the pandemic.”
“Enough about the pandemic. I want to change the subject to rising rents in Quebec.”
“I'll pretend I answered your question about Quebec by talking about big cities instead.”
“This program is spending $13 billion. How many houses are we actually getting for that money?”
“I don't have the numbers in front of me. I'll send you some data later to back up what I'm saying.”
“2% is too slow. This program won't hit its target any time soon. The government should not have created it.”
“I want to change the subject to a different stat that looks better for us.”
“The government is wasting money. It's paying $20 million a year to a private company for a space launch pad. The company only pays $13,500 a year to lease the land. I think the government is wasting $200 million.”
“Housing prices are going down. That's good. For the space launch pad, just look how cool it is! We can reach space from Canada. You should be happy we're spending so much money on it.”
“I asked a specific question about overpaying for land rental. Instead of answering, the minister offered to introduce me to astronauts. That's not an answer. The federal government is paying way too much to rent land. It looks like mismanagement.”
“I don't want to answer the question. I want to change the subject to something that makes my government look good.”
“I'm frustrated that the minister is talking a lot but not giving real answers. The government is spending way too much money and plans to keep spending too much. I want the minister to admit this is wrong.”
“I'm glad you asked that question because it lets me repeat a talking point. I want to brag that the deficit is $11 billion lower than predicted in the budget. I'll even tell you the IMF thinks we're doing great. I want you to go tell your voters how great we're doing.”
“You say the IMF thinks we're doing great, but the Parliamentary Budget Officer also says our debt-to-GDP ratio will increase by 43.7% by 2030. I think that's bad news. The government is spending too much.”
“The Parliamentary Budget Officer says our fiscal position is sustainable and we're on track to meet our targets. I'm going to quote him because that makes me look good.”
“I want the minister to speak the same language I used. The government spent a lot of money. The government wants more money. Why does the government want more money?”