“I want to spend a lot of money on things I call 'infrastructure' and 'investments'. I won't say how much it costs or what it's for.”
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.
“I could answer your question but I'm going to send you on a wild goose chase instead.”
“I'm dodging your question by talking about rules and formalities. Ask someone else.”
“I talk and talk but I won't give a clear answer about the airports' value. I just want government to control more.”
“We need to study whether selling off airports would really make money. But we might do it anyway if we want.”
“I want the government to spend lots of money fixing small fishing harbours in Atlantic Canada. It will help the local economy there. And it will help the environment too.”
“We are spending a lot of money on small fishing harbours. This member helped make that happen. I want to thank him publicly. I am proud of the money we are spending.”
“Does the minister think Atlantic Canada's ports could do more to help industries and make us more resilient? I want you to spend money to develop these ports.”
“That's a good point. I want to spend more money on cold storage. I saw a big cold storage facility and was impressed. They load a lot of lobster quickly. This is important work. I will answer questions because I am happy to talk about spending money.”
“I won't admit to any mistakes. The economy isn't doing as badly as some people expected, so I'm going to talk about how strong and resilient everyone is instead of answering the question.”
“I want to talk about something that makes me look good instead of answering your question.”
“I won't say if the money leaving is okay. Instead I'll just talk about investors liking how Canada is stable and predictable.”
“I don't want to answer your specific question about investment leaving Canada under my watch. Let me change the subject to how great our high spending and low business taxes are instead.”
“I don't want to admit any blame for money leaving Canada. Instead I will flatter Canadians about all the past decades of investment. Then I will bring up irrelevant facts about world uncertainty to dodge your question.”
“Forget our own Business Council blaming regulation. I'll talk about something else. Other people say world investors like Canada and its energy. That's good. We'll build Canada strong together.”
“I'm saying words that sound like I agree with you, but I'm just filling space to avoid admitting anything.”
“I won't say how long TMX took. I'll just list other good news and hope you forget the question.”
“I'm filling time until I can change the subject. I don't want to admit TMX was expensive.”
“I want Canada to play a bigger role in the world's energy security. I'm filling time with vague talk about redesigning energy ecosystems.”
“Let me dodge that and throw out some big numbers about a completely different kind of investment.”