“The minister won't answer basic questions.”
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 will ask something easy to make the minister look bad if he doesn't know common prices.”
“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 compliment you for being well prepared. Do you agree with the Prime Minister that affordability has been bad for over ten years?”
“Enough about the pandemic. I want to change the subject to rising rents in Quebec.”
“This program is spending $13 billion. How many houses are we actually getting for that money?”
“2% is too slow. This program won't hit its target any time soon. The government should not have created it.”
“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.”
“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'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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“The deficit will be huge for many years. The other guy had a smaller deficit. The Liberals should spend less. I asked this before but I'll ask again. Did you know Britain called a fund like yours a debt?”
“I'm going to ask the minister a bunch of questions so I can criticism him later. First question: is it true you're not forcing companies to make electric cars?”
“You didn't answer me earlier. I think you didn't know the answer. So I'll ask again: these rules mean only electric vehicles are allowed by 2035. Can we agree this is a zero-emission vehicle mandate?”
“That's bad. You didn't answer my question. I want you to look bad. I want to make you look like you do not know what you are doing.”
“You won't give a real answer, so I'll ask a nitpicky gotcha question instead.”
“You won't answer my questions. The number is low. I bet you don't even know the percentage.”
“I want people to think the Liberals are banning almost all vehicles in Canada by 2035.”
“You keep saying that electric cars are the future. But Canada hardly makes any of them. When you say electric is Canada's future, you must really mean electric cars made in China. 50,000 Chinese electric cars are already on their way thanks to you.”