Business of Supply

This was a Business of Supply debate taking place during consideration of the government’s recent economic update legislation. Conservatives pressed the Finance Minister on deficit spending, asking when the budget would be balanced, how many homes are being built, the costs of a planned sovereign wealth fund, and details of specific spending items such as a spaceport lease, while repeatedly saying the minister was not answering their questions. Liberals defended the government’s record, saying the economy is strong, the deficit is lower than expected, and housing prices and rents have come down. The Bloc Québécois asked about the exemption of American companies from the global minimum tax in Bill C-31 and about wage subsidies for workers affected by tariffs, and the NDP asked why the government is not taxing oil company excess profits or banning surveillance pricing. Some members also raised local matters such as support for regional media.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

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201 statements

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“Canadians can trust our government to protect the programs they need. We have always helped people with the cost of living, and we will keep doing it.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, Canadians know that they can always trust the government to protect programs that are key to Canadians. I think that, in terms of national affordability benefits for Canadians, we have always been there to support Canadians in times of need. We will continue to do so.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We have already created many programs to help Canadians in hard times, including money for families, school meals, and support for people with disabilities.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, my colleague knows very well that we have a suite of measures to help Canadians in times of need. We have introduced landmark programs such as the Canada child benefit, the national school food program, the Canada disability benefit—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We are spending about $56 billion over the next few years to build the homes Canadians need.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we have made generational investments in housing. In fact, if we look at the cost of housing measures from 2026 through to 2030‑31, we are looking at about $56 billion in investments to make sure that we build the homes that Canadians need in this country.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We must protect our land, our northern areas, and our communities. Canada is doing its part in NATO, and we are spending record amounts of money to defend our country.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I think Canadians understand the world is changing and that we as Canadians need to ensure the sovereignty of our territory. We need to protect our north. We need to protect our communities. Canada as a NATO member is willing to do its part, and we have made record investments to protect our country.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We found $60 billion in savings when we reviewed government spending. We made sure to protect funding for departments like Indigenous services.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, my colleague will remember that when we did the comprehensive expenditure review, we identified $60 billion in savings. We were very careful in doing that to protect a number of departments, including those that relate to indigenous services.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“When I was the industry minister, we gave more money and power to the Competition Bureau so it can protect Canadians.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the member will remember that when I was the industry minister we made historic investments to increase the resources and the enforcement capabilities of the Competition Bureau of Canada. I know that it will do its work to protect—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“The world is changing how it gets energy, and other countries want to work with Canada because we are stable. Canada is a leader in traditional, renewable, and nuclear energy. Our tax credits help make us one of the best countries for investing in clean energy.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, my colleague is a very close colleague in the House, and I am delighted and honoured that she is staying so late to participate in this debate. I did, in fact, meet with Fatih Birol. I had dinner with him when he came here to receive a prize. In fact, what he said to us and also to the G7, and I will give members a preview, is that the world energy infrastructure is being redesigned and that countries are looking at countries like Canada, which offer stability, predictability and opportunity over the long term. That is why we said that Canada is an energy superpower. We can play a big role in conventional, renewable and also nuclear energy. I think more and more we will see countries wanting Canada to be their partner of choice, whether in Asia or in Europe. However, I want to reassure her that with respect to the investment tax credit, I think Canada stands out as one of the countries among the G7 that support more investment into renewable energy.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We made changes to help business competition and lower prices, like giving our competition watchdog more legal power. We also gave tax breaks to small and medium businesses so they can quickly write off costs when they invest in new buildings, technology, and research to grow.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I can hear, from my colleague’s question, the depth of analysis that she has made. That is why it is always a pleasure to engage with her in this House. She is right on competition. We know that competition is key to providing more choices and better prices for consumers. That is why, when I was the industry minister, we put more tools in the tool box of the Competition Bureau. She will remember, for example, that I gave it subpoena power. At the time it was asking for information and people voluntarily could decide whether to give it. Now it has more enforcement power. When it comes to productivity and innovation, the member would see that the productivity superdeduction is one of the tools that we have made in order to allow small and medium-sized businesses to make more investment, because they can immediately expense their expenses. They have immediate expensing of what they invest in capital, R and D, buildings, innovation and AI. We wanted to help companies with tax measures to make sure that they could make these capital investments that would help them to grow their businesses. The member may have seen the publication from the OECD or the International Monetary Fund that identified the productivity superdeduction, one of the tools in the tool box, as one of the best practices in the G7. Canada has been very much incentivizing small and medium-sized businesses to make these capital investments to become more productive.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We plan to help train up to 100,000 young people to get into skilled trades. We need these young workers to help build the country, so we are working with unions and businesses to support them.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, my colleague is so right. We want to do more transformation, and I think she will be happy with team Canada strong. The fact is that we say we are going to train and help 80,000 to 100,000 young people with their Red Seal and to get into the trades, because if we want to build this country, we need young people. We need young people to get into the trades. This is going to help provide more opportunities for young people in this country to participate in building this country at a speed and scale we have not seen in generations. We are very much focused on the youth. We are very much focused on helping workers. We are very much focused on working with unions as well. They do great work in training workers. We want to build together, because we want to build a Canada for all. That is why we are focusing on workers, on young people and on small and medium-sized businesses to help us build this country.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“I am answering the question as required. People around the world see Canada's investment fund as one of the best.”
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Official Hansard

I am bound by the rules of the House, and the Chair is asking me to respond. Mr. Chair, I got maybe the beginning of the question, and I would say that people are seeing the investment fund in Canada as best in class in the world. I would think the Canada Strong fund that—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“I support our investments in electric cars. Building electric vehicles is the right goal, even though some factories and car sales have been delayed here and in other countries.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I think the question was around the auto strategy. Since I was the industry minister at the time, yes, I think the investments we have made and the attraction of investment was the right thing. I believe that electrification is our north star. I am mindful that there have been delays in some plants and some adoption. This is not unique to Canada. We have seen that in a number of G7 countries—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We are supporting the car industry and bringing in investments. People are buying electric cars more slowly than expected. We are setting policies to help the industry and protect workers.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, as the member will have seen, we have been supporting the industry. We have been making sure that we can attract investments and that we understand the reality of the world today. When it comes to electric vehicles, there have been delays in adoption, and we need to adopt policies that would favour investment in the auto sector to support our workers and the industry. That is what we are doing.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“Canada still has a strong car-making industry. We are working with unions and supporting autoworkers to make sure that industry succeeds.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, Canada is one of the very few countries in the G7 that still has a very strong auto sector. That is why my colleague will be happy to see that we have supported workers, we have worked with Unifor and we have worked with unions to make sure that we position the auto industry for success.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We are investing in projects like Volkswagen to prepare our country for new vehicle technology.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, as I have said, what we have been doing in terms of investment, and we can think about the Volkswagen investment, is to prepare the country to make sure that we will have an industry that can support a different kind of technology, whether we are talking about an internal combustion—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“I will keep sharing the facts with Canadians. Our government has invested money to support the car industry, including both gas-powered and electric vehicles.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, the member may not like my answers. I know that the Conservatives are allergic to good news, but I am an experienced member of the House and will continue to answer and to provide the facts to Canadians who are watching at home. What I was saying is that we have made sure that the industry could succeed. Whether we are talking about internal combustion engines or whether we are talking about electric vehicles, I think the member has seen us investing to support the industry.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“Our government is bringing a lot of business investment to Canada. We are supporting the car industry today while also bringing in money for electric cars.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, I am talking about the facts. I am just trying to help the member understand the nature of the industry in Canada, and I will continue to do so because people at home understand that we have different investments in the country. We have been able to attract significant investment. What I said is that we are supporting the industry with respect to internal combustion engines, but at the same time, we have also played a big role in attracting investment in the vehicle of the future, so we have—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We need to get ready for the cars of the future. It is normal that people take time to get used to new technology. Major car changes in the past took years to become successful, too.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, what I am saying is that we need to prepare for the cars of the future. In fact, it is nothing surprising that when the same thing has been done for 100 years and the technology is changed, there is a longer time of adoption. I will just remind my colleague that Tesla took 17 years to be profitable. The Model T of Henry Ford was not an instant success. It is normal that when we do the same thing for a century, we have consumer adoption and change in technology. We can look to Europe and around the world and talk to the manufacturers. We do not need to look at talking points. Talk to the CEOs of the global—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We need to invest in different technology right now. We must support the car industry today and also get ready for the future.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, that is what I said; just look at the record. We need to invest in different technology for now. The north star is the long-term view. That is why we have these investments that prepare us. We need to support the industry with the cars we make today, but also prepare for the future. That is what we see. If we look at the automakers, they have—

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“I want to correct what was said about my words earlier. We are investing in the car industry. We need to support the cars companies make today, and also help them prepare to make the cars of the future.”
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Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, let me just correct the record of what I said before, because there were statements made that did not reflect it. What I said is that we are investing in supporting the industry. We need to support the industry with the cars they are making today, but at the same time, if we talk to the OEMs, the car manufacturers, they are also preparing for the cars of the future. Therefore, we want to invest in what they produce today, but also be able to support them when they are going to be producing the cars of the future.

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue

Liberal
“We have always supported the auto industry. We are working with unions and bringing in big investments, like Volkswagen in St. Thomas, to help Canadian auto workers succeed.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Chair, we were supporting the auto industry when I was industry minister, and we continue to do that today. We want to position Canadian auto workers for success; they understand that. We have been working with unions very closely. We have been attracting investment like Volkswagen in St. Thomas, which, as I said, is going to build—

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