“I want the House to pass this budget bill. It helps low-income Canadians afford food, lets the tax agency file returns automatically for people who owe nothing so they get their benefits, and signs eligible kids up for education savings. It also gives tax breaks to businesses that buy buildings to make and process goods in Canada.”

“Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to take part in today’s debate on Bill C-31, the budget 2025 implementation act, no. 2. To dispel some of the myths that have been going around the House this morning, budget implementation acts are almost always omnibus, and they are almost always followed by a second BIA. It is very common for governments to have multiple technical changes that have to be consulted on after a budget comes out and that are split between two different BIAs. It is very common. It is not a big surprise. It is not the government dragging its feet, as the Conservatives have suggested. It is quite the contrary. As we all know, budget 2026 is only a few days away. While we all will find out the details of the next federal budget in due course, I feel very confident in saying in the House that it will build on our plan to create a stronger and more resilient Canadian economy. It is a plan that, in many ways, was first shaped by budget 2025. In budget 2025, our government laid out a clear plan to build a stronger Canada. Since then, we have been moving very quickly to turn that plan into action. We are building the infrastructure, the homes and the industries that will grow our economy and create lasting prosperity. We can think of energy, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, AI, defence, quantum and more. We are empowering Canadians as well with better careers and a more affordable life. We can think of cutting income tax for 22 million Canadians, cutting taxes on new home purchases, suspending the fuel excise tax, and now extending that, as well as cutting taxes on new business investment. Those are tangible examples. We are protecting our communities, our borders and our way of life, which we value so deeply here in Canada. We can think of jail and sentencing reform, the stronger borders act, protecting victims and combatting hate legislation. All of those things have been advanced by our government over the past 18 months. Bill C-31 builds on this momentum by introducing measures to make life more affordable and build a fairer, more integrated and more self-reliant economy, one that creates lasting value for Canadians and stays resilient to global shocks, which we know are coming up more furiously and frequently. Most importantly, it would ensure that government support reaches those who need it most. To begin, I would like to take a moment to speak to several key measures in this important legislation that demonstrate our government’s commitment to fairness, economic resilience and opportunity for Canadians at every stage of life. Our government knows that Canada is strongest when we look after one another and ensure that everyone has a fair chance to succeed. That is why we are taking action to make everyday life more affordable. In January, the government announced the new groceries and essentials benefit to put more money back in the pockets of Canadians. The benefit is helping more than 12 million low- and modest-income Canadians afford everyday essentials. It replaced the existing GST credit while providing more generous support. First, we boosted it by 25% for five years, starting in July 2026. Then we boosted it again for one year, a one-time payment, for this year, which is equivalent to a 50% increase to the current benefit. Together, these enhancements will provide substantial support to those most affected by rising food prices and essentials. For example, a person living alone who is eligible for the GST credit could previously receive a maximum of $543. With the June 2026 one-time payment and the 25% increase combined, that person will receive approximately $950 total, which is $400 more than they would have previously received. For a couple with two children, total support will increase from about $1,086 to $1,890, which is an $800-plus increase to that benefit and a significant support to Canadians. It is not the only thing we are doing, of course. It is one of a number of affordability measures, but it is significant support. These increases will make a meaningful difference for households facing higher costs. The benefit is also indexed to inflation, ensuring that payments rise each year with the cost of living. We are taking these steps, because helping Canadians afford everyday essentials is the right thing to do. The groceries and essentials benefit is part of a broader package of measures to ease grocery cost pressures across Canada. Canada’s first-ever national food security strategy will address food insecurity, support producers and strengthen our supply chains to help lower prices for Canadians. This strategy is backed by $3.2 billion in investments over 10 years, and it includes a $1-billion investment in food infrastructure, including food terminals and food hubs, to help independent grocers buy and move competitively priced products more easily. This strategy also includes a $1-billion investment fund through Farm Credit Canada and a $150-million food security fund to help Canadian businesses grow, produce and process more food in Canada. A further $750 million would go to expanding year-round Canadian fruit and vegetable production in climate-controlled agriculture. These measures would help address some of the root causes of food insecurity in our country by strengthening domestic food production and improving access to affordable, nutritious food. Let me talk for a moment about the fact that the government is aware that millions of lower-income Canadians do not file their taxes, either because they do not have the resources to do so or because their incomes are too low to owe any taxes at all. This means that people who most need benefits often do not receive them, causing some Canadians to miss out on things like the Canada groceries and essentials benefit, the Canada child benefit or the Canada’s worker benefit, along with many others they would be entitled to. That is why Bill C-31 proposes to allow the CRA to file a tax return on behalf of certain eligible individuals with lower incomes in simple tax situations who do not owe any taxes and do not file them themselves. This measure would ensure that support reaches those who need it most. When Canadians keep more of their hard-earned money, they can benefit better, and we are able to better support their families, invest in their communities and build the future that we all want to see. Similarly, the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of creating opportunities through education. Bill C-31 proposes to implement consequential changes to the tax rules that apply to registered education savings plans to support the implementation of automatic enrolment in the Canada learning bond. The Canada learning bond provides direct federal contributions to help children from low- and modest-income families build savings for post-secondary education, yet too many eligible families miss out, not because they choose to, but because of administrative and awareness barriers. Auto-enrolment was introduced because it would remove those barriers. By automatically enrolling eligible children, we would ensure that support reaches those it is intended to help early in life when it can make the greatest difference. Another measure in Bill C-31, among a number of others that I could focus on, is one that I am particularly passionate about that would help our businesses across the country. It is the productivity superdeduction, which was announced in budget 2025. It is a deduction for businesses on new business investment in a number of different categories. This measure would be extended, through BIA 2, to real estate assets that are purchased for the purposes of manufacturing and processing. From time to time in the House, we have all asked why Canada does not take some of its raw material and process it here at home. That is something we can do. We could build the capacity to do that here at home to get higher value for our industries, create more jobs and ensure that we are not shipping our raw goods and materials to other countries that process it and then ship it back to us for us to buy it at a premium. Instead, we could capture more of that value in the supply chain here in Canada if we were to develop the capacity to manufacture and process more of those goods here in Canada. That is exactly what this measure would do. It would support businesses out there that, say, have money they are putting away for their taxes at the end of the year. With this measure, they could immediately expense a purchase of a real estate asset to expand their operations to process or manufacture more goods here in Canada. That would be significant support at a time when uncertainty is at an all-time high. In closing, Bill C-31 reflects our government’s focus on fairness, modernization and resilience. Together, these measures advance a single vision for the Canadian economy, one rooted in confidence in Canadians and the belief that generational investments today can build lasting prosperity for tomorrow.”

• Echo ×7

  A repeated line

  “The government announced the new Canada groceries and essentials benefit to put more money back in Canadians' pockets.”

  Said 7 times by 7 members since May 26.

  Every time it was said →

“The government and the Bank of Canada do not control inflation. Higher prices are being driven by world oil shocks from the war in Iran. We are helping families with measures like automatic tax filing, tax cuts, and benefits for groceries, but the opposition votes against all of them.”

“Madam Speaker, I know that members opposite every day in the House like to blame the government for inflation. Inflation is not controlled by the government. It is not controlled by the Bank of Canada. The stats will show this. We have the Governor of the Bank of Canada coming today, and he will confirm, as the Bank of Canada did in its recent monetary policy report, that inflation in Canada is being driven by oil price shocks from the Strait of Hormuz and the Iran war. The member opposite is worried, as am I, about families who are struggling with affordability, but unlike her and her caucus, who vote against every single affordability measure, we are putting things on the table for Canadians that provide real support. The groceries and essentials benefit is just one that I mentioned. Automated tax filing is another that I mentioned, which is actually relevant for Bill C-31, but there is a whole host of other measures, such as an income tax cut, cuts on taxes on fuel, new business investment and more.”

“It is not true that the government has done nothing to help with costs. We cut income taxes, fuel taxes, taxes on new homes, and taxes on business investments. We also gave people extra money for groceries and essentials to help those who need it most.”

“Madam Speaker, with a great deal of respect, I just have to say to the member opposite that it is not true that the government has done nothing. I have given specific, tangible examples. I know they are making a real difference. I have talked to the families in my riding of Whitby. These measures are for all of Canada. They are all Canadian. We not only provided an income tax cut, but also cut the excise tax on fuel. We have cut taxes on new home purchases. We have cut taxes on new business investment. We have offered additional federal benefits, including the groceries and essentials benefit, as I indicated in my speech, which provides significant support to families across the country. We are targeting those supports to those who are most impacted by those inflationary pressures. This is what a responsible government does; it steps up to help people when they need it most.”

“People told me this summer that filing taxes is hard. I want the member to explain how automatic tax filing will help the people in his riding.”

“Madam Speaker, I spent the summer knocking on doors and speaking to a lot of seniors, some youth and a lot of middle-class folks. What I heard was that there are challenges around income tax filing. It is loud and clear that there are some challenges there, but there are also a lot of opportunities. I am curious if I can hear from the member about the impact of automatic tax filing for the fine citizens of Whitby.”

“I support this bill. It makes filing simple taxes much easier and automatic for people across Canada. This will help millions of Canadians get benefits they are missing out on.”

“Madam Speaker, in my riding, for a number of years, as I am sure many of us have done, we have hosted free tax clinics that offer support for simple tax filings to residents, and they have been quite successful. Actually, they have been oversubscribed to significantly. Now, in Bill C-31, the federal government would be doing this at scale, offering solutions for simple tax filing, not only for automatic filing, which is different, but also for another support that would essentially allow simple tax filings to be filled out so taxpayers can check and submit them themselves. We would be significantly streamlining that process. The idea here is to make sure people who would not otherwise get access to their benefits get access to them through virtue of making the process a lot simpler to file their taxes. It is a great initiative. It would help millions of Canadians, and I am very, very happy to say that we would be able to target the support in my riding to maybe slightly more complex tax filing situations in the future, because many of the people we have served in the past would be taken care of by this initiative.”

“I want the House to pass this budget bill. It pays for what we promised Canadians. We are building trade deals, creating jobs, and bringing huge investments to the country. We also set up dental care, gave schools money to feed 400,000 kids, and hit our military spending targets.”

“Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to address Bill C-31, the budget implementation bill. It is important, at the very beginning, that we recognize Bill C-31 was put in place to, in essence, bring forward the government’s agenda, making sure that we have the finances to deliver for Canadians. Just over a year ago, about 16 or 17 months ago, Canadians went to the polls and elected a new Prime Minister, a Prime Minister who had huge ambitions of delivering for Canadians in every region of the country. Coming out of the last election, all of us have been very much aware of what those issues are. There was a great deal of concern with regard to the issue of Trump tariffs and trade. I have made reference to that in the past. The Prime Minister has made a very clear commitment to Canadians that we want to deal with Canadian sovereignty in different ways. The budget implementation legislation, much like the budget itself, is how we deal with the issues that the Prime Minister took out of the election. Let me give some tangible examples. Since the last election, we have had, I believe, over 24 trade and security agreements with nations beyond the U.S., countries such as England, Indonesia and many others. When I think of the trade file, Canada is the only G7 country that has a trade agreement with all G7 countries, and we are looking at expanding that. I am hoping that later this year we will see trade agreements between Canada and the Philippines and between Canada and India. We will also continue to pursue expanding the relationship between Canada and the European Union. Let us talk about a specific example. I would like to highlight the pork industry, which is very much alive and well in three provinces in Canada: Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. If I was to focus on the province of Manitoba and on creating job opportunities and enhancing export opportunities that go beyond the Canada-U.S. border, I would highlight the company HyLife. HyLife employs hundreds of Manitobans in the community of Neepawa, bringing life back to Neepawa in many different ways. As a company, 90% of its product is sold to Asia, in particular to countries like Japan. That is the type of international trade opportunity that allows Canada to grow. This is the type of company that we could give examples of in every region of our country. When the Prime Minister, the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of International Trade and, to a lesser extent, the Minister of Immigration talk about trade opportunities, it excites all members of the government caucus, because we see the reality and recognize that Canada is very much dependent on trade. That is just one file in a much larger picture. We can talk about investments and building big projects. Earlier, a Bloc member was trying to give the false impression that Canada neglects the province of Quebec. Nothing could be further from the truth. I gave the example of the port of Montreal in the province of Quebec. That is well over three billion dollars’ worth of investments. We are talking about thousands of indirect and direct jobs as a result of major projects and investments. Over the next five years, we are going to see close to half a trillion dollars in major projects, in co-operation with provinces, municipalities, indigenous leaders and many other stakeholders. That is very real. It is tangible. Back in September, the Prime Minister held a summit, the first of its kind, where we invited investors from around the world to come to Toronto. Historic amounts of money were being looked at to invest in Canada, half a trillion dollars, which is unheard of in Canadian history. These are real, tangible investments. When we talk about budgets and the implementation of the government agenda, we need to look at the larger picture. That is why it is being forecast that Canada will have the second-highest growth in the G7 this year. We are not settling for that. Through the Prime Minister and this government, we are aiming to make Canada the strongest and healthiest economy in the G7. That goal is achievable. All one needs to do is look at the bigger picture and what the government is putting forward. That flowed from listening to what Canadians were asking not only of this Prime Minister, but of all members of the House. Every Liberal member of caucus understands that and continues to build and work toward a stronger and healthier economy because it matters. Along with that, on the issue of affordability, we put in place programs that are meant and designed to assist real people in our constituencies. Last Friday, I made reference to the national school food program, which feeds 400,000 children in schools across every region of our nation. I have talked about the dental program. Imagine a senior on a fixed income being provided the opportunity to get dental services. Every member has constituents who have benefited immensely by that. When I say “constituents”, I am talking about hundreds of constituents in every riding across the country. We can look at the turmoil from Trump tariffs and trade. Even on the unemployment and employment issue, there has been a net gain of over 150,000 jobs in Canada since the last federal election. Some may be able to point to some months being lower than other months and some months having higher employment numbers, but the bottom line is that it is a net gain. People need to appreciate the situation we are in around the world, with a war in the Middle East and what is taking place in Russia and Ukraine, the illegal occupation. We are still able to deliver. I look at the minister responsible for crime. We have brought forward numerous bills to deal with making our communities safer. We are talking about a generational number of pieces of legislation to deal with that. All of this is being done through collaborative federalism, led by a Prime Minister who understands that we need to work with people in order to make things happen. There are so many things that one can talk about. Earlier, we had a critic talking about the military. Within six or eight months, we met the target of spending 2% of GDP on military expenses. The Conservatives can try to justify it whatever way they want, but at the end of the day, our military personnel got pay increases. We now have a procurement process being put into place that is very solid and will ensure more accountability and transparency. I have run out of time. There is so much more I could talk about. I look forward to any questions.”

“Our government has done a lot of work since the last election. We have brought in about 40 bills. They help Canadians every day by fighting crime, making government more open, and working to balance our budget.”

“Madam Speaker, I can assure the member opposite that since the last election, we have had a very long, healthy, substantive legislative agenda. We are talking about 40 pieces of legislation. The type of legislation we are bringing forward affects the lives of Canadians every day. I made reference, for example, to the legislative agenda dealing with crime. We had a series of budgetary implementation bills, along with other pieces of legislation that would put in place things like Crown corporations, ensuring that there will be more transparency and accountability. There is a move toward getting a balance in our operating budget. We will find many other—”

“I care about seniors too. Our government already helps them by giving them money for groceries, funding their local activities, and lowering gas prices so they can travel. I am open to more good ideas to support seniors.”

“Madam Speaker, like the member, I very much care about our seniors. The government has brought forward a number of initiatives to support seniors. For example, there are a number of affordability measures, such as the groceries and essentials benefit and the way in which we have enhanced it over the last 18 months. One of the biggest beneficiaries is our senior population. It is a significant amount of money we are talking about, going into hundreds of millions of dollars. Also, we are reinforcing the importance of the New Horizons program, making sure that senior activities are being programmed. One could talk about the excise tax as well, which has dropped the price of gasoline. That increases opportunities for travel for seniors, whether they travel on a bus or have their own vehicle. There are always ways that we can look at additional things. I, for one, am always open to good ideas on how we can be more supportive of our seniors.”

“I want the member for Winnipeg North to explain how this bill will help people in his riding and across Manitoba.”

“Madam Speaker, I would like to wish you a great day on this special day. I would ask my colleague from Winnipeg North to bring Bill C-31 back home. I am less familiar with Manitoba. I am curious how Bill C-31 could impact the fine citizens of Manitoba, and specifically those of Winnipeg North.”

“I support this budget bill. It has many measures to make life more affordable, and they will help people in my riding.”

“Madam Speaker, I do not want more time, but I wish you a very happy birthday. If you gave me the time, I would attempt singing part of it. The French-language version of happy birthday is so much nicer to hear than the English. Having said that, enjoy your day. There are lots of wonderful things in the budget implementation bill. It would take me a great deal of time to go into the details. I like many of the affordability measures. I think the residents of Winnipeg North would benefit from them.”

“Conservatives say they care about affordability, but they vote against programs that help with it. The national school food program helps at least 2,000 schools in Quebec, including schools in the member's own riding. Why are the Conservatives voting against it?”

“Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed the opposition member’s speech. He talked about affordability, a subject that we hear about a lot. When I knock on doors in Honoré-Mercier, that is what people are talking to me about. However, I am rather surprised, because the member is talking about affordability but voting against affordability programs. I am thinking of Canada’s national school food program, which benefits at least 2,000 schools in Quebec, including schools in my colleague’s riding of Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk. I am wondering how many schools in Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk are benefiting from the national school food program. Why are the Conservatives voting against a good school food program?”