Michael Guglielmin

In response to a question from Luc Thériault

“The Prime Minister is the least open and accountable leader I have seen. He rarely shows up to answer questions, and he talks to foreign media instead of Canadian reporters. Also, the government spends money on large projects without spending limits or knowing the final cost.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I would like to start by saying that the Prime Minister is probably the least accountable and least transparent prime minister I have witnessed in my lifetime. My colleague mentioned question period appearances, which are severely lacking in the chamber, but I would also say that we notice, as the Prime Minister goes around, that most of his announcements are actually made in foreign media, not here in the press galley to Canadian media. Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? I am sure members of the media and the Canadian public would like to hear much more about the Prime Minister and his plans announced right here on Canadian soil. With respect to big projects such as Alto’s, I will say that it seems the government does not have a ceiling on these projects. It cannot demonstrate profitability, and we do not know what they are ultimately going to cost.”

In response to a question from Kevin Lamoureux

“I want the Prime Minister to come speak to the finance committee. Canada's finances are getting worse fast, according to the budget officer. The Prime Minister is an economist, so he should answer our questions about the government's record.”

“Mr. Speaker, absolutely we would love to see the finance minister at the finance committee as well. I know he will be coming to the finance committee when the budget is introduced. However, given the state of the fiscal position we are in, the PBO’s own assessment that was released recently and the fact that the Prime Minister of this country is a trained economist who ran on his image as a banker, as somebody who understands the fiscal conditions of this country, these conditions are deteriorating rapidly. If he is the man, he is the man to answer the questions, so he should come to the finance committee, address the committee and let Canadians know exactly what is going on with this fiscal position and the government’s record.”

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“The government is spending too much money and borrowing too much. This is making life harder for Canadians, and we are spending billions just to pay interest on the national debt. I want the Prime Minister to come to the finance committee to answer questions about how he will cut spending and get the deficit under control.”

“Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today on behalf of the wonderful people in the great riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge. Canadians have been told for years that Ottawa needs to spend more to make their lives better, yet every time Conservatives in the House raise the affordability crisis, we are met with the same response from the Liberal government: another list of programs, another spending announcement and billions more dollars in borrowed money. Why is the measure of success for the Liberal government always how much money it spends, not tonnes produced, businesses opened or even jobs created? We constantly hear from the Prime Minister and the Liberals that they are not spending but are investing. We have been hearing this for almost 11 years at this point, and I think it is time we ask a very fair question. For most Canadians, for Canadians watching at home, is their life any better today? Despite all the announcements, all the billions of dollars in allocated funds, has their life marginally improved at all? Canadians are struggling to afford groceries. I hear from young people all the time in my riding and across this country who say they have almost given up on the dream of home ownership. They find it increasingly expensive. There is a report out of the Bank of Canada on the brain drain that is happening here. Young people are moving to different jurisdictions such as the United States in order to find employment due to cost of living constraints. Just last week, Food Banks Canada reported 2.35 million food bank visits in a single month, an increase of 117% since 2019. The CEO of Food Banks Canada says this is: the story of what happens when millions of people are running out of options. In the past, most people in Canada could absorb a small financial setback... Those days are over. Canada’s bleak new reality is that millions of people are making impossible trade-offs every day as they choose between food or rent. A statement such as that should alarm every single member of the chamber. Taking all this into account, it is hard to even fathom that the Prime Minister had the audacity to stand up in this place and say, “Affordability is the best it has been in...a decade.” These are not me putting words in his mouth; those were his words. However, I would not blame him. After all, he is only the Prime Minister of Canada, and as a matter of fact, colleagues, he just got here. Well, he has been Prime Minister for almost two years at this point, and at some point he has to take responsibility for the country he is governing. We are beginning to see a very familiar pattern with the Prime Minister: He tells Canadians one thing, but his record demonstrates something that is very different. His promise to get federal spending under control is one example. How often have we heard the Prime Minister state boldly that the Liberals are going to spend less and invest more? I know he just got here, but surely a year and a half is enough time to explain how he intends to keep that promise he made to Canadians. Last week, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released her latest assessment of the government’s finances, and the numbers raised some serious questions. Allow me to list just a few of the PBO’s findings. This is sourced from a CTV news article: The PBO released her latest economic forecast on Tuesday, which is projecting slower growth in the country’s real GDP forecast... The outlook also spells trouble for the federal government’s debt, and the cost of servicing that debt, projecting a growing debt-to-GDP ratio in the coming years. Declining deficit-to-GDP ratio is one of the federal government’s [own] fiscal anchors. But, according to [the] PBO..., the charges to service the debt is “the fastest-growing piece of government spending right now.” When the Prime Minister tells Canadians his government is going to spend less, I think they are entitled to ask exactly what he means by this. There is simply no factual evidence to support that he is spending less, as he claimed time and time again that he would. In fact, he is spending so much more. It is not just the size of the deficit that should concern Canadians. It is all those years of borrowing and what exactly that is now costing us. Five years ago, Ottawa spent $24.5 billion servicing the national debt. This year, that bill is projected to rise to $59.3 billion. In four years from now, that is going to climb to a whopping $83 billion. That is 13.6¢ for every dollar of federal revenue. It is a number so big that the human brain can barely even conceptualize what that is or just how massive it is. At a time when Canadians are struggling to access health care, the government is now projected to spend more on debt-servicing interest than it transfers to provinces and territories through the Canada health transfer. I ask the House and Canadians watching at home, what does that money actually provide? I will say what it does not do. It certainly does not shorten the wait times Canadians are facing to see their doctor. For a family of four, this year’s federal interest bill will cost each family $6,000. Canadians are being asked to live within their means by a government that has yet to explain exactly how it is going to live within its means. Next Thursday, the finance minister is going to come to the House, stand here and deliver yet another federal budget. I think we should all take note, and Canadians watching at home should certainly be well aware, of the timing of the introduction of that budget, which is the Thursday before the break week, to limit accountability and scrutiny of the budget, which will raise some serious questions about what we will find in that budget when we get to dig into it. I would love to be proven wrong on all this, but judging by all the metrics, including what the PBO said recently, all roads lead to Canadians’ having a very good reason to be concerned about what is in the fiscal budget this year. The Liberal government’s answer to nearly every problem seems to be to spend more money. Where does that money come from? It certainly does not grow on trees. It certainly does not come from Santa Claus. It comes directly from Canadians, either through taxes they pay today or through the borrowing that taxpayers will have to service for years down the road. The government continues to mortgage the future of my kids and the kids of every single Canadian watching at home today. There is something else in the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report that Canadians should hear before the budget is released. Excluding new announcements, total revenues are $9.2 billion higher, on average, over the next five years. Much of that comes from higher prices, particularly for oil and other commodities, which have boosted the federal tax revenue. In fact, the PBO has actually lowered their forecast for economic growth this year. While Canadians are dealing with higher prices and a slowing economy, Ottawa and the Liberal government are collecting more revenue than previously expected. What happened to all that additional revenue? The government has announced new spending and tax measures, costing some $52.6 billion over the same five years. I am sure the government will tell us how important each and every single one of those measures is. If the Prime Minister’s promise is to spend less and get the deficit under control, should we not at least expect some improvement in the country’s finances when the additional revenues come in? Instead, the PBO is projecting that the deficit will reach $70.2 billion next year. That is before we have even seen what the government plans to announce in next Thursday’s budget. We also keep hearing that the government is going to balance the operating budget. It is the government itself that decides what constitutes operating or capital expenses, and it does so quite arbitrarily, might I add. This leaves open the possibility that the Liberals move an expense from one category into another, simply to say that they have reduced or eliminated the operating budget. According to the PBO, spending on capital expenditures is far outpacing the deficit. This is why Canadians should be very concerned about this classification issue. Federal borrowing is expected to rise by $732 billion, while the cumulative deficit will be $333 billion over a five-year period. For Canadians, I come back to the question I have been asking throughout my this speech: Where is the Prime Minister’s plan to spend less? Canada is still running enormous deficits, debt interest is growing significantly and the Parliamentary Budget Officer now projects that the government will miss its own commitment to maintain a declining debt-to-GDP ratio. Which spending is being reduced? When will Canadians see the deficit brought under control? How does the Prime Minister intend to stop interest from consuming more money than they send to Ottawa? This is why the Prime Minister’s image as a banker seems to be collapsing and he needs to come to the finance committee to answer these very serious questions.”

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“The industry minister says Cleveland-Cliffs broke its promises, but the company says it did not, and Stelco workers are still laid off. The minister promised to show the House her demand letter to the company. I want to know when she will provide it.”

“Mr. Speaker, the industry minister said Cleveland-Cliffs has broken its commitments. Now just today the company again said it is fully compliant with all 34 of its undertakings, including employment. Meanwhile, Stelco workers remain laid off. Competing press releases do not help workers. Yesterday, the industry minister stood in this House and said that she would provide the demand letter to this House. Today, the member for York—Durham formally made that request. I am assuming, since she is so confident that the company is in breach, she will have no problem providing that letter. Will she do it, and when?”

“The industry minister said the Stelco dispute would be fixed in days, but operations are still being shut down. Workers cannot pay their mortgages with government warnings. I want the minister to stop giving them more time and start enforcing Stelco's job commitments.”

“Mr. Speaker, last Friday, the industry minister said resolving the Stelco dispute was a “question of days”, yet Cleveland-Cliffs is proceeding with indefinitely idling its Stelco cold-rolled and coated steel operations. It has been 13 days since Stelco first responded to her letter and six days since the minister said it would be resolved, and now we learn she is giving them an extra 15 days. Canadians are having a hard time keeping up, and workers cannot pay their mortgages with another government warning. Will the minister stop issuing warnings, do what she said she was going to do and start enforcing Stelco’s employment commitments?”

“The Prime Minister promised to buy Canadian, but work for a major energy project is going overseas. Canadian steel companies say they can do this work, but no one asked them. I want to know if the government talked to Canadian companies before this work went to other countries.”

“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised to build Canadian and buy Canadian. Now, LNG Canada phase two is a massive private sector investment, but the inputs for the facility portion are not coming from Canada. Canadian steel fabricators say that they have the capacity to supply significant portions of this project, but they were not consulted. Before billions of dollars of fabrication went overseas, did anyone in the Liberal government actually ask Canadian industry stakeholders what they could build here at home?”

In response to a question from Anna Roberts

“The Liberals have spent 11 years hurting Canada's economy, and now they take credit for programs that try to fix the damage they caused. We need them to work with us to fix the tax system, build energy projects, and lower taxes for people and businesses.”

“Madam Speaker, we see a theme here. The Liberal government spends 11 years recklessly destroying the Canadian economy and then wants to take credit for programs that it institutes to apparently help subsidize the people in the economy that it destroyed. To answer the member’s question, we need to see the spirit of collaboration on serious things like tax reform, on things that will help us build up our leverage in trade negotiations and that will help promote competitiveness. We would like to see the Liberals actually start building energy infrastructure so we can take advantage of this unique opportunity to capitalize on our natural resources, so we can lower business and personal tax for people and really target key industries and see them thrive. We have everything we need in this country. We just need the Liberals onside to promote these ideas.”

In response to a question from Kevin Lamoureux

“Life is too expensive for Canadians right now. I want the government to extend this fuel tax cut even longer and work with us on other ways to lower costs. We need lower taxes and fewer business rules so Canada can compete with the United States.”

“Madam Speaker, we are facing a major affordability crisis, and in that same spirit of collaboration, we would like to see the government extend this fuel tax break even further. We would also like to see it take some of our other ideas on affordability. We have a serious problem with regulations that have a stranglehold on the Canadian economy. We need serious tax reform. I believe it was a Liberal prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who once said that if Canada wants to be competitive with the United States, the largest market, it is not going to be a market competition. We have to have a more competitive regulatory system and a much more competitive tax system. I would like to see the Liberals collaborate with us on those things to increase affordability for Canadians.”

“I support this bill to keep pausing the fuel tax, but it does not go far enough. Life is too expensive for families, seniors, and small businesses. The government should remove all federal taxes on gas and diesel until July 2027 to save people more money.”

“Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the great people of the riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge. Canadians are struggling with the cost of living, and every single dollar matters, whether it be the parent filling up the family car before taking the kids to school, the tradesperson driving from job site to job site or the truck driver delivering food that ends up in our grocery stores. It certainly matters to the families in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge who are trying to make their paycheques stretch a little further each month. When I am at the east or west Woodbridge seniors clubs, the topic on everyone’s mind is how expensive life has gotten. For seniors, OAS and CPP do not go far enough. As for their grandkids, they feel that life is unaffordable and they will never be able to get ahead. It has been a year and a half since the Liberals were elected, and many are wondering how life has changed, how their lives have been made better. Yes, there are many global challenges that further complicate the problem, including the unjustified tariffs on our country, but many of the affordability concerns that Canadians are talking about predate this, and many of them are self-inflicted after almost 11 years now of bad government policy. There have been many announcements from the government, but we have seen very little progress. We see a government that is great at marketing its announcements but very little action. I would submit that things have actually gotten worse. The Liberals in the last year and a half have doubled the deficit and added hundreds of billions of dollars of new spending above the reckless levels inherited from the previous disastrous Trudeau Liberal government. One need look no further than the fact that we are now at the highest levels of government spending as a share of the economy since 1996 and have the biggest deficit outside of COVID in Canadian history. As a member of His Majesty’s loyal opposition, it is my job to hold the government accountable, question its expenditures and, yes, agree where there is room to agree. Just yesterday, when I asked a question in the House on the cost of retaliatory tariffs for Canadians, the government House leader proceeded to act as if such a question was part of a “‘blame Canada’ pattern”. I mean, how dare the Conservative opposition ask a simple question of basic economics to the Liberal government? We know transparency is not the Liberals’ strong suit. Following months of Conservative calls to extend gas tax relief for Canadians, the federal government decided to suspend the excise tax on gasoline and diesel in April, providing relief of 10¢ per litre on gasoline and four cents per litre on diesel. This suspension was originally scheduled to expire after Labour Day, but the government has now introduced legislation to extend it to January 2027. For Canadians who depend on their vehicles, and for businesses that depend on affordable transportation, the extension provides additional relief. It also raises an important question about what happens when that relief expires. Conservatives have constantly called for greater relief, and we believe the government should go even further by removing all federal taxes on gasoline and diesel until at least Canada Day 2027, which would save Canadians 25¢ per litre and provide an annual savings of $1,200 per family. I will also note that when Conservatives proposed to remove the federal excise tax on fuel for a longer time, Liberals downplayed it as having little to no impact on affordability for Canadians. I would also like to say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière. How much could that wasted time and delay have saved Canadians? Let us think about it. We had a motion in this very House on this exact issue that the Liberals voted against several months prior. We have seen this before. The Liberals backtracked on their previous narrative regarding their tax policy. Exhibit A is the consumer carbon tax. As the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands suggested earlier today, the Liberals are plagiarizing parts of our platform for their own, and it is no surprise that they are because that is exactly what Canadians need to address issues of affordability and the cost of living. Fuel taxes drive up costs for Canadians, and the impact extends well beyond the gas station. When fuel costs rise, the consequences are felt throughout the economy, and ultimately, those costs find their ways into the wallets of every single Canadian. Let us consider what happens before a family even walks into a grocery store. A farmer needs fuel to operate equipment and produce food. A trucking company needs diesel to transport that food. A distributor needs to move it to a warehouse, and another truck delivers it to a grocery store. Every stage involves transportation, and every single stage has costs. When fuel becomes more expensive, businesses face pressure to absorb these costs, reduce spending elsewhere or pass some of those expenditures along to the customers. That is why Conservatives have been calling for the government to go further. Lower fuel costs can help families at the pump while easing some of the pressures facing the businesses that produce and deliver the goods Canadians rely on. As someone who spent 20 years in industry, I understand the importance of getting materials from a supplier to a factory and the finished product from a factory to a customer. The manufacturing transportation costs are part of the price of doing business. It is a top-three line item on most financial statements. A company might be doing everything it can to improve productivity, control expenses and remain competitive, but it still needs to purchase fuel to move its products. When those costs rise, it can put additional pressure on the company’s margins and ability to compete. This is particularly relevant today when Canadian manufacturers are already navigating significant uncertainty in their trade relationship with the largest market, the United States. For businesses in Vaughan—Woodbridge and across Ontario, transportation costs are one of several factors that determine whether they can offer competitive prices, attract orders and maintain employment. Fuel tax relief can help with one of those pressures. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has also reported significant financial pressure among small businesses. Among those who considered it a bad time to start a business, 88% cited high costs, 65% pointed at taxes and 53% identified government red tape. These are Canadians who invest their savings, take risks and employ people in our communities. When their costs rise, it can become harder to expand, invest in new equipment, hire workers or offer competitive pricing. Conservatives also called for reforms to federal permitting, taxation and regulation to address Canada’s broader competitive challenges. For example, we have learned that there are over 100,000 different regulations on the manufacturing sector alone. The decisions Parliament makes on fuel taxes are a part of that discussion. I want to turn to the experience of younger Canadians. The finance minister claimed his government is fighting every day for young people and their generation, yet a recent RBC report highlights that more than half of Canadian parents are financially supporting their adult children, giving an average of $6,100 just last year. Young Canadians should not need the bank of mom and dad to afford groceries and rent. A significant portion of Canada’s brain drain is because of the cost of living for our young people. Conservatives have raised concerns about the scale of federal spending, the deficit and the long-term costs of servicing public debt. Those concerns deserve careful consideration when the government is asking Canadians to accept that further fuel tax relief cannot be sustained beyond next spring. Bill C-38 also presents an opportunity to consider the broader fuel tax proposal. Conservatives have called for removing all federal taxes on gasoline and diesel until at least Canada Day 2027, including the GST on fuel, while also proposing changes to the clean fuel regulations and the permanent elimination of the industrial carbon tax. The government has estimated that extending the existing tax suspension will provide an additional $2.9 billion in tax relief. That makes the scheduled return of the tax particularly important to examine. If the government recognizes that fuel tax relief can help Canadians and Canadian businesses manage rising costs, Parliament should understand why the relief is scheduled to end on April 1. The families I represent in Vaughan—Woodbridge are looking for greater financial security. They want to know that their children have opportunities to purchase a home, that their businesses can remain competitive and that their paycheques will cover the costs of everyday life.”