Tamara Jansen · TranslatePolitics.ca

Government Orders

Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 2

2026-06-01

“The government is spending too much on interest. That's taking money away from veterans. Veterans shouldn't have to worry if their benefits are safe. The government needs to pay for essentials first. Veterans should be a priority.”

“All this interest on the debt means less money for other things. The government is spending $50 billion just on interest. That money doesn't do anything good. It won't make jobs or infrastructure or help people. But Canadians will have to pay for it anyway, even future generations. What does my fellow member think about these terrible long-term costs?”

“I want more time to debate the budget. The government is stopping debate on a big bill. That's bad no matter what we disagree on. Canadians aren't served well by this. The government has many problems. They don't want us looking too close at their budget.”

Oral Questions

The Economy

2026-06-01

“Investors are leaving Canada and people are losing their jobs. Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. The Prime Minister needs to admit his policies are causing this recession and driving away investment and jobs.”

Government Orders

Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 2

2026-06-01

“The government is scared to have its budget examined. Shutting down debate only proves they don't trust their own ideas. Canada is in trouble. We need real answers, not less debate.”

“I want Parliament to debate spending billions of dollars. Shutting down debate after only three hours is bad. The government's plan isn't working. Canadians are losing jobs and struggling to pay for things. I think the government is afraid of letting us debate this.”

Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, Canada is the only G7 country that is in a recession. More than 112,000 Canadians have lost their job in just a few months. Food banks are reaching record levels of usage. Families are struggling to pay their mortgage, their rent and even their grocery bill. At a time like this, Canadians would expect members of Parliament to be debating solutions. They would expect their elected representatives to be examining every line of this massive omnibus bill and asking hard questions about it. Instead, the Liberals have decided to shut down debate after only three hours of debate on billions of dollars. If the government's plan is working, why are Canadians falling behind, and if the government is so confident in its plan, why is it so afraid of letting Parliament debate it?

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Oral Questions

Indigenous Affairs

2026-05-26

“Investors are scared. Housing will be too expensive. The government won't fix it. They're voting against us.”

Government Orders

Business of Supply

2026-05-26

“The government didn't do enough and it was late. Their plan barely helps and doesn't last long. People will only save a little money. That's not enough when everything costs so much. We need real savings, not a band-aid to make the government look good.”

“I heard the same things as you. Canadians want common sense, not political theatre. High gas prices mean more tax money for the government. Canadians pay more for everything while the government gets more money. The government could help people, but it won't give up the money. Canadians deserve more than temporary help.”

“I don't like that the government is taking more tax money from gas prices but not trying to lower them. Canadians need to pay for many things. The government should stop taxing gas and diesel, and stop the expensive clean fuel rule.”

“I don't like that gas prices are high. High gas prices mean the government makes more money from taxes. The other guy doesn't have an incentive to lower prices, because he likes the tax money. The other guy only gave a tiny, temporary tax break. He wants a headline but not real relief. I say the other guy should remove all federal taxes on gas and diesel right away to give real relief. The other guy won't do it because he wants to keep spending other people's money. When the cost of energy goes up, the cost of everything goes up. Canadians are at the breaking point. The other guy acts like lowering fuel taxes would break the economy. I say the government should just stop taking so much money from people. Who should keep the money? The people who work hard and keep the country moving, or the government with an endless appetite for spending? I believe Canadians have already paid enough. The other guy says the economy is doing great, but people can't afford their bills. We have a choice: expensive energy and growing government, or let people keep their money.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, in the 1970s, during Britain's energy crisis, there was a saying that the government treats taxpayers like lemons; that every time it needs more money, it just squeezes harder. That is exactly how Canadians feel today every time they pull up to the gas pump. Whether someone is a mom driving their kids to hockey in Cloverdale, a tradesman in Langley filling up his truck before work or a senior cutting back on groceries because of gas prices, they all watch the numbers spin higher and higher while government quietly takes a bigger cut every second that dial moves. If government revenue rises every time gas prices rise, what incentives do the Liberals actually have to bring that cost down? That is the uncomfortable truth at the centre of this debate. Every time families pull up to the pump and watch those numbers climb higher, Ottawa is standing right there with its hand out. There is the GST, the industrial carbon tax and the clean fuel standard, all stacked one on top of the other on every litre we buy. As Canadians watch those numbers click frighteningly higher, government revenues rise automatically. After months of soaring prices and dogged pressure by the Conservatives, the Liberals finally arrived with a tiny, temporary tax break. They presented it as though they performed some great act of economic heroism. In reality, their plan delivers barely one-third of the relief for barely one-third of the year, compared to what Conservatives had proposed. The Liberals want Canadians to believe that the cupboard is bare, that this is the absolute limit of what government can do, when in fact they can remove all federal taxes on gas and diesel tomorrow morning and give some real and actual relief to Canadians. However, that would require government to give up revenue and modern Liberals have become far too comfortable spending other people's money. Instead of real relief, Canadians are handed a carefully staged announcement designed to generate headlines, applause in Ottawa and just enough temporary relief to dull public anger while families continue struggling under the weight of higher energy costs. Meanwhile, the single mother driving to work, the tradesman filling up his truck, and the senior choosing between groceries and fuel are expected to celebrate crumbs while government continues feasting on the loaf. That is why Conservatives brought forward this motion to remove all federal taxes on gas and diesel for the rest of the year and permanently scrap the costly clean fuel standard so Canadians can finally get some relief. Milton Friedman once joked that if government were put in charge of the Sahara Desert, there would be a shortage of sand within five years. We laugh because we understand the deeper truth behind it, which is that governments interfere too heavily in markets, pile on taxes, add layers of bureaucracy and try to centrally plan the economy from Ottawa boardrooms. The people who can least afford it will eventually pay the price. That is exactly what has happened in Canada. Let us think about it. Back in 2014, oil prices were sitting at roughly the same level they are today, around $100 a barrel, yet Canadians were paying about $1.37 a litre. Today, that same litre costs closer to $1.87. That is roughly 50¢ more per litre, even though the global oil price is essentially the same. What has changed? Liberal taxes have changed, of course. Over the last decade, Canadians have been buried under a growing pile of federal costs layered onto energy. This includes the industrial carbon tax, the clean fuel standard and the GST charge on top of the entire inflated amount. We have tax upon tax upon tax, all justified by politicians who never seem to notice that working people still have to drive to work, farmers still have to harvest their crops and families still have to get their kids to school. Here is the part Canadians are beginning to understand very clearly: Every time gas prices rise, government revenues rise as well. Ottawa profits from expensive energy, while ordinary Canadians are punished by it. That is why the finance minister's comments were astonishingly tone-deaf when he claimed that the Liberals had acted faster and more comprehensively than peer countries. Canadians are not looking for a trophy in international political theatre. They are looking at their bank accounts, they are looking at their grocery bills, they are looking at the cost of filling up the family vehicle and wondering how much further they can stretch a paycheque that already feels exhausted before it even arrives. Meanwhile, countries around the world cut fuel taxes to help their citizens weather rising costs. Conservatives proposed removing all federal taxes on gas and diesel for the rest of the year to save families roughly 25¢ a litre, or about $1,200 for a family of four. The Liberals' response was to offer barely one-third of the relief for barely one-third of the year, and then they presented it as though they had moved mountains on behalf of struggling Canadians. Margaret Thatcher understood something modern Liberals never seem to grasp: When governments make energy expensive, they make everything expensive. Energy is not a luxury item. Energy moves food across the country. Energy powers tractors, delivery trucks, ambulances, factories, school buses and construction equipment. When energy costs rise, the cost of absolutely everything rises with it. Canadians are already at the breaking point. Nearly three-quarters of Canadians say that rising food and gas prices are straining their finances. More than four in 10 Canadians are less than $200 away from not being able to pay their bills. Members can think about that. The cost of one unexpected repair bill, one extra grocery trip or one tank of gas is how close to the edge millions of Canadians are living after a decade of Liberal credit card budgets, inflationary deficits and economic mismanagement. While ordinary Canadians cut back, governments keep spending like there is no tomorrow. The truckers delivering groceries pay more for fuel. The farmers harvesting crops pay more for fuel. The manufacturers shipping goods pay more for fuel. Every added cost lands on the kitchen tables of ordinary Canadian families. That is the real-world consequence of expensive energy. This is not a theoretical economics discussion over a catered lunch in Ottawa. These are real families making painful decisions every single day. The government acts as though lowering fuel taxes would somehow break the economy. When Conservatives are calling for these tax breaks, we were not proposing another complicated subsidy program with more paperwork, more bureaucracy and more consultants billing taxpayers by the hour. We are simply saying that the government should stop taking so much money from Canadians in the first place and let them keep more of what they earn. That is the simplest form of relief possible. The government's job is not to stand at the gas pump with its hand out every time Canadians try to get to work. The Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the Liberals' temporary plan would only save the average household about $124 total. Canadians cannot run a family budget on symbolic gestures. Conservatives are proposing relief that would actually have impact. The Liberals simply do not want to give up the revenue. At the heart of this debate lies a very simple question: Who should keep that money? Should it remain in the pockets of the men and women who rise early, work long hours, drive trucks, build the homes, harvest the crops and keep this country moving, or should more of it flow to Ottawa, where the government has developed an endless appetite for spending but remarkably little interest in restraint? Conservatives believe Canadians have already paid enough. After a decade of Liberal deficits and taxes, families are not asking for luxuries. They are asking for breathing room. They want to drive to work without feeling punished every time they fill their tanks. They want to walk through the grocery store without calculating what necessities must be left at the checkout counter. Whenever Canadians raise these concerns, they are told by the Liberals that they have already acted, that the economy is doing great and that it is one of the best economies in the G7. Somehow the answer to rising costs is always more bureaucracy, more intervention and more taxes collected from the people who are already struggling to stay afloat. The House has a choice to make. We can continue down the Liberal path, where expensive energy is treated as a political virtue, where taxes quietly rise every time families fill their tanks and where government grows larger while ordinary Canadians grow poorer, or we can return to the simple principle that built strong economies in the first place, which is that working people are better stewards of their own money than government will ever be.

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Adjournment Proceedings

2026-05-25

“Liberals messed with the housing market. They pumped it up, then let it drop. Now everything's unstable and Canadians suffer.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing now is the consequence of years of Liberal market distortion through subsidies, red tape and unpredictable government policy. The Liberals overheated the housing market with record immigration levels and developers responded by investing billions, hiring workers and putting shovels in the ground based on the conditions the government created. Then Ottawa suddenly slammed on the brakes. After years of overheating demand, the Liberals abruptly reversed course without a plan, leaving developers watching the market shift beneath projects already under way as rental vacancy rates jumped more than 40% year over year. Housing projects take years to plan and build. The government cannot pull one policy lever to flood the market and then yank another to choke off demand and expect builders, renters or buyers to have any stability. This is a failure of central planning. The Liberals created this distortion and now Canadians are paying the price.

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“I want the government to stop messing with the housing market. They drove up demand without enough supply. Now everything's a mess and they won't admit it.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, Canada's housing market today looks a lot like a young man driving a road racer down an icy highway in the middle of winter. The engine roars, the tires grip and the driver thinks he is in control and so he presses harder on the gas. Imagine a souped-up, five-litre Mustang with more horsepower than common sense. The speed builds, but suddenly the tires lose traction. The steering becomes unstable, and the vehicle starts sliding. A smart driver would ease off carefully and regain control but, just like a reckless teenager, the Liberal government does not believe in restraint. It believes Ottawa can control markets better than Canadians themselves, and that arrogance is exactly what has driven Canada's housing market into the ditch. First, the Liberals went full throttle on immigration and population growth without building the homes, infrastructure, roads, utilities or skilled labour force needed to support it. Canada added well over one million new residents in a single year, one of the fastest population growth rates in the developed world. The Liberal government drove demand through the roof while supply was trapped behind taxes, red tape, permitting delays and development charges, forcing prices to explode. Young families were suddenly bidding against impossible demand. Rents soared and house prices spiralled. Ordinary Canadians who worked hard and played by the rules found themselves locked out of home ownership altogether. The Liberals treated the housing market like a driver flooring a powerful car on black ice and then acted surprised when the whole thing started fishtailing. Then, after overheating the market, the Liberals pulled the emergency brake, cutting immigration and locking us in a dangerous skid. At the peak, they brought one million international students into the country and then abruptly, this year, came to a screeching halt of less than half. However, when a car is already sliding, hitting the brakes too hard does not restore control; it sends the whole vehicle spinning. Adding to that chaos, the Liberals' so-called build Canada approach threw billions of dollars at the catastrophic crash site. Once again, the Liberals believed they could centrally plan the economy from the top down. They encouraged prefab factories and construction suppliers to tool up for enormous future projects that have not materialized. Billions were announced, bureaucracies expanded, but uncertainty exploded. Development costs climbed even higher. Builders were crushed between rising interest rates, government interference, expensive regulations and constantly changing rules. Instead of stabilizing housing, Liberal central planning created even greater instability. Now, we are seeing the devastating consequences. Across the Fraser Valley, we have warning lights flashing everywhere. Thind Properties, Maskeen Group, Brivia Group, Coromandel Properties, Square Nine Developments, 14 Property Group, Wade Development, and Everest Group are struggling with receiverships, insolvencies, foreclosures, creditor protection, stalled projects, laid-off workers and families left wondering whether the homes they paid for will ever even be built. This is what happens when government distorts markets long enough that confidence itself begins to collapse. Conservatives believe in a common-sense approach. We believe that the people who know how to build homes are builders, not politicians. We believe government should stop choking developments with taxes, delays, gatekeepers and ideological central planning. We believe in getting government out of the way so the private sector can do what it does best: build. Canadians do not need more politicians grabbing the steering wheel. They need a government with enough wisdom to finally let the country get back on track. Will the Liberal government admit that its housing policies are the reason Canadians cannot afford a home?

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Government Orders

Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act

2026-05-25

“The Liberals are spending too much. High debt is forcing Canadians to pay more in interest than they do on health care. Canadians can't afford groceries because of this reckless spending. It's not fair that families have to pay for the government's mistakes.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, families across Canada know that, when their interest payments start eating up their household budget, something is seriously wrong. That is exactly what is happening with the Liberal government. Debt interest costs have now exploded to $59 billion a year, up 10% in just one year alone. Canadians are now paying more in interest than the federal government sends to provinces for health care. In fact, debt interest now costs more than the GST brings in. Members can think about it. Canadians pay taxes and struggle to afford groceries and rent. More and more of that money is simply going toward interest payments instead of the services people need. Is it fair that the Liberals are forcing Canadians to pay thousands of dollars per family just to keep up with the interest on their own reckless spending?

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“People have too much debt. Houses cost too much. Food banks are busy. Seniors and families are struggling. But the other party keeps saying life is getting better and more affordable. I don't think that's true. Why are people having a harder time if they say everything is great?”

STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Cloverdale—Langley City

2026-05-25

“I want the government to stop making sudden changes and passing weak laws. People in my riding are worried about crime and don't trust what the government will do next. Our leader talked about crime and property rights because this affects regular people trying to build a future here. The government should realize central planning doesn't work and leads to problems.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, 11 years ago, people invested in our community because they believed in the future. Families moved there. Builders built there. Small businesses took risks there, but now developers are facing insolvency. Businesses are being extorted. Families are worried about crime and people are starting to wonder if the rules even make sense anymore. After years of mixed signals from the Liberals, sudden policy shifts and weak-on-crime laws, the confidence that built our community is being shaken. When people stop feeling safe, physically, financially and legally, communities start to break apart. Our leader was in Cloverdale last week talking about crime and property rights because this is no longer some abstract political debate. This is about whether ordinary people can still build a future in Canada. When will the Liberal government realize that central planning is, as always, a recipe for disaster?

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Government Orders

Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act

2026-05-25

“Cutting debate is shady. It makes it look like you're hiding something. I think you're hiding something. Let us talk.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, when the government forces Parliament to shut down debate, Canadians should ask themselves one very simple question: What exactly are the Liberals hoping that Canadians will not notice? The choice to use time allocation is the latest in the government's attempt to shortcut transparency. Debate is cut short, scrutiny is treated like obstruction and billions of taxpayer dollars are pushed through Parliament without good oversight. It is becoming a pattern. They change the rules halfway through the game, dim the lights and hope Canadians cannot see the scoreboard clearly enough to question the result. However, a strong economy depends on trust, trust that the rules are fair, the books are honest and hard work still gets people ahead. Under the Liberal government, Canadians feel like they are in a nightmare game, expected to play blindfolded. Eventually, players stop taking risks, investors stop investing and builders stop building. My question is simple. Why do the Liberals keep shutting off the cameras and using technicalities like time allocation when the trust of Canadians is at its lowest? Honesty and integrity—

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Government Orders

Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act

2026-05-06

“$12 billion a year is a lot of money to waste on vanity projects. Canadians are struggling. Does my colleague really think we should make life harder for Canadians just to score political points?”

Government Orders

Business of Supply

2026-05-05

“There are many jobs! Where is the deal? The Prime Minister doesn't even know if our relationship is good or bad. The government must do something now and get rid of these tariffs.”

“I want Canada to increase its energy production. That would give us more power to negotiate against US tariffs. We need more leverage to get those tariffs removed. Loans won't help businesses. Businesses are being hurt by these tariffs.”