Vincent Ho · TranslatePolitics.ca

Government Orders

Business of Supply

2026-05-05

“The other guy's bad at trade deals. He flips back and forth. We ended up with all these tariffs. He just makes excuses. He's not good at this. It's all an act.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister calls himself the master negotiator, yet he changes his tone on the U.S. faster than the weather changes in April. One day he is talking about a rupture, the next day about a mutual success, then a weakness, and now, being stronger together. Steel tariffs have doubled, lumber tariffs have tripled, and manufacturing tariffs are hitting our workers here at home. However, after all the Liberal rhetoric and illusions, there is still no trade deal after more than a year. At what point are the Liberals going to stop excusing their own failures and admit that the Prime Minister does not have a coherent negotiation strategy at all, that it is just illusions dressed up as diplomacy?

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Oral Questions

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

2026-05-04

“The immigration minister says she isn't responsible for letting terrorists into Canada. The government knew about this terrorist and let him in anyway. They could have stopped it easily. The Prime Minister is letting the minister keep her job. Is the Prime Minister responsible for his immigration minister? I'm trying to blame the Prime Minister for letting a terrorist into Canada.”

Oral Questions

Finance

2026-04-30

“The government is spending too much. More spending means more debt and higher taxes. People are struggling with high costs. Why won't the government stop spending so much and reduce the burden on families?”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, that was a Google search of a list of things the Liberals have put on the national credit card. This costly credit card budget means more debt, more cost, more spending and more taxes. It is all more of the same. Nothing has changed. The Liberal Prime Minister is just another costly Liberal, except that he has managed to double Trudeau's debt deficit. Food bank visits have doubled. One in three Canadians is borrowing just to eat, and families are feeling the pain at the grocery store. Deficits mean inflation today and taxes tomorrow, which the Liberals keep doubling down on. Why are the Liberals fanning the flames of the fire on costs and higher deficits instead of putting out the fire for Canadians struggling to afford groceries, gas and housing?

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“Government spending and debt is too much. It makes food cost more for Canadians. The budget means more spending and more debt. 10 million Canadians have trouble paying for food. I want the government to make food cheaper.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, this week's costly Liberal budget update confirms what Canadians already feel at the checkout. This costly credit card budget means more debt, more costs, more spending, more taxes and more of the same. Nothing has changed, because the Liberal Prime Minister is just another costly Liberal, and he has doubled Trudeau's deficit. According to the latest “Canadian Food Sentiment Index” report, Canadians are now choosing food based on price, not nutrition, and they are cutting back just to survive. Nearly 10 million Canadians face food insecurity. How many more warning lights have to flash before the Liberals stop swiping the national credit card and finally make food more affordable for Canadians?

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Government Orders

Business of Supply

2026-04-30

“The Liberals want to create a new bureaucracy to control money. I don't trust them. They've created 13 new agencies this year! They say it will be professionally managed, but I think they'll just use it to help their friends. We should be attracting investment, not adding more debt for taxpayers to pay off later. A sovereign wealth fund needs actual wealth, but the Liberals have only made more debt.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly where the Liberal government gets it wrong. It would start a new bureaucracy and a new fund to be staffed and overseen by Liberal insiders. The Liberal government, in the past year alone, has already formed 13 new bureaucracies, all of which are overseen or managed by Liberal insiders. The government says it would be professionally managed, but it would actually be professionally managed to fail and to benefit only corporate insiders. That is one of the biggest differences we see compared to other models that are succeeding. We could unleash our resources and attract investment. We do not need to draw on more government debt that is going to be paid off by taxpayers and the next generation. The sovereign wealth fund should be built on one thing: wealth. What we have a lot of, after 11 years of Liberal governments, is debt.

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“The Liberal fund isn't like other countries' funds at all. Other funds invest globally to get the best returns. This one will just benefit projects tied to Liberal insiders. It was pitched by Brookfield, the firm the Liberal Prime Minister chaired in 2024. I'm saying it's corrupt, just like past Liberal corruption.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the premise of the member's question is that the Liberal slush fund has nothing similar to any of the sovereign wealth funds that have been successfully created in the past by other countries. First of all, other sovereign wealth funds are allowed to invest globally in an investment opportunity set that would maximize risk-adjusted returns. This Liberal slush fund would be restricted to a few selected investment decisions that would benefit projects tied to Liberal insiders. Second, this Liberal slush fund was pitched by Brookfield, which is none other than the financial firm the Liberal Prime Minister was the chair of in 2024. Guess when it was pitched. It was pitched in 2024. There are many striking similarities between this so-called sovereign debt fund and the Liberal corruption we have seen in the past.

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“Countries like Norway that have these funds don't have other problems we have. Maybe you should stop reading your economics textbook. Go talk to real people and see their real problems.”

“I don't like the Liberal's new fund. It's not a real sovereign wealth fund. Real sovereign wealth funds need wealth. Canada doesn't have wealth. Canada has a lot of debt. The Liberals are spending too much. The Liberals want taxpayers to pay for their new fund. The fund will be managed by Liberal insiders. Brookfield Asset Management pitched this fund idea. The Liberal Prime Minister used to chair Brookfield. This fund will benefit Liberal insiders at taxpayer expense. Canadians are struggling. This fund won't help them. It will only help Liberal insiders. Growth doesn't come from the government. Growth comes from free markets. I want the government to get out of the way and let Canadians build wealth.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, this week, Canadians got a fiscal update on the state of the Liberal-managed decline wrapped up in a Liberal rebranding exercise. The Liberal Prime Minister stood and announced what he calls a Canada Strong fund. It is a so-called sovereign wealth fund. Let us be precise, because words actually matter in the chamber. A sovereign wealth fund requires one thing above all else: wealth. After 11 years of Liberal mismanagement, spiralling deficits, out-of-control inflation, skyrocketing unemployment and leaving our resources in the ground, Canada does not have sovereign wealth. What we have a lot of is sovereign debt. Real sovereign wealth funds, whether they are in Norway, Singapore or elsewhere, are built on persistent budget surpluses. They are built on discipline. They are built on governments that live within their means and invest excess national prosperity for future generations. This is a simple concept that the Liberals seem to have never understood. What did Canadians hear this week? They heard about a Liberal government that is running the largest deficit outside of the pandemic. It is a deficit double the size of the one was left behind by the last Liberal prime minister. They heard about a Liberal Prime Minister whose policies have driven $1.3 trillion in federal debt. They heard about a Liberal government whose direct program spending is up 12.5%, even as Canadians struggle to pay for groceries and rent. On top of all of that, they are now being told that another $25 billion will be borrowed on the backs of taxpayers. The national credit card will fund this new Liberal scheme. This is no sovereign wealth fund. This is a sovereign debt fund. Let us call this so-called Canada Strong fund what it is: a Liberal slush fund dressed up as a sovereign debt fund. The Liberal government will borrow money, the interest payments for which will be serviced on the backs of Canadian taxpayers and future generations, at a time when Canadians are already drowning in debt. The Liberal government will then place all of that borrowed money into a politically managed investment vehicle. It will take risks with it and hope that the returns will exceed the cost of borrowing. If they do not, Canadians will lose. If they do, Liberal insiders will enjoy the profit leveraged on the backs of Canadians. This is not to mention that real sovereign wealth funds have investment mandates that enable them to invest globally. They are not contrived, investing in a few hand-picked domestic projects tied to Liberal insiders. That is not the sound fiscal policy the Liberal Prime Minister likes to tout. That is a gamble with other people's money. It is Canadians' money. Speaking of Liberal insiders, let us talk about who stands to benefit, because this idea of a Liberal sovereign slush fund did not emerge in a vacuum. Back in 2024, this very concept of a multi-billion-dollar investment fund was pitched by none other than the one and only Brookfield Asset Management. Let us not forget that the Liberal Prime Minister was the chair of Brookfield for all of 2024. The insider proposal was simple. Create a large public investment vehicle and have Brookfield help manage it by sticking its fingers into it, hand-picking investments in insider-owned projects that would get preferential regulatory treatment and gain access to fast-tracked approvals over its competitors. It would then double-dip. Brookfield would propose to co-invest alongside the so-called sovereign wealth fund and participate in any upside value. On top of that, it would be triple-dipping, because Brookfield would profit again through charging hefty investment management fees, regardless of the performance of the fund. In other words, Brookfield would take taxpayer dollars, funnel them into a politically corporate insider slush fund and allow private financial actors to participate, with the same corporate insiders managing the funds, charging a fee and then hand-picking insider projects that are politically charged. This means that the Liberal Prime Minister and his insider friends would be profiting off the scheme and siphoning funds in multiple ways, while Canadians absorb the downside risk. Fast-forward to this week. The Liberal Prime Minister, who has had extensive ties to Brookfield and has had stock options and equity interests connected to that firm, now unveils a fund using a strikingly similar model. Canadians are right to ask who this fund is really for. Is it for workers struggling to afford a home? Is it for families that are shouldering $3,400 a year in just federal debt interest payments? Is it for well-connected financial firms, corporate insiders and Liberal buddies of the Liberal Prime Minister who are looking to manage and siphon off billions in public capital? This is the same corruption we saw from the last Liberal prime minister, but with more steps and buried in more bureaucracy, agencies and complex corporate legal structures under a new Liberal brand. This raises serious questions about conflicts of interest. When the Liberal Prime Minister brings forward a policy that closely resembles a proposal that was advanced by a firm while he was its chair, which he has been financially tied to, Canadians deserve answers. They deserve transparency. They deserve to know whether decisions are being made in the public interest or in the interest of the Liberal Prime Minister and his corporate insiders. The pattern is very familiar. We have seen this movie before. We saw it when the last Liberal prime minister was in office. Let us not forget that the Liberals have already created the Canada Infrastructure Bank, the Canada growth fund and the defence bank. Each time, they promised to attract investment, productivity growth and wealth creation. Each time, they created new bureaucracies for highly paid consultants and bureaucrats and corporate positions for their Liberal friends, and all the while, they funnelled money into projects tied to Liberal insiders. Despite all of this, Canada still has the worst investment record in the G7. How many more funds will it take before the Liberals admit that the problem is not a lack of government vehicles? The problem is Liberal government policy and Liberal corruption. Let us take a step back. If a project has a real business case and it is viable, competitive and productive, it will naturally attract private capital and investors will fund it, not because the government says it will succeed but because the project will generate risk-adjusted returns that will exceed the cost of borrowing. That is how free markets work. That is how growth actually happens. However, if a project cannot attract private investment on its own merits, why should Canadian taxpayers be forced to take on that downside risk? Perhaps it is because the project's beneficiaries would be Liberal friends and corporate insiders. Instead of spending taxpayer money, we could bring back $1 trillion in pension fund money that the Liberals have pushed out of Canada by fast-tracking permits, lowering taxes and unleashing free enterprise. Why should a single mother or a small business owner in Richmond Hill South be on the hook for speculative investments that are politically decided by these Liberals and that benefit only corporate insiders? They should not. Let us take a step back and look at the broader economic picture under the Liberal Prime Minister. Today, after his one year in office, Canada has the highest household debt in the G7, the most unaffordable housing in the G7, the lowest investment per worker in the G7, the worst food price inflation in the G7, the second-lowest productivity in the G7 and the second-highest unemployment rate in the G7. The list goes on. I know the Liberals love slogans, but this is not a record of building Canada strong. It is a record of decline overseen by Liberal mismanagement. Now, after all of this, the Liberals are asking Canadians to trust them with another $25 billion for the sovereign debt slush fund for Liberal insiders, and Canadians are not buying it. This week's fiscal update can only be described as a Liberal credit card budget update. It is a budget that would double the deficit left behind and mean more costs, more taxes, more debt and more inflation. Let us look at the details a little more. It has $37 billion in net new spending announced alone, $3 billion more for international climate finance slush funds, $11 million for another investor meeting photo op and $2.3 billion to subsidize foreign-made electric vehicles. The Liberal government's own economic update got one thing right. It predicts that growth will fall and inflation will rise this year. Layered on top of all that, there is a newly minted sovereign wealth fund with no wealth. It is just a sovereign debt fund disguising a Liberal slush fund for corporate insiders. Canadians are not confused. They understand what is happening. They are being asked to pay more for less once again. The consequences are already being felt. Canadians are now paying $59 billion annually in debt interest, which is up 10% in just one year. That is more than we spend on health care transfers. That is more than we collect in the GST. It means that every Canadian family would now be on the hook for $3,400 in Liberal interest just to service the interest payments on all that Liberal debt. That money would not build anything the Liberal Prime Minister claims he wants to build. It would not make investments in anything this Liberal Prime Minister says he wants to invest in. It would the money of hard-working Canadians going to pay just interest to bankers and bondholders. This is why the so-called Canada Strong fund is not the solution. It is a symptom of a Liberal government that has run out of ideas and believes that if it simply creates another Liberal institution, another Liberal acronym or another complex corporate structure wrapped in another Liberal announcement, with taxpayer money managed by highly paid Liberal government insiders, growth will somehow follow. The problem is not the problem itself. The problem is that the Liberal government does not know how to diagnose the problem at all. Growth does not come from Liberal branding exercises or decisions that are dictated by the government in Ottawa. Growth comes from investor and consumer confidence. It comes from trade and regulatory uncertainty. It comes from having a competitive economy and efficient capital markets. The Liberal government has managed to undermine all of these conditions. If the Liberal Prime Minister truly wanted to make Canada strong and truly wanted to make Canada wealthy, he would not be creating a sovereign debt fund on the backs of hard-working Canadians. He would be removing the barriers that are holding this country back. He would repeal the anti-resource law, Bill C-69, repeal the tanker ban, scrap the industrial carbon tax, end capital gains taxes on reinvestment in Canada and approve a pipeline or two by this summer. That is how we will unlock investment and the power of free enterprise. That is how we will create jobs and drive prosperity. That is how we will generate real, sustainable wealth for the next generation. Canada does not need a sovereign debt fund disguising a Liberal slush fund for insiders. Canada needs a government that will get out of the way, unleash our economy and let Canadians build the wealth this country was always meant to have, from generation to generation.

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