Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, there is a famous scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi is on the high ground and Anakin Skywalker, who eventually becomes Darth Vader, is getting burned. In that scene, Obi-Wan says to Anakin, “You were the chosen one.” He says, “You were supposed to bring balance to the Force. You were not supposed to join the Sith. You were supposed to defeat them.” Well, in April 2025, the Prime Minister billed himself as the chosen one. He was supposed to bring balance to our fiscal force. He was going to spend less, and things were going to improve. Things have done anything but improve in this country. In fact, I would suggest that they have gotten a lot worse under the Prime Minister in terms of fiscal mismanagement. We have had two PBOs, the previous one and this one, who have sounded the alarm on the state of the country’s fiscal finances, and the most recent report should cause anyone to pause. For anyone who has kids, anyone who has grandchildren or great-grandchildren, it should cause great concern about the direction this country is heading in terms of fiscal mismanagement. Frankly, what concerns me, not just as a parliamentarian but as a father, is that my kids will be picking up the scattered pieces of what is left economically in this country after the Prime Minister and the Liberal government are done with it. The alarm was sounded by the latest Parliamentary Budget Officer. Members will recall that the Liberals were not happy with some of the things the previous Parliamentary Budget Officer was reporting to Canadians. He referred to the state of our finances as “stupefying”. The current Parliamentary Budget Officer has picked up where the previous one left off and has raised the alarms in a great way in this country. The latest fiscal update from the Parliamentary Budget Officer goes like this. The interest on the debt this year is going to be $59.3 billion, which is more than we send to the provinces for health care transfers. She went on to say that by 2030-31, the interest on the debt is going to be $83 billion. This means that an average family of four in this country is going to be paying $6,000 on the debt this year, and that is going to rise to $8,000. This is money that could be put in people’s pockets. It could be put toward the health of their children through sports programs or better nutrition. We are seeing food banks in this country reporting that millions and millions of people a month are going to the food bank. Many of them are working-class Canadians who cannot afford the necessities of life anymore. It is not just the deficit that is a problem. Cumulatively, over the next five years, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said, the level of debt is expected to increase by $732.9 billion. That is $732.9 billion added to the already existing debt. The only ones who make money off this are the bondholders and the bankers. With the interest that is paid on that debt, and in some of the examples I gave earlier, this is just what those numbers are going to look like. This motion calls on the Prime Minister to not stand in the House for 35-second questions when he is here. It calls on the Prime Minister to stand before a parliamentary committee and answer questions about the state of the finances in this country, which has been created by government spending and by programs that have gone to well-connected insiders, and to answer questions about Alto, questions about foreign aid and questions about why Canadians are in such bad shape when he said and made a promise to them in April 2025 that he was going to make things better. These are very simple questions that need to be asked, not in 35-second sound bites in this place, but before a parliamentary committee so we can have a fulsome discussion about the state of finances in this country for Canadians to be made aware, truthfully and honestly, of the state of their finances and what it means to the future of this country and the future of their kids and grandkids, who, like I said earlier, are going to be picking up the scattered pieces of what is left of this country after these Liberals are done with it financially. There is a budget coming up November 5, and it is curious to me why it is being presented on a Thursday afternoon. I have been here 11 years, and I have never seen a budget presented on a Thursday afternoon. Typically, budgets take place on Tuesday afternoon. There is then a full opportunity for opposition members to call into question some of the issues related to the budget, but this is happening on November 5 of this year, a Thursday afternoon. This means that Friday, which is generally a reduced session, will be the only period we have to ask questions about the budget, and then we are back in our ridings for the week of Remembrance Day. I think the purpose of this is that Canadians and parliamentarians may actually forget about what is in the budget. I also think the government is fearful about what it is going to report in this budget, and that is why it is being introduced on a Thursday afternoon. This is equal to government news coming out on a Friday afternoon when it does not want anybody to pay attention to it. That is concerning in and of itself. When we talk about accountability and transparency, we talk about the Prime Minister coming to committee to answer these questions. We know he is not willing to answer the questions here. Otherwise, the government would not be introducing a budget on a Thursday afternoon when members of Parliament will be back in their ridings the next week for Remembrance Day. At a minimum, because he said that he was going to make things better for Canadians, the Prime Minister needs to come to committee to answer those questions. As I said earlier, what these numbers mean is that the average family of four is going to be paying roughly $6,000 a year in interest on that debt. This is just absurd at a time when Canadians are struggling and dealing with food insecurity and housing affordability. They are dealing with issues of anxiety and stress. There is not a day that goes by, and I am sure there are other members of Parliament on all sides who are dealing with this too, when we are not walking somebody in off the ledge who is dealing with these issues of affordability. In 2015, Canada had the wealthiest middle class in the world, and now we have 2.3 million people a month, and in many cases, these are working-class people, who are visiting food banks in this country. Food banks are reporting that their shelves are bare now because of the demand that has been happening. We have seniors in grocery stores putting items back on the shelf because they cannot afford them. This is not a normal state for a G7 country. The Prime Minister said that he was going to fix it, and he has done anything but. In fact, I would suggest that he has made this situation much worse with the lack of control in spending, the debt and the deficits. It is disturbing. It is disturbing for my kids. It is disturbing for all of our kids and grandkids. They are the ones who are going to pay the price for this.
