Hansard
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 46 - 60 of 1410
View Rachel Bendayan Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Rachel Bendayan Profile
2021-05-31 18:49 [p.7665]
Mr. Speaker, I absolutely hear my colleague. I hear our entrepreneurs. This is a priority for me and our government, and I will continue to work with both the Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion and the Minister of Finance to ensure that we find a solution to this issue as quickly as possible.
No, we will not wait for further waves. I hope there will not be any further waves. I hope that we are at the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Our entrepreneurs are excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
View Mary Ng Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Mary Ng Profile
2021-05-31 20:04 [p.7676]
Madam Chair, good evening to all members attending today's committee.
With the rapid rollout of vaccines, I am optimistic that we will be able to reopen our economy, and with the investments we are making in budget 2021, we can look forward to a strong, sustainable and inclusive economic recovery.
Our government's COVID-19 economic response plan has protected millions of jobs, provided emergency supports to countless families and kept businesses afloat throughout the pandemic. We have had the backs of Canadians and businesses since day one.
Budget 2021 sets us up to finish this fight against COVID-19 and to keep Canadians healthy and safe, all the while building a better, fairer and more prosperous future for generations to come. The time to act is now and this budget puts us on the right path. However, this is not 2009. We cannot afford to take a decade to recover from the COVID recession.
We are taking prompt, decisive, responsible action.
We are making ambitious and targeted investments to accelerate job and business growth, driving toward faster recovery than if we did not take any action. This is the most small-business friendly budget in Canadian history.
We are extending the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the Canada emergency rent subsidy to September, with flexibility to go further than that if public health measures require it.
We are also announcing new supports to bridge the recovery, such as the Canada recovery hiring program, as 500,000 Canadians are still unemployed or have reduced hours because of the pandemic. We will invest $600 million so that businesses can hire more workers or increase hours and compensation for those they already have.
We also announced significant investments to support the success of diverse entrepreneurs through the Black entrepreneurship program, the women entrepreneurship strategy and investments for indigenous entrepreneurs. This is part of the greater action our government is taking to make our economy more inclusive and to bridge the gaps that racialized and under-represented entrepreneurs and businesses have faced for far too long.
Budget 2021 is ambitious.
It will not just get us onto the road to recovery. It will take us where we need to go to be competitive, to be more prosperous and to become even more resilient. Since my first day as minister, I have been focused on ensuring that businesses have the tools they need to start up, scale up and access new global markets. COVID-19 and our economic recovery have only increased the importance of this work.
Our businesses need the tools and the financing to compete in today's economy. That is why we are expanding the Canada small business financing program loans of up to $500,000, with a potential line of credit of up to $150,000, to provide liquidity for start-up costs and intangible assets, such as software for data management and supports for intellectual property. We have also committed to taking decisive action to lowering credit card fees for small businesses, helping to make consumer interactions more beneficial so that our main streets can be even more competitive.
Beyond financing, we want to ensure that our Canadian entrepreneurs have the expertise and tools to protect their Canadian innovations in the increasingly intangible global economy. The pandemic has greatly expedited the shift to the digital economy. More businesses have gone online in the last six months than in the last 10 years.
The pandemic has also shown the importance of businesses needing the latest tools, technologies and expertise to compete. In budget 2021, we are investing $4 billion for small and medium-sized businesses to go digital and to adopt new technology so they can grown and be even more competitive. This will support some 160,000 businesses and create jobs for nearly 30,000 young Canadians.
It will ensure long-term post-recovery growth and competitiveness.
Today, our small businesses are just a click away from being exporters, and we want to support as many as possible to grow around the world, while anchoring their success here in Canada, and to create jobs.
We have seen another global shift, one to sustainability. We know that the environment and the economy go hand in hand, which is why we have also announced $1 billion over five years to help draw in private sector investment for Canadian clean tech projects, ensuring that they remain competitive and on the cutting edge of innovation. This will help us reach our target of net-zero emissions by 2050. Through this budget, we are setting up our businesses to start up and scale up now, and to be ready to succeed and thrive in the economy of the future.
While travel has been limited through COVID-19, I have not let it slow us down in our efforts to create opportunities for trade and investment, to diversify our trade and to develop solutions to supply chain challenges, especially for essential goods. COVID-19 should not and cannot be used as an excuse to stop trading or to turn inward with protectionist policies.
International trade has been critical to create jobs and opportunities for growth. This is truer in our economic recovery more than ever. By working to implement the new NAFTA, CETA and the CPTPP, Canada's businesses are able to access new markets to expand their companies.
Canada and Canadian workers from coast to coast will benefit.
We have continued our work to ensure that Canada's 14 free trade agreements, including the new NAFTA and the recent trade continuity agreement with the United Kingdom, continue to serve Canadian interests and Canadian businesses, entrepreneurs, workers and families.
Earlier this month, I met with my Mexican and U.S. counterparts to discuss the implementation of the new NAFTA, and to work together on our shared priorities, such as the environment, labour and inclusive trade, for our shared economic recovery. From steel and dairy, to forestry and clean tech, we have the backs of Canadian businesses and workers in all sectors.
Our government has pivoted during the pandemic to support Canadian businesses through virtual trade missions to France, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea; through the first Canada-Africa clean growth symposium; and through our virtual CETA road show last year. With over 2,000 entrepreneurs attending, we have made international trade more accessible. We have led over 150 business-to-business connections for our Canadian businesses.
We continue to take a team Canada approach to help businesses and entrepreneurs succeed here at home and abroad with Canada's trade tool kit: the Trade Commissioner Service, Export Development Canada, the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Canadian Commercial Corporation and Invest in Canada. They are all working together and focused on supporting Canadian businesses and their needs.
Budget 2021 will support the Trade Commissioner Service by providing $21.3 million over the next five years, and $4.3 million on an ongoing basis, to boost Canada's clean tech exports. We will work with our international partners and multilateral institutions to reduce unnecessary trade barriers and restrictions, keep supply chains open and build back a more resilient and inclusive economy. We will continue to work together, as we have done throughout the pandemic, including through our work on the WTO's trade and health initiative, to ensure that our essential health and medical supply chains remain open and resilient.
Crucially, we must also continue our hard work with one another and with all of our international partners to find solutions that accelerate the production and equitable distribution of affordable, effective life-saving vaccines. The pandemic is not over anywhere until it is over everywhere. We are committed to continuing our work toward a speedy and just global recovery.
I look forward to answering questions.
View Kevin Lamoureux Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Kevin Lamoureux Profile
2021-05-31 22:05 [p.7694]
Madam Chair, what a pleasure it is to be able to address the House. I found it very interesting listening to my colleagues, in particular the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade and of course the Minister of International Development. Listening to the ministers and knowing the background and passion they have for our country and the world, one cannot help but feel good knowing Canada is such a wonderful country to be in. We are a country that truly cares about what is happening around the world.
I want to address a couple of areas, with a special focus on trade.
Before I do that, when I was growing up a number of years back I used to watch hockey and was a Habs fan. We did not have the Winnipeg Jets back then. It was quite nice to see the Habs win this evening, which has already been referenced. The nicer thing is they are coming to my home city of Winnipeg where they will be playing my favourite team, the Winnipeg Jets. I will be rooting on whichever team wins that series for the Stanley Cup. I know Canadians from coast to coast to coast love hockey, and whatever team goes from Canada, rest assured Canadians will be behind the team saying “go team go”.
I started off by talking about foreign affairs. A number of years back, I was in the Philippines in a community known as Cebu, which is a very large city in the southern part of the Philippines. I was at the Canadian consular services office there, and on the wall, I saw a picture of an astronaut. That astronaut was in fact the first astronaut in space, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs. I mention that because earlier this evening someone made reference to the Minister of Foreign Affairs as maybe not having as much experience as he would have liked to have seen.
I have grown an immense amount of respect for the minister's understanding and appreciation of what is taking place around the world. I am very proud of the fact he has taken the time, as other ministers of foreign affairs have, to talk to me personally about areas of interest I have, whether it is India, and in particular the Punjab, or the Philippines and different related issues.
I understand and appreciate the diplomacy necessary when we talk about things like the Middle East, China or Iran. It is not an easy file to have, but I am very grateful to know my friend is in that position, because he excels. I feel very comfortable knowing Canada is in such a great position today.
The Prime Minister often talks about Canada's diversity being our strength. When I think of the world, I think of it in terms of Canada's diversity. We have people in Canada with ancestors from around the world, so when something happens in a country outside Canada, we have a group of people who are genuinely concerned and want to hear from the government. All in all, the government does a fantastic job in appreciating that fact.
I know for many Canadians, in particular immigrants, who have adopted Canada as their home that their home country, their country of birth, always remains in their hearts to a certain degree, and who can blame them? I have been blessed to being affiliated, as a parliamentarian for over 30 years, with a lot of good people.
These are people who I would classify as part of my inner circle and my group of friends of Filipino heritage, Punjabi-speaking heritage or Indo-Canadian heritage. Those are two communities that I am very proud of and very proud to represent, so I know, when things take place in countries like that or Ukraine or others, that I take the time to listen and to talk and share my thoughts. Even though Canada is a country of 37.5 million people, we carry a tremendous amount of clout around the world, and I believe that is something we all need to take very seriously, as I know that the current Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of International Trade and the Minister of International Development collectively do on our behalf, day in and day out.
Shortly after the 2015 election, there were a couple of things that really came to the forefront. One is that we are a government that genuinely cares and wants to see the middle class and those aspiring to be a part of it expanded and to be taken care. We were committed to working as hard as possible, and that is the reason we saw things like the Ukraine trade deal ratified as quickly as it was. Months after we were elected, it was signed off. It was the same with the CETA. What about the agreement in regard to the United States, Mexico and Canada, the Pacific agreement or legislation in regard to the World Trade Organization?
As a caucus, we have collectively recognized the true value of trade. Canada is a trading nation, a nation that is diverse and dependent on trade. For us to grow and prosper into the future, we need to keep focused on what is happening in the world around us, to come up with those progressive trade ideas and agreements, and to keep the diplomats talking, trying to fix where we can fix and trying to protect Canadian interests, wherever they might be in the world. Trade was important during the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why we saw a government take such a proactive approach to supporting small businesses.
One of my former bosses, the former government house leader, would say that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. We had to make sure that we supported small businesses, because many of those small businesses today are going to be major exporters in the future. That is why we had to develop programs to not only protect the individual Canadians by putting disposable income into their pockets, but we had to demonstrate that we could be in a better position to be able to, as the Prime Minister and ministers often say, build back better.
That is why we put in the investments that we did. That is why we have a minister responsible today for small businesses, who is being so proactive, and for international trade. Members should look at the agreement that was just achieved, and I know I speak on behalf of all my colleagues in regard to the United Kingdom agreement and the transitional period with which we have bought some time so that we can finalize something and so that we can continue to protect the interests of Canadian workers and Canada's economy and social fabric that we all love so dearly.
I think the Chair is already telling me that my time is expired, but I do have a question. Can I go ahead with the question, Madam Chair?
View Kevin Lamoureux Profile
Lib. (MB)
View Kevin Lamoureux Profile
2021-05-31 22:15 [p.7695]
Madam Chair, I was talking about trade. I would like to ask a question of the parliamentary secretary, who I know is a Montreal Habs fan. For the next few days, we might be off side a bit as I am cheering for Winnipeg.
We know that trade is very important. It is one of the ways we can support Canada's middle class and those good quality jobs. I wonder if the parliamentary secretary could provide her thoughts as to why it was so important we continued to protect businesses and be there in a real and tangible way for trade in Canada.
View Mary Ng Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Mary Ng Profile
2021-05-31 22:16 [p.7695]
Madam Chair, I am so pleased to have the opportunity to get at the heart of what the hon. colleague was talking about and the agreements we have negotiated across the world.
It is more than just the numbers that we talk about and how our trade agreements are providing access to 1.5 billion customers in the global marketplace. It is more than the fact that we are seeing more trade flow, even during this pandemic. It is about who trades. We are building back better and that means helping our small and medium-sized businesses, our women entrepreneurs, our Black business owners, indigenous entrepreneurs and young entrepreneurs.
We have, throughout this pandemic, pivoted—
View Mary Ng Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Mary Ng Profile
2021-05-31 22:18 [p.7696]
Madam Chair, I am so proud of Canada's trade agreements which are inclusive, helping more people trade. In these agreements, we have built out those inclusive provisions so we are providing that kind of framework for our small and medium-sized businesses, women entrepreneurs, indigenous entrepreneurs and young entrepreneurs to grow and to scale up into those global markets.
View Gord Johns Profile
NDP (BC)
View Gord Johns Profile
2021-05-27 11:00 [p.7464]
Madam Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition of Vancouver Islanders. They cite that COVID-19 has resulted in a crisis for small business owners and that during the pandemic, revenues have been catastrophically impacted as a result of closures, capacity limits and social restrictions, and operating costs have spiked. They also cite that the Canada emergency wage subsidy, the emergency rent subsidy and emergency business account and highly affected sectors credit availability program have played a critical role in saving some jobs and many businesses. However, many businesses remain ineligible due only to the timing of their businesses and their projects.
The petitioners call on the government to adjust the eligibility of these programs to include both new and newly expanded businesses that can demonstrate their projects were non-reversible at the onset of the pandemic; that it implement alternate methods for determining the wage subsidy and commercial rent assistance program for these businesses; and back pay to March 15, 2020, both the wage subsidy and the rent program to these businesses based on the alternate rate.
View Kerry-Lynne Findlay Profile
CPC (BC)
Madam Speaker, Canada’s balance sheet is in trouble. There is no sugar-coating it. We are $1.1 trillion in debt, and counting. That is more than $33,000 for every Canadian. This year alone, the government is set to spend more than $22 billion on interest payments to service that debt, which is estimated to balloon to $40 billion per year with this budget debt added in.
We are in this hole in large part because of the pandemic, but the Liberals’ overspending long before COVID-19 is why we are looking at the sea of red ink before us today. They left the cupboards bare. By next year, the Prime Minister will have added more debt since 2015 than all other prime ministers who came before, combined. Sadly, the budget has yet to balance itself, and Conservatives have always known that this magical thinking was not the approach of a serious government that cares about the work and the hours that go into Canadians paying their taxes every year.
Putting aside how we got here, my hope for this budget, the first tabled by the government in over two years, was a plan for steady growth, lasting job creation and a more prosperous future for all Canadians. I also hoped it would lay out a clear vision of economic recovery and prosperity, attainable goals that leave no Canadian behind.
What we have before us is not that. No, instead, we get risky and unproven economic schemes, a 700-plus page document with no road map to reopen Canada’s economy, and more than $100 billion in new spending on Liberal partisan priorities disguised as stimulus. The very definition of economic stimulus is spending that facilitates economic activity and growth. There is a difference between stimulus spending and just, well, spending, but the government does not seem to appreciate that difference.
Let us consider just a couple of examples from the so-called stimulus fund. There are $13 billion on pandemic supports. My Conservative colleagues and I have voted for these programs from the outset. Many Canadians faced with unprecedented realities and public health restrictions need the help right now. I will say more on this later, but that is not stimulus.
There is $8.9 billion on the Canada workers benefit, a refundable tax credit for Canadians who make less than the threshold. Again, this is not stimulus. Members should not just take my word for it. The independent, non-partisan Parliamentary Budget Officer said that only $69 billion of this new spending billed as stimulus is really that, stimulus.
Whatever one wants to call it, the sheer amount of all this new spending is simply not necessary. In fact, the Parliamentary Budget Officer noted that “the size and timing of the planned fiscal stimulus may be mis-calibrated”. Other experts agree. One might hear $100 billion and think, “Great, that is a lot of money. Surely it will kick-start the economy”, but the truth is that government spending does not equal growth.
Between 2010 and 2013, under the more fiscally responsible Conservative government, growth averaged 2.8% annually. We can compare that to the Liberals’ first four years in power, when spending rose sharply and average growth was down to 2.2% per year and was grinding down.
What I really do not understand is how, with over $100 billion in new spending, the Liberals’ budget still does nothing for the long-awaited and much-needed infrastructure projects in the Lower Mainland of my home province of B.C., major projects like the George Massey tunnel replacement and the SkyTrain expansion from Surrey out to Langley, or even smaller projects like reinforcement of the White Rock Pier, damaged almost three years ago now.
Does the government not want to help us in B.C.? Maybe it is waiting for another shipment of steel from China like the one used on the Pattullo Bridge before it commits, instead of using beautiful, high-quality Canadian steel. Much-needed infrastructure projects like this would not only create jobs overnight and stimulate the economy but also make a lasting impact on the ability to transport people, goods and services stretching from the U.S. border through several communities up to Deltaport, the international airport, Vancouver, the north shore and beyond, all key to lasting growth and prosperity.
A federal budget is supposed to be a plan for the people, for the people of Canada, our neighbours and our constituents. What do I mean by “no Canadian left behind”? What about the commuter who needs the SkyTrain to get from Langley to Surrey so she can get on another train to get to her job in Vancouver?
Why does she live in Langley or further east? It is because there is no way she can afford to live in Vancouver or Richmond or Delta or Surrey or perhaps White Rock. This budget does nothing to help her own her own home. Instead of encouraging home ownership and helping Canadians experience the achievement and pride in owning their own home, it has recently been made harder to qualify for financing, which negatively affects homebuyers and sellers, realtors, builders, developers, construction crews, contractors, building material suppliers and more.
How about the families in B.C. and across the country that continue to be affected by substance abuse? In B.C., there have been more deaths resulting from overdose than from COVID-19 in the last year. This budget does not do enough to address the opioid epidemic. Where is the comprehensive, recovery-oriented substance abuse plan?
How about the 988 suicide prevention hotline? More than five months ago, this House unanimously passed a motion put forward by my Conservative colleague, the member for Caribou—Prince George, to implement this critical three-digit resource. There is no funding for that.
How about the natural resource workers? A friend of mine recently spoke to a greeter at Walmart in Alberta who used to be an energy sector engineer but is now working a minimum-wage job to demonstrate the dignity of work to his children and put food on the table. What about him? Why is this Canadian being left behind?
What about the travel agencies across the country? About 83% are owned by women, who not only have had their incomes devastated, but have had their commissions pulled back when cruises and trips were forced to cancel. Why are these Canadians left behind?
At a $100-billion price tag, one might have thought we would see increased health transfers to the provinces, given the stress our medical system has undergone in the past 15 months and repeated calls for this from the provinces. It is not included.
Of course, budgets should not just be about spending. They should provide a clear plan for the future of our economy and how we are going to get there. This, amidst a pandemic, must include a plan for a data-driven, safe reopening. Conservatives put forward a motion on this in March, but it was voted down.
Every time I meet with small business owners in my riding over Zoom, businesses like Kin Thai in Surrey or Uli's in White Rock, they have the same question: What metrics will be used to evaluate the situation and eventually allow them to reopen to full capacity? When will it be back to business as usual? Even with expanded patio space, they need to make investments just to reopen. They deal in perishables. Businesses need to plan for the future. They need to order inventory and schedule staff. They want reasonable notice, and they want to get back to doing the work they love.
Before politics, I was self-employed in the practice of law, an entirely different business, but anyone who runs a business can appreciate the need to plan three months, six months, nine months out. The government is not giving businesses the certainty they so desperately need right now. Even if the plan had to be adjusted, given unforeseen circumstances, the government should at least set out what Canada can expect and what yardsticks will be used to adjust.
When I speak to owners of new businesses, they have an additional question: Why not us?
To be very clear, my Conservative colleagues and I have supported programs to help Canadians make ends meet during the pandemic from day one. In fact, we have often pointed out ways to improve programs, as we did with the rent subsidy, insisting the funds be paid to tenants, not landlords. I, for one, am glad the government listened.
Another area for improvement that this budget completely ignores is the ability for newer businesses, opened within the last two years, to qualify for the same supports as their peers that have been open longer. I have spoken to the ministers about this and I have written to them. We need to help them out. The investments to start these businesses were made long before the pandemic and their life savings can literally be on the line.
There are some things I like in this long budget. I am pleased to see the regional development agency for B.C. I think that is important, as long as the funds are allocated in the right places throughout the province.
Canadians waited a long time for this budget, 763 days, to be exact, the longest-ever gap between federal budgets. Unfortunately, it was not worth the wait. Too many Canadians have been left behind. They need to secure their future.
View Earl Dreeshen Profile
CPC (AB)
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join in the debate today on legislation to implement the Liberal government's collection of partisan election spending measures outlined in budget 2021.
My constituents of Red Deer—Mountain View have waited a long time to see some concrete measures from the Liberal government that would provide us with some relief from COVID-19 and help us rejuvenate our local economy, which was not doing well even before the pandemic.
Every week, over the past 14 months in Red Deer—Mountain View, we have seen more empty buildings and more for lease signs go up. Many small business owners have had no choice but to close and so many more are barely holding on by a thread, as they see their life savings dwindled, in hopes of staying open when the economy turns around. It would seem that very little help is on the way.
In fact, due to a lot of Liberal government policies designed to cripple the energy sector and drive away investments, many businesses in Red Deer had already been closing and shedding jobs before the pandemic. I will give one example, but there are many more.
McLevin Industries has been in business since 1917, almost as long as Red Deer has been a city. Over that time, the business has managed to survive a lot, including the recession in the early 1980s. Like many Albertans, the owners were prepared to get down to work and further grow before the Liberal government took office. Those plans have long been scrapped. In the years up to 2019, revenues at the company plunged 40% and it shed 19 jobs. The Liberal government's legacy in communities right across this province and throughout western Canada has been unemployment, business closures and too many workers and families left without much hope for the future.
That brings me to budget 2021, the Liberal government's first budget in nearly two years. There is no question that the Liberal budget is a massive letdown for Canadians who were looking for a plan to create jobs and boost economic growth. Canada's Conservatives and all Canadians wanted to see a plan to return to normal, a plan that would secure jobs and the economy. Instead, what we have in budget 2021 is a dangerous and untested economic experiment where tens of thousands of Canadians remain out of work and many small and medium-sized businesses are still struggling to stay afloat.
The Liberal government's reimagined economy is a risky Ottawa-knows-best approach that picks winners and losers by deciding which jobs, which sectors and which regions of our country will be prosperous. This unproven and incompetent economic approach threatens the personal financial security of everyone in Alberta and all workers across the country. With unemployment running at more than 20% in rural Alberta, the Liberal government's budget throws billions of dollars toward so-called green energy industries and projects which, as we know from experience in Ontario, will neither create jobs, protect the environment nor stimulate the economy.
Canada's energy sector has consistently contributed billions of dollars to Canada's GDP and has provided tens of thousands of Canadians with well-paying jobs that allow families to put food on their tables. How does budget 2021 recognize and promote this fact? It does not. Budget 2021 continues the Liberal government's assault on our energy sector, which is also the most environmentally conscientious on the planet.
Since 2015, the human consequences of Liberal government attacks on Canadian energy have been devastating, with 200,000 jobs lost and $200 billion in cancelled projects, and these jobs depend on the Liberal government reversing courses and policies that have already damaged the Canadian energy sector.
The oil and gas industry provides hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and is the single-largest contributor to Canada's GDP and our balance of trade. Its survival is critical to Canada's economic recovery, and the billions of dollars in tax revenue it generates pays for the social services Canadians rely on, like our schools and hospitals. Instead of supporting our energy sector and helping it recover from its worst recession in decades, the Liberal budget invests $17 billion over the next few years in so-called green energy projects, which, as history tells us, will create few jobs and contribute very little to economic growth.
In truth, the notion of helping generate economic growth seems to be of very little interest to the Liberal government. It is hardly mentioned in budget 2021. In fact, the words support, benefit and gender are riddled throughout the 700-page budget, but the word competitiveness appears just 13 times. Imagine that. Budget 2021 is supposed to be the Liberal government's plan for our economic future, but the words growth and competitiveness are barely mentioned in passing, amid all the $104 billion in new partisan spending commitments.
Before the budget was tabled, Canada's Conservatives called on the government to stand up for Canadians and bring forward measures to ensure the improvements to productivity that a competitive economy requires. We noted that sector-specific support is required, not a one-size-fits-all approach, and that the government's focus should be on the crucial small and medium-sized businesses that have been left behind because of poorly designed support programs.
Canada's Conservatives called on the government to dispense with the talking points of reimagining the economy and realize that Canadians simply want to know that things are going to get better. Canadians want their jobs, their small businesses and their communities back. Canadians are not calling for the government to embark upon a grand social and economic experience. They simply want to return to normalcy.
In short, Canada's Conservatives called on the Liberal government to deliver a real plan for Canada's economic recovery: one that secured our future by recovering millions of jobs. It also called on the government to introduce policies that resulted in better wages, and to help struggling small businesses get back on their feet. The Liberal government refuses to listen to sound advice and instead pursues its own course of massive and unfocused spending, record ballooning deficits, stunted economic growth and unaffordable national debt that has the potential to cripple our country for generations to come.
Let me say this. Over the last few months, those of us in Red Deer—Mountain View and in communities across Canada have been hopeful that we would soon see an end to the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of an economic recovery. Our recovery plan focuses on creating financial security and certainty. Our plan would safely secure our future and deliver a Canada where those who have struggled the most in this pandemic can get back to work. One of the central goals of our recovery plan is to ensure that manufacturing at home is bolstered, wages are increased and the dream of affording a better life for current and future generations can be realized by all Canadians.
We urge the Liberal government to consider including at least some of those measures we put forward for Canada's recovery plan in this budget. The Liberal government instead has chosen to embark on a reckless and untested course of partisan spending and ballooning debt that does nothing to grow our economy or increase our prosperity.
Unemployed Canadians who were hoping to see a plan to create new jobs and economic opportunities for their families are being let down by budget 2021. Workers who have had their wages cut and hours slashed, and who were hoping to see a plan to reopen the economy, are also being let down. Families who cannot afford more taxes and are struggling to save money for their children's education or to buy a home are being let down. The Liberal budget does nothing to secure long-term prosperity for Canadians.
The Liberal government has consistently ignored calls from Canada's Conservatives and from all political parties to bring forward a real economic recovery plan that would unite Canadians rather than drive wedges between them. Canadians deserve better. They deserve a real economic recovery plan, and my hope is that Canadians will soon see a Conservative government moving forward to do just that. That is what Canada's Conservatives are committed to delivering.
View Tim Uppal Profile
CPC (AB)
View Tim Uppal Profile
2021-05-27 13:28 [p.7487]
Mr. Speaker, as always, it is an honour to rise in this House on behalf of my constituents of Edmonton Mill Woods.
In the lead-up to this budget, the longest lead-up ever, as we went over two years without a budget, there were dozens of news stories and trial balloons talking about how innovative this budget was going to be. We heard time and again about how this budget would be a stepping stone for the Liberal government to build back better, whatever that means. Instead, at 739 pages and nearly a quarter of a million words, the longest budget in the history of our great country is also the greatest disappointment.
There is no plan to deal with inflation. There is no plan to make the dream of home ownership more attainable for Canadians. There is no plan to create new jobs and economic opportunities for families and young people across this country. Instead, we are left with a budget that says so much, proposes so little, and leaves Canadian jobs, productivity, and economic growth behind.
Let me start by looking at the full picture. In my riding of Edmonton Mill Woods and right across Canada, there are countless families and businesses on the brink of losing everything. The jobs numbers that came out earlier this month revealed that another 207,000 people across Canada had to come home and tell their family and loved ones one of the most difficult things to hear, that they had lost their job.
To be clear, Alberta’s economic problems didn’t just start because of this pandemic. The Liberals' Bill C-69, which many people called the “no more pipelines” bill; Bill C-48, the tanker ban; and general disregard for the energy sector have driven away billions of dollars of investment and, with it, thousands of Canadian jobs. The government has failed to produce a plan for one of Canada’s largest economic sectors, the energy sector.
There are some things in this budget that we and our Conservative team are in favour of. For so many Canadians who continue to struggle throughout this pandemic, the budget does have the extension of emergency programs that our Conservative team supports, measures like the wage subsidy, rent subsidy and other recovery benefits, but there are still issues that remain with some of these programs. My office has heard from so many Canadians. It has heard repeatedly from small businesses that opened just before the pandemic or during the pandemic, which have been left behind by these wage subsidy and rent subsidy programs. When asked about it, the Liberals continue to repeat what everybody already knows, that small businesses are the backbone of our community, yet they continue to do nothing to rectify this issue, leaving many small businesses, and the Canadians employed by them, behind.
One thing that I know would bring jobs to Alberta and to Canadians from coast to coast is pipelines. Our natural resources sector accounts for nearly two million jobs and nearly one-fifth of Canada’s GDP. There are mentions of pipelines in this budget. They talk about a vaccine pipeline, a talent pipeline, an innovation pipeline and a PPE pipeline, but no mention of a pipeline to carry our natural resources. Once again, the Liberal government continues to ignore our energy sector, which will be instrumental in our economic recovery coming out of this pandemic. Instead, we continue to import oil from the likes of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, where there are much lower environmental standards and horrific human rights records. Talk about a failure.
Perhaps the biggest failure, and the focus of my speech today, is the government’s failure to take inflation seriously. Canada’s inflation rate in April was 0.6%, or roughly 7% on an annualized basis. For the average family in my riding of Edmonton Mill Woods, that means the inflation tax is going to take nearly $6,500 out of their pocket this year. This has been seen right across the board, as Canadian consumer prices are climbing at the fastest pace in a decade. The average family will pay nearly $700 more in groceries this year because of inflation. Everything from meat and vegetables to cereals and bread has increased by about 5%. Gas prices are continuing to increase dramatically. As Bloomberg reported last week, they have increased more than 60% in a year.
Perhaps the most explicit case I can make here is with lumber prices, which have increased by 300% over the last year. As Kevin Lee, the CEO of the Canadian Home Builders' Association, points out, this drastic rise in lumber costs will add tens of thousands of dollars to the average price of a home.
This leads me to another area of failure in this budget, which is the lack of any semblance of a plan to address overwhelming housing affordability issues in Canada, which has pushed the dream of home ownership further out of reach for far too many Canadians. Prices across Canada are skyrocketing, with young families who were saving for their first home at the beginning of this pandemic even further behind than when they started.
This has led to feelings of hopelessness. A poll from the Royal Bank of Canada released last month revealed that 36% of non-homeowners under the age of 40 have given up on ever buying a home and 62% of respondents said they expect the majority of people will be priced out of the market over the next decade.
What is the government doing to address this concern of people being left out of the market? The hallmark of this budget’s efforts on housing affordability is a 1% tax on foreign owners of vacant housing, which will simply be seen as a very minor inconvenience for wealthy foreign investors who have seen their investments appreciate by 42% this past year. This will not solve the problem at all. Instead, the current government should be focused on the root of the problem, which is the shortage of supply right across Canada.
As a recent Scotiabank report points out, Canada has the lowest number of housing units per capita of any G7 country. If Canada set the modest goal of simply catching up to the United States, Canadian builders would have to complete an extra 100,000 homes. To catch up to the U.K., it would require an extra 250,000 homes. To put these gaps in perspective, we have had an average of 188,000 home completions in the last 10 years.
I believe this serves as a perfect microcosm of the government’s philosophy. When it identifies a problem, it does not address the root cause. Instead, it takes a small reactive step, creates a new government agency or program for it, and then dumps millions, if not billions, into it.
The budget introduces another $101 billion in new spending, pushing our debt-to-GDP ratio to over 50% over the next few years. What are we getting out of this increased spending and debt? The budget predicts that the growth rate will slow steadily starting in 2022, all the way down to 1.7% growth in 2025.
As Robert Asselin, the former policy and budget director to Bill Morneau and policy advisor to the Prime Minister, said of this budget, “it is hard to find a coherent growth plan.... [S]pending close to a trillion dollars [and] not moving the needle on…growth would be the worst possible legacy of this budget.” While the budget is entitled, “A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience”, there seems to be much concern about whether or not it will deliver on jobs or growth.
The budget has no investments to address the structural problems that have plagued productivity and our ability to compete on the global stage. There is no plan to address the unprecedented level of investment that is fleeing Canada. There is no plan for regulatory and tax reform to help us win on the global stage. There is no comprehensive innovation strategy to ensure Canadian tech start-ups keep their job-creating investments here at home.
This budget is not meant for the growth of the economy. I believe Canadians are looking for hope that things will soon get better and they will still have a bright future to look forward to. They want their jobs and small businesses back. They want their lives and communities back. They want the hope of being able to afford a house. Simply put, they want to return to normal and live the Canadian dream.
This budget fails to deliver. There is no growth plan. It is not meant for the people of Edmonton Mill Woods, Alberta or our future generations. It is a failure. That is why we will not be supporting it.
View Patricia Lattanzio Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that climate change is real. They understand that investments in clean technology will create thousands of well-paying jobs and also build a more sustainable future.
Could the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry tell us today how the government is supporting Canadian innovators and helping Canada meet its climate targets for 2030 and the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050?
View François-Philippe Champagne Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her excellent question and also her hard work on this file.
Canadian innovations in clean technology are at the core of our green recovery. That is why I announced $44 million in funding for innovative Canadian businesses earlier today. With our investments in firms such as Optel Group in Quebec City or PyroGenesis in Montreal, we are enhancing support for Canadian innovators and entrepreneurs while helping to reach our climate targets.
View Marie-France Lalonde Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Marie-France Lalonde Profile
2021-05-26 14:06 [p.7363]
Mr. Speaker, last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of joining small business owners from the Heart of Orléans BIA to host a town hall and discuss the crucial measures our federal government was bringing in to spur growth.
During an engaging evening discussion, these local leaders shared their thoughts and enthusiasm for the future of Canada's small businesses as we look ahead to the end of the pandemic.
I was happy to discuss what the budget meant for Canada's main streets, how it would help them keep their employees on or hire new ones, and what digital adoption could do to help their businesses and Orléans continue to grow and thrive.
I would like to thank the Heart of Orléans BIA for its outstanding work as well as all the attending business owners for sharing their continuing strength as we approach the end of this crisis.
View Paul Manly Profile
GP (BC)
View Paul Manly Profile
2021-05-26 17:17 [p.7396]
Madam Speaker, the budget makes some positive steps toward addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crisis in Canada. Unfortunately, it is not enough to make up for decades of neglect by the federal government. Housing is a human right, recognized in international law and affirmed in the national housing strategy. Much more needs to be done to ensure that right is respected. Weak regulations have allowed our housing market to be used by the global ultrawealthy for tax evasion and money laundering. These activities have driven up the cost of housing to unsustainable levels and it continues to climb. Where does this end?
We should be looking at regulations to protect Canada's residential real estate market. Many countries have regulations that restrict foreign buyers. I have heard both Conservatives and Liberals talk about how much they love foreign direct investment. When people earning median incomes can no longer afford to own or rent a home without spending 50% or more of their income, is foreign direct investment in housing benefiting Canadians? Housing prices in Canada have gone up an average of 30% in the past year. We have barely begun to see the fallout of that.
The investment in Canada's nature legacy is a very welcome addition, especially the funding directed to indigenous protected and conserved areas, or IPCAs. Reconnecting indigenous people back to their traditional lands is key to reconciliation. A sixth mass extinction is happening right now. Species are disappearing at a rapid rate, and we are losing important and endangered ecosystems around the planet. The endangered big tree old-growth ecosystems on Vancouver Island are a perfect example of where the funding from Canada’s nature legacy should be spent. Indigenous protected and conserved areas would put land under the control and authority of local first nations. This ensures long-term economic development built on harvesting second-growth forests and creating value-added forest products, while preserving old growth for eco-tourism and traditional practices.
Low-income seniors in my riding have been asking for additional pandemic relief and for a permanent increase in the old age security. The budget promises that old age security will increase in 2022, a year from now, but only for seniors over the age of 75. This is creating two classes of seniors: those 75 and up and those under 75. This is going to force more seniors to continue working in jobs that young people could be filling.
It is positive that the government is moving toward national standards for long-term care, but bolder action needs to be taken. The pandemic has exposed glaring deficiencies in some provinces that allowed for the warehousing of seniors in for-profit homes. Serious action should be taken against private for-profit long-term care homes that used pandemic relief funding to give executives and shareholders a bonus instead of fixing deficiencies.
The government has made a good start with additional support for students during the pandemic, with interest relief and an increase in student grants, but it is time to take bold action to bring Canada fully into the knowledge-based economy. It is time to follow the lead of northern European countries and make post-secondary education in this country tuition-free.
The Green Party has long been calling for improvements to our health care system, with an increase of health transfers and a system that recognizes provincial demographic differences. There is an incremental move toward universal pharmacare, but we need bolder steps to ensure Canadians have access to the medicine they need. We have been calling for universal pharmacare, universal dental care, universal mental health services, wellness care and a patient-centred focus on health and well-being to keep people out of the sickness care system, because we know that all of these things will save money in the long run and keep Canadians healthier.
Small businesses are going to have a more difficult recovery than large multinational companies that have been able to ride out the storm with big box stores and online sales. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the lifeblood of the economy. They hire the vast majority of private sector workers. Special consideration needs to be given to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses across this country are able to recover. The wage subsidy ends in September. Many businesses in my riding need help well beyond September.
This is Tourism Week. The budget commitments to the tourism industry are not enough. Tourism's contribution to the economy is underestimated. Tourism employs more people than oil and gas in Canada, and $500 million is not adequate to meet the needs of tourism operators across the country, especially for those who will not be in full operation again until at least 2022.
I hear from constituents like Shelley and Dave, who own and operate CruisePlus, a company that books tours in Canada and around the world. When the pandemic hit, they and their team worked hard to get Canadians home and cancel bookings. They have struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. They have lost well-trained, loyal employees and are concerned about the end of the wage subsidy. They will lose support before they are expecting to be able to restart their business in a serious way.
The plan to lower the Canada recovery benefit from the current $500 a week to $300 a week by July needs to be re-examined. Workers are still struggling and may not be able to find enough work to compensate for that reduction.
The pandemic has demonstrated the need to improve our social safety net with a guaranteed livable income. We are going to see additional shocks to our economy with automation, artificial intelligence and climate change. A guaranteed livable income can help ensure that no one falls through the cracks as we navigate these new realities.
How will we pay for all these things? During the peak of the pandemic, more than 5.5 million Canadian workers lost their jobs or were working half of their normal hours. More than half of Canadians are within $200 of not being able to cover their monthly bills. At the same time, Canada's 48 richest billionaires increased their wealth by $78 billion and now have almost a quarter of a trillion dollars among them. We now know that some large corporations used taxpayer-funded relief programs to pay their shareholders and executives huge bonuses. That is disgusting.
Canada needs an increase in the progressive tax rate at the higher income brackets. We also need a wealth tax and an inheritance tax for the ultrawealthy. It is time to close tax loopholes that allow them to offshore their wealth and avoid paying taxes. It is time to tax the Internet giants that extract billions from our economy. Big banks and credit card companies have been raking in profits through increased user fees and interest rates they charge to consumers and businesses, and payday lenders are trapping low-income people into predatory loans with terms designed to keep them in endless cycles of debt. This is unacceptable. How have we let income inequality reach this point? All of these things could have been dealt with in this budget.
Over and over again during this debate, I have heard the Conservatives call on the government to spend less. They caution about deficits and increasing debt. I agree with them in at least one area: We need to end all taxpayer handouts to the fossil fuel industry. Real climate action requires that we cut all funding to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, cut all subsidies to fracking companies and put them on notice that their climate-destroying practice will be banned within the year, and make the costs of industrial cleanup a non-dischargeable debt so we can stop subsidizing the cleanup of abandoned wells. The fossil fuel industry is a sunset industry. It is time to stop propping it up and invest those billions in a just transition to a renewable energy economy.
While there are a number of things that are positive in this budget, it falls short of dealing with the challenges of our time. We are in a climate emergency and we have growing inequality. Canada can and must do better for people and the planet. I will continue to work toward that goal.
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Madam Chair, since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, we have done everything necessary to protect the lives and the livelihoods of Canadians, to help our businesses weather the storm and to position Canada for a robust, resilient and sustainable recovery.
As certain regions in Canada start to reopen, we must remember that we are not done fighting the virus. Our determination to win this fight and provide Canadians the support they need is stronger than ever.
This year's budget, which I tabled on April 19 and which Bill C-30 would enact, meets the three fundamental challenges facing Canadians right now.
First, we must defeat COVID. That means buying vaccines and supporting provincial and territorial health care systems. It means enforcing quarantine rules and it means providing Canadians and Canadian businesses with the help they need to get through lockdowns and to fully recover when COVID is defeated. COVID will be defeated. Vaccines are available to Canadians in ever-growing quantities, and they are working. More than 60% of adult Canadians have received their first dose of the vaccine. Canadians are doing their part and getting vaccinated. My thanks go to team Canada. Together we can do this.
Second, we must punch our way out of this COVID recession. That means making sure that hard-hit businesses can rebound, start growing and start hiring again. It also means helping the people who have been the hardest hit by this recession: women, young people, racialized Canadians, low-wage workers and small businesses. We are doing just that. When fully enacted, this budget will create nearly 500,000 new training and work opportunities for Canadians.
Our third major challenge is to create long-term economic growth and to build a more resilient Canada, a country that is better, more fair, more prosperous and more innovative. That is why we intend to invest ambitiously in the green transition and the new jobs that come with it, in digital transformation and innovation, and in infrastructure like housing, transit and the trade corridors that we need as a dynamic, growing country.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on our health care systems. That is why, in Bill C-30, we propose to provide $4 billion through the Canada health transfer to help the provinces and territories ease the immediate pressure on their health care systems.
Additional funds for health care will help pay for the many different procedures that had to be delayed because of the pandemic. This will help build the resilience of our health care systems. That is what Canadians deserve and need.
A full recovery from COVID requires a new, long-term investment in social infrastructure. That means providing early learning and child care, student grants and income top-ups, so that the middle class can flourish and more Canadians can join the middle class. We know that without child care, parents, usually mothers, cannot work outside the home. That is more painfully clear now than ever. We intend to invest $30 billion over five years, reaching $9.2 billion annually, to provide high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child care across Canada. Our goal is an average cost of $10 a day across the country within five years.
In making this commitment, I thank Quebec's feminists, who have led the way for the rest of Canada. I am very grateful to them.
To minimize economic scarring and to power a robust recovery, we must bridge Canadian businesses through to the end of this crisis. The wage subsidy, rent subsidy and lockdown support had been set to expire next month. This budget extends these measures through to September 25, 2021.
In order to help those who still cannot work, we will maintain flexible access to employment insurance for another year, until fall 2022. Furthermore, to support Canadians who are not covered by employment insurance, the Canada recovery benefit will be extended by 12 weeks.
We are also proposing a four-week extension of the Canada recovery caregiving benefit, which would bring it to a maximum of 42 weeks at $500 a week. Similarly, the employment insurance sickness benefit period will be increased from 15 weeks to 26 weeks. These measures provide tangible and measurable assistance to the people who need help now.
As we build a resilient recovery, it is critically important that we help low-wage workers. They work harder than anyone else, for lower pay. They work on the front lines, and COVID has revealed to us all that the work they do is truly essential. We intend to expand the Canada workers benefit, extending income top-ups to about one million more workers and lifting nearly 100,000 Canadians out of poverty. We also propose to introduce a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage.
Young Canadians must be at the heart of our recovery, not just to help them bounce back from the COVID recession, but because their future success is critical to our success as a country. We intend to make college and university more accessible and affordable. We will create job openings in skilled trades and high tech, and we will double the Canada student grant for two more years, while extending the waiver of interest on federal student and apprentice loans to March 2023. This will mean lower costs for the approximately 1.5 million Canadians who are working to repay their student loans. Our budget will also make an important change so that nobody earning $40,000 per year or less will need to make payments on student loans, and the cap on monthly student loan payments will be reduced from 20% of household income to 10%.
We all know that no one has been hit harder by this health crisis over the past 14 months than seniors. The truth is that many seniors were relying on monthly benefits to make ends meet even before the pandemic.
We are therefore proposing a one-time payment of $500 in August 2021 for old age security pensioners who will be 75 or older in June 2022.
Furthermore, this budget provides for an additional 10% increase in old age security benefits for seniors aged 75 and over, as of July 2021. This will increase the benefits that some 3.3 million seniors are receiving and comes at a time when many are living longer and depleting their savings.
Small businesses have been hit very hard during COVID. We must create the conditions for them to recover and start growing again. This budget offers the Canada recovery hiring program to support business hiring. We will also invest up to $4 billion to help up to 160,000 small and medium-sized businesses buy and adopt the technologies they need.
In closing, allow me to directly address the opposition. Bill C-30, the budget implementation act, is the first major step in delivering jobs, growth and recovery. Vaccines are here, and Canadians want to get back to work. It is time for all of us to get back to work in the House as well.
Results: 46 - 60 of 1410 | Page: 4 of 94

|<
<
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data