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Results: 1 - 15 of 786
View Raquel Dancho Profile
CPC (MB)
View Raquel Dancho Profile
2021-06-23 14:39 [p.9052]
Mr. Speaker, the inflation rate in Canada is at a 10-year high, which means the cost of everything is going up, like food, groceries, gas and services. However, Canadian paycheques are stagnant and, worse yet, unemployment is still climbing, despite the government's massive deficit spending. Over three million Canadians are collecting unemployment benefits from the government, with young people, women and new Canadians facing the worst of it.
This is the Prime Minister's economic record, and he has presented no real plan to get Canadians back to work. Why is there no real plan?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:39 [p.9052]
Mr. Speaker, the plan has been very simple from the beginning: to have Canadians' backs, as much as it takes and as long as it takes, to get through this pandemic. That is exactly what we have done, despite the non-support from the Conservatives, which we will unfortunately see yet again this afternoon when they vote against extending the supports to Canadians through this summer and into the fall. They completely misunderstand that it is through supporting Canadians and small businesses with government investments that we actually come back stronger and faster. It has always been our approach to support Canadians and raise taxes on the wealthy and lower them for the middle class, which the Conservatives have voted against every day.
View Raquel Dancho Profile
CPC (MB)
View Raquel Dancho Profile
2021-06-23 14:40 [p.9052]
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's budget promised to create one million jobs by the end of this month. How is that going? Has he followed through on that commitment? No. In fact, we are losing jobs, and all employment gains made by women in my lifetime have been completely wiped out. That really is the Prime Minister's record on women and employment in this country.
It is clear the government cannot be trusted to fix this economy no matter how much money it spends, so I will ask him this again. Where is the plan to secure the future for Canadians?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:41 [p.9052]
Mr. Speaker, the plan is in budget 2021, which is a plan to create jobs, grow the middle class and ensure long-term growth, including by extending supports to Canadians through the summer and into the fall. Unfortunately, the Conservatives will be voting against extending those benefits. That is their vision of a strong recovery.
In terms of job numbers, let us look at the stats. As of May, 81% of COVID‑19 job losses were recovered, compared with 66% in the U.S. As of May, 2.4 million jobs of the three million jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic have now been recouped.
We have more to do and more people to help, and we will do just that, despite the Conservatives' blockage.
View Raquel Dancho Profile
CPC (MB)
View Raquel Dancho Profile
2021-06-23 14:42 [p.9052]
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has still failed on his commitment to create a million jobs by this month, and it is important that he remember that. Really, after a year of absolute devastation in our economy, our personal freedoms and of course in the health of Canadians, Canadians are falling further and further behind. However, again, we have seen no real plan to get our country back to work in all sectors of our economy and all demographics. Rather, the Prime Minister seems busy with scandals, corruption and picking winners and losers. He has no real plan to secure the future of Canadians, and they deserve to know this.
Why is the Prime Minister bungling our economy and its recovery so badly and leaving so many Canadians behind?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:42 [p.9052]
Mr. Speaker, as the Conservatives continue to resort to personal and partisan attacks, we are going to stay focused on helping Canadians. The plan we laid out to build back a stronger Canada is budget 2021, which includes investments in child care and investments in supporting workers. Right now, the budget implementation act that we will vote on this afternoon extends the supports for small businesses, workers and Canadians through the months of the summer and into the fall.
The Conservatives say they want to help Canadians, but they will be voting against extending those benefits to Canadians. They are busy attacking on a personal level and not busy taking care of Canadians. Fortunately, this government—
View Michelle Rempel Garner Profile
CPC (AB)
Mr. Speaker, when a significant Ebola outbreak happened in Africa, a Conservative government took decisive action and closed Canada's borders to keep us safe, in spite of protests from the Liberals. We did not send vital PPE away when we needed it, say that border measures do not work or have a WE Charity scandal.
When the Prime Minister said this morning that Canada would have reacted very differently if a Conservative government had been in charge during the pandemic, he was probably right. Instead of deflecting blame in this way, would the Prime Minister take a little accountability for some of the major policy errors that he has made over the last 18 months?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:46 [p.9053]
Mr. Speaker, as I have said from the beginning, in this unprecedented global crisis, in this unprecedented pandemic, we moved quickly and as best we possibly could to support Canadians. However, there were plenty of things we needed to learn from and plenty of things we could have done differently. Hopefully governments will learn and do things differently in the future.
Every step of the way, we were guided by one straightforward principle, which was that we would have Canadians' backs and that we would listen to science as we did it. That was the approach the Liberal Party took. The last Conservative government slashed science and cut supports for the most vulnerable Canadians. It would have been a very different pandemic had they been in power this time.
View Michelle Rempel Garner Profile
CPC (AB)
Mr. Speaker, he is right. We would not have let vaccine manufacturing capacity atrophy. We would not have raided vaccines from the COVAX fund. We would not have sent PPE abroad, putting our doctors and nurses at risk. We would not have given contracts to cronies while Canadians suffered.
Now, while our tourism and airline industries suffer, the Prime Minister is still pretending like everything is okay. He is subjecting Canadians to the unsafe quarantine hotel program, and he has not provided benchmarks for lifting federal COVID-19 restrictions. Why?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:48 [p.9053]
Mr. Speaker, I am sorry, but I am happy to inform the member of the opposition that in fact we have moved forward on easing restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers. This is an important step in reopening our economy safely and securely and in being able to start travelling again.
I think everyone is excited to see vaccination rates rise across the country. I hope the hon. member will join with me in encouraging everyone to get vaccinated, to get two doses of the vaccine, so that we can continue to progress, reopen and monitor carefully how we can keep Canadians safe through the tail end of this pandemic, while at the same time—
View Michelle Rempel Garner Profile
CPC (AB)
Mr. Speaker, to inform the Prime Minister, on behalf of the tourism industry, the airline industry, and families who are separated across borders, the hotel quarantine program, which is unsafe and unscientific, still remains.
Instead of staying at one of them, the Prime Minister went to his own special place. It is this sort of double standard and lack of accountability that is putting Canadian businesses at risk, and it is costing Canadians their mental health.
No, the Liberals have not provided benchmarks for lifting federal COVID-19 restrictions, and it is their responsibility to do so. They have recommendations from an expert panel. When will the Prime Minister—
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:49 [p.9053]
Mr. Speaker, I know the member opposite looks forward to travelling again, perhaps to Oklahoma. The reality is that we have made steps, every step of the way, to both keep Canadians safe and ensure that we support our tourism industry and our travel industry, which have been so hard hit.
That is why there have been billions of dollars in support to small businesses, airlines and Canadians across the country who faced job losses because of this pandemic. We have had Canadians' backs and we will continue to, while at the same time progressing in a smart, thoughtful way to keep Canadians safe.
View Michelle Rempel Garner Profile
CPC (AB)
Mr. Speaker, it is easy for the Prime Minister to take personal shots at people. It is a lot harder for him to have empathy for Canadians who need jobs that are dependent on the tourism sector or for families who are separated across the border.
He kind of flaunted that lack of empathy when he was taking pictures with Stella McCartney. We need benchmarks for lifting COVID-19 restrictions, not snarky comments from the Prime Minister.
In the best interests of Canadians, when will he be providing benchmarks for lifting COVID-19 restrictions within federal jurisdictions including border measures?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-23 14:50 [p.9054]
Mr. Speaker, it might be easier for people to believe the Conservatives when they talk about empathy if they had not spent much of the pandemic criticizing this government for having spent too much too quickly to support Canadians, and saying things like we should not have been supporting individual Canadians and we should have just been supporting businesses.
Every step of the way we have had Canadians' backs. We have kept people safe and we have ensured that the reopening goes as smoothly and as quickly as is safe. We will continue to monitor case numbers and vaccination levels in this country and the situation of variants of concern both here and around the world, and we will work closely with our partners as we move forward responsibly.
View James Cumming Profile
CPC (AB)
View James Cumming Profile
2021-06-22 12:31 [p.8957]
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Essex.
Before I get started on the budget, this may be the last time I get to appear in front of you, Mr. Speaker, given that there seems to be a lot of chatter about an election. I want to take this time to thank you for your service to your country and say what a pleasure it has been to be able to serve with you. I wish you the very best in everything that you do into the future.
I am standing here again on a budget bill. Although much of this budget was important because it helped families and businesses ensure that they had some kind of income so they could manage through this crisis, it is also important that we talk about how it will potentially burden the future of many families and younger people as we have amassed this enormous debt.
This February, I was appointed as the shadow minister for COVID-19 economic recovery. It has been an incredible honour to serve in this role, because it has given me the opportunity to go across the country virtually and look at the economic impacts COVID has had on every sector, every region and every demographic of the country.
A strong economic recovery should be inclusive to all demographics, sectors and regions, ensuring that all persons and all areas of the country thrive and that we have specific objectives with measurable strategies for every sector to ensure that nobody gets left behind. It is impossible to implement a cookie-cutter plan, which is pretty much what I see in the Liberal budget. We will not get a full recovery unless we look at every economic sector to make sure it is successful.
The budget outlined how the federal Liberals proposed to rebuild the Canadian economy in a way that will bring Canadians along. This is another example of a lot of talk without a clear, precise, strategic and thoughtful action by the government.
If the government was actually interested in bringing all Canadians along, it would have laid out outcomes for job creation, growth and prosperity in this country's agricultural sector, maybe the energy sector, the forestry sector and the natural resources sector, just to name a few. There are millions of Canadians who work in these sectors. It is time that the government at least got honest about what it is trying to accomplish. Quite frankly, it seems like we are stuck in this never-ending cycle of spending more to achieve less. It is all talk and no action.
I hearken back to when I first had the opportunity to get involved as a contributor to the economy. I was able to buy into a business when I was 21 years old. I look back at those times and how I looked at the world as my oyster, that I would be able to do something, build something, grow something. Sadly, I do not hear that from youth anymore. I do not see that in this budget, which does not necessarily set people up for success.
A bunch of stats have come out of this budget, like the largest debt and deficit we have seen in the history of our country, and yet very little to show for it. We are certainly not moving forward. In fact, I often think we are moving backwards. It is important that we look at a few stats. Canada fell out of the top 10 ranking of the most competitive economies. We have fallen near the bottom of our peer group on innovation, ranking 17th, as stated by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Canada ranks 11th among G7 countries, among 29 industrial countries, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 33%, and Canada fell to 25th out of 29 countries. In other words, Canada has the fifth-highest level of total indebtedness. No other country experienced such a pronounced decline in its debt ranking. The debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 31% last year to 56% this year. The Bank of Canada projects business investments to grow at 0.8% over the next two years, failing to recover to 2019 levels until 2023.
Consumption and government spending will represent about 80% of economic growth over the next two years, while investment and exports will be next to zero. An important industry like mineral fuels accounted for 22% of our country's exports, the number one exported product, which is something we should not forget about. We still have the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world and are the third-largest exporter of oil.
Just as the government continued to do since 2015, it has ignored the Canadian natural resource industry. There is virtually no mention of the energy sector, which is Canada's number one export. By ignoring the strength of Canada's resource, forestry and agriculture sectors, among others, the government has failed to recognize the impact these sectors would have on our battered economy. The world wants and needs more of our natural resources, so we should be thinking about expanding our market share, not hastening its decline. At the very least, we should be trying to develop policies that make sure we have an active role in these sectors.
There is an entire chapter in the budget dedicated to environmental initiatives aimed at net-zero emissions by 2050, which includes $18 billion in spending, but with dubious assumptions about the impact on economic growth. Rather than supporting a proven catalyst for economic growth like the natural resource sector to accelerate Canadians' recovery and get Canadians back to work, the Prime Minister has decided to continue the abandonment of this industry and hedge our future on uncertain technologies.
Conservatives are not opposed to developing and enhancing Canada's environmental-oriented sector. In fact I, along with the Conservative Party, highly encourage Canadian market participants in this sector to continue to grow and create more jobs and revenue while making sufficient contributions to the nation's ecological sustainability. I am proud of our industry. Our industry has been doing fantastic work and is a leader in the world. We should be proud of that and stand up for it. As we continue to combat this pandemic and the economic damage it would cause, we must unleash and utilize the capabilities of all profitable revenue streams. That includes green technologies and natural resources.
There are some vague references in the budget to growing green jobs and retraining the workforce for new jobs. It is very vague. Where and in which sectors are these jobs going to be created, and by when? Words are great, but actions speak louder. In the province I come from, people want to know, if they will be trained into a green job, where that job will be, what kind of income they will get and how they are going to be able to support their families in that new role. We have heard lots about retraining for these jobs that do not exist yet, but the need for tradespeople only happens if something is approved and built in this country.
What is it going to take? If the economy is going to grow, it has to be private sector-driven. The high cost of doing business in Canada, the red tape and the over-regulation make it almost impossible for small business owners. That has to change. There has been a real and visible impact on Canada's capacity to attract foreign investment. We need to be able to tell people they are welcome in this country and their investments are welcome. The perceived risk around investing in Canada's energy sector has to change.
What does the future look like? What is the trajectory? What does the country look like? We see inflation now. The target was 2% and it is running at about 3.6%. It is very concerning for people who are trying to live on a budget. My biggest fear for the country is that this budget will continue to invest massive sums of money into under-tested, under-productive schemes that fit the government's political agenda. The title is “A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth and Resilience”, but the federal government's budget contains very few details on specifics and a lack of measurables, and it really does not say how it is going to execute on this plan.
I am concerned this budget is far from resilient and far from sustainable. If it were resilience that the government was after, it would be asking itself how this federal spending is going to position the country for post-pandemic success. We need to ensure that any spending helps with productivity in this country and ensures we have long-term sustainability. The well-being of our people and our economy cannot afford to be stuck in this never-ending cycle of the government's scheme of throwing money into the wind and hoping something sticks.
The most important focus for our country right now needs to be investment and commitment to ensuring Canadians get back to work. That is why the Conservative Party of Canada would implement the Canada recovery plan, a plan that would recover the hundreds of thousands of jobs in the hardest-hit sectors. Canadians deserve strong leadership, inclusive leadership and a robust plan for not only recovery, but prosperity for many years to come.
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