hazylavender/hi huggingface dataset:
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mrs. Laila Goodridge: I rise to respond to the question of privilege that was raised yesterday by the member for Pickering--Uxbridge . On Friday, March 31, I rose on a point of order to draw to the Speaker's attention comments made by the member for Pickering--Uxbridge, whom I heard using inappropriate and unparliamentary language. The member had the opportunity to respond and under normal circumstances in matters such as these, the Speaker would check the records of Hansard and come back with a ruling. In the absence of any recording of the exchange, the matter is usually left as a dispute of the facts. Those are the normal circumstances. In this case, the member responded by calling me a liar. Those comments she rightly apologized for yesterday. The member then immediately followed her apology with a question of privilege, accusing me of lying. While I was awaiting a ruling from the Speaker on my point of order from Friday, March 31, the member was drafting a question of privilege in an attempt to do indirectly what she could not do directly on Friday. Mr. Speaker, if you have any doubts as to the member's intentions, I draw to your attention the Debates from Friday, March 31. After the Speaker called out the member for her unparliamentary comments, the member said, "I will withdraw the word but the sentiment remains". Since Speakers have consistently ruled that it is out of order to attempt to do something indirectly that one cannot do directly, this matter should be dismissed on those grounds alone. Further, at page 88 of Bosc and Gagnon, it states that members should not raise trivial matters as matters of privilege or contempt. Clearly, this matter does not come close to meeting the threshold of privilege. It is a well-established principle that in order to have a prima facie case of privilege in relation to a claim of misleading the House, three elements must be established. First, it must be proven that the statement was misleading. In this case, the member only has her claim of the facts and I have mine. Second, it must be established that the member making the statement knew it to be misleading. Simply put, I heard what I heard and the member had the opportunity to address my point of order. While she got off to a shaky start with unparliamentary language, she had the opportunity to express her version of those facts and when we left things on Friday the Speaker was to look into the matter. The member had risen and had stated that she did not say those words. I prepared to follow the standard convention of this House and take the member at her word and let the matter drop. Third, the misleading statements must have been presented with the intention to mislead the House. Again, I heard an offensive comment and I raised it with no other intention except to draw to your attention, Mr. Speaker, a breach of the rules of decorum and use of language. The member had the chance to respond and, while I do not want to belabour the point that the member ironically responded to my point of order by breaching the rules with more unparliamentary language, those are the facts.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Dan Albas: I appreciate the member's contributions to the debate today. He specifically mentioned the first-time homebuyer tax-free savings account. That was actually promised in the budget before. Therefore, I have two very simple questions. When will this so-called tax-free savings account be available for people to use? Where will young people, particularly those who are hit hard by inflation and the cost of living, find the $8,000 they could put into it? I would like the member to explain to his constituents and mine where they are supposed to find that money for a home.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Arif Virani: pursuant to the budget document and the tax-free savings account, Canadian financial institutions, including the five major banks, are empowered to make that available as a product to their customers as of April 1, about 20 days ago. The second point begs the question of their economic growth. What I would point to is the economic growth under our government. We have recovered about 120% of the jobs that we had prior to the pandemic. That is a pretty incredible record of economic growth. What Canadians are doing is leveraging the benefits of that economic growth, including record low levels of unemployment, to assist with their savings. Savings will also benefit from some of the affordability measures that I outlined at the start of my speech, including, for low-income families, things such as the grocery rebate.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Denis Trudel: I want to thank my colleague for his speech. Unfortunately, one of the top issues right now is the housing crisis. He used about 22 seconds of his 10-minute speech to talk about it. That is more or less the equivalent of what is in the budget. Some 3.5 million homes need to be built in Canada over the next 10 years. The budget, which is 250 pages long, talks about it for a page and a half. That basically reflects how much of a priority this is for the government. Here is an interesting statistic. Yesterday, the National Housing Council, the body set up by the government to oversee the great national housing strategy, released a report with some very interesting information. Between 2011 and 2021, Canada lost over 550,000 units of housing that rented for $750 or less. Not only are we not building housing--according to this same organization, 35,000 units were built and 65,000 renovated, totalling 100,000--but 550,000 affordable units were lost in the last 10 years. How does my colleague explain the budget's near silence on this issue?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Arif Virani: I want to point out that it is completely incorrect to say that nothing is being done about housing and affordable housing. First, we launched a national strategy. We have committed $80 billion to date. Second, there is also a policy that allocates more than $4 billion for housing for indigenous peoples in budget 2023. It is important to point that out. As for the creation of housing, the most popular program in my riding, and probably in Trois-Rivieres as well, is the rapid housing initiative. With that program, we are creating new housing units in eight to 10 months' time in a given calendar year, which is quite remarkable.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Don Davies: since 2015, I have become well aware of the importance of social determinants of health, and also how important preventative measures are. In this country, we have a hunger problem. Across this country, millions of Canadians go to school hungry every day. Canada is one of the few countries in the world that does not have a national nutrition school food program. The Liberals and the NDP campaigned, in 2021, on allocating $1 billion, in our case over four years and in the Liberals' case over five years, to address school hunger, which is particularly acute right now with the price of food. Can my hon. colleague explain to the people I represent why the Liberals did not put any money in this budget to fulfill their promise to start developing a national nutrition school food program, such as what the NDP has been pursuing?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Arif Virani: I appreciate the question, as it is an important one. Food security, particularly for low-income children, is incredibly important, as is the school program mentioned. I will highlight, just for people who are watching, that we are supportive of food security, not only in the supply chains, but also in the support of food banks in this country. A national food program at schools is something that is important, and I will prioritize that in my advocacy.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Rachel Bendayan: I listened very carefully to the speech made by my colleague, for whom I have a lot of respect. I appreciate her insistence on a balanced budget. She undoubtedly knows that Canada still has the lowest debt and the lowest deficit among the G7 countries. I wonder if, as a former Radio-Canada journalist, she would like to see budget cuts to both Radio-Canada and the CBC, or just one of them, to achieve the balanced budget she wants. I expect that, as a former journalist, she has tremendous respect and admiration for her colleagues who are still working to provide Canadians with reliable news.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mrs. Dominique Vien: I would like to thank my colleague for her question. I will answer with another question that she could ask the Minister of Finance , who announced in November's economic statement that we would return to a balanced budget in 2027-28. Now we have learned that that will not be the case. Rather, there will be a $14-billion deficit, and there is nothing in any of the budget documentation about a return to a balanced budget. I think that that is the real question today, the only one that matters to Canadians.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe: I would like to pick up on the point raised by my colleague from Outremont . I thought her question was very interesting, but we did not get an answer. We are talking about responsible government, yet we have heard the leader of the Conservative Party say that he would cut $1 billion from CBC/Radio-Canada's $1.2-billion budget. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about that, since she herself was a journalist. Is it responsible for a government to cut $1 billion from a $1.2-billion budget for an institution like CBC/Radio-Canada, which exists to report the news and has broadcasting stations and newsrooms all over Quebec and the rest of Canada? I think that it is important that Canadians and Quebeckers know exactly what the Conservative Party wants to do with CBC/Radio-Canada's funding, and I would like an answer.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Taylor Bachrach: two years ago, the Conservatives voted against dental care. Now that we have a proposal in this most recent budget for a national dental care plan, they plan to vote against the budget and indicate their non-support for that policy, and that is fine. That is a difference of opinion when it comes to the oral health of Canadians and whether low- and moderate-income Canadians should have access to the kind of dental care that the member for Bellechasse--Les Etchemins--Levis has access to as a member of Parliament. My question, though, is as follows: Should we see a Conservative government in the future, would it cancel that program? Would it take away a national dental care program that is established under the budget we have before us?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Rachel Bendayan: I always enjoy my colleague's speeches. Today, he spoke to us about the importance of fiscal responsibility. I agree with him that this is a priority. However, I would like to understand one thing. I was under the impression that the Conservative leader had confirmed that he supported our $2-billion investment in the health care system and that the Conservatives would support that investment. Is that still the case? Could my colleague confirm that in the House?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Dan Albas: the member opposite's raising this issue allows me to finish my speech. I was quoting John Manley, who said, "Otherwise, there's a reckoning coming, and someone is going to have to face it." There is all sorts of spending in this budget. There are things we might agree on and lots of things we will disagree on, but I do not think anyone on that side of the House will say that this is a fiscally responsible budget. At some point, as Mr. Manley says, someone has "to manage the growth of...expenditures and manage...revenue carefully", or, guess what, it is going to be the young people of this country who are going to be saddled with it. That is the problem we have. We need to start focusing on the priorities of Canadians and only on those things, because we will not have the fiscal room if the economy shifts. We need to remember that this budget actually shows a recession in Q3 and Q4. Let us talk about those issues.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Luc Desilets: I thank my colleague for his presentation and his excellent French. It is always a pleasure to hear anglophones speak French in the House. I congratulate him. My question is twofold. First, according to the budget, investments are still being made in the oil sands and offshore drilling. What does my colleague have to say about that? Along the same lines, what does he have to say about the two oil sands industrial wastewater spills in Alberta that have caused, and are still causing, an environmental disaster?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Dan Albas: when it comes to Alberta, I would speak to Alberta members, but my understanding is that there is agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta for a harmonization agreement that allows for an equal program where there is a set of procedures in place so there is an equal level with what the federal government considers acceptable. I imagine that, as a member from Quebec, the member would say that is probably the best, because the people closest to the problem should have the most input. I am sure he would argue, from a Quebec standpoint, that Quebec can manage its own house better than Ottawa can. The second thing is that we had, earlier, a parliamentary secretary come and say that the tax-free savings account for first-time homebuyers is available now. I just checked the Desjardins website. The tax-free first home savings account does not currently exist. Perhaps there is at Questrade or whatnot, but I went to RBC and could not see one. It was the same thing with CIBC. The government says it is doing all these things to help people, but it is not doing that. I hope this member can check with Desjardins to confirm, because people are told something is coming, and when it is not there, they lose trust.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Elizabeth May: I wanted to ask about the budget in terms of adaptation to climate disasters. Earlier today, the hon. member for Mission--Matsqui--Fraser Canyon put forward a petition. Of course, petitions are not our own opinions, but the petition talked about the loss in Lytton and how Lytton has not been rebuilt. We know that the regions of central Central Okanagan--Similkameen--Nicola experienced, as did Mission--Matsqui--Fraser Canyon, losses due to floods, fires and the heat dome. The budget speaks, in terms of adaptation and funding, under the title "Supporting Natural Disaster Resilience", only to floods and flood zones. There is nothing about fires. I wonder if he has any comments on that.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Dan Albas: this is close to my heart. Mayor Mike Goetz originally placed the question to the minister responsible for this particular program, because it does not appear that communities hit hardest will be able to access that. They will be on a level playing field with other communities that will be applying for the adaptation funds, and Mayor Goetz has said that is not appropriate. Every time I speak to citizens in Merritt or Princeton, I hear they do not feel that either senior-level government, the provincial or federal government, has had their backs. It really takes away from the trust in government, and I have to say that if that is the goal of the government, it is succeeding.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Andreanne Larouche: I want to thank my colleague for her speech. We have just returned from a week of work at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, where we looked at the state and situation of human trafficking. I know we are committed to addressing the sexual exploitation of women. However, I was listening to her speech today and I am going to have to disagree with it, to object to what she said. I heard a lot of greenwashing. She talked at length about green energy but, essentially, the $21 billion set out in the budget is going to go to oil companies, small nuclear plants, oil extraction, dirty hydrogen and carbon capture. I am not alone in saying this. Environmental experts are saying that carbon capture is greenwashing. I would like to hear my colleague's opinion on this. Frankly, they may have good intentions, but unfortunately, I feel like this government does not walk the talk when it comes to the environment.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Jenna Sudds: I would like to acknowledge, as was shared, that members work closely together on the status of women committee. We have been doing some great work, most recently on a human trafficking study last week. I want to acknowledge that budget 2023 includes $160 million for women's organizations. That will support the important work necessary to ensure women are safe across the country, whether from human trafficking, precarious housing situations or gender-based violence. We are very much committed as a government to continuing in that vein. Further to--
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Arnold Viersen: we have 40-year highs in inflation and more people visiting the food bank now than at any other time in Canadian history, yet the member opposite paints a rosy picture of Canada. There is a $43-billion deficit this year in the budget as well. Inflation is out of control, yet the government continues to pour more fuel on that fire. Does the hon. member know when, if ever, the budget will be balanced?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Jenna Sudds: I think it is important to recognize where we are in these economic times and recognize that budget 2023 is a responsible fiscal plan for the challenging times we are in. I think we are making smart investments in Canada's future. As I highlighted in my remarks today, the future is clean. It is clean, green technologies that are powering us into the future. That creates a future for our children and grandchildren. I am proud of the budget that has been put forward, and I hope the member opposite will support it.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Don Davies: I will keep it brief. Last week, my colleague from Vancouver East and I hosted a town hall on the environment and heard a lot of very passionate people talk about their concerns for the environment. We just saw recently that the Trans Mountain pipeline is now estimated to cost $30 billion, and it is going to expand bitumen export in this country. I wonder if my hon. colleague thinks that spending $30 billion on that pipeline is a wise use of expenditures in today's economic climate.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Jenna Sudds: I think it is important to recognize that when we look at our electricity needs and look at the investments being made in this budget, we are investing in clean, green energy and technologies. If we look to cloud computing, AI and the use and rise of technology and 5G networks as examples, the energy being consumed in the world, not even in this country, is multiplying. We need to ensure that we make smart, sustainable decisions that do not jeopardize the future of this country for our children and grandchildren.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Arnold Viersen: I would just note that we are living in times of 40-year-high inflation with more Canadians visiting food banks than at any time in Canadian history, and yet the Government of Canada continues to tout that life has never been better in Canada. There is a $43-billion deficit in this budget and yet back in 2015 the Liberals said they would balance the budget in 2019. I just wonder if the hon. member has any comments about the $43-billion deficit and how this is contributing to inflation.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Ryan Turnbull: as we know, inflation is a global issue that everyone can acknowledge is a product of supply-chain disruptions left over from COVID-19 and the war that Russia has waged on Ukraine. There are many factors associated with global inflation, but what we have to acknowledge is that fighting climate change is a part of the solution to combatting inflationary pressures in our economy. That is exactly why our government is saying that we cannot really fight inflation without fighting climate change.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Denis Trudel: my colleague is pleased to be pleased, as they say. He talked a lot about climate change, saying that Canada is good, that it is strong and that everything is fine. I just want to point out to my colleague that our net emissions went up again this year. We are still one of the worst countries in the world in that respect. There are many measures in the budget. Oil companies are getting tax credits to green their record, for greenwashing, as my colleague mentioned earlier. Last year, in 2022, Exxon Mobil made $56 billion in profits; Shell made $40 billion; Total made $36 billion; Chevron made $36 billion; and BP made $27 billion. How can my colleague justify giving those companies even one cent?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Ryan Turnbull: obviously we disagree. I am very proud of the action that our government is taking on climate change, including the massive investments that we have made and commitments that we have enshrined into law. It is clear to me that emissions reductions are already being had in Canadian society across many industries and are only going to deepen as we implement the many different measures that are in budget 2023. I do not see anything other than a legitimate, authentic commitment to reduce emissions and adapt to the changing climate and to get to the root causes of climate change.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Taylor Bachrach: I thank the member for Whitby for his focus on climate change, which is an issue I would hope that all of us take very seriously. Bill C-12 set an emissions objective for 2026 and that objective is 20% below 2005 levels. The recent emissions inventory that just came out for 2021 had Canada's emissions at 8.4% below 2005 levels, so we have another 11.6% to go in only five years and yet what we saw in 2021 was that emissions were higher by 1.8% over 2020 levels. Therefore, if emissions are going up and we are trying to hit a target that needs them to go down, how do Liberals make that work?
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Ryan Turnbull: the question is a good one. Obviously, the intentions are to reduce emissions across our entire economy. Budget 2023 builds on many other measures that are bearing or starting to bear their fruits. What we are talking about is a massive transformation of the economy and that is going to take time. To realize the emission reductions it takes time. Obviously, the adoption of electric vehicles is going up. We are seeing major deals with the manufacturing of clean technology in Canada. There are many aspects of this transition; it is going to take time to realize those benefits, but I am sure that they are coming. I am sure the things that we are doing are grounded in principles that will bring about the outcomes that we are all looking for.
The Budget
Date: 2023_04_18
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
The Assistant Deputy Speaker: Order. It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Sherwood Park--Fort Saskatchewan , Public Services and Procurement; the hon. member for Leeds--Grenville--Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes , Taxation; the hon. member for Lanark--Frontenac--Kingston , Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.