The Budget
Date: 2023_04_17
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Francesco Sorbara: it is always a pleasure and a privilege to rise in this honourable House to lend my voice in support of budget 2023, appropriately titled for our times, "A Made-in-Canada Plan: Strong middle class, affordable economy, healthy future." Before I begin my commentary on the direct measures in the budget, I wish to provide my perspective of where we are in the world today. In my view, today we are at a seminal moment in history, both economically and geopolitically. This happens every few generations, and it is happening today. As a result, we need responsible and bold leadership for the moment we are in, and measures that are up to the seminal moment as our citizens both deserve it and demand it. Let me explain briefly. The post-World War II order of multilateral institutions and the leadership of the United States is being reshaped and, in many cases, challenged by China and its alliances with countries like Russia, but also by its investments throughout the globe, from Africa to South America. Layered on top of that we have also seen a rise in populist governments from the far right to the far left, challenging their individual countries' democracies and, again, the multilateral institutions that were built post-World War II. Economic growth in advanced countries, absent the gyrations from exogenous shocks for decades over normal business cycles, has been slowing across all developed countries due to demographics or aging workforces, a decline in birth rates, slower productivity gains and, for many countries excluding Canada, high public debt levels. Thus, the policy choices we make as legislators today have an even greater impact on the standard of living of every single one of our fellow Canadians for years to come. Last week, I attended the World Bank and IMF Global Parliamentary Forum in Washington. I encourage all my fellow parliamentarians here at home to read the IMF's World Economic Outlook, entitled "A Rocky Recovery." As it become abundantly clear that Canada, with its talented and entrepreneurial citizenry; bountiful natural resources; trade agreements, including CUSMA, CETA, CPTPP, that uniquely position our exporters; immigration system; and strong fiscal framework, including an AAA credit rating is positioned in an advantageous manner relative to our global peers in this seminal moment. Our government, through budget 2023, is building upon so much of what we have done in the last few years by making the targeted and fiscally responsible investments to create opportunities for Canadian workers in a challenging and changing global economy for today and tomorrow. We will strengthen Canada's public health care system, because Canadians demand it, with a $198-billion, 10-year investment including $46.5 billion in new investments. This investment is particularly important after the stresses seen post COVID-19. We will continue to rise to the challenge of this seminal moment in the world's economic and political history. On the economy front, I spent some time reviewing the IMF World Economic Outlook for April, and I wish to read a paragraph on the global prospects and policies: The global economy is yet again at a highly uncertain moment, with the cumulative effects of the past three years of adverse shocks--most notably, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine--manifesting in unforeseen ways. Spurred by pent-up demand, lingering supply disruptions, and commodity price spikes, inflation reach multidecade highs last year in many economies, leading central banks to tighten aggressively to bring it back toward their targets and keep inflation expectations anchored. What does that mean for Canada and how does that interconnect with budget 2023? In chapter 1, to achieve strong, sustainable and inclusive growth will require policy-makers here at home to stay agile and pursue the following policies. First, ensure a durable fall in inflation, which is now occurring through the actions of the Bank of Canada. Second, safeguard financial flexibility and maintain a strong banking system. We can all be proud, as parliamentarians, that Canada's banking system is well capitalized, has strong liquidity and is very well regulated by our regulatory agencies. Normalizing fiscal policy postpandemic we can check off, as we have seen in budget 2023 that fiscal consolidation and ending pandemic-era programs was the appropriate thing to do. Supporting the vulnerable, due to inflation, particularly with the cost of everyday essentials including food, is also important. The grocery rebate in budget 2023 will help 11 million Canadians, with a family of four potentially receiving up to $467 and our seniors up to $225. This measure follows after the $500 rental rebate and the prior GST rebate. In addition, the changes to the Canada workers benefit, which will provide $4 billion over the following six years, this year will provide up to $1,428 for single workers and nearly $2,500 for a family. We know that dental care equals health care, but that seeing a dentist can be expensive. With that, we will roll out a national dental care plan to help one-third of the Canadian population that currently does not have dental insurance. In my riding of Vaughan--Woodbridge alone, nearly 650 kids, the last time I checked, under the age of 12 have benefited from the temporary dental benefit. I have always stood up and advocated for the hard-working seniors in my riding and across this country, and I am so glad to see that when they retire, if they lack dental coverage post-retirement, they will be covered. We know that seniors on fixed incomes paying for dental visits can mean delaying food shopping for a couple of days or even weeks. We cannot forget the investments in our national early learning and child care plan, which is saving families across the country thousands of dollars and boosting the participation rate of women. For the longer term, for which I am even more excited, the IMF and the World Bank identify two major things to ensure strong, long-term economic growth and maintaining Canada's high standard of living. The first one is speeding up the green transition and, second, is increasing the economy's capacity, which means we would increase supply to certain inputs. Budget 2023's strategic investments in our infrastructure and in speeding up the green transition, which we know is creating literally thousands of jobs for Canadians today, is what this bold and responsible leadership calls for, which I alluded to earlier. We are seeing that within Canada's auto sector, with over $20 billion of investment that has been attracted in creating and maintaining thousands of direct and indirect jobs across this country, much like the plant I visited in Alliston, Ontario, the Honda facility, last week with the right hon. Prime Minister . We know that Canada is now positioned as a leader in the electric vehicle battery supply chain and in the global transition to electric vehicles, which is seeing over $500 billion in capital being put to use as we speak. The measures in budget 2023 include what I feel is the most important, an investment in a tax credit for clean electricity to ensure that our electricity system can meet the demand for energy consumption in the decades to come. We know that Canada's electricity system, the last time I checked, is at 85% or 90% from clean energy sources. We know we need to get to 100% and lower greenhouse gas emissions, which we are doing. Nuclear, solar, wind, energy storage and hydro are all part of this transition. This investment into Canada's electrical grid is one of the most transformational investments we have seen in Canada's infrastructure in decades. I would even argue it is akin to the building of the railroad in Canada many decades ago. An investment in a tax credit for clean technology manufacturing, supporting Canadian companies in the manufacturing and processing of clean technologies and in the extraction of critical minerals, will create good middle-class jobs for Canadians today and tomorrow. With that, we are proposing a tax credit equal to 30% of the cost of investments in new machinery and equipment used to manufacture or process key clean technologies. We are seeing that across the country today, whether it is in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario or any other province. Countries are innovating and, if I can use the example of the electric vehicle battery ecosystem, taking advantage of those systems. We know innovation and new energy sources will be crucial. During my time in the constituency, I visited the energy facility in York Region, the first of its kind in North America where hydrogen is being used in combination with natural gas to heat homes in York Region. That is groundbreaking. With that, our government knows that hydrogen is part of the future and that is why we will be putting in place an investment tax credit for hydrogen, which will be introduced to spur capital to invest in this critical future energy source. The United States may have brought in the Inflation Reduction Act in response to what Canada has been doing for the last 20 years, but we have also responded to ensure that private capital remains in Canada and that jobs are created in Canada. We are seeing that on a daily basis by either domestic or foreign corporations investing their dollars here in Canada to create a strong economy and a bright future for Canadians, such as my three children. We will continue to do that in a fiscally responsible manner to ensure that we can pay for the benefits that Canadians deserve while we create good, middle-class jobs for Canadians and help those who wish to join the middle class.