The Budget
Date: 2023_04_17
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Scot Davidson: Canadians are struggling worse than anyone has in generations. With the Liberal government's 2023 budget, I cannot help but think it is missing some pages. I looked, and there must be pages missing. It has to be the case because there is no vision for the country. Where is the plan to make things more affordable? Where does it show that the Liberals are focusing on priorities that matter most to Canadians? With this budget, it is clear that the ordinary people, who are in truth extraordinary people, but the everyday people who live in the small towns and suburban communities, just like those I represent in York--Simcoe from places such as Ansnorveldt, Bellhaven, Cedarbrae, Pefferlaw, Willow Beach and Bradford, are once again on the outside looking in. At 5.2%, inflation is still the highest it has been in 30 years. Prices for everyday items, including groceries, electricity, fuel and other necessities, continue to skyrocket. It is no wonder 68% of Canadians are concerned they may not be able to afford gasoline and 60% are worried they will not have enough food to feed their families. This might not mean much to the Liberal government members and their friends on Bay Street, who profited from the pandemic and who have been well insulated from the increases to the cost of living. They will say, "Is meat too expensive? Let them eat lentils." They will respond to higher gas prices by telling Canadians to just go buy an electric car. They do this in complete ignorance of the economic realities working families are facing in Canada. There are Canadians who have resorted to feeding their children Kraft Dinner day after day, with no end in sight. The newest vehicle most people in my riding can afford is a 10-year-old car. It is not a shiny new EV right off the lot. All of this has become heartbreaking and depressing for Canadians who want so much more for themselves, their children and their grandchildren. While the Prime Minister and his cabinet jetted across Canada trumpeting this budget and telling people to wrack up more debt on their credit cards, I was in my community of York--Simcoe doing what I normally do, which is speaking to the everyday residents who live there about what matters most to them. I spoke to a clerk in a hardware store in Sutton who told me she is retired now but had to go back to work and is working two jobs just so she will not go hungry. I spoke to a senior in Baldwin who worked hard her entire life as a personal support worker. She dedicated all of her years toward caring for the vulnerable. This senior has now become vulnerable herself, spending the final years of her life in a trailer park with almost no pension and barely getting by each and every month. She cannot afford to put food on the table or pay for hearing aids, glasses and other necessities. Desperately, in the face of these struggles, she asked me whether medically assisted dying was available to her, simply because the cost to live has become so expensive. These stories are becoming all too common. How is it acceptable that Canadians, people such as the senior in my riding, would consider euthanasia as a better alternative to the poverty and hardship imposed on them by the Liberals' fiscal irresponsibility? Sadly, reports in the media over the past year have confirmed this desperation. Many Canadians have taken this option. What does that say about the Liberal government? What does it say about our country when it is easier to access assisted dying in Canada than it is to secure affordable housing or afford groceries and other essentials? With the state of the economy, far too many Canadians are losing hope. They no longer see this country as a place where they can own a home, start or maintain a business, or raise a family. Instead of the Liberals' deflections and false narratives, Canadians from all walks of life in every industry and in every sector across Canada require real solutions to tackle skyrocketing inflation and the cost of living crisis. When we look at the 2023 budget promises and the commitments by the Liberals to correct their many failures, those solutions are just not there. In fact, the 2023 budget will make matters worse. With this budget, the Liberals are continuing their war on work by increasing taxes and driving up the debt. Under the Prime Minister , Canada's federal debt for 2023-24 is projected to reach $1.22 trillion. That is nearly $81,000 per household in Canada, $10,000 more than the income of most families in York--Simcoe. The amount the government is spending on servicing the debt is almost as much as it is sending to the provinces as health care transfers. It is no wonder that, in my riding of York--Simcoe, we have few doctors, no hospital and no physical hospice. It is completely outrageous. This speaks to one of the problems with the budget and with the Liberals' approach to the economy in general. Instead of addressing the wider issues, the government will point to the narrowly applied measures they are funding and say that the job is done. We can take the completely unattainable housing market, for instance. The Liberals' only plan is a flawed tax-free home savings account. How does this out-of-touch government expect new and young Canadians, already struggling with inflation, wage stagnation and the cost of living crisis, to dedicate $8,000 of their income per year to this scheme? With the minimum down payment in Canada exceeding $122,000, the FHSA limit of $40,000 is almost laughable, even if aspiring homeowners could afford to put away $8,000 over five years. The Liberals may say that they have now solved the housing affordability crisis, but Canadians can see that this budget will not result in any additional houses being built or a family affording a home who otherwise could not. Budget 2023 also fails our Canadian farmers, who provide our food security. Our country should be a global leader in agricultural production. I have always said that one can move a General Motors plant, but one cannot move a farm. Instead, the Liberals have stacked the deck against our farmers with fertilizer tariffs, carbon taxes and lack of energy infrastructure, such as natural gas or upgraded hydro infrastructure. This has made it a struggle for Canadian farmers to compete in the global market while ensuring our own food security here at home. The meagre proposals in budget 2023 do little or nothing to mitigate these challenges and support the people who grow our food. Finally, I note that budget 2023 contains a promise for some small funding for Lake Simcoe, which is shared between all the Great Lakes across Canada and most major freshwater lakes and rivers in Canada. This is the fourth promise of funding for the lake from the Liberals since they cancelled the Lake Simcoe clean-up fund in 2017. Residents who live in the watershed or rely on the lake for drinking water are sick and tired of the broken promises. They know that the Liberals are all talk and no action when it comes to the environment. Band-aid solutions and microtargeted measures might sound good at the podium at the Empire Club or at the WEF, but they do not result in any meaningful relief for Canadians carrying the financial burden of the Liberals' economic failures. The Prime Minister is spending more than $120 billion in budget 2023. What do we have to show for this out-of-control spending? What is the result of the Liberal spending after eight years? Members can ask themselves that. Any Canadian who has had to sit in a hospital waiting room, try to buy children's medication, buy or rent a house, renew their passport, take a flight or pay their taxes will tell us that the result has not been much, sadly. We have no domestic manufacturing capacity here, and across every sector, growth is in decline. Where is the productivity? Members can think about this: After ballooning the size of the federal government by 30%, there is a bigger and costlier government with more red tape, but there are worse outcomes for Canadians. Fundamentally, the most important purpose of this budget was to restore the formula that worked in this country for the better part of 156 years, which is that, if one works hard, one should be able to provide for one's family, work toward one's dreams and give back to one's community. The fact is that this budget is not actually missing pages, but it is missing meaningful action to fix that broken formula, and I will be voting no to this budget.