The Budget
Date: 2023_04_17
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Jacques Gourde: once again, it is a privilege for me to rise in the House to speak for the people of Levis--Lotbiniere, whom I proudly represent. From the outset, I would like to say that back home, we do not have the same definition of the word "budget" as the Prime Minister , nor the same approach to budgeting. On March 28, the Minister of Finance and this spendthrift Prime Minister proved to us for the eighth time in a row that the Liberals are incompetent and that their only talent is keeping us in the financial hole we have fallen into, in spite of ourselves, with debt interest payments we will never see the end of in our lifetime. The Prime Minister is proud to wear the same rose-coloured glasses as the Minister of Finance, but even worse is that he is out of touch with reality in Canada. He sees us as a country to be envied within the G7. I am going to show the House that we are getting poorer all the time, that we are living in poverty. To talk about this budget, I will begin by saying that I am very annoyed by all the words that ring false coming from the Prime Minister, starting with the words "budget" and "economy". This brings me to an important question: Does the Prime Minister know what a piggy bank is? When the Prime Minister appeared on Tout le monde en parle on April 2, he talked about a large pot of money that certainly should not be saved for tough times or for a contingency. It is a big pot of money that could be used to balance the budget within five years, if only the Prime Minister knew how to count. I believe that he views it as a huge pile of cash or an unlimited jackpot for him to spend. The only problem is that there is no more money. All these investments he is announcing are being made on credit. I cannot even fathom the amount of interest that will have to be repaid. I am picturing a big warehouse filled with pallets laden with bundles of money. It is really outrageous. The exceptionally spendthrift Prime Minister is the perfect example of someone who never had to save up their hard-earned pennies in a piggy bank as a child. For ordinary people, a dollar is still a dollar, because loonies are not made of gold. I say that as a reminder to the Prime Minister, who is about to shell out $43 billion on a new spending spree with the unconditional support of our NDP friends. Theirs is a beautiful love story, but it is costing us very dearly. Currently leading Canada is a Prime Minister who has never had to make tough choices, as thousands of families are doing right now. We are not talking about choosing between buying a huge TV on credit and subscribing to cable TV channels. We are talking about choosing between buying groceries and paying the electricity bill or making car payments to be able to get to work. With the Liberal-NDP coalition, we are not dealing with two teams that decided to pool resources in order to be able to offer Canadians more money. Instead, we have two political parties that have joined forces to find ways to spend even more of Canadians' money, because their own pockets are now empty or, even worse, because they are actually spending the future savings of generations yet to be born. Simply put, the big pot is broken and is now empty. The Liberal-NDP coalition is undermining democracy in Canada and in our institutions. Canadians did not vote for this hypocrisy in the last election. However, this is not the first time in Canadian history that a party that will never have a chance to be in power has resorted to scheming with the Liberals to achieve its ends with no legitimacy. I would like to talk about another word that I heard on April 2 that the Prime Minister does not seem to know the meaning of, and that is the word "austerity". When did being reasonable and fiscally responsible or using good judgment and common sense become synonymous with austerity in Canada? Even more serious than austerity, in my opinion, is the fact that people can no longer make ends meet, even by tightening their belt or earning a higher salary. Inflation keeps driving up the price of housing, mortgages, groceries and all the basic necessities. Before this Liberal government came to power, it took only 39% of the average wage to make the monthly payment on an average home. Today, that number has increased to 62%. Just last week, my heart broke once again when I had to help a family with three children in my riding who could no longer afford food and shelter. The pandemic, coupled with the cost of living, is putting the squeeze on millions of Canadians who have no savings and no available credit. They have nothing left. Many are skipping a meal every day, and people are increasingly using food banks on a weekly basis. Where and when will this end? I am not knocking the green energy sources of the future, quite the contrary. They are what we are all hoping for. We, the Conservatives, were the first to offer energy efficiency tax credits. I predict that more and more people will turn to solar energy, but not for the right reasons or the same reasons. They will do it because they no longer have the ability or the opportunity to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Basically, they will be out on the street. That is so sad. Canada has the lowest number of housing units per 1,000 residents of any G7 country. Because of strong population growth, the number of housing units per 1,000 Canadians has been dropping since 2016, a date that makes me think of the 2015 election. An additional 100,000 homes would have been required to keep the ratio of housing units to population stable since 2016, which still leaves us well below the G7 average and well under what the Liberal government promised. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada now needs 3.5 million more housing units than planned to restore affordability. I see the Prime Minister cockily saying that we will bring in foreign workers to deal with the labour shortage, even though we already have trouble providing decent housing for homeless people, Canadian families and seniors. Will the government tell us where these missing affordable housing units are going to come from, when we know that mortgages and rent have almost doubled since the Liberals took office? Stress and anxiety have now become an inherent part of life for millions of Canadians. Parents, children and grandparents are worried because they know that opportunities are dwindling in Canada. Not so long ago, many people never would have thought they would end up in this precarious situation. They are living a nightmare, with no chance of waking up. In eight years, the Liberals have brought us to a nightmarish reality. Legalizing marijuana did not help at all. Written briefs to the House and the work of committees can attest to that. Countries that legalized marijuana saw an increase in crime. Surprise, surprise, that is what we are seeing now too: a 32% increase in crime. They also reported an increase in mental health problems. We too are seeing an increase in the number of people who are facing mental health challenges. We are also seeing increased substance abuse and a rise in deaths related to drugs, the hard drugs that the Liberal Party wanted to legalize at all costs. That is the Liberal legacy, or should I say, the Liberal investment in our society. For shame. Not so long ago, we could say that any problem could be solved through policy, but that was before the Liberal era. The best way to put an end to the Liberal government that is destroying our future has always been to show them the door. Since 2015, if the Prime Minister had been paying attention to his big pot of money, as he likes to call it when he talks about the economy, we would not be in this situation. Everyone has heard the phrase "the sky is blue and hell is red". As a result of this NDP-Liberal coalition, everyone will be smiling as they think about what they like, but the real truth that is now on the lips of all Canadian workers is that they are paying far too much in taxes right now because the Liberal government is wasting far too much money. The 2023 budget continues the Liberal practice of depending on tax increases and inflationary deficits. That is why I will be voting against the budget, to honour those who work hard for their money and know how to count.