Debates of May 1st, 2024

Motions for Papers

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

The House resumed from April 30 consideration of the motion that this House approve in general the budgetary policy of the government.

Financial Statement of Minister of Finance

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to be sharing my time with the member for Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook.

As always, it is a true honour for me to be speaking in the venerable House on behalf of the residents of my riding of Davenport. Today I am going to be speaking to federal budget 2024. It is a very important budget. It is 416 pages. I will not be able to go through all of it, but I will focus on a few key areas.

I will start by talking about what I think is the overall theme of our budget, which is fairness for every generation. We have been talking a lot about some of the pre-announcements that our government made before we introduced federal budget 2024. There is a huge focus, and rightly so, on the gen Zs and millennials, but I just want to reiterate that the theme is fairness for every generation. There is a lot in the budget that will benefit every single generation here in Canada.

The other question that we asked ourselves and that is important to note as we are going through a number of measures I will be talking about today is “What kind of Canada do we want to live in?”. The measures in our budget very much answer that question. I also believe that the measures we have comprise a plan that would meet the current moment, including the challenges and opportunities of the current moment.

On Friday, as I always do every single year, I hosted a town hall respecting federal budget 2024, with Davenport residents. They had a lot of questions, which took over an hour. I am going to speak to the top three issues that I heard at the town hall.

The first thing I want to talk about is housing. That is the top concern for Davenport residents. We receive a lot of letters and a lot of calls, and when I go to events, that is what I hear from millennials, gen Zs and also from parents and grandparents who are are worried about their kids and grandkids being able to live in the city where they have grown up. Indeed, the core focus of federal budget 2024 is getting housing built as quickly as possible, getting as much supply as possible into the marketplace.

I do not know whether members noticed, but the week before federal budget 2024, we actually introduced our master housing plan, and there are three parts to it. First is building more single-family homes. Second is how it is that we are going to make it easier for Canadians to own or rent a home. The third part of our housing plan is helping Canadians who cannot afford a home, and that is by building more deeply affordable housing, whether for students, seniors or persons with disabilities. Part of the whole plan is also eliminating chronic homelessness in Canada.

There are a number of new measures that we have included in the budget. One that I want to focus on is using under-utilized federal lands for housing in Canada. I am very excited about this because in Davenport, something we have been pushing the federal government to look at is particularly using federal commercial lands in the hands of the government for affordable housing or for the use of local communities. We made a big push for Canada Post lands to be relooked at. Indeed, within federal budget 2024, we have introduced the whole concept of freeing up some of the lands that currently are under-utilized and available, and they would be used for affordable housing spaces.

I want to thank Davenport residents very much for pushing this idea, and the ministers and the Prime Minister for ensuring that we take a serious look at the federal lands that are in our hands and making them available right across this country.

The second issue that is important for Davenport residents is affordability. We do have an affordability crisis in Canada. I have been very proud of our federal government, which has introduced a number of programs over the last few years that have been extremely beneficial, have strengthened our social welfare system, and have also made life more affordable. The national child care system, our national dental care plan, our Canada worker benefit and our increase in OAS payments by 10% are just a few of those programs.

In federal budget 2024, we also introduced the Canada disability benefit and the national school food program. I will speak to both very quickly.

On the Canada disability benefit, I am very happy that we have introduced phase one, which would be $6.1 billion over six years, beginning in 2024-25, and would be $1.4 billion ongoing. That would provide a maximum benefit of $2,400 per person for low-income persons with disabilities. To me, this is great news. Every bit of money will help, particularly during times when we have inflation that is higher than normal.

This is phase one, and I know many Davenport residents are going to continue the work, including with me, to try to see if, in future years, we can get more money allocated to the Canada disability benefit. However, the dollars we have now are very much appreciated and would go a long way.

The second thing I want to mention is our national school food program, which would benefit more than 400,000 kids in Canada. It would save the average family with two children as much as $800 per year in grocery prices.

Again, I am very proud of the affordability measures we continue to have in federal budget 2024. I know it would go a long way to help support not only residents of my riding of Davenport, but also Canadians right across this country.

This is the last area I want to spend a bit of time on. Looking at all the programs we have introduced to expand our social welfare system and to help Canadians with the affordability and the housing crises we have in Canada today, there are often those who ask me how we are going to pay for it. I am very proud to say that we do have an economic plan that would set up Canada and Canadians for future growth and prosperity. The measures we have introduced in our budget this year would very much build on a number of measures we have introduced over the last few years. I will speak to some of them now.

First, we put $2.4 billion toward AI leadership. We would launch a new AI compute access fund and a Canadian AI sovereign compute strategy that would support AI adoption across the entire Canadian economy. It is very important for us to make this investment. It would help Canadian researchers start up and scale up businesses, and access the computational power and the digital tools they need to compete, and it would help catalyze the development of Canadian-owned and Canadian-located AI infrastructure.

We also introduced the new investment tax credits to attract companies to invest across the electric vehicle supply chains. These are much-welcomed tax credits by the electric vehicle sector. We, indeed, have made huge investments. This continues to ensure we would have a very robust structure and would become global leaders in this area.

I want to note that in our fall economic statement, we introduced the clean technology manufacturing investment tax credits, which are very beneficial for the transition we are trying to make to a low-carbon future and a low-carbon economy.

There are two other great things I want to speak to. We have made a $5.9-billion investment in research and scholarships, and also in new strategy research infrastructure. In my community, for many years, I have had a number of university post-docs and doctoral students come up to me and ask for more core research grants and more scholarships and fellowships. Indeed, we have made a historic investment in federal budget 2024. I am very pleased that it is there. It would bode well for a good economic future.

The last thing I will say may sound unsexy, but I think it is sexy because it is going to help our Canadian economy. We have introduced a national regulatory alignment. Essentially, we are trying to eliminate interprovincial and interterritorial trade barriers. When we do that, we make it easier for companies, businesses, non-profits, people and goods to move across our country. It is great for our current economy and for our future economy, and it would bode well for our future prosperity.

We have set up what I would call a “registry” so that we would have an idea what those barriers are and could start eliminating them systematically.

In 416 pages, we have something that would benefit every generation in Canada. I am very proud to stand here on behalf of Davenport residents.

I am now ready to answer any questions.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, with this budget, the federal government is responding to a crisis, namely, the housing crisis.

My question for my colleague is this: Does she agree that the money earmarked for housing should be managed by the people who understand the housing crisis? Here is an example: CMHC collects data. I have the honour of representing 39 municipalities. Out of those 39 municipalities, CMHC collects data on only one. The government wants to put out a fire, but it is only spraying water on part of the building.

Does my colleague agree that the money earmarked for addressing the housing crisis should be managed entirely by the Quebec government?

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will say the following: I sit on the finance committee, and it is a privilege to do so. We hear, all the time, from experts across the country about how to resolve the housing crisis. One thing we hear, time and time again, is that it will not be resolved at just the federal level. All three levels of government need to work together to resolve the housing crisis.

For about 30 years, all three levels did not invest enough. We now have a lot a money in. We have a lot of input. We have a lot of great programs, and there is an opportunity for every level of government to have input and to do their part to ensure that every Canadian has a safe, accessible, affordable place to live.

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I was astounded, quite frankly, when I saw in the ways and means motion, which the Deputy Prime Minister and finance minister will be putting forward, an increase to the debt borrowing limit of this country of $295 billion. That is astounding. I am troubled by the massive increases in spending that this budget sees and by the fact that there is an increase of $295 billion.

Can the member try to explain to the House and to Canadians why in the world they need a $295-billion increase to Canada's borrowing?

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, here is what I would say: I think that sometimes we have to remind ourselves of this, even though we want to forget it. We, not just Canada, but also the world, have come out of a massive pandemic. I think all of our economies have been struggling to recuperate. Very blessedly, here in Canada, we have been very lucky that we have been able to bring back over 100% of all the jobs that had been lost and that we continue to have strong fundamentals in terms of our finances.

Our growth, right now, is predicted to be the highest this year and the next, according to the Bank of Canada and the IMF. We continue to have a AAA credit rating. Only 11 countries in the world have that. We have the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, and it continues on a downward track. Canada's balance sheet remains the best of the G7's.

Therefore, I would say that we have a good track record. We have a good balance sheet, and we have a lot to look forward to, in terms of prosperity, moving forward.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if I heard correctly, I believe the hon. member for Davenport said that it was great news that the disability tax credit finally came in, after years and years, without delay, leaving people with disabilities in the lurch, only to find that in this budget, this lunch bag letdown, there was $200 a month; that is $2,400 a year or $6.66 a day.

Is it the hon. member's testimony, here today in this debate, that a program with currently only 40% of disabled Canadians enrolled in it should be great news for the people of Davenport, for the people in Hamilton Centre and, indeed, for Canadians who have been legislated to poverty, living with disabilities from coast to coast to coast?

Is this her contention here today?

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the member is asking whether I would have wanted it to have been fully funded to what the Canadian disability sector had asked for, I would say a resounding yes. However, I was proud that this is one of the largest line items in our entire budget. We have absolutely made this a priority.

I will also say that it is not the only thing that will be helpful to Canadians with disabilities. We have automatic tax filings. We have a national dental care plan that will benefit them. We have phase one of a national pharmacare plan that will support them. We have made historic investments in our health care program, both last year and this year. I think all of that, collectively, is going to support not only Canadians with disabilities but also all Canadians moving forward.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Rural Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my constituents of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook on this very important budget.

The thing I want people to concentrate on is that this budget is a fairness to every generation, and it is a focused one. Before one can put a strong budget in place, one needs to have a strong economy. That is what it is all about. Right now, the economy in Canada is doing much better than most economies across the world.

First of all, our inflation rate is down to about 3%, which is in the target range of the Bank of Canada, which is very important. We have dropped that from 8.2% down to 3%.

Also very important is that we have the AAA rating, and we are one of two countries in the G7 to have that. That is another solid ground footing we have.

We also have an unemployment rate ranging around 5.4% or 5.5%, which is among the lowest ever in the history of Canada. That is, again, very impressive.

The International Monetary Fund is also indicating that Canada's net debt-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest in the G7.

Those make up the main foundation of why we can have a budget that would be fair to every generation. It is also why we are able to invest in a transformative enhancement of our social safety net, which is really important, and it is something I really care about, making sure the gap is tighter for Canadians. It is also why we are attracting the highest per capita foreign direct investment in the G7, and we are third in the world. These are very impressive numbers.

Let us talk about homes. Yes, we do have a crisis with homes, and every level of government has some responsibility behind that. The former Conservative government said that it did not have any responsibility for that, but it does. It is a partnership, and we need to work together. I am proud that there is going to be almost four million, believe it or not, homes built by 2031. When I say four million, I am not talking about four million people; I am talking about four million families, which is really what is important.

Some of the initiatives we started are going to be topped up and expanded. Let us talk about the rapid housing, the accelerator fund, the removal of the GST and the innovative modular homes. Those are key. We are also now looking at Canada Lands to make sure that we can access those lands and that some contractors or investors can lease the lands, so we can get more homes built. We are talking about 250,000 more homes, as we move forward, by 2031.

We are also looking at investing with universities, with student residences, which would allow us to get students from apartments and condos into residences. That would help us with the housing challenge.

Also, there is our investment in various organizations on the ground, working to prevent and to reduce homelessness and encampments. This is a co-shared investment with all levels of government, where we will see renovations and see more shelters and transition homes being built.

Those are some key issues under housing that are so important.

I also want to talk about our focus on youth. First-time homebuyers would have access to 30-year amortizations, which would be very helpful. Also, we know already that 750,000 young people have opened a tax-free account for first-time homebuyers. That is very impressive.

Kevin Lee, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders' Association, stated, “The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) and our members are very pleased to see the federal budget measures that will help the sector respond to the government’s goal of doubling housing starts to overcome the housing [crisis].”

I am confident that, in the very near future, we are going to see vacancies as we move forward.

The third piece of my speech, which is so important, is a stronger social safety net and closing the gap. I am proud of that, and I will share some of the key items I am very proud of. One, in 2023, we added $200 billion to the health accord, but now we are talking about a new disability benefit, with up to $6.1 billion over three years that is going to help over 600,000 Canadians with disabilities.

Also very important is pharmacare. We are initiating the first phase of pharmacare, and we are going to see big support for women and people living with diabetes. When I go to the pharmacist, she often tells me, “You have to help people with diabetes, because it is costing them too much money.” Well, we are coming forward on that one today.

On the dental care plan, nine million Canadians will have access to it. It is very important. We have it for seniors now, and we are running it for people with disabilities and young people 18 and under.

There is also the expansion of spaces in day cares. We have dropped the cost of day care. My daughters were paying $1,800 a month, and it is going to be down to $10 a day very soon in Nova Scotia. This is helping with affordability, which is really important as well.

The final one, which I am very proud of as a former educator, is that we are launching the new national school food program, which will help over 400,000 young Canadians.

Under safer and healthier communities, there are two areas I want to touch on. One is recognizing the volunteer firefighters and search and rescue individuals by doubling the tax credit. These individuals are doing exceptional and dangerous work. They are supporting Canadians every day. We need to recognize them, and this is the first step. Also, for rural health and social services workers, we are looking at making amendments, which is very important to attract more people into rural communities. How are we going to do that? We are going look at adapting and adjusting the Canada student loan forgiveness program, which will attract key people in key areas, for example dentists, pharmacists, midwives, teachers, social workers and psychologists. I could go on and on. This will bring positive change.

How are we helping the small and medium-sized businesses? Again, we are helping them in many ways. The Canadian entrepreneurs’ incentive will have a combined exemption of at least $3.25 million when selling all or part of a business, which is very much a supportive investment for small businesses. We will also have the lifetime capital gains exemption increased from $1 million to $1.25 million, which is tax-free for the sale of small business shares and farming and fishing property. These are key areas in supporting small businesses. We are also boosting government procurement for small and medium-sized businesses, which will have access to those contracts that are so important.

To conclude, this is a balanced budget and a balanced approach. We are investing in Canadians and also ensuring that we are not overspending.

I will finish with something from Deloitte, which speaks about this budget. It reads:

Budget 2024 attempts to navigate a fine line: invest enough to have an impact on key priorities, from housing, social programs, and affordability to growth and good jobs, while maintaining sufficient fiscal discipline to adhere to fiscal guardrails and support the continued easing of inflation.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Madam Speaker, in this most recent budget, it is predicted that the interest will outstrip the transfers on health care. Does the member think that $54 billion is a big number?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question, but I am not sure I captured the beginning of it.

However, this budget will have about $40-billion deficit. The focus is on maintaining, but we are continuing to invest in new programs, yet drawing in enough revenue so that the deficit will not be as high as predicted. We are now moving downwards on the deficit.

We will continue to do our work, and we will be there for Canadians. I talked about young people and people with disabilities, and we will continue to support—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The answers must have, more or less, the same time as the questions.

The hon. member for Shefford.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. He addressed the issue of social housing and focused on homelessness in particular.

Last week, during our constituency week, I had the chance to attend the unveiling of the City of Granby's action plan for fighting homelessness. The city's request for the federal government is clear: The federal program that can help deal with homelessness is Reaching Home.

Granby is still considered a rural community, yet homelessness is on the rise throughout the entire region.

Is the government willing to review this program so that more communities like Granby can be deemed “designated communities“ in order to address the needs of the homeless?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Madam Speaker, I believe it will be expanded, because this situation exists everywhere, not just in urban centres. We will need to do a little more, but the investments that we have made to work with organizations on the ground will help us overcome this challenge.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Speaker, I really appreciate the member's energy and I am going to ask for some of it to come to Port Moody—Coquitlam.

I know that the member is the parliamentary secretary for Veterans Affairs. There is a piece of federal land very close to the legion in Port Moody, on 45 Mary Street. It was outlined in the budget. How can I get some conversations going around this piece of land? I am getting a bit of a runaround. It is not in infrastructure and communities and now it is over to procurement.

Where am I supposed to find this information about 45 Mary Street, because we are very interested in Port Moody—Coquitlam?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Madam Speaker, I will share with my colleague that I am no longer the parliamentary secretary for Veterans Affairs. I am the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Rural Economic Development. However, my heart and soul are still in supporting veterans.

This, of course, is a new initiative. My understanding of Canada lands is that we will have a drawing of all the vacant lands that belong to the federal government and conversations will be had. I believe the first step would be to speak with the minister about the possibility and identify that land, because that is exactly what we want. We want various people from the municipality and the province, or any member of Parliament, to share where they feel this would be appropriate and have those discussions so we can move forward very quickly. By 2031, we want to have 250,000 homes built.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Madam Speaker, I want to ask the member about what his views are on the importance of some of the national programs we have rolled out, and continue to roll out, in the last few years. I am talking about dental care and pharmacare, but also the national child care plan, and how they meet the affordability needs of Canadians in this moment.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Madam Speaker, I stated in my speech how proud I was, as a member of Parliament representing my constituency but also representing Canada, of the investment in making our social safety net even stronger: supporting people with disabilities, who are the most impoverished; bringing in the first phase of the pharmacare program, which is extremely important; bringing in dental care that nine million people will have access to; talking about more spaces for kids in day cares, which is extremely important, and the national school food program.

These are major, fundamental investments in our country, and I am so proud of our government for moving forward on them.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Madam Speaker, we are talking about budget 2024. The Liberal government claims that its ongoing investments are making life more affordable for Canadians and improving access to housing. That claim is straight out of the budget report. I was very surprised to hear that, because what I have heard from people in my home community, as well as from Canadians right across the country, is exactly the opposite: that the government's mismanagement of the economy is leading to making life less affordable for Canadians.

Think of the two million people who now regularly go to food banks. Food banks are even turning away people because there is so much demand. Those people do not think that life is becoming easier or more affordable.

How about improving access to housing? Housing is now twice as expensive as it was when the Liberal government first took office.

Munir is from my community. Together with his brother and his parents, they bought a house two years ago. With a low interest rate, their mortgage payments were $4,000 a month. Just last month, they had to renew their mortgage for $8,200 a month. They do not think that life is becoming more affordable.

Common-sense Conservatives have three demands to fix the budget and bring Canadians the relief that they desperately need. First, we say to axe the carbon tax on farmers and food by immediately passing Bill C-234 in its original and unamended form. Second, we need to build homes, not bureaucracy, by requiring cities to permit 15% more homebuilding each year as a condition of receiving federal infrastructure dollars. Third, we are demanding a cap on spending with a dollar-for-dollar rule to bring down interest rates and inflation.

The Liberals chose not to take our advice on that. Therefore, we cannot support this budget. There will be a non-confidence vote coming up, and we will vote non-confidence because we do not have confidence in the government.

We want an election. We are ready for it.

[An hon. member]

Canadians want an election.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is time to turn the hurt that the Liberals have inflicted on Canadians into the hope that they so desperately need.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Madam Speaker, there are many pieces within the budget that speak to affordability issues. The member opposite brought up an issue from his own constituency where a family is going through a challenging time. Would he not agree that some of the affordability measures, such as the student nutrition program, the dental program, these pieces that we have built on, like child care in the past, are good for people in his community? How can he stand here talking about affordability and not support those measures?

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Madam Speaker, the best support the government can give to Canadians is to make life more affordable again, bring interest rates down, bring inflation down. Munir and his family should not be paying $8,200 a month for their mortgage; $4,000 should be enough.