Ryan Turnbull
Whitby, Ontario · Liberal · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, before I get started, I will just let you know that I will be sharing my time with the member for Beauport—Limoilou . I am pleased to rise today to debate Bill C-30 , which is an act to implement certain provisions of the spring economic update tabled in Parliament on April 28.”
“This would provide a savings of 10¢ per litre on gasoline and four cents per litre on diesel from April 20, 2026, through to Labour Day. The bill would also extend the suspension of the excise tax to aviation fuel over the same period to help mitigate the very high costs of jet fuel.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is good to be here in the very last moments before the House rises for the summer. I know that there are a large number of farms in the member opposite's riding. There are farm succession plans all across this country, and farmers do struggle with succession, so I understand the issue the member is speaking about.”
“Mr. Speaker, I would just say that it has become apparent in the House, through question period and many of the proceedings, that the Conservatives claim that they are about protecting and supporting vulnerable people, but in fact, they just seem to use those people's hardship for political gain.”
“It includes suspending the excise tax on fuel and extending that to aviation fuel. It includes a cap on the excise tax for alcohol, wine, spirits and beer. Craft brewers have been asking for this. Obviously, it would be capped at 2% of the escalator on the excise tax on alcohol.”
“It is a measure I have supported from day one because it offers owners of businesses that are small- to medium-sized, or they could be larger, the opportunity, when they want to sell the business, to protect those businesses and also to hand them down to workers.”
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“Madam Speaker, I am going to have to clap for AI at this point. I certainly never suspected that it could do that quick of a job dispelling the illusions that the Conservatives are trying to purport and promote in the House with their motions, which they do every day in the House. However, let us just take what the experts have said, even if Conservatives do not believe in expertise anymore. The National Bank said: We are not fans of the term “technical recession.” Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth can mean very different things depending on what’s happening to the population. Canada’s economy registered a tiny contraction in Q1, following a decline in Q4. Yet real GDP per capita rose nearly 1% in Q1 and has been trending higher for the past two years.”
“It is no joke to members on this side of the House that we are building a stronger economy. We are replacing those jobs that have been displaced based on a trade war that we did not start and we did not ask for. We are doing everything that is in our power to help support Canadians with jobs.”
“Madam Speaker, we actually just extended EI support for seasonal workers in the spring economic update. We have also done lots for tradespeople, for example. We have a trade mobility deduction that has been extended from $4,000 to $10,000, for those who are travelling to be part of building Canada strong and helping us build the infrastructure, housing and defence capabilities that this country needs. We are making announcements every single day about new investments that are going into those industries. The members opposite can laugh and they can mock, but there are 21,700 jobs at the new nuclear project at Darlington in my region. I have heard about displaced workers from our auto industries getting retrained and going to work in those construction jobs to build the small modular reactors.”
“Madam Speaker, we see that the Conservatives are always concentrated on the problem but have no solutions. As usual, they present only the challenges that the country is facing, without offering any solutions. Our government is actually creating good-paying jobs for Canadians all across this country. We are making record investments and generational investments in housing, defence, infrastructure and productivity. We have offered tax incentives, tax cuts and new federal benefits to help families with the cost of groceries. The groceries and essentials benefit that Canadians will receive this Friday is a good example of that. Why did the member vote against the national school food program if he is concerned with feeding families? I cannot understand where the Conservative Party actually stands on these issues.”
“The bottom line is that to support Canadians through the current global energy market disruptions, our government is delivering timely, tangible, fiscally sustainable and targeted relief for Canadians at a time when they need it, and we are doing so across a wide range of fronts. Today's motion, by failing to account for the most prominent causes of the economic pressures that Canadians are struggling with, presents an incomplete and therefore faulty analysis. The bride is not actually marrying her father, and Canada is not doing as poorly, in comparison to the rest of the world, as this motion would suggest. As the famous American philosopher and pragmatist William James rightly concluded, “Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power.” We choose optimism and power.”
“We have saved over $60 billion, over the next five years, by finding savings within government operations. That is significant. I was at the OECD last week. I had the chance to present on a panel on public finances with Greece, Argentina, Portugal, the U.K. and Ireland, and I can say that our peers across the world look at Canada and envy the fiscal position and the responsibility we have shown in relation to stewarding public finances in this country. I know Conservatives do not believe that, and that is fine. They are often out of touch with reality, and we see more displays of that in this House every single day. These are just a few examples that I have covered in this speech of how we are bringing down costs for Canadians.”
“I could go on, but maybe I will just say that we have also supported Canadians with child care, dental care and the Canada child benefit. I know that families in my riding are saving a lot of money by having access to dental care and child care. The average family in my riding will pay about $1,800 per child per month for child care. After we introduced our program, those fees went down by 50%. They have gone down even further. Families are paying about $410 per month right now. Let us just think about how much savings that is on a monthly basis. Families are saving $1,400 a month in my riding of Whitby. That is significant support for families that have young children. We have also preserved all the federal benefits that Canadians rely on. We have cut taxes. We have not raised one single tax.”
“To further make life more affordable for Canadians, we are also reducing fuel prices and the pressure on Canadians at the pump by suspending the full amount of the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline, diesel fuel and aviation fuels until Labour Day, September 7, 2026. This is expected to reduce price pressure at the pump and lower Canadians' bills at the gas station, with an expected savings of up to $5.75 on gasoline when filling up a 50-litre tank of fuel. All told, it is estimated this will provide over $2.4 billion in total tax relief in 2026, intended, obviously, to continue to ease the pressure on families. This builds on one of the very first actions we took as a government, which was to lower costs at the pump in provinces and territories, having suspended the divisive consumer carbon tax.”
“(1100) In my home province of Ontario, the agreement that we signed with Ontario will effectively achieve a 13% reduction of the HST charged on a new home purchase. That is up to $130,000 off a $1-million home, and then with a 50% reduction in development charges, that is significant support. It is up to $200,000 in savings. One cannot argue with that. If we want to increase housing supply, deal with affordability in the housing market and help our young people, as Conservatives often say in this House they do, we have to support those measures. Those measures are making an impact. We have already seen and heard anecdotal evidence from our development industry.”
“On the home front, we are boosting housing supply across Canada through the improving housing supply act, which means that $1.7 billion would go to provinces and territories to remove barriers and accelerate homebuilding, such as through reducing development fees and levies on new home construction. To help Canadians buy their first home, we introduced the first-time homebuyers GST rebate. With this rebate, we have effectively eliminated GST for first-time homebuyers on new homes up to $1 million and reduced GST for first-time homebuyers on new homes between $1 million and $1.5 million. That tax cut for homebuyers will save Canadians up to $50,000, allowing more young people and families to enter the housing market and making the goal of home ownership a reality for more Canadians.”
“I have never heard a bigger crock of nonsense in my whole life than the Conservatives feigning and faking that they somehow care more than we do about Canadian families and kids who are in food bank lineups. We are the ones stepping up to support them with a billion dollars over five years, as well as having made that program permanent. That was an ask from Food Secure Canada and the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which has been around for decades. Our government is delivering the investments needed in that program to make sure kids are fed all across the country. I could not be prouder of that measure.”
“They have misinformed Canadians, despite the fact that I have seen the programs deliver food to schools and to kids in classrooms. I have actually participated in that program, and I have seen the good that the program does across my region and Durham region. Conservatives have said that there is no food in the food program. They have said that multiple times. They have tried to misinform people about feeding hungry children. They have actually voted against feeding over 400,000 more hungry children in the country, while standing up in the House every day and claiming that they are with the people, that they support families, that we need to do more to support people who are food insecure. What a crock.”
“It is a core value on this side of the House. I know the Conservatives have always just supported tax cuts for the rich, but at least we understand the challenges that Canadians face. We are stepping up to help the people who need it the most. We know that no one is more important to consider through the lens of economic security than our kids. I have three young girls at home, and I would bend the space-time continuum to ensure their health, safety and prosperity and to ensure that their lives are protected and that they live the fullest lives possible. I am sure every parent would say that about their kids. That is why we made the investment in a national school food program permanent, which Conservatives have, on the other side, called “garbage”.”
“By lowering the first marginal personal income tax rate from 15% to 14%, since July 1, 2025, we are saving two-income families up to $840 this year. That measure is for 22 million Canadians. The first measure, as I mentioned, is for 12 million Canadians. This tax cut is for 22 million Canadians. That is over half the Canadian population. It is a significant number of people who are going to benefit from that income tax cut. This rate reduction is providing meaningful relief to middle-class Canadians during the current period of economic uncertainty. What is more, the bulk of the relief will go to the incomes in the two lowest tax brackets. This is a commitment that we have always had, one that I know the Conservatives do not share, which is to help the people who need it the most. That is a core Liberal value.”
“That is literally making life more affordable for millions upon millions of Canadians. In fact, the new Canada groceries and essentials benefit will provide additional significant support for more than 12 million Canadians. That is a significant number. The Conservatives fail to recognize that we are stepping up to provide these supports. They would call the tax measures and programs that we offer “garbage”. They do not seem to want to help Canadians at all. While we are reining in government spending on operations, we are also investing in the Canadian economy and offering federal benefits, supports and tax measures to help Canadians. Not only are we putting more money in the pockets of those who need it most, but we are also leaving more money in their pockets with our middle-class tax cut.”
“This means that, while our plan to build the strongest economy in the G7 takes effect, affordability pressures, especially those related to food and essentials, demand immediate support for Canadians, so that is why we are stepping up. The Canada groceries and essentials benefit, for example, will help Canadian families by building on the former GST credit. The amount is increasing by 25% for five years as of July. In addition to that, it will provide a one-time payment, to be issued this Friday, June 5, which is equivalent to a 50% increase in the 2025-26 annual value of the GST credit. (1055) Combined, this means that a family of four will receive up to $1,890 this year and about $1,400 a year for the next four years. A single person will receive up to $950 this year and about $700 a year for the next four years.”
“They are simply choosing to ignore Canadian ingenuity, Canadian hard work, Canadian resilience and that grit of the Canadian people to grow, despite the challenges we face. It is not true. It is just not true. The truth needs to be spoken in the House. The resilience is rooted in the fact that our government has taken action to support Canadians through these challenges by building a stronger economy at home, protecting Canadian jobs and sectors, diversifying our trading relationships, making life more affordable for Canadians, attracting investment and boosting productivity. We know, for example, that as a result of the ongoing global instability, Canadians are facing challenges in managing the cost of living, and they are facing them right now.”
“The Conservatives would rather ignore the fact that Canada now ranks as the most attractive country in the world for infrastructure investment. To top it off, Canada has added more jobs per capita than the United States has. In fact, we have added double the number of jobs the United States has. Let me also say that our biggest bank, our biggest pension plan, even the central bank governor, the governor of the Bank of Canada, have all come to the finance committee and said that Canada is attracting global investors at a rate they have never seen before. I know that is not convenient for the Conservative narrative that they love to perpetuate, which is that Canada is broken.”
“Their petty partisan slogans conveniently ignore the fact that wages have outpaced inflation every month that the government has been in office. In fact, wages have outpaced inflation and have been double the rate of inflation in the most recent statistics. The Conservatives, again, have sat in the House for years and years. I am looking at two members who are relatively new, so they would not have an institutional memory of this, but Conservatives sat here and told us that wages needed to rise and that people needed stronger incomes and reduced taxes. This is exactly what the government has done. We have achieved wages growing higher than the pace of inflation every year that the government has been in the House.”
“We just did a study on this at the finance committee, where our government and the members on our side all supported the Conservative motion to study household debt. What we saw was that household debt is at historical averages after being at a pandemic low. What is really interesting about household debt in Canada is that Canadians have five times the wealth compared to the debt they have on average. They have five times the wealth. This is a significant stat that, obviously, the Conservatives would like to ignore, because it is not convenient for them to admit. They conveniently gloss over the fact that non-U.S. exports are on track to double over the next decade, up 36% with 20 new trade and security agreements having been signed in just over one year.”
“The Conservatives stood up in the House, and I cannot remember, but it must have been for five years, talking about GDP per capita as being the core measure of the strength of our economy. They went on and on about it, and today they do not give a hoot about GDP per capita. It rose by almost 1%, and we do not hear Conservatives say anything about it, not one word, despite having advocated for GDP per capita to be the core measure of the strength of our economy for over five years in the House. They look past the fact that foreign direct investment is at a nearly two-decade high and is running at twice the rate of our nearest G7 peer. They also conveniently ignore the fact that credit arrears and insolvencies remain broadly in line with historical averages.”
“It is a direct result of the productivity superdeductions and immediate expensing measures that we put in budget 2025, which are focused in those areas to help businesses make those capital investments at a time of global uncertainty. This may be bad news for the Conservatives, but it is good news for Canadians. (1050) The Conservatives like to paint a picture of doom and gloom because it suits their narrative, their social media clips and their fundraising emails. All of that seems to be the only thing they care about when they are speaking in the House. They ignore that our per capita GDP is rising. In quarter one, GDP per capita grew by almost 1% at 0.9%.”
“Despite the challenges we see in the Canadian economy, with some of our industries being impacted by trade and tariffs and others growing at a time of crisis, the IMF still says that Canada has the strongest fiscal position in the G7 and expects Canada to record the second-strongest growth in the G7 this year and the following year. The IMF believes, as we do, that the Canadian economy remains resilient, with ongoing growth in household spending and business investment. We have seen consumer spending rise by 1.5% over the last quarter, and it is up nearly 2% year over year. We we have also seen business investment in new equipment, machinery and IP protection grow by over 10% this year, but Conservatives conveniently ignore this fact.”
“The origins of the challenges being faced by Canadians and their government are beyond our borders. Countries around the world are being hit, and in some cases, they are being hit extremely hard. Let us take, for example, some things that we know. The Canadian economy is highly integrated with our southern neighbour's, making us even more susceptible to the impacts of the trade relationship that has often been one that we have relied upon. That is why the most trade-exposed industries, such as automotive, steel, aluminum, etc., are where the job losses are the most concentrated, but we also see half the sectors in our economy growing. Those that are less exposed to trade are expanding.”
“Increased market volatility and geopolitical instability are fracturing supply chains and weighing on the global outlook across the world economy. Neither our economy nor any economy can escape the impact of these unfortunate developments. We cannot control everything that happens abroad, but we do control what we do here at home. That is exactly what we are focused on. We are focused on what we can control. Ascribing responsibility for the impact of world-shaking developments onto the government of Canada is like seeing a bride dance with her father and concluding that the two are getting married. In short, it involves ignoring the full range of facts relevant to the analysis, which the Conservatives always seem to leave out, and jumping to the wrong conclusions. That would be no way to run a country.”
“He has done an incredible job since he has joined the House, and members opposite should be ashamed for talking him down like they do the Canadian economy every single day. While the members opposite seem to wake up every morning hoping for bad news in this country, on this side of the House, we wake up every day and get to work for Canadians. We know that Canada did not create the tariff and trade disputes that have knocked the global economy off its moorings. On this side, we also know that Canada did not create the war in the Middle East. It seems obvious to say this in the House of Commons, but sometimes the obvious avoids the minds of the Conservatives for some reason. Energy prices have pushed higher as a result of the war in the Middle East, which are, again, beyond our control.”
“Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in today's debate and to set the record straight in response to the opposition's frequent attempts to talk down the Canadian economy, Canadian industries and Canadian workers. Before I launch into my speech, I want to take a moment to thank the member from northern Saskatchewan on this side of the House, who is, by far, the best representative for that province sitting in the House of Commons. He has advocated to ensure that Saskatchewan can supply uranium for the nuclear energy that India needs, and he has also advocated for our canola producers to ensure that we unlocked access to the Chinese market for them again.”
“Mr. Speaker, let me give the member a real answer. Canada's economy is strong and becoming more resilient under this government. We will never apologize, on this side of the House, for being optimistic about the future we are building in this country, together with all Canadians, with generational investments in housing, infrastructure, defence, innovation and productivity. We are seeing the highest level of foreign direct investments in nearly two decades. That is good news. Canadians know it. We will continue building a stronger—”
“Mr. Speaker, we are learning in this House that just because Conservatives say things over and again with righteous indignation, it does not make it any more true. Canada's economy is facing the headwinds that every other economy around the world is facing. The Bank of Canada governor came to the public accounts committee today and cautioned the Conservatives about taking one indicator over another and prioritizing it too much. In reality, our economy is strong. It is projected to have the second-fastest growth. Our non-U.S. exports are up, foreign direct investment is at its highest point in almost 20 years, and wages have—”
“Mr. Speaker, for 46 families in Whitby, the hope of owning an affordable home is becoming a reality. That dream is being realized thanks to the work of Habitat for Humanity GTA. I was honoured to be there to break ground on Hickory Street in downtown Whitby for a project that will provide families a safe and stable place to grow and put down roots in the community they love. This milestone proves what is possible when governments, community leaders, local partners, volunteers and future homeowners all pull in the same direction. Through the housing accelerator fund, as well as the new HST relief on new home purchases across Ontario, our new government is helping Whitby unlock land, cut red tape and build more homes for families in need. We believe everyone deserves more than a roof over their head.”
“I also want to acknowledge the patients and advocates who pushed for this change. I give kudos to them. This bill belongs to them. (1400) Good health policy is always a balance. We want to be rigorous. We want to make sure that we give Canadians safe, proven and accountable medications. We also want to be compassionate. We want to be fast enough that the system does not make the decision for the patient before the doctor even gets a chance to.”
“Bill C-265 would give Canadian patients that fighting chance. It says that if the evidence and international approval are there, we would not make patients wait while the system catches up. I want to take a quick moment to recognize that it took a lot of work to get this bill to the floor of the House of Commons. Our colleague, the member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River , did not write the bill on the back of a napkin. He consulted extensively, talking to patients, families, physicians, emergency room doctors, oncologists, and specialists in rare diseases, and he engaged with legal experts, ethicists and regulatory professionals. This is what good legislation looks like. It is built from the ground up and shaped by the people who live with the consequences every single day.”
“This would mean no more silence, no more wondering why, and greater transparency for doctors, patients and families. Let me give another example of why this matters. Rare diseases are, by definition, rare. There may be only a few hundred Canadians living with a specific condition. Because the market is small, pharmaceutical companies do not always prioritize getting approval here first. They go to the United States or Europe. Full approval in Canada comes years later, if at all, so a parent in Halifax, Saskatoon or Ottawa watches their child suffer, knowing that a treatment exists, has been proven and is being used right now in other countries but cannot be accessed here. That parent is not asking for miracles; they are asking for fairness, for their child to get the same chance as child born in another country gets.”
“The letter of authorization would be used by weighing the benefits and risks to the patient if the drug is used or if it is not used, along with all available medical evidence. In cases where the information available may not be conclusive enough, the minister could grant authorization if two practitioners who are expert clinicians with specialized knowledge agree that the use of the therapeutic product is in the best interest of the patient. If requests are denied, the bill would require written justification of the minister's decision. The bill also outlines limitations of the minister's ability to refuse a letter of authorization, and it includes an emergency hotline to help practitioners access this process at all times.”
“We train our physicians for over a decade and put them through the most rigorous education and examination in the world, then in the moment of a medical urgency or emergency, we ask them to stop, file paperwork and then wait. When lives hang in the balance, they should be empowered in those moments to do what they do best. Imagine if we asked a firefighter rushing into a burning building to first complete a request form before grabbing the hose. Bill C-265 would empower physicians to use their clinical judgment, especially in emergencies, while still operating within a clear, accountable framework. The bill includes another important proposed provision: for the health minister to issue letters of authorization for emergency access to new drugs. This would be for emergency situations, when a patient's life is at stake.”
“The bill would give the minister the ability to, on reasonable grounds, ask a manufacturer of a therapeutic product for an explanation if they suspect they are trying to circumvent the regulatory approval process, and could remove that product from the list immediately if the reasons given are deemed unsatisfactory. The bill would also bring real transparency to the process. There would be a public list of approved products, updated regularly, with annual reporting on access timelines and outcomes. Both practitioners and manufacturers would be required to report. This is accountability built right into the heart of the legislation, not as an afterthought. One of the things I love most about the bill is that it would trust doctors to be doctors.”
“(1355) Critically, the safeguards are in the bill. The bill would not allow just anyone to access any drug any time they feel like it. The health minister would retain the ability to restrict access for specific uses and to specify limitations on practitioners and the settings for those usages. The minister could add new products and remove any of them the moment safety concerns arise. The integrity of our drug approval system would also be protected. The bill would not allow big pharma to circumvent Health Canada's rigorous regulatory approval process.”
“Right now, if a doctor needs to access a treatment that is not yet fully approved in Canada, they have to navigate a slow, complex, case-by-case process every single time. Bill C-265 would change that by creating a pre-approved list of therapeutic products for special access. Think of it as a curated catalogue of treatments that have already been vetted, that have already been shown to work in other rigorous health systems, and that can be accessed more quickly when a doctor determines a patient needs them. Think of it as a pre-cleared lane at the border. The work has already been done, and the safety checks have already been run. When a doctor needs to act, especially in an emergency, they should not have to start from scratch: They can use their clinical judgment to determine what treatment is in the best interest of the patient.”
“Its specialists are seeing the same thing: cutting-edge science at their fingertips, but bureaucracy stands between the treatment and the patient. This is not hypothetical. This is happening right now in hospitals across the country. Delays are holding up access to life-saving medication, and the impact is not just medical; it is financial and emotional. Families are spending their savings travelling abroad for treatments that are available only elsewhere. Parents take unpaid leave. Siblings grow up in the shadow of a crisis. Our system has the power to ease this, but has not yet. What would Bill C-265 actually do? I will break this down in plain language, as I understand it, because this matters to every Canadian, not just those who work in medicine.”
“A doctor, let us say a pediatric oncologist in the world-renowned SickKids Hospital in Toronto, has a nine-year-old patient. She has a rare form of cancer. Her family has exhausted the standard treatments. Her parents are desperate. Her doctor knows about a treatment being used successfully in, say, Europe. It has passed clinical trials abroad. It is being administered to children just like her in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, but it is not yet approved here in Canada. The doctor goes through the special access pathway and fills out forms. She waits, she follows up, she waits some more, she follows up some more, and weeks pass. The child, in that time, is getting sicker and sicker. Now, picture the same scenario at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, which is one of the top cancer hospitals in the world.”
“I have seen what it takes for promising treatments to move through the system, and more importantly, how long it takes. I know what rigour looks like, and I know what evidence-based medicine looks like. I can tell members, with confidence, that this bill does not cut corners. Instead, this bill would cut red tape. Those are two very different things. I have also seen the other side and spoken with families who were told to wait, who were told to be patient, and who watched their loved one deteriorate while a treatment that might have helped sat across a border or in a regulatory queue. That experience stays with us. It is why I wholeheartedly support this bill, and it brought me here today to this chamber to say that we can and must do better. I will describe what our current system looks like in practice.”
“I am proud to rise today in strong support of this bill, brought forward by my friend and colleague, who is an ER physician and a member of this House. He understands, better than most of us, what it means when a patient's time starts to run out. This is not a partisan issue. This is about whether we are ready to put patients first, empower clinicians and help reduce barriers to saving lives. I bring a particular lens to this bill. I have never been a physician, but before coming to this House, many years ago, I spent time working in medical research ethics at the University of London, St. George's Medical School, where I helped oversee more than 500 clinical trials and research projects. I sat in review meetings, I read the research protocols and pored over the applications.”
“Mr. Speaker, I will begin today by telling members about a child who is sick and whose parents have been told that there is a promising treatment, but it is not yet available in Canada. It is not because it does not work, and not because it is not safe, but because the paperwork has not caught up. The system was not designed with that child in mind. As a father of three beautiful girls, I cannot imagine the sense of desperation that parents would have in that moment. I definitely feel it imperative to support the bill before us and do everything we can to prevent parents from having to go through this in those life-changing moments. This is the problem that my colleague for Thunder Bay—Rainy River is trying to solve through his private member's bill, Bill C-265 .”
“Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the House can help me with this. I have been wondering it for a while. Whose interests are Conservatives serving these days? We hear in the House that the Conservatives are against feeding hungry kids, they are against reducing child care fees, they are against providing dental coverage and they are against high-speed rail in the most densely populated region of the country. They are against productivity-boosting tax deductions for businesses, they are against building affordable housing and they are against Canadians' being able to invest in major projects. I have to ask this: “What do the Conservatives stand for anymore?””
“Mr. Speaker, whether it is investing in skilled trades workers, small craft harbours or sports from playground to podium, or improving access to the disability tax credit, we are building Canada strong. That is a Canada not just for a few Canadians, but for all Canadians. We are doing that in a fiscally responsible manner. We have $11 billion less of a deficit. We have a AAA credit rating. We are in the best fiscal position in the G7. We have also had the largest increase in foreign direct investment in 20 years. The PBO just confirmed that we have strong fiscal anchors. That is—”
“Mr. Speaker, the member said “more taxes”. This government has only reduced taxes. We have cut, capped and suspended many taxes and we have enhanced tax deductions for millions of Canadian families, workers and businesses. We have also protected federal benefits that Canadians rely on and added new benefits like the groceries and essentials benefit, which will help families with about $1,900 this year to help with the cost of groceries. We are also making it easier for Canadians to file their taxes so they can access those benefits through automated tax filing. That shows a clear commitment to addressing—”
“Mr. Speaker, Conservatives say they care about affordability, but then then oppose essential supports for families, such as child care, dental care and school food programs. They say they care about Canadian jobs, but they only celebrate the losses and are completely silent on the months when we make major gains across the country. They say they care about Canada's fiscal management while completely ignoring $11 billion less of a deficit, the fact that we saved $60 billion on government operations and we have the strongest fiscal position in the G7, according to the IMF. While Conservatives seem to only want to see Canada fail, we are here to make sure it succeeds.”
“Mr. Speaker, the premise of the member's question is patently false. This government is exercising fiscal restraint and discipline. We have the strongest fiscal position. Members opposite can say whatever they want, but the International Monetary Fund, one of the experts at analyzing world economies, has said that Canada has the strongest fiscal position in the G7. We are using that fiscal capacity, just as has been recommended by the IMF, to support Canadians by making generational investments that—”
“Mr. Speaker, the job numbers come in every month. It seems that the Conservatives rejoice too much when there are job losses in this country. Why are they so jovial and celebratory when they hear that Canadians are losing jobs? On this side of the House, we are empathetic to what Canadians are going through and we are stepping up to support them with real support: extending EI for seasonal workers, increasing tax deductions for workers that they need and helping to recruit, train and hire 100,000 new skilled trades workers. That is real support.”
“Mr. Speaker, the trade war is definitely threatening Canadian jobs. We are all aware of that. I do not know why it is a sudden realization for the Conservatives. On this side of the House, we take those threats seriously. That is why we are stepping up to help workers with generational investments in housing, infrastructure, defence, innovation and productivity, which are creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying careers for Canadians across Canada, while at the same time we are helping people access those careers by recruiting, training and hiring up to 100,000 new skilled trades workers. That is how we build the country that we all love.”